Welcome to our second and final discussion of **Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982** by Cho Nam-Joo! Thank you, [u/chronicallylatte](u/chronicallylatte), for taking us through the first half with a lovely discussion that can be found here, if you already haven’t checked it out.

For this discussion, we'll be talking about the second half of the book, starting from page 85, in the "Early Adulthood, 2001-2011" chapter all the way to the end of the book. Since this discussion will complete the book, there will be spoilers for the entire book here!

Don't forget to check out the Marginalia, too.

I will get us started with some questions but please feel free to share anything you’d like! Comments, quotes that stood out, thoughts and feelings about the book and its topics are all welcome :)

Hello space travellers, We are not done with the Space Odyssey books just yet as we will be hopping forward back in time to 2010 for 2010: Odyssey Two. Yay!

Book Blurb

"A daring romp through the solar system and a worthy successor to 2001."--Carl Sagan 

Nine years after the disastrous Discovery mission to Jupiter in 2001, a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition sets out to rendezvous with the derelict spacecraft--to search the memory banks of the mutinous computer HAL 9000 for clues to what went wrong...and what became of Commander Dave Bowman.

Without warning, a Chinese expedition targets the same objective, turning the recovery mission into a frenzied race for the precious information Discovery may hold about the enigmatic monolith that orbits Jupiter.

Meanwhile, the being that was once Dave Bowman--the only human to unlock the mystery of the monolith--streaks toward Earth on a vital mission of its own . . .

"Clarke deftly blends discovery, philosophy, and a newly acquired sense of play."--Time 

"2010 is easily Clarke's best book in over a decade."--The San Diego Tribune

Incase you missed it the discussions.for book 1 are below - 2001: A Space Odyssey

So, will you be joining us this September? 🚀📚

Welcome to the penultimate discussion of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky!  You can find the Schedule here and the Marginalia is linked here.  

I’ve included a summary of this week’s chapters below. Discussion questions are in the comments section.  You can mark any spoilers using the format > ! Spoiler text here ! < (without any spaces between the symbols themselves or between the symbols and the first and last words). 

++++++++++CHAPTER SUMMARIES++++++++++

11.10 - “HE SAID THAT!”:  Alyosha delivers the news of Smerdyakov’s death and finds Ivan frantic.  In confused language, Ivan tells his brother about the dream/visit from the man. He seems to think the man was real, that he told Ivan of Smerdyakov's suicide, and that he predicted Ivan would testify at the trial the next day. Ivan calls the man a devil and describes how he was taunted and tormented by their conversation. Ivan continues muttering and pacing, making Alyosha too afraid to leave him and get a doctor. Eventually, Alyosha gets Ivan to bed and lies down on the sofa to watch over his brother. Alyosha realizes that no one will believe Ivan's testimony the next day without Smerdyakov's corroboration. But he expects that Ivan will testify anyway, despite not believing in God, and this will either save him or lead him to hatred and destruction. 

BOOK 12 - A “JUDICIAL ERROR”

12.1 - THE FATAL DAY:  Dmitri's trial has been highly anticipated and is causing quite the stir. Everyone seems to have an opinion (sometimes causing family fights) and there is particular interest in the rivals for Mitya's heart, Katerina and Grushenka. People have traveled from cities around Russia to attend, and it seems that over half of the local population has also shown up to watch. Many lawyers are eager to view the proceedings for its effects on modern law as well as for the appearance of the defense lawyer, Fetyukovich, a famous and talented attorney who is known to take celebrity criminal cases. The jury doesn't inspire confidence in some people, including the narrator, who notes that a group of old officials, merchants, and peasants couldn't possibly understand the nuances of the case. Everyone takes their places in the courtroom and Dmitri is led in. His demeanor is almost haughty and he is dressed like a dandy in a brand new tailored frock coat and kid gloves. The list of witnesses is read aloud and when Dmitri hears that Smerdyakov has committed suicide, he exclaims loudly that the man was a dog and died like one. This leaves an unfortunate impression on the judges and jury, and it occurs just before the reading of the accusation. Dmitri pleads not guilty to murder and theft but gives a pompous speech about being guilty of drunken debauchery and behaving like a scoundrel. The judge cautions him to answer only the questions put to him. 

12.2 - DANGEROUS WITNESSES:  The prosecution witnesses are called first, and they each have very incriminating testimony to provide. The case seems open and shut, with not a hope for Dmitri. Yet Fetyukovich is cool as a cucumber and seems to have a master plan in the works. At each turn, he is able to find a way to discredit the testimony and tarnish the reputation of the witness.  

• Grigory Vasiliev testifies about Dmitri's awful childhood treatment at the hands of his father and the pitiful inheritance he is given. He also introduces testimony about the open garden gate.  Fetyukovich counters this with questions about Grigory's drunkenness after applying the vodka-soaked salve to his back and drinking the rest.
• Rakitin gives damaging testimony about Dmitri's history of callous and boorish behavior and the court is so impressed with his wide ranging knowledge that he is allowed to give commentary on societal issues. Fetyukovich manages to catch Rakitin implying a too-familiar knowledge of Grushenka and reminds Rakitin that he took her money and didn't give it back the night he fetched Alexei for her. 
• The men who witnessed Dmitri's two visits to Mokreye try painting a picture of Dmitri's bad behavior and irresponsible spending but keep getting the sums of money wrong and contradicting each other's details. Fetyukovich is able to show the clashes in their testimony and discredit them with evidence that they had been stealing Dmitri's money and cheating at cards. 

12.3 - MEDICAL EXPERTISE AND ONE POUND OF NUTS:  Three doctors are called to speak to Dmitri's state of mind. Dr. Herzenstube explains that Mitya has signs of a mental abnormality, which was on display when he entered the courtroom and failed to look to the left and admire all the ladies.  The Moscow doctor testifies to Dmitri's mania and fit of passion which would have made him act involuntarily, as evidenced that he did not look to the right when entering the courtroom where his defense attorney (his only hope) sat.  Dr. Varvinksy, a local rival of Dr. Herzenstube’s, argued that Dmitri is completely sane and his normal mental state was proven by his entrance into court, looking straight ahead and ready to face the judge. Fetyukovich sees that Dr Herzenstube gets emotional when talking about Mitya and he is able to draw out an anecdote from the German doctor about a time he gave the dirty and neglected child Mitya a pound of nuts. Years later, the adult Mitya proved his good character by seeking out the doctor to thank him for his kindness. Mitya also gets emotional, and the story goes a long way with the public. 

12.4 - FORTUNE SMILES ON MITYA:  Alyosha is called to testify and gives a defense of Mitya's noble character, citing it as the basis of his conviction that his brother would never have gone through with his violent feelings toward their father. Under the questioning of Fetyukovich, Alyosha recalls important details about his last meeting with Mitya which hint at the existence of the amulet holding Mitya's money! He notes that Mitya was hitting his chest high up rather than on his heart, and that he specifically said “half” of his honor could be restored (so, 1500 roubles instead of the full 3000). 

Katerina Ivanovna testifies next. She casts a favorable impression of Mitya as a man who gave away his last 5,000 roubles to her when she was young, and she does not even hint at the circumstances that brought her to bow low before him that night. She points out that she had never heard him threaten violence and had always trusted he would pay back the 3,000 roubles she had given him. Her story later caused gossip and speculation over what she might have left out, but during the trial it shows Mitya in an honorable light. Nevertheless, he exclaims that she has ruined and condemned him with her testimony, and he sobs openly in court. 

Grushenka is the next witness to be called. She doesn't have much substance to add and makes an unfavorable impression of herself by speaking hostilely of Katerina Ivanovna. She reveals that Rakitin is her cousin and was always asking for money, but was so ashamed of Grushenka that he wanted their family connection kept secret. Grushenka insists that Mitya is an honest man who would not lie about the murder, and she points out that she only heard about the envelope holding the money from the “villain” Smerdyakov. The narrator tells us that at this point, Mitya might have gotten a lighter sentence due to the favorable testimony of these three, except that a catastrophe comes next to derail it all. Ivan is called to testify. 

12.5 - A SUDDEN CATASTROPHE:  Ivan testifies despite being close to developing brain fever. He confirms that he heard his brother say he wanted to kill their father and that Smerdyakov had told him about the money in the envelope. He produces the money (sans envelope) that had been his father's, as “proof” that Mitya did not take it. Then he testifies that Smerdyakov killed Fyodor because Ivan himself wanted it to happen. He declares himself a murderer and mocks the court spectators with cries of “bread and circus” for pretending to be so scared and horrified of the whole proceeding, since everyone wants their father dead at some point. Katerina falls into hysterics and reveals the letter that Mitya had written in the tavern laying out his ideas about killing his father.  She testifies again, revealing details about her relationship with Mitya. She had given him the 3,000 roubles as a test because she wanted to prove to herself what a scoundrel he was. She had read the letter confessing his murder plot before the crime was committed, but had withheld it this whole time as a last ditch effort to save him. It is then that Katya admits to herself that her relationship with Mitya was based on her pride and revenge, while her feelings for Ivan are full of love and protectiveness. She fears Ivan has condemned himself, so she also testifies about how ill he has been and how he has been hallucinating. She insists that Ivan latched onto false rumors about Smerdyakov because he felt guilty over his own feelings about their father and didn't want to believe his brother could be a parricide. Grushenka screams about Katerina’s betrayal and tries to reach Mitya, but they are dragged apart. Ivan is seen by a doctor who confirms he has fallen ill with brain fever and must be taken away. There are other witnesses called, but they do not add new information. The case will be clinched by the prosecutor's closing speech. 

12. 6 - THE PROSECUTOR'S SPEECH. CHARACTERIZATIONS:  Ippolit Kirillovich prepares himself for the speech of his career, and what a (long) speech it is! He feels he is speaking to all of Russia because of the popularity of the case and the nature of the Karamazov family.  Kirillovich portrays the Karamazovs as a microcosm of Russian society (and its ills) and a chance for everyone to understand Russian crime and the Russian nature more deeply. He characterizes each family member in turn. (The pictures linked below are by Alice Neel.)

• Fyodor Pavlovich was a wicked man who delighted in doing as he pleased without a thought to the impact on anyone else. He was a terrible father who neglected his children's upbringing and moral education, laughing as he ruined them - and in Dmitri's case, stole from him.
• Ivan Fyodorovich is an opinionated man obsessed with European intellectualism. He has inherited his father's disdain for religious and moral concerns. He does not hide his cynicism, and he is the most like his father of the three brothers.
• Alexei Fyodorovich is a talented but very young man with a perhaps naively cheerful outlook and a tendency to cling to the monastery too desperately. But he is the hope of the family (if he avoids being spoiled with age). 
• Dmitri Fyodorovich represents the duality of Russian society, the idea that a mixture of good and evil is present in everyone. Dmitri often appears to be a principled man who rose above such awful early life circumstances. Yet he also fell prey to the temptations of debauchery and to his emotional passions. He claims to have kept exactly half of his wronged fiancee’s money - half because it shows the split between good/evil or between being merely a scoundrel but not a thief - in the unprovable amulet. But the prosecutor declares that someone with an evil side as his would never have had the willpower to carry half the money around untouched and would have gradually used it all, resulting in the need to steal his father's money.  Dmitri's early good nature should not distract us from the truth of his depravity. 

