Melanie Surani's Blog, page 248
June 23, 2015
Finished reading this book this morning on the subway. Seems...
Finished reading this book this morning on the subway. Seems like an ideal place to read a book with a title like this, but my subway line is underground, so I never see anything cool to obsess over like the character in the book does. A little kid, though, couldn’t stop herself reading over my shoulder, which put me in a bad mood, and I had to put the book away until she left.
The Girl on the Train has been compared to Gone Girl, but really only in the sense that it’s a thriller/mystery involving a missing woman. Thankfully, the remainder of the story is different, because I hate it when people copy each other. Be inspired, but make it yours. Paula Hawkins made it hers.
One thing that this book pushes is the dangers of alcohol. Not a little bit. Not a social drinker. But when your life gets effed up enough that you need to dull that pain and you have ten drinks a day and end up blacking out hours of your life. That kind of drinking.
This story involves a big chunk of missing time. But thankfully, she didn’t start the story there. A big, “Chapter One: there’s blood on my hands. What the hell happened last night?” nothing like that. The story begins with the introduction of the character, a little who she is and what she does, how she behaves, and then when she drinks enough to lose an entire evening, you nod to yourself and think, “yup. She’d totally do that.”
This isn’t your typical police procedural or amateur detective mystery. Rachel is no Nancy Drew. She’s a damaged woman who can’t let her ex-husband go, and her best intentions to “help” when a woman she’s been watching from the train goes missing are a total shit show. But the author makes sure you can see her good intentions and her screw ups are consistent with her personality. This is probably accurate to how being an amateur detective would really be: creepy meddling.
Nicely written. Took me all of 3 sessions to read the whole thing.
Dear people learning German
please be aware that the correct way to replace ä, ö, ü, ß is turning them into ae, oe, ue, and ss, not just taking the dots away or typing “B”.
Otherwise you can get things like,
“Das Wetter ist sehr schwül heute.”
= “The weather is very hot and humid today.”“Das Wetter ist sehr schwul heute.”
= “The weather is very gay today.”
I wonder what gay weather would be like…
caterjunes:
fun story about this post!! this is because germany...
fun story about this post!! this is because germany ~as a unified geopolitical entity~ did not exist until 1870-ish! before that the region was a mass of very small kingdoms. so there was no need for the surrounding countries (which in general DID exist as unified entities for a lot longer than that) to have a single word for GERMANY
as a result of this, the words for germany in other languages tend to reflect the region of germany they had contact with. french calls germany “allemagne” because the french interacted with the allemannic tribe(s?) first. the english word “germany” comes through latin from the germanic tribes of gaul. finnish “saksa” comes from sachsen, etc. (interestingly, the word “deutsch” seems to come from an old high german word for “people who speak germanic languages,” and is thus probably the best blanket term for germans)
and then there is the ever-contentious “nemecko” and similar words (see also polish and russian). when i took russian i was told that the russian word is very closely related to the term for mute people, and this was because when early russians first came across early germans, they were like “what the fuck are you guys saying?? you obviously just flat-out can’t speak at all” and the name stuck
see also on this topic
This is weird, but cool
This is weird, but cool
June 22, 2015
kkilicer:
#theend #peace #green #abandoned #depresssive #dark...
#theend #peace #green #abandoned #depresssive #dark #feeling #soul #dark #hardrock #depression #desolate #deviantart #deep #alone #forsaken #metal #walls #ruin #ruins #mood #lonely #sad #stone #metal #nature #architecture #façade #hidden #secret #forest #apocalypse #trees
My dad was always big on reading. I was homeschooled, so I got a...
My dad was always big on reading. I was homeschooled, so I got a heaping dose of the classics, most of which I grudgingly got through. In other words, I was a regular kid.
In the 80s, I had access to all kinds of TV based toys to play with (Jem, My Little Pony, etc). My sister and I played with Star Trek: the Next Generation action figures. Disney had a line of dolls to go with every movie they released.
One line of entertainment-related dolls that made a huge impact on me was Pleasant Company (currently called the American Girl collection). Instead of tying into a video story, these dolls came with historical fiction books.
The books were more a part of Pleasant Company to me than the dolls, because at least I could get the books from the library. Every now and then, I’d get one for Christmas (because at $5.95 for a novelette, I had a hard time convincing my parents the series was a sound investment).
For the longest time, Samantha was the way to go if you were a girl in the late 80s.
She was flowery and Victorian, and that was the proper doll to want. I wanted Molly, even though she was “too modern” – which never seemed like a good reason. A GOOD reason not to get the doll I wanted was because she was (then) $74. And where’s a 9-year-old supposed to get money like that?
But then 1991 came around and Pleasant Company added a new doll to their lineup.
Felicity was from the 1770s – and my favorite movie of all time (at that point) was 1776, the musical.
And what the hell kid thinks this is the best movie ever? I have no idea, but it was me.
So, coupling my established love of reading with a doll from an era I wished I’d been born in, and you got a winning combo. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to scrape together enough money to buy the doll, I was basically too old to play with her. But I held on to her throughout the years (and many, many moves). The photo above (of the 3 dolls together) was recently taken by me on my sofa. So though my friends are off having babies now, I still have my dolls and books, and I still write stories and play with hair because who wants to give that stuff up?
stephanie-hans:
Almost 200 covers after the beginning of my...
Almost 200 covers after the beginning of my journey, here are 10 of my favorite comic books covers from these last 5 years. It’s been a rollercoaster, really, and an honor.
Some amazing artwork here!
