Becoming Helen

A gripping new WWII novel by Gillian Long If you enjoy Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, and Kate Quinn’s The Alice Networkyou will love Becoming Helen.

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I think I accidentally hit my reading quota in July because in August I ended up doing every else except reading! And then September just got too busy. But I managed to scrape up a handful of books for the pat few months a few quite good and some rather overwhelmingly lacklustre...

The Alchemy of Moonlight

Well, we’re off to an auspicious start because this book was genuinely awful. It was a complete impulse purchase and gave me a very sharp reminder about judging books by their covers. After reading A Marvellous Light last month I was in the mood for more queer period romance and this one had ALL that plus a werewolf to boot! Sounds fun! I could use a fun summer impulse read! But sadly it committed what is, in my opinion, the single greatest sin a historical fiction novel can do, which is that it read completely and entirely like a modern novel. 

There was almost zero effort to make the vocabulary or cadence fit that of novels from that time period (and like, I’m not expecting perfect, I'm hardly an expert, but I regularly read fanfiction written in better pastiche than this. Les Mis and Sherlock Holmes fandoms, you guys have spoiled me). The characters also don’t act in historically appropriate ways, they were allowed to get way too familiar with each other way too quickly with zero regard to social class. And I can’t believe I’m saying this but I could have actually used a touch more homophobia -- guys, just a bit of internalised homophobia, even just the acknowledgement that societal pressures affect people. 

(also this getting described as a gothic horror? fuck off gothic horror is more than a spoopy house, where is the absolute overwhelming terror of the vast Sublime?? i was not forced to read frankenstein three fucking times for school to accept something this lame trying to describe itself as "gothic".)

I tossed this one in my local little free library and I hope it goes to someone who is less of a picky bastard when it comes to historical narration.

American Girl: Kaya and Lone Dog // A Spy on the Homefront: A Molly Mystery

Two more American Girl novels that I’ve read, one about Kaya, an indigenous girl form the Nimíipuu tribe in 1764 and the story about her missing her sister and befriending a lone dog who gives birth to puppies. Like the other books I’ve read from this series, I thought it was quite well done. It didn’t shy away from challenging topics (her sister being enslaved and how that loss has affected Kaya) and drew me along for the entire plot of the book. It was charming.

The other one I read was another from the Mystery series of books. Sadly I’m thinking that the entire Mystery series of American Girl books may just be lacklustre. Like the Kit Mystery I read a while back, this one had a decent concept, explored the time period (WWII) in an interesting way, but had abysmal pacing for a mystery novel. It was not very good at creating or maintaining tension, and minimal effort to actually give a reader any clues to track. It wasn’t a bad story, especially for a kid, but it was nothing special.

Annie: An Old-Fashioned Story

After rewatching the musical Annie I decided I needed to read the novel, because I love a novelization! Me and my girlfriend have been slowly reading this together over the past few months and it’s been really enjoyable. Annie is a spunky orphan girl during the Depression is eventually taken in by billionaire industrialist Oliver Warbucks. This book gives a lot more backstory to Annie, and really stretches out the time between her running away from the orphanage and her meeting Warbucks. It was a pretty interesting and unflinching look at the hardships suffered by a parentless child like Annie during the Depression. It added a lot that the film didn’t have, and was well worth the read.

Camp Damascus

Possibly my favourite book from this review. I’d never read a Chuck Tingle book before, since I don’t tend to veer overmuch into erotica, but since this was his first “traditionally published” novel I thought now was the time to give it a go. And I have to say, I was genuinely amazed! Chuck Tingle is an incredibly compelling writer, his narration is just beautiful, I wanted to sink into it and get lost. I’m going to have to read more of his books now.

For those who haven’t heard of Camp Damascus, it’s a queer horror novel that’s based around religious horror. Normally religious horror doesn’t do it for me (I have zero interest in or fear of possession) but this one had a very different twist on that narrative. Though demons still featured in the story, the entire premise was built around the concept of religious trauma as horror, and the metaphors created by the demons as it explored themes of leaving religion, self-identity, indoctrination, queer identity and conversion therapy was honestly just breath-taking. My biggest recommendation this time around, I could hardly put it down.

Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man

Another fun Doctor Who novel with an enjoyable mystery about a mysterious political prisoner from space. It wasn’t a world changing novel, but it was a very solidly written 9 and Rose adventure, I enjoyed having the audiobook on while I drove.

Delicious Monsters

Another severe disappointment, unfortunately. I went in really wanting to like this book! I was in the mood for another horror novel after Camp Damascus, it was touted as being like The Haunting of Hill House (superb novel) with a House As Metaphor For Our Trauma And Horror which is a bend to horror I really enjoy. Sadly, despite a fairly interesting premise, the pacing and narrative voice was… rough. It was told from two different points of view, one in the future and one in the past that was slowly piecing together the mystery of what happened at this house, but the narrative voices were so similar it didn’t feel like two distinct entities. Neither made me excited for POV changes. The narration was also very heavy handed in the messages it was trying to send — all good messages, but with no faith that the reader would be able to interpret them on their own without it being repeated explicitly over and over. It all felt very bogged down and repetitive and frankly a little insulting to the reader's intelligence. I gave up on it about halfway through despite really liking the first quarter of the book.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation comic v2

More Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation! Because I’m hooked! Very much enjoying the comic version that’s been coming out, the art is very nice and it's fun to re-experience the beginning of the novel now that I know the characters and all the background information that was so mysterious the first time around.

Heaven Official’s Blessing v1

I have finished the main series of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation so I’ve decided to move on to another series by the same author since I’ve been enjoying the style. This series starts off with a “Laughingstock” of the gods, someone who has ascended to godhood twice already and been cast out of Heaven twice as well. The story starts with his third ascension and everyone in Heaven is pretty over it, especially when his third ascension ends up causing chaos in Heaven. He’s chronically unlucky but has an attitude that’s largely willing to go with the flow so when he's given a job to help repay the debt his ascension acrued him he agrees to descend to the Mortal Realm and investigate the disappearance of brides.

