One of the things that I enjoy about following a lot of the science fiction and fantasy awards is that you get to read great short stories by authors that are getting their first exposure, before they publish a novel. That's how I was introduced to Ken Liu, through his short story "The Paper Menagerie" which was really good. Since then, Liu has been really prolific in the short fiction realm, consistently writing really good stories (a collection of his short fiction is coming out later this year, and I'll probably buy it, even though I've read most of its contents already).
All of this is to say that I was very excited to read his debut novel "The Grace of Kings". It's a fantasy epic that has some steampunk tendencies and a pretty clear basis in Chinese/Asian folklore. This combination has spawned the term "silkpunk" which Liu has talked about here and there (this podcast was a really interesting - and spoiler free - look at the book and the author's approach and viewpoint on fantasy).
I loved the book. It wasn't standard fantasy based around a hero's journey, but jumped right in with a large cast and pulled everything together. It read like the recounting of a legend where various stories were all cast and recast with the same set of characters. It really played to my enjoyment of his short stories, but at the same time it was cohesive. It's long (around 700-800 pages), but it felt like it earned that length - the scope is enormous.
It's the first book in a trilogy, but I think it stands perfectly well on its own. All in all, one of my favorites that I've read this year.
Some short things I read last month:
- Reading "Labyrinth" by Amelia Gray and then reading this short piece about the editing process for the story was pretty interesting. Some of the things seem petty and weird, but I find the thought process of an author revising a story that's "finished" really interesting.
- Grunion Run by Juliet Escoria. This was my favorite story from her collection, Black Cloud. I read the entire collecion this month in about two sittings. It was good, all the stories were about this short and they all tackled influences (positive and negative) and things that pull at you long after you think you've moved past them. Every story in the collection has a companion video. Here's the one for Grunion Run, and it's weird (and maybe NSFW - language).
- Ciaran Berry - For the Birds. I'm not quite finished with Berry's collection, but this poem is one of the many so far that has caught me up in the mix of rustic image and historic allusion. Here's the author reading the poem:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul8Zb2LCJQY
Still slowly working my way through 100 Years Of Solitude. Enjoyable, but finding time has been challenging. My goal is to have it done by next month.
Finished up the audio version of Cat's Cradle which was awesome. The various turns of phrase and overall inventiveness of Vonnegut were much appreciated. The message of the book was too, though there was a bit of preaching to the choir here.
A little over halfway through Breadcrumbs. The 5 year-old is enjoying, though not loving, it. The 3 year-old is not enjoying it too much, but she likes the idea of us reading it. It's probably a little on the dark side/older-kid side, but it's working, and I'm elated to be reading Ursu again.
Cat's Cradle is my next Vonnegut book to read. I'm excited.
I somewhat didn't care for the audio version. I'm wondering if I would have preferred the read.
I'd agree that the dialect stuff was a little overdone, if that's where you're going with that.
I have a hard time imagining Vonnegut translated to other media. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with how I first took in his books.
I've been reading the jalapeño stories from a Grimm Brothers collection (this one) recently, and he's been loving them. I am not sure he would quite have the attention span for Breadcrumbs yet, but I imagine he might in another couple of years. (I loved that one back when I read it a few years ago.)
You want some fairy tales?
Try Andrew Lang.
Are Lang's versions of the fairy tales scary? The jalapeño is all about scary stuff at the moment.
I think they can be, but my memory blends so many different books.
I've read most of the short ones in the Green Book.
I know this one, which I got from Costco, had some pretty harsh events in it.
Several times while reading Breadcrumbs I've wondered if you'd ever read it. Glad you did.T
I got stuck in 100YOS - a lot of dirt being eaten, etc. Maybe in a 150, 200 clicks. I might pick it back up after my Pynchon pile has been reduced.
Ever since I put the Flipboard app on my phone, I've been seeing that Silkpunk cover come up a time or two. Maybe I need to give it a shot.
Reading Fablehaven, a young adult book about a preserve for magical creatures. Recommended by a friend. So far I like it, I'm right in the middle, and anxious to see how the rest of the story develops.
