Let's Bust a Recap : OTH memoirs

Okay, today's post is a 3-for-the-price-of-1 special and we're talking celebrity memoirs, baby. The funny thing about this genre is that I wouldn't say it's typically my jam, but maybe I'm kidding myself. I was first in line for the Britney Spears memoir last year, and when Bethany Joy Lenz announced Dinner for Vampires, I knew right away that I would definitely be reading it as soon as it came out. 

I feel like I have a lot of groundwork to lay before I can just start talking about these books so let's get into it. 

First of all, I admitted to you on this very blog back in 2017 that I had been sucked into One Tree Hill Land. But to give you even more context: the first friend I made at the tiny little Christian college I went to back in 2006 was a One Tree Hill superfan. Like, literally plastered our suite with posters from the show. So when I finally decided to watch an episode—ten years later—it was all due to her influence. Since watching through all nine seasons back in 2017, I have definitely watched the first few seasons again at various times, always falling off the rewatch before making it to their post-high school lives. I wouldn't call myself a fan, but I appreciate the absolute hit of nostalgia I get just from the music on that show. I feel that giving you my history with One Tree Hill is a bit misleading given that none of these memoirs are technically *about* One Tree Hill, but they're all by girls who were stars of the show and it is because they were stars of the show that I have any awareness of their existence and, by extension, the existence of their memoirs. When Bethany Joy Lenz announced her memoir and started doing all the press for it about her time in a real cult, I immediately added it to my personal TBR and when it finally came out in October, I went to the library and got both of Hilarie Burton's memoirs along with it and read them all back-to-back-to-back. 

So now that you know more than you ever wanted to about how these books came on my radar, let's go through them one-by-one. 

The Rural Diaries by Hilarie Burton Morgan was the first of these memoirs to be published back in May of 2020. During my ill-fated year on the instagram, she was promoting this book hardcore, and consequently, I added it to my amazon wishlist where it has hung out ever since. Now that I am a proud, card-carrying library patron and have figured out the novel concept that I don't actually have to buy every single book I want to read, I took myself down to my local library and checked out both of Burton's books when I went to pick up Lenz's brand-new release. Hilarie describes The Rural Diaries as a love letter to a town, a farm, and a man, and that's really what it is. In it, she tells her story of leaving Hollywood to establish a life in the Hudson Valley on a working farm with her husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan and their son Gus. Hilarie has a real talent for making the people and things in her life that are important to her, feel important and cherished, and that's a real gift. I found myself wanting to visit her candy shop in Rhinebeck and even feeling a little envious of the community she seemingly has built there. I really like how she incorporated pages throughout this memoir with little gardening tips, recipes, and the like, and this is a book I might actually pick up again in future to refer back to some of those things. 

Her second book, Grimoire Girl, was published last year in October of 2023. This one was less of a memoir (in my opinion), and more a collection of essays that heavily emphasize the how-to of living a fulfilling life and being able to leave a meaningful legacy. Burton likes to call herself a witch and she really leans into that in this second book. In Grimoire Girl, Burton writes about topics ranging from the harmless—like the art of letter-writing and keeping a scrapbook—to the more pernicious—like astrology and pagan worship. This book is half benign, half the worst universalist trash I've ever read. If Burton takes an interest or sees beauty in something, she incorporates it into her life in a haphazard and even offensive way, combining Christian and pagan practices willy-nilly with no thought to how these things literally condemn each other. Pretty wild. I would never pick this book up again, and I cannot recommend it.

Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz (who played my favorite character on One Tree Hill) just came out in October, and as the subtitle makes clear, it's all about her life on a cult TV show while also in an actual cult. Kudos to the marketing genius who came up with that. Lenz was part of a high-control group for ten years, and her stated goal in publishing Dinner for Vampires is to show how it doesn't take a stupid or particularly gullible person to fall prey to a situation like this. It was utterly fascinating to read about her experience and the downward spiral she found herself in. I wasn't expecting Dinner for Vampires to be a beautiful portrait of Lenz's journey to cling to her faith and come out the other side of her nightmarish experience with her trust in God still in tact, but that's exactly what it was. It was hard to read at times but ultimately quite moving for me as a person of faith myself. 

A post like this, covering three highly personal memoirs, just scratches the surface of so many potential topics to discuss. Obviously the intersection of faith and celebrity culture; cults in general; the amount of made-for-TV Christmas movies I have watched starring Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz since finishing their memoirs (five, as of today); the potential Burton/Lenz feud that has the internet buzzing (is it real or is this some kind of trumped up marketing tactic to boost book sales?); how social media and being able to have pseudo-personal access to celebrities' lives affects the culture and the release of memoirs like this—I could go on and on. And my brother will attest to the fact that we have spent hours on the phone dissecting crap like that. But those are blog posts for another day...or possibly another blog altogether because I generally stick to the books I'm reading around here. But if you want to get into it, I'm so here for those conversations. 

To wrap things up, I might recommend The Rural Diaries and Dinner for Vampires with a strong content warning for bad language. Do not come crying to me if you pick either of these up on my recommendation and realize you are in for a lot of F-words. Like I alluded to at the beginning of this post, celebrity memoir seems like kindof a niche genre and I would think you'd need to be really interested in the subject matter to pick one up. 

How about you? Do you like celebrity memoirs? Or have you ever read one based solely on the fact that the celebrity in question was part of a project you liked? 

Let's Bust a Recap : The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has been on my radar for years. I missed out on it as a kid, and I've had my eye out for it for quite some time. But when the trailer for a feature film adaptation dropped earlier this year, I went ahead and ordered myself a copy from AbeBooks. I read it the day before my husband took me to see the movie in our cute, one-screen, downtown theater.

And I loved it.

And I went back and watched the movie a second time with my mom, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law. 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever—book and movie—will, without a doubt, become a part of all my future Christmas traditions. 

This beloved children's novel was written by Barbara Robinson and published in 1972. It features the six awful Herdman siblings who, after showing up to Sunday school for the free snacks, decide to star in the annual Christmas pageant by volunteering for the six main roles: Mary, Joseph, the angel, and the three wise men. None of the other kids dare stand up to them, and the whole hilarious tale is narrated in the first person by Beth Bradley whose mom is directing the pageant for the first time after Mrs. Armstrong—the usual director—falls and breaks her leg. As word spreads that the Herdmans have hijacked the pageant, the whole town expects disaster, but, in a beautiful twist, the Herdmans end up teaching the town the true meaning of Christmas. 

