I Want to Talk About Sister Wives

The third episode of the new season of Sister Wives aired last night and I really need to share my thoughts. I’m going to be honest, I’m an OG fan of the Brown family (except for Kody, eww), especially Janelle. I love her independence and pragmatism but what I really love is her ability to call people out on their bullcrap (*cough* Kody *cough*). People have selective memories, especially when their current behavior doesn’t match a formerly-held belief and they need to do a little revisionist history to gloss over some glaring hypocrisy.

People have selective memories, especially when their current behavior doesn’t match a formerly-held belief and they need to do a little revisionist history to gloss over some glaring hypocrisy.

I must admit I dipped for a few seasons when they were leaving Las Vegas and moving to Flagstaff. Why did they even move? I can’t remember and I don’t even care enough to look into it or to go back and watch those seasons because I’m sure it had a lot to do with Kody’s god complex and his whole manifest destiny narcissism.

But hoo boy, seeing Christine last season light up with the glow of freedom on her face…I’m living for it. It gives me hope. She is living, breathing proof that it’s never too late to say enough is enough. To say that I deserve better from this life. To latch onto a dream of happiness and chase it like you’re on fire and it’s literal water. Sweet baby Jesus, someone give her a book deal. I would preorder that so fast I wouldn’t even check my bank account first.

She [Christine] is living, breathing proof that it’s never too late to say enough is enough.

I remember last season when she announced she was leaving and divorcing Kody, she said that she wanted to be adored and wouldn’t accept anything less. For anyone who’s not been through a period in their life where they felt unloved or unlovable, that is hard to work through. You have to intentionally and systematically break down every negative self-perception and reject it. You have to reject crap from other people too, all the little things they’ve done or said to make you feel less-than and sometimes that’s harder than letting go of the stuff in your own head. Because what if the person contributing to or causing your unhappiness is your spouse, the person who’s supposed to be making everything better or at least hunkering down in the storm with you while you ride it out?

August 28, 2023 cover of *People* Magazine.

For anyone who’s not been through a period in their life where they felt unloved or unlovable, that is hard to work through.

Christine had to choose herself and decide that the only way out was through the door and now, seeing her so full of joy in this new season??? That’s everything to me. I’m getting secondhand happiness from seeing her so happy. There was one part in the second episode of the new season where she literally laughs with glee and says she’s so glad she’s not married to Kody anymore. She no longer has to perform some kind of overly-taxing mental calculus about whether she’s being supportive enough or complacent enough or obedient enough or self-sacrificing enough ad nauseam. She’s free. Hallelujah.

She no longer has to perform some kind of overly-taxing mental calculus about whether she’s being supportive enough or complacent enough or obedient enough or self-sacrificing enough ad nauseam.

Now it’s Janelle’s turn. If you’ve been following the fallout like I have, you know that Janelle is gone too. She’s put up with so much of Kody’s crap over the years, but for the past couple of seasons it’s just beyond ridiculous. Kody wants his wives (other than Robyn, sorry not sorry — what does the nanny do?) to be independent and fend for themselves and their children while also protecting his fragile little man ego and making him think he’s calling the shots. You can’t have it both ways, Mister Man. Not with Janelle or Christine, anyway. Not anymore.

For the uninitiated among you, there was a big fallout in the Brown households when COVID first started (I won’t say during the pandemic because we’re still in the pandemic) because Kody had a list of rules that everyone had to follow to keep anyone in the family from becoming infected. Two of Janelle’s older sons, Gabe and Garrison, were unwilling to follow Kody’s extremely strict COVID rules, because Garrison worked and they both had social lives. I’m not going to condemn them for this like Kody did, especially since Kody was willing to bend his own rules last season to officiate a friend’s maskless wedding around the same time he wouldn’t even visit Christine’s kids in her backyard. You can’t arbitrarily enforce your infection-reduction protocols and still claim the moral high ground. I say this as someone who still masks in public (especially at work) and uses anti-viral spray. But we all know Kody redraws lines without giving anyone else a map. Then there was this whole mess where the boys said stuff about Robyn (nothing that wasn’t true, but she kind of took the brunt of the ire that should’ve landed squarely on Kody’s shoulders).

You can’t arbitrarily enforce your infection-reduction protocols and still claim the moral high ground.

