NOT THE SAUCE BASTER

It's the time of the week to show of your big beautiful brains! Whether it's a quick piece of trivia, a tidbit you learned about yourself, or a deep dive on a niche topic - we wanna hear it!

My rabbit hole this week started with a metaphor I couldn't understand, which led me to a 1917 Russian literary theory, Art as Technique by Skhlovsky linked here on the importance of defamiliarization in literature which then led me to modern cognitive neuroscience research to check against the claims (in crazy news, they mostly backed his theory up) and landed in a 2,000 word essay I titled What If It's Genius and I'm Just Stupid? A Eulogy for the Reviews I Never Wrote. (If you have ever wondered why I started posting this weekly series I feel like this explains a lot of it I love hearing about people's rabbit holes and where it ends up haha)

My tidbit: I learned that I love tandem reading so much, I'm starting to have a hard time just eyeball reading books or just reading audiobooks.

How about you? What did you learn this week?

So, what's the most amount of books you've got checked out of the library?

I've got 7 checked out, 15 on hold.

Like am I just illiterate??? Have I failed basic English reading comprehension??

“she placed a hand on her shoulder like a protective raft” what???

“He’d approached her like she was a disposable body he recognized across the street” i thought the requirement for being described as “disposable” was not being easily recognizable???

”They followed them through alpine meadows, mirroring the rows of caterpillars that crawled down the moss” what the fuck does this mean?

”The ceramic fox [cake topper] curled between buttercream and strawberries. His eyes were closed, his bushy tail a veil that hid him from the rest of the world” a veil is BY DEFINITION not “bushy”….

I’m really struggling with this. This book would be better if it didn’t try so hard to sound impressive and poetic.

***Note that these are from the ARC, and final wording is subject to change in the official version

I find interesting the sentiments between André vs Hale. Both were spies that were deemed “too young” and something about their nature as being (basically inadequate to spy). Tallmadge recounts the most diabolical monologue to Andre, saying (when André asks “you surely don’t consider his and mine cases alike”): “precisely similar, and similar will be your fate”.

I don’t know how these two fare in the rest of the world (I think Hale isn’t known outside of the United States lol), but with Hale being considered the “spy-martyr” and André being condemned for working with a turncoat, what makes these cases perceived so differently? (Well, Andre was an adjunct general, so he was important but caught in a blunder).Are both of their fates after death justified (“good spy” vs “bad spy”) or is it all propaganda?

Also funny note, Clyde Finch made respective plays about the both of them. Guess which one succeeded and which one didn’t? I’ll give you a hint: these plays premiered in broadway, in America.

It's the time of the week where you can humble brag away about anything you learned this week through your reading. Whether it's a non-fiction piece of trivia, a tidbit you learned about yourselves or others, or a deep dive - we wanna hear it all!!

I have been in a bit of a reading slump, (looks at her currently reading shelf in shame) so no good trivia from me but I have re-learned I can't really do billionaire romances. I get too angry at the displays of wealth to enjoy the romance. But I'm learning that I think it extends to all escapist romance for me.

This is a little odd because I would call myself an escapist reader for pretty much my entire life, but I'm noticing with romance I need it to be grounded for the best chance of me loving it. Romances where one more of the leads are too extraordinary (outside of being fantasy/paranormal entities) or too perfect (including being unfathomably attractive) brings down my enjoyment. Idk if anyone else is like that. I 110% see the market for escapist romance, don't get me wrong, it just doesn't seem to work for me!