I know I already said I loved it, but you guys: I. Loved. It. This little novel delighted me from beginning to end, and weighing in at a slim 80 pages—including full page illustrations—you can easily read it in one sitting. I genuinely laughed out loud the whole way through until getting to the pageant itself at which point tears were streaming down my face. What an absolute treasure of a book.

And the movie! So much care was taken with this 2024 adaptation. The majority of the screenplay was lifted straight from the book. In my year of reading/watching book-to-movie adaptations: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was another smashing success. I think the book comes off a little funnier and the movie a bit more sentimental but both are absolutely wonderful, and, as I said above, I'll be reading and watching in all my Christmases to come. What a joy! I cannot possibly recommend this little gem enthusiastically enough. Get your hands on a copy and read it immediately. 

Do you have any books or movies you like to watch every year at Christmastime? What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

Let's Bust a Recap : Closer Than a Sister

Well, this post is being brought to you today by sheer willpower and self-discipline. I just have not been in the blogging mood lately what with a hurricane landing a tree on my house, wrangling workers into putting our new roof on, having our nieces here for a few weeks, some back and forth with them to and from Alabama, and now the holidays are upon us. Oh my! All I really want to do is sit by my cozy Christmas tree with a hot cup of tea and watch Christmas movies 24/7. 

But that's just not the way real life works and actually, using all the determination I have to write this blog post is fitting because today's subject was a book I read for a women's book club that my church hosted this summer. Your girl is a hardcore introvert so it took a lot of personal resolve to make myself go to the Tuesday night meetings. I muscled through and, if memory serves, I only missed three out of the eight meetings so I'll call that a win. I recruited my BFF Christina to read this one too and she totally cheered me on from Florida as I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to attend the book club up here in North Carolina—usually spending time on the phone with me as I drove to the church and even reading a chapter aloud to me one week when I got behind but still made myself go to the meeting. Because that's what a sister will do.

Closer Than a Sister by Christina Fox was published in 2017. It is an exploration of Biblical friendship and an exhortation to cultivate and care for those relationships. The book is structured in three parts: A Community of Faith, Living with Sisters in Community, and Challenges in Sisterhood. Part I lays out the foundation for the book, explaining from a Biblical viewpoint how we were created for community and how it is Christ that unites us and actually deepens our relationships into more than friendship. This felt very much like a review for me, but I liked Fox's personal—though still intelligent—style of writing. Part II is the practical side of living in community and it makes up the largest chunk of the book. Fox covers topics on helping each other; mourning, rejoicing, and growing together; exhorting one another; and learning from one another. I found this section of the book to be the most helpful and the most challenging. Part III dives into the difficulties and obstacles one encounters when trying to cultivate and foster community. As someone who is still navigating an out-of-state move after living in the same town my whole life, this section was the most encouraging for me. My closest friends no longer live close enough to come over on a whim, kick their shoes off, hug my neck, and settle on my couch for a chat or help me with a project or run errands with me just because. It's been a tough transition and we're over three and a half years into it. I honestly don't know what kind of a state I'd be in if my mom and sister-in-law didn't live right up the street. I probably would have already convinced Cody to take me back to Florida. 

All that to say, I think this book is a great resource, particularly if you are having to cultivate a new community from scratch. I may end up reading it again next year. I am truly thankful for the built-in community that fellow believers experience together. It is such a gift. But all relationships take work and intentionality, and reading Closer Than a Sister was a deeply needed reminder for this girl who has been doing life with the same friends she's had since she was seven years old. That closeness just takes time, there's no two ways about it. 

Have you built a solid community to do life with? And if you did that as an adult, please share all your advice with me! 

Let's Bust a Recap : Lonesome Dove

Hi! Believe it or not, I'm still here, and how are we all doing? Can we believe it's only 15 days till Christmas? You hanging in there? With Thanksgiving being so late this year it feels even crazier than usual. Or is that just me? The day after Thanksgiving, I sat down with my laptop and put together drafts for all the books sitting in my book cart waiting to be recapped. I scheduled them for every Monday/Wednesday/Friday in December. 

And then I completely missed the first week of December. And yesterday for that matter. 

But we keep trying and today we're going back to the book that's been sitting in that cart the longest: Lonesome Dove. 

Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel published in 1985 is widely considered to be the greatest cowboy book of all time. And I think it's the first western I've ever actually read, at least as an adult. I grew up on John Wayne movies—shoot-em-ups, as my dad fondly calls them—playing cowboys and Indians with my brothers, and having Lonesome Dove as my introduction to the genre seems like a disservice to any other western that might come after. It is epic and I get why everyone thinks it's the best. 

But where do I begin? First off, I have a little bone to pick with McMurtry. In this newer edition of the book, there's a 2010 preface in which Larry Jeff McMurtry spoils his own book. And I will never forgive him for that. What kind of an author are we dealing with here? Unbelievable. I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but I don't think I could have hung with Larry. He was one of those uppity types that basically got upset when his book got popular because people obviously must not have understood it. Give me a break, sir.

Now that I've got that off my chest: on to the actual book. In the small Texas border town of Lonesome Dove in the late 1870s, we're introduced to two famous retired Texas Rangers: Woodrow F. Call and Augustus McCrae. They're running the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium with a colorful outfit of men and young Newt Dobbs whose late mother was a sweet prostitute named Maggie. When Jake Spoon, one of Gus and Call's old Ranger buddies, drops into Lonesome Dove on the run from the law, waxing poetic about the beauty of the Montana Territory, Call gets it in his head to drive a herd of cattle up and settle the last great frontier. Through a series of events, Jake Spoon and Lorena Wood, Lonesome Dove's lone beautiful prostitute, end up on the cattle drive too and we're off to the races. 

Meanwhile, over in Fort Smith, Arkansas, July Johnson is the sheriff tasked with bringing Jake Spoon to justice, so while the Hat Creek outfit is heading north, July is busy tracking Jake Spoon west across the plains. But July's jaded wife Elmira sees an opportunity in July's departure to make her own getaway from their marriage and hops on a riverboat with a bunch of rough and tumble buffalo hunters, so July's deputy sheriff Roscoe Brown heads out after July to make him aware of his wife's betrayal.

