New Year Resolutions (or a lack thereof)

I actually just forgot about NYR being a thing this year. And honestly this new year didn't seem to bring with it a new zest for life or renewed energy levels, so nah.

1. Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days (2018)
• I didn't realize this was the second part to a previous movie, though that makes sense and would probably ground the characters a bit more. That being said, I watched it as a standalone and it stands alone just fine.
• A fun movie, and you start getting the feeling things are more complex and interconnected than they first appear. Keep watching through the credits!
2. The Sixth Sense (1999)
• This was such a good movie! I had it spoiled to me before I watched it, unfortunately, but it was still so well done. It's something you could probably watch over again if you never knew, just to see how it all makes sense & pick up on the foreshadowing.
3. You Have the Right to Remain Fat by Virgie Tovar
• I want this to be required reading for everyone everywhere.
• So much of this resonated with me and I identified with a number of passages in this book - I was bookmarking so many pages throughout as I read it - and I think the fact that it did and that I did serves as further evidence that fatphobia affects everyone, whether you are "fat" or "not fat".
4. Mother (2009)
• What a subversion of the genre! I don't think I can write too much without giving away spoilers, but this was a pretty twisted film with lots of surprise turns along the way.
5. Before Sunrise (1995)
• I love this! It's such a quiet slice-of-life (in a very literal and clear way, in that we're literally getting this one slice, this one night, of their lives) that's romantic in the connection these two strangers find with one another, even in their disagreements.
6. Before Sunset (2004)
• Again, I love this so much. Both of them remind me a lot of Call Me By Your Name, in the way that they handle the portrayal of romance in each of the films. I also just love the concept of having a movie that comes 9 years after the original... that also finds its characters 9 years after the original meeting. This one had me in tears and I do not regret a moment of it.
7. Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practice by Thich Nhat Hanh
• This was great to come back to during 15-minute breaks
8. Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017)
• I enjoyed the movie as a whole, but I don't think I would've watched the second one if I had seen this one first. The second movie grabbed my attention more since it actually involved the guardians involved in the case and explored their past, though this one was nice too.
9. Hereditary (2018)
• When the naked people started appearing, things started getting real trippy.
10. Why Dinosaurs Matter by Kenneth Lacovara
• Short chapters that were to the point, told with a wry humour. It was, as one Goodreads comment has it, immensely readable, but I want to be careful and not equate immensely readable and approachable with immensely informative. For approachability, I would definitely give this 5/5, because I honestly love the way it's written and can see it being presented as a talk (as the talk it must've been based on). I also really enjoyed the illustrations, though if I'm being picky, they split up the text at odd moments and interrupted the reading of each chapter because you'd have to stop mid-thought to read the caption on the illustrated page before returning where you left off.
• If you've never really read anything about dinosaurs or much about evolution, then this will be a great intro to it. And while I'm by no means an expert on either topic (or, arguably, any topic), the little reading I have done regarding molluscs and marine creeatures & history in general, our evolutionary ancestors, and birds -even if I didn't finish everything I started on that topic - made it so that I knew a lot of the stuff that was in this book. It was really interesting to read about the author & his team's discovery of the Dreadnoughtus skeleton in Patagonia, and it was also really interesting to hear about the ways that we can still look to how dinosaurs overcame certain problems in order to figure out how to build machines to overcome similar problems in our lives, but apart from that, much of it was a review for me. An enjoyable review! I would still recommend this book for anyone interested in dinosaurs or even just the natural world as a whole (so... everyone?).
• Why am I being so hesitant in giving it a full thumbs up, then? I guess because the last chapter didn't convince me. I get it, and I fully agree that we should do what we can to save the environment, don't get me wrong, but what the extinction of the dinosaurs & the proliferation of us mammals teaches me as far as environmental lessons go, is that even if our species dies off, something else will probably take its place. Something we wouldn't expect to succeed in the new environment we've created by being the asteroid. And who knows? Perhaps that animal will be even more successful than humans have ever been and ever will.
• The day after I finished this book, happened upon this Quanta article: How Nearby Stellar Explosions Could Have Killed Off Large Animals, which discusses how subatomic particles called muons could have increased genetic mutation (with more mutation among the larger animals), causing them to go extinct as a result of the mutations. It's interesting, for sure, especially if supernova explosions do coincide well with mass extinctions throughout history (it links to a paper that I will probably not actually read or research more upon).
11. The Cakemaker (2017)
• Definitely an unusual romance if ever there was one, but one that's incredibly gentle and touching and that left me drifting along a river of my own tears. Watch it. Then weep.
12. Speaking Out: A 21st-Century Handbook for Women and Girls by Tara Moss
• I thought for sure this was going to be focused entirely on why it's important for women and girls to speak out and what tends to happen to women & girls who do speak out (especially the online part of it), but I was pleased to see a healthy section of the book dedicated to writing and getting good at public speaking. The self-care bit almost felt as though it was tacked on, like an afterthought, but it was still integrated well.
• I do think that because of the title, a self-selecting group of people will pick this up and that many of the people that perpetrate the abuses against women, especially those who speak out, who would arguably actually benefit most from reading this, simply wouldn't. That being said, Moss does a great job of giving women & girls what she purports to give them - a guidelines for why and how to speak out, what to expect, and how to take care of yourself - and I enjoyed this overall.
13. Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018)
• I've never watched the original movie, but I was pretty hooked onto this miniseries! There were things that bothered me, but overall, given that I had the time to watch it in two days, I don't think it was time ill-spent.
14. The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes From an Uncertain Science by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Surprisingly short & concise! I loved reading through it, and I would love to listen to the TED talk at a later date.
15. Dear White People Season One (2017)
16. The Double by José Saramago
• The running commentary and dialogue through the use of commas could get a bit confusing sometimes, but I suppose that's also the point, in a way.
• Is this rambling style of prose common for a Portuguese novel? It's very similar to Gabriel García Márquez' writing in a way, in the magical realism. It's a different sort, but there's also this odd sort of almost horror that's happening here in The Double - an eeriness, I guess, until it all culminates in the meeting and the reality of the situation - but it's a bit different, almost a psychological slice-of-life? It's a bit hard to categorize, and I enjoy that.
17. Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History by Tori Telfer
• The wryly humorous tone works pretty well for this, but now I want to learn more about serial killing women throughout history from a more serious standpoint (and have a comparison point with serial killing men). Unfortunately, Telfer tells us that even when there is a serious study of female serial murderers, they're still not taken quite as seriously, as though the very fact of their being women makes them less harmless, less murderers?
18. Beast (2017)
• I can't help but wonder whether or not Pascal only went along with it because he was willing to love and accept her wholeheartedly and leave the past behind them to start a new life, or if he actually was the murderer all along and he's actually admitting his guilt.
19. Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (2017)
• This was... I feel like fun is the wrong word for it, but it was delightful and the drawn-out timing of the scenes was an interesting approach.
• The last act, I just knew the baby was going to be born when they killed off the guy, and it's like they're bringing the baby into a world where women are more empowered and making the space safer for the baby.
20. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
• It reminded me somewhat of No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, except less depressing and tortured. I expected something a bit more lighthearted, which it still was, but the person who recommended it to me made no mention of the protagonist feeling herself that she is missing something distinctly human that allows her to blend into society.
21. Sisu by Joanna Nylund
• Piggybacking onto the hygge hype, this book had some little gems in it and was overall a fun and colourful flip-through (with the exception of certain background colour choices that were dark enough to make the black text hard to read, physically). I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. It served its purpose. And now I'm done with it.
22. Beyond Measure by Margaret Heffernan
• Another of the TED books series, I found this one more enlightening and useful than the others so far. I've bookmarked a few pages, so I'll come back with a more detailed review later.

