Interesting Things
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The Danger of a Single Story
I want to share a video with you today, by an incredible author, Chimemanda Ngozi Adichie, called The Danger of the Single Story. I find myself thinking a lot about it these days, as I watch people sling insults, accusations and straw man arguments at each-other over seemingly everything. I have a lot of thoughts about how this talk and these ideas could be integrated into the discord I see today, but for now, I will let Adichie’s voice shine.
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Persuasion
Hello, I’ll be back in the next few days with a few other things, but today, I bring you the last of Jane Austen’s books, Persuasion. This short and sweet book is a great one, and I have been looking forward to it! There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense anyway. Rereading The Book Persuasion is the story of 27 year old Anne Elliot, the second daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, a spendthrift landowner who ends up having to relocate to Bath to reduce expenses. Anne is sensible, quiet and reasonable,…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Northanger Abbey
Hello! Another week in quarantine, another Jane Austen marathon down. This week, I have been hoping for spring to come, and trying to stay upbeat despite some dreary weather. I’m working on what comes next on this blog, because I have one of these books left, so let me know if there is anything you want to see! Next week, we are wrapping up this series with Persuasion, which is both short and one of my favorites, so I am looking forward to it! There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense…
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Unsung Heroines
I’m here this Saturday to share a small bite of storytelling with you, and one that touches on Covid-19 in a really interesting way. Even if you feel inundated right now, I encourage you to check this out. This all started as I am currently reading a really interesting book called Game Changers: The Unsung Heroines of Sports History by filmmaker Molly Schiot. This book is a work of art, and includes pictures and stories about women from all over the world doing every sport imaginable against incredible prejudice, discrimination and danger. As I was flipping through it, admiring the book itself, I realized that it had been inspired by…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Emma
Hello everyone, The fact that Emma is so popular means that it took me an extra week just to make it through the sheer volume of Emma’s many adaptations, and I didn’t even get to them all – however, I am here now, and I have to tell you that you are in for a treat! I approached this book with some dread because when I first read Emma, I did not like it all that much. I thought Emma was annoying, and the central relationship between Harriet and Emma was grating, and many of the characters felt a little more one-sided than in some of her other books. I…
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Small Literary Joys
One of the things about loving storytelling for me is that I love seeing the joy in others when they are super excited about something. I was reminded of this this week when something lovely popped up on a social media feed – Patrick Stewart reading sonnets! I don’t love sonnets, but I do LOVE Patrick Stewart, so I immediately had to watch this. As his beautiful voice started to read a poem I had never heard before, I found myself focusing not on the words as much the pure joy and enjoyment that he was projecting! Take a look at one of his below, and if you like them,…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Mansfield Park
I promise I’ll have more to write about than Austen here at some point soon, especially as I am temporarily out of work due to events out of my control. In the meantime, I do promise that Austen is worth re-reading! Why not pick up Pride and Prejudice, and start reading along with me? The next book I will be reading is Emma, which is probably the second most popular Austen book, and is a very different flavor from Mansfield Park. There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense anyway. Rereading The…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Sense and Sensibility
Well, since I last wrote, we have entered a very different world! And what better time to explore the classics? They are available free online, you don’t need to leave your house, and after you read the book you can watch hours of Regency movies in all your free time. The next book in this series will be Mansfield Park, the story of poor relation Fanny Price who is taken in by her rich cousins. There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense anyway. Rereading The Book This installment, I read Sense…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Pride and Prejudice
Moving forward, I will be doing these books in order of publication, with Austen’s first book, Sense and Sensibility coming next. However, since it has the most movie adaptations ever, and since it is by far Austen’s best known work, I started here. There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense anyway. Rereading The Book I had so much fun revisiting the world of Longbourn and Elizabeth Bennett. Austen’s books are the frameworks for much romantic fiction to come, but they are also so much more, and their depth and complexity is…
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OF/BY/FOR ALL: An interesting look at diversity and representation
Recently, I watched a fascinating talk, given by the director of a museum in California, which talked about her experience bringing representation and inclusivity to her museum space, and the huge benefits that this effort brought to the organization and the surrounding community. OF/BY/FOR ALL is a movement that came from her work that seeks to help organizations find ways of doing this themselves. It is a longer video, but I encourage you all to check this out! Have a great week! If you are getting this update as an email, make sure you click the link to visit my site and you will be able to watch the video…