As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts and threads to follow in this 858-page doorstop of a western. Through dangerous river crossings, dust-ups with hostiles, a terrifying abduction, young love, old love, and lots of death, we hang with these characters through the most harrowing experiences imaginable. Lonesome Dove truly is an epic and I echo USA Today's sentiment when I say, "If you read only one western novel in your life, read Lonesome Dove."

My husband and I read this aloud together from March to July and we've been meaning to watch the critically acclaimed 1989 miniseries ever since, which is part of the reason I waited so long to recap this. (Don't get your hopes up: we still haven't gotten around to watching it.) The day we sat down to start this novel, we ended up reading the first 14 chapters which is over 160 pages. Cody and I both loved the characters McMurtry brought to life on the page. But as my husband succinctly put it: Lonesome Dove started strong but didn't end strong. As is the case with a lot of epic works of literature (I'm lookin' at you Anna Karenina, Count of Monte Cristo), after you've spent so much time in the lives of these characters, the ending comes abruptly. And this isn't a spoiler but I will just warn you: no matter what character you set your love on in Lonesome Dove, don't expect a happy ending. The final chapters are bleak. 

For all that, we loved Lonesome Dove and I think it's a novel worth reading. We're still looking forward to settling in with the miniseries sometime this winter to watch Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones bring Gus and Call to life on the screen. Ideally, we'd like to watch it with the rest of my family. We all decided to read it together this year. My brother Reagan flew through it and my sister Sarah is almost done. I'm not sure about everyone else, but come Christmas Day you may catch us all sprawled out on couches with Mom's apple pie watching young Newt try to figure out life in the Old West. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Hillbilly Elegy

All right, y'all, over here in the States it's what we call "Super Tuesday" and if you haven't cast your vote already, I hope you have plans to do so at some point today. I can't think of a better recap to post today than the memoir of one of the vice presidential candidates. I had no intentions of reading this book this year (or possibly ever, I got it for free out of a stack of books someone was getting rid of), but when Trump announced back in July that J.D. Vance would be his running mate, I remembered I already had this wildly popular memoir sitting on my shelf, figured now was as good a time as any to read it, and determined to pick it up before the election. 

And I did, back in September, but ugh. Where to start? I have a lot of thoughts about this, and they're not particularly positive. On the one hand, it was easy to read and you have to admire someone who claws his way out of poverty and makes something of himself, but on the other hand, the only reason he called this book "Hillbilly Elegy" is because "White Trash Elegy" doesn't have the same ring and probably wouldn't sell.

And that's not me being ugly. Vance says as much himself in the introduction to his book when he writes, "Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family." Now, I won't get into the nitty-gritty of it with y'all, but down here in the South, "hillbilly", "redneck", and "white trash" have different connotations for most of us and I would hardly lump them all together as being the same class of people. But that's really neither here nor there. I would venture to say that his beloved Mamaw and Papaw, who he dedicates Hillbilly Elegy to, would roll in their graves if they knew he aired their private business all over the country (and world?) the way he did and even turned the circus into a huge movie.

Vance opens his introduction admitting that publishing a "memoir" at the ripe age of thirty-one is absurd and I agree with him there. He wrote this book before he even went into politics or had any children. He says himself that he hasn't done anything great or anything worth paying money to read about. 

And then he proceeds to write a whole book about how white trash his family is and how he got out of the cycle of poverty in the Rust Belt through the Marines, Ohio State University, and eventually Yale Law School. 

And I mean, good for him. Truly. If half of what he writes is true, then the fact that he worked his way up and out is commendable. 

But honestly, he's just not a likable guy and reading his memoir turned me from being indifferent about just another U.S. senator I didn't know much about, to rolling my eyes at another clichéd politician. Literally in 2016, his memoir dragged politicians and their ilk through the mud, and he outspokenly opposed a Trump presidency in the press. But just a few years later, he's running for the Senate, and now he's Trump's vice presidential running-mate? Can you say whiplash? 

And let me be clear: this post is not intended as some kind of smear campaign against Vance and an endorsement for Tim Walz. Kamala's running-mate is an even bigger joke than J.D. Vance. My point is: it's hard to be an American and not get cynical about our political landscape. While I'm thankful for the privilege to vote and having a say in the composition of my country's government, I can't say I'm particularly excited about anyone I'm voting for as I head to the polls today. It is what it is.

Hillbilly Elegy is *ahem* colorful, and an entertaining read, but I ultimately walked away from it scratching my head as to why Trump chose Vance to be his running-mate. Then again, I'm still out here astounded that I live in a world where Donald Trump was the president of the United States of America...and is running again. Politics, am I right?

I guess I'll wrap this up by reiterating my encouragement to get out and vote. Be informed. Read books. Keep your head down. Make good choices. And God help us all. 

Pumpkin Carving 2024

Happy Halloween! 

We're taking a break from book recaps today for our annual pumpkin carving post! This year's pumpkin carving was extra-fun and extra-chaotic because four of our favorite girls are staying with us for a couple weeks. They (and their parents) are in the middle of flipping a house—in another state!—to move in to and so we naturally demanded that they come stay with us while their parents are in the midst of closings and packing and moving and unpacking and all that goes along with it. The last time we got to carve pumpkins with these fabulous nieces of ours was back in 2020 so it was about time we did this again.

This year, we decided to throw paint into the mix and what we ended up with was one pumpkin just carved, no paint. Two pumpkins just painted, no carving. And three pumpkins carved and painted. It was a mess, but it was a fun mess and I hope these girlies always remember Halloween 2024 with Uncle Cody and Auntie Hannah. 

Uncle Cody came in clutch with a silly dad joke. We all had gotten busy taking the tops off our pumpkins and cleaning them out, with Uncle Cody on hand to assist, but his own pumpkin was nowhere in sight. The girls and I kept pestering him sweetly asking him when he was going to start his pumpkin and what he was going to do, but he said he was waiting for the inspiration to hit. When it finally did, he ended up painting his pumpkin and finishing before all of us. Typical. I decided to commemorate this special year by carving 2024 and four hearts to always remember carving pumpkins with our four sweethearts.

Our creative girls ended up with an upside down melty ice cream cone, Agnes and Lucy from the Despicable Me franchise, and Bluey. 