Along the way he picks up a couple junior officials who are reluctantly sent along to help and lend him spiritual power, since his own is sealed, as well as a strange youth in red who seems to know more than he should and is perhaps the only person who doesn't treat him scornfully.

The pacing of book one was interesting… it drew me along and had me chuckling frequently, especially with some of the interesting characters that are introduced, but I definitely didn’t feel fully “connected” with the characters or plot just yet. Still, I’m intrigued for book two and trust the author enough to go along for the ride until things start clicking!

James and the Giant Peach

Roald Dahl’s classic story about James Henry Trotter who, after the death of his parents, is forced to live with his two horrid aunts. Isolated from any potential friends, all alone at the top of the hill with his aunts and forced to slave away for them, James eventually meets a mysterious old man who offers him a glowing bag of crocodile tongues… something he claims has the power to grant happiness to whoever possesses them. Unfortunately before James can use them he trips and spills them at the roots of the old, dead peach tree… and awakens the magic regardless.

Just a fun September reread, I haven’t read James and the Giant Peach in years. It's definitely one of my favourite Dahl stories. I’m going to have to rewatch the movie now…

Monster and the Beast v4

The last volume of a yaoi series I’ve been reading for a while. This is a story that follows a rather callous, mysterious man known as Liam and the soft-hearted monster, Cavo, who he meets and befriends. This final volume wraps up Liam’s strange and somewhat sinister origin story and reveals what exactly the powers he wields are, and it lets Cavo come into his own. Honestly an excellent book for all the monsterfuckers out there. Overall it was a sweet ending and I enjoyed the series — honestly I wouldn’t mind one more volume of short stories that just explore the relationship dynamic they achieved by the end of this volume.

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich is a graphic novel about a young noblewoman who has to disguise herself as a man if she is to inherit her late father’s estate. So she dismisses the old servants save for a single trusted one, changes her appearance, and moves to a city far away from where she grew up. From there, “he” begins making waves in a way that draws the attention of the princess… 

It was a… fine graphic novel. I’m not sure I have a lot to say besides that. It was a comedy, but it’s not the sort of comedy that I find particularly interesting… it definitely felt like a youth graphic novel. It was also very anachronistic (part of the humour) which I’m not always in the mood for and didn’t really land for me. Over all I don’t regret reading it, and the art was enjoyable enough, but I’m glad I got it from the library. When I had first heard of it I had been expecting something a bit… more.

Red, White, and Royal Blue

I was very skeptical about Red, White, and Royal Blue. I thought it looked tacky when it first came out and I resolutely ignored it. However as the Netflix film was due to come out I decided I had better bite the bullet and figure out what the hype was about. And I can admit, I was wrong! It was honestly a delightful read!

The politics are a bit Rough, as I expected, but the relationship was genuinely delightful and I really liked all the side characters they introduced. You really have to go into it like you would a Hallmark romcom because that’s exactly what it is — and you know what, the queers really do deserve some simple, cheesy (and occasionally surprisingly touching) romantic comedies. Contemporary romcom is normally REALLY not my genre but I highly enjoyed this book and am willing to eat my words.

Headcanon Day: Bookish Headcanons

For headcanon day, I thought I'd focus on the books the MI6 crew like to read!

I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts too, so leave them in the replies, reblogs or ask box if you have any you want to share ❤️

It's no secret Bond likes nature writing and nonfiction. He has every book worth having on birdwatching and sailing. He reads memoirs of explorers and adventurers. He's more picky about military memoirs, especially the bestselling paperbacks about the SAS, but he does like reading about their operations in WWI and WWII. You also can't convince me he doesn't love an old spy novel.

Q never has time to read anything that isn't on a screen, but when he does take a rare week or two of leave, he always packs a few Sci-Fi and fantasy books. Classics are good, and the more cerebral or dense the better. I think he loves stuff like The Three-Body Problem and Dune. I think he also likes nonfiction books on art and design, especially if they're technical.

Moneypenny is an eclectic reader (there's no genre she won't try once), but she wants you to know she loves a beach read and has no shame about it. She's the sort of woman who will happily bring a bottle of wine into a bathroom to sit in the tub and read for three hours. She's tried audiobooks and can't make them work. She'd rather read as a way to unwind after a long day at the office.

Mansfield, to her late husband's constant despair, could never abide poetry unless it was an epic that could be performed or interpreted in some other way than reading it (she always quite liked the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, for instance).

Tanner is a huge reader. He keeps up with the nonfiction bestseller list, and reads previews of books in The Guardian or the Times. He likes to spend his morning rides to work reading when there are no pressing emergencies. His preferred genres are politics, history and travel writing, but he has a stash of pulp horror for when he's feeling really terrible about the world and needs to check out.

Mallory, likes the classics. He doesn't get time to read anything except intelligence reports these days, but when he does, he has to know he'll love it. Also, I think he has a (not so) secret thing for Jane Austen and Agatha Christie.

I also think the Double-0s have a very warped sort of book club. They never have time to meet up properly, but they leave books in each others' desks from trips abroad. They can be in any language on any subject. Some of the agents have been so bored while recovering from injury between missions that they've learned whole languages to read these books. And they can always count on 007 finding the cheapest, pulpiest erotica around in any language.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LESLEY!  💜  March 12th 1956 Now I need to make a list of all Lesley's ongoing and upcoming projects because I can't even keep track. Let's see... - Citadel, the Amazon global spy series (Prime Video, premiere on April 28) - World On Fire s2, the BBC WWII drama (it looks like Sean Bean won't coming back... I will miss Robina x Douglas interactions 😢) (BBC One, on July 16) - Disclaimer, the Alfonso Cuarón's series, yeah the one with Cate Blanchett 😋 (Apple TV+, date TBD) - The Critic, a period thriller based on Anthony Quinn’s classic novel Curtain Call (date TDB) - The Crown s6, the final chapter (Netflix, date TDB) - Back To Black, the new Amy Winehouse biopic (date TDB) - Cold Storage, a virus thriller with Liam Neeson! (date TDB) - Moonflower Murders, the sequel to Magpie Murders (BBC, date TDB) - Queer, an adaptation of the William S. Burroughs' novel - Sherwood (BBC One) has been renewed for a season 2 and it's confirmed Lesley will reprise her role! - Midwinter Break, in which she will have the lead role alongside Ciaran Hinds! Could be great.