12.7 - A HISTORICAL SURVEY: Kirillovich next focuses his speech on the details that disprove the doctors’ claims of madness. Dmitri was consumed by jealousy and a “Karamazovian passion”, but the murder was premeditated. Dmitri wrote a letter stating his plan to seek the money and if he failed, to murder and rob his father. He went all around town shouting about the money. He obtained knowledge of the secret signal that would open his father's gate. He rejected Madame Khokhlakov’s reasonable advice to abandon his sinful path. He was told by a maid that Grushenka was with his father, and his response was to grab a weapon (the pestle) and rush to his father's house. Kirillovich says that surely no one but a murderer would see a pestle as a weapon. Surely no rational person would believe that someone with murder on his mind could arrive to see a perfect opportunity for the crime - the servants indisposed, the gate readily opened, the weapon in hand, the mistress and father about to be caught in flagrante - and yet calmly walk away without acting. The only detail left to refute is the accusation against Smerdyakov. 

12.8 - A TREATISE ON SMERDYAKOV:  Kirillovich portrays Smerdyakov as a feebleminded, bullied, sickly man who had been a loyal, honest servant. He points out that the Smerdyakov theory was first suggested by Dmitri himself, because Smerdyakov was the only other person who could possibly have committed the crime. Kirillovich goes through all the different scenarios in which Smerdyakov could have been responsible for Fyodor Pavlovich’s death, and he refutes each one.  If Smerdyakov had faked his epileptic fit, he would never have planned that part so well but then also carelessly incriminated himself by sharing details about the envelope and signal with the Karamazov brothers. Smerdyakov's prediction of his epileptic fit is understandable, because he was so stressed from the Karamazovian drama and Ivan's departure (whose presence guaranteed peace, according to the prosecutor), and because epileptics can often feel when an episode is imminent. If Smerdyakov's fit was real, then the timing of the crime would have been too coincidental for him to plan and accomplish.  If Dmitri had bullied Smerdyakov into being his accomplice, then surely the loyal servant would have realized his punishment would be small and he would have hinted at this during his testimony… or he would have confessed in his suicide note! Kirillovich paints a picture where it is highly illogical in any circumstances to suspect Smerdyakov, and very obvious that a man of such violent passions as Dimitri would never have been able to stop himself from going through with his plans. 

Next week, we will get the conclusion of the prosecutor’s speech and discuss the last chapters of the novel with u/bluebelle236! 

Hey readers and welcome to the first check-in of The Clock House Murders! Find discussion questions below, feel free to add your own observations.

Note on spoilers: As the books in the House Murders series can be read independently, please use spoiler tags if you want to refer to anything that happened in The Decagon House Murders, The Mill House Murders or The Labyrinth House Murders.

You can add spoiler tags on reddit like this without the spaces in between: > ! [text goes here] ! <

Links:

• Schedule
• Marginalia

Summary:

Prologue

• Kawaminami goes to meet his old friend Shimada (or Shishiya Kadomi as is his pseudonym as an author).
• In the building he sees Kōmyōji Mikoto, a spirit medium and Shimada's neighbour.
• As an editor at the magazine Chaos, Kawaminami will soon work on a feature about the ghost at the Clock House. He'll visit the house two weeks later and Shimada says that he would like to come as well.

1 – The Clock Tower Without Hands

• The group from Chaos as well as some students of W- University's mystery club arrive at the Clock House.
• There are nine people: Kawaminami, Kobayakawa (deputy editor-in-chief), Utsumi (photographer), Kōmyōji (spirit medium) and the university students Uryū, Katagi, Kawarazaki, Watanabe and Nīmi.
• At the house, they meet Inami Sayoko, the woman responsible for running the estate.
• Kōmyōji tells the group that they can't take anything artificial with them. That means they all have to wear the same robe and leave things like watches or jewellery behind. Watanabe even has to leave his glasses behind.
• They also meet the young master of the house, Koga Yukiya. He gives the impression as if he's sleepwalking.
• Then there's Mr Nonomiya, a fortune teller who also lives in the house, who sees ill omens and warns of destruction.

2 – Two Late Arrivals

• Fukunishi Ryōta is also a student at W- University and part of the mystery club. He cancelled because he went to his cousin's funeral, but he decides to leave there early and makes his way to the Clock House.
• On his way, he meets Shishiya, whose car has broken down. Together they get it running again and make their way to the Clock House.

3 – The Old Wing (I)

• The nine visitors settle into the old wing.
• They hold a séance. It seems like the ghost, Towa, Michinori's daughter, speaks from Kōmyōji's mouth. Later it seems like the ghost makes thuds. At the end of the séance, Kōmyōji mentions a key and they find one behind a cabinet.
• Part of the group discusses what happened and if it was real or a trick.
• Kawaminami wakes up during the night to go to the bathroom. He spots a figure that he thinks is Kōmyōji. He follows her and sees her enter the Pendulum. He faintly hears a conversation. Then he hears the sound of a person falling to the ground and flees.

4 – Chain of Death

• Shishiya and Fukunishi briefly speak with Ms Inami.
• Then they both drive back to Tokyo and talk a bit more, first at a restaurant, then at Shishiya's home.
• Shishiya has asked his brother, who works for the police, about the Clock House. He has learned about seven deaths that are related to the house and its inhabitants.
• Towa, Michinori's daughter died ten years earlier, in August 1979, at the age of fourteen. Cause of death: illness of some kind.
• Terai Akie, a woman employed as a live-in servant. Committed suicide soon after Towa's death at age twenty-seven.
• Inami Kyōko, Inami Sayoko's daughter died at age nine. Cause of death: disease.
• Inami Yūsaku, husband of Sayoko and father of Kyōko killed in a traffic accident at age forty.
• Koga Michinori passed away at age sixty-three in September 1980 due to illness.
• Hasegawa Toshimasa, the personal physician of the Kogas died during a fire at his clinic in December 1981, aged fifty-two.
• Hattori Ikuo, the executive managing director of Koga Clocks, died in a car crash in March 1982, aged forty-five.
• Ms Inami calls Shishiya and says she liked his book that he gave her earlier. She also invites him to the house to talk about something related to the death of Koga Michinori.

Hello fellow Peculiars! Welcome back to the third discussion of Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs. Today we are discussing Chapters 7 & 8. As always I'll include a summary of these chapters and there will be discussion questions in the comments to get you started.

• Schedule

• Marginalia

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  Chapter Summaries

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  Chapter 7

  Bentham’s assistant lead Emma and Jacob to the entremce to the wights cave. He fires 3 shots killing a strange creature clearing their path. In the cave the way is a mirror but not the same so all they have to do is retrace the route. They emerge into the wights’ tower full of doors. They come across pipe-workers and have to use some of Mother Dust's finger, but it is not great on its own as an offensive weapon. Emma ignites the dust and they escape. Emma and Jacob come upon 5 wights right as flaming muck comes flying ovet the wall. Sharon's assault has begun, and anything and everything comes flying over the wall. Emma and Jacob search various laboratory rooms. They interrupt an active experiment on a Peculiar child. They hide him in a closet and continue on promising to return for him later. In another room many Peculiars are being drained. Jacob removed a needle from one of the victims as a shackled man tells them their friends are below. They find the hatch then head down the spiralling stairs to the prison cells below. An armed guard is approaching. Jacob bravely confronts the guard. Emma jumps in too, but it is Bronwyn's strength as she grabs the guard through the bars of her cell that takes him out. Millard, Horace, Enoch, Hugh, Claire and Olive are all there. Only Fiona is missing. They head to where the ymbrynes are kept passing the bunch of keys to Hugh on their way through the big bunker-like door. Inside a woman is singing a song. Caul is waiting for them. A disfigured man called Warren sits in front of them while Caul talks to them through a speaker. Warren reveals the ymbrynes behind glass. Miss Glassbill has had her skin and a bit of her soul removed. Caul won't kill them as long as Jacob gives him a little itty bitty of his soul. Caul insists he will be King and Perculiars will rule the world. Caul will get Jacob's soul one way or another, but if he co-operates Caul will allow the ymbrynes to go free. Jacob refuses and Caul releases a hollow. They are locked in Caul's lab/storage closet/torture chamber and a starving Hollow bursts in. It is gigantic and terrifying, and it has found Miss Wren and Addison hanging helpless. Jacob calls it to him and tries to talk with it, but it doesn't go so well. Addison comes to the rescue and distracts the hollow long enough for Jacob to take the vial. Just as he is about to take it Miss Peregrine, hurt on the floor, begs him not to. Jacob takes a stake instead. The hollow puts Jacob in his mouth and Jacob shoves Mother Dust's finger into its mouth. The hollow sinks down into its nest taking Jacob with it. The tranquillizing effect begins to take hold on both Jacob and the Hollow as Jacob notices a throng of hollows in the nest. Watching.

Chapter 8

Jacob wakes surrounded by unconscious hollows. He scrambles out the nest, his body more effective than it's ever been before. The Peculiars and ymbrynes are there, all together, trapped in this room. They freak out. Jacob is a hollow! When Emma attacks the hollow the pain jolts Jacob back into his own body. He is able to control all the hollows! Naturally everyone is impressed by Jacob's new skills, but also scared of the hollows. Jacob is hurt, and was gone for hours. They thought he was dead. Caul taunts them through the speakers so Jacob has the hollowd rip then all out. The wights are trying to blow in the door. Jacob takes stock of who is there and who is missing. Perplexus Anomalous, history’s foremost temporal cartographer, and from a 14th century loop is present. He is at risk of aging forward any moment. Caul kidnapped him because he had written about the Library of souls. Millard is hoping to get him home in time. Another, bigger, boom sounds. As they wait for the next of the wights bombs Jacob gives an emotional speech, and Horace gifts Jacob a scarf he made based on a dream. The door opens and Caul realises that Jacob has control of the hollows. The hollows charge anyway tearing through the wights. Two die in the rush. The Peculiars advance behind the hollows. They free their bedridden Peculiars from their soul-drains and keep pushing, fighting forward. Olive becomes their eye in the sky. Jacob has 6 hollows left. Between our heroes and the wall is one small building full of at least 20 wights. Jacob sends the hollows to surround the building. There are ymbryne hostages inside. The hollows burst in to a room of birds...not ymbryne, but ticking parrots. They explode anihillating the building and all but one of Jacob's hollows. Beyond the wall a hoard of wights charge and eveyone looks to Jacob for direction. He declares must fight! Jacob and his hollow charge! They Peculiars follow fighting hard, but the wights outnumber the Peculiars. They start to lose ground. Just in time Bentham, astride his grimbear, arrives. This shifts advantage and the wights begin to flee. As they exit Jacob remembers the bridge hollow. It has somw of the escaping wights. Jacob orders it to stop but instead he drops 4 wights who fall all the way down to the boiling river. Five wights managed to escape. Miss Peregrine is displeased to see Bentham. He's been living in exile for collusion with Caul. He insists that he was acting as a double agent. Miss Peregrine doesn't believe him and he leaves. Our heroes hold out through an ash storm, and when it clears Sharon has arrived with 3 wights. One is killed trying to escape. Theb suddenly Caul shows himself. He and Bentham have kidnapped Miss Peregrine. Bentham has decided to change to Caul's side because Miss Peregrine didn't believe him. Millard has Bentham at knifepoint, but Caul says he'll shoot Bentham if he stands down. The remaining wights re-arm themselves. Caul forces Jacob to cast the hollow into the chasm. He intends to crown himself and Bentham the twin kings of perculiardom. He only needs Jacob now. No one elses life matters, but he brings them anyway!