I absolutely adore how these silly, colorful pumpkins turned out, and I wouldn't trade one second of the mess or the chaos or the resulting cleanup and exhaustion. These pumpkins may end up on our Christmas card. The brainstorming and giggles and paint-covered hands (and faces!) are memories I'll treasure forever.

Have fun trick-or-treating tonight or just stuffing yourself with candy or whatever it is you do in your neck of the woods!

October 30,

Let's Bust a Recap : Dandelion Wine

Is Ray Bradbury my favorite author now? That is the question I found myself asking as Dandelion Wine immediately became one of my All-Time Favorite Books while reading it this summer. A few years ago, I read my first Bradbury—Something Wicked This Way Comes—and while I wouldn't necessarily say it's an All-Time Favorite Book, it did contain one of my All-Time Favorite Literary Scenes. When Dandelion Wine fell out of the TBR Jar right at the beginning of summer, I once again found myself immersed in the perfect book at the perfect time, and I savored Ray Bradbury's 1957 novel slowly over July and August. 

I say "novel" but Dandelion Wine could also be accurately described as a series of short stories loosely connected by their summer setting and the Spaulding family. The book centers around Douglas Spaulding, age 12, in the summer of 1928 in his small hometown of Green Town, Illinois, and his exploration of and attempt to capture his own coming of age in his journal with the help of his younger brother Tom. Just as Douglas' grandfather's homemade dandelion wine in the book serves as a metaphor for all the distilled joys of summer, so Dandelion Wine the novel itself is nostalgia distilled. I fell in love with it from the very first words, and sipped it slowly all summer long. When I finished reading it, I immediately ordered The Martian Chronicles.

I don't have much else to say. After reading Something Wicked This Way Comes and now Dandelion Wine, I feel confident in saying that Bradbury is a master of evoking a sense of place and memory in his writing, and he somehow manages to spill the human heart onto the page. Even though I've never been a twelve year old boy, or lived any summers before 1987, or seen a small Illinois town; Dandelion Wine somehow took me straight back to my own childhood summers, running wild over my small Central Florida town with my brothers and all my best friends, and living as hard as I could before school started again in the fall. Dandelion Wine should be read outside—preferably on a front porch—and stretched to last as long as possible, just like we wanted to stretch those childhood summers out forever. 

Despite Dandelion Wine winning a spot on my All-Time Favorites list, I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. That often is the case with my favorite books. I feel more protective of them, and don't want someone who won't appreciate it reading it. So if you pick this one up, don't come to me to do anything other than praise its beauty because you will not find a willing audience in me. Dandelion Wine is a treasure. 

What are some of your All-Time Favorite Books?

Also, I just have to include this fun fact: our main character in Dandelion Wine was Ray Bradbury's childhood version of himself and he named him after himself and his father, "Douglas" being Bradbury's middle name, and "Spaulding" being his dad's middle name. Just another reason to love this little gem of a novel. 

Let's Bust a Recap : The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror

"Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of the most famous pieces of English literature, and is considered to be a defining book of the Gothic horror genre." So says wikipedia and so say I. I would even venture to say that Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson is one of the most well-known authors of all time. Even if you haven't personally read his work, you're likely to recognize titles like Treasure Island or Kidnapped and know what they're about. 

I had never actually read Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for myself, but was familiar with the plot given how famous it is, and when Cody suggested we read it together during the power outage caused by Hurricane Helene, I immediately agreed. 

The story is narrated by a character called Gabriel Utterson, a lawyer and upstanding citizen who is friends with the titular Dr Jekyll. He becomes concerned for his friend's welfare after drawing up Jekyll's will and worrying that he is being blackmailed by a shady character called Hyde whom Jekyll has named his sole beneficiary in the event of his death or disappearance. Jekyll refuses to talk about it, but when Hyde murders another of Utterson's clients, Utterson confronts Jekyll directly. Hyde then disappears for a while, but through a twisty series of events, we learn that Hyde is Jekyll's evil alter ego and that because Jekyll has indulged this evil version of himself for so long, that side of his personality is taking over Jekyll completely. 

It's a fascinating study on good versus evil and the depravity of man. Stevenson posits through the character of Dr Jekyll that every human being has a great capacity for evil that they can either struggle against daily or completely succumb to. An interesting point to note is that the Dr Jekyll side of the dual Jekyll/Hyde personality is not completely good but has to face the normal human struggle of overcoming sin in his life; whereas the opposing personality of Mr Hyde is completely wicked and enjoys his wickedness—there is nothing good about him. 

Because I knew the famous story so well before reading it, the big reveal wasn't as shocking as I imagine it was for its original 19th century audience. But I was utterly fascinated by the plot nonetheless. 

The next story in this small collection is "The Body Snatcher", a short story first published in 1884. The characters in this story were based on criminals employed by the surgeon Robert Knox around the time of the notorious Burke and Hare murders in the early 19th century. Basically, this surgeon was buying corpses from these murderers to dissect during his anatomy lectures. In Stevenson's fictionalized short story, we see this play out from the perspective of the students employed to collect the corpses and pay the suppliers of these bodies. When the main character Fettes recognizes one of the bodies and is convinced that the woman must have been murdered, his comrade Macfarlane talks him out of reporting it, then later uses this against Fettes when Macfarlane himself kills a man and then brings the body in to Fettes for dissection and payment.

"The Body Snatcher" is a case study of the human conscience as both men are overcome with the guilt of what they've done. I found both Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde and Body Snatcher stories all the more interesting knowing that Stevenson himself rebelled against formal religion and his parents' teaching and called himself an atheist for a time before ultimately coming back to some form of his faith later in his life. 

After "The Body Snatcher", Robert Louis Stevenson's short story "Olalla" first published in 1885 was included in this collection. "Olalla" is a Gothic romance. In it, an unnamed Scottish soldier is telling his story of taking up residence with a once-noble local Spanish family at his doctor's recommendation during his convalescence. Although he is offered a room under the stipulation that he remain a stranger to the family, he is heartily welcomed by the son and soon begins a casual friendliness with the mother as well. When he finally catches a glimpse of the daughter, he immediately falls madly in love with her and she with him. But after a terrifying scene in which the mother attacks the soldier, Olalla begs him to leave. 