hiii, hope you're fine, was wondering if you have any recommendations for murder mystery books? idealy sapphic

hiiii i've been fine (pretty atrocious actually my entire life is falling apart hence why i haven't been able to maintain this second blog) i'm always here for book recs tho !!!!

this is actually a bit of a tricky one for me because i'm a big mystery fan, but i'm not huge on murder mysteries in general. i do love a challenge tho, so i'll see what i can find for you!

the last binding trilogy (freya marske) -> not quite murder mystery but a historical fantasy series ft. some murders and some mysteries. each book focuses on a queer couple and the second one ft. sapphics trying to solve a magical murder on a cruise ship. its mainly a romance series with a great magical mystery overarching plot. 10/10

i kissed shara wheeler (casey mcquiston) -> again a general mystery rather than a murder mystery but it's a sapphic ya romance about a prom queen disappearing after kissing her academic rival and said academic rival's obsession with finding her.

bury the lede (gaby dune) -> graphic novel about an intern at a newspaper stumbling upon a gruesome crime scene. (full disclosure, i dont remember anything about this one... i read it ages ago rip)

sadie (courtney summers) -> ya mystery novel. after her sister's murder, sadie, disappointed by the official investigation, skips town in pursuit of the murderer and justice for her sibling. meanwhile a radio personality overhears sadie's story at a gas station and becomes obsessed with finding her, starting a podcast to track his progress. not sapphic particularly and tw applies. it's a pretty harrowing book, but keeps you on the edge of your seat. apparently the audiobook is amazing.

big bad wolf series (charlie adhara) -> okay it's mlm and it's technically werewolf porn, but the mysteries in this ex-fbi agent partnered with a werewolf to solve werewolf crimes series are actually good and engaging and keep you on your toes. no one was more surprised than me.

the will darling adventures trilogy (kj charles) -> again mlm and more general mysteries than murder mystery specifically, but it's so good and there is a sapphic side pairing later in the series. it's set in the 1920s... will darling is a wwi vet who just inherited his uncle's second hand's bookshop which lands him in a world of trouble when both a gang of criminal and the war office end up on his doorstep looking for the same information. which he's pretty sure he doesn't have.

hither page (cat sebastian) -> sorry this one is mlm too rip. post wwii. a gruesome murder shocks a small community with a sprinkle of romance between the village's doctor and the spy sent undercover to solve the crime.

here are some books that fit the vibe that are on my to read and i'm excited to pick up, but obvs can't vouch for yet

last night at the telegraph club (malinda lo) -> sapphic love story set in 1950s san francisco chinatown

lavender house (lev a.c. rosen) -> described as knives out with a queer historical twist. set in the 1950s.

even though i knew the end (cl polk) -> historical fantasy murder mystery ft. a sapphic detective trying to catch a notorious serial killer to ensure she can have a future with the woman she loves.

a million to one (adiba jaigirdar) -> girl gang heist on the titanic. historical ya and sapphic.

meddling kids (edgar cantero) -> paranormal/horror/mystery grown up teen detectives reunite to solve a paranormal mystery fro their past. also queer.

the dead and the dark (courtney gould) -> paranormal/horror/mystery/ya/sapphic. logan, daughter of two ghosthunters, is determined to solve the mysteries of snakebite, oregon where weather patterns are odd and teenagers keep disappearing/showing up dead.

alright, i think that's all i can think of for now ??? i'll add to the list if something pops in my head, but hopefully that covers what you were looking for, at least a little? sorry i didn't 100% follow the brief for some of these haha.

Sapphic Film Recs

So you read some books, now you want to watch some movies. Not all of these center F/F relationships, but they all include F/F or WLW characters. (Note: Mind your trigger warnings if you decide to watch any of these.)

Atomic Blonde (2017) - Lorraine is a British spy sent into Berlin right at the end of the Cold War to retrieve a list of agents that is at risk of falling into Soviet hands. While there, she makes contact with the French agent, Delphine.

Badhaai Do (2022) - A lesbian gym teacher and a gay cop in India decide to get married to get their families off their backs. Hijinks ensue.

Black Swan (2010) - Nina is an ambitious, competitive young ballerina who is cast as the swan queen in Swan Lake, but the pressure of the position starts to get to her.

Breathe (Respire) (2014) - A French film centering on the deeply charged relationship between two teenage girls and its violent ups and downs.

Carol (2015) - The classic sapphic Christmas film, isn’t it? In the 1950s, directionless young Therese encounters Carol, a stylish, wealthy woman in the middle of divorcing her husband.

Elisa and Marcela (Elisa y Marcela) (2019) - Based on a true story about a Spanish woman who created a male identity for herself to marry her girlfriend.

Fingersmith (2005) - The two-part miniseries based on the book by Sarah Waters. It tracks very closely with the novel! Susan Tinder sets out to befriend and rob wealthy heiress Maude--but gets more than she planned for when she starts falling for her mark.

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) - The movie eschews the explicit romance between the two main characters present in the book, but the love between them still shines through. An elderly woman relates to her younger visitor stories about Idgie and Ruth, a couple of women in love in 1920s Alabama.

Genius Loci (2020) - A trippy short film about Reine, a struggling young woman who has a discombobulating night out in her city.

The Half of It (2020) - Here’s your teenage drama film, drawing from Cyrano de Bergerac. Ellie agrees to help a boy in her school write love letters to his female crush--who happens to also be Ellie’s crush. 

The Handmaiden (2017) - Basically an AU of Fingersmith, this time the story takes place in WWII-era Korea and Japan. Young thief Sookhee enters the service of Lady Hideko as a handmaiden with the intent of robbing her of her fortune--but things get complicated when Sookhee develops feelings for Hideko.

Pariah (2011) - A gay Brooklyn teenager struggles with understanding her identity in an unwelcoming household and fights to grow into her true self.

Pistachio (2021) - A short animated film about having a crush on a straight friend and being bisexual. (Available here on Youtube)

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) - Marianne is a portraitist called to paint Heloise before her upcoming wedding. While Marianne tries to get close to Heloise in order to capture her essence, she finds herself falling in love.

