Books by “A” Authors I own and Need to Read (Part 3)

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

There's nothing quite like enjoying a classic children's book like Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater, and the audiobook version I listened to (created by Hachette Audio and narrated by Nick Sullivan) only added to its charm. This audiobook version added music and sound effects in a way that added to the story rather than distracted from it.

Mr. Popper's Penguins follows the story of the Popper family as they care for Captain Cook, the penguin that Admiral Drake sent to Mr. Popper, and later the additional penguins that join their family. It's a story of mischief and compassion with a dose of comedic chaos. After reading it, it makes sense why Mr. Popper's Penguins is a classic in children's literature.

Trigger Warnings

Not realistic

An excessive (but hilarious) amount of penguins

Naked Alibi (1954)

"Look, Joe, I like you, but I don't know what's got into you lately. Maybe you're working too hard or something, but you're getting yourself a rough reputation. Now, take a tip: change your tactics, or you're liable to find yourself without a job."

Republicans co-opting Martin Luther King Jr.’s quotes while pushing policy and supporting legislation directly in opposition to the Civil Rights leader’s wishes is just one example of the party attempting to rewrite history.

In fact, there are so many examples of revisionist history happening these days, particularly among conservatives, that historian and University of Princeton professor Kevin M. Kruse felt the need to publish a book alongside fellow historians, and join this episode of The New Abnormal politics podcast, to set the record straight.

Subscribe to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Overcast.

He talks about his book Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past, which is a compilation of historian-written chapters that crush those myths, and shares proof that contrary to Republicans’ denials, the party actively engages in “Southern Strategy,” which is, as New Abnormal co-host Andy Levy explains, the “idea that as the Democratic Party moved away from being the party of slavery and segregation, the GOP sort of consciously moved to fill that void and to become the champion of white Southerners.”

From speaking in coded racial language to antagonizing white voters through fear and taking starkly pro-police stances, they’re absolutely following the knowingly racist playbook of conservatives past, says Kruse.

“This is not some wishful thinking theory that we’ve imposed in the past. The people we’re talking about in documents at the time, in interviews at the time, in books, talk about this,” says Kruse. “[Richard] Nixon talks about this in his memoirs. Harry Dent, his adviser, talks about it in his memoirs. Lee Atwater gives an interview where he talks about the old coded racism of the Nixon-era Southern Strategy. This has long been conventional wisdom. Heads of the Republican National Committee apologized for this. The thought that suddenly people are saying, ‘Oh, this never happened. This is all a myth,’ was just kind of insane and frustrating.”

He also explains Nixon’s role in solidifying this strategy for the GOP and also why we still are taught basic historical lies, including one that Andy is particularly invested in: George Washington never telling a lie.

Also on this episode: TNA co-host Danielle Moodie interviews Jim Freeman, a civil rights lawyer and author of the book, Rich Thanks to Racism: How the Ultra-Wealthy Profit from Racial Injustice, to talk about the Defund the Police movement and the role police unions are playing in stopping it from happening.

Songs That I Think Sound Like the Poets if You Squint

probs will get updated the more i remember to <3

some characters have more than others but i’m working on it i swear

Todd Anderson:

Something In The Orange - Zach Bryan

cry with me over it

Where Is My Mind? - The Pixies

Mind Over Matter - Young the Giant

I Hear a Symphony - Cody Fry

Looking Out for You - Joy Again

Sunrise - Kenny Elrod

Nunemaker’s Parable - Everybody’s Worried About Owen

stream his new ep nunemaker’s swingset ^^^ it’s SO GOOD

The One I Love - R.E.M.

Chamber of Reflection (Live Cover) - Your Anxiety Buddy

Fly Out West - Yot Club

Mystery - Matt Maltese

star tripping - Kevin Atwater

Neil Perry:

Safeword - TV Girl

Cigarettes out the Window - TV Girl

listen neil just gives the tv girl vibe i’m sorry for being right

Wicked Game - Chris Isaak

Everybody Loves Somebody - Frank Sinatra

i will die on this hill ^^

The Stable Song - Gregory Alan Isokov

Dance With Me - Topline Addicts

The Stable Song - Gregory Alan Isokov

Matilda - Harry Styles

Young - Vacations

Exit Music (For A Film) - Radiohead

No Surprises - Radiohead

aime-moi. - Axel Enderlin

Heart Like Yours - Williamette Stone

Privately Owned Spiral Galaxy - Lovejoy

Steven Meeks:

Lonely Day - System Of A Down

Baby Bride Rag - Roar

Numbers - TEMPOREX

Tourist - Jon Cozart

Gerard Pitts:

Journey to Wherever We May Go - Grand Commander

The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack - Liars

Love Me, Normally - Will Wood

Richard Cameron:

Here With Me - d4vd

Run Away to Mars - TALK

Charlie Dalton:

Blackbird - The Beatles

Hey Lover! - Wabie

April Monthly Recap:

This month, I was participating in Magical Readathon by BookRoast on Youtube, and I smashed it! I read 13 of the 14 class prompts, as well as 4 quest books, plus four that didn’t count for the readathon, bringing me up to a total of 21 books this month! Clearly life is calming down a little bit and I have more time to read than February/March. Unfortunately, despite my reading quantity, my quality wasn’t awesome - my average rating this month was 3.6, compared to my typical average rating of around 4. This was also my first month without a 5-star read this year. However, I did read and really enjoy Babel, Half a Soul, and Unnatural Magic.

