Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #23

This Week’s Blog Posts:

This week brought two very different posts. My review of the audio book version of Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman brought lots of thoughts from readers about representations of prisons in the media. Things pivoted when I posted my review of Nothing Is Okay by Rachel Wiley. This collection of humorous and cutting poems focus on the writer’s identity: fat, biracial, queer, female, single.

Next Week’s Blog Posts:

I got ahead of myself and proclaimed the next #ReadingValdemar post would already be here! Have no fear: my review of Storm Warning will be shared on Monday. Wednesday will bring you Man-eaters, a feminist comic book about a company medicating public drinking water to prevent women and girls from getting their periods — which in this world turns them into savage large cats! You want something scarier? Check out my review of Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier on Friday, and I’ll convince you why it’s the most terrifying book I’ve ever read.

Slow Books in Progress:

Book by a Male Author: None, currently

Book I’m Reading Aloud to My Spouse:

Poor Davy Copperfield! STILL! The wee lad, losing everything, is sent to work to earn his living. But when things just get too dang low, he thinks about his mother’s sister, a woman he’s never met because she was so disappointed to learn the night he was born that he was a boy instead of a girl. Could she see it in her heart to take him in? After walking all those miles to arrive on her doorstep, his shoes are described as being so poorly that they aren’t even shoe shape anymore. I didn’t know they had Crocs back then. . .

One night this week I kept finding places to pause while reading to my husband only for him to proclaim it was his favorite part. On I read. And tried to stop. “No, it’s my favorite part!” And on. And on. Next thing I knew, I was rasping out the words when I realized it had been 90 minutes of me reading aloud Charles Dickens. As “punishment,” I talked the spouse into seeing Crawl with me.

Books Added to the TBR Pile:

Thanks to Karen @ Booker Talk and Emily @ Literary Elephant for the recs!

16 comments

  3. Thanks for the mention! I really hope you get on well with The Farm, I know it’s one that will stick with me. That comic also sounds intriguing, and I am SO curious about Jamaica Inn now that you mention it’s terrifying! Looking forward to your reviews this week 🙂

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  4. Just saying. David Copperfield has a male author. And I missed Nothing is OK, I’d better go back and read it. I had to look up Crawl – “hunted by alligators”!!! Is it humour or horror?

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    • Ah! I guess I’m not clear in my labeling. Once a month I read a book by a male author from my own collection of TBR books. The book I read aloud to my husband may be by a male or female author. Both categories take me longer to read because of circumstances. Currently, I am not reading one of my own books by a male author because I’m trying to fill every box in the summer reading bingo at my work, which has specific categories to fill.

      Crawl is a horror movie in which Florida is flooded during a hurricane. A college student tries calling her father to make sure he evacuated, but he’s not answering. She drives through this flooded town where the levies are about to break to check on her father to find him stuck, injured in the basement after an alligator attacked him. The town is by a swamp, so all the alligators (and yes, there are LOADS of alligators in Florida in real life, to the point where you could get a license to hunt them) are now eating people. OM NOM NOM!

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  5. I have only read one du Maurier book and I’ve seriously considering My Cousin Rachel to be my next although when I borrowed it from the library a few months ago I ran out of time (renewals) and had to return it. I’ll keep my eyes open for your review of Jamaica Inn.

    And oh Aunt Betsey….she’s my FAVORITE character along with David. I might have to pull my book off the shelf and reread that part just because your husband told you not to stop. I don’t have to tell you again this week because I’ll sound like a broken record but DAVID COPPERFIELD IS MY FAVORITE DICKENS 🤣🙈 – I’ll try to think of something else to say next week about it instead

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    • I think that the Peggoty family is my favorite as a group. They are kind, loving, funny. I really enjoy Mr. Peggoty’s dialect and the way he accepts Davy as a visitor for weeks at a time, even visiting Davy when he is at school. I haven’t learned too much about Aunt Betsy yet, but I think Mr. Dick might win my affections. Whenever the aunt asks what to do with Davy, he basically says the most obvious immediate thing to do, when she really meant long-term. Feed him! Give him a bath, he’s filthy! Stuff like that, lol.

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  6. Oohh The Farm looks good-that’s been getting amazing reviews. And I can’t wait to see your review of Jamaica Inn! Daphne du Maurier is the one author that made me break my rule of reading review copies only and I loved Rebecca 🙂

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  7. “Check out my review of Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier on Friday, and I’ll convince you why it’s the most terrifying book I’ve ever read.”

    Terrifying? As in horror terrifying? I knew Daphne’s books were Gothic in style, but are they scary?! I guess I’ll have to go read your review!

    The Farm is on my TBR as well!

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