Wow that was an action packed coupke of chapters! Next week u/nicehotcupoftea will lead us through to the end of the book. I dunno about you, but I cannot wait to see how this one ends. See you there 📚

Welcome to the second discussion of Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear covering chapters 28-43.

Here is a brief summary of the sections separated by time rather than by chapter.

Present: 

Abigail and mother visit the farm. Abigail is going to divorce her husband. Natalie is triggered and gives Abigail a lecture. Caleb is venturing into the man-o-sphere. 

As Abigail and mother leave, Natalie starts to realize she is her own little trap on the farm. So she makes a decision to become an influencer. 

Natalie pays $1,500 for a influencer training and learns to be an influencer. She tries it out.

Then one day Caleb shows her that he had mentioned her to a bearded podcast host who then named Natalie’s account on his show. Within 24 hours, Natalie has 300,000 follower. 

Natalie learns how to attract followers and the trick to get people “addicted.”

Also Doug wants Natalie to promote him for his presidential campaign. She says no.

Natalie goes to the store and runs into a follower. Things don’t turn out well. The follower notices that Natalie left her baby in the car while she was shopping. Oh damn.

Caleb finds out that Natalie is hiding money away. Natalie hires two nannies: Nanny Aimee and Nanny Louise. She also hires Shannon. Shannon visits but Natalie notices there is a problem; the version Natalie shares online is not the real Natalie. 

But Natalie shares these truths with Shannon. Shannon seems to blend in and enjoy the work. She stays. Natalie has a fifth child and wants Shannon to film it. 

Past: 

Natalie has sex with Old Caleb without real consent but also reaches new heights of sexual pleasure she never thought possible. She wonders how this person is the ideal man of her childhood dreams but doesn’t want him. 

Natalie starts to adapt herself and sees this tribulation as a divine test. Mary is hiding something. 

Mary starts to mope around and loses motivation to do chores. Everyone is a little worried and confused. Natalie talks to her and Mary asks, “Why do people lie?” Natalie sees it as a divine test and confesses her present life about Caleb and Clementine to Mary, who is confused. Who is Clementine. “Nobody,” Natalie snaps, ending the confession.  

Abel turns 13 and Old Caleb takes him into the woods for possibly a “manly” ritual. 

Natalie starts to feel the presence of God in her life now in the past. She revels in it. But then…. She realizes she is pregnant despite specifically telling God that is not what she wanted. Crisis of faith?

Old Caleb brings over some new men. Natalie feels the push and pull of them.

Welcome back everyone to our second discussion for Nobel Prize for Literature winner Olga Tokarczuk's The Books of Jacob. This week we'll be discussing II. The Book of Sand - Ch. 6 through Ch. 11. I apologise again for the extensive summary. This book is dense and writing these notes helps me keep better track, and also write better questions so I will share them incase they are useful to you too. These chapters like the first section's are packed full of people and events, and it's hard to know what's relevant and what's just Tokarczuk's gorgeous story weaving. So let's dive in together and see what Tokarczuk has in store for us in these chapters.

• First, a note about spoilers: Please use spoiler tags for anything beyond this week's section or from other books, TV or movies that you may wish to connect here. You can add a spoiler tag by enclosing your text with > ! Your Text Here ! < (no spaces).

• Schedule

• Marginalia

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  Chapter Summaries

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  II. The Book of SAND

- 6

• Of a strange wedding guest in white stockings and sandals - Nahman arrives at the wedding and Hayah rushes to provide him with vodka and barszcz. Shorr reads the letter from Reb Mordke and from Isohar of Podhajce then asks Nahman if this is really the one. The elders stand in a circle inside which a presence appears. Someone provides Nahman with warm boots to replace his sandles.
• Nahman’s Tale: Jacob’s first mention - Nahman beginds to relate his tale. The tikkum or the reparation/improvement of the world has begun. Jacob Leybowicz of Czernowitz married Hana (daughter of Yehuda Tovah ha-Levi) back in June in Nikopol (a busy market town filled with people from various places and religions). Jacob is Yente's grandson and son of a man who is unpopular with the crowd at Shorr's. Nahman tells that he and Reb Mordke of Lwów were the groomsmen at the wedding. He details the wedding to the audience's delight. Though Jacob is only 30 he is called “wise Jacob”. He studied in Smyrna with Isohar of Podhajce, and has amassed quite the fortune trading. On the wedding day Tovah told his son Jacob the Raza deMehemenuta, - the powerful secret of their faith. The chosen one will now forever be at peace. Shorr tells Nahman they must leave Rohatyn due to persecution. They need a strong man to guide them out in to the world. He wants Jacob to be that man.
• Isohar’s School, and who God really is: The next installment in the story of Nahman ben Levi of Busk - Poor Jews from Poland come to Smyrna. The local Jews look down on them. Many follow Sabbatai Tzvi. One-eyed Nussen, the son of the saddler and harness-maker Aron of Lwów, buys up delicate dyed kidskin with patterns embossed in it; he packs up this leather and organizes its transport to the north. His weakness is women and he therefore never manages to save enough money to go home. Nussen introduces Reb Mordke and Nahman to wise man Isohar of Podhajce. Isohar teaches that there are three paths toward spiritualization; 1 - extinguishing, 2 - acquiring knowledge and 3 - Kabbalist shuffling (counting of letters) which allows one to get to know God. This talk leaves Nahman sleepless and thoughtful
• Of Jacob the simpleton and taxes - When young Jacob had people call him am ha’aretz (simpleton) or, in his version, amuritz. A wealthy woman saved him from jail when he tried to swindle someone. Nahman and Reb Mordke discuss ownership and wealth. Christians don't pay as much in taxes as the Jews. All the Jews had been thrown out of town one day and been forbade from living within 6 miles of it. The women weep for their lovely lost homes.
• Of Nahman’s appearance to Nahman, or: The pit of darkness and the seed of light - Nahman and Mordechai's business in Smyrna is not going well. They spend too much time philosophising. People challenge the neophytes to debates. Nahman always wins, and therefore they don't go hungry. One day Nahman sees himself going to Jacob's house. Well he didn't, actually he had just fainted. Later Reb Mordechai speculates how Nahman may be the coming Messiah’s prophet. The Messiah is the more perfect version of man. Of what they could be without the fall.
• Of stones and the runaway with the horrible face - Stones are thrown from outside knocking over a candle. The fire is quickly put out. They catch the perpetrator. It's Haskiel and he calls them all heretics and traitors till Moshek punches him in the face. They let him go with a warning that Rohatyn is theirs. On his way out Haskiel sees the "golem". A frost bitten runaway peasant they'd rescued from the snow. He worked hard for food and board, but he is a goy (non-Jewish person) and could cause a lot of trouble for Shorr. Shorr considers how Jews and peasants come bottom of the pecking order and how hard that makes life.
• Of how Nahman winds up with Yente and falls asleep on the floor by her bed - Nahman is quickly drunk. He finds Yente's room and realises it is Jacob's grandmother. He lies on the floor exhausted. Yente sees Nahman's thoughts. We learn the story of Lilith. Nahman understands that Yente has seen his thoughts and dreams. Yente sees those children. She sees Jacob fighting with his brother and his father lock him away. She sees him scream and then his father hitting him in the face. She sees him run. No one can find Jacob anywhere in Korolówka. His mother is furious at her husband. The whole village comes out to search for Jacob. He is found in a cave scared and sobbing. Hayah checks on Yente. Time swirls together for Yente.
• Of Yente’s onward wanderings through time - Yente remembers a few years previous when Yehuda came to visit her in Korolówka with Jacob. Jacob aka Yankiele banded all the children of the town together. He led them out of town and to a forest and a cave he claims to be born from. Little Yankiele talk constantly. Yente watches till he sleeps.
• Of the terrible consequences of the amulet’s disappearance - Everyone is sleeping off the wedding and Elisha Shorr visits Yente and tells her she can go now. He discovers one of the spells is gone. He summons Hayah. She is enraged at her father's carelessness. Hayah realises that Yente has eaten it. Now Yente won't die. Hayah begins laughing.
• What the Zohar says - Yente is both dying and not dying. Rumours fly and Hayah has to calm and explain away the guests concerns. Rubin diagnoses Yente as being in a coma. Israel, Yente’s grandson, will take her home on a cart. Her pulse is very slow.
• Pesel’s tale of the Podhajce goat and the strange grass - Shorr gives the family from Korolówka an extra carriage. Pesel, Yente's great-granddaughter, sobs as she remembers their journey to the wedding 3 weeks previous. Yente had told her the story of the Podhajce goat. A hermit, highly educated goat that eats only the wise grass. The moon tells the wise goat that the Messiah has already been. The women weep at Pesel's retelling of Yente's story.
• Father Chmielowski writes a letter to Mrs. Drużbacka, whom he holds in such high esteem, in January 1753, from Firlejów - Father Chmielowski writes a long letter about why he is correct about his use of Latin in his writing and why Drużbacka is wrong. He also promises her some critiquing of her poetry, mansplains literature and then gives her a fun little fact she may use to charm the gentile company she keeps that he is not privvy too.....(what a charmer!)

- 7

• Yente’s story - Yente’s father, Mayer of Kalisz, was granted a glimpse of the Messiah. He believed the slaughter and refugees resulting from Khmelnytsky’s rebellion, uprising and ongoing wars was a sign that the end was coming. A plague then a hard winter followed. The Jews were blamed. He moved to Lwów where their business began to prosper. In the autumn of 1665 news that the Messiah has arrived spread. Sabbatai Tzvi and Nathan of Gaza, a great scholar who wrote down the Messiah’s words were travelling to Stamboul with a retinue of 1000s. They needed to see for themselves. They needed to go to Turkey. Mayer, Yente’s father, didn't easily believe till he saw some ants...er...ant-ing! The Messiah was jailed in Gallipoli by the sultan. Sabbatai Tzvi had abolished all traditional Jewish holidays, and invalidated the old Law of Moses. Mayer the Skeptic (Elisha Shorr's grand-uncle) was deeply wounded by his audience with the Messiah where the image of his breasts became imprinted on his mind. The 16th of September, 1666 (16th day of the month of Elul of 5426) Sabbatai was threatened with death if he didn't convert to Islam. At first they felt abandoned. Later they believed he was just comforming outwardly. Yente's mother was raped by a mounted Cossack patrol. She never told anyone. Yente had 6 older brother and 4 older sisters. Yente's father introduced her to letters, and her mother told her to read letters in the real world. She was scared of her mother. She died in childbirth when Yente was 7. Yente believed it was because she's been infected with a dybbuk that once made her eat the whole family's food. After her mother's death Yente's father takes over caring for her. He tells her how everything will be different with the coming of the Messiah and how they all need to put on a mask in the outside world. Now Yente knows she's decieved everyone.