Tommy Cabot Was Here by Cat Sebastian: 4.25/5

Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams: 2/5

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske: 4.5/5

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater: 4.75/5

Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher: 4.5/5

Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian: 4.5/5

Babel by R. F. Kuang: 4.75/5

The Kraken’s Sacrifice by Katee Robert: 1.75/5

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman: 2/5, dnf

The Bright Ages by David M. Perry & Matthew Gabriele: 3/5, dnf

An Embarrassment of Witches by Jenn Jordan & Sophie Goldstein: 2.5/5

Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking by Marianne Eloise: 2.5/5, dnf

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier: 4.5/5

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho: 3/5

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo: 4/5

Umbertouched by Livia Blackburne: 4/5

Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff: 2.5/5

The Councillor by E. J. Beaton: 4.25/5

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore: 4.25/5

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin: 4/5

Unnatural Magic by C. M. Waggoner: 4.75/5

Goal progress below the cut:

23 in 2023: 10 [+3]

Read 100 books: 63 [+21]

Translated works: 1 [+0]

Physical TBR: 8 [+5]

Top of TBR: 3 [+1]

Books in Spanish: 0

Read 40% AOC: 22.2% [-4.0%] *BOY is this going in the wrong direction

Discworld books: 1 [+0]

Series: 9 started vs. 16 caught up on/finished [+6/+4]

Storygraph recs: 1 | avg. 3/5 [+0]

Indigenous authors: 1 [+0]

These word, wishes tied to earth by ink

12/25/2023

Te following is taken from the calendar book “The Tibetan Book of Days”. 

In the book, I chronicle my last grueling days at the Stanislaus County Public Defender’s office. And, the days just after I was fired on August 29, 1997.

The following entry from the book was written on the last page of the book. The page is entitled DECEMBER and includes spaces to write notes for December 28-31.

I , instead, included the following entries dated September 9, 1997 and September 15, 1997. Since I wrote it on this December page, I reference December in my opening line. Truly, this time was the Deep Dark December of my life up to then.

So, following is the entry:

September 9, 1997

We sit now in darkening December.

We generate our own warmth.

Our own light.

In their world, I am a Pariah..

In my world, I am a man with dignity and even an odd kind of serenity.

Life takes care of life.

The above entry is followed by the continuation of the 9/15/1997 entry begun two pages prior:

In my psyche, it all still plows along. It’s like their long cold grey world is part of my own, a reality.

It’s like, in a dream, when Mom came and knocked on my door and told me to get upland to see—to come with her out the front door of her Atwater home. She said, very concerned “The last girl is dead”. I thought, “What last girl? I sensed a young asian Cambodian girl, or, did she mean her sisters? I got up to follow her. I had no shorts or glasses on, but, as she reached the doorway part of the hall, she disappeared. I woke up. The dream seemed so real.

Just like the memory of that job from hell. After 10 solid years, it feels like it’s still here. It’s ugly, grotesque, humiliating demands, still here.

It’s OK to let them linger as long as they need to. Make a soft space for them, long time tenants.

Remember, however, they are not real…the job, like the dream, gone. Over. Done.

In the mean time, while you nurse these aching memories, mend sails. 

Like Herman said “You’ve got time now….””Use it productively”.

My definition of productivity includes “healing time, healing activities. Continue soul study projects. The perfect time. This time is actually precious.

These words, wishes tied to earth by ink, will be a fascinating read!  How did he pass through this incredible time?

End of entry

Note:

My Mother had six sisters. She was the youngest, born in 1930. My mother and all of her sisters have now, as of 2023, died.

I was raised in the house in Atwater from 1959 when we moved in when I was 4 to 1973 when I left to go to college at CSU Chico, Chico, California. 

Herman was probably Richard Herman, a fellow criminal defense attorney in Modesto 1997.

Staff Pick of the Week!

This week I am sharing The Bridge: a poem by Hart Crane with photographs by Richard Benson, printed in 1981 for the members of The Limited Editions Club in New York in and edition of 2000 copies signed by the photographer.. 

This book caught my eye with its bright blue paste papers wrapping the box and making up the end sheets in the book. The papers are reproductions of the originals made by Carol Blinn. Paste papers are made by mixing pigment with a starch to create a paste that can be painted on a paper to decorate it, the paste mixture allows you to push the pigment around, moving it with different tools until the desired effect is created. Once you have seen some decorated paste papers they are hard to miss. Blinn’s designs suggest a body of rolling waves under blue sky, perhaps they are the waves bustling beneath the Brooklyn Bridge which inspired Hart Crane to write his first long poem.