Princess Cyd (2017) - Teenage Cyd takes the opportunity to spend several weeks over the summer with her novelist aunt, Miranda. Over the course of the summer, Cyd discovers a lot of new things about the world and herself.

Rafiki (2018) - Two daughters of rival politicians fall in love, but struggle with the attitudes of their community in Nairobi.

Queer books, day 13/30

All right, ready to dive back into the seedy world of M/M romance novels after yesterday's unnecessarily heartfelt diversion?

This book is like...James Bond meets and shags a Jewish Oscar Wilde. Also there's some plot about blackmail. It's set in the middle of the belle époque, so right around 1900, at a time when many noble families suddenly realized that they weren't quite as wealthy as they once had been but were still saddled with large country houses, trendy London homes, big payrolls, etc. (This is also the plot of Downton Abbey.)

Anyway, one thing I enjoy about KJ Charles is that she writes Jewish characters into her stuff. The first one I came across, in Band Sinister, was only a side character, but...I had this sudden revelation that I didn't really ever see Jews represented in fiction that wasn't set around WWII. In the same way one could get the sense that there are no queer people before Stonewall except for Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde, it's weirdly easy to get the feeling that Jews only really existed from about 1929 to 1946. (And in the works of Michael Chabon and the film The Big Lebowski, which is the best film ever.)

Daniel da Silva is the Jewish character here--yes, he's Sephardic, which is both accurate for migration patterns (England got a bunch of Jews following the Spanish Inquisition) and unusual in itself, as Jews seem to be primarily northern European when portrayed in fiction. He's a poet and a spy, brilliant and mercurial, not much of a fighter but very good at what he does. He meets a guy named Captain Archie Curtis, who is a war vet who lost several fingers to a poorly manufactured gun. They solve a crime (and do sex--did I mention that? a lot of sex).

This is a sendup of Victorian/Edwardian novels like She by H. Rider Haggard--explicitly, Captain Curtis is like the nephew/adopted son of Sir Henry Curtis and his "friend"(?) Captain Good, who are characters in King Solomon's Mines. And it has a lot of tropes, if you are a trope-reading person. We get: big gay awakening, sex or death, arguably a kind of grumpy/sunshine thing, attack lesbians as background characters, and a whole last stand/never tell me the odds type of thing. Also, da Silva comes back in the Will Darling books as an older and wiser man, and I wish we'd gotten more of him.

I read this book last summer during a period of about 54 hours when we didn't have electricity. I should have been saving the power in my phone, but instead I was reading this. Eventually, I took the kids to their grandmother's house (because it was July and 90 degrees, and SHE had power) and finished reading this in her air conditioned guest room. No regrets. 10/10, go read it.

YO YOU GOT ANY COOL WOMAN'S HISTORY FACTS ALSO HISTORY IS POG LIKE I GOT A LECTURE WORTH OF STUFF ABOUT JAMES CAGNEY

Oh my god SO MANY! Where do I even start!! Here is a quick and short rundown of some of my favorite womens history facts:

Women in the military during ww1 and ww2 is one of my favorite subjects. Let's talk about that for a second:

Women served in every branch of the U.S. military throughout both world war 1 and world war 2

Did you know women served in the US Army and as such were stationed in every front of the war during WWII?

Female switchboard operators served in the trenches of France during ww1.

The most feared bombers in ww2 were Russian women flying wooden planes and physically throwing the bombs out

Women were the ones to help break enemy codes

Women helped planned D-Day

Russian snipers were fierce badasses.

We have computers thanks to women. Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, Hedy Lamar, etc.

DNA's double helix form was discovered by a woman. Rosalind Franklin.

Women got us to space by performing complex mathematical calculations by hand during launches.

Science Fiction was started by a woman. Mary Shelley.

One of the most fearsome pirates ever was a woman. Ching Shih. She was undefeated and was one of the few pirates who retired.

Hypatia was the last last librarian of the Library of Alexandria and is said to be the first female mathematician

The first female historian was Anna Comnena of the Byzantine empire

Sybil Ludington was a 16 year old girl who joined the famous "Midnight Riders" and rode from Putnam County, New York to Danbury, Connecticut to warn of advancing British troops.

Hatshepsut is the the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, after Sobekneferu

Deborah Sampson was a woman who served in the army during the American Revolution. She disguised herself as a man and served admirably

We wouldn't have airplanes without Katherine Wright who made sure her brothers had everything they needed. She ran their family shop, booked speaking engagements for them, was basically their marketing director and made sure these two idiots didn't die from starvation.

Agent 355 was a female spy in the Culper Ring during the American Revolution.

Virne “Jackie” Mitchell, a pitcher, was the first woman in professional baseball. During an exhibition game, she struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

The first novel. As in the very first novel. Written by a woman. Murasaki Shikibu who wrote the Tale of Genji in 1000 AD

The earliest recorded female physician was Merit Ptah, a doctor in ancient Egypt who lived around 2700 B.C. Many historians believe she may be the first woman recorded by name in the history of all of the sciences, making her achievement all the more impressive

Victoria Woodhull ran for president in 1872.

Julie d’Aubigny was a French bisexual opera-singing sword fighter from 17th-century France. A total badass.

Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to go in space.

Stephanie Kwolek was an American chemist who invented Kevlar

Lyudmila Pavlichenko is the most successful female sniper in human history. Initially barred entry into the Red Army to due to her sex, Lyudmila would go on to rack up 309 confirmed kills in WWII. Her terrifying skills as a sniper and impressive kill count earned her the nickname “Lady Death” from her German enemies.

Nancy Wake who killed an SS Officer with her bare hands

Khutulun was the great-great-granddaughter of legendary conqueror Genghis Khan. Taught the inner workings of military life by her father, Khutulun became a skilled and powerful warrior. For her marriage, she proposed a challenge: any man that could best her in a wrestling match would have the honor of taking her hand in marriage. If they lost, they would have to give her a horse.

Boudicca was a queen of the Iceni tribe of Celtic Britons, who led an uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61.

