During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,
I was thinking the other day with using only one post on the landing page and the titles are almost never indicators of what I am writing about, it would be a good idea to pull together a list of the top tags of topics I cover. Which you can now see in the right hand side and the list is long.
Reading
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
(Amazon | WorldCat | GoodReads | LibraryThing)
Status: Finished
I need to admit I am a huge fan of Maureen Johnson’s Twitter, but had not, until this point, read any of her books. When this came along as a freebie on Kindle as a promotion to reel you in for one of her newer titles, I grabbed it. I admittedly rarely dip into YA, so this seemed like a good gateway drug.
Erm.
Not terribly sure what I read but I’m having a hard time reconciling the erudite, witty, and hilarious MJ could write such a bland book. There is no character development, no setting, no plot movement – it’s just all action. Ginger follows these steps to get to this point. The problem is the underlying premise of the book is about the growth of Ginger when her favorite aunt dies, because who else would push her to developing into something that was not just a dependable, reliable old hag. But you don’t really see any growth going on with Ginger as she flits about Europe chasing after her dead aunt.
A couple of other reviewers pointed out some major flaws of the book, such as the Mysterious Parents who apparently had zero problem letting Ging flitter her way across Europe with not a single contact to them. In fact, we never even meet the parents The second criticism has to do with the money spent by Ginger, given to her by her Aunt, which was such an exact number, £1826, that the travelling she does, even on the cheap, is not necessarily going to cover it all. Even more importantly when she has to give £500 away and ends up being charged £500 for a weeks room / board while in Amsterdam. She’s apparently crossed EU several times, via plane and train, ate, and got rooming for under £800? There is suspending belief and there is being so fucking arbitrary it’s kind of ridiculous.
I’ll give ole MJ another go a later time, but overall the only positive thing about this book is that I finished it in 1.5 hours.
Watching
Weekly watching: Reign, Dracula, Project Runway All-Stars, Breathless, Atlantis, Masters of Sex, Elementary, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sleepy Hollow, Survivor, Boardwalk Empire, Doc Martin, QI, Peaky Blinders, Sons of Anarchy, The Vampire Diaries
Links
- Provocative review of The Library: A World History which posits only libraries for the privileged were considered for inclusion in the “history.”
- How to read a charcoaled scroll
- Unseen JD Salinger stories leaked on to filesharing site
- Order of the Pug was a para-Masonic society founded by Roman Catholics
- French Prints Show the Year 2000 A collection of prints, dating from 1910, on what was thought the year 2000 would look like
- A Brief History of Dude
- How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang
- The house that’s frozen in time: Eerie images inside abandoned ‘Red Dress Manor’ which still has clothes in the wardrobes, photographs on the walls and love letters strewn across the floors
- Sexx Money’s Open Letter To Miley Cyrus
- Krampus: Saint Nicholas’ Dark Companion
- Welsh church uncovers stunning medieval wall paintings; More images here.
- The Edwardian Debutante
- Trailer for Death Comes to Premberley
- You will soon be able to watch HBO shows on Google Play
- Here’s Why The Powerpuff Girls Are Feminist Super-Heroines
- An abandoned railway station in Abkhazia, Georgia former Russian territory.
What have you read/watched/listened to this week?
x0x0,
lisa
This day in Lisa-Universe in: 1998