"Olalla" has sometimes been interpreted as a vampire story, however Stevenson's narrator clearly regards the mother's actions as the basest of animal instincts and does not ascribe any supernatural reasons to her behavior. For pure entertainment value, I enjoyed "Olalla" the most in this collection because I knew nothing about it and had no idea what was going to happen.

Finally, an abridged version of Stevenson's 1888 essay "A Chapter on Dreams" was included at the end of this collection. This contains some of his musings on dreams and nightmares and how he often remembered his dreams and adapted them into his work. It makes sense that this was included since "Olalla" and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde were both based on dreams Stevenson had. It was interesting to read, but I wish they had just included the entire essay instead of an abridged version. 

All in all, a great little collection and much spookier, in my opinion, than The Haunting of Hill House. 

Have you read any of Robert Louis Stevenson's work? Am I the only one who thinks of The Pagemaster whenever Jekyll and Hyde crop up in pop culture references? 

Let's Bust a Recap : The Haunting of Hill House

This week's theme is *sPooKy sEasOn* and today we're talking about the definitive haunted house story. Shirley Jackson's 1959 Gothic horror classic The Haunting of Hill House is widely considered to be one of the best ghost stories ever written. Famous authors including Stephen King and Neil Gaiman have talked about how this book scared the pants off them and I'll be honest with you at the outset: I don't get it. At best, The Haunting of Hill House was mildly unsettling. 

But that's just one reader's opinion. 

Admittedly, I generally stay away from "horror" but I love a good Gothic classic, and for its place in that canon, I've had Shirley Jackson's famous haunted house story sitting on my shelf for a few years now. My husband expressed interest in reading it before watching the popular Netflix adaptation and so we eventually decided to read it aloud together. Maybe that took away from the creepiness of it? We still haven't watched the series which I understand is more inspired by the novel than an actual adaptation of the material. 

In The Haunting of Hill House, we're introduced to socially awkward Eleanor Vance who is on her way to Hill House to participate in a study being put on by one Dr. John Montague to investigate the claims of supernatural happenings at Hill House. The good doctor is hoping to find actual scientific evidence of the existence of the supernatural, and he has invited a list of people known to have had paranormal experiences to come and live with him there. Only Eleanor and one other young woman named Theodora have accepted this invitation, and they go to join Dr. Montague and the young heir to the estate, Luke Sanderson, to stay in Hill House for a few weeks. 

And weird stuff happens. But is it actually happening or is Eleanor imagining it? Or are the other inmates of the house tricking Eleanor? Maybe even drugging her? As Dr. Montague slowly unfolds to his guests the dark history of their abode, we the readers begin to wonder if Eleanor will meet a grisly fate similar to the predecessors of Hill House. And why won't the Dudleys—the husband and wife caretaker and housekeeper duo—stay anywhere near the house at night?

As Cody and I read through this short novel, it was interesting to speculate about what was going on in the spooky mansion. Many of the strange occurrences are described by Jackson only vaguely which I guess adds to the creep factor? My favorite part of the book was when Dr. Montague's ridiculous wife shows up with her companion, Arthur Parker, the headmaster of a boys' school, to take charge of the investigation and they basically do a bunch of séances to commune with the spirits at Hill House. They were a riot. I also enjoyed any time Mrs. Dudley graced the page. Unlike the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca who sent shivers up and down my spine, I found Hill House's Mrs. Dudley and her insistent repetitions of her boundaries more comical than unnerving. 

All in all, it was fine. For me personally, the true value in The Haunting of Hill House lay in the many suppositions you could make about the vague happenings at Hill House. Conjecturing with Cody about the "reality" of what was happening to Eleanor or where we thought Jackson was going to take her novel was the best part of reading this book. Is it the greatest ghost story of all time? I can't say but I certainly didn't lose any sleep over it. 

What book scares the pants off you?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Secret Life of Bees

Next up in the I-Read-This-Book-Solely-to-Watch-the-Movie Tour is Sue Monk Kidd's 2001 debut novel The Secret Life of Bees. My sister Lyndsey read this several years ago and highly recommended it so when I happened upon it in a Little Free Library a couple years ago, I snagged it to add to my never-ending unread shelf. I didn't even realize that there was a wildly popular film adaptation until I happened upon it at one of my local Friends of the Library bookstores a couple months ago. I went ahead and snagged that too but didn't plan on getting to the book or the movie before the end of this year. 

But then my mom came over looking for a book to borrow for a trip. And I was all, "Oh hey, I just got the movie adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees, but I have to read the book first so you should read it and then I'll read it and then we'll watch the movie together." So that's exactly what we did. I even pulled my BFF Christina into the scheme and she read it and watched it with us too. 

First of all, my sister Lyndsey was right: The Secret Life of Bees is an excellent book. Set in South Carolina in 1964, we follow our fourteen year old protagonist Lily Owens on a journey to find her mother. Her entire young life has been shaped by her mother's devastating death when she was just four years old, and after the black woman who has raised her gets in trouble with the town's racist jackweeds when she tries to sign up to vote, Lily and Rosaleen find themselves on a pilgrimage to Tiburon, South Carolina where they end up at the Boatwright sisters' honey farm. 

I fell in love with Lily and Rosaleen. And I fell in love with August, June, and May Boatwright. I fell in love with the Daughters of Mary. And with Zach too. Sue Monk Kidd has a true gift. Her 1964 setting in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement perfectly informed the story she was telling without being heavy-handed. Lily's tender coming-of-age throughout the novel was superbly wrought as well. I felt for every single character fleshed out on the page, and I ached for the injustice of it all. Of motherlessness. Of ignorance. Of abandonment. Of rejection. The Secret Life of Bees is such a beautiful book.

And the 2008 film adaptation was equally beautiful. After we finished watching it, I announced that whoever was in charge of bringing The Secret Life of Bees to life on the screen should be in charge of every book-to-film adaptation for the rest of time. While I wouldn't say it was as well-cast as Far From the Madding Crowd (Queen Latifah is not how I pictured August, and Jennifer Hudson was too sweet to play Rosaleen, although Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo killed it as June and May) the screenplay was the créme de la créme of film adaptations and you could see the love that every single person involved—including the actors—had for the book. This was a low-budget movie and all the leads took significant pay cuts to be involved. 

