The Maid - Nita Prose (2022)

When I was looking at books to add to my 2022 TBR shelf, I skipped over this one multiple times. I'm not really into contemporary mysteries at the moment, unless there's a unique or unusual hook to it, which was not the case here, plus the main character being described as "not like everyone else" because she struggles with social situations just screamed overdone quirkiness and second-hand embarrassment, which, again I'm not really into. But then I found out that there's a movie adaptation on the way with Florence Pugh playing the lead, and since I already know I'm going to watch that, I figured I better read the book first.

Unfortunately, my initial fears were entirely justified. Molly is... well, there's no need to sugarcoat it: she's annoying as all hell. Aggravating, even. I'm not certain what the author's intentions were, since it's never actually spelled out if she's autistic or not, but either way I don't think it was done well. In fact, for the first few chapters, I had this weird feeling like I've read this exact character before, her turns of phrase and way of speaking were so familiar, and then it hit me: she's exactly like Klara the android in Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun. And, well, depicting your maybe-autistic character as essentially a robot is probably not a good idea. Every time she went on about "returning rooms to a state of perfection" I could feel myself getting more annoyed, and if I was super upset and crying and someone came up to me and said "a tissue for your issue"... well, I don't even know how I would react. I realize this might come off as harsh but for most of the book I was so annoyed with the character that I find it hard to be charitable.

The mystery aspect of the novel was also paper-thin, even with the "big twist" thrown in at the end, which didn't make much sense anyway. Here's the thing: if your protagonist's two main characteristics are overexplaining every single detail and not grasping the importance of pretty obvious stuff, for her to suddenly go like "here's in fact all the important details I deliberately concealed from the reader" in the very last chapter is pretty damn cheap. But I guess I have to give props to the author for not going with the twist I thought she would, which would have been even worse. Damn modern mystery books for making me try to figure out what the twist is going to be from practically the first page.

I didn't enjoy this book much, and the only reason I might recommend it is that it's straightforward and pretty well-written, so even when the main character is being unbelievably annoying (which is always), you can at least fly through it pretty fast without getting bogged down in unnecessary descriptions and flowery metaphors. That's not nothing. But I'm afraid I really don't know how any movie could be made from this that won't be considered at least mildly offensive, without massive changes to plot and character. Poor Florence Pugh is about to catch so much shit for taking a role "belonging" to an autistic actress... just you wait.

The Foundling - Ann Leary (2021)

It's not often that an author's foreword already makes me raise my eyebrows, which is exactly what happened here, and it made me a little concerned about the book before I even truly began. Here, let me share the things that made me say, "hold on... what the fuck?" before the story even started. The author starts with a broad-strokes introduction to the history of Laurelton State Village for Feeble-minded Women of Childbearing Age, an institution where women who were deemed "mentally or morally defective" (that is, anything from being a lesbian or a prostitute to simply a woman who wasn't obedient to her husband) were imprisoned so that they couldn't bring more children with similar "defects" into the world. Lovely. She then continues:

"At the helm of this profitable public institution was a fascinating superintendent named Dr. Mary Wolfe. Dr. Wolfe had earned a medical degree when few women went to college. She was one of our nation's first female psychiatrists, an outspoken leader of the women's suffrage movement of the 1910s, and a brilliant public speaker. She was an early feminist, a crusader for women's civil rights, and an advocate for the health and welfare of women. At first glance, it was easy for me to see why my grandmother would want to work for such an intelligent, modern-thinking woman."

I'm sorry??? You just said all that about the institution and yet you think the woman who literally founded it was in any way an advocate for women's health? I know that "women's rights" back then were not exactly the same as we would define them today, but still... this is a pretty big leap... and then on the next page she quotes another passage "written by another celebrated feminist, a champion of women's reproductive rights, and also, like many other progressives of her era, an avid eugenicist". At this point I was utterly confused. Segregating women so they could literally not have children on the off chance that they would turn out "defective" is literally the opposite of championing women's reproductive rights. At least the blurb of the book mentioned something about the institution's dark secrets coming to light, so I didn't think the author was actually suggesting that these ideas were good or the women who espoused them worthy of praise. But the way all of it was worded... I went into the book with more apprehension than excitement after this foreword.

