Top Ten Tuesday

Oh hiii, Top Ten Tuesday, welcome back to my blog! Yeah, I haven't been great at doing this recently cause, you know, I'm lazy, but I do like to make seasonal reading lists. This one is going to be mightily RIP-heavy, cause that's all I want to read at the moment really. So yeah, enjoy.

Top Ten Books On My Autumn TBR List

1. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck- Because because I'm hosting my first readalong of it! (I mean, my first readalong ever, not just the first time I've readalonged The Grapes of Wrath. That was probably obvious, huh?) So, anyway, that's happening in October, so stay tuned.

2. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters- Another readalong that I'm really excited about because it'll make me actually read this book! More details about it if you click on the thingy in my sidebar thing. Specifics. I like them.

3. We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver- I've become obsessed with this book since reserving it at the library and NEVER GETTING IT (I still haven't. I bought it in the end) and so I really want to read it. Since it's pretty dark, I'm thinking it'll be great for RIP.

4. Beloved by Toni Morrison- I just want to read something by Toni Morrison. This autumn is the time, and this is the book.

5. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky- I've already started this, so I'd quite like to finish it by the end of autumn, and if I can't I think I might have some issues.

6. Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Linqvist- It's time to read this one. I've had it for a long time, and it's the right time of year. Time. Also, I have good thoughts about the Sweden-vampire combination, so... Yeah.

Annnd... I don't know what else I want to read! Because I have the aforementioned stack of RIP books, and I want to read them ALL, and because of that I haven't properly prioritised them. So... ALL THE SCARY BOOKS! I WANT TO READ THEM ALL! 

Devouring Books: Once There Was A War by John Steinbeck

"There is a quality to the people of Dover that may well be the key to the coming German disaster. They are incorrigibly, incorruptibly unimpressed."

Remember when I said a while ago that I don't really like to watch or read things about war because, you know, I don't really dig war and I just can't get into it or even really bring myself to care about it. Like... I can just about accept that wars happen, but I mainly refuse to accept that they ever have to happen, and so why would I ever want to read about them? Exactly.

So, obviously, I accidentally chose two challenge books that were about war (this, and Birdsong. Which I'm still avoiding) but FORTUNATELY for me, I really really really like Steinbeck. I just dig his writing and his face and generally everything about him, especially when he says stuff like this:

"all war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal."

You know? Putting that in the introduction to this book, which is basically a collections of the columns he wrote as a war correspondent during the Second World War (actually a war that I think was sort of necessary, although why people couldn't just go 'Um, this dude's clearly crazy, let's just ignore him, or better yet get him some mental health support, yeah?' is really beyond me) meant that I could go into them thinking 'well, he has the same opinion as me, so even though he might not really be able to express it (cause of the War Effort, and all) I'll know that that's what he's thinking.' Me and Steinbeck, simpatico and all that.

And it turns out? Steinbeck really knows how to write, you guys! Obviously I already knew that, but it really became obvious in this book which, written by practically anyone else, would have gone straight into my book donation bag. I mean, I'm not going to pretend that this was my favourite book or anything, and I may have skimmed over the more technical columns (the B5 flew over the ocean blah blah blah) but still, it was very very readable, and that's ALL thanks to Steinbeck's voice, and what he chose to write about. Because it's not all battles and attacks and schematics (are schematics even a thing?) but it's also just more generally about humans and their foibles, which I don't think anyone does better than Steinbeck. Like this, for example:

"The second phase of getting along is carried on in innumerable attempts to describe each other. The British are so and so. The Americans are so and so. The British are just like other people, only more so. The Americans are boasters who love money. This love of money is, of course, unique with Americans. Every other people detests money. The Americans are fine, sturdy people. The British are fine, sturdy people. This is obviously a lie. There are good ones and stinkers on both sides."

Steinbeck's been to the Atticus Finch School of Equality and he's learnt a lot. It's great. (Yeah, I know it's the other way round. Shut up.)

So yeah. Liked this a lot. And I think the main reason for that is that Steinbeck mainly reduces the war to its human parts - the superstitions of the men who really don't want to die, their homesickness on the Fourth of July, and even how they experience the war- how their worst experiences become the ones that are least real, or most difficult to recall for them because that's how their minds have protected them. I found that really interesting as a concept, as I found a lot of this book really interesting because, in the end, it's about people, not war. I mean, I guess wars are made up of people, but there's a way to talk about them that's grand and majestic, and there's a way to talk about them as just a bunch of dudes who don't really know what they're doing being where they are. Steinbeck chooses the latter, and I love him for it.

