Five for Friday, Edition #14

Random thoughts I have had this week. You're welcome. 

1) Last weekend I was walking Hannah and there were two tiny squirrels wrestling by a tree in front of us. Now, if you are someone without a dog with a high prey drive, you probably would not have even noticed these TEENY TINY squirrels, but I noted them because if Hannah noticed them, she would rip my shoulder out trying to get to them.

ANYWAY. They scurried up the tree when we were half a block away and I didn't worry about them anymore because Hannah cannot climb. Then, when we were within five steps of the tree, they FELL OUT OF THE TREE. They were wrestling so hard and were just babies who didn't know their own limitations, and they FELL OUT. And they seemed a bit dazed, so I did some fancy dog training bullshit (I spun Hannah around and started walking back in the direction from which we came) and we went around the other way. That's all. I didn't see any dead squirrels when we walked by later, so I assume they made it. 

Also, where do the squirrels go? Like, the trees are naked right now, so I can see most of the squirrel nests in our neighborhood and there are WAY MORE SQUIRRELS THAN NESTS. Where are they going when it's negative eleventy billion degrees outside?

2) Tangentially related, but I recently listened to a podcast episode where a dog walker found a dead body. Friends, I have worries about this. Hannah and I generally walk well-trodden paths, but there's a park we regularly go to that isn't as busy and I sometimes worry that she and I are going to be out on our 6am walk and stumble upon something bad. Please take some time to remind me in the comments that finding dead bodies is extremely rare and my dog has a terrible nose for things. 

Is it here we will find the dead body? 

3) Suzanne recently wrote a post about how when she pictures bloggers, she sort of assumes they are all the same height as her. I do not assume this because when I met up with Sarah and Anne recently, I felt like the Jolly Purple Giant. I am almost 5'7" if you want to know and these two ladies are teeny. But I also sort of assume everyone looks vaguely like me (dark hair, bad teeth, roughly my age, and apparently gigantic). 

But after I read Suzanne's post, I thought about how I totally have an opinion about whether or not someone is a hugger. The cool thing about meeting bloggers in-person is that you immediately KNOW THEM already! So do you go in for hug when you first meet them? I am Team I Will Not Initiate A Hug, But Will Happily Participate. And in my head I also have Teams Do Not Hug and Will Initiate Hug.  Does anyone else do this in their heads?

4) Wednesday and Friday are so hard for me in terms of exercise. Saturday and Sunday are generally easy on a regular weekend without a lot of obligations because I can just do it whenever. Monday and Thursday I can usually get yoga in during lunch at the student union. Tuesday I do a fitness class at the university. So that leaves Wednesdays and Fridays. The rush to get home from work, walk the dog, exercise, and deal with dinner is very challenging.  One of them can usually be my day off, but then I have to grit through it and exercise on the other, which usually leads to a late dinner and not enough sleep. Argh. Why is scheduling so hard?!

This angle is hysterical. She does not really look like this. She's BEAUTIFUL. 

5) Let's talk about the cat again. She's doing better in that on Wednesday she had her first solid BM in about a month. Woot woot! She is still hungry all the time. And she has basically stopped cuddling with me at all in favor of hanging out by her food dish and crying for food. Maybe as her gut settles, she'll feel more like cuddling? She is starting to play again, going for her beloved brown ball, knocking pens off the table, and throwing hair ties around like she just don't care. She'll be back at the vet for blood tests in a couple of weeks and it seems like we'll do a taper so she won't be on this crazy amount of steroids forever. 

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Have you ever had squirrels fall out of a tree right in front of you? What hug team are you on? Do you worry about finding dead bodies? 

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Part III of the review)

 Part I here and Part II here. 

Okay, so let's get real about some of the criticisms of the book. I've tried to remain mostly spoiler free in these reviews. but I'm going to talk about plot points in this post. 

There are a number of legitimate criticisms of the book. The first is obviously its portrayal of black people, frequently describing them as non-human, stupid, or incapable. There are lines in the book about how all the slaves at Tara (Scarlett's family plantation) and Twelve Oakes (Ashley's family plantation) were happy. The use of the n-word abounds. The treatment of Prissy and Mammy, even after they were freed, is abhorrent. 

I think this is all fair criticism. I also think it's an important artifact of its time. I am not dismissing the racism of the book. This was how Mitchell was writing about the 1860s in the 1930s. The novel is Scarlett's perspective and Scarlett is a very imperfect character and only really concerned herself with things for her own comfort and perspective. To her, all the stereotypes of black people may have seemed true, although how she could think black people were stupid when Mammy was in her life is puzzling. But that's the point, isn't it? Scarlett is not reflective about other people at all. She even admits in the end chapters that she never understood Rhett or Ashley. If she never stopped to really think about the most important men in her life, why would she bother to think about things like slavery? Scarlett literally thought the Civil War was not a big deal at the beginning of the novel. 

So, yes, there's racism. I think it's important to read books that show us that side of American history. It's important to hear and see it and think about how things are different and how things are the same. If you are a sensitive reader, this might not be the book for you. 

Another big criticism is the glorification of white supremacy and the romanticism of the Confederacy. It's not a Confederate soldier who nearly rapes Scarlett - it's a Yankee. It's not the Confederate soldiers who use Tara as a way station after the war that causes such money issues for Scarlett - it's the Yankees. The Confederates may have lost the war, but they were in the right.

In the context of the book, though, of course that's what Scarlett thought. She doesn't read books, she doesn't care about current events, and she's solely influenced by the people around her. If they all think this, why wouldn't she? Why would anyone expect any different? Also, as J pointed out in a comment on this post, Scarlett sees through some of it. She thinks the war is wrong, people are dying for principles, and that the cause is not worth the effects of the war on everyone from soldiers to civilians. 

