Melissa > Recent Status Updates

Pounding stainless steel?

Canola oil when no introduced until the 70’s.

So didactic and preachy. Don’t think I can make it through.

Oh bummer, not going well. Heavy handed fantasy allegory.

Dnf. Loved an earlier fantasy by this author but can not make a go of this one. Told in the second person and the subject shifts among a series of former child warriors. Instead of engaging me this technique made feel lectured to.

Ugh - wrong plant again at the beginning.
Northern North America and the only plant mentioned is gorse. Not native and only occurs as an invasive on the west coast of North America

Dnf

I am struggling with the therapeutic nature of the prose. Literal therapists explaining how to manage anxiety. Narrators explaining the complexity and richness of large family immigrant culture. I would find it far more fascinating to see the interactions rather than be told how the members of the diaspora all feel when their credit cards are maxed out and they can’t travel to attend a distant relationship wedding.

She would silence the new unwelcome warmth in her chest when she thought of Cochine, who killed one of the most influential men in Thumis. But Nika did none of those things, rationality be damned.
Rationality be damned indeed.

Overly wordy and explanatory- lots of fifty cent words a substantial number of which are misused- a permissive glance (meaning a glance that grants permission)

Not loving the sorry for myself everyone else is an idiot voice. Why is it charming to snarkily notice you haven’t had sex for a month and haven’t had really good sex for even longer and then blame your ex boyfriend who you have manifest contempt for? Is it his job to deliver terrific sex to a woman camping in his apartment who enjoys the idea that he fears she is a murder?

Many of us just learning how to dream.

Discoveries in 2019 in Papau New Guinea. Again random words highlighted - ancient neolithic villages/ New Britain/tell/ Kathleen Kenyon/ summer solstice

Great info and diagrams. Map of where farming started and that warmer settled weather allowed crops to become established

Again too cute farming! Nosy neighbors, no tomatoes and wheat no pizza.

Why say if you were alive three million years ago you’d be short and hairy too? Why highlight Austropithicus, big gnashers and funny waddle?

Some clunky parts. When Ziva confesses her fears re Pesah’s death what makes her think her brother can’t overhear.

Many took a moment to see for themselves that Big Tree had fruited and to taste a bit of its new acorns. It was said to be good luck to do so at the first bloom.

Terrible. Unbelievable in an extreme loony tunes way. No reality to the nature. Insulting.

Something changes when you face your greatest fears

Not a quest, but survival.

12 Evelyn came to blight harbor ( 7th most haunted) 4years age when parents disappeared

Everyone doing what was expected tamping down all the parts of themselves that might be different that might yearn for a voice. Everyone choosing the path that seemed simpler but actually required so much more sacrifice

The more truths you excavate the more you understand yourself the stronger you will be.

The frost fangs find weaknesses in our sense of self.

Everything is a lecture or a lesson

Erin feels like on a raft rushing down a river, no control could just hang on and stare at unfamiliar landscape rushing by.

Funny dialog