Re-reading The Walking Dead Compendium #2. I read it a while ago, before the last couple seasons, but after watching the show I thought I'd go through it again. I had forgotten most of what happened in the comics. I didn't realize just how much the actually did use in the comics. I thought they were departing much more than they actually were. Right now I'm at a point in the comics which is just past where they are now in the show, so I feel like I'm getting a preview of the next season.
Technically still reading Treasure Island. This book is hard to read. I need to just sit and finish it.
Listened to the audio book of The End of the Affair last week. It was pretty good, but something just wasn't quite there for me. I really enjoyed the first half when he was lamenting the lost love much more than the second half.
I also read Gone Girl . A nice popcorn book.
I forgot to add: I made the mistake of trying for the audio book of Sense and Sensibility. So much for keeping myself awake. How can anyone read that stuff? It's entire chapters devoted to what should be handled in single sentences, or less. Chapter 1: Their dad had a lot of money, but left it to a different relative. Chapter 2: That relative's wife is a [bad word]. Chapter 3: No seriously, such a [bad word], and she won't let them have any of the money. Chapter 4: So they moved far away... Chapter 5: ...to a town with some eccentric people... Chapter 6: ... and a mysterious handsome man.
I will admit to reading and enjoying Pride and Prejudice. Maybe that one is better. I can't say it wouldn't make me sleepy.
I do appreciate your encapsulation, though, and I get the feeling that it could be used as the opening for any number of books of that period.
Oh Philo, don't you know it's about the journey rather than the destination? Sigh.
I listened to S&S when the peperoncino was quite young. I had a lot of time to kill in those days, though, so I wasn't really concerned about how long it took. I will say that a good audiobook reader makes a world of difference for me; I loved Elizabeth Klett's narration.
Oh, I know. It's just that this book wasn't taking a journey, it was just slowly spinning in place.
I haven't read any, but you could probably do the same with most books.
I've read bits of her Persuasion. She can be verbose, but so much of that is about the way people had to dance around subjects anyways.
Dr. Chop has made her living off books like the one you describe. So, clearly you just don't get it , brah.
For our vacation to the Dells, I completely forgot that I might have time to read and left all books at home. No Target stores in the Dells (needed a few groceries items that I knew Walgreens wouldn't have) so I went to Walmart ... what an awesomely disappointing book section. Ended up with Mr. Mercedes, a detective/crime novel from Stephen King. Nothing supernatural about it - suspense/thriller like I've not seen from him before, but I tore through it in three days and found it pretty satisfying.
what an awesomely disappointing book section.
This is exactly the description I would expect of a Walmart book section in the Dells...
(says the guy who didn't read a thing this month.)
This is exactly the description I would expect of a Walmart book section
in the Dells...FTFY
heh - yeah, I have to admit I was expecting a section that included at least some David McCullough or Stephen Ambrose ... shoot, even Louis L'Amour wouldn't have disappointed. Much to my chagrin, I found none of those....
Stephen King seemed a safe bet.
David McCullough coming to the Bushnell in H'town on 5/9 for night of unscripted discussion - I'm thinking about attending.
That would be a cool discussion to hear. Feel free to report back here if you attend.
After finishing Nixonland my faith in politicians needed to be restored, so I read His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis. I liked it a lot - it was a quick read for me after spending a few months slogging through Pearlstein. I think am going to try and track down more of Ellis - hopefully his Jefferson biography.
I also checked out Redeployed based on recommendations here. Glad I did. Reminds me a lot of The Things They Carried, which is part of the curriculum for my 11th grade English class.
For some reason Ellis is a mainstream historian whose work I cannot stand.
Interesting - any idea why you can't stand him? What have you read?
any idea why you can't stand him?
...
Not sure. I read Founding Brothers and his Jefferson book (was that American Sphinx?) and didn't really like either all that much.
In that link CoC proceeded provided, it mentions that his mentor was Edmund Morgan. His Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is a great, great book (sadly, the two subsequent books in the trilogy weren't quite as good, but that may be because Roosevelt's like got much less interesting once he became President).
I've read Founding Brothers and American Creation and enjoyed them both. Unfortunately, I have a hard time with the author which taints (in some ways) my appreciation of his work.
That's some reason. I remember the story, just hadn't connected it.
