matching mani to one of the books I‘m currently reading, which is ‘what is next chapter going to bring?!?!‘ kind of excellent.

Unintentional coincidence! Took me a while to fall into the rhythm of the book, but the second third in and am hooked.

Another matching mani

We were worn haggard with unsolicited autobiographies.

from ‘Mrs Hofstadter on Josephine Street‘

Been a while since I posted a mani matching my book cover, here‘s one for my edition of the Dante translation of The Divine Comedy (am currently reading Inferno).

So do boys and men announce their intentions. They cover you like a sarcophagus lid. And call it love.

(p379)

sleep is not peace it is night‘s infection

- ‘Lent‘

‘If I seemed quiet, it was because of what I was seeing.‘

- Bullshit

title on my copy is ‘Thunder in the Courtyard - Kajari Poems‘

feel like i missed out on the depth of some of the work due to not knowing the meaning of the Indian language used but understood a bit more once i found out more about Kajari. These feel like words meant to go with music.

Often those without power suffer from what Fricker calls a ‘credibility deficit‘.

The philosopher Miranda Fricker has written on this economy of credibility, which she calls ‘epistemic justice‘. Epistemic justice raises questions about who knows what and who speaks for whom and it is an issue to grapple with for the referendum. (28-9)

You cannot lead if you do not read. Yet the National Party rejected the Voice in 2022 and committed to a ‘No‘ vote before even knowing the substance. (27)

On constitutional recognition, at each meeting, for each prime minister, each new Indigenous Affairs minister, we had to explain the process from scratch. Tom Calma, a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, used to say to us as younger Aboriginal leaders, “leaders are readers.” (p27)

…the American sociologist Robert Merton, who identified five different ways people adapt to a prevailing order: conformity, innovation, ritualistic, retreatism and rebellion. Ritualistic means ‘the acceptance of institutionalised means for securing regulatory goals while losing all focus on achieving the goals or outcomes themselves‘. (p12)

“Noemí‘s father said she cared too much about her looks and parties to take school seriously, as if a woman could not do two things at once.” (ch 4)

I couldn‘t get a good image of my right hand‘s entire mani (also matching the book) and thought this quote quite apt, hehe.

Twenty years too late: finally seeing the allure of crackle-effect nail polish.

But it isn‘t like you should have to make up your mind about everything at twenty-two, she thought. There was no point in telling her father that. He‘d taken over the family business at nineteen. By his standards, she was on a slow course to nowhere. (ch 1)

Some spooky weekend reading chunks planned for this weekend (with matching distracting mani).

“Please, sir,” Luke was saying meekly, “who is planchette?” (ch 7, pt 2; p187 in my copy)

On the home stretch of this deliciously spooky tale and really enjoying the way the characters are written and how their interior worlds are related to the reader. Bonus: the other hand/matching mani for the cover 🙂

“Hill House, she thought, you‘re as hard to get into as heaven.” (29)

The above line made me chuckle!

More trying to match manis to book covers; other hand has grey (and light green accent).

Been loving this collection of short stories from various authors from First Nations authors (from what is known as Australia though the traditional lands are made up of hundreds of nations). Was late finishing it for a book club and sadly only a few stories left.

Current bedtime reading, been on my TBR list for ages. The illustrations are beautiful.

Less than a month ago, had to get my cat bestie put to sleep, and given that she was excellent company and motivation to read (in order to provide her with a warm lap to sit on!), it‘s been hard to jump back on the bookworm bandwagon.

Not sure if starting a 1000-page novel was the best thing, but thought it might be motivating to do manicures based on the cover art of what I‘m reading. Most editions for this are dark-cool; love this cover.

Such instructions and prohibitions, the magicians knew from the fairy-tales, are usually a little queer, but not very difficult to conform to - or so it seems at first sight. They generally follow the style of: (…) “Do not beat your wife with a stick made from wormwood.” (p37)

Please folks, do not be beating anyone with any sticks?!?! Unless it‘s a matter of survival?!?! (seriously)

My favourite book-reading companion had to be put to sleep over the weekend. This is the first book I‘ll be tackling without her snuggling on my lap, sniffing my hot drinks, and giving me affectionate wet-nose kisses as I wrestle with turning pages of books.

The main feeling I couldn‘t shake whilst reading this was how much it felt like an extended love letter to the indie fragrance house Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and its ‘Carnaval Diabolique‘ series (which had different theatrical circus-themed acts)! It‘s weird but amazing to think of this novel as perfumes rendered in words?

The Masons, the greenhouse and now tennis. Why marry (Joan) in the first place if (Dad) wanted to do so many things that excluded her?
(p207)

Dad kneels by his bed and says his prayers as he always does. It amazes me that a man who can be so strict, fierce and cold actually thinks he has a right to speak to God.
(p161)

My current bedtime reading; started last night and pretty excited to keep reading!

Have finished Toast by Nigel Slater which was wonderful but also heartbreaking so it was an emotionally rough read. There‘s so much warmth in his food writing; his cookbooks feel like they‘re written by a supportive elder relative cheering you on in the kitchen.

It does also feel good to be reducing my piles (yes, piles, sigh!) of unread books.

Martin Amis passed away recently, and someone had given me a bunch of books a while back so this is my new public commute read.