Working on:

1. How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide by Crystal Marie Fleming
• I'm about 2 pages in and this is already way more than I expected - what with a title like How to Be Less Stupid About Race, you'd think this volume would be a light, pop read, right? WRONG! It definitely edges over into the academic side of writing, though with some more casual touches than you might normally see in academia generally. I'm not even done the introduction yet, let alone delving into the chapters, so I can't say this is true of the rest of the essays, but I'm enjoying it so far.
2. Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Some comics I'm really liking from Webtoon (that I've been following for a while or just discovering now):

1. Lore Olympus
• I love everything in this from the storytelling to the colour palettes to the illustrations to literally everything except that I can't just keep reading because I've caught up with the updates
2. Gourmet Hound
• So adorable, I love it! Nice slice of life.
3. Seed
• THE SINGULARITY IS HERE
4. LUFF
• I feel like this hasn't really picked up yet, but it should be interesting once it does?
5. The Devil is a Handsome Man
• I do enjoy the pared down palette a lot! It's moving through an arc right now and I really want it to come back to Xo, but I also have high hopes that it will all come together for the best as it's going right now.
6. A Good Day to be a Dog
7. Ghost Teller (complete)
• I can't wait for the second season!!
8. Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell
• Mojojojo is best girl tho
9. The Croaking
• Listen. I really like corvids.

Sebright Bantam Dress

Sebright Bantam Dress in Einband

I finally finished this dress, which had been waiting for me to pick it back up again for a couple of months, and just in time for it to be the last FO of 2018! Looking back, I didn't actually do much knitting this year - according to ravelry, just over 4000 yards in 7 completed projects - and here's the breakdown:

• 2 of them were the same basic 2 x 2 rib hat (one for me, one for my mom, both of which I didn't take pictures of)
• 2 more were testknits (Satinel & rumo)
• 2 were gifts for my auntie Kit: chrysanthemum shawl by Francoise Danoy followed by a bolero she commissioned from me to wear to her son's wedding (for which I also forgot to take a finished photo of her wearing... I've really been falling off the wagon lately!)
• Which leaves this 1 project that I made 100% for me: this Sebright Bantam dress, which was inspired by the silver Sebright Bantam chickens I saw at Center Island way back in the summer. Here's a photo of a silver Sebright hen from Wikimedia Commons (attribution in caption), because I failed to take a picture of the ones on the island.