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir - Jennifer Ryan (2017)

I'll preface this review with the admission that I'm not exactly a fan of this very specific sub-genre of historical fiction that this book belongs to, which I like to call "World War II was really hard on women". I very much like World War II stories since I find the era and the history fascinating, but if I'd have to choose I'd much prefer to read about the soldiers fighting the actual wars, and not one of the millions of books about how the people (that is, women) left behind are faring, at least one of which seems to be released every week. And look, I don't want to downplay the experiences of real people. Obviously WWII was horrible for everyone involved, no matter where they were at the time, or what they were doing. But what started out as a well intentioned effort to tell the tales of these "unsung heroes", as women of this era are usually seen, has turned into an incredibly overdone and played out topic, in my opinion. Just look at Goodreads' own WWII page to see what I mean. There's really not much else to tell here and now the only time I mark one of these books as Want to Read is if there's a really unexpected hook in the synopsis, like an unusual location, or an exciting-sounding mystery. So for this reason I don't think Chilbury would have caught my eye had I encountered it now, but it's been on my Kindle for years from back when I was a lot less selective, and it so happened that I was really bored of my reading choices towards the end of last year and decided to let a random number generator decide what I'm going to read next. And when it fell to this book, I was happy to dive in, thinking, what the hell, it's an incredibly popular and well rated book, I'll probably just simply enjoy it.

The Masked Singer 4x03

 

It seems like I misspoke last week: it's not yet Group C's turn on The Masked Singer, it's Group A again! Which actually fits me better because, as I said before, if there are too long breaks between two appearances by the same singer, I tend to forget everything about them, including if I even liked them the first time. So hopefully this won't happen this season, and it really shouldn't, now that I have the best documented notes and clues I ever wrote for this show. So without further ado, Group A, Part 2!

The Masked Singer 4x02

Okay so this was uhh... a weird night on The Masked Singer. I don't really want to spoil anything (not that anyone who hasn't already seen the episode would read this... right?) so I'm saving the surprise to the end, and instead I'm just going to say this for now: things have definitely improved from last week in terms of singing talent and quality performances. I know the jury was already in awe of Group A, and Nick Cannon even started this night with telling us that "already our panel is calling [season 4] the strongest season yet!" (which I absolutely called last week, by the way), which is obviously still too early to say, BUT, I enjoyed Group B a lot more than I did A. Why? Read on to find out...

 

The Masked Singer 4x01

 

Oh, The Masked Singer. I know this show has many detractors, with lots of people critizing the judges, the quality of the performers, or the whole gimmick, and even the people who keep watching it often bashfully characterize it as a "guilty pleasure". Well, I don't believe in guilty pleasures. I like what I like without being ashamed of anything, and I honestly like this show a lot - although I will admit that some of the steam has went out of it since it began. The contestants in the first season are still the most memorable for me, and while I understand why they wanted to increase the number of them - more celebrities and more wacky constumes, yay! - for me it killed a bit of my immersion in the show. Last season I stopped writing down clues entirely and by the time the same performers rolled around I completely forgot if I even liked them the first time. So I'm not altogether happy that they decided to keep this format, but hey... more wacky costumes, at least! As for the judges, yeah, they can be annoying... all the "No way!!!" even when they guessed someone right four weeks ago, the fawning over mediocre performances as if it was the best thing ever, Ken Jeong's increasingly terrible-on-purpose first guesses... but you know what, I saw the first episode of the Hungarian version, and the Americans have nothing on them in terms of sheer absurdity and horribleness, so I appreciate the fact that it could be much worse.

Before starting to review this season, it's also important to note that I hardly ever guess any of the celebrities right, in fact, I can only remember two times when I did, and even then only after the judges did first and I started to agree with them. Now the reason for this is twofold: the majority of these contestants I've never even heard of (especially all the athletes and radio hosts and reality stars) and the ones I have, I'm just not that familiar with their personal lives or up to date on celebrity gossip of any kind. I literally have no idea who went through a difficult time recently or had self-image issues as a child or got how many kids, and I know even less about where and when they worn born and how many awards they have, which to me seems to make up an unreasonable amount of the clues we get.

