Then and Now #19 (2/7/22 -2/13/222 )

Happy Sunday! The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted @ Caffeinated Reviewer. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.  It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads!

Last Week

It's a bit of a sad week here since me and one of my housemates tested positive for Covid during the last few days. It was honestly a bit of a shock to the system because I have been so careful for the past three years, so I kind of had to deal with the guilt of potentially bringing it into the home and blaming myself. But it has given me some time to catch up on audiobooks and to get a few applications for next year started. It's also not hit me too hard, thanks to my three vaccinations; I've mainly had a cold and a bit of a sinus headache. Fingers crossed it'll be over soon, so I can at least try and make the second leg of my visit to my mother. There is no way I'm going until everyone in the house tests negative though, so fingers crossed!

What I posted this week:

• Audiobook review: Hold Up The Sky by Cixin Liu, narr. by Bruno Roubicek
• Audiobook Review: The Word for World is Forest (Hainish Cycle) by Ursula K. LeGuin, narr. by Kevin Pariseau

Recommendations

When I first got hit by Covid I decided tot ake it as a chance to watch a show I had on my list for ages: Katla! It's an Icelandic show about a volcanic eruption that leads to mysterious occurrences. I went into it completely blind, which I'd also recommend, but this trailer does give you a good indication! Do let me know if you give it a go! 

Mailbox Monday

Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries by Nan Sloane (Bloomsbury Academic; 1/27/2022)

Uncontrollable Women is a history of radical, reformist and revolutionary women between the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832. Very few of them are well-known today; some were unknown even in their own day. All of them contributed something to the world we now inhabit.

At a time when women were supposed to leave politics to men they spoke, wrote, marched, organised, asked questions, challenged power structures, sometimes went to prison and even died. History has not usually been kind to them, and they have frequently been pushed into asides or footnotes, dismissed as secondary, or spoken over, for, or through by men and sometimes other women. In this book, they take centre stage in both their own stories and those of others, and in doing so bring different voices to the more familiar accounts of the period. These women and many others played a part in developing political ideas and freedoms as we know them today, and some fought battles which still remain to be won or raised questions that are still unresolved. These are their stories.

This book will fit in perfectly with my thesis work, which is great! But I'm also just very excited for more non-fiction about interesting women from history in general. Can't wait to explore this one soon!

In Shadows: Book 1 with script by Hubert and art by Vincent Mallié (Europe Comics; 1/26/2022)

Arzhur, a disgraced knight, has taken on a new mission to restore his honor: save Princess Islen from the Black Castle. The only problem is, the mysterious Islen doesn’t want to be saved…The reluctant pair must nonetheless cross the kingdom—pursued by a trio of sinister witches—in hopes of finding refuge with Islen’s father, the king. But will their secrets catch up with them first?

I love the blend of Arthurian literature with general horror vibes on the cover. Europe Comics has been putting some amazing comics up on NetGalley and as a result I've gotten more and more into comics. It probably also helps that one of my housemates is an animator, so I'm kinda learning to look at art in a whole new way.

Seasons of Purgatory by Shahriar Mandanipour, narr. by Fajer Al-Kaisi (HighBridge Audio; 2/15/2022)

The first English-language story collection from "one of Iran's most important living fiction writers" (Guardian)

In Seasons of Purgatory, the fantastical and the visceral merge in tales of tender desire and collective violence, the boredom and brutality of war, and the clash of modern urban life and rural traditions. Mandanipour, banned from publication in his native Iran, vividly renders the individual consciousness in extremis from a variety of perspectives: young and old, man and woman, conscript and prisoner. While delivering a ferocious social critique, these stories are steeped in the poetry and stark beauty of an ancient land and culture.

I love discovering new short story collections from authors from all over the world. Iran is definitely a bit of a gap in my literary world map, so hopefully this will get me started. I love the bisected animal on the cover as well, it's a really eye-catching design.

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (Macmillan-Tor/Forge; 4/26/2022)

This isn't the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince.
It's the one where she kills him.

Marra never wanted to be a hero.

As the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter, she escaped the traditional fate of princesses, to be married away for the sake of an uncaring throne. But her sister wasn’t so fortunate—and after years of silence, Marra is done watching her suffer at the hands of a powerful and abusive prince.

Seeking help for her rescue mission, Marra is offered the tools she needs, but only if she can complete three seemingly impossible tasks:
—build a dog of bones
—sew a cloak of nettles
—capture moonlight in a jar

But, as is the way in tales of princes and witches, doing the impossible is only the beginning.

Hero or not—now joined by a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar—Marra might finally have the courage to save her sister, and topple a throne.

I love everything about this blurb! Let's topple a throne, let's sow a cloak of nettles, let's go kill a prince!! 

So that's me! Hopefully I'll  get rid of Covid this week so I can go back about my business.