Taken by Mark Robinson from Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. No changes made to the original image.

Aren't they sweet? And their plumage absolutely beautiful? So I decided to make a dress that was like their feathers. It came out more mermaid-like than I had envisioned, but I like the look of the mitered diamonds, and it's my first time working with this technique, so I'd say I did a pretty good job!

Which is not to say that there aren't a couple of things I would do differently next time, namely:

• It's a bit tighter than I'd like. The fit is actually perfect, but because of the yarn/needle/construction combo, the smallest diamonds aren't as stretchy as they could've been if I'd kept the smallest needle size a 4mm or even just maybe 3.75mm instead of the 3.5mm I went with. Which means the dress is a bit difficult to take off - it's a tight squeeze out even if I take the both arms over the head approach. It works. It's just a touch awkward.
• The Einband isn't great for next to skin wear, for me.
• I suspect this issue would be solved if I used a slightly larger needle size for the smallest diamonds though, because then I'd be able to comfortably wear a full slip under this dress. As it is, I can wear a half slip, which is still good because the lower/larger diamonds are a bit sheer.
• I underestimated how many rows of diamonds I'd need for the full length of the dress so that it would be long enough for my taste, so next time, maybe also knit a full row of diamonds more for both of the two larger needle sizes so that less of the dress is at the smallest diamond level.

That's basically it, though! Not too bad for a wildly experimental run where I had no idea what I was going to do for the neckline. I like the varied textures I ended up with, and I also used up some mystery mohair-like yarn I got from a stash swap - whoot! To be honest, I suppose the biggest issue right now as far as this dress goes is: where do I wear it?

I'm going for a haircut soon, I promise

I've also been working on what was originally supposed to be a really lacy baby pink dress, but just ripped back most of the skirt portion because it wasn't looking how I wanted it to look, so that'll have to wait till next year to be completed. I'm not even sure I like the bodice part of it, but it's a construction I wanted to try, and I had an idea in mind for how I wanted it to be, so I'm going to roll with it and see how it turns out once I finish the new skirt.

Here's to hoping I'll do more knitting in 2019! I'd really like to make some more comfortable dresses with some of my superwash merino stash (of which there is more than I'd like to admit), for soft, next-to-skin wear, so there's a mood going forward! I've also really been slacking with regards to keeping track of my reading & film-watching, so I want to get back on that.

November & December

I... want to say my November list is incomplete, but it might be accurate?

November

1. A Single Man (2009)
2. The Handmaiden (2016)
3. The Birds (1963)
4. Oldboy (2003)

Lots of movies for December! I think I kept a better log of December, so this should be relatively accurate

December

1. Ólafur Arnalds
• Oh my.
• I also love that Arnalds posts the scores for many of his tracks on his website for free download.
2. Book Club (2018)
• I don't really know what I was expecting, but it was definitely something less inane than this. I couldn't even get the fun, light-hearted romcom feels out of it because the characters and situations irked me so much!
3. The Exterminating Angel (1962)
• Really enjoyed this one!
4. The Wailing (2016)
• SO MUCH IS GOING ON. I want to learn more about Korean shamanism (Possessed might be a good performance to go to, in that case? And that's coming up at the Toronto Fringe Festival), but also the history of Christianity in Korea. I thought it was going to be a pretty straightforward, "oh, you went after & killed the wrong person because of your racial prejudice against Japanese people (for... obvious historical reasons) and didn't even try to consider all the factors before doing so" plot that's meant to raise the discussion of racial attitudes towards Japanese in Korea, but WHOA did this ever go beyond my expectations!
5. After the Storm (2016)
• It was alright. But I watched another one a few days after that also featured Hiroshi Abe and was also him in this sort of role, with a similar enough sort of non-traditional nuclear family setup situation that it made me wonder if this is a theme that's coming out of Japanese cinema right now?
6. Train to Busan (2016)
• This was such a fun zombie movie! I don't know what I went in thinking it would be, but this was so fast-paced and exciting and just all around a fun movie! The actors slamming full force into the glass and all that was spectacular and I loved it, and that escalator scene was pure gold.
• I couldn't stop seeing the dad as the character from Coffee Prince though, since that's the role I associate him with since I watched that years ago.
• So... does the zombie deer only eat other deer, or does it also zombify humans and other animals?
7. Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
• Not as great as I was expecting it to be considering the hype and the rave reviews about how hilarious it was that I heard from coworkers, but it was a fun movie and I'd watch a sequel. I'm hoping the huge success of this movie will spur producers & directors to create more films that have a more diverse cast!
8. El Sur (1983)
• Hmmm... it was very slow. And it didn't end the way it was meant to because of budget cuts, according to the insert (when the girl would go to the South and presumably find out more about her father's past). I also neglected to read the novella the DVD came with, so that's on me.
9. Blow-Up (1966)
• Interesting! Also weird.
10. Let's Talk About Death (over Dinner) by Michael Hebb
• I'm so miffed I couldn't go to the talk by Hebb when he was in Toronto! I really enjoyed this book with its prompts and Hebb's experiences with people's answers throughout the death dinners he has hosted. I'd love to get one going in a community setting at the library!
11. Maurice (1987)
• Lovely film. I haven't read the novel it's based on.
12. The Third Murder (2017)
• Another Kore-eda film. Beautifully shot! And the ambiguity of where truth lies in this film was an interesting decision that reflects the judicial process pictured.
13. Quiero Volver (2018) by TINI (Martina Stroessel)
14. Talk to Yourself Like a Buddhist by Cynthia Kane
15. Still Walking (2008)
• This is the other family-centred film that also featured Hiroshi Abe as the down and out father.
16. Departures (2008)
• I loved the way this film places death firmly into the realm of the living, in the sense that it's going to happen and the discrimination people in the funerary industry face only serves to generate more pain in the face of loss than if we were to fully embrace the sendoff and have professionals who care about what they do, do the service for us.
17. The Mother of All Questions by Rebecca Solnit
18. Call Them by Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit
19. Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All by Jaclyn Friedman
• I should probably just let the above three marinate for a bit in my head before talking about it, especially since I didn't really read the first two deeply (on e-book, in between work...)