Speaking of clues, I did catch up on a few things over the last three seasons that should make it easier to guess them. Generally speaking, there's two rules I follow while guessing:

1. If they reference some super famous song or movie title in a super obvious way, it has nothing to do with their identity (no, judges, it's not Tom Cruise just because he said "succeeding in this business seemed like a mission impossible"). In a related note, I noticed that if the judges latch on to a particular guess really hard, song/movie titles of that person usually start to appear in the clues to make them think they're on to something, but they're not.

2. The majority of the clues require an insane amount of conjecture to get right, and usually include visual puns or wordplay. My "favourite" was the one where an actual baseball bat in Kelly Osbourne's package was supposed to be a reference to her dad's infamous incident with a real, live bat, and I thought that was just really fucking dumb.

None of this really helps my guessing in any way, so usually the only thing I can really count on is recognizing the voice and then somehow fitting the clues to that person... then again, I did not get Bret Michaels until his very last episode and I actually love Poison and know his voice a lot so... maybe I'm just not very good at this.

Before I get into the actual recap of this episode, I feel obliged to address one more thing - that is, the whole Nick Cannon of it all. To start with, I'm not in the least a fan of what in recent years came to be known as "cancel culture". I really don't think people should lose their jobs and have their reputations ruined by something dumb they posted on social media, especially if said posting happened years ago and the person hasn't actually exhibited behaviours reflecting it in real life. This goes for ordinary everyday people, and celebrities as well. Obviously if it's something more serious like actual, provable domestic abuse or child molestation, then go for it. Now, what Cannon did falls into the first category, so I don't think he should have been fired (not that he ever was in any danger, I mean, he's a black man who tweeted about white people being subhuman savages, when has that ever bothered anyone in Hollywood). That said, from the moment I read about his true opinions, I knew I would never be able to take his friendly banter with any of the white judges or contestants seriously ever again... or with his favourite joke-buddy Ken Jeong, for that matter. I'm not sure how black supremacists feel about Asian people, but it can't be good, right? Also, if I was Robin Thicke or Jenny McCarthy, I would probably feel really awkward making nice with this man from now on. But hey... I'm not a Hollywood person whose whole livelihood depends on pretending, so they'll probably be fine.

Alright, now that that's all over and done with... how did Group A fare this week?

Oscars 2019: Photo Recap

Welcome to my first ever Oscars recap! I've been planning to do this for years and what do you know, I finally got over my laziness this year and actually did it! Took pictures and everything! Hopefully it's not going to be a complete drag to read, and maybe my shameless attempts at trying to be funny will embolden some readers to share their own thoughts in the comments below. Also, forgive me for cutting out a good chunk of the winners, like most of the techincal categories. I'm just really not a good judge of those, you know? I still have no idea what's the difference between sound mixing and sound editing, for example, and let's be honest, as important as all these people are in making movies, their acceptance speeches are rarely among the more interesting ones. Right, here it goes!

WWW Wednesday 02.13.

 

February started out pretty miserable for me: I welcomed it by lying in my bed for a week, trying to get rid of a nasty flu. But hey, at least I got to read a lot while I was home, provided I could find the one position where my back wasn't killing me from all that lying and coughing. Good times, but thank God it's over now. So let's see what I'm reading this sunny WWW Wednesday now that I'm back on my feet and have less time but slightly more enthusiasm for new books!

Recently finished: Just a couple days ago I finished Women Who Dared by Jeremy Scott, a book that promised to be extremely interesting and right up my alley, but which ultimately proved rather disappointing. I guess morally questionable con artists and downright abhorrent socialites are not the kind of "strong women" I am looking to learn about. No offense to poor Mary Wollstonecraft who somehow ended up in this book and was basically its saving grace.

