Thematically Appropriate Content

If you’re looking for something to “get down with the sickness”, as it were, here are some recommendations.

Reading material:

• Masque of the Red Death, Edgar Allen Poe
  Short Story
• The Plague, Camus
  Novella
• A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe
  Novel
• Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  Novel

Music:

I may have joined the club and made a coronavirus playlist, focused on my preferred musical era of 60’s/70’s.

Movies:

I don’t have any disease-focused films, but if you’re self-isolating (which, if you can, you should be) here is a list of 100 RT-Fresh films you can stream for free online (with links).

Friday Fun Links 4/28

A Friday off, it’s just like last semester! Except this time it’s because I’m essentially done with my classes (except for an optional Music History session on Monday (at which I will be) and a mini English conference on Wednesday).  It’s really just reading period and exams from here on out.
This is the first time I’m finishing up a year of classes with no guarantee of further classes ahead of me.  School has always been a kind of constant expectation, and it’s very weird to, for the first time, not necessarily expect it to continue.

In short, I can feel the encroaching existential dread.
But, with every new milestone (last ballroom show, last day of classes, etc.) I’ve been buying myself a little present, usually about $10 or under.  So now I have a new rosewater facial toner which is quite lovely, and a few mL of Tubereuse by Mona di Orio awaiting me at home.
And yes, I know that my rampant consumerism is just a distraction, a search for a false sense of security to stave off my anxiety about my future.  But hey, at least, when the breakdown comes, I will smell good and have glowing skin. 😛

The Real chef d’œuvre

What is a masterpiece?  Usually there’s a general critical (or at least cultural) consensus on what the ‘best’ novel is by any given author. Maybe it’s not explicitly called the ‘best’, but everyone recognizes it- it’s the book you’re assigned in high school and again in college, the one that people namedrop (title drop?) and the one you see on book lists. Which is really unfair because there are lots of under-appreciated books that deserve more love.  And because I’m all about spreading the love ❤ here are my favorite books that I completely subjectively think are the best by some veddy important authors.

My Personal Philosophy in Books

Well, yesterday it all went downhill, but I’m so frustrated and tired with talking about my health that I’m absolutely not going to get into it today.

Instead I’m going to go into books (it’s been a while!), in particular, into the books that inspire or resonate with my personal view of life.  Maybe that sounds very woo woo to you, or maybe you know what it’s like to read something and have the feeling that the author is looking at things in the same way you do?  Or even in a way you would like to be able to?

I love that feeling of reading a book that feels like an extension of your heart.

Back with Books II

Just like Return of the Sith, another famous Part II, this post is about the father-child relationship.  The father being Dad, who doesn’t read overmuch and is not a fan of fiction, and the child being me who reads A LOT and who counts fiction as her favorite genre.  Not quite Vader-Luke size differences, but still.