October

I didn't keep track of this too well these past few months... and apparently also forgot to change these from drafts to published posts. I don't think this October list is complete, but it'll have to do.

1. Half the Picture (2018)
• I didn't realize the investigation into the sexism of the film industry was so incredibly recent. I know there has been increasing awareness of the challenges women in the industry face especially as of late, but I was surprised to find out how bringing everything to light in a systematic manner has basically taken place over the past couple of years.
2. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Long-Lost Home by Maryrose Wood
• Finally! The last installment of the Incorrigibles series! It was fairly obvious Wood was going to work around the curse that way, but I still enjoyed it all quite a bit. The cover gives away a little bit of the plot, but you don't realize it until you get to it.
3. Does it Fart? The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence by Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti, illustrated by Ethan Kocak
• I hope no one's surprised I'm reading this, or to find out I experienced no hesitation whatsoever putting myself on hold for this the moment I saw we had recently acquired the title.
• I was actually expecting a bit more information about flatulence in each of the animals rather than a cursory yes/no plus a bit of interesting information about each animal's flatulence or lack thereof, but it's a fun book nonetheless. Just not exactly what I was expecting (though I suppose expecting a more serious investigation into animal flatulence might've been a tall order).
4. Mean by Myriam Gurba
• What a powerful memoir! The thread that follows Gurba through from the very beginning of the book to the very end, and the constant writing and rewriting and making sense of what happened and her ties to the murdered Sophia, made this incredibly difficult to put down until the end. There's a line in there at the very beginning, where she addresses our desire to know all of the story, and how there's this feeling that if we know everything, the story - the victim - might belong to us in a way: she doesn't.
• I don't know if Gurba is actually mean, because she's not that mean in this memoir, and I'm kind of confused why she chose this as the title.
5. Gross Anatomy by Mara Altman
• You kind of have to admire Altman for going to the lengths she did to figure out what's with her body. She's informative and hilarious, and I'm left wishing for more information about everything (which is great because it means reading this will inspire people to actually go out and maybe find out more about their own bodies). Talking more openly about bodies and how - I forget who said this - our bodies are such leaky vessels would do a lot to dispel misconceptions of how our bodies are supposed to work, as well as probably calm a lot of women because, surprise! there is such a wide variety of body shapes and types, and there is bodily discharge, and it's not always an issue.
• Also, puppy fumigation? Well, at least ancient Greek women could decide how far up to stick the straw.
6. Racial Diversity in the Romance Fiction Industry (Public Libraries Online)
7. The Wrong Way to Save Your Life: Essays by Megan Stielstra
• As someone who also has a lot of fear about a lot of things, this resonates with me a lot.
8. Horror movies:
• Dawn of the Dead (2004)
• Cabin in the Woods (2012)
• Sinister (2012) & Sinister II (2015)
• Insidious (2010) (TERRIFYING)
9. Forests Emerge as a Major Overlooked Climate Factor (Quanta Magazine)
• I remember reading about how vital trees are to moving water around to areas that are nowhere near bodies of water in The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