Beautiful book, beautiful film. If ever you were going to read a book and follow it up by watching the movie, this is the combo to do it for. This would be especially great for a book club. I had interesting discussions with both my mom and Christina after finishing the book and then again after finishing the movie to compare and contrast. The Secret Life of Bees isn't all rainbows and butterflies; there is some very hard content including suicide, domestic abuse, and extremely ugly racism, but if you can stomach it, I'd highly recommend it. 

What's your favorite book/movie adaptation combo? As in, you loved the book and thought the adaptation did it justice?

Let's Bust a Recap : Far From the Madding Crowd

Halfway through October already? Say it ain't so. I can't believe we only have two and a half months left in 2024. It's high time we moved to a Tuesday/Thursday posting schedule because I am so behind on recaps. The chances of me ending this year caught up around here are slim to none, but we'll give it the old college try like always. This week, I want to talk about book to film adaptations because 2024 has unintentionally become my personal Read the Book Before I Watch the Movie Year, and you know what? I don't hate it and I also don't see this trend ending any time soon. I already have at least two books slated for next year that fall into this category and it's just fun. It envelops two of my favorite hobbies. If y'all think my home library is out of control, don't even get me started on our DVD collection. My siblings call me the family archivist because I like my physical media, okay? I won't apologize for it. 

But where were we? About to start a recap? Let's get back to that.

Today's subject is the 1874 Thomas Hardy classic Far From the Madding Crowd. And why do I have three copies pictured? Because I definitely suckered my sister-in-law into reading this with me and when she brought her copy home from the library, my mother totally stole it and joined in which resulted in me checking out another copy for Caroline to read. And in case you, like me, need to know every single detail about every single thing: my copy is the red one in the middle, my mom read the Macmillan Collector's edition on the top, and my sister read the shabby green copy on the bottom.

Far From the Madding Crowd is the third Thomas Hardy novel I've read. My first introduction to his work was back in 2017 when I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Which I loved. I followed that up by reading The Return of the Native in 2018. Which was a total slog. So I took a break from Hardy even though I had three more of his novels sitting on my shelf. But at the beginning of the summer, I picked up the 2015 film adaptation from my Friends of the Library for a measly fifty cents and immediately convinced my sister to buddy-read it with me so we could watch the movie together. And it fell somewhere in between. I definitely enjoyed it more than The Return of the Native but it can't touch Hardy's masterpiece, Tess of the D'Urbervilles. 

In Far From the Madding Crowd, we meet Bathsheba Everdeen who is a stone-cold fox. She ends up inheriting a large farm from her uncle and determines to become a successful, independent lady-farmer—obviously a rarity in 19th century rural England—but the crux of the plot centers around the three very different men who fall in love with her and attempt to woo her. Gabriel Oak, a hard on his luck shepherd who after a devastating reversal of fortune finds himself in Bathsheba's employ; William Boldwood, a prosperous, middle-aged farmer whose estate borders Bathsheba's; and Frank Troy, a dashing sergeant stationed in nearby Weatherbury. Will Bathsheba relinquish her cherished independence and get married? And if so, who wins her heart? You'll have to read it to find that out. Hardy fills out his novel with a host of colorful characters including all the salt-of-the-earth men who work Bathsheba's farm. These guys were my mom's favorite part of the book. They were hilarious and she was very disappointed that the malt house scene was not included in the film. 

And speaking of the film, we watched it this past weekend and we all agreed that it was very well done. I think it goes without saying that the book is always better, but you could tell that a lot of care was taken when adapting it for the screen, and the actors chosen acted the crap out of it. We were all on the edge of our seats the whole movie, including my mother-in-law who did not read the book. While it felt a little rushed and Carey Mulligan did not fit my mental picture of Bathsheba Everdeen, overall the movie was excellent. Mulligan, Schoenaerts, Sheen, and Sturridge did a phenomenal job of bringing the four principal characters to life. Even despite Mulligan not looking like the Bathsheba I pictured, the casting for this film was perfection.  

If you're only going to read one Thomas Hardy in your life, I'd direct you to Tess of the D'Urbervilles. But Far From the Madding Crowd was a good time and slightly lighter than the absolute tragedy that is Tess's life. If you like a good classic, I'd recommend it, and for a wonderful period piece, definitely check out the 2015 adaptation starring Carey Mulligan. 

Do you read the classics? Who's your favorite 19th century author? 

A Word for Wednesday

"How come if your favorite color is blue, you painted your house so pink?"

She laughed. "That was May's doing. She was with me the day I went to the paint store to pick out the color. I had a nice tan color in mind, but May latched on to this sample called Caribbean Pink. She said it made her feel like dancing a Spanish flamenco. I thought, 'Well, this is the tackiest color I've ever seen, and we'll have half the town talking about us, but if it can lift May's heart like that, I guess she ought to live inside it.'"

"All this time I just figured you liked pink," I said.

She laughed again. "You know, some things don't matter that much, Lily. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart–now, that matters. The whole problem with people is–"

"They don't know what matters and what doesn't," I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.

"I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still so hard to choose Caribbean Pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."

~from The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd~

Let's Bust a Recap : The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk

For some reason I thought for sure I had already recapped this, but I definitely didn't and that's a shame because this was a great little biography. So we're recapping it now!

Back on the very last day of May, my little sister's F-22 class graduated at Langley, and naturally my entire family showed out to witness it. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sarah is the coolest person in our family and in all of creation for that matter (ask any of us, we'll all say the same thing). So here come the Osbornes from all over the country and you know your girl had a stack of books with her for the trip, but did I think to bring one single book that would be appropriate for me to read aloud to my niece and nephews? I surely did not. Did that stop us from reading a book together? Do you know me at all? Fortunately for all of us, my sister had this little Scholastic biography of the Wright brothers at her house, so we immediately set out to learn all about the birth of aviation which was totally on brand for the weekend anyway. 

