24/31 Stuff I'm Enjoying

[darkemeralds]

Current audiobook: Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things, read by Juliet Stevenson. I never felt the faintest desire to read Eat, Pray, Love and my only exposure to the author's work is her well-known TED talk on creativity. I'm glad I took the plunge. Signature is a terrific novel (so far--I'm about a third of the way into it).



It takes place in early 19th-century Philadelphia, but it sits lightly in its period setting: while it's clear that Gilbert did her research, neither history nor botany (the thematic glue) ever weighs the story down. The principal character is Alma Whitaker, and every shorthand way I can think to describe her fails to do her justice: unattractive but brilliant daughter of a wealthy illiterate English plant importer; lonely, hardworking daughter of a tough, Calvinist Dutchwoman...okay, how's this: secret pornography-reading multi-lingual botanist who is running her father's business by the age of 21? That's more like it.

Gilbert uses vast swaths of narrative, minimal dialogue, and lots of lists, so that the characters unfold vividly in your mind more by accretion of little details than by their speech. This makes the novel less of an acting challenge than Juliet Stevenson deserves, but she's wonderful to listen to just the same.



Current Bingewatch on Netflix: Arrow Season 1. Cheesetastic but good in unexpected ways. The acting is stronger than I would have expected from a CW Parade of Beauty, and the writing veers all over the place from comic-book operatic to really solid. I'm way more interested in it than I thought I'd be.

Current Book: Dawn Powell's The Wicked Pavilion. Published in 1954, forgotten by 1965, and revived in recent years. Powell has a snarky, trenchant style, a bit Dorothy Parker-esque, very New York. My niece living in New York City recommended it and I can see its literary worth while not, strictly speaking, enjoying it.

Current Fic: I'm off fic at the moment. Open to suggestions, though.

Current Shows: Agents of SHIELD is growing on me a little. I said I'd give it six eps, so it's got one more chance to really hook me in. The new season of Grimm started off with a bang last night. Still enjoying Elementary. Loving Sleepy Hollow in spite of myself.

Comments

[greghatcher]

ARROW takes a huge leap forward when the team solidifies. Don't want to spoil it for you, but it's a fun study in watching writers grab a ball and run; it just WORKS better when Ollie has people to talk to about what he's doing.

Second season is off to a great start. We really love it. The funny part is that in the comics I never warmed to the guy, really. Though Mike Grell did some good stuff.

[darkemeralds]

It's really growing on me as S1 progresses.

[tehomet]

I'm looking forward to reading The Signature of All Things at some point so I'm encouraged by your positive reaction, so far. Apparently, according to a review in the Sunday papers last week, SG spent three years on research for that book.

In some ways, she's like Bill Bryson, IMO, in sense of humour and in that she fits a lot of fact in.

CW Parade of Beauty: best description of those SV-type shows ever. :)

[darkemeralds]

I haven't finished Signature yet--it's very long, and what's more, it's extremely rich. And even more than that, a lot of it, once Gilbert really gets into the heart of the story, cuts so close to the bone for me, personally, that I've had to take it in easy stages. It's powerful and beautiful and engaging. I would not, however, call it funny. It's not without humor, but it's decidedly on the serious side.

I hope you do read it and get as much emotional satisfaction from it as I'm getting.