September

1. Men & Chicken (2015)
• WELL THIS WAS UNEXPECTED. The beginning & end narration were really weird, also - I'm kind of at a loss what exactly to get as the message of the movie. Say no to genetic modification? Except if it's already been done, then no point killing it off since it has as much right to live as anything else?
2. Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry
• I have to admit, I was pretty sad when I reached the end. Fry's dry humour (and footnotes) were a wonderful touch, and it would make a great introduction or review of the Greek myths for I want to say most ages.
• The only thing I had an issue with was the format of the physical paperback itself: it felt a lot chunkier than the amount of text it held for some reason. If it's going for that size, I'm not sure whether there's a hardcover version of it, but I feel like it would work better as a hardcover. Or go slightly larger and aim for a lap-sized retelling of the Greek myths.
3. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
4. Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar
• I really enjoyed reading this one! Devoured it over two days. There was a point when the number of casualties to the fuzzy mud is mentioned and I thought for sure the 5 dead would be Tamaya, Chad, Marshall, the bearded man, and maybe the vet who rescued them. I do wish Marshall's character got a bit more space on the page to develop (though he does), but for the length of the book and the format it took, it wasn't bad. Ditto with Chad.
5. Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories by Kelly Barnhill
• Something about the style of writing made the longer ones drag on for what seemed like an inordinately long time. The shorter stories were fine, and I enjoyed them - and I liked the longer ones at the end as well, just that I feel they could use a bit of reworking or be cut down a little shorter. That's just personal taste though.
• Reminds me a bit of Kelly Link's stories, in the slightly eerie and supernatural.
6. The Apology (2016)
7. Chien de Garde (2018)
• Oh wow that imploded! I didn't expect that ending. The relations between the family members was really strange throughout, and I'm curious how the dysfunction allowed them to survive as a unit this long.
8. Sibel (2018)
• A whistling language. SO. COOL.
• Incredible film that really makes you think about traditions & how our sense of morality, which can be so black & white, often needs to be reconsidered to allow for all the complicated nuances of reality.
9. Tadoussac (2017)
10. Michael Rosen's Sad Book by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Quentin Blake
• First of all: READ THIS. It's sad, yes. It's depressing, yes. But it's also kind of uplifting in a way, because it's right there in the open that these emotional states can overtake us without any reason, and you know what? Sometimes, we just need to roll with it, have a good cry, and then move on. This picture book (or so it's filed in our collection) starts with a bang and doesn't for a moment let you down.
• Second: It's the same illustrator as the Roald Dahl books! I'm wondering if this says anything about the Dahl books.
11. The Scar by Charlotte Moundlic, illustrated by Olivier Tallec
• Another lovely picture book that walks us through death as the child goes through the stages of grief after losing his mother. Beautifully illustrated, with astounding use of colour, everything is minimal yet all the more palpably expresses the emotions of each page for it.
12. Dans Ma Main/Jean-Michel Blais
• I'm really feeling this.
13. Syrian Dreams/Maya Youssef
• And this.
14. Cringeworthy by Melissa Dahl
• Anxiety reappraisal: I'm excited, not nervous. Keep telling yourself that and you'll actually perform better! This is exciting news. Not... nervous exciting, just exciting exciting.
• People don't think about you as much as you think they do, which... of course they don't. They're worrying about how they're being perceived, just like you are.
• Being nicer to yourself! Self-compassion, because you're not that special. Except, if everyone experiences what I experience to some extent, doesn't that mean I'm just not holding up as well as everyone else?
• Would things go well if we treated regular social interactions as improv using the "yes, and..." rule, where the "yes" doesn't mean "I agree with what you're saying" so much as "I'm listening to what you're saying, and here's what I have to add to that"?
15. Revenge (2017)
• Uhmmm.... yes.
• You know exactly how it's going to go down in the end, but I still love it. And I love that Jen isn't portrayed as just knowing all this stuff right from the get-go - there's still a learning curve (e.g. how she falls down the first time she shoots the gun, how she kind of winged it killing Dimi) - but is resourceful af. I mean, she still knows way more about what to do right away than I'd imagine, but it's not like she's done this before. But that final bit where Richard thinks for one hot second she'll hesitate, and THERE'S NO HESITATION.
• It seems a lot more a revenge on victim-blaming as a whole, considering how classic victim-blaming some of those lines were, like when Stan's saying that Jen was so into him last night, or when Richard tells her she's so beautiful they just can't resist.

Reading

1. From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time by Sean Carroll
• Here goes another foray into space and time. I didn't actually finish any of my previous attempts at physics books, so let's hope I'll be able to see this one to the end! Pretty dense, but approachable in tone. I just started reading the endnotes halfway through where I'm at right now, and they're absolutely delightful.