After that, Kody made apologizing a condition of the family getting together for Christmas and then said he reneged on that but didn’t tell Janelle. The only person who lies more than Kody about his verifiable on-screen behavior is Donald Trump. *shrug emoji* Anyway, I digress. Last night, it all came to a head when Kody came to talk to Janelle in her new apartment she found to spend the winter in since she couldn’t weather the season in her camper parked at Coyote Pass.

The only person who lies more than Kody about his verifiable on-screen behavior is Donald Trump.

Kody kept gaslighting Janelle throughout the entire conversation while accusing her of doing it to him. I kept thinking to myself, “This man’s ego is next-level.” What kind of man basically makes a woman choose between him and her own children, especially when you’ve been an absentee father and husband to 3/4 of your family for years? He just berated Janelle over and over asserting that she’d been disrespecting him and undermining him to his children for the majority of their marriage. No no, buddy.

What kind of man basically makes a woman choose between him and her own children, especially when you’ve been an absentee father and husband to 3/4 of your family for years?

All of us watched while you basically ignored Janelle, Christine, and Meri so you could follow Robyn around like a lost puppy dog. Well, Janelle had had enough. Kody stuck his metaphorical fingers in his ears and was like, “I CAN’T HEAR YOU, NEENER NEENER BOO BOO!” Janelle’s crisp and salty “f*ck you” was long overdue. I was egging her on, much like I’ll probably be doing for the rest of the season. #TeamChristineAndJanelle

Also, I meant what I said about preordering the book. If Christine and/or Janelle write a tell-all, I’m getting a signed copy.

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.

Book Review: The Littlest Turtle by Lysa Mullady (Author) and Erica Salcedo (Illustrator)

***Note: I received a free digital review copy of this book from NetGalley and Magination Press, the children’s book imprint of the American Psychological Association, in exchange for an honest review. I have not received compensation for the inclusion of any links for purchase found in this review or on any other page of The Voracious Bibliophile which mentions The Littlest Turtle, its author(s), or its publisher.***

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review

What a delightful little book! The Littlest Turtle tells the story of a community of turtles of various statures and sizes who live and work together. There’s a division of labor in which the smaller turtles climb on the backs of the larger turtles to pick the ripest and most delicious fruits from the trees. What the smaller turtles are largely unaware of is that while they are getting to eat the best and most delicious fruits from the trees, the larger turtles have to make do with the fruit that falls on the ground and is often rotten or otherwise spoiled.

One day, Littlest Turtle hears the larger turtles grumbling among themselves about how unfair the whole situation is. Without the value of their labor (i.e. literally allowing the smaller turtles to climb on their backs to reach the fruit), the smaller turtles would not be able to eat. However, they always have to eat food that’s not as good. This gets Littlest Turtle to thinking.

Copyright © 2023 by Lysa Mullady. Illustrations copyright © 2023 by Erica Salcedo.

Littlest Turtle consults one of his fellow smaller turtles and asks why the larger turtles don’t get to share in eating the best fruits that are picked. Littlest Turtle immediately gets shut down by his peer who claims that that’s just the way things have always been and there’s no sensible reason to change anything. Littlest Turtle mulls over the unfairness of the whole system and starts to concoct a plan to change things for the better. Feeling emboldened by a newfound sense of justice, Littlest Turtle sleeps in preparation for putting his plan in motion.

Littlest Turtle mulls over the unfairness of the whole system and starts to concoct a plan to change things for the better.

The next day, Littlest Turtle approaches Biggest Turtle and tells them that the whole system is unfair, that they want to help rectify the inequality and ensure all turtles have access to the best and freshest fruits. Biggest Turtle says that the larger turtles have been talking amongst themselves about a plan to enact change. Littlest Turtle volunteers to help, and so off they go.

Marching to the brambles, the larger turtles (along with their comrade-in-arms Littlest Turtle) stop in their tracks while the smaller turtles make their way to the fruit. They stop, and see that the larger turtles have not joined them to allow them to climb on top of their backs to pick the fruit. Biggest Turtle announces their stance, stating that they want to eat the freshest berries too. Littlest Turtle chimes in to say that they won’t be moving until a change is made. Who doesn’t love solidarity among turtles and peaceful sit-ins?