Donald J. Sobol is better known for his Encylopedia Brown series, but he also wrote a number of non-fiction books on topics ranging from the US Civil War to investing. This little gem was published in 1961 and details the Wright brothers' endeavors to invent, build, and fly the world's first successful airplane. They succeeded on December 17, 1903 when they made the first controlled, sustained flight of an engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 

Orville and Wilbur were two out of Milton and Susan Wright's seven children and it was their work in their Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop that led to their determination to build an engine-powered flying machine. Neither of them received high school diplomas, but they are the fathers of flight. It was truly amazing reading about their process, and since Cody and I were able to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial a couple years ago, it was easy for me to envision the events being described in the book. Sobol did an admirable job of distilling a lot of technical information into a book that kids (and a grown-up like me who is not a math-lover) can enjoy and learn from. My niece and nephews were as interested in the content as I was and when we weren't able to quite finish the book at my sister's house, I was able to get it from our local library and we finished it shortly after getting back home. 

I wish the Wright brothers could see how far we've come since their wobbly 1-man, 852-feet, 59-second flight back in 1903. Could they ever have imagined in their wildest dreams the badass jet my sister flies now? (Pardon my language, but there's just no other word that will do. It's a Raptor, for crying out loud!) Do you think they would believe that just 66 short years later we put a man on the moon? Or that every single day, people all over the world board giant airplanes to get places like it's just another day? Human ingenuity is truly a marvel, and it's so inspiring to read about the best and brightest among us. Orville and Wilbur Wright's achievements in aviation undeniably changed the world, and I'm glad I got to read this book with my niece and nephews. I hope they realize through stories like this one that they really can do anything they set their minds to. 

What stories inspire you?

Let's Bust a Recap : Sisterchicks in Gondolas

It's been a few years since I last picked up a Sisterchicks book. I've read almost every novel Robin Jones Gunn has written with the exception of the final three Sisterchicks books, so I put Sisterchicks in Gondolas in the TBR Jar without much hope that I'd actually draw it in the course of the year what with the hundreds of other titles jammed in there. I've been slowly (or not so slowly, hello July 2023!)  making my way through Robin's earlier work again—I've read her books a million times—so I could still get my 2024 fix. Just imagine my delight when this title popped out of the Jar in June. 

(Oh and I may as well take this moment to mention that she has a brand new book coming out in just a few weeks which I preordered back in March so I've been looking forward to that too.)

Anyway, I read Sisterchicks in Gondolas in June and was planning to recap it immediately but you all have this book to thank for my major blog stall. Don't hold it against Robin. It's not her fault. I got it into my head that I'd like to tag on a photo or two of my own Venetian gondola ride to this recap but when I went to plug in my external hard drive, I couldn't get anything off it. (A problem I still have not solved, by the way, so if you're reading this: say a prayer for me. And if you went to Europe with me in 2008, SEND PICS.) 

But can we get to the actual recap? Okay, yes. 

Sisterchicks in Gondolas, published in 2006, is the sixth installment of the eight standalone Sisterchicks books by Robin Jones Gunn. In it, sisters-in-law Jenna and Sue take on Venice after being invited to be the cooks for a small missionary retreat group. They are both coming out of a difficult period of life and neither realize how impactful this trip will be for their emotional and spiritual health. But showing up in Venice means learning anew how to watch for God's goodness and mercy in their lives. From their rooftop sleeping arrangement under the stars, to mattress-surfing down the stairs in their gorgeous palazzo, to haggling in broken Italian, to finding the absolute best gelato—Sisterchicks in Gondolas was a delight. No surprise there. It actually wasn't my favorite of the series—in fact, it was my least favorite so far—but I loved it nonetheless. Robin Jones Gunn has written over one hundred books now, and the fact that she has never once missed with me in the 60+ books I have read so far is such a gift. (If you're curious about the discrepancy between how many books she's written vs. how many I've read: I haven't picked up any of her non-fiction.)

And ughhhhh! I wish there was a picture of me and my college girlfriends on our gondola ride right here, but alas, I'm a disaster with technology. I need my brother (who is currently in Australia!) to come to my house and help me. 

What author never misses for you?

Let's Bust a Recap : Romeo and Juliet

"For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

Shakespeare two weeks in a row?! Yes indeedy, we are getting caught up around here. As I mentioned back in February when I finally recapped The Tempest, I totally skipped blogging the Bard last year and do I really even need to recap Romeo and Juliet anyway? 

This won't be a full-on recap like most of my Shakespeare posts. Romeo and Juliet is undoubtedly old Shakie's most famous play of all time and if you don't know the most basic plot, then I cry for the education system. 

Montagues and Capulets, feuding families, star-cross'd lovers, suicide, reconciliation. 

I first read this play in Ms. Sterling's freshman English honors course in high school which means I was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed fourteen year old. Older than Juliet, I might point out. 

She assigned parts and as a class we read the entire play out loud and discussed it ad nauseam. I loved that class. I think every high schooler should read Romeo and Juliet. 

When I set out to read everything Shakespeare ever wrote, I decided I would definitely re-read Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar in the course of my endeavor and 2023 ended up being the year I revisited R&J. 

Like I said, I won't rewrite the entire play, but if you're one of the ones I'm crying for: Romeo Montague falls in love Juliet Capulet...but their families hate each other. They secretly get married, but through a series of unfortunate events, end up killing themselves, at which point their families realize the devastation of their petty feud and reconcile. 

A few things I want to harp on after re-reading the play last year: Romeo is hardcore in l-o-v-e with fair Rosaline and is bemoaning his unrequited condition literally two seconds before he sees Juliet and falls head over heels for her instead.

What a catch.

Juliet, as previously mentioned, is THIRTEEN. Like, I get that this is some 16th century nonsense, but bruh. Sis has barely hit puberty. I can't with this. Like, is this even a tragic "love story" or is this just a tragic case of total parental neglect?? I'm just saying is all.

What I really want to talk about is the fever dream of a film adaptation I watched a few weeks ago starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes that hit our theaters hot back in 1996. I thought for sure I had seen this movie in high school shortly after reading the play, but upon revisiting it I'm not so sure. I think I would have remembered it, but maybe I completely blocked it because wow. 

Wow, wow, wow.

It seems to me that this is the definitive film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, at least of my generation, and I kid you not that the vibe was exactly the stuff of my real-life nightmares. This is an award-winning film, y'all. It's like some 90s, south Miami, gang crap—but all in the original Shakespearean English—and the only thing going for it was the incredibly believable chemistry between the absolutely adorable Claire and Leo. I guess I should have expected nothing less from something that was directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann but it's going to take me a while to get over it. 