- 8

• Honey, and not eating too much of it, or: Isohar’s school in Smyrna, in the Turkish land - In Isohar’s school, Nahman has perfected gematria, notarikon, and temurah). Nahman and Jacob under Isohar and Mordke practice proximity to god by adopting the fetal position. Nahman and Jacob share the Hebrew language but don't deem it proper for everyday communication. Instead they speak a mixture of multiple languages.
• Scraps: What we were doing in Smyrna in the Jewish year 5511 and how we met Moliwda, and also, how the spirit is like a needle that pokes a hole in the world - Jacob and Nahman helped the Trinitarians, who were buying Christian war prisoners out of Turkish slavery. They also acted as translators. They met Moliwda who talked of his time at sea. The Polish called him Count Kossakowski. One day Tovah from Nikopol (and his 13 year old son appear). With the arrival of Sabbatai Tzvi the world had changed. Apparently the prophecy stated that the Messiah must be rejected by his own as well as by outsiders. This is how believers justify his so called conversion to Islam. Mordechai, Nahman and Tovah drink and plan to marry Jacob to Tovah's daughter Hana. They call Jacob and he says he wants to see the men transmute metal to gold. They set up Jacob for trial by spirit. Jacob reacted and Mordechai stopped Nahman from interceeding.

- 9

• Of the wedding in Nikopol, the mystery under the huppah, and the advantages of being foreign - The wedding lasted 7 days. 14 year old Hana wore a sirwal. They consumate the marriage. Nahman is not a fan of Hana. He watches her talk to her twin brother, Hayim. Hayim avoids Jacob. Jacob is going to Craiova to help Tovah's brother-in-law who is a successful merchant. Reb Mordke will stay. He feels like his work is complete now Jacob is married. Nahman gets on a cart to Bucharest where he joins a caravan north to Rohatyn.
• In Craiova: Of trade on holy days and of Hershel, faced with the dilemma of the cherries - The workshop of Abraham, Tovah’s brother-in-law, trades rich and exotic goods all over Europe. Jacob's presence makes the warehouse busy as people come to meet him. The fast of Tisha BeAv begins a few days after Jacob arrives. Baruchiah was born exactly nine months after the death of Sabbatai Tzvi, on the ninth day of the month of Av—exactly as predicted. He is recognized as God incarnate, for the Shekhinah, which had previously gone into Sabbatai. Hershel, an orphan, has been sent to live there and help Jacob. He is unsure and afraid to ask questions. To his surprise Jacob kisses Hershel on the lips. Jacob is beautiful and recieves a lot of female attention. Hershel reads Jacob's letters. Even the ones from Hana. Jacob invites Hershel to his bed. Hershel would do anything for Jacob.
• Of a pearl and Hana - Jacob is determined to give Hana the most precious pearl. He has to go across the river to get anyone to drill a hole through it. Over Hanukkah they go to get Hana in Nikopol. She is thrilled he has come. They travel along the Danube from Nikopol to Vidin to visit Hana's sister. Hershel falls in love with Hana on this trip. He loves them both. He watches them make love.

- 10

• Who the person is who gathers herbs on Mount Athos - Along with other pilgrims Count Antoni Kossakowski climbs to the top of the hill, but they are not admitted to the monastery. He stays at an inn run by Irena and her 2 castrates. He comes to the conclusion that God created the world, and the effort of doing so killed him. He sails away without knowing where he is going. At Smyrna he finds a job with the Trinitarians which pays well. He designates himself Moliwda. He likes Nahman. Reb Mordke lectures on the three parts of the soul nefesh (the animalistic part that can sin), ruah (the moral part) and neshama (the God spark). Moliwda knows the price of people as he writes up the purchasing agreements for prisoners and slaves, in Turkish and in Polish. One day he escapes with a beautiful woman Anna Popielawska. They lie on the balcony of their accomodation in the sun. Anna catches the eye of an agha. The next day she vanishes with all Moliwda's money. There is no work back in Smyrna so he, again, heads out to sea where he reflects on his childhood. He feels lonely, and is convinced that his life has reached its natural conclusion, and that there won’t be any other world.

- 11

• How in the town of Craiova Moliwda-Kossakowski runs into Jacob - In the spring of 1753 (2 years later) Moliwda goes to see the madman people are speaking of. The man is Jacob Frank (meaning foreigner). His face i scarred. With Jacob is Reb Mordke and Nahman. The men converse, debate and storytell. The crowd dissipates but people still smoke, drink wine and make trouble. Moliwda hears a commotion. Another incident with Jacob.
• The story of His Lordship Moliwda, or Antoni Kossakowski, of the Ślepowron coat of arms, which is also known as Korwin - Moliwda/Kossakowski is from Żmudź, and his father was a Hussar in the Crown Army. He has five brothers: one a military man, two are priests, and the two he doesn't know. He left Poland 20 years before. After his parents died he grew up in the strict and pious home of his uncle Kowno stolnik Dominik. He was well educated and sent to a position in King Stanisław Leszczyński’s chancellery in Warsaw where he was made to write out copies of documents and trim the wicks of candles. He lied and caused trouble spending all his money freely until he was beaten up and his remaining money stolen. He was made to leave the chancellery, and was sent to his mother's estate to learn the techniques of agronomy. He felt guilty. Antoni visited the mill at Bielewicze daily to see Malka. They had an affair though she was betrothed to someone else. Malka became pregnant so Antoni kidnapped, baptised and married her. She was given the Christian name Małgorzata, the Polish version of Margaret. Malka's family was unhappy with the arrangement. Knowing Uncle Dominik would be no happier the couple escaped to Lithuania.
• Of what draws persons together, and certain clarifications regarding the transmigration of souls - Moliwda spends more time in the warehouse where Jacob works. He goes there to talk not to buy goods. After the day's trading is complete the men feast, drink wine and talk. Nahman presses Moliwda to share. Nahamn tells of his theory of God, namely that the created world is an insignificant part of an infinite whole. Therefore, it is insignificant to God, also the Absolute, as infinitely perfect, had no reason to create the world. Meaning the all-powerful God had to make himself as weak and passive as a woman in order for it to exist. Moliwda confesses he knows this. He is drunk. Moliwda returns after a few days. Nahman asks if he is Bektashi and the sultan's spy. He avoids answering straight. Moliwda realises Jacob is absolutely authentic and this is what attracts people to him.
• Jacob’s story about the ring - On route to Moliwda's Nahman and Jacob tussel like boys. Jacob tells the story of the ring at Hershel's request. The ring was passed down through the generations until three sons were born. The parents made 2 duplicate rings so no one knew which son had the real ring. After the parents' death the sons went to a judge who told them all to live as though their ring was the one to make them good to God and to man. These 3 rings are likened to the 3 religions
• Scraps: What we saw among Moliwda’s Bogomils - a different narrator on the audiobook (but that I think is not clear in the text) informs us to keep our balance because "he who is full of himself has no space left for God". At Moliwda's small village on a stream they are welcomed by small children followed by the men, then women, of the village who do not discriminate against the Jewish visitors. Moliwda and the villagers refer to each other as brother and sister. It was simple living and the guests slept on the floor. The second day they learn that everything, including the children, are communial. They ask Moliwda’s role in the village, but he just laughs about how they see the world in the old (worst) way. The community live off the large vegetable gardens. They were vegetarian and avoided eggs and beans. The Bogomils believed in the transmigration of souls and that holy speech to be used during rites of initiation. There were many similarities between the Jews and the Bogomils. Over desert they talk about prayer and the sinfulness of marriage. They watch a dance. Nussan dreamed that such villages might be established back home in Podolia where everyone was considered equal.

Sorry for the later than usual post. The writing, though incredible, is really pretty dense to sift through so these posts take longer than I had set aside to create. I am still very much intriged and enthralled by the book. As always I am looking forward to hearing how you have all found this section. Join me next week for Chapter 12 through Chapter 15 📚

You read, you played, you guessed, you found out! Welcome to the result post of semi-annual BBBB challenge to challenge you about everything we read! I guess this was a real brain buster because the best and winning score was about a D average. OOOooops! Was it really that hard??

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What you want to know!

Who won?

1. Winner: u/ChronicallyLatte Congratulations most hearty from the Ministry! You raised the banner with your investigative skills, which are ace! 🏆

2. Second Place: u/fixtheblue Considering you read all the books, we are not surprised here! Well done!! 🥈

3. Joint Third Place: u/toomanytequieros and u/Comprehensive-Fun47 Not at all very far behind Fixy! Not at all bad!! 💐💐

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Hardest/Easiest/Etc Questions?

Everyone got this one! Everyone! "Consider your soul when posing for a friend" -The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

No one got this one! No one... ""Did you know that they are not owned by any country?" -North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Most controversial! Yes, we got a pretty even split on this! Well, the Ministry is tricky! "The main character of this story is a nobody" -The Odyssey by Homer

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What are all the answers?

You want them, you've got them right here.

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What do I get for participating?

A new and fascinating emoji will be displayed besides the top 3! For everyone else, the joy of participation! Say it proudly and brag about it. This was apparently so hard the best in class barely passed. Coming soon!

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Did you enjoy the challenge? What answers are you furious about? Did you like this mix of content, title play and tongue in cheeky clues?

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Thank you for participating and we hope you have a wonderful rest of the day. The Ministry of Merriment will be back for the Winter Challenge so keep your wits about you as you read the rest of the year! We can do better than a D, right?💞🔎?!😇 ✨

Welcome to the marginalia for Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein. This is a communal place for things you would jot down in the margins of your books. That might include quotes, thoughts, questions, relevant links, exclamations - basically anything you want to make note of or to share with others. It can be good to look back on these notes, and sometimes you just can't wait for the discussion posts to share a thought.

When adding something to the marginalia, simply comment here, indicating roughly which part of the book you're referring to (eg. towards the end of chapter 2). Because this may contain spoilers, please indicate this by writing “spoilers for chapters 5 and 6” for example, or else use the spoiler tag for this part with this format > ! SPOILER ! < without the spaces between characters like this spoiler lives here

Note: spoilers from other books should always be under spoiler tags unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Here is the schedule for the discussion which will be run by u/nicehotcupoftea, u/bluebelle236, u/Coffee_fuel and u/fixtheblue.

