Hey people,
I wish I could say that the week was good.
Though I don’t live in India right now, we keep tabs on what is happening there. While I am happy that the #MeToo campaign has been gaining momentum and lots of people, men and women, are speaking about it, it has definitely taken a toll on me mentally. Many people in the society, whom we have grown up listening to and admiring have been named and it is quite shocking.
While I am not surprised at the sheer number of women who have been harassed somehow, and I feel the number would be exponential if and when every person who has gone through something like that comes out and they have not yet, it is the reactions that the public has been giving to these allegations that is revolting.
‘Smear campaign’, ‘religious dispute’, ‘race for publicity’ and ‘commercial tactics’ are just few of them. It just gets me worked up just to hear them, especially when they come from people whom we think we know well.
It is a sad, sad world out there. I think I should never go out and just curl up with some books.
To be honest, I have been doing just that for the last two days.
What I read this week:
I finally got back to reading a bit this week.
I finished the Kitchen by by Banana Yoshimoto, and Nordic King by Karina Halle.
And I am currently reading Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu and they are going towards my A-Z reading challenge for the year 2018.
I have just started Moxie, and it talks about gender bias and rape culture. It is surely the kinda book that I have to be reading now.
What I watched this week:
In the spirit of Halloween or not, we have been watching lots of horror movies lately.
And I somehow ended up watching a Tamil movie called ‘13 aam number veedu’ (House number 13) that was released in 1990s on Youtube.
Guys, if at all you want to watch a badly made, ridiculous and hysterical horror movie, THIS IS IT. Sure I was not scared, but it made me wonder about the quality of all those 90’s movies.
What were we even watching?!!
I also completed Brooklyn 99 and I will be watching it again soon.
On the blog
A quick recap of the week’s post on my blog, in case you had missed any of them.
- We began the week with the Sunday Musings #19: One About Illusions And Horror Movies.
- On Monday I reviewed The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson.
- I spoke about my struggles with DNF-ing book on Wednesday on To DNF or not to DNF: Why don’t I give up on books?
- On Friday I posted Five Books I Wish I Had Read As A Middle Grader.
Around the blogosphere
Some of my picks from around the blog and the bookish world that I found during the week.
- Are you a perfectionist? Clo brought this awesome topic on her blog for discussion on perfectionism and how we handle it.
- I totally resonated with Holly’s post on Philip Roth’s sexist texts on her blog, Nut Free Nerd.
- I loved this interview of V E Schwab’s on Bookriot and on her take on why her women characters are so angry.
- I wanted to share this list of books with introverts, you know to appease all you, my introvert readers!
- If you were interested in rev-visiting high school mandatory reads, this list might come in handy.
- I found this brilliant article on creating and following through a habit at Better Humans. I am sure those tips will help anyone, even me.
I will be linking today’s post with Caffeinated reviewer’s Sunday post Meme.
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Let us chat
What have you been up to, this week? Do you find yourself upset by this #MeToo movement? Leave me a link of your weekly wrap up and I will take a look. Let us talk.
The public reactions are unbelievable. Women and men can’t come forward with their sexual abuse and/or harassment stories without being told they’re lying or slandering “innocents”. I live in Portugal and in the past weeks Cristiano Ronaldo was accused of rape and it makes me so sad and angry listening to some of the comments about the girl who accused him – that all she wants is money and fame and that she was asking for it (there was even one women who said “I wish I was raped by him” and that’s just something incredibly stupid to say).
Curling up with some books is always a good option. Books can bright up a bad day.
I am glad that this movement is spread all over the world and people are coming out. But it is disheartening that the responses from the ‘public’ has been poor all around. I wish they didn’t belittle whatever the victims went and go through.
Great post, that’s the very reason why I don’t watch any news on tv because it could be completely disheartening at times and I only read the safety in my books. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome post.
I wish I can afford forgo watching the news but that is the only way to keep up with whatever is happening at my native land.
Reading the #MeToo things coming out of India – Bollywood to be specifc for me – is so disheartening. The movement in general should be so empowering and yet the responses to it just hurt. The courage it takes to come forward, and to hear everything you must have feared thrown back at you – I feel for everybody who has come forward and been torn down.
Spot on. I am proud of them as well.
It’s truly so heartwrenching to read the news lately. I have to pay attention in small doses, for sure.
I am trying to do that as well.