This edition maintains many of the visual themes of the first edition of The Bridge, first published in 1930 by the Black Sun Press, which is wrapped in a blue paper cover and features photos of the bridge by Crane’s friend Walker Evans. 

This book was designed by Stephen Stinehour. The font of the main text is Fourteen-point Monotype Dante, the headings are also Dante in other sizes. The text was set and printed by Michael & Winifred Bixler in Somerville, Massachusetts. The five photographs are by the photographer Richard Mead Atwater Benson and were printed by The Meriden Gravure Company in Meriden, Connecticut.  The smooth white papers were produced specially for this edition at the Mohawk Mill in Cohoes, New York. The edition was bound at The Stinehour Press in Lunenburg, Vermont. 

Use this link for more Staff Pick of the Week posts!

Use this link for more Limited Editions Club posts!

Teddy- Special Collections Graduate Intern

Thank you @kitas-cleaning-supplies I love doing these :D <3

Three ships I like

SatoSugu - I just recently got into jjk but I would give my life for these two, they’re my babies

SakuAtsu - I’ve been reading Fic and seeing art for them since early 2022 and I never get tired of it, I just love them man

Buddie - you gave me a gay ship where they’re both disasters doing their best to have each other’s backs and they have a kid together? Of course I’m gonna love it

First ship I ever had

Sterek - Teen Wolf was what got me into fandom stuff and I absolutely adored Stiles so of course I fell down the Sterek rabbit hole

Last song I listened to

No Choice by Ingrid Andress

Fav childhood book

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Florence and Richard Atwater - I made my brothers read this book to me so many times that by the time I could read it, I had to be extremely careful cause it was falling apart

Currently reading

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare and Tethers by whileyouresleeping on Ao3

Currently watching

9-1-1 and Bloom Into You

Currently consuming

Strawberry pocky and tea (yes it’s 11pm right now, don’t judge me)

Currently craving

Human contact- oh and chicken nuggets >:)

No pressure tags! @a-bi-cat-with-books @librarianafterdark @haikyuu-brain-rot @thequeenofsarcaasm @getosugurusbangs

September '23 reading diary

I finished 5 books in September, plus 3 re-reads, and enjoyed all of them thoroughly.

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater is a very charming fantasy of manners romance about a woman who discovers half her soul was stolen by a faerie. Dora's emotions and social skills are unusual as a result, and her family believes she will never marry, but she hits it off with the highest-ranking sorcerer in England and the two of them tackle curses and class issues with a lot of reflection and heart. There are more original romances and fairy-based fantasies, but all the elements together are (like Dora) more than the sum of their parts. Refreshing.

Something Human is the second of A.J. Demas' stand alone fantasy Mediterranean novels I've read, a lovely chewy romance about a not-Greek official and a not-Celtic or Germanic(?) warrior priest who save each other's lives after a battle in which they fought on opposite sides. The first of two parts is my favorite, focusing on their recuperation and fledgling romance while they hide in a deserted temple. They cooperate to achieve political and personal peace, and the narrative has a lot of faith in humanity without making it too easy. Well worth seeking out.

A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel is the second of K.J. Charles's Doomsday Books duology, and while I latched onto the first more strongly, this is still a five-star top-tier of her work pick from me. A troubled teen from book 1 now stars as a hugely likeable adult with ambitions to resolve a mystery introduced then, and he's formulated the perfect plan...if he has to help the warm-hearted, short-fused sexy local earl get a handle on his paperwork in the process, that's not a problem, right? Great atmosphere, thrillingly horny even by KJC standards, and very moving writing about trauma.

The Last Devil to Die is the fourth Thursday Murder Club mystery by Richard Osman. A group of friends, most of them elderly, crack murders together, this time because someone they know was shot in some sort of heroin deal. I solved this case more quickly than previous entries, but not in an annoying way. Don't start with this one if possible, go right to the beginning, but these are highly personable books with wonderful character portraits.

I also grabbed the next Wells & Wong book I needed, First Class Murder. Not my favorite of this series's cases either, because it's a homage to Murder on the Orient Express and at moments it had a slight retread quality, but it's very much its own story. It deals heavily and effectively with Hazel's relationship with her father, and how both of them are treated as Asians in Europe. A favorite character of mine from book 2 reappeared, to my delight, and I continue to be impressed by how much more emotionally honest and sensitive this middle grade series is about the death side of murder mysteries than many written for adults.

