Mel > Recent Status Updates

This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing room.

I'm reminded of my own impulse to pick up this volume to begin with. Deciding who is worthy of my time, defying the male canon of literature.

Without boasting or giving pain to the opposite sex, one may say that Pride and Prejudice is a good book.

*squints*
Attempting... to detect... sarcasm...

looking about the shelves for books that were not there

Highlighting the absence of women from the annals of history

Food, house and clothing are mine for ever. Therefore not merely do effort and labour cease, but also hared and bitterness. I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me.

*dances about like an Oompa Loompa*
What, do you get, when your needs are all met?
Poverty no longer looms as a... threat?
Capitalism won't ever hurt me
Now that I have an annuity!

(But what about the rest of us?)
Oompa Loompa, doopity doo!

The organ complained magnificently as I passed the chapel door.

*groans*
The organ. COMPLAINED. Magnificently.
GodDAMN but she can write!

On the further bank the willows wept in perpetual lamentation, their hair about their shoulders.

I was ready for some feminist discourse. I was not prepared for the descriptive scene-setting! I didn't know we were allowed to do that in essays!

Again, a BAFFLING fade to black. Just... it's out of nowhere! No tension, no release, just out of the blue a kinky implication! For that matter... hasn't Merulo been ignoring Cameron's advances all this time? There was a chaste Only One Bed moment - did the author fail to mention them hooking up since they arrived? That is the sheer amount of Not Explained this is.

"She died," I said, fidgeting. "In childbirth. I don't remember her much."

**breaks**
Why? Why was this the stupid joke that got me?
**shaking**
It's... so... stupid!
**buries face in hands and cries**

This fucking himbo, I swear.

What!? No.

Never have I been so utterly confused at a Fade to Black decision.
What... happened!? Like, it actually doesn't make sense. There was so much opportunity for character interaction. I NEED to know how Cameron manages to be a brat while Mute. Does the sorcerer remain emotionally detached, or does he let sentiment show? We get a morning after with ZERO understanding of their dynamic or how it has changed!!

He curls the claws of one hand into a ball and presses it against the xenonite. “Fist me!”
I push my knuckles against the xenonite. “It’s ‘fist-bump,’ but yeah.”

Hehehehe... **dirty cackles**

Oh, on a reread this particular bit of "problem-solving" is so painful to read! I want to sqinch up my eyes until it's over.

Wait, thirteen years for the beetles to get back as well? I thought that they could make the journey faster.

“Yes!” I press my knuckles against the tunnel wall. “Fist-bump!”
“What, question?”
I rap the tunnel again. “This. Do this.”
He emulates my gesture against the wall opposite my hand.
“Celebration!” I say.
“Celebration!”

The best part, is following up the fist bump with jazz hands would be like shouting, "Yesssssss!!" I love that it fits. Some things, like happy wiggles, are simply universal. :)

“Yes!” I press my knuckles against the tunnel wall. “Fist-bump!”
“What, question?”
I rap the tunnel again. “This. Do this.”
He emulates my gesture against the wall opposite my hand.
“Celebration!” I say.
“Celebration!”

The best part, is following up the fist bump with jazz hands would be like shouting, "Yesssssss!!" I love that it fits. Some things, like happy wiggles, are simply universal. :)

“Okay, okay.” I grab my EVA suit. “I’ll do it. Jerk.”
“No understand last word.”
“Not important.” I climb into the suit and close the rear flap.

This story is moving along so much faster than I remember! Oh, we've already had THAT happen. But, I forgot that there were flashbacks and other stuff in between THAT and THE NEXT BIT. I'm antsy for what I know is coming. ^_^

Looks like it's time to give this a reread!

Also: WHOA I'm checking out the number of ratings, and I'm trying to figure out when this got so popular!? Totally deserves it, but I was expecting a few hundred thousand for "genre" popular - 1.2 million is crazy. How many are new reads since the trailer was released, I wonder?

I wouldn't say I generally seek out superhero stories, but gosh darn if this isn't fun. Ought to make some popcorn for the show.

The implicit accusation is that certain people are incapable of responding to their mistreatment with grace, with patience, with love, and that this incapacity, not any external injustice, is responsible for the misery inflicted upon them.

More people will starve to death because of this decision ... taken by people who will never be held responsible for any of it, who will live out the rest of their lives in total comfort. And should some activist interrupt their night out at a restaurant to show them pictures of the children they've helped kill, they will be deeply offended. Civilized people shouldn't behave so rudely.

The Frankfurt Book Fair decides to cancel a ceremony in which the Palestinian writer Adania Shibli was to be presented with an award for her novel Minor Detail. ... An academic article by Rabea Eghbariah on the Nakba set to be published in the Harvard Law Review is pulled at the last minute. ... A memo from the standards editor at the New York Times, leaked to the Intercept, cautions against using the word Palestine.

Their entire lives turned to rubble and all of it preemptively justified in the name of fighting terrorists who are terrorists by default on account of having been killed.

It's surreal to be reading this book again as the US bombs Iran. I put down the book, turn to social media, and the story remains the same. The dismembered limbs of Palestinian children mingle with those of Iranian schoolgirls.

One remarkable difference between the modern Western conservative and their liberal counterpart is that the former will gleefully sign their name on the side of the bomb, while the latter will just sheepishly initial it.

For the crime of reporting in a way the Israeli government disapproves of, Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh sees his family summarily executed in a missile strike. He continues reporting the next day, Shortly thereafter he himself is wounded. He continues reporting the next day.

I finally got a new library loan and just started from the beginning. This time I shan't get distracted and be sure to finish! It's distressingly good.

"Should one party propose stripping immigrants of all rights and the other propose stripping them of only some rights, the intellectually rigorous thing to do is to consider that what's best is stripping immigrants of most rights. To compromise."

I don't know if it's an intentional parallel to book one, but we open once again with "Azure was thrown against the straps of his harness." This time in a spaceship instead of moon rover.

Ms. Taylor, you have the opportunity to do something **legendary** in the opening to book 3.

The number of stupid decisions on all sides is really wearing on my patience. The whole thing has me groaning with weariness.