Who doesn’t love solidarity among turtles and peaceful sit-ins?

The turtles start having conversations together and exploring how the old system was wholly unfair. The smaller turtles have to face the fact that they’ve unfairly benefitted from a system that’s exploited the labor of the larger turtles while not providing for their needs. They all work together to create a new system that ensures every turtle among them has access to the freshest fruits.

I think The Littlest Turtle is the perfect book for introducing children to ideas of fairness, equality, division of labor, and access. Children develop empathy by having conversations about what’s fair and by ensuring everyone in a given community’s needs are provided for. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The Littlest Turtle was released on August 15th, 2023 by Magination Press, the children’s book imprint of the American Psychological Association. It is available to purchase or order at your local bookstore.

I Accidentally Brewed Hooch

Once again, I’m sorry that it’s been a long time in-between posts here on The Voracious Bibliophile. It’s not an excuse, but my life has been really busy. We’ve got a new district manager in my store’s district, and with any new changing of the guard, there are of course adjustments that need to be made. I’m still dedicated to this blog, but I will admit that posts may be haphazard for the foreseeable future.

At any given time, I have anywhere from 3-15 drinks on every counter and surface inside my store.

All of that said, I wanted to share something funny with all of you. One of my (few) toxic traits is that I leave things everywhere. Literally. Everywhere. This is especially true where drinks are concerned, and even more so at work. At any given time, I have anywhere from 3-15 drinks on every counter and surface inside my store. It’s something my coworkers have had to learn to live with and accept as a quirk of mine. It helps that I’m the boss (*laughs maniacally*). Everyone needs a flaw, right?

Well, today I realized it was getting to the point where my collection of drinks were becoming spill hazards. As you can well imagine, that’s a nightmare scenario in a bookstore. So I began my cleanup. So many mostly full drinks emptied down the drain. This might be a good place to mention that I suffer from dehydration constantly and manage it terribly. I’m working on it, okay? One of my drinks was a mango pineapple smoothie from McDonald’s. It was chunky. When I went to remove the lid and dispose of the contents, the odor hit me like a ton of bricks: the unmistakable scent of alcohol.

When I went to remove the lid and dispose of the contents, the odor hit me like a ton of bricks: the unmistakable scent of alcohol.

I had unwittingly been brewing hooch on our store’s back counter. Next to piles of books, magazines, invoices, bills of lading, and other bookstore paraphernalia was my unwitting non-attempt at an art form usually reserved for prison toilets and country backwoods. I’m really hoping this will teach me my lesson about leaving drinks everywhere. But in all honesty it probably won’t. I didn’t learn my lesson when I had to pour chunky coffee (curdled from the milk product) down the drain or made a mess with Pepsi. Hooch probably won’t be any different.

Album Review: Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus

I grew up with Miley Cyrus. She’s the Madonna of my micro-generation, that batch of kids born between 1995 and 2000. We’re old enough to have owned and operated a VCR but young enough to remember having the Internet at least on the periphery of our entire lives, if not always the forefront. I am a child of Hannah Montana. When I went shopping with my dad at Walmart for new school clothes before my 6th grade year started, I bought the Hannah Montana 2 / Meet Miley Cyrus double album. That album provided the soundtrack to much of my pre-middle school life, that weird in-between time when you’re not really a teenager but also not a little kid anymore. You feel everything and nothing. Gravity doesn’t really know which way to pull you so you’re in a stasis between what you were before and what you will inevitably become. So yeah, I’ll fight someone over Miley. Anyone at any time.

She’s [Miley Cyrus] the Madonna of my micro-generation, that batch of kids born between 1995 and 2000.

I became an adult right around the time when Bangerz released. Actually, that CD was one of my 18th birthday presents from my parents, who paled at the theatrics and the unapologetic sexuality of that record and decided to buy it for me anyway. There’s a photo of me floating around on the Internet where I’m dressed as Miley for Halloween, tongue out and peace sign flashed.

There’s a photo of me floating around on the Internet where I’m dressed as Miley for Halloween, tongue out and peace sign flashed.