My re-reads this month were a Band Sinister canon review for a K.J. Charles fanfic exchange, which remains a favorite, and two of Tamora Pierce's Emelan books, Sandry's Book and Tris's Book. I'm a little behind in the group read of Emelan and am excited to catch up. There's a lot of striking and moving content in this series about craft and personal growth. Sandry's book is noticeably stronger on a plot level than Tris's, but the difference isn't great enough to be a letdown.

hello, book asks 6, 12 and 17 please and thank you <3

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

oh was there ever... the force of such beauty by barbara bourland, babel by rf kuang, reluctant immortals by gwendolyn kiste, strike the zither by joan he, best of friends by kamila shamsie, and she who became the sun by shelley parker-chan all come to mind

12. Any books that disappointed you?

doe ur tryna get me axed... but yes. house of hunger by alexis henderson, the thursday murder club by richard osman, foul lady fortune by chloe gong, groupies by sarah priscus, when women were dragons by kelly barnhill, cover story by susan rigetti, i guess i live here now by claire ahn, ghosts by dolly alderton, how to fake it in hollywood by ava wilder, funny you should ask by elissa sussman, the cartographers by peng shepherd, anatomy by dana schwartz, one italian summer by rebecca serle, and you've reached sam by dustin thao

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

also yes!! a declaration of the rights of magicians by hg parry, the last true poets of the sea by julia drake, a lady for a duke by alexis hall, nsfw by isabel kaplan, the marriage portrait by maggie o'farrell, our crooked hearts by melissa albert, the echo wife by sarah gailey, the hop by diana clarke, thank you for listening by julia whelan, star eater by kerstin hall, a certain hunger by chelsea g. summers, the view was exhausting by mikaella clements & onjuli datta, the honeys by ryan la sala, for the throne by hannah whitten, a dowry of blood by s.t. gibson, the girl who fell beneath the sea by axie oh, all our hidden gifts by caroline o'donaghue, little thieves by margaret owen, vespertine by margaret rogerson, and half a soul by olivia atwater — lots of new to me authors this year, and many of them are now auto-buys!!

end of year book asks

Squash’s Book Roundup of 2022

This year I read 68 books. My original goal was to match what I read in 2019, which was 60, but I surpassed it with quite a bit of time to spare.

Books Read In 2022:

-The Man Who Would Be King and other stories by Rudyard Kipling -Futz by Rochelle Owens -The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht -Funeral Rites by Jean Genet -The Grip of It by Jac Jemc -Jules et Jim by Henri-Pierre Roche -Hashish, Wine, Opium by Charles Baudelaire and Theophile Gautier -The Blacks: a clown show by Jean Genet -One, No One, One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello -Cain’s Book by Alexander Trocchi -The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren -Three-Line Novels (Illustrated) by Felix Feneon, Illustrated by Joanna Neborsky -Black Box Thrillers: Four Novels (They Shoot Horses Don’t They, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, No Pockets in a Shroud, I Should Have Stayed Home) by Horace McCoy -The Dictionary of Accepted Ideas by Gustave Flaubert -The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco -Illusions by Richard Bach -Mole People by Jennifer Toth -The Rainbow Stories by William T Vollmann -Tell Me Everything by Erika Krouse -Equus by Peter Shaffer (reread) -Ghosty Men by Franz Lidz -A Happy Death by Albert Camus -Six Miles to Roadside Business by Michael Doane -Envy by Yury Olesha -The Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West -Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche -The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox -The Cat Inside by William S Burroughs -Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry -Camino Real by Tennessee Williams (reread) -The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg -The Quick & The Dead by Joy Williams -Comemadre by Roque Larraquy -The Zoo Story by Edward Albee -The Bridge by Hart Crane -A Likely Lad by Peter Doherty -The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel -The Law In Shambles by Thomas Geoghegan -The Anti-Christ by Friedrich Nietzche -The Maids and Deathwatch by Jean Genet -Intimate Journals by Charles Baudelaire -The Screens by Jean Genet -Inferno by Dante Alighieri (reread) -The Quarry by Friedrich Durrenmatt -A Season In Hell by Arthur Rimbaud (reread) -Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century by Jed Rasula -Pere Ubu by Alfred Jarry -Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath by Anne Stevenson -Loot by Joe Orton -Julia And The Bazooka and other stories by Anna Kavan -The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda by Ishmael Reed -If You Were There: Missing People and the Marks They Leave Behind by Francisco Garcia -Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters -Indelicacy by Amina Cain -Withdrawn Traces by Sara Hawys Roberts (an unfortunate but necessary reread) -Sarah by JT LeRoy (reread) -How Lucky by Will Leitch -Gyo by Junji Ito (reread) -Joe Gould’s Teeth by Jill Lepore -Saint Glinglin by Raymond Queneau -Bakkai by Anne Carson -Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers -McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh -Moby Dick by Herman Melville -The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector -In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (reread from childhood) -Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren -The Medium is the Massage by Malcolm McLuhan

~Superlatives And Thoughts~

Fiction books read: 48 Non-fiction books read: 20

Favorite book: This is so hard! I almost want to three-way tie it between Under The Volcano, The Quick & The Dead, and The Man With The Golden Arm, but I’m not going to. I think my favorite is Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry. It’s an absolutely beautiful book with such intense descriptions. The way that it illustrates the vastly different emotional and mental states of its three main characters reminded me of another favorite, Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey. Lowry is amazing at leaving narrative breadcrumbs, letting the reader find their way through the emotional tangle he’s recording. The way he writes the erratic, confused, crumbling inner monologue of the main character as he grows more and more ill was my favorite part.