For people who say this is Confederate propaganda, I have to say that they must be reading a different book than I am. It actually seems like an anti-war book to me full stop. There is definitely a feeling of romanticizing the plantation life in the antebellum period, particularly early on in the novel, but if you read the entire book and still feel that way, that says more about you and your own values than it does about the words in the book, full of descriptions of the terrible impacts of war on soldiers and civilians alike, property destruction, and ruin of community and that's before you get into the chaos and fear of the post-war period. 

Okay, let's move on to the Ku Klux Klan. Scarlett is vehemently against the organization because she thinks it's unnecessarily dangerous. She thinks that KKK members are fools. Her second husband kept his membership a secret from her (as did Melanie, Ashley, and India) because he knew she wouldn't approve. I actually read the book as vehemently anti-KKK and was surprised to see that  a criticism of the book was that it supported the KKK. Sure, Scarlett wasn't against it because she cared about black people, but she wasn't for it. I actually think it's to the book's credit that it addressed the KKK in this way. It would have read like Mitchell was nervous to address it head on if she'd left it out.

Yes, Mitchell was writing to encourage people to feel sympathy for the Confederacy. That still has impacts today. But if you read the book, as a truly thinking person, while you may feel badly for some of the characters, they're also all pretty terrible, so I didn't feel terrible for any of them. *shrug* Your mileage may vary on that. 

I feel a bit that I am going to come off as a Confederate sympathizer with this review. I am not. I don't actually think the book makes it seem like the Confederates were the good guys. I think a lot of the strongest defenders of slavery come from characters were are absolute idiots - in Chapter 57, Scarlett and Ashley have a quarrel over using convict labor at the sawmill and this happens:

“I’m not afraid of what people say as long as I am right. And I have never felt that convict labor was right.” [This is Ashley.]
“But why — ”  [This is Scarlett.]
“I can’t make money from the enforced labor and misery of others.”
“But you owned slaves!”
“They weren’t miserable..."

Scarlett is a selfish insufferable human who thinks using convict labor is better than using freed slaves for stereotypical reasons and Ashley says his slaves weren't miserable. But Ashley's an idiot. He is a member of the KKK. I don't actually read this passage as saying slavery was good. *shrug* It's all in your lens, I guess. (I do read it as convict labor is okay, which is wrong on another level, but Scarlett is portrayed as willing to do just about anything to make money, so I take that with a grain of salt.)

Let's talk about Margaret Mitchell. She was born in 1900, decades after the end of the Civil War. She was a journalist and Gone with the Wind is her one and only novel. Imagine writing ONE book and it's THIS ONE. Her grandfathers were both in the Confederate Army and didn't learn that the Confederates didn't win the Civil War until she was ten. She heard stories about the Civil War from family members growing up. One of her mentors was Thomas Dixon, Jr., a charming (/s) man who supported eugenics and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. I've no doubt that Margaret Mitchell would not be a good hang and that she did intend for this book to be read as indeed romanticizing the Confederate cause. But the author's intention is not always how the reader interprets and that's the case for me while I was reading this book. 

Anyway. This book is a masterpiece. It raises so many interesting questions (most especially how does Mitchell write characters who are so terrible and yet so compelling) on so many topics and I find it remarkable, especially considering that it was a debut novel. Feel free to come at me in the comments. What do I have wrong here?

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Part II of the review)

I listened to the audiobook, but I took page numbers are from this Archive edition. Part I of my review is here. 

The copy I borrowed from the library. It was too big to be comfortable to hold, but I loved the audiobook, so I'm happy that's the direction I went in. 

Lines of note:

“Oh, Pa,” cried Scarlett impatiently, “if I married him, I'd change all that!”
“Oh, you would, would you now?” said Gerald testily, shooting a sharp look at her. “Then it's little enough you arc knowing of any man living, let alone Ashley. No wife has ever changed a husband one whit, and don’t you be forgetting that..." (page 35)

Gerald might be the best character in the whole book. It's too bad he owned slaves or I would suggest he was actually a good man. 

The library was in semidarkness, for the blinds had been drawn against the sun. The dim room with towering walls completely filled with dark books depressed her. It was not the place which she would have chosen for a tryst such as she hoped this one would be. Large numbers of books always depressed her, as did people who liked to read large numbers of books. (page 113-114)
This is why I'm not friends with Scarlett. Books shouldn't depress you! They should give you life. Scarlett's lack of intellectual curiosity is one of the most interesting aspects of her personality. She's not even embarrassed about it. 

“I have always thought,” he said reflectively, “that the system of mourning, of immuring women in crepe for the rest of their lives and forbidding them normal enjoyment is just as barbarous as the Hindu suttee.”
“Settee?”
He laughed and she blushed for her ignorance. She hated people who used words unknown to her.
“In India, when a man dies he is burned, instead of buried, and his wife always climbs on the funeral pyre and is burned with him.”
“How dreadful! Why do they do it? Don’t the police do anything about it?"
“Of course not. A wife who didn’t burn herself would be a social outcast. All the worthy Hindu matrons would talk about her for not behaving as a well-bred lady should — precisely as those worthy matrons in the corner would talk about you, should you appear tonight in a red dress and lead a reel. Personally, I think suttee much more merciful than our charming Southern custom of burying widows alive!”
“How dare you say I’m buried alive!”
“How closely women clutch the very chains that bind them! You think the Hindu custom barbarous — but would you have had the courage to appear here tonight if the Confederacy hadn’t needed you?” (page 182-183)

Even though Scarlett knows she's ignorant, she doesn't actually do anything to rectify it. She just blames the other person. Crazy!

