OtterMommy

I finished The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton--which I kept on my kindle and made a point of taking to the beach for the requisite picture of me holding it up against the ocean for a background (and then forgot to take said picture. I am the worst bookstagrammer ever). I haven't had great luck with Cleeton's earlier novels, but I did like this one. I think because it was less romance (although there was some very stereotypical romance in it) and more fast-paced survival story. I am incredibly grateful that I do not live in an area where hurricanes are a thing! Now, I'm splitting my time between The Vanishing Half, which I started earlier and then had to put away until my new lenses for my reading glasses came in (it is in print...I've been having to stick to eBooks during this time) and Between the World and Me, which I've been meaning to read for forever, but there is no better time than the present. Truly.

Please remember that we have an entire thread dedicated to the passing of celebrities. While a death is certainly news, the discussion should go over to this thread.

Yep! By the way, my friend is currently listening to the audiobook and has basically been live texting me as she listens. It was pretty clear from her texts when she hit the sex scenes.

‘Glee’ actress Naya Rivera presumed dead after going missing while boating with son, officials say I hope this isn’t what it appears to be, but I’m afraid it is.

Actually, I think it will be easier than we think. The Harry Potter world is huge and a lot of that growth has come from the fans. JKR's involvement, even though she was the creator, will become minimized. I suspect she will try to maintain some presence over it, but if the fan sites (and other sites) are not covering it, it may not do her any good.

There will definitely be a season 10, although we don't know when. It was supposed to be in 2021, but I'm sure that is now pushed back. The question was whether there will be a season 11 (and beyond). Clunes has changed his tune on that and now it sounds like there will be.

I'm not sure JKR understands that is not how cancel culture works. But, it does seem strange that she is so entrenched in this that she doesn't seem to care what it is doing to her reputation. While I do not agree with her at all on her trans beliefs, I would at least think she would SHUT UP about them, seeing how the world is reacting to it. I doubt that Stephen King is going to take a hit for agreeing with JKR on some things but not this. Upthread I bemoaned what I was going to do with the HP world now. I recently heard someone on a podcast say (I'm paraphrasing) that Harry Potter no longer belongs to JKR, it belongs to the world. JKR's views don't have to change your experience with HP. And I do agree with this to a point. I mean, I'm not spending money on the HP world right now because I already own the books and all the movies and that's great. However, I might think twice about buying something in the future, unless it is from that bookstore (I think in England) that donates all their proceeds from sales of JKR works to trans support groups.

I ended up DNF-ing Last Tang Standing. It was blurbed as being reminiscent/inspired by Bridget Jones's Diary and Crazy Rich Asians, but I think a better term would have been knocked off from those two. I'm about to start Red Sky over Hawaii by Sara Ackerman. I've never read any of her books, but this one does sound good and has a 4+ rating on Goodreads.

No, it’s very much on the page. It isn’t the most graphic I’ve read (by far) but it still felt like it was far too much, given the circumstances.

I just finished reading Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld. I haven't read any of her other books (yet), so I can't say how this one measures up, but I devoured this one. Alternate history is iffy for me, but this one really worked. My only issues were: 1 - Reading Bill and Hillary sex scenes was...uncomfortable. I normally have no issue with such scenes, but the fact that these involved two "real" people who have been in the public eye for so long just made it feeling like I was walking in on my parents having sex. 2 - There is an element of the absurd in the last part of the book that, even though I found it entertaining, was way over the top. Next, I'm going to read Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho. It's a debut novel that is supposed to Crazy Rich Asians-ish, so I'm hoping it will be a lot of fun.

Ordered to Pilot A modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, based on Curtis Sittenfeld’s book Eligible: the story of the five Bennet sisters and their journeys toward love. Forced to return home, Liz Bennet not only finds herself thrust back into the lives of her family, but also comes up against a new neighbor named Darcy.

I sort of agree, if that makes sense? I guess it depends what kind of review we're talking about. If it something like what you would find People Magazine, which is a "what to watch now" and pretty limited in scope, they very much need to stick to just the movie/show. However, I do think that there is merit for a deeper review, such as what one might find in the NYT or such, to refer back to the source material, especially if any changes positively or negatively impact the quality of the movie or show. For example: (spoiler for Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere)

I think I've posted this here before, but my brother (whose daughter was a huge John Green fan when she was in high school) had the perfect summation of him: moments of brilliance amidst a sea of mediocrity. Personally, I always say your first John Green will be your favorite John Green. My first was The Fault in Our Stars, which I guess was my favorite only because I liked it better than the others of his that I read, but I wouldn't say that I loved it. It was just a little too saccharine for me.

I'm going to look up Frimet Goldberger...I don't think I've come across anything from her on this. As for the criticism, I'm skeptical of it in this case for 2 related reasons. The first is that the Hasidic community, or certain sects therein, have been known to attack anything critical of them in ways that aren't exactly truthful, I've seen this a few times in unrelated cases, so "the Hasids said..." doesn't hold a lot of weight with me in the she said/they said argument. Secondly, as soon as someone uses something that doesn't actually exist as an attack, I lose faith in their argument. In this case, it was claim that Feldman was forced into a marriage when, in fact, that is not what she wrote in the book. She was happy to get married and never resisted it. However, I will be interested to see what Goldberger writes--I admit that I give more credence to someone who is willing to put their name to it. I did, in fact, just finish reading Unorthodox and I was actually underwhelmed by it. It wasn't so much the differences between the book and the Netflix show (which are many--I wouldn't even say that the show was based on the book), but rather that Feldman fell into an all too common memoir trap where the memoirist is very convinced of their own perfect and superiority. Feldman makes no bones about the fact that she believes she is the smartest and most beautiful of them all and only she could accomplish being a woman to leave the Satmar community. It just became annoying, which is too bad because there was much in that book I found interesting. My next book is Rodham, which should be interesting....

Maybe. As I said, I read conflicting stories on it. In the one that said he wanted to retire, he said he wanted time to do nothing. Since then, we’ve had the covid situation, so maybe he had had enough of that now!