Least favorite book: I’d say Withdrawn Traces, but it’s a reread, so I think I’ll have to go with Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters. I dedicated a whole long post to it already, so I’ll just say that the concept of the book is great. I loved the whole idea of it. But the execution was awful. It’s like the exact opposite of Under The Volcano. The characters didn’t feel like real people, which would have been fine if the book was one written in that kind of surreal or artistic style where characters aren’t expected to speak like everyday people. But the narrative style as well as much of the dialogue was attempting realism, so the lack of realistic humanity of the characters was a big problem. The book didn’t ever give the reader the benefit of the doubt regarding their ability to infer or empathize or figure things out for themselves. Every character’s emotion and reaction was fully explained as it happened, rather than leaving the reader some breathing space to watch characters act or talk and slowly understand what’s going on between them. Points for unique idea and queer literature about actual adults, but massive deduction for the poor execution.

Unexpected/surprising book: The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox. This is the first book about archaeology I’ve ever read. I picked it up as I was shelving at work, read the inner flap to make sure it was going to the right spot, and then ended up reading the whole thing. It was a fascinating look at the decades-long attempt to crack the ancient Linear B script, the challenges faced by people who tried and the various theories about its origin and what kind of a language/script it was. The book was really engaging, the author was clearly very passionate and emotional about her subjects and it made the whole thing both fascinating and fun to read. And I learned a bunch of new things about history and linguistics and archaeology!

Most fun book: How Lucky by Will Leitch. It was literally just a Fun Book. The main character is a quadriplegic man who witnesses what he thinks is a kidnapping. Because he a wheelchair user and also can’t talk except through typing with one hand, his attempts to figure out and relay to police what he’s seen are hindered, even with the help of his aid and his best friend. But he’s determined to find out what happened and save the victim of the kidnapping. It’s just a fun book, an adventure, the narrative voice is energetic and good-natured and it doesn’t go deeply into symbolism or philosophy or anything.

Book that taught me the most: Destruction Was My Beatrice by Jed Rasula. This book probably isn’t for everyone, but I love Dadaism, so this book was absolutely for me. I had a basic knowledge of the Dadaist art movement before, but I learned so much, and gained a few new favorite artists as well as a lot of general knowledge about the Dada movement and its offshoots and members and context and all sorts of cool stuff.

Most interesting/thought provoking book: Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I annotated my copy like crazy. I never had to read it in school, but I had a blast finally reading it now. There’s just so much going on in it, symbolically and narratively. I think I almost consider it the first Modernist novel, because it felt more Modernist than Romantic to me. I had to do so much googling while reading it because there are so many obscure biblical references that are clear symbolism, and my bible knowledge is severely lacking. This book gave me a lot of thoughts about narrative and the construction of the story, the mechanic of a narrator that’s not supposed to be omniscient but still kind of is, and so many other things. I really love Moby Dick, and I kind of already want to reread it.

Other thoughts/Books I want to mention but don’t have superlatives for: Funeral Rites was the best book by Jean Genet, which I was not expecting compared to how much I loved his other works. It would be hard for me to describe exactly why I liked this one so much to people who don’t know his style and his weird literary tics, because it really is a compounding of all those weird passions and ideals and personal symbols he had, but I really loved it. Reading The Grip Of It by Jac Jemc taught me that House Of Leaves has ruined me for any other horror novel that is specifically environmental. It wasn’t a bad book, just nothing can surpass House Of Leaves for horror novels about buildings. The Man With The Golden Arm by Nelson Algren was absolutely beautiful. I went in expecting a Maltese Falcon-type noir and instead I got a novel that was basically poetry about characters who were flawed and fucked up and sad but totally lovable. Plus it takes place only a few blocks from my workplace! The Rainbow Stories by William T Vollmann was amazing and I totally love his style. I think out of all the stories in that book my favorite was probably The Blue Yonder, the piece about the murderer with a sort of split personality. Scintillant Orange with all its biblical references and weird modernization of bible stories was a blast too. The Quick & The Dead by Joy Williams was amazing and one of my favorites this year. It’s sort of surreal, a deliberately weird novel about three weird girls without mothers. I loved the way Williams plays with her characters like a cat with a mouse, introducing them just to mess with them and then tossing them away -- but always with some sort of odd symbolic intent. All the adult characters talk and act more like teens and all the teenage characters talk and act like adults. It’s a really interesting exploration of the ways to process grief and change and growing up, all with the weirdest characters. Joe Gould’s Teeth was an amazing book, totally fascinating. One of our regulars at work suggested it to me, and he was totally right in saying it was a really cool book. It’s a biography of Joe Gould, a New York author who was acquaintances with EE Cummings and Ezra Pound, among others, who said he was writing an “oral history of our time.” Lepore investigates his life, the (non)existence of said oral history, and Gould’s obsession with a Harlem artist that affected his views of race, culture, and what he said he wanted to write. McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh was so good, although I only read it because 3 out of my other 5 coworkers had read it and they convinced me to. I had read a bunch of negative reviews of Moshfegh’s other book, so I went in a bit skeptical, but I ended up really enjoying McGlue. The whole time I read it, it did feel a bit like I was reading Les Miserables fanfiction, partly from the literary style and partly just from the traits of the main character. But I did really enjoy it, and the ending was really lovely. In terms of literature that’s extremely unique in style, The Hour Of The Star by Clarice Lispector is probably top of the list this year. Her writing is amazing and so bizarre. It’s almost childlike but also so observant and philosophical, and the intellectual and metaphorical leaps she makes are so fascinating. I read her short piece The Egg And The Chicken a few months ago at the urging of my coworker, and thought it was so cool, and this little novel continues in that same vein of bizarre, charming, half-philosophical and half-mundane (but also totally not mundane at all) musings.