“Money can't buy everything.”
"Someone must have told you that. You'd never think of such a platitude all by yourself. What can’t it buy?”
"Oh, well, I don’t know — not happiness or love, anyway.”
"Generally it can. And when it can’t, it can buy some of the most remarkable substitutes.” (page 193)

It certainly can buy you a level of comfort, that can't be denied. 

It was not often that she was alone like this and she did not like it. When she was alone she had to think and, these days, thoughts were not so pleasant. Like everyone else, she had fallen into the habit of thinking of the past, the dead. (page 335)
I sort of feel for Scarlett here. I also do not like to be left alone with my thoughts. 

"I’d back you against the Yankees any day.”
“I’m not sure that that’s a compliment,” she said uncertainly.
“It isn’t,” he answered. “When will you stop looking for compliments in men’s lightest utterances?” (page 336)

I snorted laughing at this line. Captain Butler is a rascal. 

Was Tara still standing? Or was Tara also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia? (page 397) - A sighting of the book title in the text!!!

It was beyond her comprehension that anyone could love Suellen. Her sister seemed to her a monster of selfishness, of complaints and of what she could only described as pure cussedness. (page 485)
I felt this line in my soul. 

“Girls have to marry someone.”
“Indeed, they do not,” said Pitty, ruffling. "I never had to.” (page 561)

Ah, this was such an awkward scene. Pitty has to rely on the kindness of her family to survive in the world as an older person who never married. Scarlett and Melanie know this, but are too kind to say it to her. 

It had begun to dawn on him that this same sweet pretty little head was a “good head for figures.” In fact, a much better one than his own and the knowledge was disquieting. He was thunderstruck to discover that she could swiftly add a long column of figures in her head when he needed a pencil and paper for more than three figures. And fractions presented no difficulties to her at all. He felt there was something unbecoming about a woman understanding fractions and business matters and he believed that, should a woman be so unfortunate as to have such unladylike comprehension, she should pretend not to. Now he disliked talking business with her as much as he had enjoyed it before they were married. Then he had thought it all beyond her mental grasp and it had been pleasant to explain things to her. Now he saw that she understood entirely too well and he felt the usual masculine indignation at the duplicity of women. Added to it was the usual masculine disillusionment in discovering that a woman has a brain. (page 616)
Ah, well. It's 2025. Girls and women sometimes still have to hide their smarts, don't they?

“There’s more ways of killing a cat than choking him to death with butter,” giggled Melanie when the whiskered old man had thumped down the stairs. (page 917)
What is this idiom? Why are cats involved?

"...I’m sorry because you are such a fool you don’t know there can’t ever be happiness except when like mates like..." (page 939)
Big discussion in our house around this one. Should like mate like or do opposites attract? Or maybe it's both? Maybe we are most attracted to those who we shouldn't be with?

Pitty, who desired nothing except to live comfortably amid the love of her relatives, would have been very pleased, in this matter, to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds. But neither the hares nor the hounds would permit this. (page 953)
More idioms I've never heard!

He drew a short breath and said lightly but softly: "my dear, I don’t give a damn." (page 1035)
Famous line from the film!!!

Things I looked up: 

Battle of the Boyne (page 42) - took place in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and James's daughter), had acceded to the Crowns of England and Scotland in 1689. The battle was fought across the River Boyne close to the town of Drogheda in the Kingdom of Ireland, modern-day Republic of Ireland, and resulted in a victory for William. This turned the tide in James's failed attempt to regain the British crown and ultimately aided in ensuring the continued Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.

St. Simons Island (page 45) - an island off the Georgia coast known for its salt marshes and sandy stretches

Zouave (Chapter 9) - a class of light infantry regiments of the French Army serving between 1830 and 1962 and linked to French North Africa. The zouaves were among the most decorated units of the French Army. With the outbreak of the Civil War, many zouave units were raised on both sides. Louisiana, with its French culture and traditions raised the majority of Zouave units for the Confederacy. Zouave units, North and South, served with distinction at Antietam and throughout the Civil War. 

passementerie (page 232) - the art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings (in French, passements) of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery, colored silk, or beads for clothing or furnishings

tumbrils (page 242) - an open cart that tilted backward to empty out its load, in particular one used to convey condemned prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution

Florida water (page 244) - an American version of an Eau de Cologne. Like European eau de colognes it is a citric scent, but shifts the emphasis towards sweet orange (rather than the bergamote orange, lemon and neroli of 4711) and adds spicy notes like clove. The name refers to the fabled Fountain of Youth, which is said to be located in Florida, as well as the "floral" nature of the scent.

Jeb Stuart (page 267) - a Confederate army general and cavalry officer during the American Civil War

Portrait by George S. Cook, 1863 - The point in the book was his beard.

Nathan Bedford Forrest (page 267) - a 19th-century American slave trader active in the lower Mississippi River valley, a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, and the first Grand Wizard of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan, serving from 1867 to 1869

Another beard reference

A pagan hearing the lapping of the waters around Charon’s boat could not have felt more desolate. (page 276) - Ha ha. I heard this as Karen's boat and could not figure out what was happening. Obviously Charon was the ferryman of the underworld. It all made sense when I saw it written out. 

For even as Andersonville was a name that stank in the North, so was Rock Island one to bring terror to the heart of any Southerner who had relatives imprisoned there.(page 285-286) - I cannot tell if this is Mitchell's pro-South bias. It seems like the consensus is that there was overcrowding at the prison, but that Mitchell's claims were overblown about conditions and deaths. 