It’s sad it taken this long for something to happen. I have been reading heaps lately trying to escape from the problems of the world
I agree and I depend on reading for the much needed escape as well.
Great summary post! I haven’t read any of the books that you read last week.
I hope you have a good week.
The world is a very sad place at times. Books are a great escape from reality.
Absolutely true.
Agree with you on the reaction to this movement being so sad 🙁 But at the same time, it is at last out there..
I am so proud and happy for those who called out the BS.
The news is so disheartening anymore. I agree with DJ that there needs to be a change.
I enjoyed reading your post this week. And I hope that next week treats you better!
I agree and I can’t wait for this to get over.
I admire all those women that are finally speaking out…the sad part is the fact that people try to discredit them 🙁
Yes, and those are the ones irk me so much.
Change needs to happen. Women are finding the courage to speak up and that shows the true face of some people, rather than the one they present to society. There was something in the UK called Operation Yewtree. It uncovered paedophiles. The celebrity that was outed as a prolific predator of children went to the church I was made to attend as a child. Then a couple of years ago the priest was exposed as an abuser of children in every way. It sickened me.
While I am glad that the movement turned successful it is so disheartening to hear about these perverts. It is a creepy world indeed.
I too have been keeping tabs with the indian #metoo movement and absolutely resonate with your thought process. There is just something very wrong about discovering that a person whom you know for years, even if it be through the medium of television, has always kept his identity masked and fooled millions! There is a lot of negativity on the internet and I prefer to not watch the news. Sure, I do want to know what’s happening in the world, but i would rather do that while watching international news channels than indian. Too much hate, negativity and bigotry 🙄
I agree with everything you said. But we can’t avoid hearing the bad news, sadly.
I can’t believe all the #metoo either! And the reactions from people in authority are appalling.
Oh those B and C Horror flicks! Some are just so ridiculously bad! Here’s hoping you find a good one!
People who still wanna turn blind eye to the happenings irk me so much.
I really don’t mean this as offensive but I try to avoid the news about the me too movement. The only reason I’m avoiding it is because a lot of people are disgusting about it. I hate that it has to be that way.
I understand why you would do that, and trust me I wish I could do that too.
Oh, I totally forgot to talk about the whole #MeToo situation going in Indian entertainment industry. The situation is definitely sad so I skipped most of the news related to this.
I am glad you are back to the reading though. I have heard good things about Moxie. I hope you enjoy it too.
Have a lovely week ahead 🙂
Yes, I wish I can turn off the news for a while just to avoid this news. But again I want to do my bit so I don’t want to skip as well.
it is a very sad world we live in, indeed ..
aahah yes! my best friend had a love for old horror movies years ago xD she tried watching them with me but felt kinda eh about them..though at that time I wasn’t into horror at all so..
I hope to watch more of those movies this week. Fingers crossed.
Ah, yeah, every single time someone I admired growing up is named, it’s disheartening and shocking. 😞 I did see something about #HimToo? Not sure what that’s about because I clicked out of the hashtag after seeing the first few tweets.
I’m hoping we’ll all eventually move past this on the path for the better, but sometimes I feel the path is long. 😞
So well put. I agree that this is inevitable and I will have to check out #Himtoo, but I am scared.
It is sad, agreed. And I know it must feel terrible knowing that it’s your country especially under the radar :/ but we should look at the positive side – it’s all coming out and showing now. Changes are slowly happening. That is the good thing about it.
How did you like Kitchen? I loved that book.
That is what I tell myself as well. We need to get past this, even if it turns ugly.
Hey there! Oh you read Moxie! What did you think of it? I loved it!
I have not finished it yet and am liking it as of now.
I know what you mean. I think that the #MeToo movement is incredible in the way it is allowing people to finally speak out, and draw attention to issues of harassment and sexual assault, but at the same time, it can be hard to hear about all the things that have happened. It makes you think that the world is a really terrible place, and as you say, it’s been disappointing to see how a lot of people have responded to people being brave and sharing their story. We can only hope that things start to change soon.
I hope we all get through this fast and safe.
Sometimes books are the only sensible option! We’re struggling with much the same thing in the US these days, so I sympathize w/ how you feel for sure!
I haven’t watched any horror movies yet this season!
The movement has intensified in India just now. And of course books are the only way out these days.
It seems to me that change cannot come fast enough where it is needed the most…
I agree and the change is much needed now.