I'm still in the middle of reading The Commitments by Roddy Doyle (my lunch break book) and The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, but I'm not going to finish either by the end of the year, so I'm leaving them off the official list.

Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)

Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Jeff Donnell, Sam Levene, Joe Frisco, Barbara Nichols, Emile Meyer, Edith Atwater. Screenplay: Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, based on a novel by Lehman. Cinematography: James Wong Howe. Art direction: Edward Carrere. Film editing: Alan Crosland Jr. Music: Elmer Bernstein.

What do Sweet Smell of Success, His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940), Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941), and The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) have in common? They are all among the critically acclaimed films that, among other honors, have been selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. And none of them received a single nomination in any category for the Academy Awards. Sweet Smell is, of course, a wickedly cynical film about two of the most egregious anti-heroes, New York newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) and press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis), ever to appear in a film. They make the gangsters of Francis Ford Coppola's and Martin Scorsese's films look like Boy Scouts. So given the inclination of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to stay on the good side of columnists and publicists, we might expect it to shy away from honoring the film with Oscars. But consider the categories in which it might have been nominated. The best picture Oscar for 1957 went to The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean), a respectable choice, and Sidney Lumet's tensely entertaining 12 Angry Men certainly deserved the nomination it received. But in what ways are the other nominees -- Peyton Place (Mark Robson), Sayonara (Joshua Logan), and Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder) -- superior to Sweet Smell?  The best actor Oscar winner was Alec Guinness for The Bridge on the River Kwai, another plausible choice. But Tony Curtis gave the performance of his career as Sidney Falco, overcoming his "pretty boy" image -- in fact, the film makes fun of it: One character refers to him as "Eyelashes" -- by digging deep into his roots growing up in The Bronx. Burt Lancaster would win an Oscar three years later for Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks), a more showy but less controlled performance than the one he gives here. Either or both of them would have been better nominees than Marlon Brando was for his lazy turn in Sayonara, Anthony Franciosa in A Hatful of Rain (Fred Zinnemann), Charles Laughton in Witness for the Prosecution, and Anthony Quinn in Wild Is the Wind (George Cukor). The dialogue provided by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman for the film crackles and stings -- there is probably no more quotable, or stolen from, screenplay, yet it went unnominated. So did James Wong Howe's eloquent black-and-white cinematography, showing off the neon-lighted Broadway in a sinister fashion, and Elmer Bernstein's atmospheric score mixed well with the jazz sequences featuring the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Even the performers in the film who probably didn't merit nominations make solid contributions: Martin Milner is miscast as the jazz musician who falls for Hunsecker's sister (Susan Harrison), but he hasn't yet fallen into the blandness of his famous TV roles on Route 66 and Adam-12, and Barbara Nichols, who had a long career playing floozies in movies and on TV, is surprisingly touching as Rita, one of the pawns Sidney uses to get ahead. As a director, Alexander Mackendrick is best known for the comedies he did at Britain's Ealing Studios with Alec Guinness, The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955). His work on Sweet Smell was complicated by clashes with Lancaster, who was one of the film's executive producers, and after making a few more films he accepted a position at the film school at the California Institute of the Arts in 1967, where he spent the rest of his career.

My media this week (5-11 Feb 2023)

ˢᵒ ᵗʰᵉ ʰᵃʳˡᵉʸ ᵠᵘᶦⁿⁿ ᵛᵃˡᵉⁿᵗᶦⁿᵉˢ ˢᵖᵉᶜᶦᵃˡ ᶠᵉᵃᵗᵘʳᵉᵈ ᵇʳᵉᵗᵗ ᵍᵒˡᵈˢᵗᵉᶦⁿ ˢʰᶦʳᵗˡᵉˢˢ ʳᵉᵃᵈᶦⁿᵍ ᵇʸʳᵒⁿ'ˢ ˡᵒᵛᵉ ᵖᵒᵉᵐˢ ʷʰᶦˡᵉ ᵖᵒˡᶦˢʰᶦⁿᵍ ʰᶦˢ ᵉᵐᵐʸ ᵃⁿᵈ ᶦ ᶜᵒᵘˡᵈ ⁿᵒᵗ ˢᵗᵒᵖ ˡᵃᵘᵍʰᶦⁿᵍ

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊👂‍Murder at the Charity Ball (Miss Underhay Mystery #11) (Helena Dixon, author; Karen Cass, narrator) - another episode in this cotton candy cozy series