The answer to the conundrum 'How do you write something about war that will interest Laura' (the lesser known version of 'How do you solve a problem like Maria') is, apparently, Be John Steinbeck. Since no one is Steinbeck, I'm not exactly rushing for ALL THE WAR THINGS, but I'm maybe a little bit more open to not immediately running from them. A slight victory there, then?

Sunday Sundries

Ah, this week, this week. Let's see. I've been struck down by a cold since Thursday, so I can't really remember anything that happened before that. Oh! I know. Mum had some hospital appointments that she didn't let me accompany her on ("There's no point in buying two travelcards!" etc etc) and the long and short of it is that she's starting radiotherapy on the 19th September, and after either 13 or 15 sessions (we're not sure which...) she'll be done! Which is awesome. Also, I don't know if you know this but they tattoo you with teeny dots before they do it, so my mum totally has tattoos before me. So jealous! (Not really. But you know.)

So that's the BIG news of the week, and other than that... We had a bit of a family lunch on Monday because it was a bank holiday here, and I went shopping a couple of days and helped my sister out in her classroom on Wednesday (she's a teacher. Obviously) FOR WHICH I got a massive bruise on my thigh and a lot of nagging. So don't do good deeds is basically what I'm saying here. (Although my sister did fall into a bin, so... It could have been worse.) And then, yeah, ill! I mean, I say ill, but I'm not that ill. I just feel all groggy and I have a cough and a lot of snot, so basically it's the perfect excuse to stay in bed and watch Netflix and/or DVDs all day. 

DAMN, it's a good job I'm not a 'lifestyle blogger'. Who would want to read about snot?!

Ahem. So, not much life stuff. It being the beginning of a month, though, means that there's some blog stuff to wrap up and stuff, so let's do that! Remember this?:

Yeahhh, so I kind of did two things that I'd pinned. Which, actually, is all I said I'd do, which isn't that bad! And also technically I can count going to Haworth, since I pinned it on my Places to Go board, so... Three is even better! What I will say about this challenge though, is that it kind of encouraged me to do more things that I hadn't pinned, but that I still wanted to make, if you know what I mean? Like, this week I made pizza from scratch, AND a chickpea curry (that was SO good, by the way) and I don't think I would have felt as motivated to make them if I hadn't had so much fun/been so successful making the Nutella Doughtnuts. So I consider THAT a success.

AND now for the super duper exciting new thing... RIP VII!!!! 

I might be a little overexcited about this, but I can't help it! I've literally been saving books ALL YEAR because I'm like 'ooh, that would be good for RIP', I bought The Haunting of Hill House in like February or something with RIP specifically in mind, and overall, yeah, I'm just very very excited! Especially because, last year I wasn't fully committed to it because I'd decided to do Orwell October, but this year I am just GOING FOR IT. Really. 

Behold!

This is my RIP pile. And I know it's ridiculous, so don't even tell me. But it is what it is, and it's going to sit on my bedroom floor until October 31st, and DON'T think I won't hear shit about that, cause I totally will. You want to know what's on it, don't you. Well, I'll tell you. From top to bottom:

• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe
• Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King
• The Godfather by Mario Puzo
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Readalong book! Yep, another readalong!)
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K Dick
• Sweeney Todd by Anonymous
• Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (cause Sweden and vampires go SO WELL)
• Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
• The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
• We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
• Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
• The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
• Burton on Burton

Not pictured: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. Just cause it got left behind, not because I don't want to read it. It's on the pile now, don't worry!

So, I understand that I can't read all these books. But I WANT to. Although I know I can't. Off the top of my head, I really want to read Let the Right One In and We Need To Talk About Kevin; The Godfather, Nights at the Circus and Beloved are all challenge books, so I kind of want to get them read, and I really want to read The Fifth Child so I can decide whether or not to completely reject Lessing or not. But also, I want to read them ALL! (Except maybe Murder on the Orient Express, cause how does one review that?! I really don't know.)