Currently reading: The book I picked up instantly when I realized I was sentenced to rest and read all week was The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, a book I started years ago but put away when it got too much, and which I made tremendous progress on while I was sick. Then I started King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo, which I thought was going to be smooth sailing since I loved all the previous grisha books so much, but unfortunately it didn't quite grip me as much as its predecessors. I was actually supposed to finish it yesterday but then I found myself not at all in the mood for it, so I started Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett instead. It's the first book in my "Books adapted into movies or TV shows in 2019" challenge, and I love it so far! And then there's the previously mentioned The Dark Ages by Sir Charles Oman, which I'm trying to read at work whenever I get the chance. So yeah... I got a little carried away again with all these books. Let's just hope I can actually finish all of them at some point.

Next read: Of course, the one book I should be reading is none of these. It's Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, the February choice in my reading group. Hopefully I can finish Good Omens in a few days and get started on this one.

Now tell me, what are YOU reading these days?

Women Who Dared - Jeremy Scott (2019)

Having recently suffered through one and a half other books that promised to teach me about interesting women I've never heard of but which were, in reality, 60% Tumblr level "lol men are the worst am I right?" kind of jokes, 20% obnoxious pop culture references, 10 % insinuating that literally nothing has changed since the 19th century and women are just as oppressed as ever thanks to Trump obviously, and maybe 10% relevant information, I was excited for Women Who Dared because I really, really love to read about groundbreaking, trailblazing, amazing historical women, and just once I would like to be able to do so without straining my eye muscles from rolling them too hard.

Unfortunately, this book is also not the answer I was looking for, but this time it's harder to put into words why. Certainly it was not too political, which I appreciated, but it had numerous other problems. I couldn't entirely get behind the writing style, for one thing. Colloquial in certain places, pretentious in others, it was as if the author couldn't decide whether he wanted to write a serious, informative non-fiction book, or a gossip column-worthy, flippant account of the lives of these women, full of rumours told as facts, possibilites presented as certanties, and blatant misinformation.

And oh, these women. I can't for the life of me understand what possessed the author to choose these six women in particular for his book. Certainly they all fit under the "women who dared" title, and it's probably my fault that I expected to find actual role models in here instead of con artists, barely important socialites, and women whose only claim to fame is their messy divorce and all the men they fucked. And just to show that I'm not kidding or exaggerating about any of this, let's take a look at the book chapter by chapter.

My Top Ten of 2018 - Books

It's that time of the year again when I try to think back on all the media I consumed in the past 365+ days, and select ten of each as best of the best, and let me tell you, this is one of my favourite times. True, it's incredibly hard to make a selection when there's so much good shit coming out, but I love talking about things I love and I love making lists too, so why would I complain? I don't. Except about my own performance when it comes to books, because you see... you can't really make a list of the 10 best books released in 2018 when you've only read 15 of them, and only about three of those can be deemed amazing. I promise I'll try to do better next year and read more new releases, but for now, I'll have to contend myself with a list of the 10 best books I read in 2018, regardless of release date. Oh, and in strictly chronological order because I don't want to play favourites among my favourites. Right, here it goes! 

1. I, Claudius – Robert Graves

I've been meaning to read this for a while now and I honestly don't remember what prompted me to finally do it, but boy am I glad I did! It was slow going because I read it on my work computer whenever I ran out of actual work to do, but I enjoyed every second of it. Graves' Claudius is now one of my favourite fictional renderings of any historical character, but all the others are written brilliantly too. It induced me to do tons of research and I subsequently learned a whole lot about this era of the Roman Empire, which is what I love the most about reading historical fiction: it always makes me want to look up the actual history behind it. I also love drawing the family trees for myself to keep track of all the characters and how they're related to each other, and this book has a hell of a crazy one:

From the distance of a year even I can't make sense of some of this. 

