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NorthSea Witch finished reading The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72 by Molly Peacock

Molly Peacock: The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72 (2010, McClelland & Stewart)

A beautiful book about looking, surviving and flourishing.

NorthSea Witch finished reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar (Paperback, 1976, Bantam Books)

The Bell Jar is the only novel written by American poet Sylvia Plath. It is …

This was a reread--it felt so modern--disturbingly so. I read it as a teenager and I was way too close to the narrative. So little has changed around mental illness and the medical profession. The prose is so good. I relished it and its angry humour. The only thing dated in it would be the racism of the narrator.

NorthSea Witch finished reading Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert

Zoe Gilbert: Mischief Acts (2022, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc)

Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert

NorthSea Witch finished reading The Giant, O'Brien by Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel: The Giant, O'Brien (Paperback, 1999, Holt Paperbacks)

London, 1782: center of science and commerce, home to the newly rich and the desperately …

I read this in preparation to my visit to the newly reopened Hunterian in London. This short, brutal novel weaves the lives and deaths of John Hunter and one of his specimens--all were reluctant but O'Brien requested specifically not to end up in Hunter's hands after his death. For years, even in my lifetime, his skeleton was displayed int the museum against his wishes. Perhaps one of the few improvements in the new museum's curation--he is no longer exhibited. His wishes finally respected. POSSIBLE SPOILER? The women characters in the book (2-3 minor characters) endure the most horrific sexual violence and humiliation. I don't even know how that was adding to this grim book in any way. I really dislike the idea that women characters have to endure rape and torture to convince a reader that things are 'really dark'. I love Mantel's writing but because of this I feel …

I read this in preparation to my visit to the newly reopened Hunterian in London. This short, brutal novel weaves the lives and deaths of John Hunter and one of his specimens--all were reluctant but O'Brien requested specifically not to end up in Hunter's hands after his death. For years, even in my lifetime, his skeleton was displayed int the museum against his wishes. Perhaps one of the few improvements in the new museum's curation--he is no longer exhibited. His wishes finally respected. POSSIBLE SPOILER? The women characters in the book (2-3 minor characters) endure the most horrific sexual violence and humiliation. I don't even know how that was adding to this grim book in any way. I really dislike the idea that women characters have to endure rape and torture to convince a reader that things are 'really dark'. I love Mantel's writing but because of this I feel it difficult to recommend the book.

NorthSea Witch quoted The Giant, O'Brien by Hilary Mantel

London, 1782: center of science and commerce, home to the newly rich and the desperately …

There is a point -- and you may know it yourself--a point in fatigue or pain when logic slowly crumbles from the world, where reason's bricks sieve to crumb.Where content flits from language, goes its way and departs, its pack on its back; you take the high road and I'll take the low. Where meaning evaporates into the air like ether. The Giant has reach this point. When he seals his senses, he's sealing out the meaninglesss, because inside he's trying to preserve some sense of what meaning means.

— The Giant, O'Brien by Hilary Mantel (Page 190)

This is such a perfect description of chronic pain. Mantel suffered from endometriosis--undiagnosed and misdiagnosed for much of her life. The suffering of the Giant is perhaps informed by her own .

NorthSea Witch started reading The Giant, O'Brien by Hilary Mantel

The Giant, O'Brien by Hilary Mantel

London, 1782: center of science and commerce, home to the newly rich and the desperately poor. Among whom is the …

NorthSea Witch started reading Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert

Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert

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Paranoid Fish quoted Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon: Gravity's Rainbow (Paperback, 2006, Penguin Classics)

Tyrone Slothrop, a GI in London in 1944, has a big problem. Whenever he gets …

Proverbs for Paranoids, 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.

— Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (Page 255)

NorthSea Witch finished reading The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder: The Memory Police (Hardcover, 2019, Pantheon Books)

A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, from the acclaimed author of …

Content warning This is just me being totally in the dark about the ending.

Was this a book-within-a-book Bluebeard retelling? I mean, is the editor the typing teacher? Or is he just the only survivor? I'm missing something. I enjoyed the book until the very end, though sometimes I LOL'ed at the 'romance' between the editor and the writer. I mean...the harmonica thing? That just comedy gold. Was it supposed to be?