WWW Wednesday, February 1, 2012

From shouldbereading:

 

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I’m currently reading Farthing, by Jo Walton. A mystery set in a 1949 England where the English (and Allies) did not win WWII.  The US stayed isolationist and an English peace was negotiated with Hitler, who was able to maintain his grip on Europe and concentrate his efforts on the USSR.  Jews in Europe wear identifying stars and are persecuted, but in England they are legally, technically, free. But there is still much prejudice and so when upper-crust Lucy married a Jewish man, it was not well-received by her friends and family.  When they are invited to a weekend at her parents’ house with many other notables–the Farthing set–they go, on the off chance that perhaps her mother is finally accepting David.  Alas, evidently not. Rather, he was invited to be a convenient Jewish scapegoat to pin a murder on…

The most fascinating (and horrifying) aspect of these books is that they feel very real, and represent a bullet dodged, a future we are very fortunate not to be living.

 

 

 

• What did you recently finish reading?

The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie, by Jennifer Ashley. I gotta say, I really liked this romance a lot. And it’s pure historical romance, steamy, sexy, and one friend who started it said she had to scrub her head with a brillo pad and bail out in the middle. So okay, if you aren’t a romance reader, this one probably isn’t for you.  But if you are a romance reader or at least like the occasional foray in that direction, I suggest you give this one a try.  I was drawn to this by reading that the hero had Asperger’s Syndrome.  I was relieved when a friend who has a family member with Asperger’s tweeted to tell me that she’d read this book and thought it was very well done.  Behaviour that could be boorish and worse–and yet is often considered sexy and romantic in historical romance–in this case comes out of the hero’s inability to cope in social situations, his inability to be subtle, to do anything but state bluntly what he wants, to sit too close, and yet–he will not meet the heroine’s eyes. I found it sexy, charming in an oddly unexpected way, and compelling.  I particularly enjoyed meeting the MacKenzie men, each different and bearing his own set of scars from their childhoods, and look forward to reading the other books in the series.

 

 

• What do you think you’ll read next?

I don’t know! My piles (figurative, since most are on my Kindle) and shelves (still have a couple of shelves of real books waiting) are filled with books I want to read. Not a TBR list. To-Be-Read indicates a duty.  Mine is a WTR list.  Want. To. Read.

And it all depends on the mood I’m in when I finish Farthing and am ready to dive into the next.

What about you? What are your WWWs?

What should I read next?

I’m listening!

[This art is from Ephraim Rubenstein. I am now craving some of his book art.]

WWAD?

So the 10 most cliched college dorm posters are fascinating to me, being a mix of some I’ve never seen and iconic images of my own misspent youth.  But the first one, Audrey Hepburn, kind of confuses me a bit.

Not the choice of posters, of course.  I mean, it’s Audrey freaking Hepburn, what could be confusing about that?

It’s the site’s caption that confuses me:

Breakfast at Tiffany’s: It’s simply a fact: college girls love Audrey Hepburn, especially in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Even if they haven’t seen it. Maybe that explains why this classic is taped over every pink bedspread and extra-long mattress. Need a reminder to keep it classy when you’re bringing the Kappa Lambda president back to your place? Just look up and ask, “What would Audrey do?”

Charge for it…?

Perhaps next time they should see the movie first.

Today’s Where in the World Wednesday takes us to…

Highgate Cemetery, London.

[photo source]

[insert maniacal laughter here]

Yes, if I had any logic and planning at all I would save this until closer to Halloween, but where is the fun in that? I’ve never been there but my next trip to London, this spot will be on my agenda.  Not only is it filled with lovely Victorian gothic excess…

[photo source]

And not only is it filled with creepy loveliness….

But the tales! The famous people! The history!

Okay, so of course Karl Marx is buried there, common knowledge, whot?

But check this. The poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti buried a volume of unpublished poetry with his young wife, Lizzie, (yes, she was dead, do I need to add that detail?) who is pictured famously here, as Ophelia by the artist Millais:

So. She died. (She had a wee bit of a laudanum problem.) Bereft, he stuck his poetry in the casket to be buried with her.

Six years later, changed his mind, dug her up in the middle of the night and got it back so he could publish them.  (He had a wee bit of a money problem.)

Oh, the tales that Highgate can tell…

Let the Sexton tell you a few.

[insert more maniacal laughter here]

Today's Where in the World Wednesday takes us to…

Highgate Cemetery, London.

[photo source]

[insert maniacal laughter here]

Yes, if I had any logic and planning at all I would save this until closer to Halloween, but where is the fun in that? I’ve never been there but my next trip to London, this spot will be on my agenda.  Not only is it filled with lovely Victorian gothic excess…

[photo source]

And not only is it filled with creepy loveliness….

But the tales! The famous people! The history!

Okay, so of course Karl Marx is buried there, common knowledge, whot?

But check this. The poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti buried a volume of unpublished poetry with his young wife, Lizzie, (yes, she was dead, do I need to add that detail?) who is pictured famously here, as Ophelia by the artist Millais:

So. She died. (She had a wee bit of a laudanum problem.) Bereft, he stuck his poetry in the casket to be buried with her.

Six years later, changed his mind, dug her up in the middle of the night and got it back so he could publish them.  (He had a wee bit of a money problem.)

Oh, the tales that Highgate can tell…

Let the Sexton tell you a few.

[insert more maniacal laughter here]

Really. No conspiracy? Color me skeptical.

In these two blog entries, Daphne describes the situation illustrated below–reproducing great art but making it skinnier, because, you know, it should be to look right.  In the first entry, she expresses what seems to be dismay when she says, “…when I noticed a trend that stopped me and sent me furiously turning pages back, saying “oh my god! Look what they’re doing!”

But in the second she says, “False alarm, no harm, no foul.”  Or rather, “Basically, there is no conspiracy. These are NOT a deliberate and wanton desecration of the original artworks; the sculptors and model-makers are “innocent victims” of the system and not deliberately trying to persecute women or harm anyone’s body-image.”

No, the “innocent victims” have been exposed to too many Bratz and Barbie dolls.

Somehow her initial dismay became apology for the industry in which she works.  I guess we all have to cover our own arses.

But still, desecration is desecration, and in my view, that’s a desecration of glorious art and the perpetrators are assholes.

Feel free to disagree.