He can't possibly be as insufferable as Michael Beschloss or Niall Ferguson. But what is it about people lying about their service records?
I don't have any experience with Beschloss or Ferguson, but I didn't find his work insufferable at all. As I said, I enjoyed the ones I've read.
To your query...I don't know what people expect will result when they lie. Given the incredibly wide range of military experiences (war time, peace time, "Greatest Generation" v. Vietnam Era, conscript, volunteer, officer/enlistee, and on and on ... ) I think a lot of Veterans don't know how to process what they did or didn't do and have little sense of how the civilian world will judge them. I'd surmise that those who lie believe it's better to present a tailored/edited/created version of their experiences with an eye toward benefitting from the popular mythology. After all, in our current environment, I think service members enjoy nearly universal approbation.
FWIW - Ellis, like all of us, has to live with the choices he made, both while serving and, afterwards, while teaching & writing.
Beschloss may well be a nice man. He may even be a decent scholar. I just find his PBS persona to be tiresome. Ferguson, on the other hand....
Beschloss's saving grace is that he seems to write an entertaining sports (and usually baseball) history column in the Sunday NY Times once a month.
Plus, he tweets out really cool pics.
My Vonnegut read for April was Mother Night which I really enjoyed. Vonnegut does a great job of setting up an almost sympathetic narrator, he balanced on that edge and didn't give any easy answers to the central moral quandary. The conclusion felt well earned, even if it was a bit ghastly.
It was my first time reading it, so perhaps that's why I enjoyed it more than Sirens of Titan or Player Piano (both of which I've read before), but it's my favorite so far in my Great Vonnegut Re-read.
Just finished Elephant Company, non-fiction rendering about a teak-logging Brit who, well, really gets in to elephants after all of the killing of WW1, and ends up using them in WW2. Very good read.
Still working on Anna Karenina, about 3/8ths in. Getting a chapter or two a night...and the chapters are pretty short. Still enjoyable. I like Tolstoy's observation of (and observations about) people.
Levin is my favorite character.
Well, I started two books last month.
Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, Leanne Shapton & 639 Others. Nonfiction. If I wanted to come up with a lame marketing tagline for this one, I'd call it "the thinking woman's fashion book." It's a sui generis collection that consists of thoughts about clothing and appearance, presented in a range of formats, from a diverse assortment of women. I never go to the beach, but if I did this would make a great beach read.
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris. Nonfiction. This book is fantastic, and I pretty much want to recommend it to everyone here. Norris is a copy editor for the New Yorker, and the book includes bits about her life as well as other vitally important topics--pronouns, dashes, apostrophes, and the like. Norris has such a warm and personable voice in her writing as well as a wonderful sense of humor. DG, it's a relevant read paired with the link you shared about the editing of "Labyrinth," since New Yorker house style comes up.
Let me share just one passage from the book, on a topic that has been discussed here more than once:
(She does include a much more extensive explanation of the cereal comma, including her objection to calling it the "Oxford comma," but for that, you'll need to get the book yourself.)
I've heard good things about the Norris book. I might have to add that to my list of non-fiction books (a list that doesn't get much action in either direction for me, admittedly)
I feel like punctuation books come up a fair amount in WGOM book-themed discussion.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
Shady Characters
Confessions of a Comma Queen
are ones that I know have been mentioned. But there could be others.
Oy, I shouldn't write LTEs so late at night; I can't believe I wrote "cereal comma" in the ultimate sentence of that.
I thought that was the joke.
Chex, Kix, Trix, Cheerios, etc.
(Note the serial comma in there, as "etc." is "et cetera", Latin for "and cetera". I put a comma before it.)
It was right* in the quote; it was only wrong in my final sentence after the quote.
(I absolutely agree with your use of a comma before etc., and my good friend Chicago agrees. I raise an eyebrow, however, at your translation. Chicago translates "et cetera" as “and others of the same kind.")
*I first typed "write" in that spot. I think I've got some sort of homophone affliction this week . . .
For Spooky:
and
I'm going to leave this here since I'll likely forget it in two weeks.
According to some rather highly regarded critics, these are "...the [11] best children’s books (for ages 10 and under) ever published in English."