2. Queen Victoria - Lytton Strachey 

I actually had this bookmarked for years on my laptop at home, and I opened it so many times with the intention of reading it that I actually memorised its first line: "On November 6, 1817, died the Princess Charlotte..." But then one day I finally had to admit it to myself that I will never actually take the time to read it at home, so maybe I could just... open Gutenberg.org at work and have it bookmarked for reading there? Yeah I'm dumb sometimes. But I did it and I read it and I loved it so much. I said it before that I will never tire of reading about the Victorian era, be it fiction or non-fiction, and that's obivously true for the Queen herself too. I actually have several more Victoria biographies added to my TBR. Nevertheless, I think this one will always hold a special place in my heart. 

3. Crooked Kingdom – Leigh Bardugo

I'm actually so damn proud of myself for finishing all five grisha books in a relatively short time, instead of my usual routine of reading the first one and then abandoning the series for years. I loved Ruin and Rising too but I wanted to choose just one of these books for my list, and in the end I went with Crooked Kingdom because it was the more daring and unusual of the two. It took risks that paid off in full, went to places I never expected it would, and in the end still managed to be satisfying. I can't wait to see Nina's story continue in King of Scars. 

4. Nevernight – Jay Kristoff

This was definitely one of the most unique and innovative fantasy books I've read in recent years, and for that alone it deserves to be on my list. The worldbuilding is so rich and extensive that I was almost convinced to start taking notes about halfway through, which is always a good sign, and the characters were all incredibly vivid and interesting. It's especially noteworthy that the author managed to take the often-told story of "main character has to win a competition to achieve their goals" and managed to make it not only entertaining as hell but actually suspenseful. Even if you're pretty certain that she's gonna be one of the winners, you can be certain about absolutely nothing else, and other books with a similar premise (*cough* Throne of Glass *cough*) could learn a lot from Jay Kristoff. 

5. The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry (review)

I already sang odes about this book elsewhere and I'm not sure what else is left to say. Beautiful writing, haunting atmosphere, wonderfully unique characters, a story that I can't quite put my finger on but which grabbed me nonetheless and still hasn't let go. If only the author's 2018 followup, Melmoth, was half as amazing... still, I'm eagerly waiting fo her next book. 

6. Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking – Deborah Cadbury (review)

Oh how I loved getting lost in this wonderfully twisted, continent-encompassing, royal-imperial family tree. Some of the featured historical figures and their fates were already familiar to me, but others were new, and I would gladly read full biographies on any single one of them, they're just that fascinating.  

7. The Gown – Jennifer Robson (review)

Next to The Essex Serpent, this was the other book that most defined my 2018 reading year, one that I will definitely find myself thinking about for years to come. Again, I think I said everything I possibly could in my review. I adored this book.  

8. Babel – Gaston Dorren (review)

If there's one thing I love more than learning languages, it's thinking about learning languages. This book provided me with ample material for my "will learn one day" list, as well as some wonderful bits of etymological trivia. Highly recommended for any wannabe polyglot!  

9. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

Me and Dickens have a relationship that has so far rested on a pretty contradictory statement: I love his writing style, and yet I've never managed to finish any of his books. Not his fault, to be fair. It's just that so far I always tried to read his books while I was already reading twenty other books, and they always lost out to something else in the end. The idea that I should remedy this has been on my mind for a long time, so I was pretty thrilled when just as I decided that it was finally time for me to stop lurking in this one Goodreads group and start to actually participate in their challenges and discussions, they announced that their December group read would be A Christmas Carol. What an opportunity! So I devoured this wonderful little story in no time, and crowned a new favourite.  

10. Legendary – Stephanie Garber

Caraval was one of the best books I read in 2017, and the sequel definitely lived up to my expectations, even if I didn't necessarily agree with the direction it took in the end. I enjoyed being in Tella's shoes this time and all the lore-building that brought with it - God I wish I could have that pack of cards, magical or not. The new characters were fun to read about and the book even managed to manintain the same sense of suspense and feeling of never quite knowing what's going on that made the first one so enjoyable, and that's why I'm choosing to believe that even with the big revelation at the end, things are still not quite what they seem, and there will be more twists, turns and shocks to come in Finale. This is honestly the only thing I can believe because otherwise the answer to the question of Legend's identity is pretty lousy, and I refuse to believe that.

All right, so that was it for 2018! Please share in the comments YOUR favourite reads of the year!