Hey There Bookworms,
This week has felt 84 years long. I’ve seen things, y’all. I’ve aged. Let’s talk.
FIRST: I live in Central Illinois, and, as you may have heard, the entirety of the Midwestern US has been afflicted with the Polar Vortex. It sounds ominous because it IS. We’ve had wind chills of -50 Farenheit which made it colder here than a lot of places you would expect to be extremely cold. Like Alaska. And Mars. It was colder than Antarctica too, but my penguin friends are annoyed by that comparison because it’s SUMMER in the Southern Hemisphere. They’re also annoyed that people are using this extreme cold as an opportunity to argue that climate change isn’t actually a thing. It is. Science says so. K thanks bye.
SECOND: Really, I have a lot more to say about how much this cold has sucked and caused innumerable problems and petty annoyances for me personally, but rehashing all of it is just going to make me cranky. So, a book! I read The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson (with my ears) since we last spoke. It was alright. I mean, I didn’t go into it with high expectations, I just wanted something that would take my mind off the cold. It was successful in that respect. Twin swap hijinks and silliness abounded. It was The Parent Trap meets Miss Congeniality plus Harry Potter and Jane Austen references. I’m very intentionally looking past the fact that the narrator, at points, got swoony over Wuthering Heights (review). I will never understand how anyone sees Heathcliff as romantic in any capacity whatsoever. This book being about a beauty pageant has served to remind me of Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. Unfortunately, I read that during my Zero Dark Thirty blog phase and never talked about it, but it was PHENOMENAL. Drop Dead Gorgeous meets Lord of the Flies (review) plus feminism. So good. But wow. My movie references are SUPER dated. Hi, I’m Katie. I haven’t seen a movie in 20 years, apparently.
THIRD: I’m still not finished with The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke because part of the FUN TIMES I’ve been dealing with this week has been an outbreak of hives. It’s a thing that happens to me sometimes, I usually don’t ever find out what triggers it, and it isn’t serious. It is super annoying though. I’ve read that hives can often be a stress reaction as much as a reaction to an allergen, so who even knows? All it really means is that I’ve been taking a lot of Benadryl, and Benadryl makes me drowsy. I do most of my eyeball reading right before bed. Hence, I’ve been falling asleep early despite this being a very compelling read. I’ll be sure to let you know my final verdict next week when I’m warmer, less itchy, and more pleasant.
FOURTH: I almost forgot! Between my last post and this one I finished listening to Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren. It was lovely, if somewhat gut wrenching. The first few Christina Lauren books I read were firmly in Rom Com territory but they’ve got serious chops when it comes to writing more emotional fare. (I’m looking at YOU, Autoboyography…) I mentioned this before, but Christina Lauren is actually a writing team comprised of one part Christina and one part Lauren (two actual human women.) They are both heretofore invited to all my imaginary slumber parties because I very badly want to be friends with people who write such excellent books.
FIFTH: I’ve had Rent stuck in my head for the past week. I watched part of the (not so) live production on FOX. In the end, the Benadryl won shortly into the second act. I will say that I think Jordan Fisher is a treasure.
Viva la vie boheme!
*I’m a sellout and I gladly accept commissions I receive through affiliate links on this blog. The characters in Rent would NOT hang out with me.*
Michelle
This week has gone on FOR-EV-ER. It has gone on so long that I am in disbelief that it is finally Friday. I mean, I thought three days ago was Friday because it felt like I had worked a full five days already.
I love the snow, but I am done with the cold. Ef that. I hate wearing that many layers to work or to anywhere except a football game, and this week was no football game. Two 100-degree swings in three weeks is the very definition of climate change for all those naysayers. It makes me want to climb into their head and figure out how they think that they can ignore all of the evidence.
I don’t think Heathcliff is romantic, but there are parts of Wuthering Heights that are the epitome of passion. What people forget is that often, romance and passion are often two very different things. Passion is ugly and brutal and can be obsessive. Catherine and Heathcliff are passionate. Romantic? Not so much. Although the idea that Heathcliff continues to love Catherine with that much passion for decades is sort of romantic, you have to admit.