No books published in the last 45 years. (1968 - Wizard of Earthsea - is the most recent publication date in the list and the only one in the last 50 years)
That was the first thing I noticed too.
Also, Wizard is the only one I haven't read.
Mostly, that list made me think of this.
Six of 11 published in the 60s.
I'm there with the Ingalls, Milne, and Sendak. Glad to see picture books get some props. Sandra Boynton probably too provincial for the type of critics that respond to the BBC.
Wondering where Wind in the Willows was.
Wind was near the top of those not in the Top 11 ... those 151 others were in the Twitterverse under @BBC_Culture, but I'm not on Twitter so I couldn't find it.
I am and still could not find.
I looked and looked ... here's the best I could do:
1-10) Previously discussed
12. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
13. From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler – EL Koenigsburg
14. The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
15. His Dark Materials trilogy – Philip Pullman
16. Matilda – Roald Dahl
17. Harriet the Spy – Louise Fitzhugh
18. Pippi Longstocking – Astrid Lindgren
19. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
20. Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise Brown and Pat Hancock
21. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
I have not read 13, 14, 15, 17 or 18 ... but now that I have kids, I'm sure I shall remedy that in the coming years.
I also found this list that doesn't limit it to 10-and-under, but asks which books kids should read by age 16.
Top -10 (some are duplicates of the BBC list):
1. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
2. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
4. Winnie The Pooh – AA Milne
5. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
6. James and The Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
7. The BFG – Roald Dahl
8. A Bear Called Paddington – Michael Bond
9. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
10. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Was so disappointed to learn that the F in the BFG stands for "Friendly".
Dahl gets 4 books in the top ten+twenty, but Milne gets no love for Pooh Corner? I think I prefer the stories with Tigger in them. Not Tigger himself, but Roo and Rabbit's behavior around him.
Rabbit is the best, and Tigger brings out his feistyness.
#TeamRabbit
#TeamFriendsAndRelations
When I first read BFG, I don't think I knew what other word the 'F' could have stood for...
Just like baseball died after 1980, children's books haven't been published since 1968.
Heh.
I didn't double check, but I think all of them are also by and about white people.
There are Indians in the Ingalls-Wilder book.
L'Engle's book is about some non-Earthlings.
Earthsea isn't about white people (per wikipedia) and probably represents a series that was published into 2001.
Yea. Just because the syfy miniseries substituted white actors for key characters doesn't mean she intended them to be white.
Off the top of my head, I can only think of three children's books in my house which feature minority characters: Corduroy, written by Don Freeman (a white man), Annie and the Old One, by Miska Miles (Patricia Miles Martin) and Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tanya Lewis Lee. The last was a hand-me-down book from my SiL whose children are mixed-race...I doubt I'd have it otherwise (likely wouldn't have even known it existed).
Pepper, your observation is thought provoking, but re: stories by or about white people ... how many authors have there been since Louisa May Alcott published Little Women in the 1860's ... easily in the tens-of-thousands, right? How many of them were minority authors? How many of those minority authors wrote children's books? Could it be that the absence of minority-authored children's books on the short list of titles praised by critics in the first list and a general cross-section of readers in that second list I found is more the result of statistics & demographics than of racism?
I think there is an explanation for there not being a lot of famous minority authors from the 19th and 20th centuries, but I do not think that explanation is statistics and demographics.
I was not being flippant. Slavery in the 19th century & racism in the 19th and 20th centuries
eliminatedgreatly limited the opportunity for minorities to become authors, let alone famous authors. I am in no way trying to downplay our history. I'm simply pointing out that of those authors who published children's books in the past 150 years that could be considered "the best" for the purposes of their list, white authors outnumber minority authors. The analysis of that data set would be statistics and a discussion of that group of people would be demographics.Pepper noted the absence of minority authors and protagonists which is an interesting observation, especially because I didn't expect sharing a list of children's books to provoke that response (I love that about this place). It got me thinking and, well, there you go.
Ah I wasn't sure what you meant by "Could it be that the absence of minority-authored children's books on the short list of titles praised by critics in the first list and a general cross-section of readers in that second list I found is more the result of statistics & demographics than of racism?" and I guess I'm still not sure. When, like you said, minorities weren't even given the opportunity to enter the canon for so long, I'm not sure what to call that other than racism.