But anyway. I'm really very very excited. I would tell you which Perils I'm doing but reading like 20 books isn't really part of RIP (also, I'm not reading 20 books. I'm NOT!). But I guess I'm doing Peril the First (read 4 horrifying books) and also the Peril of the Group Read. So, yay! Also I'm reading Attachments (LOVE IT!) and Crime and Punishment (also love, so far) and this book about ADHD, so... I'm going to be reading solidly for about 2 months. I may need to be nudged every now on then to be reminded to wash and stuff. Anyone want to take on that responsibility? Anyone?

Top 5 TV

Haven't you all missed this feature so much? Who forgot that I even did two of them once upon a time? *slowly raises own hand* Actually, I more periodically forget, as in I sometimes get an idea for one, and then can only think of three things and so another month passes without doing one. Why am I even explaining this? Who can say.

Anyway. I do have an idea this time, and it's, ok, you know when you're watching TV and there's nothing really on, and you come across something that you know you shouldn't really be watching because it won't improve your life much and yet you can't quite turn over because, hello compelling TV? That's what these are. I think it goes without saying that basically all of these are in the category of reality TV. So let's think of a title...

Top 5 Shows You Know You Shouldn't Watch, But Can't Quite Turn Off

1. The Hills- I am physically incapable of not watching The Hills if I know it's on, and there's no one there to stop me. It's my dirtiest little secret, because it's so bad, but OMG compelling! And the drama! And the WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! All you need to know about me and The Hills is that I cried when Lauren showed up at Heidi's wedding, so... Yeah. I have a problem.
Note: This is not applicable to the seasons without Lauren Conrad. Which really really suck.


2. Supersize vs Superskinny- This is a UK TV show where a morbidly obese person and a really underweight person swap diets, and it's actually not too trashy (at least, I don't think so) but it's not the kind of thing that a normal person would need to watch more than once. Since I like food, and have a penchant for documentaries about the morbidly obese (half ton dad, that kind of thing- it keeps me in line, weight wise!) I will literally watch this whenever I know it's on. Which is pretty often.

3. Wife Swap USA- I can take or leave the UK Wife Swap, but I can't get enough of the US version because, well, Americans are much crazier! Also it's more invented drama-y, which may be bad documentary wise but sure is good for entertainment! I could literally watch this all day, and I do believe I watched about 3 in a row once... That was a good day.

4. Hoarders- This one kind of goes without saying, I guess, but once I've started watching Hoarders, I of course can't stop. I guess I'm lucky that I can hardly ever find it on TV, because otherwise I'd just watch it all the time, like I did that time when I found it on the internet. That was an awesome week...

5. LA Ink- I don't think this is that bad either, but once it's on, there's no taking me away from LA Ink. It may have a slightly repetitive format, but tattoos! And Kat Von D! What's not to like?!

There are quite a lot more programmes that I basically can't turn off once they're on (and I have to watch any Back to the Future film any time it's on TV. Because come on, those are the greatest films ever!) but these are probably the worst of them. And Wife Swap is about as baaad as it gets. Now make me feel better: what programmes do you have to watch once they're on? Plastic surgery makeover ones (actually, I love/hate those too)? Soap operas? Tell me, tell me, tell me!

Devouring Books: Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Before I even start talking about this book (which it has taken me SO LONG to do, which suggests to me some kind of correlation between LOVING THE CRAP out of a book and being incapable of writing anything coherant about it) can we talk about the similarity between its UK cover and that of How To Be A Woman?

Like... They're both grey and have similar fancy typeface in the titles, and I'm just wondering if the UK publishers went 'Ok, so maybe not that many people might know of this Jenny Lawson, we'd better remind them of how awesome Caitlin is' and whether that was a factor in their decision? I mean, they're both completely awesome, and I have no objections to this, it's just a general wonderment.

Anyway, so that was pointless. Let's talk about Let's Pretend This Never Happened! (And let's pretend that never happened). Except I don't know how to. Because it's a book I was a tiny bit worried about reading, because WHAT IF I DIDN'T FIND IT AS FUNNY AS EVERYONE ELSE?! Would that make me non-funny too? I have to be funny! It's how I understand that people like me! Ahem, so groundless worries, because OMG it's so hilarious. Like, not just a bit hilarious, but kind of just consistently funny throughout- obviously there were bits that I found funnier than others, because, you know, everyone has different funny spots, but even the slightly less funny things for me? Still bloody HILARIOUS.