Honestly I can go on forever. There are so many amazing and interesting women in history and I can't learn enough about them. This is only a very small list and a condensed version of their stories. I highly recommend looking into each of them more.

Books of the Month(s): Nov + Dec 2023

Books from the end of last year! Only one of these is from November, which is part of why I just waited to do one post for both months. Here are my books of the month(s):

Tam Lin (Pamela Dean): I liked this one a lot. It reminded me some of Diana Wynne Jones's Fire and Hemlock, which, duh, they're both based on the ballad Tam Lin - but also because with both books, I only realized afterwards how well some of the images and themes from the works inspiring the books were incorporated. Also I kind of wish I read this book while I was in college, because despite being set in the 1970s and in the Midwest, it somehow still is a spot-on depiction of my experience of what it is to go to a little liberal arts school with kooky traditions that everyone knows by osmosis.

The Dark is Rising (Susan Cooper): A classic and a reread. I have reread this one more often than the others in the series (it's technically #2, but it was the first one I ever read and I think it can stand alone). I guess the eternal struggle of Light vs. Dark isn't a particularly novel plot, but the specifics of this story, and especially the images and feelings of it, I think are strong. As I wrote elsewhere, I liked it when I was a kid in a simpler "fun adventure!" kind of way, but I still like it now.

A Killer in King's Cove (Iona Whishaw): This is first in a mystery series (I read 6 of them in December). Set in Canada post-WWII, main character is an ex-British spy woman who moved there to escape her post-war life. They aren't as ~fun~ as some cozy and/or historical mysteries, because they're a little darker and more thoughtful, but I have decided that I like that. I also decided that the reader is supposed to figure out the murderer before the characters do (via short chapters from varying POVs), so once I got used to that I didn't mind. And finally, the main character makes a habit of very competently saving herself from perilous situations shortly before her love interest detective shows up with the cavalry, so I like that part too.

This day in history

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then San Francisco (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

#15yrsago What could you buy with AIG’s record-smashing $62 billion loss? https://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/03/02/markets.whatlossbuys/index.html

#15yrsago Born to Kvetch: Yiddish as she is spoke https://memex.craphound.com/2009/03/02/born-to-kvetch-yiddish-as-she-is-spoke/

#15yrsago Britain’s vast cement “listening ears” designated a national landmark https://www.fastcompany.com/90135167/the-concrete-sound-mirrors-that-influenced-wwii-science-and-design

#10yrsago Phoenix cops arrest sex workers, detain them without trial in churches, pressure them to take deals without access to lawyers https://www.vice.com/en/article/av4eyb/in-arizona-project-rose-is-arresting-sex-workers-to-save-them

#10yrsago US Trade Rep can’t figure out if Trans-Pacific Partnership will protect the environment https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-trans-pacific-partnership_n_4868262?1393531198=

#10yrsago Trustycon: how to redesign NSA surveillance to catch more criminals and spy on a lot fewer people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkO8SNiDSw0

#5yrsago Study that claimed majority of Copyright Directive opposition came from the US assumed all English-language tweets came from Washington, DC https://memex.craphound.com/2019/03/02/study-that-claimed-majority-of-copyright-directive-opposition-came-from-the-us-assumed-all-english-language-tweets-came-from-washington-dc/

#5yrsago Improbably, a Black activist is now the owner and leader of the “National Socialist Movement,” which he is turning into an anti-racist group https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/03/01/how-black-man-outsmarted-neo-nazi-group-became-their-new-leader/

#5yrsago Coinbase bought a company founded by disgraced cybermercenaries from Hacking Team, and now Coinbase users are trying unsuccessfully to delete their accounts https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwb7xj/coinbase-users-struggle-to-delete-their-accounts-in-protest

#5yrsago Comcast assigned every mobile customer the same unchangeable PIN to protect against SIM hijack attacks: 0000 https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/03/a-comcast-security-flub-helped-attackers-steal-mobile-phone-numbers/

#5yrsago The promise and peril of “sonification”: giving feedback through sound https://www.wired.com/story/sonification-era-of-aural-data/

#5yrsago Massive study finds strong correlation between “early affluence” and “faster cognitive drop” in old age https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1807679116

#5yrsago Oakland teachers’ union declares total victory after seven-day strike https://edsource.org/2019/tentative-agreement-reached-in-oakland-unified-teachers-strike/609342

#5yrsago Man-Eaters: Handmaid’s Tale meets Cat People in a comic where girls turn into man-eating were-panthers when they get their periods https://memex.craphound.com/2019/03/02/man-eaters-handmaids-tale-meets-cat-people-in-a-comic-where-girls-turn-into-man-eating-were-panthers-when-they-get-their-periods/

Ep 271: Amelia Earhart – Decoy for a Spy Plane?

"Not much more than a month ago, I was on the other shore of the Pacific, looking westward. This evening, I looked eastward over the Pacific. In those fast-moving days, which have intervened, the whole width of the world has passed behind us, except this broad ocean. I shall be glad when we have the hazards of its navigation behind us."  -- Amelia Earhart, a few days before her final flight

Description:

On July 3, 1975, the Ministry of Justice in Japan responded to an inquiry by Amelia Earhart researcher and investigator Major Joe Gervais. Gervais had sent a letter to the Department of Immigration and Naturalization in Tokyo, operating on the hunch that Earhart had been taken prisoner and held on Saipan during WWII but under an assumed identity. The Ministry of Justice responded, saying the woman in their custody was known to them as Irene Craigmile. This was not a name mentioned by Gervais to the Japanese authorities. So, who is Irene Craigmile? Craigmile and Earhart were acquaintances and pilots who looked similar, but photos show they are two separate people. This begs the question for the “Japanese Capture” theory of Earhart’s disappearance: who then went down with the plane that was apparently ditched near Buka Island in Papua New Guinea? Were these two women connected via some secret mission, and is the plane at Buka a version of Earhart’s Electra 10-E? These questions and evidence are just a few of the puzzle pieces of the enduring mystery of Earhart’s fateful last flight, meticulously stitched together by William “Bill” Pennington Snavely, Jr. in his latest book, Lost in Flight: Amelia Earhart, Giving Cover as a Decoy for a Spy Plane. In 2018, Bill was a guest on our show, where he outlined his research leading to a startling theory of Earhart’s plane possibly having crashed near the coast of Matsungan Island near Buka, eventually sinking to a depth of 109 feet. Two main aspects of Bill’s investigation that remain novel are that, unlike the other researchers, he calculated his flight tracking starting from the last known location and then traced backward and that his team is the only one with an aircraft to investigate whose characteristics match the Electra. Bill’s multiple expeditions to Buka have yielded intriguing evidence supporting his claim, evidence which has previously been kept under wraps due to nondisclosure agreements. However, as his research in the intervening years continued, a new hybrid theory emerged from his discoveries that may solve the disconnect between “Japanese Capture” and the wreckage at Buka. Could it be that a failed reconnaissance mission led to one of the greatest coverups in US history? Bill Snavely is now free to disclose the shocking findings he revealed in his book. Also joining us is longtime friend and fellow podcaster Chris Williamson, whose podcast Chasing Earhart and its companion book, Rabbit Hole: The Vanishing of Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan, is the definitive interview collection. Prepare to suit up as we dive for the truth behind one of the world’s most famous and significant aviation enigmas.

Reference Links:

CLICK HERE to purchase Lost in Flight: Amelia Earhart, Giving Cover as a Decoy for a Spy Plane, by William “Bill” Pennington Snavely, Jr. from The Paragon Agency™ and SpecialBooks.com

CLICK HERE to purchase Bill Snavely’s previous book on Earhart and the Buka discovery, Tracking Amelia Earhart: Her Flight Path to the End

SpecialBooks.com from The Paragon Agency™

CLICK HERE to purchase Chris Williamson’s book Rabbit Hole: The Vanishing of Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan

Irene Craigmile Bolam

1987 Marshall Islands postage stamp showing Earhart’s Electra from the “Amelia Earhart Controversy” website

Astonishing Legends episode 106: Earhart’s Plane Found?

Astonishing Legends Bonus Episode: EARHART'S PLANE? UPDATE WITH BILL SNAVELY

Astonishing Legends episode 90: Chasing Amelia Earhart with Chris Williamson

Astonishing Legends episode 4: Amelia Earhart Vanishes Part 1

Astonishing Legends episode 5: Amelia Earhart Vanishes Part 2

Buka Island

Jaluit Atoll

Imperial Japanese Naval ship the Koshu

“The Ground Loop Monster” from Trent Palmer’s YouTube channel

Ground Loop on Wikipedia

The Hawaiian island of Niʻihau

“Aircraft [Lockheed 10E Electra ZK-BUT painted as ZK-AFD]” entry on the New Zealand Museum of Transport and Technology website

Lockheed Electra stock photo images from the dreamstime.com website

Boxfish Robotics website

The MV Indies Trader surf exploration vessel, which took part in Quiksilver's Crossing from 1999-2005

Martin Daly, Australian Captain, and surfer

Location:

Matsungan Island, part of the Buka Island collection in eastern Papua New Guinea. Matsungan Island is where a young boy claimed to see an airplane ditch into the sea within 100 yards of the shoreline, with its left wing on fire and the occupants trying to use their radio before the plane sank. None of his fellow islanders believed him at the time, but in 1995, a local sponge diver named Teolo and his partner found the wreck of an aircraft resembling an Electra submerged in 109 feet of ocean water and a few hundred yards from the shore.

Related Books:

CLICK HERE to purchase “Lost in Flight: Amelia Earhart, Giving Cover as a Decoy for a Spy Plane” by William Pennington Snavely, Jr. from SpecialBooks.com

CLICK HERE to purchase Bill Snavely’s previous book on Earhart and the Buka discovery, Tracking Amelia Earhart: Her Flight Path to the End

Suggested Listening:

Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch

Comedian Rachel Dratch gets a little bit Woo Woo, discussing stories of the unexplained, the eerie, and other-worldly with her funny friends in her new comedy podcast, Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch. Along with her co-host Irene Bremis, Rachel invites guests to share stories they may only tell a trusted pal who will not judge. Psychics? Spirits? Astral Projection? Check, check, and check! Sure, you may think we live in a world where there’s a logical explanation for anything out of the ordinary, but after you spend some time with Rachel and her pals, you might have your doubts, and find that… you too are WOO WOO! Join Rachel, Irene, and friends in a comedy podcast that turns the mysterious into a lively conversation among kindred spirits. Search for Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch wherever you’re listening now!

Suggested Viewing:

CLICK HERE to watch the documentary Earhart’s Electra: Eyewitness Accounts of What Happened to Amelia Earhart’s Plane by Richard Martini

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CREDITS:

Episode 271: Amelia Earhart – Decoy for a Spy Plane? Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound. Music and Sound Design by Allen Carrescia. Tess Pfeifle, Producer and Lead Researcher. Ed Voccola, Technical Producer. Research Support from The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2023 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Krystyna Skarbek was a truly amazing woman, and Britain's longest serving spy during WWII. From singlehandedly breaking out her fellow agents from a Gestapo run prison in occupied France to delivering contraband over borders simply for the thrill of it, it is an utter shame that she has been mostly forgotten.

Her shabby treatment by the Secret Services after the war was absolutely atrocious and I am glad that her story is being picked up by the press again.

How times have changed! It is truly gratifying to know that today's British Secret Services is almost 50% female with many in senior positions.

The excellent book 'The Spy Who Loved' by Clare Mulley is a novel based on Krystyna's life story and is highly recommended.

5 Pieces of Fiction that Influenced You as a Writer and Why?

1 - The Departed by Martin Scorsese

I think it is probably my favorite Scorsese movie. I have watched it several times, and I can't hide that I have been profoundly influenced by it for the creation of my mafia world. I won't spoil the plot twist of the story, but it gives you good hints regarding the "harmless" looking like mafia in your neighborhood, along with the secret schemes going on and how everything can snow ball. 