“Mr. Lincoln, the merciful and just, who cries large tears over Mrs. Bixby’s five boys, hasn’t any tears to shed about the thousands of Yankees dying at Andersonville,” said Rhett, his mouth twisting. “He doesn’t care if they all die. The order is out. No exchanges. (page 286) 

The Bixby letter is a brief, consoling message sent by President Abraham Lincoln in November 1864 to Lydia Parker Bixby, a widow living in Boston, Massachusetts, who was thought to have lost five sons in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Along with the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address, the letter has been praised as one of Lincoln's finest written works and is often reproduced in memorials, media, and print.

Lucullan banquet (page 294) - adj., (especially of food) extremely luxurious

Thermopylae (page 296) - The Battle of Thermopylae was fought over three days in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I.  The Persian victory at Thermopylae allowed for Xerxes' passage into southern Greece, which expanded the Persian empire even further. Today the Battle of Thermopylae is celebrated as an example of heroic persistence against seemingly impossible odds

vermifuge (page 430) - a medicine used to destroy parasitic worms

Gorterdammerung (page 527)  - a collapse (as of a society or regime) marked by catastrophic violence and disorder

Hat mentions:

waving their hats (page 10-11)

 wide Panama hat (page 25, 261, 336, 378, 960)

“You keep yo’ shawl on yo’ shoulders w’en you is in de sun, an’ doan you go takin’ off yo’ hat w’en you is wahm,” she commanded...(page 78)

hat in hand (page 81, 381, 919, 931)

took off his hat with a sweep (page 84)

Today, dressed in dull black silk over unfashionably narrow hoops, she still looked as though in her habit, for the dress was as severely tailored as her riding costume and the small black hat with its long black plume perched over one warm, twinkling, brown eye was a replica of the battered old hat she used for hunting. (page 85)

They were a pretty, buxom quartette, so crammed into the carriage that their hoops and flounces overlapped and their parasols nudged and bumped together above their wide leghorn sun hats, crowned with roses and dangling with black velvet chin ribbons. All shades of red hair were represented beneath these hats, Hetty’s plain red hair, Camilla’s strawberry blonde, Randa’s coppery auburn and small Betsy’s carrot top.

"And looks a lot like Hetty, too,” said Camilla, and then disappeared shrieking amid a welter of skirts and pantalets and bobbing hats, as Hetty, who did have a long face, began pinching her. (page 88)

“That’s a fine woman,” said Gerald, putting on his hat and taking his place beside his own carriage. (page 91)

yellow hat with long cherry streamers (page 102)

"...But you, my dear Miss O’Hara, are a girl of rare spirit, very admirable spirit, and I take off my hat to you." (page 120)

The Munroe boys tore past waving their hats, and the Fontaines and Calverts went down the road yelling. (page 127)

His hat was gone...(page 205)

He walked out into the dim hall and picked up the hat he had dropped on the doorsill. (page 205)

his hat in his hand (page 231, 317)

Just at this moment, nothing mattered to her except that she looked utterly charming in the first pretty hat she had put on her head in two years. What she couldn’t do with this hat! (page 243)

In a moment the hat was back in its box. (page 243)

“And turn it into a fright like your other hats? No.” (page 243)

raised his hat (page 257)

laying down his hat and bag (page 262)

But she wanted to give him something more personal, something a wife could give a husband, a shirt, a pair of gauntlets, a hat.  Oh, yes, a hat by all means... But the only hats obtainable in Atlanta were crudely made wool hats, and they were tackier than the monkey-hat forage caps. (page 269)

When she thought of hats, she thought of Rhett Butler. He had so many hats, wide Panamas for summer, tall beavers for formal occasions, hunting hats, slouch hats of tan and black arid blue. (page 269)

She paused and thought it might be difficult to get the hat without some explanation. She simply could not tell Rhett she wanted it for Ashley. He would raise his brows in that nasty way he always had when she even mentioned Ashley’s name and, like as not, would refuse to give her the hat. (page 269)

wide felt hat (page 276)

dropped the hat (page 276)

retrieve his hat (page 277)

...his hat bravely pinned up on one side. (page 314)

He picked up his hat ...(page 342, 971)

tattered gray hat (page 359)

He gathered the reins again and put on his hat. (page 359)

The shadow seemed to take off a hat and a quiet voice came from the darkness. (page 371)

he removed his hat (page 378)

They were all ragged, so ragged that between officers and men there were no distinguishing insignia except here and there a torn hat brim pinned up with a wreathed “C.S.A.” (page 385)

Why hadn’t she brought her sun hat? (page 396)

without a hat  (page 397, 997)

He should come home on a prancing horse, dressed in fine clothes and shining boots, a plume in his hat. (page 502)

And what a cunning hat! Bonnets must be out of style, for this hat was only an absurd flat red velvet affair, perched on the top of the woman’s head like a stiffened pancake. The ribbons did not tie under the chin as bonnet ribbons tied but in the back under the massive bunch of curls which fell from the rear of the hat... (page 537)

pancake hat (page 544, 661)

fine fur hat (page 556)

tall hat (page 621) 

"...My horse is nearly dead — all the way up here at a dead run — and like a fool I went out of the house today a bat out of hell without a coat or hat or a cent of money..." (page 645)

battered straw hat (page 691)

beatin’ the horse with his hat (page 702)

Feet were stilled, hats were removed, hands folded and skirts rustled into quietness as Ashley stepped forward with Carreen’s worn Book of Devotions in his hand. (page 708)

...Mrs. Tarleton went toward the kitchen, throwing her hat carelessly on the sideboard and running her hands through her damp red hair. (page 714)

tipping their hats (page 756)

He rose suddenly and picked up his hat. (page 775)

