helenamonster

Original airdate: 3/14/22

Original airdate: 3/6/22

Original airdate: 3/7/22

Original airdate: 2/28/22

Original airdate: 2/27/22

Original airdate: 2/28/22

Original airdate: 3/2/22

Original airdate: 2/21/22

Original airdate: 2/23/22

I mean, I find Alyssa rather insufferable in small doses mediated through a screen, I can't imagine what it's like to deal with that every day at work for years on end.

Not yet--I've heard great things though! Will probably get to it after I finish a couple other things.

Just finished: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It was interesting to read what people envisioned a pandemic to be pre-covid, and I enjoyed finding moments to relate to the characters without any cute shoutouts to our current situation. Obviously the scenario in the book is much worse than what we have going on now (death within days of contracting the virus and 99% of the human population wiped out) but the ways in which people considered how they used to live (both the things they missed and the things they now in hindsight found ridiculous) reminded me a lot of the conversations I have with my friends about the Before Times and what we predict is gone for good. It was also interesting when characters talked about the differences in outlook between those who were old enough to remember the pre-pandemic era and those who weren't, which I think is a discussion we will be having about today's youth for quite awhile. I also appreciated the mentions of people who didn't die of the disease but died as a result of not being able to adapt to the collapse of civilization (diabetics who could no longer access insulin, cancer patients who couldn't get chemo, etc) as those casualties are just as important as those from the virus itself. It was also somewhat comforting to read how even in the wake of an extinction-level event, people were still determined to make some kind of society with recognizable aspects in it, both the good and the bad. Life, uh, finds a way. Next up: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

Original airdate: 2/2/22

Original airdate: 1/19/22

Original airdate: 1/12/22

Original airdate: 1/5/22

Just finished: The Overstory by Richard Powers (which won the Pulitzer in 2019), which unfolds over several decades and follows multiple characters as they deal with the looming threat of climate change, particularly as it relates to deforestation. I've always loved trees but this book made me appreciate them even more, so many species written about with such care. It doesn't offer much of a solution, but also doesn't get too defeatist either. Next up: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Not sure how fun it will be to read a book about a pandemic when we're actually in the middle of a pandemic, but since this was published in 2014, at least it won't have any obnoxious winks to our current predicament.

There's also the bit in season one where we first meet Paolo: he and Ross are talking about Rachel, with Paolo on the upper step and Ross below, and Ross steps up so as not to feel dominated.

Original airdate: 12/14/21

Original airdate: 12/13/21

Original airdate: 12/7/21

Original airdate: 12/6/21

Original airdate: 12/1/21

Just finished: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, a sprawling WWII novel. I don't want to say "nothing happens" because that's not true, a lot happens, but it didn't feel like it added up to anything. A lot of themes recur throughout the book and link the two POV characters--a blind French girl and a 16-year-old Nazi--but I don't really know what I was supposed to get out of it except "damn this shit sucked." The prose, however, is marvelously evocative, and I never feel like I'm wasting time when something is written well. Next up: The Overstory by Richard Powers

Original airdate: 11/30/21