Monday, July 03, 2017

Monday Malarkey


Recent arrivals (top to bottom):


  • More Was Lost : A Memoir by Eleanor Perenyi and 
  • Selected Letters of Martha Gellhorn by Caroline Moorehead - both purchased, but I don't think I've ordered anything since. More Was Lost is Capricious Heather's fault. 
  • Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan - from Emily Bestler Books (an Atria imprint) for review
  • The Hidden Light of Northern Fires by Daren Wang - from Thomas Dunne Books (a St. Martin's Press Imprint) for review


Since I'm getting ready to take some time off from blogging (soon) and I've put myself on a limited book-buying ban, the arrivals should start to seriously trickle off. But, there will still be some coming in, now and then, since I've pre-ordered a few books. And, let's face it, this house is a book magnet.


Books finished since last Malarkey:


  • Goodnight from London by Jennifer Robson
  • Afterlife by Marcus Sakey


Posts since last Malarkey:




Currently reading:


  • Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston  


A note on the title, thanks to those who wrote about it on Goodreads: The title comes from stage direction in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale: "Exit. Pursued by a bear." I'm only halfway through the book but I've read enough, now, to understand it. The protagonist's name is Hermione Winters and while at cheerleading camp, she's drugged and raped. The bear that pursues her is the lingering struggle with the assault and her identity. She's wrestling with a metaphorical bear, in other words. In context, the name is incredibly clever, but I would probably have ignored the book because the title made no sense to me, had it not been recommended to me as a suggestion for my feminist reading project. Warning: This book will shred you. It's so emotional I lost all my eye makeup reading just the first half. And, Hermione has an incredible support system. Not everyone I know who's been raped has had support when needed. I can't begin to imagine how much worse it is for someone who is accused of making up a rape to cover for sexual activity by those she trusted (yes, that happened to a friend).

I've got another book that I plan to start, tonight, but I doubt I'll pick it up till I've finished Exit, Pursued by a Bear because I must know what happens to Hermione.


In other news:

This weekend we went to a bird sanctuary off the Natchez Trace Parkway to practice shooting with my new zoom lens and, good grief, have I got some learning to do. It's a long lens and most of the other long lenses I've owned have required some adjustment to deal with the fact that they let in less light. This one is the opposite: more light sensitive, by far, than I'm accustomed to. So, most of the photos I took of white herons just blew out completely. Here's one that's not too embarrassing, although I may have overcompensated for the light problem (but the sky really was that dreary):


That was pretty much the excitement for the weekend. Happy early Independence Day to the Americans!


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6 comments:

  1. I need to see what kind or sanctuaries and nature reserves are in my area.

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    1. There's a place near Pawhuska, OK where you can go see the buffalo. I've wanted to go there for ages but the timing has never been right. And, I know my mother used to talk about people who went out to spot bald eagles near Ponca City. I'll bet there are plenty of other interesting places closer to you, as well. Oh, and there's a prairie dog village near Kaw Lake. That's always fun to see. Hope it's still there. I know people periodically talk about killing off the prairie dogs, which just makes me livid.

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  2. I love being blamed for book purchases!

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    Replies
    1. I do, too - credit where due. It looks so good. I'm buried in ARCs but I think I'll have a difficult time putting off reading More Was Lost.

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  3. Sounds like a hard book to read. Though, I never would have guessed what it was about from the title.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, the title is clever but sometimes I'm not sure being clever is the best choice. I just wrote a bit about that at Goodreads. I was also left wondering whether or not it's a bad thing if what the author has to say about the story is so necessary to understanding her aim that reading her thoughts entirely changes how you feel about a book. I have mixed feelings about that.

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