Josie > Recent Status Updates

Reading in preparation for my book club unit.

Magical realism? Cool!
Budding romance between a high schooler and a 21-year-old? Not cool. Especially when their first conversation is basically her making sure he knows she's eighteen and flirting with him by making jokes about him being old.

Well, that escalated quickly.

On the re-reading kick and it's November so you know what that means

"Epilogue" must mean something different in Russian because this is simply not one.

I did not realize how much of this book was just going to be Tolstoy dissing Napoleon.

I'm in the EPILOGUE and I still have FOUR AND A HALF HOURS left??!

I'm definitely feeling a bit War-and-Peace fatigued. So much has happened, and it keeps throwing more at you, and I'm ready for it to be done. It's still GOOD, it's just a lot. Almost 90% done and still have eight hours, which is about 1.25 Agatha Christie books (maybe not a universal frame of reference, but pretty average for me this summer).
Also, very upset at what happened in the last minute I listened to. Why.

I wanted to be indignant at Tolstoy for describing Maria's viewpoint on the war as "the way most women think about war," but considering that several hours later in the book I, too, do not grasp the full significance of this particular war and am primarily worrying about Maria's brother at the front, I don't think I can.

So much has happened and so little of it good.
Right now, the Rostov family has a lot of the compelling characters for me; I really like the time spent in Nikolai's head (although he definitely has some red flags), it's interesting to see Petya growing up, and Natasha is fascinating if not a bit infuriating (which I think is partially the audiobook reader, though certainly not entirely). And Sonya is amazing.

Both Andrei and Pierre are desperately in need of therapy.

Also, I know what's coming next (due to breaking my moral code and watching the show first) and I'm not sure I'm ready.

Well, we've officially hit the war part.
Today's thoughts, in no particular order:
- What is Andrei's deal?
- Family drama is way more interesting than battle strategy, I'm sorry
- Maria deserves better
- I'm not super engaged in the war scenes, but Nikolai's internal monologue during his first battle is so well done. Poor baby.

I thought I hit the peak of Russian party culture when a random bear was at Anatole's frat party. Did not realize the bear situation would get even more hilarious.

The shifts from one girl starving in France and living in hiding to the other going to dinner parties, trying new drinks, and batting off men left and right took a little bit to get used to, I'll be honest.

Also, kudos to my summer job for saving my Goodreads challenge.

Yeah, she can't have done it because I cannot fathom being so in love with THIS guy that you want to commit murder.

The Poe allusions? So good.

Oliver's emotions as he transitions to the factory remind me of my first day of student teaching.

This relationship just went from 0-100, and I'm kind of here for it.

"But a boy in battle is a danger only to his own side," says Edmund, who helped win the battle against the Witch and was made a knight when he was in elementary school. Bold words, buddy.

I understand that them messing up the Signs is kind of the whole metaphorical point here, but really, Eustace? You didn't think to ask who the king was?

Love the shade toward Edmund for not leaving the wardrobe door open.

Just learned that it's spelled "Iwan" and not "Ewan" (as in Ewan McGregor) but that will likely not stop my brain from picturing Episode III Obi-Wan Kenobi whenever this character is mentioned

For the record, I'm reading the Constance Garnett translation but I liked this cover better.

Why must the protagonists in Russian literature be so morally complicated? I'm so close to liking Raskolnikov, but he's not really letting me.

"Christian could hardly tell the difference between a rose and a daisy."
Has this kid never been outside before?

I know the whole "princess being saved by a man" trope isn't considered very cool anymore, but man this is a good knight in shining armor

HOW did this book for school CRUSH me?!

My years old to-read shelf continues to deliver. This is so fun

This child calls the dragon "sir," what a sweetheart

Shoutout to Duolingo for helping me know what uisce meant before reading this book, and shoutout to this book for teaching me what capall meant before I got to the animals unit in my Irish Duolingo program.

Anyway, Puck and Sean both deserve so much better than what they're dealing with right now.

Sean Kendrick is a horse girl.

These characters are so loveable...