All of that said, I think Endless Summer Vacation is her best album yet. She’s a woman who’s been through a lot and that is evident not only in her autobiographical lyrics but the lived-in feel of the music itself. The entire record, from beginning to end, is a pop masterpiece. Although to be honest, I hesitate to put that label on it, slapping it in a pop box. Cyrus has, for the entirety of her career, defied all genre expectations and instead exists as a mashup of everything all at once. Any box you put her in will inevitably be smashed and there she’ll be, dancing madly in and around the detritus. We should all just be happy to be along for the ride.

Sorry for the Hiatus

Dear Readers,

I wanted to take a moment to apologize for my absence from this blog. It’s been several weeks since the last time I posted and I’m sure that some of you are wondering where I’ve been. I want to quell any fears you may have about my commitment to this blog and assure you that I haven’t forgotten about it.

The truth is, I’ve been going through some personal difficulties over the past few months. Without going into too much detail, I’ve been experiencing some health issues and other challenges that have made it hard for me to find the time and the energy to think, let alone come up with enough cogent thoughts to fill a blog post. I know that’s not an excuse, but it is an explanation.

For those of you who look forward to reading this blog and engaging with it, I sincerely apologize. I know that I have a responsibility to my readers to be consistent and reliable, and moving forward I intend to be just that. I have a lot of ideas and topics I want to explore in the future, and lots of books I want to read and review that are coming out this year. I hope you’ll all continue on this journey with me. Thank you.

Quote for the Day: November 25th, 2022

I curated my life to be an expression of my pain. By creating somebody that I felt was stronger than me.
Lady Gaga

I love this quote by Lady Gaga. A lot of people look at her art and life and see only the glamor and artifice they associate with this persona she’s created over her career. What they don’t realize is that many people who lead creative lives, who create art as a means of survival, who depend on it for their living, channel everything they have into their art. So you’re not just getting the joy and the wonder that all of us who are blessed enough to spend time on this planet enjoy, but you’re also getting the trauma and the deeply-held secrets and the pain — so much pain — that we mask and subsume otherwise we’d never leave our rooms again.

I think art forces us to be braver. It forces us to become the best versions of ourselves that we can be. And in the times we can’t be that best version, when we can’t take the high road, when we have to forego that dream of something better, it forces us to look that in the eye — and that in itself is a gift.

Film Review: Elvis (2022); Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review

I don’t know what I really expected going into Elvis, the recent biopic about the world-famous and best-selling solo musician of all time, Elvis Presley. Knowing that Baz Luhrmann was the director was certainly a big draw. If nothing else, his films are stylistic dreamscapes: lush, ostentatious, and to be quite frank, extremely pretty. The Australian auteur is no stranger to the telling of epic stories, and I don’t think any other director could have tackled the story of Elvis Presley with more grace, grit, passion, or panache. His respect for his subject is evident in every frame, as is his love for glitter and bombast. The man loves his pyrotechnics, and any film about the King of Rock and Roll would be remiss without them.

If nothing else, his [Luhrmann’s] films are stylistic dreamscapes: lush, ostentatious, and to be quite frank, extremely pretty.

Austin Butler’s Elvis is no caricature. It would have been extremely easy to allow a performance such as this one to veer into mockumentary territory, but Butler has the acting chops to steer the ship in a much more honest and human direction. His Elvis is wholly real. His dreams and ambitions, choked and stymied by the pressures of fame and the realities of being the biggest star in the world, take a back burner to maintaining the image of Elvis, the moneymaker and icon as opposed to the man himself. He’s not only playing Elvis; for 2 hours and 39 minutes, he is Elvis.

His dreams and ambitions, choked and stymied by the pressures of fame and the realities of being the biggest star in the world, take a back burner to maintaining the image of Elvis, the moneymaker and icon as opposed to the man himself.

Butler’s universally-acclaimed performance already has many talking about him as the front-runner for next year’s Oscar for the Best Actor in a Leading Role. I agree. It goes without saying that he will be nominated, and unless I see another performance that is so riveting it takes my breath away, I will safely assume he’ll be walking away with a golden statue that night. The film also benefits from strong supporting performances from everyman Tom Hanks, who plays Presley’s slimy manager/promoter Colonel Tom Parker; and Olivia DeJonge, in her mainstream debut as Priscilla Presley. According to DeJonge in an interview she did with British Vogue, she found out she had landed the role some four months after her audition in a text message from Luhrmann’s team. Needless to say, I think we’ll be seeing much more from her.

