Katelyn’s Comments (group member since Jan 07, 2016)

Katelyn’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

Alexa wrote: "Please ask Gloria Steinem why she recently attacked young women voters by saying, "when you're young you're thinking where are the boys, the boys are with Bernie..."

http://youtu.be/scO9gIpR8BI

T..."

I agree, I'd really appreciate an elaboration on this. Given the backlash today in the media and social media, I think she's going to have to face the music on this sooner rather than later. But either way, I'd like to know why she would make such a careless statement that denies the political agency of young women and assumes that they are unable to think critically.

I loved the book. I am baffled by this interview with Bill Maher.

Angelica wrote: "How do I do that? I just tried in the section that asks for the page number, but it won't let me enter a percentage."

On the website: When you update your status, the word "page" should be a link. If you click it, it will change to percentage!

On the app: To the right of the space where you type in page number, it also has a button for percentage, and you can choose either option!

This community is headed in exactly the direction you were hoping and growing faster than anyone expected! We are all so grateful to have this space for discussion.

Let's celebrate and show the world what we've accomplished with #Happy100kOSS !!!

Hi everyone!

The Color Purple is our first fiction read, and in the interest of making everyone's experience enjoyable, please be respectful when posting spoilers.

Ways to do this include:
-When creating a new topic, please include either a spoiler warning or an indication of the part of the book under discussion (perhaps a page or chapter number).
-Use the HTML tag for spoilers (this will hide the text you include between the tags behind a link). You can find the code in the top-right (some html is okay) link above the text box when writing a comment. If the topic is already tagged for spoilers, this is probably unnecessary (unless you reference a part of the book that is further along than the topic heading indicates).
-When responding to a thread that is not already tagged for spoilers, indicate the part of the book you are going to discuss before the spoiler tags so that others can know whether it's safe for them to read beyond the spoiler tag link.

For those who are concerned about spoilers, try to use your own discretion when reading through discussions. While we can rely on one another to be respectful when it comes to spoilers, it's also your own responsibility to avoid topics about parts of the book you've not yet read if you are very concerned about spoilers!
For example, the post titled "Has anyone read the book before?" will likely contain some spoilers, as most people commenting will have read the book previously.

Hope this helps! Happy reading!

We've also hit a landmark of over 1,000 book suggested by members via our to-read shelf and book suggestions lists.

C'mon, everyone! Tweet and Insta and all that! Let's get this trending!

Astrid wrote: "Spoiler tag: discussing rape and actual spoilers:

She might be referring to the fact that in the books, Sansa has a completely different story line that is interesting and empowering.

I'm pretty ..."

Gotcha! Like I said, I chose to skip that episode.

I imagine much of the criticism is not based on book differences, but your assessment that so much of Sansa's development is in her head is an apt point. I just hated the idea of changing her storyline from the books at all, because to me, she has the most drastic and interesting character development of all. The changes in the show, in my opinion, completely disrupt and potential irreconcilably mar that trajectory :(

Spoiler tag: discussing rape and actual spoilers:

(view spoiler)[ Astrid wrote: "One of the weirdest things I saw was a girl who complained that Sansa had been raped and then added: "It could have been some other girl that had been married to Ramsay, then it wouldn't have been so bad." Like rape is less traumatic if it's a character you don't really know :/"

Sorry if I'm repeating myself, but no one responded to my earlier point so perhaps it was overlooked. She might be referring to the fact that in the books, Sansa has a completely different story line that is interesting and empowering. So rather than having the original character marry Ramsay, they force Sansa into a plot line that (temporarily) halts the significant progress her character had been making in overcoming all the various hardships she has faced.

To me, this belies the show runners' interest in using rape for shock value and as a ratings ploy. They could have continued Sansa's plot as-written AND included the original Ramsay's wife plot with the character as-written, and we would have had both. Sadly, they completely remove Sansa's storyline in favor of a single rape narrative.

I hope that makes sense. That's (one of the reasons) why I'm really opposed to how the scene was depicted on the show.

I actually never saw that episode because i usually watch them after they air, and when I heard about the depiction of this scene, I couldn't bring myself to watch it. From what I understand, though, people were also upset because the scene is shown mainly from Theon's point of view, kind of like "oh, poor Theon! How horrible for him to witness this!" like in the way that Cecilia wrote: "Usually when a male character "suffers in order to be strong" it's via proxy of a female character (killing off a woman they love/making that woman suffer)."