🥰Plastered (Zenaidamacrouras1) - 59K, stucky no powers AU; single dad bucky + architect Steve - charming; solid versions of the characters, very enjoyable

😊Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales #1) (Olivia Atwater, author; Rafe Beckley, narrator) - quite enjoyed this, liked the neurodivergent rep, very relieved at the lack of 'cure' ending - it did make me want to read/finish the Sorcery & Cecelia series by Patricia C. Wrede

😍Knife Skills (Hark_bananas) - 72K, post-WS recovery fic; reread, forever fave, absolute perfection

💖💖 +180K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

save a horse, ride an ex-jock (alligator_writes) - Stranger Things: Steddie, 9.8K - hilarious, almost-crackfic of a meet-cute at a country bar where electric bull riding shenanigans ensue. If you've seen that video, you get it

eat me alive (emryses) - Stranger Things: Steddie, 7.2K - baby's first rimming - eddie gets the full 'steve harrington treatment' - just delightfully filthy and also tender af

Auld Lang Syne (Annakovsky, drunktuesdays) - AEW: OC/Chuck Taylor, 36K - Family Man AU - do I watch wresting? I do not. Did I still get emotional while reading this? I very much did. shoutout to the great writing here!

shipling rivalries (ScarlettSwordMoon) - Batman: , 5.2K - HILARIOUS crackfic where all the batkids debate & present their cases for who Dick should be in a relationship with. Bruce regrets his entire life. Damian gets to say "That’s what Richard deserves: a strong warrior who can care and provide for him. I believe the correct terminology for it is a ‘daddy’."

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Scooby Doo, Where Are You! - s2, e5-6

Night Court - s1, e1-3

Harley Quinn - "A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special" [s3, e11]

Hot Ones - Kate Hudson Stays Positive While Eating Spicy Wings

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

It's Been a Minute - The love and longing of Luther Vandross; Plus Grammy nominee Samara Joy

ICYMI Plus - The Anal Bead Cheating Scandal That Rocked the Online Chess World

The Sporkful - A French Chef And Cincinnati: A Love Story

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Marchand Dessalines

Shedunnit - A Detective's Farewell

⭐Off Menu - Ep 139: Nadiya Hussain

You Must Remember This - 1983: MTV Aesthetics, Flashdance and Risky Business (Erotic 80s Part 6)

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Rainmaker

Strange Customs - Andrew Seidel | The Lines

⭐Vibe Check - Happy Black History Month, Gahdamnit!

ICYMI Plus - How a 9-Year-Old Took Over TikTok

Into It - Rihanna Should Take Notes from These Super Bowl Halftime Shows

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Creston Dinosaur

Song Exploder - MUNA "What I Want"

Off Menu - Ep 178: Fern Brady

Endless Thread - My Canadian Girlfriend

Ologies with Alie Ward - Scotohylology (DARK MATTER) with Flip Tanedo

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The San Juan Island Pig War

It's Been a Minute - Hot and kinda bothered by 'Magic Mike'; plus Penn Badgley on bad boys

Our Opinions Are Correct - Encore Episode: Gender Essentialism

Digital Folklore - The Internet is The New Woods (Monsters, Ostension, & Moral Panics)

You're Dead To Me - Valentine’s Special: Georgian Courtship

⭐Hit Parade Plus - A Little Love and Some Tenderness Edition

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

The Essential Luther Vandross

Lizzo

Presenting Bad Bunny

Reggaeton Essentials

Folk Metal Forever

Old-School Reggaeton

Alestorm

CREDITS: Burt Bacharach

MUNA

Pop Tropical Bailable

“Will of Henry VII”. 

“At his manor of Richmond, 31 March Hen. VII., the King makes his last will, commending his soul to the Redeemer with the words he has used since his first "years of discretion," Domine Jesu Christe, qui me ex nichilo creasti, fecisti, redemisti et predestinasti ad hoc quod sum, Tu scis quid de me facere vis, fac de me secundum voluntatem Tuam cum misericordia, trusting in the grace of His Blessed Mother in whom, after Him, has been all his (testator's) trust, by whom in all his adversities he has had special comfort, and to whom he now makes his prayer (recited), as also to all the company of Heaven and especially his "accustumed avoures" St. Michael, St. John Baptist, St. John Evangelist, St. George, St. Anthony, St. Edward, St. Vincent, St. Anne, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Barbara, to defend him at the hour of death and be intercessors for the remission of his sins and salvation of his soul. 

Desires to be buried at Westminster, where he was crowned, where lie buried many of his progenitors, especially his granddame Katharine wife to Henry V. and daughter to Charles of France, and whereto he means shortly to translate the remains of Henry VI.,—in the chapel which he has begun to build (giving full directions for the placing and making of his tomb and finishing of the said chapel according to the plan which he has "in picture delivered" to the prior of St. Bartholomew's beside Smithfield, master of the works for the same); and he has delivered beforehand to the abbot, &c., of Westminster, 5,000l., by indenture dated Richmond, 13 April 23 Hen. VII., towards the cost. 