I do believe that it's a very good modern representation of how the mafia has been working in the shadows and in the daylight. Plus, the performance of the actors and the scenario were right on point. It also gives a wonderful perspective regarding how it feels to be an undercover cop, or a spy for the mafia. Plus, the social "pressure" regarding your family affiliation and the expectations of crime lords because you were born in a certain neighbourhood is perfectly represented. 

2 - Journey to the End of the Night by Celine

To be honest, I was traumatized by this book when I was a teenager. It was the first time that I had faced the horror of war and how one tortured author who survived WWII could express his pain and traumatism through a vivid description of terrible events. Far from the usual heroism of the soldiers, reading this pushes you on an overly depressing journey with misery, PTSD, war crimes, cowardice and such... 

For me, this book was a life-changing one. It was an explosion of truth regarding an event that could never be fully exposed and Celine, the author, was truly so good at writing it. It sticks to you like a second skin, and it has pushed me to be more open regarding dark themes and to never underestimate the power of words whenever you wish to shamble someone through a story. 

3 - Hannibal by Brian Fuller

My favorite show, in every way possible. I have been following the show since it aired for the first time, and I was (I am) genuinely obsessed with it. I rewatch it every year. It's truly the most intimate depiction of Hannibal Lecter and his psyche, and I have also rediscovered Will Graham through the interpretation of Hugh Dancy. 

In the book, or in Red Dragon, Graham is far less complex. He's too morally good and there's no sensation of breaking point at all. In this hypnotical dance, not only crime and horror become artistically pleasant, but you support Hannibal through his journey. I can't express how much I find every dialogue and scene so intelligent, and years after the end of the show, I'm still surprised to discover new interpretations and implicit meaning. Truly a masterpiece. 

4 - The Shining by Stephen King

Yes, definitely a classic. We can't say the contrary, even if I'm a little bit lazy for picking such a well-known novel, I have my reasons for this one. It's not about the story at all, but there's something so good and addictive about watching how madness is perceived through the first person. 

What I really adore in this book is basically the inner thoughts of the character, Jack, who's slowly losing perception of what is morally acceptable and what is not. Paranoia is getting the best of his character, and all his flaws are expressed brutally, even if, as the "hero" of the book, he doesn't see what he is doing wrong. His slow change is truly impressive and definitely well written, which is quite inspiring whenever you want to write about someone who doesn't see his own troubles (just like Vex, Marlo, Diego and such...)

5 - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Alright, that's my guilty pleasure right here. Whether we talk about the movie (with Keira Knightley), or the book itself, I have watched it hundreds of times and probably read it 5. 

I believe that Jane Austen had a gift for writing bold and impressive women, and the character of Lizzie still feels incredibly modern despite being written centuries ago. She's vivid, profound, mature and yet she has such a huge capacity for self-introspection and understanding of her own flaws. Her relationship with her father has always echoed the one I have with mine and I'm in love with her boldness, her freedom of mind and speech and her everlasting quest for culture, knowledge and humanity. This book has always been inspiring for developing my characters fully, twisting them into my little snow ball until they would feel just natural and palpable... Just like Lizzie can be. 

I'm also always inspired by the people creating around me, but I special shout out to my two pals Rain and Vera for that ❤️

tagged by : @nezumivc103221 (thank you!) tagging: @cantuscorvi ; @royaletiquette ; @tximidity ; @sansloii ; @nvrcmplt and whoever wishes to do it ✨

hi!! you recommended vonnegut a while ago, and i just read slaughterhouse five and it was incredible and i was wondering which one of his books is your favorite/which one you would recommend next?? thank you!!

oh my GOD yes yes yes I am not a normal person about kurt vonnegut. I have three options for you with pitches as to why.

Mother Night is one of my favorites out of everything he ever wrote, and it’s definitely an excellent second book. He wrote in his foreword that it’s the only book he ever wrote that he knew what the meaning of it was. Whether that’s actually true and remained true, I don’t know, but the point he makes in it is one that’s pretty profound and I’ve heard shockingly little of in media.

The book follows a former high-ranking member of the Nazi party, who was a very successful propagandist for them, which distracted from the fact that he was also the most successful wartime spy for Allied forces. It’s also one of the less weird books he’s ever written? Kurt Vonnegut really leans into absurdism, and it’s more evident in some books than others. This sort of helps with the learning curve.

That being said, Cat’s Cradle is my favorite out of all of his books, and it’s also the second I ever read, after slaughterhouse five. It’s like, 20% more weird than slaughterhouse five? So if you vibed with some of the weirder aspects of it (think like, the alien zoo subplot) then I highly recommend Cat’s Cradle. I honestly can’t figure out how to give a synopsis of this one without revealing information best revealed in the book, but it’s a commentary on the post-WWII arms race and religion. It’s insanely good.

The thing about Kurt Vonnegut is that he has a lot of different recurring themes, and I feel like everyone takes away some kind of core message from his works. That being said, I feel like The Sirens of Titan most clearly and compellingly states Vonnegut’s core message in his works, and it’s definitely a must-read out of his books. It’s not my favorite but it’s definitely fighting it out for a place at the very top of the list. It follows the richest man in the world, who has the least purpose in it, at the center of an interplanetary war between Mars and Earth.

I will say that there’s only one book that I would say you probably shouldn’t read as your second book and that’s Breakfast of Champions. There’s two reasons for this.

First, Kurt Vonnegut’s books exist in a loosely interconnected universe. He’s somewhere between Marvel and Shakespeare in how he does it. It’s not like Marvel where it’s feeding into an overarching narrative, and you don’t need to read them in some kind of particular order to understand, but he’s not like Shakespeare just alluding to his own works in different plays in the sense that these books are explicitly existing within the same universe. You have specific places (Ilium, which you saw in Slaughterhouse Five, shows up a lot) and characters that recur throughout. The protagonist of Mother Night, for example, is briefly referenced in Slaughterhouse Five, etc. They’re used primarily as a vehicle for meta commentary and it’s honestly so well executed.

Kilgore Trout makes the most appearances across the disparate novels. He’s widely regarded as a character meant to be a stand-in for Vonnegut himself, and he plays his largest role in Breakfast of Champions. You also have characters in Breakfast of Champions that are taken directly from his other books, like with the minor role the protagonist of Bluebeard plays in BoC (Bluebeard is also a banger of a book worth reading but personally my least favorite of all his books). Again, you don’t need to read Vonnegut’s books in any official order to understand them, but Breakfast of Champions has the most cameos and greatest use of meta fiction in it, so the reading experience is just overall enhanced by having a little more grounding in his other works.