"...Don’t tell anyone where you are going and if you’ve got a hat, bring it along to hide your face.”
“Ah ain’ got no hat.”
“Well, here’s a quarter. You buy a hat from one of those shanty darkies and meet me here.” (page 783)

carelessly dragging off his hat (page 783)

“You are a rare scoundrel!” she cried furiously to Johnnie as he stood at the wheel, his hat pushed back from his lowering brow.  (page 785)

black slouch hat (page 796)

He neither took off his hat nor spoke to the others in the room. (page 796)

He recognized her instantly and, taking off his hat, bowed, somewhat embarrassed. (page 799)

The eyes of the captain flickered quickly about the room, resting for an instant on each face, passing quickly from their faces to the table and the hat rack as though looking for signs of male occupancy. (page 799)

gloves and hat (page 839)

(If only Rhett had not been so silly and burned the false curls she bought to augment her knot of Indian-straight hair that peeked from the rear of these little hats!) (page 851)

...a high silk coachman’s hat with a brush, upon it. (page 851)

enormous leghorn hat (page 921)

swept off his hat (page 959)

brim of his hat (page 972)

"...For Heaven’s sake, Rhett, take those feathers out of your hat. You look a fool and you’ll be likely to wear them downtown without remembering to take them out.”

“No,” said Bonnie, picking up her father’s hat, defensively. (page 974)

tipping his hat (page 986)

black hat with a red plume in it (page 989)

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What do you think? Should like mate like or opposites attract?

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Part I of the review)

My first big book of the year was Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Linda Stephens, and I loved every minute of the nearly fifty hours of it. 

I'm think this review is actually going to be three parts - this first one that introduces the book and what I thought about, a second part that is my regular lines of notes and hat mentions, and then a third where I spend more time assessing the book more critically than I normally do. 

When I started reading, I  knew nothing about this book except for the names Scarlett and Rhett and the famous "frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." I vaguely remember there being a movie that was really long and there being something about slavery. Sooo...I was a clean slate going in. 

In this book, we begin in antebellum Georgia with spoiled young, beautiful Scarlett O'Hara at her family's successful plantation Tara. Her father is an Irish immigrant who won Tara in a card game and her mother is a southern belle who married her husband after her heart was broken by another man. Scarlett fancies herself in love with Ashley Wilkes, a milquetoast young man from a neighboring plantation, and Scarlett is righteously pissed off when Ashley marries Melanie Hamilton, so she marries Melanie's brother in revenge. 

Well, Scarlett's husband dies at an Army camp, but she was pregnant so she has his baby and is a widow in mourning. The Civil War starts, but Scarlett doesn't think it's such a big deal and heads off to Atlanta to be with Melanie while she finishes her mourning period. Ashley's also enlisted in the Army, so the household in Atlanta is Scarlett, her son Wade, Melanie, and Aunt Pitty, an elderly lady of the Hamilton clan. 

In Atlanta, Scarlett runs into the handsome scoundrel Captain Rhett Butler. He seems to enjoy her spirt and outrageousness and they always banter. But shit's getting real. There's the Civil War. Scarlett and Melanie almost die at Tara. Then Scarlett's back in Atlanta for Reconstruction and ain't it some horsepucky that the Yankees are in charge? And then Scarlett gets remarried to an old dude, buys some sawmills, and has another baby. God's nightgown. But Rhett Butler is still hanging around. And Scarlett is still in love with the still milquetoast Ashley and Rhett knows it. What's going to happen?

There's a lot missing in this short recap. There's the whole treatment of the Confederacy, slavery, and childcare. There's how incredibly dislikeable every single character is. There's white supremacism. I am not ignoring those aspects of the novel. But, it's still a very compelling book. I honestly could not stop listening. I could not help but tell my husband how absolutely swoon worthy Rhett Butler was. Even as he was such a bastard to Scarlett, I thought he was even sexier. 

This book does enemies to lovers better than any modern romance novel I've ever read. But it's not a romance novel unless you just acknowledge that Scarlett will never love anyone as much as she loves herself. It was a powerful recognition that, as I was reading this, I could feel all the tropes of modern day romances originating from this source. 

Yes, it's more than 1000 pages. If it had been released today, it would probably have been a series of three or four books. But that's the charm of it all. It's immersive and detailed, but also compelling in terms of character and plot. Mitchell would not have been able to pull that off without so many pages. At one point, I actually complained that too much was happening off page. My husband scoffed "you want it to be longer?" and I actually sort of did. I wanted to know every detail of everyone's life (anyone else want more about Ashley and Rhett's war time experiences?), but I was also satisfied with what I did get. 

It is a masterpiece. I understand completely how it has endured for so long. 5/5 stars

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Would you read a 1000-page piece of historical fiction? Have you read GWTW?

Hannah's Worst Day

Just a quick reminder that CBBC starts next week! We're going to be reading The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery! Please join us!

February 3: Chapters 1-8
February 10: Chapters 9 - 15
February 17: Chapters 16 - 24
February 24: Chapters 25-32
March 3: Chapters 33-45
March 10: Wrap-up

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Yesterday was A Day for Hannah. Consider, friends, what an ordeal she had.

When we went for our morning walk, it was still below 20 degrees, which is the threshold I have for making her wear her coat. She can go out without her coat in the teens, but she gets cold sooner and we end up cutting our walks short. In addition, I made her wear shoes on two of her feet. Can you even imagine how terrible she found all this? 

THEN! We had a visitor to our house. A VISITOR. This is so stressful for a dog. CONSTANT VIGILANCE that the visitor does not hurt a dog, the humans, or the cat. The visitor came over because she recently lost her crotchety old dog and wanted to experience hanging out with another crotchety dog. Well, who am I to deny her? (She met a dog today and will have a new dog in two weeks. Photos to follow when I meet this dog.)

