Everyone! Please stay warm! Also, is it just me or does it feel like January is taking forever to end. Plus, with the added cold, I desperately want to do everything from my bed and beneath my electric blanket. As a bonus, though, I’m getting a lot of reading done with all this coziness.
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E.L. James has announced her next book! It’s due out this April and seems completely separated from her Fifty Shades of Grey series. Have you heard the news? What do you think of the plot?
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Are you excited for Sonali Dev’s Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors? Well there’s an excerpt out so you can get a sneak peek!
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We’re starting a podcast book club! It’ll be quarterly and our Patreon supporters will be supplying the reading suggestions. Then, the SBTB crew will discuss the book on an episode of the podcast. Don’t worry! Book selections will be announced ahead of time if you want to read along with us!
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Sarah sent me this link earlier today about narratology. It’s fascinating!
Narratology is, broadly, the study of narrative structures and the way in which humans perceive, create, and are influenced by them. It’s a type of literary theory, and like most literary theory, it is full of terms that can seem overtly and deliberately obscure. (Why, for example, do we need the term focalization when we’ve already got the perfectly good and fairly explicable concept of point of view? There are some reasons, but most of the time I’ve found that point of view works just fine, especially when I’m speaking as a practitioner—a writer—rather than a literary analyst or critic.) But what narratology does—especially in its newer forms, like ‘cognitive narratology’—is give us tools to think about not only the patterns in a narrative but how narratives are part of how human beings understand and interpret events which happen to them in their everyday lives.
I never knew about “narratology,” but now I want to know ALL THE THINGS.
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Did you love watching The Nanny? Are you a fan of contemporary art? If you answer yes to both, I have an Instagram account to show you!
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
If you haven’t watched Catwalk: Tales from the Cat Show Circuit on Netflix yet, you owe it to yourself to snuggle in and enjoy it’s furry, fuzzy feel-goodness tonight. Thankfully it’s not about making fun of crazy cat ladies but instead showcases normal people who are passionate about their hobby.
As a romance reader, book lover and knitter I feel a total kinship to these women and their joy in a hobby that helps complete them but not define them. If you’ve watched it you know what I mean, and Team Bobby all the way!
Here’s a lovely art show for all of us shippers out there:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/reylo-headlines-a-beautiful-art-show-of-meet-cutes-1832175601
New to me…My Daguerreotype Boyfriend, a blog dedicated to historical hotness. Specifically, from the mid- to late-19th century, for the most part. http://mydaguerreotypeboyfriend.tumblr.com/
There are a lot of great posts, many hilarious ones, some sad or touching stories, but I humbly bring your attention to the following:
Brooding Gene Kelly:
http://mydaguerreotypeboyfriend.tumblr.com/post/42602060759/theres-a-storm-a-coming-and-were-going-to-have
The Bowdoin College Tug of War Team: http://mydaguerreotypeboyfriend.tumblr.com/post/33837970153/the-bowdoin-college-tug-of-war-team-1891-from
The Brighton Swimming Club: http://mydaguerreotypeboyfriend.tumblr.com/post/53379628534/brighton-swimming-club-1863-via-the-retronaut
M.W. Ingle experimenting with the “thirst trap” / “adventure” genres c. 1864: http://mydaguerreotypeboyfriend.tumblr.com/post/16608753477/talley-ho-mountaineering-boyfriend
@Bu, thank you for reuniting me with My Daguerrotype Boyfriend! I lost track of them years ago when they relocated the site. Time to re-bookmark!! (And do a search on Young Teddy Roosevelt! 😉 )
Picasso and The Nanny–perfect!
@EC Spurlock: I’m bewildered why all of those “Meet Cute” paintings have the “couples” facing away from each other and not interacting. It’s just two superimposed heads, barely even in the same space.
I’m unimpressed about EL James’s new book. She isn’t a good writer, IMO, and the blurb says so little about the book that it doesn’t even clearly define the trope; is this a historical romance novel (since Vintage Imprint is the publisher)? Another “erotic” romance? Apparently they have high hopes for the readers who loved 50 Shades to buy this new one, but personally I’d not even borrow it from the library. Plus, she hasn’t exactly finished with her money-making on her 50 Shades books from Christian’s POV (Grey and Darker); she hasn’t released that version of 50 Shades Freed that I know of. I haven’t read those repackaged books, and I got copies of the original trilogy from HalfPriceBooks’ clearance section. She should at least finish her trilogy rewrites before publishing something new, IMO.