Such a warm-hearted yet heartbreaking book, maybe not the best choice for bedtime reading; if anyone ever reviewed food writing of mine and called me the Proust of the Nesquik era, I would be chuffed! It‘s quoted as a review snippet for this memoir.

Work-adjacent reading; a really approachable academic text on videogames, and why and how we play them.

One more section (18: Politics and Polemics) and I‘ve finished this behemoth of Irish poetry!

Highly recommend for people interested in Irish emancipation and mythology, classical mythology, and European modernism. The scholarship in the notes is unbelievably detailed.

While some of Yeats‘ cult and mysticism practices are undeniably questionable, it‘s been rewarding to read his work so deeply.

“Fish came from the fish shop rather than in breadcrumbed sticks (I didn‘t taste a fish finger till I was nineteen)” (55).

It‘s starting to dawn on me how sad it is that so few of us will think of why mass-produced food exists in the forms it does; in 1960s England, you would‘ve had to be well-off to afford healthy, fresh produce.

Have things changed for the better? It takes time and skill to cook. We talk ourselves out of devoting this time.

Started new book for bedtime reading. So far it‘s funny, warm-hearted, tender, far too relatable in terms of childhood fears, how what we taste and smell evokes either our base comforts or worries, how much this shapes us as adults.

Loving the references to some of my fave British sweets of old too.

A good mate gave this to me as a present, and this year I‘m trying to prioritise reading books received as gifts. 🥰

It isn‘t something I would‘ve picked for myself but was one of those reads that I started to absorb more of as I recovered while in hospital a few months ago. It grew on me!

(I hate giving lukewarm book reviews/summaries, but being able to articulate why is important! and the Litsy community is very welcoming that way 💜)

Finished it, and did enjoy the second and third quarter, but the story was really let down by this edition‘s translator.

A lot of questionable themes (disability, child labour, orientalism, suicide and related ideation), but also fascinating insight into stage craft, French arts and history of the time period.

It still feels good to finish a book I didn‘t always enjoy, as it‘s a good reminder to be able to articulate WHY. (self-reminder!)

“…I want to live like everybody else. I want to have a wife like everybody else and to take her out on Sundays.”

(ch. 22)

uh yeah bro, wives aren‘t Pokemon and they usually choose you back 😭

…Empty eye-balls knew
That knowledge increases unreality, that
Mirror on mirror mirrored is all the show.

from ‘The Statues‘ (p259)

(struck me as a reflection on how desensitising watching media on something like a screen can be; particularly as Yeats mentions Hamlet and is most likely referring to the skull we associate with that play)

Everything that man esteems
Endures a moment and a day.
Love‘s pleasure drives his love away.

p 251, second song from his play ‘The Resurrection‘.

The rhetorician would deceive his neighbours;
The sentimentalist himself; while art
Is but a vision of reality.
What portion of the world can the artist have
Who has awakened from the common dream
But dissipation and despair?

And yet
No one denies to Keats love of the world;
Remember his deliberate happiness.

p238, from ‘Ego Dominus Tuus‘

I know life is short and too short for books we don‘t enjoy, but really enjoying reading mindfully and actually being able to articulate why certain themes or narratives aren‘t compelling.

Started trying to read on the train as part of anytime I commute, and noticing that being able to focus on the text, and block out others‘ conversations is also a skill!

Not super-enjoying this but glad to be experiencing. Cats are excellent motivators too!

re. ‘The Wild Old Wicked Man‘ - warts, Yeats said in a letter, were considered by the Irish peasantry to be a sign of sexual power.

Interesting…

Reading before bed is something I‘ve not done in forever so am trying to cultivate it as a habit to spend less time watching stuff on laptop.

It‘s been going pretty well! Finding it hard to get into as there seems to be odd spots where it doesn‘t seem well translated from French into English (US English? it‘s been inconsistent)…also not sure I‘d recommend this to children (maybe pre-teen and up?).

Why do people always think that one is quibbling when one is trying to be precise?

- Charles to Bridey, p427

from ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven‘

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

(remembering how much I loved this poem as an undergrad lit newbie, particularly its rhythms and the sound of the words read out 😻)

I think the common condition of our life is hatred — I know that this is so with me — irritation with public or private events or persons.

Yeats, quoted on p340 (annotations)

“I guessed something of the kind had happened. Are you sure this is the best way of dealing with it?”

“It‘s my mother‘s way. Will you have a cocktail, now that (Sebastian‘s) gone upstairs?”
(199)

The English dealing with problems…by not dealing with them.

“Once you‘ve passed on a song, it‘s out of your hands,” Jenny tells McNamara. (286)

(has me wondering what rhymes etc. have changed through the centuries, and how we can memorise nursery rhymes and be so disconnected from what they meant, or mean)

“Now I realize that it is possible for the rich to sin by coveting the privileges of the poor. The poor have always been the favourites of God and his saints, but I believe that it is one of the special achievements of Grace to sanctify the whole of life, riches included. Wealth in pagan Rome was necessarily something cruel; it‘s not any more”. (Lady Marchmain)

Read this on-off since some of his poems were set for one of my undergrad lit classes; highly recommended for Irish mythology and history enthusiasts.

Currently reading section 8, devoted to Irish narrative poems, and the notes and scholarship of this edition are brilliant! The long narrative poems are hard to follow, but once you start remembering the mythology it references, it becomes more enjoyable.
(posting to keep self accountable!)

Took far too long to start this; pretty excited after reading the first third.