Bonus photo of cat. Must protect her. 

THEN! The humans trimmed her nails. TRIMMED HER NAILS. The horror. 

As a reward, she then got to go for a long walk outside, but all she really wanted to do was chew sticks and roll around in the dead grass. I mean, you do you, dog.

I was only okay with her rolling around in the dead grass because I knew the next thing that was on the docket for the day was going to the pet store for a bath. MORE HORROR. If that's not the look of a dog who has deep resentment of her human, I don't know what is. 

I hope your weekend was better than Hannah's was!

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What was the most fun thing you did this weekend? 

Five for Friday, Edition #13

1) We took the Christmas decorations down last weekend. It made me sad, but we had to do it because someone (I won't name names) had puked up a hairball on the tree skirt and the only real way to clean it was to take the tree down to put the tree skirt in the washer. The good news is that the days are getting longer. The bad news is that doesn't help me in the mornings when it's pitch black and I'm walking Hannah. ANYWAY. That's done. Now I have the annual question of "what do I do with the holiday cards" that always involves me stacking them up on the desk in our living room and then throwing them away in a fit of spring clean in April. 

2) Earlier this month, I had a bloggy meetup with Anne and Sarah! Yes, I should show you a photo of the three us being cool together, but this is me, so here's what you get instead. If you also live in southeastern Wisconsin or northern Illinois, let me know. I'll definitely come to your house and make your dog take selfies with me. 

Annabel and me. Obviously we're in love. 

3) I recently went to a class to learn how to clean my sewing machine, something I literally had never done the entire time I have owned my machine. Did you know you're supposed to clean it EVERY YEAR? LOLOLOL. It's clean now. Will that be the catalyst I need to hem the pants?  We'll see! (I think we all know the answer is no.)

4) If you have talked to me in person in the last three weeks, I've probably talked about one of two pieces of media - either the fact that we're watching a show on Netflix called Evil or that I'm listening to the audiobook of Gone With the Wind. 

Discussion with my (lapsed Catholic) husband after an episode of Evil, a show I have taken to calling Demon Detectives:
Him: If I'm dying, I'd like last rites, okay? Just in case.
Me: Okay. I'll do that for you.
(pause while he looks at me expectantly)
Me: What?
Him: And you?
Me: Oh, no. I don't need it. It's all made up. I know what happens when we die.
Him: What happens?
Me: My body rots?
Him: But what about your soul?
Me: There is no such thing.
Him. Atheists. 

Also, there's going to be an entire post (maybe two? or three? or a million?) about Gone With the Wind, but I want you all to know right now that it's a true masterpiece and I now want to be a southern belle who owns sawmills and hates my children. 

5) Let's talk about the cat. Zelda's had chronic diarrhea for weeks, going on a month now. She was on an antibiotic for two rounds and then they did an ultrasound. She had an ultrasound in 2022 when she was diagnosed with IBS for kitties, so they compared it and saw an increased thickening in the small intestine. What this means is one of two scenarios:

a) Her IBS is getting worse. The thickening will continue. This is treated with steroids. Hey, don't worry, your cat who already begs for food ALL DAMN DAY will beg EVEN MORE because she will have the hunger. And the thirst. 

b) It's a slow-growing cancer. This would be treated with chemo and then the very same steroid. About half of the people who start chemo on cats don't finish because the side effects of nausea and vomiting are too bad. PLUS. To determine it's cancer and not her IBS, we'd need to do an endoscopy that would run $2000-$3000. 

We told the vet that we were just going to put her on steroid and move on with our lives. If it's cancer, the steroids will help her symptoms and we're just not willing to shell out thousands of dollars AGAIN. The vet called in a script to Walgreen's and I went to pick it up. 

Pharm tech: That'll be $341. I put the GoodRx coupon on there and everything. 
Me: Excuse me?
Pharm tech: $341.
Me: How many doses is that?
Pharm tech: It's a 30-day supply.
Me: Um. Can you hold on to that for a bit?

I texted my vet friend (I swear I don't take advantage of this relationship!) and asked if $341 was a reasonable price for a month's worth of the medication and she said NO WAY! Don't pay that! She'll fill it at the vet office. The next morning she texted that it was ready and would be $41.42. 

So we learned that I'm unwilling to pay $341 a month for the rest of Zelda's life, but $41 is reasonable. I feel sort of like a bad cat friend, but here we are. 

She started on the steroids and we are hoping for the best. In the meantime, just so you know, her litter box is STILL REALLY GROSS and I'm scooping it three or four times a day. And what a good kitty because she always makes it to the box even when it looks like it was an emergent situation. 

She's never going to "get better" from this, regardless of what it is, but hopefully her symptoms will decrease. Poor kitty.

Hannah on our Thursday walk after work. I just didn't want her to be jealous of the photo with Annabel. 

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What piece of media are you talking about these days?

Photo (Almost) Every Hour 1/22/2025

5:43am - The alarm went off at 5:30 and I slowly made my way out of the blankets. I was doomscrolling, so I stopped and read my Kindle for a few minutes. 

6:16am - The temps were over zero this morning (six degrees, to be exact), so Lady Hannah deigned to walk half a mile with me. Look at those ears. It was snowing a tiny bit and we were supposed to get "trace" amounts of snow today (foreshadowing). 

6:29am - (a repeat of the 6 o'clock hour because I forgot the next one) - Zelda, oh Zelda. You GUYS. It is unfair that she is so sick AGAIN. More on this tomorrow, but she's really in it and apparently the limit of how much we're willing to spend to keep her alive is between $42 a month and $341 a month.