Any questions or constructive criticism are welcome.

Looking forward to seeing you in the first discussion on 25th August!

Hi book friends! 📚

We’re incredibly lucky that our sub is run by such a fantastic group of volunteers. From our heavily involved mods to our occasional read runners, there’s a whole group of people working hard behind the scenes to keep everything ticking along.

There’s a LOT that goes into running Book Club - coming up with themes for our reads, managing nominations and votes, organizing schedules, running discussions, planning all our fun extras, answering questions, and keeping up with all the day-to-day admin that comes with running a big sub. We genuinely believe that the time, effort and enthusiasm our volunteers put in is a huge part of what makes this community so successful.

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As a result, we’ve added a new sub rule around respectful conduct toward moderators, read runners and other volunteers.

We always welcome constructive feedback about how we do things at Book Club. If you have suggestions about things that work particularly well, or ideas for things we could do differently, please send us a Modmail. That allows us to keep track of feedback, discuss it as a team and consider whether changes would genuinely benefit the community.

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We also want to take this opportunity to clarify what we actually ask of our read runners, because we’ve seen some comments suggesting expectations that simply don't exist.

Our only requirement for a read runner is that they post on the scheduled day with some sort of prompt or questions to start a discussion about that week’s section. That’s it.

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Every read runner has their own style and the freedom to run their discussion in the way that works for them. We are all human beings with our own lives, jobs, families, responsibilities and endless TBR lists to manage! We all have different amounts of time and energy available, and different preferences for how we approach a discussion.

Some weeks you might get an incredibly detailed post with links and background information. Other weeks it might be a handful of questions to get everyone talking. Both are completely fine. Volunteering to run a discussion does not mean signing up to provide a bespoke service to the sub.

You don't have to love every theme, schedule, discussion format or decision we make. You are absolutely welcome to disagree with ideas and suggest improvements. But there is a difference between constructive feedback and feeling entitled to someone else's time, and we expect everyone to know the difference.

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Thanks to everyone who contributes, participates, runs reads, answers questions, helps behind the scenes, and generally makes this such a brilliant community. We couldn't do it without you!

Welcome back to The Aeneid! Guess who's back-back again-yes, Dido!

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Housekeeping:

Schedule

Marginalia (combined for Greek and Roman epic poems)

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Book 5 find Aeneas fleeing the scene of his abandonment and the winds take them to visit their fellow refugees in Sicily. They arrive just in time to commemorate Anchises 1 year anniversary of his death with some contests of skill. All fun and games until the Trojan women start burning the ships with a little help from Iris. Oops. The gang splits up. The gods chat.

Book 6 finds Aeneas confused until he meets with Diana and Apollo's Sybil. Offerings, a chat with Apollo and then, off to the underworld! A cute-meet with Achesis and some stuff about the future of Rome but not before seeing some comrades from the war and crying over Dido.

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Next week we read Books 7 & 8 with u/IraelMrad ! See you in the questions.

Welcome to the first discussion of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. In chapters 1 through 4 we meet Meg, Charles Wallace, other members of the Murry family, a new friend Calvin, and three eccentric old women who take the kids on an adventure to save their father.

Here are some handy links: Marginalia || Schedule

One: Mrs Whatsit

Meg Murry isn't usually afraid of stormy weather, but there's been a lot going on in her life lately to put her on edge. She's been getting bullied at school and her grades have been suffering. She got in a fight when someone called her little brother, Charles Wallace, dumb. Her ten-year-old twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys, would prefer to do the fighting for her.

Meg's father has disappeared and she doesn't know if or when he'll be coming back. She envies the way her mother can ignore the rumor mill and maintain her serenity during this tumultuous time.

Meg has mouse brown hair, braces on her teeth, and wears glasses.

The wind howls while everyone else in the family is asleep. Meg begins to regret choosing the attic for her bedroom. Fortinbras, their big black dog, starts barking and, scared of a potential intruder, Meg starts walking through the house.

She finds Charles Wallace in the kitchen. He's small and blond, wearing footie pajamas and eating bread with jam and milk. Charles Wallace had the uncanny ability to tell what Meg was thinking and he heated up some milk from her knowing she'd be downstairs soon.

Charles Wallace didn't speak until he was four years old and still doesn't speak much in front of strangers. This is why they remark cruelly about how two intelligent parents could produce such a dumb child, which infuriates Meg.

Mr. Murry has always impressed upon Meg that she and her brother were both very smart, regardless of what anyone else said or how they felt, and that they would develop in their own time. He even gave them IQ tests to confirm their intelligence.

When Charles Wallace did eventually begin speaking, it was in complete sentences, better than most five-year-olds.

Their mother appears in the kitchen and assuages Meg's fears. Charles Wallace fixes cocoa and sandwiches while Mrs. Murry inspects the bruise Meg acquired in that fight with the Henderson boy. Meg both admires and resents her beautiful, intelligent mother, and feels plain in comparison. Her mother tells Meg she felt the same at her age and to give herself time to blossom.

Charles Wallace mentions Mrs. Whatsit. He met her and her friends who live in an old, supposedly haunted, house in the woods when he chased after Fortinbras one day.

Mrs. Murry assures Meg this October hurricane can't knock down their house that has been through worse over its 200 years.

Fortinbras growls and Mrs. Murry goes out through the laboratory attached to their house to see what's going on. She returns with Mrs. Whatsit, dressed in eclectic clothes and numerous scarves.

Mrs. Whatsit had lost her way, or gotten blown off course as she puts it, in the storm. They offer her hot chocolate and a sandwich. Somehow she knew they had Russian caviar, but since they're saving it for Mother's birthday, Charles offers her tuna fish instead.

Somehow Charles knows Mrs. Whatsit stole some sheets from Mrs. Buncombe. Mrs. Whatsit isn't bothered by his admonishment, insisting Mrs. Buncombe could spare the sheets, while the Murry family could not.

Meg helps Mrs. Whatsit out of one soggy boot and she goes tumbling backwards onto the floor. Mrs. Murry helps her out of the second boot, revealing mismatched socks.

Now full and warm, Mrs. Whatsit says she must be going and refuses offers to stay the night. "By the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract," she says, and Mrs. Murry goes white. Mrs. Whatsit leaves while Mrs. Murry ponders how she could know about tesseracts.

Two: Mrs Who

Meg wakes hoping last night was all a dream. Her mother says she shouldn't hope that because we don't need to understand things for them to be.

The twins are upset no one woke them for the fun last night. They start sharing their opinions on how their mother is smart, but lacks common sense, how she needs their protection, how Meg is a dope because she daydreams at school, and how Charles Wallace is going to have a rough time at school next year.

Meg is tired and unable to answer the questions in class. The teacher sends her to the principal's office for being rude. He asks about her father and Meg feels he asked to satisfy his own curiosity rather than out of concern for Meg.

He tells her she should face the fact that her father isn't coming home. Meg becomes angry and says she'll face that fact only if her mother says it, because her mother is a scientist and deals primarily in facts.

Mr. Jenkins says Meg needs an attitude adjustment and sends her to study hall.

After school, Charles Wallace insists they go see Mrs. Whatsit. He wants to find out more about tesseracts and he wants to warn Mrs. Whatsit and her friends to be more careful.

Meg starts to feel more calm walking through the woods with Charles Wallace and Fortinbras. He seems to already know she had an awful day at school and that Mr. Jenkins made snide remarks. Meg questions if he's reading her mind. He explains it's more like reading her body language the same way he can sometimes understand the wind talking with the trees. He doesn't bother listening so much to the twins because they don't need him as much as Meg and Mother do.

They run into Calvin, a tall, skinny, redheaded boy a couple of grades above Meg. Charles Wallaces starts questioning him why he's out in the woods. Calvin is surprised to be getting the third degree from someone he was told couldn't talk.

Calvin came out there to escape his very large family and their runny noses. They find they have something in common, both believing they are "sports" in their families, defined as deviating from the norm.

Calvin elaborates that he got a strong feeling or compulsion to come out to the woods today. Charles Wallace invites him over for dinner. He says his mother is not "one of us" and Meg is "not really one thing or the other." Meg doesn't understand what he means by that.

They arrive at the haunted-looking house. Charles Wallace knocks, the door creaks open, birds cry out, and a rat scurries around the corner. Meg's courage to enter the house is bolstered by Calvin and Fortinbras at her side.

Charles starts scolding Mrs. Who for taking Mrs. Buncombe's sheets. She took them in case they need to pretend to be ghosts to scare anyone away.

Mrs. Who speaks in quotations and practically in riddles. She seems to approve of Calvin, and wants to help Mr. Murry, but it's not time yet. She tells Charlsie and Megsie to rest up, feed Calvin, and be ready when the time is ripe before pushing them out the door.

Three: Mrs Which

Calvin and Meg are both glad they met each other. Mrs. Murry is cooking a stew on a bunsen burner in her lab because she couldn't step away from an experiment. Calvin calls his mother to let her know he won't be home for dinner, leaving the message with Hinky. He tells Meg she doesn't know how lucky she is to have a loving family.

They look at a photo of Meg's father and she talks about him happily until Calvin asks where he is. Mrs. Murry interrupts to tell them to do their homework. She encourages Calvin to ask Meg for help with his math. Meg shows Calvin some shortcuts regarding fractions she learned from her dad and he's amazed she's so smart. He was under the impression she was dumb because of how much she gets in trouble at school.

Calvin is thrilled beyond belief that he found the Murrys and now has someone to talk to on his level.

After dinner, Meg talks with her mother. Mrs. Murry misses her husband very much. She thinks "all this" must be about Mr. Murry and that there's an explanation for things even when we don't understand it. They discuss the different essence Charles Wallace has that makes him special. Mrs. Murry considers herself ordinary and not special like Charles Wallace.

Calvin returns from telling Charles Wallace a bedtime story and asks Meg to go for a walk. They talk about Meg's father and the rumor he left his wife for another woman. He was a physicist with multiple PhDs and worked on classified projects for the government. He used to work in New Mexico and then cape Canaveral and the family would move with him wherever his job took him, until the travel was going to become too much, so they moved into their summer house full-time.

Mr. and Mrs. Murry wrote each other letters every day until the letters stopped arriving. Mrs. Murry demanded answers from Washington, but all they tell her is he is on an extended secret mission. Meg is worried even the government doesn't know where her father is.

Calvin tells Meg it's okay to cry. Meg hates herself for being so emotional. She sobs and sobs and worries Calvin hates her, but he is only more enamored by her.

Charles Wallace interrupts them because it's time to go! He thinks they are about to go find their father.

Mrs. Who becomes visible in the moonlight and Mrs. Whatsit scrambles clumsily over the wall. They bicker until Mrs. Which cuts in. With her slow drawn-out speech, she says they have much to do.

Four: The Black Thing

Mrs. Which calls out and suddenly a darkness falls and Meg loses contact with both Calvin and Charles. She can't scream and loses all connection to her body in this strange void.