August

1. Neversink by Barry Wolverton
• For a book about auks & owls, this took such a serious turn so quick! I actually really enjoyed it, especially once the action started building. Wolverton drops foreshadowing around like nobody's business, so it's never quite unpredictable, but a good read nonetheless.
2. The Dating Project (2018)
• I was unaware millennials are supposedly largely clueless about dating. I mean, most of my friends are pretty high functioning adults in terms of dating, I'd say. Whether they're actually dating at all or not, I think - or I'd like to believe? - there's an understanding of that script for forming relationships securely in place in our social script banks. This film makes it seem as though hookup culture has completely eclipsed the dating of yesteryear, but in truth, I don't think it quite has. Or at the very least, from my vantage point, I see people who use hookups as a stepping stone to find someone to date.
• Overall: disappointed in the film.
3. Rome: A History in Seven Sackings by Matthew Kneale
• Whoa. There's an extensive Sources & Bibliography at the back. And I don't mean just a list of everything, but Kneale takes care to actually do an annotated selection of the bibliography, as an "if you're interested in reading more about this particular part of whatever, see here". This in addition to the works cited, of course.
• I actually really enjoyed reading this! I probably won't be able to list the seven sackings in a week (can I even do it now?), but that last paragraph or two in the seventh chapter (Nazis) actually really got me - I could feel myself about to tear up. And this little bit in the afterword about whether Fascist monuments should be left as they are or not:
• "As well as impracticable, it would be wrong for Fascist Rome to be erased, as it should be present in Rome's historical layers, but there is a case for some of the more ostentatious monuments to be pulled down a peg or two. Perhaps they could be surrounded by another, even newer layer of Rome, in the form of a little disrespectful street art" (Kneale, p.356). A really nice way to say, GRAFFITI OVER IT.
• There is one bit I found rather irritating though: Kneale's constant reminder in chapter 5: Spanish & Lutheran, that Pope Alexander VI was formerly Rodrigo Borgia (why yes! of infamous Borgia fame. We know; you've told us. Scandalous.) But apart from that, an engaging history of Rome framed around seven of its sackings. And Kneale does acknowledge from the start that this is of necessity an incomplete history, in the sense that a complete history of Rome will take volumes upon volumes and be nigh impossible to read through. So for what it sets forth to accomplish, I think he did a fairly good job.
4. Pages for You and Pages for Her by Sylvia Brownrigg
• Pages for You read as a sad, but incredibly beautiful telling of the relationship between young undergraduate Flannery and the older Anne, in an unconventional romance that persisted beyond the pages. The love between Flannery and Anne was palpable, and their inevitable parting, though sad, hinted throughout, did not present itself necessarily as an end so much as a continuation in a different capacity: so this chapter of their lives may have ended, but that does not mean Anne and Flannery are cut off from one another, as their relationship with one another informs them for the rest of their lives (or so you feel by the end). They learn much about each other and about themselves through their relationship and come out of it changed. In a way, it rewrites the script that relationships have to follow: there's a flexibility in it that isn't present in much of popular heterosexual romance fiction that presents itself as more reflective of the different ways in which love can be experienced and lived.
• I'm not sure that Pages for Her is quite necessary as a sequel, but I did enjoy the way Brownrigg expressed the capacity of both Flannery as well as Anne to love each other, continue to love each other throughout those twenty years of distance between them, and have that love not imply anything false about the love they share with their respective partners and others in their lives.
5. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain
• A really cute short meet-cute romance! It's kind of like an appetizer, but it was just right for what I was looking for (summer makes me want to read sappy romances).
6. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
• You know, I like del Toro's movies, but at the same time I'm never completely wowed by them. I love the lush scenery and the visuals, but it's always the plot that leaves me wanting a bit - though in this case, I'm probably missing quite a bit of historical context in terms of what is happening when this takes place, and how the escape to another kingdom ruled in a different way might relate to the political events taking place at the time.
7. A Separation by Katie Kitamura
• The use of run on sentences contributed to the feeling that you were reading a stream of consciousness, but it was neither here nor there in that respect: you knew what you were reading must be trying to mimic the flow of thoughts, and yet it was also at once too structured, and you're left reading something between thought and conscious narration.
• Overall, I enjoyed the mood and the mugginess of the entire novel, where she's neither here nor there entirely and can't seem to make up her mind (and when she has made it up, the choice is taken from her), but I wouldn't recommend it.
8. Happy Down Below: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Penis and Other Bits by Dr. Oliver Gralla
• This was such a let down! Gralla tried to strike an amusing tone, to the detriment of the amount of information covered as well as to the clarity of some parts, and the whole book in general was poorly organized. The tone switches from overly academic where it talks about neurotransmitters and what drugs do what, though it doesn't go in-depth enough for you to get a really good grasp of these parts, to conversational and trying-too-hard humour. If you want to learn about "the penis and other bits", I'd advise you go looking elsewhere.
9. Victoria & Abdul (2017)
• I'm very interested to know which parts are fiction and which were real.
10. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• I kind of prefer the illustrated volume I read earlier this year (Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland), but that's mostly because of the illustrations, I think. As for this volume, I found that the voice changed a few times between some of the tales, and that threw me off a little bit. Overall, I enjoyed it, since I like the Norse myths to begin with, but I feel like a more comprehensive volume would have sated my curiosity a bit more.
11. The Awkward Guide to Getting Lucky by Summer Heacock
• Funny at parts, but the main character is pretty annoying for exactly the reasons listed in the speech that Butter gives towards the end to her. It was alright - a mindless read that fulfills what I look for in my summer novels.