I feel like a rite of passage thing with this book is the laughing out loud, in public whilst reading it. I honestly didn't think this would happen to me because I am SO not a laugher out loud with books. It's a weird little tic, but I basically just laugh in my brain and that's it, because... I don't really know. BUT I totally laughed out loud with this! Twice! And that's just in public. Because, well, there's this one part where she's having a conversation with a co-worker about the potential of having a giant vagina, and her co-worker is just like 'I can't BELIEVE you're even saying this to me' and I just felt so UNDERSTOOD because I am constantly inappropriate in conversation. It's like a disease. And then ALSO I laughed with the whole laxative episode, because it was just set up SO well, and then ascended to the heights of hilarity. And who doesn't laugh at a good poo story? No one, that's who!

Most of the funnyness comes from Lawson's writing style, which I ADORE. According to Alley, Lawson started her blog to find her writing voice so that she could write this book, and may I just say thank the LORD (I don't know who this Lord is. Whatever.) that she did because it's pretty awesome. It's like... the way I wish I could write and the way I kind of try to (what with the losing the train of thought parentheses and all) but in a completely superior (superior to me, that is. Not in an arrogant way or anything) and amazing way. I just... I loved the writing so much that I didn't even want to stop at any point to write anything down because I just wanted to keep reading it more. Hence, you know, the lack of quotes in this review and all (also because I'm too lazy to go back through it. And if I did I'd probably just start reading it ALL again!)

It seems to me that, in a parallel universe, there could be a parallel Let's Pretend This Never Happened, only its author refused to see the funny side in these consistently ridiculous situations. And that book? Would be terrible. The most heartening thing, the best thing, about this book, is the way Lawson consistently sees the hilarity in all these situations. There are moments that are obviously difficult, sure (and the occasional seriousness that creeps in doesn't hurt the book at all, just makes everything richer, and more life-y) but in the end, having a sense of humour trumps everything, and really is just the way to get through it all. I think that, in general, this is just a good thing for everyone to know- that no matter how tough things get, being able to laugh about it, either at the time, or eventually, is extremely extremely therapeutic. Believe me, I know this.

Didja just see me get all serious?! Ignore that, because this book is the big funny! But also, as well, it has DEPTHS too, and that basically just makes it perfect. It now sits proudly on my shelves, next to How To Be A Woman (they're the same height, as well as looking similar) and I can't see either of them staying on there, and out of my hands, for too long. Seriously, it's brilliant. Go read it.

I have to thank Ellie for sending me this book for RAK, because without her, who knows when I would have read it! Thanks Ellie!

The Moonstone, Part 4: "I consider you to be a person whose head is full of maggots."

Warning: I haven't warned you of this before, but this time it's really really important because I'm about to reveal the person who stole the moonstone. So if you don't know, RUN AND SAVE YOURSELVES NOW!

Because, of course, OBVIOUSLY it wasn't Ezra Jennings. Who even suspected him? I knew he'd turn out to be a good guy in the end! Ahem. But I'll come back to ALL that later, because of course, OF COURSE it was Godfrey!

I never liked that guy. Although, I did sort of enjoy that it was a crime of opportunity rather than of real maliciousness against his own cousin, and also that he got all smothered for it, because, you know, it's Godfrey. Oh, how Clack must have mourned. My main thought on the whole mess? Don't let the poor relations be trustees to the rich people! How was that ever going to work, especially when said poor people kept a woman in his villa? How?!

Anyway, that was all later. May we please speak about Ezra Jennings, he of the amazing 'I must make my patients drunk and give them opium and stuff' method of being a doctor. Way to go Ezra! Did we all see Wilkie's pains reflected in Ezra's, and Wilkie's massive opium addiction doing the same? Good good. Also, I have to assume that Ezra's piebaldness has some kind of relation to Wilkie's GIANT forehead, because no amount of google searching has meant I can figure out what that is. But let's just pretend it's the same thing, even if it isn't, ok?

Anyway, I was surprised as anyone that Ezra wasn't evil, and apparently Betteredge (who, by the way, was supremely awesome in this last part, I have to say) still believes that he is "Speaking as a man, I consider you to be a person whose head is full of maggots."