His executors shall cause 10,000 masses in honor of the Trinity, the Five Wounds, the Five Joys of Our Lady, the Nine Orders of Angels, the Patriarchs, the Twelve Apostles and All Saints (numbers to each object specified) to be said within one month after his decease, at 6d. each, making in all 250l., and shall distribute 2,000l. in alms; and to ensure payment he has left 2,250l. with the abbot, &c., of Westminster, by indenture dated _ (blank) day of _ (blank) in the _ (blank) year of his reign. 

His debts are then to be paid and reparation for wrongs made by his executors at the discretion of the following persons, by whom all complaints shall be tenderly weighed, viz., the abp. of Canterbury, Richard bp. of Winchester, the bps. of London and Rochester, Thomas Earl of Surrey, Treasurer General, George Earl of Shrewsbury, Steward of the House, Sir Charles Somerset Lord Herbert, Chamberlain, the two Chief Justices, Mr. John Yong, Master of the Rolls, Sir Thos. Lovell, Treasurer of the House, Mr. Thomas Routhall, secretary, Sir Ric. Emson, Chancellor of the Duchy, Edm. Dudley, the King's attorney at the time of his decease, and his confessor, the Provincial of the Friars Observants, and Mr. William Atwater, dean of the Chapel, or at least six of them and three of his executors. 

His executors shall see that the officers of the Household and Wardrobe discharge any debts which may be due for charges of the same. Lands to the yearly value of above 1,000 mks. have been "amortised" for fulfilment of certain covenants (described) with the abbey of Westminster. 

For the completion of the hospital which he has begun to build at the Savoie place beside Charingcrosse, and towards which 10,000 mks. in ready money has been delivered to the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, by indenture dated _ (blank), his executors shall deliver any more money which may be necessary; and they shall also make (if he has not done it in his lifetime) two similar hospitals in the suburbs of York and Coventry. 

Certain cathedrals, abbeys, &c., named in a schedule hereto annexed [not annexed now] have undertaken to make for him orisons, prayers and suffrages "while the world shall endure," in return for which he has made them large confirmations, licences and other grants; and he now wishes 6s. 8d. each to be delivered soon after his decease to the rulers of such cathedrals, &c., 3s. 4d. to every canon and monk, being priest, within the same and 20d. to every canon, monk, vicar and minister not being priest. 

His executors shall bestow 2,000l. upon the repair of the highways and bridges from Windsor to Richmond manor and thence to St. George's church beside Southwark, and thence to Greenwich manor, and thence to Canterbury. 

To divers lords, as well of his blood as other, and also to knights, squires and other subjects, he has, for their good service, made grants of lands, offices and annuities, which he straitly charges his son, the Prince, and other heirs to respect; as also the enfeoffments of the Duchy of Lancaster made by Parliaments of 7 and 19 Hen. VII. for the fulfilment of his will. 

Bequests for finishing of the church of the New College in Cambridge and the church of Westminster, for the houses of Friars Observants, for the altar within the King's grate (i.e. of his tomb), for the high altar within the King's chapel, for the image of the King to be made and set upon St. Edward's shrine, for the College of Windsor, for the monastery of Westminster, for the image of the King to be set at St. Thomas's shrine at Canterbury, and for chalices and pixes of a certain fashion to be given to all the houses of Friars and every parish church not suitably provided with such. 

Bequest of a dote of 50,000l. for the marriage of Lady Mary the King's daughter with Charles Prince of Spain, as contracted at Richmond _ (blank) Dec. 24 Hen. VIII., or (if that fail) her marriage with any prince out of the realm by "consent of our said son the Prince, his Council and our said executors."

Executors of this will shall be Margaret Countess of Richmond, the King's mother, Christopher abp. of York, Richard bp. of Winchester*, Richard bp. of London*, Edmond bp. of Salisbury, William bp. of Lincoln, John bp. of Rochester*, Thomas Earl of Arundel, Thomas Earl of Surrey, Treasurer General, Sir Charles Somerset Lord Herbert*, Chamberlain, Sir John Fyneux*, Chief Justice, Sir Robert Rede*, Chief Justice of C.P., Mr. John Yong*, M.R., Sir Thomas Lovell, Treasurer of Household, Mr. Thomas Rowthale*, Secretary, Sir Richard Emson*, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Sir John Cutte, Under-Treasurer General, and Edmond Dudley*, squire, of whom those marked (*) above (or seven of them) are to assemble at least once in every term for twelve days, and declare annually their account to the supervisor of this will hereby appointed, viz. the abp. of Canterbury for the time being. 

On assuming the administration, the supervisor and the executors named as "superattenders" (those marked with * above) shall each receive 100l. in half yearly instalments of 50 mks.; and when the will has been fully executed they shall each receive 200l. and the other executors 100l.

Dated at [Ca]unterbury the [10th day] (fn. 3) of April 24 Hen. VII.”

Link: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol1/pp1-8

Fancast: Mark Rylance as older Henry VII. Gifs are not mine to claim, they are used to illustrate the character.