Reading/Listening to:

1. Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry
• So I was unaware of who Stephen Fry is (and remain somewhat so), and picked this up solely on the basis that it was a retelling of the Greek myths, because some retellings are amazing (see Lore Olympus, for example! In love with those illustrations, the use of colour, the style, and the pacing! Basically everything about it), and this did not disappoint.
2. Marriage, a History: From obedience to intimacy, or how love conquered marriage by Stephanie Coontz
• I borrowed this way back when I was reading a lot about infidelity and dating customs, a number of months back.
3. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
• So far pretty interesting. I'm reading the ebook, so the formatting seems a bit off. I'm interested to see how it's organized on paper.
4. The Secret Life of Canada podcast
• I love this. So. Much.
• So... we own Bear by Maryan Engle. So obviously I've put it on hold. I'm pretty sure the cover is the more demure Group of Seven-esque painting in a box, but I'm holding out some hope it's the original.

July

Something about summer and thrillers goes really well together.

1. The Accused (1988)
• Even knowing how it will end, it still felt incredibly momentous when the verdict was read and the three defendants found guilty.
2. Lion (2016)
• In. Tears. These movies based on true stories are really good! I love that we actually get to see the real Saroo and his mothers meeting at the end.
3. The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature's Secret Signs by Peter Wohlleben
• It was alright. I mean, I didn't retain too much of this, but I also don't garden. And everything was pretty much geared towards the European landscape, so I'd have to do a bit of research to see what translates to North America.
4. Raw (2017)
• Disturbing, but somehow it almost gained a somewhat supernatural feel at the end, when the father reveals the reason behind the sisters' need for flesh. (There was something so very creepy about that last scene, where the father looks so very unnatural.) The way I'm reading it is that Adrien could've been Justine's solution, if her sister hadn't got to him first.
• Coming of age in an environment where everything almost seems to have been turned upside-down, the order of things disturbed with freshmen hazing rituals.
5. The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos by Anne Carson
• To tell the truth, I probably missed a hundred allusions throughout all the tangos, as I'm entirely unfamiliar with Keats, and poetry is generally beyond me, but this was beautiful.
6. One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus
• McManus keeps you on your toes till the end! It spiraled really quickly, so I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced about the accomplice, but overall, it was a very compelling read.
7. Neon Bull (2015)
• I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to view this as a kind of slice-of-life film? It didn't really feel as though there was much of a straightforward story to be told, in that Iremar's journey never really took off, but it's not that he tried to make it happen and it failed so much as improvement was hinted at, but that simply wasn't the main narrative, I guess. I'm not sure how to put it. It's like we simply got a small window to see his life and the lives of those around him, and that there's not a particular goal or end that had to be reached.
8. Read Bottom Up by Neel Shah and Skye Chatham
• Quick, cute read.
9. The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani
• I've been waiting to read this basically since it came out, but while it hooked me in and was an alright read, I didn't love it.
• Things this novel did that I really liked though:
• The tension throughout the book dealing with race and class, the distinction between "us" and "them" and how the Massé's entrusted their children to someone they increasingly did not trust and in fact grew to become disgusted with in an unsettling manner as the silent war was waged between Louise & Myriam. Paul thrust himself into the situation to begin with and basically refused to acknowledge how privileged he was in his thinking about Louise and the whole nanny business to begin with.
• Relationships between nannies and the difficulties they face, both personally as well as in their jobs - the expectation that they will also be cleaning ladies, cooks, basically take care of the entire family rather than just babysit. And then with mounting expectations, no increased compensation was ever discussed in the novel, with Louise's descent into further and further destitution taking focus as the novel progresses. This in parallel with the Massé's' success in their work & social lives.
10. The Wonder Down Under: The Insider's Guide to the Anatomy, Biology, and Reality of the Vagina by Nina Brochmann and Støkken Dahl
• Why are sex ed classes not this useful and open? It would probably make the whole subject easier to discuss, with less of the nervous laughter that arose of the class (back in grade... 5, was it? Then again in grade 9, but all I remember from that is the video of the C-section), and taken away the taboo associated with speaking openly about sex and our bodies. The Wonder Down Under is engaging, easy to read, and well written for the average reader. I love how they reference pop culture - at some point they say something to the effect of "if your menstrual cycle has gotten as unpredictable as the plot of Gone Girl" - but how they also don't overdo it. Brochmann and Dahl readily admit when something they're presenting has yet to be confirmed by studies, or if studies have been inconclusive, as well as when they're frustrated they can't offer conclusive information because science hasn't gotten that far yet as far as the female body is concerned. Bravo!
• There's another book on the penis that the library just received and I'm curious as to why there's this seemingly sudden influx of books about genitalia? Is it a coming trend? Well it's really just the two, but still.
• On the topic though: why are there 3 other holds on the penis book (Happy Down Below by Oliver Gralla), of which we have purchased 2 copies v.s. no other holds on The Wonder Down Under, of which we have just 1 copy?
11. This is How You Lose Her by Junot Dïaz