Ahhhhh okay I thought about it a little longer and I see your point. The list makers aren't responsible for the canon being so white, so the racism isn't on them, they're just working with what society gave them. I agree with that and I'm sorry that I was being flippant. But I think to Pepper's point, simply going with the established white male canon is a little intellectually lazy at this point when it's been shown to have such a strong bias. It would be nice to see some cultural tastemakers dig a little deeper when coming up with these kinds of lists.
It would be nice to see some cultural tastemakers dig a little deeper when coming up with these kinds of lists.
This. 100 times this. Society uses these kinds of lists as guideposts, and directing people to what they already know just deepens the rut that's been run. Guideposts pointing to those who haven't gotten a fair shake are much more meaningful.
Agreed--very well stated, Philo. For anyone interested, here are a couple of good lists:
50 Multicultural Books Every Child Should Know
Gift Guide flowcharts from We Need Diverse Books
That's what I'm talking about - thanks Pepper!
But even then it would need to be a concerted, curated effort.
If each respondent put 3 of 10 books on their list from minority authors or minority primary characters, if there was little agreement about them, it would disappear, while the more-consensus white male canon would still get all of the top spots. Older (whiter) canon will get more votes because the consensus on that era has been reached, and there may only be 20 possibilities from 1880-1900, but 2000 from 1980-2000.
I'm reminded about something Joe Posnanski wrote about voting by the HOF Veteran's committee. Not exactly the same, but similar in that the way it was set up, you were guaranteed to get something like this.
What minorities have faced with regards to this, and sean's observations about the tech industry, is racism. No argument about that at all from me.
With regards to my question, I was thinking along the lines of, "The people voting for the "Best" children's books can only vote for books that have been written." Minorities being prevented from entering the canon means that it's challenging to have minority authored books end up in the Top-10 of these voters' lists because there aren't as many children's books authored by minorities in existence. The conversation I think we're having is bigger (and more important IMO) - the reality that these minority authors were prevented from entering the canon thus depriving them and us from sharing their stories.
I should refresh more frequently.
Yeah we're totally on the same page on this. It's an incredible shame that the canon is what it is. That's why I think work needs to be done to change it. I don't think the canon is as sacrosanct as it's held up to be. There are undoubtedly a ton of really wonderful kids books that have been written by, for, and about people of color, but they don't get worthy acknowledgement when people still defer to the "classics" that were written before diverse voices even had a chance.
The children's book world has historically been a very white place--whether we're talking about authors, illustrators, editors, or publishers. Even in recent years, the conventional wisdom has been "black people don't buy books" and "white kids won't pick up a book if it has a black person shown on the cover." This is finally starting to change, thanks in part to We Need Diverse Books. Last year School Library Journal devoted an entire issue to diversity, which you can see here.
Recent statistics compiled by the Cooperative Children's Book Center probably highlight the issue more clearly than anything else.
See more here.
(Sorry for pasting in an image of a table, sean!)
*explodes*
highlight the issue more clearly
Not really. I need rates, not raw counts, and a total (correcting to prevent double-counting).
While we're on this conversation... how is the WGOM doing for diversity of population? I mean, I think we all know that IRL we're mostly (all?) white, mostly male, mostly whatever else. Does that even matter much in a forum where we're using avatars? Is there something we should be doing to be more accommodating? Something even more active than accommodating?
I don't have any answers, but these are some questions I've asked myself before, and they just kind of keep popping up for me. I can't say I have a strong feeling one way or the other, but I would say that these are strong questions for me.
Our avatars are a pretty diverse bunch, if that counts for something.
Biggest barrier, if one chooses to call it that, is that the WGOM is like any self-selected group of friends. I don't generally hang out with people I don't have shared history, interests or experiences with. I don't spend much time with women other than my wife, my friend's wives or female coworkers, nor do I know many minorities; my ex-BiL is black and my SiL's best friend is married to a black man. I became friends with a guy from Chicago while a freshman in college. We enjoyed each other's company enough to choose to share an off-campus apartment second year. After I transferred to the main U, and later enlisted, we lost touch. Even in the Navy, while there was a lot more diversity, guys on the ship and in my detachment were closest with people of similar races or backgrounds.
