Ellen > Recent Status Updates

RABIES, Edwin. ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE HAVE RABIES.

It's somewhat nice to read a Donner party narrative in which James Reed isn't being treated as an absolute villain, as I've always had a soft spot for him. (Strange that they didn't even mention his MIL dying on the trail, though.) However, the characterization of Tamsen Donner is WEIRD. I'm okay with her being a witchy lady, but by all accounts she was VERY faithful to George, even when it cost her her life.

So I'm not sure why Truckee Lake is being noted as the place to avoid specifically on the Hastings Cutoff. Truckee Lake is a place on the main California Trail. Emigrants would pass it whether they took the cutoff or not.

Already a few little historical errors--Charles Stanton was a short little fellow, not a tall man, and it was the Reeds who were known for having the gigantic luxury wagon. Unsure what to think here.

These books seem like they would be perfect adapted as a Veronica Mars-type show: an overarching medical/detective-mystery each season combined with short mysteries of the week (the baby accidentally fed coca wine, the conman muralist, etc).

That's interesting, because in my life the two people who I occasionally suspect of malingering are...not affluent at all.

Interesting that Cherry got the last name Sizemore--is she related in any way to Clay's family?

So...how does Isabelle using "Nightingale" as her nom de guerre make sense? Unless one assumes that the characters are speaking English, the author's language, which they're not--they'd be speaking French. Which means Isabelle's code name is HER ACTUAL LAST NAME.

So, you probably could have had these recreational, environmentally-focused outdoor teen programs during COVID in Canada, if you had tried. In the US, though? Obama promoted the benefits of volunteering in 2010 and Republicans threw a fit. It's too divided for anything good.

Naomi Klein:Naomi Wolf::Leslie Knope:Brandi Maxxx

Since they live in Vermont and Franklin's famous last name isn't mentioned, I'm thinking of him as Franklin BenandJerry.

There's a dude in here with the last name Abhorsen! Since when is that a Norwegian last name?!? So the Old Kingdom is....Scandinavia+Byzantium?

Okay, so, quick note: "Akron's international district," populated by Asian immigrants, is North Hill, a (¿formerly?) majority-Black neighborhood (and at one point a majority-Italian neighborhood). So if this drug dealer is selling in North Hill, he is selling to a VERY diverse population.

While it is possible that an academic based in Massachusetts could have an interview on a radio station west of the Mississippi, this reads more to me as a Californiassumption on Hsieh Chou's part.

So...how could Prieto know about the Sonoma Fires BEFORE October 8th? If he doesn't arrive home from Puerto Rico until September 25th, how exactly does that work? If you're going to put my family's tragedy in a book as a throwaway aside, at least get the details right...

The way Grossman depicts the Germans is interesting--they're mostly sort of farcical, but then in the middle of the levity about food and bunker decorations, he'll drop in "this person is a mass murderer" or "this person raped a Russian woman in front of her children." "Yes, he's an amusing drunk/now he's going to talk about German supremacy." Seriously a perfect way of doing it.

Do we mean "classicism?" Or do we actually mean "classism?"

"I can't breathe" was adopted in memory of Eric Garner--several years before the murder of George Floyd.

Thao, Marrow

Most unrealistic thing so far is the idea that any Lake City Fred Meyer employee would ever offer to assist a random passing customer with something

It's pretty weird to read something that mentions all of the places that are familiar to me. This has happened once or twice before--with a couple of Thrity Umrigar books and one of Deb Caletti's. But this is a whole nother level.

Damn, I wish I had had someone like Tambu in my life 12 years ago. Alas...

How can he be your "friend" if he does not know you well and makes such assumptions, Brené? He's an acquaintance at best.

So it's been established that Owen has two mothers. So wouldn't ALL of his grandparents be his "maternal grandparents?"

The last paragraph of page 231 is really creepy for me

Does he mean Cronenberg's Crash, or Paul Haggis' Crash? Because one of them was overtly sexual, the other was an embarrassing over-the-top look at race in LA

This was published in 2015, so I don't know if the "Italian justice" is supposed to be Alito or Scalia.

Of course he goes to Philadelphia

Elise is right about everything except for the good working order, the maintenance, and the pleasant waiting room.