(hide spoiler)]

Kodak wrote: "Yep, it appears to have been written with a deep south American dialect! Interesting concept!"

Just to clarify, it's a southern American dialect, not a south American dialect.

Here's a blog post about the importance of dialect in The Color Purple. There are minor spoilers, but not anything important I don't think, so it's worth reading:
http://eggplantemoji.com/2015/12/11/w...

I think people should read the book in whatever language they're most comfortable with, because that is how you'll get the most out of the book, but if you feel confident reading in English, I think the dialect is really very important to the presentation of the story, so I'd say give it a shot. Honestly, even as an American, the dialect is challenging, and I think it's meant to be a bit confusing to readers. So if it's tripping you up, you're not alone!

Not to drive this completely off topic, but just to clarify: most of the negative reaction (from what I understand) to Sansa's rape on GoT is because it doesn't happen in the books. Sansa's character has a completely different plot that is interesting and empowering, and it's a different character that is forced to marry Ramsey. My problem is that by changing Sansa's story to follow another's plot, a lot of the progress she makes is cut short. And we miss out on a new and interesting story just so they can give us yet another rape plot device. If they had included it with the other character, we wouldn't be missing out on Sansa's continued empowerment. But by using her in this position instead, there is greater shock value and audience attachment. It was just a very poor choice, in my opinion.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Let's trend #Happy100kOSS !!!!

LET'S TREND! #Happy100kOSS !!!!!

YAY! Thanks for joining us, y'all!!!

If you've read the book before, how might you approach a second (or third or fourth!) read through differently?

Hi all, the book has been announced! I'm going to go ahead and lock+archive this thread :)

You can also update according to percentage! Not sure if that's helpful for audiobooks, but that's how I updated my progress reading on an ereader.

Lynn, that is an absurd requirement. It sounds like a bunch of people patting themselves on the back for a job well done getting fancy degrees (this is coming from someone with a "fancy degree", I suppose)... What, do they bring their diplomas to each meeting and hang them from the walls to remind themselves how smart they are? Ugh...
Sorry, that was pretty nasty but I cannot fathom how anyone thinks that is an acceptable requirement for a book club... We read books to LEARN. So shouldn't they want "less educated" people to read books that they themselves are endorsing? What a bunch of elitist crap!!!

The only thing I could think of is that they're reading dense, theoretical/academic-style texts that the average person wouldn't really want to read? Doesn't seem like a reason to exclude anyone, though. I would just think that people would just not participate if they didn't like the type of books being read.

Lynn, don't let 'em get you down. Doesn't sound like you are ;) Have you checked the "Meeting Up" section here on Our Shared Shelf? Maybe people in your area are getting together to discuss the books we read here!

I rematched Legally Blonde a month or so ago, for the first time in years. It just happened to be on TV. I thought, "LOL let's see what a hot mess this is now that I'm old enough to actually understand these things!"

I was so wrong! It really holds up! Other than some stereotypes about feminists and gay men, which are played for laughs but aran't really acceptable jokes 15 years later. But overall, I thought it was really empowering. It also comes from a really truthful place. Elle (and Vivian as well) is not someone who has always been a "feminist." She sort of has a revelation and evolves into a feminist character. It makes it clear that anyone can overcome these gendered expectations and stereotypes, even those most entrenched in them, without having to sacrifice the things that they like (pink, cute lil dogs, etc.).

Cecilia wrote: "Rachel wrote: "Ishita wrote: "I guess GOT is not a gender specific show. It has just as many, if not more, strong female characters as males. Daenerys' moralistic behavior is a really tedious but t..."

Cersei/Jaime at the altar. And the show runners refused to concede that the scene was done poorly. They just said something alone the lines of "No, you misunderstood. She definitely wanted it." but she never consented!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2...

What do you all think of the article's take on our club?

So when women are cautious because their safety may be at risk, the is evidence that we will never achieve equality?

Last I checked, there's still a large portion of the population that assumes that if a woman isn't cautious, then she was "asking for it."

So, yeah, it's not our responsibility to act totally cool when our privacy or safety are violated, just because we're trying to achieve equality. The systemic barriers and injustices need to be dealt with first.

Our caution is not evidence that equality can't be achieved, it is evidence that we must keep working toward it because it hasn't been achieved yet.

That all being said, I don't disagree that the later "reveal" that the driver was trans seemed dealt with a bit strangely to me, but she shouldn't be expected to apologize for her initial reaction to a (person who is read as a) man's invasive and inappropriate questions within a small space in which he has control.