• Short stories make up the vignettes that form Yunior's life, told through mostly his experiences with women.
12. Madame Satã (2002)
13. Act of God by Jill Clement
• When a mysterious (and unexplained) supermold calls for the total destruction of an entire tenement, leaving its occupants with no to few possessions, what are they left with? How do we move on beyond our possessions and realize our potential for real human interaction once we're given the chance (nevermind that the characters are forced to do so by the supermold that was entirely out of their control)?
14. They Didn't Teach THIS in Worm School! by Simone Lia
• So cute! I love the illustrations, and the story was funny and adorable. The last two pages or so where Marcus reflects on the journey and his newfound friendship with Laurence was a bit stiff in comparison with the rest of the novel, but overall it was a great story about a misadventure and friendship, growth, and the importance of perseverance.
15. A bunch of picture books:
• Drawn Together by Minh Le, illustrated by Dan Santat
• SO GOOD.
• Fruit Bowl by Mark Hoffmann
• The puns are amazing. AH-MAZING.
• What If... by Samantha Berger, illustrated by Mike Curato
• So good! I wasn't totally sold by the cover, but couldn't wait to put my staff picks sticker on it after I was done.
• Don't Tell by Tom Booth
• Author of Don't Blink. I think I enjoyed Don't Blink more, but the illustrations are still so good!
• Goldfish on Vacation by Sally Lloyd-Jones & Roman Muradov, illustrated by Leo Espinosa
• I love that it's based on a true story, and the author's kind of cheeky in addressing the "who cares" aspect of which goldfish is which when the children go to pick their goldfish children back at the end of summer.
• Bubbles by Kit Chase
• Off & Away by Cale Atkinson
• I loved this! The illustrations and the story! And that seafaring cold, with all its symptoms, was hilarious. Great book about conquering your fears and all the things you'll learn by doing so.
• Neck & Neck by Elise Parsley
• Ha! It's great that the giraffe decides to not help the boy out at first, which I think is pretty #relatable.
• I'm Sad by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
• Would go well with Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang, illustrated by Max Lang, in a themed negative feelings storytime.
• Niblet & Ralph by Zacharia OHara
• Cats! Mirrored markings almost-twin cats! What's not to love?
• The Day I Lost My Superpowers by Michaël Escoffier, illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo
• I usually don't address this, but I loved the heft of the pages as I was reading it. The illustrations are delightful also, and the story both sweet and funny. A winner in my books!
16. Jacky Ha-Ha by James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Kerascoët
• A child recommended this to me very highly as they were reporting in for the Summer Reading Club that week, so I went and borrowed it; they were right! It's hilarious, but it's also very real in dealing with all the emotional ups and downs, especially of being that middle child.
17. Queen of the Sun (2010)
• This sort of makes me want to be a beekeeper, but I don't think I've been chosen by the bees.
18. Vazante (2017)
• It feels as though a lot of Brazilian films touch upon or outright focus on Brazil's history of slavery and the racism that endures even after the abolishment of the practice.
• Vazante was quite slow, and I'm sure much of it was lost on me because I don't have the full meaning of the title (in the sense that I don't know it as intimately as I could if I actually spoke Brazilian Portuguese). Somewhat predictable towards the end, though Antonio's cry of anger and frustration at the end was quite powerful, especially in the frustration of knowing that his child was not begot by his wife, though Beatriz takes on the role of its mother. Either way, the inescapable truth of miscegenation remains, a constant reminder of the abuse - sexual and otherwise - of the black slaves.
19. Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love by Sophie Lucido Johnson
• I adore how the table of contents is laid out and illustrated, along with the illustrations spread throughout the text that continue the line of thought and supplement the text rather than simply reiterating whatever was written (though sometimes it does that too and that's also fine). I found that Lucido Johnson (or is it just Johnson? Goodreads, you're not helping me figure out which part of the name is the last name!) put into words a lot of what I've been thinking through the years in her portrayal of polyamory, as well as clears up the difference between polyamory and nonmonogamy, which I thought were the same thing.
• All in all, I really enjoyed this personal account of how the author came into polyamory and some of the questions that she addressed - such as with jealousy and how that can be both a positive experience in the sense that you might be able to work your way past it and become genuinely capable of being happy for your partner, as compared to maybe having it as a self-destructive process. One of the main take-home messages for me was that a relationship is really what you make of it: you make the rules with your partner(s), and there's no "right" way to be polyamorous.
• Also really love that one cell in the chart Lucido Johnson drew for the 5 types of jealousy, where under "Possessive Jealousy", for "Try", she says: "breaking up". Amazing.

Working On:

1. Rome: A History in Seven Sackings by Matthew Kneale
• Umm... "seven seemed like a good number"? Here's to hoping more thought went into that than this randomly generated feel-good number.
• I'm making my way along, on the 5th sacking so far, and I'm really enjoying Kneale's writing. He makes this select history of Rome very accessible and fun to read for someone who has very little interest in history (me!) and who also has precious little background in classical Roman history (me too! though you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise, given that I went through an "I want to learn everything about Sparta" phase, which, though is more ancient Greece than Rome, still kind of makes it seem like I'd know more about ancient Roman history than I actually do), which, though Rome's history has been at times colourful and very exciting, I still think is quite a feat.