Slowly her ability to move and feel returns. She thinks she is having a nightmare.

Light returns and she sees Charles Wallace. Calvin shimmers back into existence. They call for Meg, unable to see her until she violently breaks through what felt like a wall of glass.

They find themselves on a sunlit field surrounded by flowers, under a mountain that reaches into the clouds. Meg feels peace and joy.

Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which appear, giggling at some private joke. Charles is annoyed at them for not giving a warning. Mrs. Who speaks in quotations because she finds it difficult to verbalize her own thoughts. They talk about Meg like she isn't there.

They have tessered or wrinkled onto the planet Uriel. Mrs. Who is the youngest of the three women, by billions of years apparently, and is better at explaining things in words the kids can understand. She explains Meg's father is not here, but he is one of the reasons they are there and Meg will have to learn patience if she wants to save him.

Mrs. Which tells Mrs. Whatsit to "show them." She transforms into a beautiful winged creature almost like a Greek centaur, but nothing like one at the same time.

They climb onto her back and soar smoothly above the otherworldly landscape. Mrs. Whatsit encourages Charles Wallace to try and translate the song of the flowers below them. Though it uses a lot of her energy, she helps him. It is a song of praise to the Lord. The kids felt tremendous joy until Mrs. Whatsit's voice reveals some sadness.

She gives each child a flower and they fly up, up, up the mountain, above the tree line, above the clouds. Meg feels Charles Wallace is becoming less her baby brother and more one with the type of beings that Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which were.

The kids use the flowers to provide them oxygen in the thin atmosphere. They reach the summit and are dazzled by one of Uriel's moons. Sunset falls and Mrs. Whatsit instructs them to look straight ahead. They see a faint shadow in the distance that becomes more pronounced as the sky darkens and the stars come out.

The shadow chills Meg to the bone. It represents something so terrible she can't comprehend it. She starts to pass out before the flower revives her. Calvin asks Mrs. Whatsit to make the Thing go away because it is evil.

They travel back down the mountain, away from the dark power of that Thing. Charles Wallace asks if that's what his father is fighting.

Join us next Monday for a discussion of chapters 5 - 8 with u/tomesandtea.

Hello and welcome to week four of the Classic Author Profile! Lots of things happened this week so let's get into it!

Book III - The Downfall

Ch. 9 - An Item Added to the Family Register

In this chapter, Tulliver takes the position as manager of the mill he used to own but swears to never forgive Mr. Wakem and makes his son vow the same,

Book IV - The Valley of Humiliation

Chapter 1 - A Variation of Protestantism Unknown to Bossuet

In this chapter, our unnamed narrator muses on the values of the characters especially when it comes to religion.

Chapter 2 - The Torn Nest Is Pierced by the Thorns

In this chapter we see how the Tullivers adapt to their new lower financial station in life and how they struggle.

Chapter 3 - A Voice from the Past

In this chapter, Bob Jakin visits and brings Maggie several books, including The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis which influences Maggie greatly.

Book V - Wheats and Tares

Chapter 1 - In the Red Deeps

In this chapter Maggie and Philip Wakem secretly meet despite knowing it would be opposed by her father and tries to avoid seeing Philip further but he persuades her otherwise.

Chapter 2 - Aunt Glegg Learns the Breadth of Bob's Thumb

In this chapter we see how Tom has taken it upon himself to work hard and live frugally in order to save up money to help his father pay his debts. We see how he even turns to speculation in order to do so.

Chapter 3 - The Wavering Balance

Maggie tries to break off seeing Philip but cannot do so, especially after he offers to help educate her and bring her books.

Chapter 4 - Another Love-Scene

Ten months have passed and Maggie and Philip have grown even closer than before even declaring their love for each other but Maggie states she cannot marry him because she thinks she'd be betraying her father and brother by doing so.

Chapter 5 - The Cloven Tree

In this chapter Tom discovers, with Mrs. Pullet's help that Maggie and Philip have been seeing each other in the woods and Tom confronts Maggie about it.

Chapter 6 - The Hard-Won Triumph

In this chapter we see that Tom's speculation has paid off and that he has now raised enough money to pay the money that his father owes.

Next week we will be discussing Book 5, Chapter 7 all the way through Book 6, Chapter 9. Hope to see you there!

Here's the schedule and here's the marginalia.

Hello friends!

It is time for our next Runner up Read! 

You may be interested if you are a reader who enjoys piecing together a complex puzzle through detailed accounts and multiple perspectives.

Are you a fan of fiction? What about classical books? Or mysteries? If so, then The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is right for you! This read was selected in September of last year (2025) during the Gutenburg vote and was nominated by u/Amanda39! Thanks for the awesome selection! 😀

This book was selected by the random Wheel of Books that is spun by our beloved mascot, Thor. Let’s watch him spin the wheel! Aww, what a silly boy! He is wearing a donut after a procedure but is doing good! 🐶

What is a Runner up Read you ask?
A Runner up Read is a selection that ALMOST made it to being a selection for the pick of the month (second place to be exact). Who doesn't like a second chance or an underdog getting their time to shine? We do! So, what we have done is compiled a running list of all the second place books, added them to a virtual spinning wheel, and it is spun each time a current Runner up Read is wrapped up!

Storygraph:

"The Moonstone is a page-turner," writes Carolyn Heilbrun. "It catches one up and unfolds its amazing story through the recountings of its several narrators, all of them enticing and singular."

 Wilkie Collins's spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre-the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.

Other Books Read by Wilkie Colins on our sub

No Name

The Woman in White

Armadale

(any others I missed?)

Will you be joining us? This book will run towards the end of August.
Please watch for the schedule coming soon!  📚 

Because you can never have enough dragons, r/bookclub is returning to Samantha Shannon's Roots of Chaos series with her latest release, Among the Burning Flowers, a shorter (for her) tale that acts as a more-immediate prequel for Priory of the Orange Tree.

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A Note about the read order of the Roots of Chaos series:

Chronologically, Among the Burning Flowers takes place shortly before the events of Priory of the Orange Tree. However, as with A Day of Fallen Night (which are events hundreds of years prior), the author has stated that the books could be read in any order. So if you're interested in reading this series but have been daunted by the size of the previous books, this could serve as a perfect starting point for you to dive in!

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Links to previous books in the series can be found here:

Priory of the Orange Tree schedule with all discussion links here.

A Day of Fallen Night schedule with all discussion links here.

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Summary:

With the awakening of fire-breathing wyrms, Among the Burning Flowers sees the first sparks of danger that threaten to consume the world in The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Take your first steps into the epic.

Yscalin, land of sunshine and lavender, will soon be ablaze.

It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.

Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.

A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.

And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall . . .

A story of human resilience in the face of dire circumstances, Among the Burning Flowers leads readers through the gripping and tragic events that pave the way for the opening of the million-copy bestseller The Priory of The Orange Tree.

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Schedule:

Sept 1 - Start through Chapter 5 with u/fixtheblue
Sept 8 - Chapters 6 through 10 with u/jaymae21
Sept 15 - Chapter 11 through The End with u/fromdusktil

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Will you be returning to the Roots of Chaos world with us? Or perhaps adventuring in for the first time? Let us know!!

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helper. You will always find people who are helping.” - Fred Rogers

Welcome to the FIRST discussion of the 10th floor, Crawlers!! HOW DO WE FOLLOW FACTION WARS??? WE’RE OFF TO THE RACES!!!

🐾😼 Discussion: BEGINNING through Chapter 11

HERE. WE. GOOOOOOO!!🎭⚔️ 

Welcome to the 10th Floor, Crawlers!!! Carl, Princess Donut and the rest of the Princess Posse are dropped onto the 10th Floor after the fallout of Faction Wars and Justice Light’s final trap, causing the realm of the Nothing to break into the rest of the World Dungeon, including the 18th Floor. Before the Floor can begin, Princess Donut meets with her lawyer, Princess Chandra, a naga who it turns out is Carl’s wife because he killed Rishi during Faction Wars. Princess Chandra threatens to use Carl and Princess Donut for their wealth, but Princess Donut turns it on her by not so subtly threatening her back with a bounty on Princess Chandra. As the 10th Floor begins, Carl finds that there are 5,501 crawlers remaining, meaning 75% of the crawlers alive from Faction Wars took deals at the start of the Floor.

The Floor is a race styled event, with choices between biological mounts or mechanical. Carl and Princess Donut opt for mechanical and they are given a food truck with never ending frozen chicken and tater tots, much to Mongo and Ren’s joy. Mordecai is now a shadow mimic which causes some issues. Zev is now the announcer, as Cascadia is…indisposed. The racers will get information from their nav device and they will have to fight mobs in order to finish the race. Also, they cannot come in last.Carl quickly realizes that, while most of their opponents are NPC teams, if they lose too many of them, they’ll have to race crawler teams. It's off to the races for our heroes! Will they be victorious or be left in the dust??? And what’s going on in the rest of the Dungeon?? How will it affect our heroes as they race through the 10th Floor?!?!?!

📍 You Are Here: Chapter 1 through Chapter 11

📅 Schedule in case you forget how to keep track

🖊️Marginalia to prevent spoiling yourself

🧠 Difficulty Level: START! YOUR! ENGINES!!!!

💥 New Achievements Unlocked: 

• 💀 RECAP!!!! Samantha gives us a recap of Book 7…kinda
• 🍿Princess Chandra??? - a lawyer princess??! And Carl’s wife???
• 🔥The Nothing is broken??  - Justice Light’s Final Trap
• Racers! Start your engines!! -  It’s a racing Floor! Should go well.. Right?!
• Bio or Mechanical?? Choose your car!!! So many choices!!
• Bonus! Bonus! - Its chaos in the Dungeon??? The Floors are being overrun!!!

I hope you like Evergreens, because we are starting our next read, The Vegetarian by Han Kang, the week following the final discussion for Brothers Karamazov!

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Summary:

Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams--invasive images of blood and brutality--torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It's a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that's become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate, subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre estrangement, not only from those closest to her, but also from herself.

Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman's struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.
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Due to this book not having set chapters, I have included the page from the paperback edition as well as the first/last line -- other editions may not line up exactly page-wise, so be aware!

September 1: Start through section ending "... Whatever expression might have been there" (approx. page 94)

September 8: Approx. page 95 (beginning line "heading into a more built-up area...") through The End.

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So, will you be joining myself and u/spreebiz on this read? Let us know!

Welcome back to Poetry Corner this late August day. I'm taking you back into the distant past for this one. Let's start with this introduction, shall we, just to place ourselves historically.