8:45am - This is the alligator plant in my office. It has grown since I first got it, so I think it's doing okay in my office under the lamp. 

9:20am - Settling in for a two hour meeting on a software rollout. Don't worry, friends. I brought tea. 

10:48am - Still in the meeting. Look at these lovely chairs. One of my co-workers started talking about the best chair she ever sat in (Allsteel #19, which I don't think is made anymore) and we all started complaining about our office chairs. We are the coolest. 

11:04am - Walking out of the meeting! It's real snow! It was liking walking around in a snow globe. I was very excited about this - some of my co-workers were not. Oh, well. It would have been nicer if the wind wasn't bitterly cold. I blame Canada for this cold air. 

12:14pm - What am I wearing today? 

Cowl neck dress from Rowan Grey Clothing - Look, it's a tunic in my world - it's not nearly long enough to be a dress - it hits the model at the knees, but it's barely to my mid-thigh. The pockets are amazing and super deep and it's the coziest garment ever. 

Duluth Trading Co NoGA Naturale Leggings 

Cydwok Deform boots (in brown/dark brown)

1:55pm - I haven't actually done any work today because I've just been in meetings.

2:54pm - You guys! Sometimes I forget that I'm even doing this photo every hour thing. My boss got everyone on the team a version of this saying for Christmas. Everything IS figureoutable. 

3:31pm - Afternoon treat. Should I have an afternoon treat? Don't answer that. 

4:35pm - Snow! Look at our poor car all covered in snow. 

4:59pm - Who loves the snow? And the fact that is now above 15 degrees, which is when I don't make her wear her coat?

5:12pm - Look at my baby who was having so much fun running around in the snow like a crazy dog. 

6:26pm - We're still working on Hannah's fear of the hula hoop. Why is she scared? I DON'T KNOW. I also don't know why she tucks her tail when I ask her to lift her rear right foot. I wish she spoke English. 

7:24pm - Working on this post!

8:30pm - It's still snowing! Hannah was living her best life and I was, too. We love the snow. My husband shoveled and I had to laugh as he was inside long before we got back from our walk and the plow drove by just as we were coming up the driveway. I know some people who are going to have shovel out the end of the driveway in the morning.

9:12pm - I cuddled with the kitty for a few minutes before showering. Poor kitty just doesn't feel good. She was purring and leaning into the pets and who was I to say no to her?

And then I went to bed.

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When's the last time you had to shovel snow? 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Real Americans by Rachel Khong

 I read Real Americans by Rachel Khong because Lisa recommended it. 

What we have here is a multi-generational immigrant story. We start with Lily Chen who is interning in New York City at the turn of the century. She falls in love with a white man and they start a family together. Then in the second part of the novel, we speed ahead in time to pandemic era Seattle where we learn about Lily's son Nick. In the third part of the novel, we're traveling ahead in time to catch up with Lily's mother, Nick's grandmother, a woman originally from China who became as successful scientist in the United States, but maybe wasn't as successful in her personal life. 

I found this a difficult book to get into. Lily was sort of a non-character at first. But then, suddenly, I wanted to learn more. I wanted to learn about Lily's past and what she hoped for herself in the future. I wanted to know what her parenting philosophy would be and how it would be different from her own parents. I wanted to know things about Lily. And we sort of go there, but then it switched to talk about Nick, who was an interesting character in his own right, but I wanted Lily's story.

And that's what it comes down to for me. This was a good book, but it wasn't a great book. I wanted it to go deeper into Lily. I wanted her to talk about race and what it was like to be married to a white man and have a child who didn't look anything like her. I wanted to know her feelings about her estranged mother and ex-husband. I wanted to know if she ever thought about her relationship with her mother and what it demonstrated for own son. I wanted to know more about Lily. Why didn't she ask her own parents more questions? What were her ambitions in life? And that's all before we get to Lily's mother's story. 

I think this is the reason I prefer plot-driven stories, to be honest. This was a character-driven story and it was GOOD. But it would have to be five times as long as it was if it were to answer all the questions I still had about the characters after I closed the book cover. 

4/5 stars

Line of note:

There were things about Timothy I wished would rub off on my - most of all his ease in who he was. He never seemed to experience the uncertainty I felt. It was as though he'd emerged from the womb perfectly secure in who he would be and what he was capable of, like a giraffe that could stan an hour after being born. (page 171)

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

...I dodged tourists wearing backpacks and bucket hats, holding red bags from the discount designer store. (page 8)

As I walked to the stage to collect my diploma, my hat slid further down, looking silly, like I was poking fun at the ritual. (page 39)

She wore a sun hat with an enormous brim. (page 85)

...who tipped an imaginary hat. (page 169)

She stood in the doorway of my dorm, wearing a knitted hat and scarf of matching, multicolored yarn. (page 211)
...a shopping bag revealed to contain a hat, gloves, and a down comforter. (page 211)

Pop Sugar 2025 Reading Challenge

1. A book about a POC experience joy and not trauma

    That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon (Mead Mishaps #1) by Kimberly Lemming

    What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (translated by Alison Watts)

2. A book you want to read based on the last sentence

    The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

    Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

3. A book about space tourism

    Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis

    The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

    The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers #4) by Becky Chambers 

4. A book with two or more books on the cover or "book" in the title

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

The Halcyon Fairy Book by T. Kingfisher

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

5. A book with a snake on the cover or in the title

The Last Magician (The Last Magician #1) by Lisa Maxwell

Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford

6. A book that fills your favorite prompts from the 2015 PSRC - 2015 was before my time, so I had to look these up!

I think I'll probably do a book with more than 500 pages:

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (could also count for a classic or a book you want to read based on the last sentence)

Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell #1) by Hilary Mantel 

Will there be a new Cormoran Strike book this year? 