That is something that has bothered me. But this has the same problem as mentioned above: sports is a male-dominated field. And this site focuses on baseball, a white-dominated sport. Maybe we'll get some citizens from other countries in the Americas eventually. Getting on-location reporting from the Caribbean World Series would be great.
More generally, we need more citizens period.
Also: Minnesotans.
+1 for the Minnesota part. There are millions of hispanic baseball fans; not nearly as many hispanic Twins fans.
Not true. Many of us are fans of hispanic Twins!!!!111one111!!!
This has been a common defense in the tech industry. We're not only predominantly white, but predominantly male too. I've seen many people defend that with something like what you floated: black people aren't interested in tech or women just like things other than tech.
The issue is collective racism and sexism in all facets of the industry. No one skips hiring a non-white with the reason that they aren't white, it's instead because the person isn't a "cultural fit". Except the cultural norms are always things white men do. That doesn't even touch the toxic environment that drives out people that manage to overcome the initial barriers. 40 years later of this, all of the icons are white men. That part is demographics but it's from a skewed population.
To be clear, my question/comment wasn't posited as a defense of the racism still present in a lot of unexpected places in our society. I meant it as a response to Pepper's observation, which I read as an obliquely negative critique of the results (and by extension, voters). Rather than talking about the quality of the books represented, or sharing some of our favorites not represented, the conversation ended up focusing on the bias, which is important too. I would like to know about children's books by minority authors that either A) should have been included in the discussion, or, B) though maybe not "Best" material, are worth checking out for my kiddos.
[edit] Again, I should refresh more frequently.
Plus, all the barriers that keep non-white, non-males from even getting to the stage of an interview. I'm a science professor, and in my field, women and non-white men have about the same likelihood of being hired as white men do, once they make it to the point that they are qualified for the position. The biggest hindrance to a more diverse field, especially for women, is that they never reach that point; the drop-off happens much earlier, throughout middle school, high school, college, and grad school. Applicants for top level positions do almost equally well regardless of gender or ethnicity; the issue is getting to the point of even being a reasonable applicant. I imagine that a similar thing must be going on in the tech industry, as well.
It also seems like this makes it very easy for the people in charge to claim that racism and sexism don't exist. "Look, we're hiring women at the same rate as men, once you figure in the sample of applicants" sounds great for the people doing the hiring, but it still ignores the serious institutional issues that block the paths of so many.
This is in significant part a selection bias thing, counter-balancing a gender bias thing. That is, the women who make it that far tend to be well above average relative to the pool of candidates on key dimensions.
I think there is less of a gender disparity (of grad students and new Ph.D. job candidates) in many social science fields.
Ph.D.s granted by field and gender from the 2009 Survey of Earned Doctorates. I haven't looked at the more recent data yet to compare.
Another note on that data: Biological sciences vs. physical sciences. STEM field tend to get lumped in together, when there is a big difference from one field to another.
...the women who make it that far tend to be well above average...
Oh, I absolutely agree on that one. Yet another reason not to pat ourselves on the back for hiring percentages matching the percentages that apply.
That had a horribly strong Brit bias. Where's Captain Underpants series?! And some of those for age 10 and under? Snoozer!
Lots of good, recent-ish stuff on the Caldecott list.
Also, any list that omits The Snowy Day is a stupid list.
I so understand the desire to publish a satirical book list now.
"For ages 10 and under" is a horrifying classification. My 5-year-old and 3-year-old aren't even in the same book range, so how could they get lumped in with 10-year-olds?
Also, everything else everyone said.
Has anyone else here read The Son? It has become one of my favorite books. Philip Mayer totally nails the voice of Texas, and pulls apart the destiny of greed magnificently. I highly recommend this book.
All my books have been packed away from moving. That said, poor excuse because I was slacking even when I had access to them. Thst first LBJ book was great, but the recap in the beginning of the second killed my momentum. I just kept thinking "yeah, you told this story already." It's not like TV where you have to catch people up who might have missed last week's episode.