Hullo,

Did you see the Brontës drama that the BBC did over Christmas? It was great and I thought extremely moving. There were also moments of maybe a bit unintended comedy involving Anne, Charlotte and Emily creating enduring classics of western literature in one room while in the next their useless brother Bramwell yells things like:

i HATE you

i never ASKED to be born

maybe i’ll just KILL my self if that’s what you want

You can watch it here and I highly recommend doing so over the upcoming weekend:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04cf4wv/to-walk-invisible

In more modern reading, I enjoyed this article on A Handmaid’s Tale. Not a laugh riot so I’d stick with the Brontës if you need cheering up (“cheering” “up”):

Among other things, The Handmaid’s Tale reminds us that the mechanics of oppression are so often masqueraded as benevolent truths, even gifts. Those in power believe, or act like they believe, that they care about women — worship them, even. But their formulation is simple: the price of women’s protection is their subjugation. Many women come to believe this, too.

https://timeline.com/handmaids-tale-dystopian-relevant-6ffbb4c839be#.dzldhs4vg

Finally, here is the annual not-particularly-feminist thing in fem Friday; my review of the books I have read last year. I hope you enjoy it! There are some graphs that I really enjoyed making in there:

https://medium.com/@Vincennes/vincennes-review-of-books-2016-c0b6afe93df5#.sr76ckr1l

Happy new year!

Alex.