7. A book about a cult - so many options for this!

The Girls by Emma Cline

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

8. A book under 250 pages

A Mouthful of Dust (Singing Hills Cycle #6) by Nghi Vo- Expected publication date is October 2025

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

9. A book that features a character going through menopause

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley 

The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson

10. A book you got for free

Ha ha ha! This will be any book I get from the library, won't it?

11. A book mentioned in another book

I'll keep any eye out for books mentioned in other books as I'm reading. 

12. A book about a road trip

Planes, Trains, and All the Feels by Livy Hart - I actually already read this!

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa

13. A book rated less than three stars on Goodreads

14. A book about a nontraditional education

Educated by Tara Westover

Truly, Devious (Truly Devious #1) by Maureen Johnson

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

15. A book that an AI chatbot recommends based on your favorite book

When I asked ChatGPT to recommend books based on my love of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, it recommended:

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Chosen by Chaim Potok 

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls 

16. A book set in or around a body of water

Moby-Dick, or The Whale by Herman Melville

Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles #2) by T.J. Klune

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

17. A book about a running club

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami 

The Running Club by Ali Lowe

They'll Never Catch Us by Jessica Goodman

18. A book containing magical creatures that aren't dragons

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

The next book in the Valdemar saga I have will inevitably have magical creatures

Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl #1) by Eoin Colfer - Can you believe I've never read this?!

19. A highly anticipated read of 2025

Sunrise on the Reaping (Hunger Games #0.5) by Suzanne Collins

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

20. A book that fills a 2024 prompts you'd like to do over (or try again)

I'd like to do a book by a blind or visually impaired author over again - I didn't get a great book last time

Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism by Elsa Sjunneson

Run by Kody Keplinger

Blind Spot by Laura Ellen

21. A book where the main character is a politician

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

Infomocracy (The Centenal Cycle #1) by Malka Ann Older

Never by Ken Follett 

22. A book about soccer

The Long Game (Green Oak #1) by Elena Armas

Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference by Warren St. John

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

23. A book that is considered healing fiction

The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida 

The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi

24. A book with a happily singly woman protagonist

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo 

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray 

25. A book where the main characters is an immigrant or refugee

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector's Story by Hyeonseo Lee 

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

26. A book when an adult character changes careers

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (could also be an anticipated book of 2025)

The Stand by Stephen King (could also be a book about a cult or a book about a nonverbal character)

Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber

27. A book set at a luxury resort

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

28. A book that features an unlikely friendship

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White - This sounds like a perfect reread. 

The Story of Arthur Truluv (Mason #1) by Elizabeth Berg

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

29. A book about a food truck

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler

30. A book that reminds you of your childhood

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (also on the list Chat GPT recommended for me)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

31. A book where music plays an integral part of the storyline

Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie

A Visit from the Goon Squad (Goon Squad #1) by Jennifer Egan

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

32. A book about an overlooked woman in history

The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of France Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey

Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote by Tina Cassidy

Give Her Credit: The Untold Account of a Woman's Bank that Empowered a Generation by Grace L. Williams

33. A book featuring an activity on your bucket list - My bucket list item is to eventually have more than half my wardrobe be clothing I have made with my own two hands, so I looked at books with seamstresses in them. 

The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

The Lace Makers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri

The Gown by Jennifer Robson

34. A book written by an author who is neurodivergent

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known (Wayward Children #9) by Seanan McGuire (also could be for a book under 250 pages)

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

35. A book centering LGBTQ+ characters that isn't about coming out

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Space Opera (Space Opera #1) by Catherynne M. Valente

36. A book with silver on the cover or in the title

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

The Silver Stars by Jeannette Walls4

Silver Bay by JoJo Moyes

37 & 38. Two books with the same title 

I don't know if this is true, but someone in the Goodreads discussion said "The original Swedish title of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo translated as "Men Who Hate Women." So I'd argue it can pair with Men Who Hate Women, Laura Bates's foray into the manosphere." I don't speak Swedish, so I cannot possibly fact check this, so I'm going with it. 

39. A classic you've never read

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

40. A book about chosen family

Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #1) by Ilona Andrews

Gabriel's Ghost (Dock Five Universe #1) by Linnea Sinclair

Ghost of Lies (Medium Trouble #1) by Alice Winters

41. A book by the oldest author in your TBR pile

Ugh. I hate this sort of thing. Now I have to track how old people are when they write books? 

42. A book with a left-handed character

The Duchess War (Brothers Sinister #1) by Courtney Milan

The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle 

Dragonkeeper (Dragonkeeper #1) by Carole Wilkinson

43.  A book where nature is the antagonist

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

When I Fell From the Sky by Juliane Koepcke

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (could also be a classic or a book that reminds me of childhood)

44. A book that features a married couple who don't live together

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke 

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

The Prisoner's Wife: A Memoir by Asha Bandele

45. A book with a title that starts with the letter Y

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli 

46. A book that includes a nonverbal character

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos

The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

47. A book you have always avoided reading

Any of the books on my big book (more than 500 pages) goal would work for this one. 

48.  A dystopian book with a happy ending

A Better World by Sarah Langan

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C. A. Fletcher

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane

49. A book that features a character with chronic pain

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones

False Witness by Karin Slaughter

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

50. A book of interconnected short stories

Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Dying with Her Cheer Pants On by Seanan McGuire

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Between this challenge and wanting to read big books (more than 500 pages) this year, I think I'm in for some fun reading? What do you want from your reading year in 2025?