GREATEST INSULT EVER! Just, in my opinion. (Note: I just realised this was my title quote. But it bears repeating!) Ok, so the opium thing was clearly a work of genius (although, baad Dr Candy. Sorry, Mr Candy. Personally I blame him for all of this. The whole thing. He was probably just faking a brain disease to get out of taking the blame, is what I think) and I'm SO sad that Ezra died! He was totally my star of this last section, so YAY EZRA (at last!) But bad Godfrey. Bad bad bad.

But hey, at least Rachel and Franklin got it on:

"Sir and madam, look back at the time when you were passionately attached to each other- and you will know what happened, after Ezra Jennings had shut the door of the sitting room, as well as I know it myself."

And if you'll just indulge me for a tiny bit longer, I want to talk about the ending (which, by the way, I nearly missed because I thought Betteredge and Robinson Crusoe deserved to end it, really) which slightly confused me. Because, on the one hand, it was EXACTLY what I wanted to happen (the moonstone being returned to its home and all) but then, also, why exactly did the Indians who brought it back get punished? And if it was, as I believe it was, a caste thing, is that like Wilkie saying that the Indians are stupid for not rewarding good actions and being overly obsessed with caste, which is actually pretty rich coming from a Victorian gentleman? I JUST DON'T KNOW. Help me out, everyone?

And so it endeth! I am sad and yet happy, all at once. Damn Wilkie, you're just the greatest! Good readalong everybody! *claps and imagines everyone else doing the same*. I just don't know what I'm going to do in September, but I know that in October we'll all be reading The Grapes of Wrath along with me? Isn't that right? Get your sad faced gifs ready, I'll be waiting!

Devouring Films: Dreams of a Life

I was just randomly scrolling through Netflix the other week, trying to find something different to watch, when I came across Dreams of a Life, something which I could vaguely remember reading about, but couldn't quite place. I started watching it anyway, and ended up watching one of the most moving things I've seen in a while.

Dreams of a Life (for those who didn't randomly read something about it, and then more or less straight away forget it, i.e. everyone) is a documentary centred around a case in the UK of 6 years ago, where a woman's (Joyce Carol Vincent) body was found three years after she'd died, with the TV still on, and layers of dust around on everything in her flat. Obviously a terribly terribly devastating story, made even sadder by the fact that no newspapers could find any information about her, and nobody could understand why nobody cared enough about her to not notice that she was missing. It would be really really easy to go the sob story route with this, but that's not what this documentary does.

Instead, it tries to piece together a picture of her life. By talking to old friends, boyfriends, flatmates and so on, the film goes beyond the headlines and tries to bring back a portrait of a person, someone who lived and laughed and ate and sang and generally tried to enjoy her life. This is not to say that the portrait of her is one of an entirely unflawed person- on the contrary, I definitely got the impression that she centred her life around whoever was her boyfriend at the time, and that she was notoriously bad at keeping in touch with people (hence her tragic end) but that only made her more real, and more someone who did have a life, rather than just a horrible death.

Of course, there's a limit to what we can know about Joyce. We can't know how she really felt when she was with the men she was with, we can't know what her final thoughts were of, we can't know why she didn't feel the need to keep in touch with people, and we can't ever really expect to fully understand who she really was. But in a way, this is true of everyone; and in another way it doesn't really matter- just the trying to understand her, and wanting to know more about her life, means that she stops being just a sensationalist story in the newspapers, and starts being real. In watching Dreams of a Life, you always want to know more about Joyce, and just in that it succeeds as a film.

And yes, it's still a horrible story. But at the same time, it's so heartening to know that there were people who loved her, and still care about her, and who would have done anything to help her if they'd known she was in trouble. There's this one ex-boyfriend, Martin, who's still clearly very much in love with her, and his sadness at not being able to have helped her just broke my heart (and also made me cry, a bit)- and I almost want to be angry at both of them, for not having just held onto each other, but it's all too sad to be angry about. Just really, too sad.

You see on the poster, where it says 'Nothing has lingered in my mind like this'? I totally feel that way about this documentary. I very much recommend watching it if you get the chance, and maybe make sure you have some tissues near you as you watch this film give an unknown woman her life back, in a narrative sense at the very least.