Finally, I want to talk about the costumes in this film. With a style icon like Elvis Presley as the subject matter, any costume designer would have more than a full plate’s worth of work ahead of them in recreating the entertainer’s iconic looks. Catherine Martin, a four-time Oscar winner and the wife of Baz Luhrmann, has worked on a slew of his previous films: Romeo + Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Australia (2008), and The Great Gatsby (2013). Her work in Elvis is nothing short of spectacular, somehow managing to take the familiar and making it fresh, vivacious, and exciting. I think she’ll be adding another Oscar to her shelf come next year.

Her [Martin’s] work in Elvis is nothing short of spectacular, somehow managing to take the familiar and making it fresh, vivacious, and exciting.

All in all, I really enjoyed Elvis. Was it a perfect film? No, but I don’t think there is such a thing as a perfect film, at least not when you’re recreating the lives of real people, some of whom are still living. I think it captured the spirit of Elvis and what he’s meant to American culture. I also think it managed to illuminate who he was as a person apart from the bright lights and big stages he graced while on Earth. The pain is there, sure, but so is the passion. The love and devotion, the heartache, the beauty and the fame. The flame snuffed out far too soon. That’s more than anyone could ask.

The pain is there, sure, but so is the passion. The love and devotion, the heartache, the beauty and the fame. The flame snuffed out far too soon. That’s more than anyone could ask.

Elvis was released in the United States on June 24th, 2022 by Warner Bros. Pictures and is now available to stream on HBO Max as well as other streaming and video on demand platforms.

Exhaustion and Burnout: Part One

First of all, I’d like to apologize for not posting as often as I usually do on here recently. I love writing this blog and I feel bad that as of late, it’s had to take the back burner on the stove of my life.

For the past several weeks, I’ve had to work longer hours at work. Two of my employees have had COVID, and since I’m the General Manager and the only salaried employee at my store, any labor shortages or slack immediately become my responsibility. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’m almost dead. Last week, I clocked 61.98 hours, and that’s not including the lunches I worked through catching up on paperwork that I’ve had to neglect.

The thing that sucks the most about the whole ordeal is that the harder I work and the more I accomplish, it still seems like it’s never enough. The backlogged projects still shout at me. The unreasonable expectations of higher-ups still loom over me. They expect me to be more than human, to function like a well-oiled machine, but I just can’t. I’m unfortunately human. I have feelings. I get tired. I’ve been living off of candy and fast food for weeks because I’m always too tired to make anything better.

My bowels are irritated. I’ve had to hold myself and medicate myself to the point where my stomach is never not hurting. I take medicine to go and medicine to stop going, and I haven’t been allowed to simply go when I need to in so long that it’s going to take me a while to straighten myself out. Some days I don’t eat until I get home at night because I’m afraid that if I eat it will give me the urge to go and then my sales floor will be unattended.

Does my boss care? No. When I hear from her at all, it’s for her to inquire about my progress and to ask about our sales numbers. What are you doing to motivate your team to success? When will your excess truck be out? Why haven’t you made progress toward the XYZ project and do you have an estimated completion date? What conversations are you having with customers to promote our programs? Your sales numbers are not reflective of company expectations. Please tell me what you are doing to change that momentum and move the needle in a positive direction. One day, I’m going to just start screaming and I won’t be able to stop.

I’m a cog in the machine. If I drop dead, they’ll eventually (sooner or later) replace me with some poor schmuck who’ll probably get paid even less than I do. May God have mercy on their soul.

I want to say more about all of this but it will have to wait for another day. I actually get a day off tomorrow and I intend on sleeping in. Take care and thanks for listening.

Quote for the Day: August 11th, 2022

The unfed mind devours itself.
Gore Vidal

Quote for the Day: August 10th, 2022

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
Booker T. Washington

Tag: The Voracious Bibliophile

I Want to Talk About Sister Wives

Further Reading

I Accidentally Brewed Hooch

Album Review: Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus

Sorry for the Hiatus

Quote for the Day: November 25th, 2022

Film Review: Elvis (2022); Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Review

Exhaustion and Burnout: Part One

Quote for the Day: August 11th, 2022

Quote for the Day: August 10th, 2022