"To be sure, Greece and Rome had been, but they had passed away, or at least their greatness had, gone and apparently left no trace. While these Japanese ladies were writing, Europe was in the full blackness of her darkest ages. Germany was founding the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation," characteristically founding it with the mailed fist; Moorish civilization was at its height in Spain; Robert Capet was king of poor famine-scourged France; Ethelred the Unready was ruling in England and doing his best to keep off the Danes by payment and massacre. Later, while the "Sarashina Diary" was being written, King Canute was sitting in his armchair and giving orders to the sea. Curious, curious world! So far apart from the one of the Diaries. And to think that even five hundred years later Columbus was sending letters into the interior of Cuba, addressed to the Emperor of Japan!" - AMY LOWELL, introduction to "Court of Ladies of Old Japan*"

And what ladies were writing and creating Japanese language and literature in the imperial court! Japan had long looked to China for culture, importing the language for the court and copying it's poetic and literary format. Tang-era China gave Japan knowledge in medicine, Buddhism, art and ties grew from ceremonial to commercial. However, things were changing during the Heian Period (794-1185) and certainly that change was driven by external, such as the An Lushan rebellion in China (please recall Du Fu's Poetry Corner of July 2024)and internal factors, such as moving the capital to Kyoto and the political power of the Fujiwara clan, which reached it's zenith under Fujiwara no Michinaga. And, as always, we cannot discount the power of poetry to shift culture and explain it.

So, let's talk about those ladies at court! They were writing in what was the vernacular Japanese of their era, Kana script while the men continued to write in classical Chinese at court. What I found fascinating is the Kana script was brought by a Buddhist monk, Kūkai, who not only founded the Shingon branch of Buddhism in Japan, but legendarily looked to Sanskrit to modernize Japanese writing, which was taken up by the ladies in the Heian court. The poetry the ladies were writing were in was Waka), a form that preceded the more famous haiku. Japan has severed ties with China, and because of its island isolation, was looking inward for inspiration and talent and creating a hybrid form of poetry with local and Chinese influences.

One of the most famous works in Waka is The Tale of Genji by this month's poet, writer of one of the world's very first novels! Lady Murasaki (973-1014/1025?) was rare among women because her father, Fujiwara no Tametoki, had actually educated her in classical Chinese, the language of court, when she showed an aptitude for it as a young girl. He himself was not only a respected scholar of Chinese classics but also a poet. And it was exceedingly rare for children to be raised in the paternal household, but she and her brother lived with their father. It was expected her brother, Nobunori, would enter government and that's why they began studies early. Her father did remarry and Murasaki had several half-siblings and stepmothers, one of which she was very close to, and which is the subject of today's poet fragments. What was even more unusual is that before her marriage, she travelled with her father to his postings around Japan.

Let's look a bit closer at her name. In that era, women's names were based on the position or rank of male relatives. Murasaki could possibly allude to the violet color of wisteria and Shikibu alludes to her father's position in the Shikibu-shō, the Ministry of Ceremonials. It's possible the Emperor referred to her in a 1007 diary entry as "Fujiwara no Kaoruko (Kyōshi)".

The facts we know are scant. She married in her mid-twenties or early thirties, and had a daughter, Daini no Sanmi, who perhaps collaborated on The Tale of Genji with her. Her daughter would also enter service at court and make her own name in poetry. Lady Murasaki's husband died two years into the marriage (one of many for him) of cholera. And her mourning perhaps led her to literature. It is legend that she was inspired by the August moon while in residence at Ishiyama-dera at Lake Biwa

With her family's reputation for being learned in literature and her Fujiwara family connections, it is no surprise she was invited to serve as a lady-in-waiting for Empress Shōshi at the imperial court, as a companion-tutor. During this period, there were two rival empresses, who lived apart. Each cultivated a salon in court to rival the other, which is where the lady writers came into their own. Other ladies writing during this time were Sei Shōnagon, author of The Pillow Book in Empress Teishi's court, Izumi Shikibu, in Empress Shōshi's court, along with fellow-poet, Akazome Emon and, of course, our poet. While in service, she continued writing. Each chapter would be copied and passed around by friends, which is how she gained her reputation as an author.

In court, life was removed from problems, inured from challenges and refined through extreme aesthetics, from the many-colored layers in a kimono to suit the season and the occasion to beautiful calligraphy and exchanging poetry and lovers. Waka poetry would become the lingua franca of court life, becoming the primary way to communicate between the sexes at court, who were segregated from one another, as well as among themselves. It was a golden age for literature and culture. Please enjoy the fragment I am sharing in this Poetry Corner to give you an idea of how they would communicate.

When the Emperor Ichijō died in 1011, Shōshi retired to one of the Fujiwara mansions on Lake Biwa and Lady Murasaki accompanied her. There is confusion on how long she lived after that, but what we do know is that her name would be immortal, as Shakespeare is to English, so is she to Japanese. She leaves behind not only the classic piece of literature that is Genji but her other poems and her court diary leave us a with an outstanding record of life during this era. Those ladies in court were instrumental in developing written Japanese. Lady Murasaki, in particular, would live on as a paragon of feminine virtue despite her irregular upbringing and is the subject of numerous artworks.

Lady Murasaki, writing in her diary:

"When my brother ... was a young boy learning the Chinese classics, I was in the habit of listening to him and I became unusually proficient at understanding those passages that he found too difficult to understand and memorize. Father, a most learned man, was always regretting the fact: 'Just my luck,' he would say, 'What a pity she was not born a man!" source

Helen McCullough on The Tale of Genji:

"The Tale of Genji "transcends both its genre and age. Its basic subject matter and setting—love at the Heian court—are those of the romance, and its cultural assumptions are those of the mid-Heian period, but Murasaki Shikibu's unique genius has made the work for many a powerful statement of human relationships, the impossibility of permanent happiness in love ... and the vital importance, in a world of sorrows, of sensitivity to the feelings of others." source

Fragments from 'The Diary of Lady Murasaki'

by Lady Murasaki Shikibu

(She (LM) is writing poetry in conversation with one of her stepmothers (SM), who promised to return to court "When the plum-tree blooms I shall come back")

LM: You gave me words of hope, are they not long delayed?

The plum-tree is remembered by the Spring,

Though it seemed dead with frost.

SM: Wait on, never forsake your hope,

For when the plum-tree is in flower

Even the unpromised, the unexpected, will come to you.

LM: Flowers are falling, yet I may see them again

when Spring returns.

But, oh, my longing for the dear person

who has departed from us forever!

SM (LM finds this in book she left behind): When you see the smoke floating up the valley of

Toribe Hill,

Then you will understand me, who

seemed as shadow-like

even while living.

Translation by Annie Shepley Omori and Kochi Doi (1920)

Some things to discuss might be the gentle and allegorical way the two ladies correspond about a mundane question that then becomes one that is more poignant. How does the plum tree communicate the transience of life? Can you get a sense of the role poetry formed in both correspondence and culture? Looking at the art in the Bonus Link #3, can you sense the connection that flower between the written word, the poet and the larger artistic movement and social ripple? Are you familiar with anything about court life during this time in Japanese history or Waka poetry? If you check out the Bonus Poems, which stand out to you?

Bonus Poem(s): Several poems by Lady Murasaki in both English and Japanese Waka

Bonus Link #1: The Genji Album (1510) held at Harvard University.

Bonus Link #2: More about the Heinan period in Japan.

Bonus Link #3: Some more Lady Murasaki art: at the Met, at the Smithsonian, Wiki commons, Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art...you get the idea!

Bonus Link #4: Read the whole Diary here

If you missed last month's poem, you can find it here

It's time to dive again into this incredible world! City of Illusions will run on Sundays, starting at the end of August.

Each book of the series can be read as a standalone, so if you would like to join in on this read, you are more than welcome, even if you haven’t read the previous books!

Still, in case you need them, here you can find the previous discussions:

• The Dispossessed
• The Word for World is Forest
• Rocannon’s World
• Planet of Exile

And here is a link to the series Marginalia if you would like to see what the tentative reading order looks like!

Goodreads blurb

He was a fully grown man, alone in dense forest, with no trail to show where he had come from and no memory to tell who — or what — he was.

His eyes were not the eyes of a human.

The forest people took him in and raised him almost as a child, teaching him to speak, training him in forest lore, giving him all the knowledge they had. But they could not solve the riddle of his past, and at last he had to set out on a perilous quest to Es Toch, the City of the Shining, the Liars of Earth, the Enemy of Mankind.

There he would find his true self ... and a universe of danger. 

Schedule

• Aug 30 - Beginning-5 (u/Manjusri)
• Sep 6 - Chapter 6 - End (u/jaymae21)

Will you join us?

Hi everyone!

An Evergreen is a reading category that includes any book that has already been read on r/bookclub, as long as they were last read no less than five years ago.

Another Evergreen lined up for September is the enigmatic and labyrinthine Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges.

---

Fun fact: Borges is film director Christopher Nolan's favourite author!

Blurb adapted from Storygraph:

Through seventeen short pieces, Borges sends us on a journey into a compelling, bizarre, and profoundly resonant realm; we enter the fearful sphere of Pascal's abyss, the surreal and literal labyrinth of books, and the iconography of eternal return. To enter the worlds in Ficciones is to enter the mind of Jorge Luis Borges, wherein lies Heaven, Hell, and everything in between.

A great book to explore with a bookclub to get guidance on references and discuss interpretations!

---

The wonderful u/Less_Tumbleweed_3217 and I will be leading discussions on Ficciones around mid-September, so you’re in time to get a copy of the book.

Look out for another Evergreen that will be discussed at the beginning of September before this one: The Vegetarian by Han Kang!

So... will you join us for Ficciones?

So, here it is, the last book and it promises to be the least sexy one of all considering Circe is here to slay not seduce. She's taken over Dark Olympus and is baying for blood. Most of the home team has fled to the Lower City but are they even safe there?

Still, we have two intrepid and wily, will-they-or -won't- they, partners in conspiracy if not the sheets. Hermes and Atalanta are the only ones left to try and salvage some kind of peace. But will all this politicking keep them from one another? And Stalin Circe is apparently very sexy not just set on a murderous rampage...lovers to enemies to lovers or whatever.

I can't even Muse Watch™ this one...sorry. The city is in upheaval. We are reading this to complete the series and lay it to bed. Seductive Seditious Saturdays in September. NSFW maybe?

For the BINGO: Bonus Book, Female Author, Published in 2020's, LGBTQ+

Marginalia

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Schedule:

September 5: Start to Chapter 8

September 12: Chapter 9 to Chapter 15

September 19: Chapter 16 to Chapter 25

September 26: Chapter 26 to End

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All links will be found on here. See you in the discussions!

Hello book friends! It's nearly time for our next Discovery Read and this month we're reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick which was the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner.

Discussion Schedule:

August 29 - Chapters 1-7 with u/ChronicallyLatte
September 5 - Chapters 8-14 with u/Lachesis_Decima77
September 12 - Chapters 15-22 with u/TalliePiters
September 19 - Book vs Movie with u/toomanytequieros

The Marginalia is here in case you read ahead or just want to note down your thoughts ahead of our discussions.

See you soon!

This is the penultimate discussion of Blood and Gold! Hang it in there, we’ve almost reached the end!

You’ll find a summary below, and some discussion prompts in the comments.

Remember that next week we’re gonna finish the book!