The second reason is it’s really fucking weird.

In a brilliant kind of way. It’s regarded to be one of his best works, and it deserves the reputation. But the techniques he uses in this are by far the most experimental, and while those experiments absolutely pay off, I usually recommend that people get used to his particular approach to absurdism before tackling Breakfast of Champions. I highly recommend this book if you like Vonnegut, but really spend time with him as an author before reading it and you’ll get so much more out of it.

I honestly thought the Fred Astaire movie had gone the way the other Amy Pascal projet (BASS) did. She seems gung-ho to attach him to projects that never see the light of day.

I don't think the Fred Astaire project has been scrapped. Where are you getting that impression from?

Remember, there are two of these Fred movies coming out. One that's smaller and focuses more on Fred and Ginger... and then Tom's biopic... which might focus more on Fred and his rise to fame. (I'm guessing 🤷🏾‍♀️)

I've always felt that his movie would be more so a future thing.

The BASS project might not even be smthg that Tom is attached to anymore. Maybe he lost interest? I have no clue. 🤷🏾‍♀️

All I know is that it's been nearly 6 years since he's been announced for it, and nothing has come as of yet. 🥴

I'm just going to assume it's been shelved at this point. If they resume with it and Tom is still interested, GREAT! But if not, then oh well!

This was smthg he signed on to when he was still VERY green in the industry. I wouldn't expect him to still be interested in it if it's been years and he's thinking of going a different direction with his career.

I'm actually GLAD that Amy believes in Tom and wants to cast him in everything lol? 😆 That's a GOOD problem to have imo. You can then make decisions on what YOU want to actually do.

Why I love the Spymaster #103: He's in The Hay Wain!

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

I talk about the Spymaster's use of classic paintings of modern Western art in The Power of the Doctor elsewhere in my list. #61: Playing even more with gender! notes that he substitutes himself in three paintings into the position of women. #79: The Scream! 💔 points out that his use of the painting illustrates his struggles with mental health. #100: His art collection! examines why he turns to famous paintings that are considered classics. #101: He's the Mona Lisa! talks about the reasons for his self-insertion in that painting. #102: He's the girl with a pearl earring! discusses his use of that Vermeer portrait.

The mini essay addresses The Hay Wain: Landscape at Noon, an 1821 landscape painting by English painter John Constable. It shows a person driving a wooden wain [or wagon] pulled by three horses across the Stour River between Suffolk and Essex counties. The massive work is considered the artist's most recognizable image and one of the best and most popular English paintings. The site in Suffolk depicted in the painting is now a tourist attraction.

Here is a reproduction:

Of all the paintings that the Spymaster inserts himself into, The Hay Wain stands out for two reasons. First, it's much more familiar to English viewers in particular than the other paintings, which are internationally popular. Second, all the other paintings are closeups of recognizable individuals whose replacement with the Spymaster as Ra-Ra-Rasputin can be easily identified. In contrast, The Hay Wain depicts a large landscape in which the wagon driver is a very small part, not even facing the camera. The driver is an important piece of the painting, but not the focus.

Why might the Spymaster co-opt The Hay Wain, then, especially since, unlike the other paintings he puts himself in, the picture does not showcase his beautiful, attention-getting visage? I think the answer lies in the painting as a peculiarly English [that is, from England] icon. The painting illustrates an English scene--a picturesque, tranquil scene of an idealized, preindustrial, agricultural past. The painting is familiar to English viewers and considered a significant piece of early modern English culture. While The Hay Wain is not as old a picture as the Mona Lisa or Girl with a Pearl Earring, it's specifically English in a way that the other paintings are not.

Doctor Who is a British show created in an era [the late 1960s] when English colonial, economic, and cultural dominance was on the decline. In response to this perceived loss of power, new English cultural heroes developed for the post-WWII, post-imperial period. One such was Ian Fleming's James Bond [inspired by Jon Pertwee's miltary shenanigans, apparently!], an MI6 agent, who showcased British superiority by being the best spy in his fictional universe, owning and deploying the most innovative gadgets, and possessing heterosexuality so irresistible that it could even win over lesbians like Pussy Galore. [No, seriously, go read the novels. They're fascinating.] James Bond re-established British empire, one hot heterosexual encounter at a time.

Another new hero for England's post-imperial age was the Doctor. Though nominally an extraterrestrial from another planet, the Doctor is a very English alien. They belong to a caste-ridden society of great intellectual and scientific achievement that mirror's England's past as a great source of scientific and technological influence. Their status as Time Lord marks them as part of England's noble class, also termed lords. Their role as quasi-scientific explorer and inventor, bringing hope, goodness, and moral insight to the universe, reflects the way in which imperial Britons envisioned themselves as intrepid bearers of enlightenment to the ignorant masses around the world. The Doctor reinterprets English imperialism for a post-imperial age by focusing less on all those objectionable aspects of colonialism [intertwined racism, sexism, and classism] and more on the [supposed] positives: the excitement of space exploration, the intellectual possibilities offered by new nuclear and computing technology, the ways in which a representative of a "more developed" society [i.e., the Time Dorks] could help and improve those of a "less developed" society [i.e., humans].

Anyway, the Doctor is a peculiarly English alien, and The Hay Wain is a quintessentially English painting that talks about English identity: a rural, agrarian, self-sufficient, specifically masculine identity that was formed in an idealized past. The Hay Wain's nostalgic and idealized masculinity, independent and powerful, appeals to the Spymaster, who dislikes his dependence on the Doctor and who's always hearkening back to the "classics." Additionally, the painting's Englishness confers Englishness upon the Spymaster when he puts himself in it; he thus represents himself as just as English, just as legitimate, and just as important, as the Doctor. It's another attempt for him to assert his equality with the Doctor when he's feeling inferior.

@natalunasans @sclfmastery @whovianuncle @timeladyjamie @rowanthestrange