This is really all I have to say about Romeo and Juliet. In point of fact, you need to read it for yourself, or better yet, see it on stage. Despite my poking fun at it, it's a true masterpiece. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Timon of Athens

After pretty much skipping July and August here on ye olde blog, am I jumping back into it with a Shakespearean recap?! You bet your sweet petunias I am, and this will be an easy one because Timon of Athens was a short, straightforward play so let's just knock this one out and hopefully get back in a rhythm around here. 

We open on a lavish banquet and some artists talking about gifts they will be giving to our titular Timon. Timon is like, the most generous guy in all of Athens and we quickly learn that he will spare no expense to show all his friends how much they mean to him. He's doling out jewelry and horses and gold left and right and everyone is singing his praises. 

Except for his steward, Flavius, who is stressing out major, and a cynical philosopher named Apemantus who acts like it is his full time job to be a professional party pooper. 

Well, naturally, all Timon's creditors decide it's time to collect and his bills all come due at once. Which is bad news because he is beyond broke and there is no way out of the hole he has dug himself. He quickly turns on Flavius, berating him for not handling things better and letting him know what a mess he was in.

To which Flavius is all, "My guy, you have got to be kidding me, there is no talking to you."

And then Timon is like, "Okay, no worries, I'll just ask my dear friends to help me out, they'll do anything for me."

(We can all see right where this is going, right?)

Timon's servants approach his friends, asking them to loan Timon some money. First up: Lucullus.

Lucullus is all excited to see one of Timon's servants rolling up because he's expecting a gift which would typically be par for the course. But when he realizes Timon is hitting him up for something, he tries to bribe the servant to say he never actually talked to Lucullus. The servant, who actually loves Timon, tells Lucullus what he can do with his money and leaves. 

Next up: Lucius (which, yes, is a very similar name to Lucullus, whyyyy?)

Lucius is talking to some random guys about how great Timon is and they're all, "Oh yeah, I heard he's pretty hard up for money right now." Lucius: "Surely not Timon." Random guys: "Oh for sure, and his other friends have straight up refused to help him out." Lucius: "They are wrong for that, I would never turn my back on Timon." At which exact moment, one of Timon's servants ask Lucius for help and Lucius—in front of the guys he was just telling he would lend Timon money in a heartbeat—looks straight in the servant's face and says, "Oh I wish I could but I was actually just about to ask Timon for a loan myself and please tell him I would if I could but I can't so I won't." 

The nerve.

Now we're gonna go try Sempronius. This one's my favorite. 

When Timon's servant approaches Sempronius, Sempronius is all, "Why's he asking me? He should have tried his other friends who are richer than me. They definitely owe him big time and they've got the means to help him out." To which the servant is like, "We asked and they all rejected us." To which Sempronius looks right back at them and says, "What? Timon came to me last? If he had come to me first I definitely would have helped him but since he doesn't think better of me than to come to me first, I won't be bothered with him at all." 

Are you kidding me?

So the servants come back to Timon and inform him that his so-called "friends" are all low-down, good-for-nothings. Timon rages at this and then tells Flavius to go invite all these guys back to his house for another banquet. To which Flavius is like, "Uhhh, do you not understand what's going on? You're B-R-O-K-E." But Timon's like, "Don't worry about the expense, just get those losers over here."

And these guys, after all flippantly dismissing Timon's pleas for help, have the audacity to roll back up to his crib for another party thinking everything's all fine and probably they're going to come in to some more gifts because what? This was all a joke? 

In the meantime, one of Timon's friends, a general named Alcibiades, is meeting with the Senate who is banishing him from Athens. He's obviously a bit upset about this and after some back and forth, vows to take his revenge on Athens.

But back to Timon's party.

His "friends" all show up, ready for a good time. Timon brings out covered dishes for everyone and when they are all ready to dig in, has them uncovered to show bowls of lukewarm water and nothing else. To which his "friends" are all, "What the heck, man?" And Timon is like, "I hope you all rot in hell!" throws the water in their faces, and storms out.

Flavius and the other servants, who are the only level-headed, decent people in this entire play, then have a meeting and agree to split everything they have between them equally and go in peace while Flavius vows to find Timon whatever it takes and loyally care for him no matter what.

Timon, meanwhile, has set up camp in a cave outside Athens and is living on roots which, in digging up, he has discovered a literal gold mine. 

Like, he's sitting on a pile of actual gold.

But he hates all of humanity now and he's just out here, digging in the dirt, railing against the world. 

Alcibiades shows up with a couple of loose women and we get a colorful exchange wherein Timon tells Alcibiades to drop dead and tells the whores they're full of STDs. 

I kid you not.

When Alcibiades tells Timon of his plan to get revenge on all of Athens, Timon gives him a bunch of gold and tells him to level the city, and tells the women to go infect everyone with their venereal diseases. 

Good stuff.

So Alcibiades and his ladies leave with their gold and then Apemantus shows up and wants to know why Timon is trying to copy him and be the world's worst party pooper. So they just go back and forth for a while about how much they hate everything. 

Okay...?

Then a bunch of other randos come out looking for Timon and all this gold he's rumored to have and we get some more scathing commentary from Timon each time someone shows up.

But then Flavius finally finds him, and even though Timon at first continues his whole mad-at-the-world routine, he realizes Flavius is an honest-to-goodness good guy and gives him a bunch of the gold. 

Then the Senators who banished Alcibiades show up asking Timon to pretty please go talk Alcibiades out of wrecking Athens. To which Timon is like, "Go hang yourselves."

And then Timon just....dies in the wilderness. 

Alcibiades shows up ready to burn down Athens and the Senators literally beg him to only kill the people who deserve it. Then a soldier shows up saying he found Timon's grave and they read Timon's pathetic epitaph and Alcibiades agrees to only dole out justice to the people who deserve it: the end. 

So...there's that. Once you get into it, Timon of Athens is an easy play to read, but the ending is pretty lackluster. There's a lot of debate surrounding the authorship of this one. Some think Timon was Shakespeare's last play and that he never completed it. A lot of people think the Bard coauthored the play with Thomas Middleton. We'll probably never know for sure, but overall, Timon of Athens, despite the dull ending, ranks higher for me than some of Shakespeare's other work. It was a fun one, and I'd recommend it. 

I think we're down to just four comedies and four tragedies left! On deck for 2025: Two Gentlemen of Verona and Coriolanus.