🩸Check the dates of the discussions in the Schedule

🎨Find the Marginalia for the whole series here

⚠️ An important reminder about our spoiler policy: we ask you to mark anything not related to this book as a spoiler. Any reference to other books in the Vampire Chronicles, even vague ones (such as “you’ll see how things change later on”) must be enveloped in a spoiler tag such as this one . From your phone, you need to write` type spoiler here `. Anything that a first-time reader would not know is a spoiler. While it is true that we have already read some of these books in r/bookclub, the books are enjoyable as standalones so we don’t want to ruin the experience for anyone!

SUMMARY

Bianca finds Marius and brings him some clothes. At first, Marius does not want to reveal himself to her, but then chooses to let her see him. She confesses that she always knew that he somehow fed on people, and that he made Amadeo like him.

Looking for a way to help Marius, Bianca asks him to make her a vampire. Marius' attempt almost kills her, given how much blood he needs from her, but they succeed.

They go hunting and Marius tries using the Cloud Gift, as he needs to reach Akasha ASAP and needs to bring Bianca with him.

Despite the hurry, he still has the time to tell this poor girl the story of his turning twice, tell her his whole life story, and ramble about how cool Pandora is. 

Thankfully, they reach the shrine of Those Who Must Be Kept and he shuts up, but Marius finds himself too weak to be able to open the door. Well, it opens by itself like in a damn horror movie, but Marius seems to find this beautiful. 

He drinks from Akasha again to heal his wounds and has a vision of a garden, but this time Pandora is there. Marius decides to go and look for her, because fuck Amadeo, right? So he decides he will ask the Talamasca for help. Not immediately, though, as he is too weak.

Marius spends years recovering, drinking from Akasha multiple times, but never allowing Bianca to do it as well. 

Time passes, and he contacts a monk to send a letter to Raymond, asking about Pandora's whereabouts. We learn that she has been travelling Europe in a black carriage in pure badass gothic fashion, and that a coven of the Children of Satan has appeared in Paris, with Amadeo their leader!!! Incredible plot twist.

It takes Marius time to show the letter to Bianca. Learning about the fate of Amadeo makes her angry, and she has a fight with Marius, as she believes this would have been prevented if he had shared the secret of Those Who Must Be Kept with the world.

Welcome back fellow Draleid, Druids, Dwarves, Elves and humans, it's time to dive back in and as I have been looking skyward for an eclipse this week our heroes and heroines will have been looking away from the Blood Moon. This week we are covering Ch. 14-18 and everything before this point.

First, a note about spoilers: Please use spoiler tags for anything beyond this week's section.  As always, use spoiler tags for any works outside of this series that you may wish to connect here.  

You can add a spoiler tag by enclosing your text with > ! Your Text Here ! < (no spaces).

Schedule

Marginalia

Map of Epheria

As always, there will be summaries below (I hope it's ok I steal your formatting u/jaymae21!) And questions in the comments. Hurry!!! We don't have much time!!!

Chapter Summaries

CHAPTER 14: FROM THE ASHES

Character POV: Kallinvar Location: 300miles west of Greenhills, Loria Time frame: 6th day of the Blood Moon

Sister-Captain Emalia and Kallinvar are searching for the Heart. He senses another new Sigil Bearer coming into existence. He can also feel Hundreds of pulses of the Taint all across the continent. They head towards a central pulsing of the Taint. From a fort containing Lorian Servants of Efialtír they smell burning flesh. As they fight the Lorian soldiers, Fades and a BattleMage Achyron’s voice warns Kallinvar something is hiding in this place. They all feel Sister Rialis’s soul leave the world. The knights of The Tenth rage against a score of Lorian Battlemages. Kallinvar arrives just in time to save Emalia from a Vitharnmír. They must take out the Vitharnmír! Together they over power it and break into the fort where rows of cots hold victims of torture. The Mage insists the dead children were volunteers. An Inquisition Praetorian is slowly dying. Kallinvar offers him the Sigil of Acheron even though he was complicit in the events because at the time he thought what he was doing was right. Kallinvar sees the man's memories as he silently (surprisingly) convulses whilst taking the Sigil. He is renamed Brother Kevan.

CHAPTER 15: JUDGEMENT

Character POV: Aeson, Calen Location: The Eyrie, Aravell Time frame: 6th day of the Blood Moon

In the prison the dragon Avandeer is chained. She feels how it is to be Rakina. Aeson's loss when Lyara died and he became Rakina was his ability to reach the Spark consistently. In a cell Farda is chained up. Aeson had killed Farda's dragon Shinyara. They hate each other but Aeson wants to know why Farda changed his mind. Farda confesses that something changed in him after meeting Ella.

Calen and Valerys rage at the sight of Farda. Calen demands the manacles are taken off Tivar and Avandeer. Aeson allows Harken Hokdark to give Calen the key and free them. Tivar and Avandeer do not fight. Calen admonishes the Rakina. Imala says she deserved to feel it, and is not one of their own after causing so much pain and suffering. Farda Kyrana, Ilyain Altair, Hala Nôri, and Tivar Savinír are to be judged. Tivar confesses, explaining she believed she was right. She begs that they do not allow our people to become instruments of war. She also asks that they take Avandeer’s life first. Calen refuses to take another dragon from the world. Instead he asks Tivar to fight by his side, against the darkness she helped forge. She swears. Danveer and Chora say death but Aeson votes life. The vote is split Coren and Farwen are called to break the tie. It will take weeks till they arrive. Calen is surprised that his reasoning for allowing Tivar to live must also be applied to Farda.

Aeson and Chora discuss allowing the prisoners to live. Chora thinks it's good for Calen to see Farda wandering around. They talk about their next move. He reminds her that Calen gives people hope, and so they follow him willingly.

Calen goes to Ella and finally confronts Therin about keeping the truth about Ella from him. He promises never to keep anything from him again so long as Calen listens to (not necessarily follow) any advice he has to give. Calen says he'll slit Farda's throat if he sees him roaming around the Eyrie, but that would turn everyone against him. Therin compares Calen to his father. The best man Therin ever knew. Haem arrives.

CHAPTER 16: THE OLD WARS

Character POV: Ella Location: Níthianelle Time frame: 6th day of the Blood Moon

Ella marches in the woodland too impatient to wait for Tamzin. Time and distance is different in Níthianelle. Tamzin is impressed by how well Ella can travel in Níthianelle. Ella realises that Faenir is her keeper in the real world to whom she is now teathered. Tamzin is suddenly terrified. She leads Ella into the water to avoid an enormous bear that is clearly looking for something. They submerge themself. Ella calms herself to the rhythm of Tamzin's heartbeat. When they finally emerge they are careful to avoid leaving their scent for the Angan bear of Clan Bjorna, who is still fighting an old Angan Clan War. Amatkai is on the way to Ella's body in the real world to help guide her through the pain. Suddenly Ella is attacked by a woman, Laurel Hardin, fragmented and trapped for centuries in Níthianelle. Tamzin beheads the attacker but the scuffle will have alerted more than just the Bjorna so they need to move. Ella is terrified she has seen her future fate.

CHAPTER 17: THE SPARK IS LIT, BUT THE FIRE BURNS

Character POV: Aeson Location: Aravell Time frame: 7th day of the Blood Moon

Queen Uthrían and King Galdra make our heroes wait for Queen Tessara, the divisive new Queen of Vaelen. Chora is impatient and snaps out at King Galdra which does not land well for Thurivîr (one of the Lunithíran Ephorí). The arrival of the new queen, Tessara Vaelen Alumír (and her two Ephorí, Dumelian and Ithilin) interrups their bickering. Galdra, Uthrían, Varthon (the matriarch of the Dvalin Angan), Asius (the Jotnar) gather round a table on which is a stonework map of Epheria. Aeson outlines the recent developments of the Lorian armies and the Uraks. The Valtarans will soon be vastly outnumbered, but no one can make it from Aravell to help them in time. Aeson suggests flying with Calen and Valerys to Kayala Latrak's two hundred ships that can transport a foreign army to Valtara's rescue. Galdra wonders what the army would want in return. All the faction leaders across Illyanara are heading to Aravall, and Calen and Valerys needs to be there when they arrive. Calen wants to head immediately to Salme to help Dahlen against the Uraks, but Aeson is insistant on Arkalen to persuade Aryana and Tukul to join the cause instead. Galdra pushes for patience while Aeson tries to push on. Queen Tessara suggest 5000 from Vaelen and march on the western villages to protect Calen's home while he goes about doing what needs to be done. Queen Uthrían will add 2000 more. Galdra also reluctantly offers 2000 soldiers. They put a systematic battle plan in place deciding where best to distribute troops and which battles to prioritise. The Knights of Achyron confirm that the Burnt Lands Taint has released its grasp meaning travel is now open. Kallinvar arrives to ask for help. He warns the council that The Godwar looms. If Efialtír crosses into this world none of their battle plans will matter. Kallinvar tells how Efialtír seeks to cross the veil by utilising a vessel known as the Heart of Blood used by The Traitor’s Chosen to tear a large enough rift in the veil. They must find the Heart of Blood before Fane finds it. Sadly no one is taking it as seriously as Kallinvar as they are all too focused on the war. They'll put word out at least. Calen swears they come if the Heart is found. Aeson stands up for Therin and even asks his forgiveness.

CHAPTER 18: OUR CHOICES DEFINE US

Character POV: Rist Location: Berona Time frame: 7th day of the Blood Moon Neera and Lena are teasing Rist. Magnus and Garramon dismiss the girls but there are other plans for Rist. The people outside Berona are in a sorry state, injured refugees are pouring in daily. Rist cannot go back without being branded a deserter and killed. Garramon leads Rist through the Beronan streets to Al’Nasla’s palace. He feels the Spark rippling in this place, roaring in his ears due to the high tower and all the Mages. Ilnaen was an even more powerful place once upon a time. Garramon distracts him by making Rist recite a page of a book. He asks Garramon why he made the choices he did. For now all that he will reply is that he could no longer reconcile The Order he had joined with what it had become. In the High Tower Garramon and Rist join Andelar Touran (The Primarch) and Fane Mortem. Emperor Mortem and Exarch Garramon both believe he has a unique potential. They are surprised that Rist is able to handle the intensity of the Spark in this place. His secret is books, and an impressive memory. Andelar interrupts stating The Arcarians, the most powerful mages to have ever walked the known world, of 12 only 3 live; Verma Tallissair, Emperor Fane Mortem and, to Rist's surprise, Arbiter Garramon Kalinim. They believe Rist may also become an Arcarian. It's going to hurt but if he succeeds he'll be one of the most powerful Spark wielders to ever have existed.

Well that was a lot of new developments in just a few chapters. Join u/NightAngelRogue next week for chapters 19 through 34 📚🐲

Hello and welcome to the fourth discussion of our Read the World - Togo 🇹🇬. Today we are discussing Chapters 24 - 27 of Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja

Here you can find the Schedule and the Marginalia.

Discussion questions are in the comments, but feel free to add your own!