May 16, 2025

Finished reading: Kiss the Girl by Zoraida CΓ³rdova πŸ“š

This is such a perfect move of Disney’s The Little Mermaid to contemporary romance. There is so much perfection to be had here, such magic work taking movie moments and making them part of our world. If you’re an Ariel person, you should read it.

May 15, 2025

πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “Romantic heroes are the greatest cryptids of all.” Zoraida CΓ³rdova, Kiss the Girl πŸ§œβ€β™€οΈ

May 14, 2025

North Carolinians, use this tool from EveryLibrary to contact your state senator about H636, a bill that “threatens student rights, undermines local control of school libraries, and risks costly censorship battles across the state.” I’ll try to do a detailed breakdown of the bill soon. πŸ“š

May 13, 2025

πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “Ghosts, you could say, flock to women left alone.” Colin Dickey, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places πŸ‘»

“If Emerson could find God in a forest, why couldn’t a medium find departed loved ones in a darkened room?” Colin Dickey, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places πŸ‘»

πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “The contemporary attitude toward Spiritualism as a particularly ridiculous belief stems in no small part from the misogyny with which it was attacked in the second half of the nineteenth century.” Colin Dickey, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places πŸ‘»

Finished reading: By the Book by Jasmine Guillory πŸ“š

A sweet Beauty and the Beast retelling.

May 12, 2025

πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “The past we’re most afraid to speak aloud of in the bright light of day is the same past that tends to linger in the ghost stories we whisper in the dark.” Colin Dickey, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places πŸ‘»

πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “A haunted house is a memory palace made real: a physical space that retains memories that might otherwise be forgotten or that might remain only in fragments.” Colin Dickey, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places πŸ‘»

πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “Those aspects of a life that are discontinuous, fragmented, or unexpected, are made whole through the ghost story.” Colin Dickey, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places πŸ‘»

πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “Uncomfortable truths, buried secrets, disputed accounts: ghost stories side out of the shadowlands, a response to the ambiguous and poorly understood.” Colin Dickey, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places πŸ‘»

πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “Live in a house for any length of time, and you make it your own memory palace.” Colin Dickey, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places πŸ‘»

πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “Even though the soles of her feet felt like she was walking on broken glass, she glided across the greenroom and stood face-to-face with her father.” Zoraida CΓ³rdova bringing a little Hans Christian Andersen to her Disney-inspired Little Mermaid romance retelling, Kiss the Girl πŸ§œβ€β™€οΈ

May 9, 2025

Finished reading: If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy πŸ“š

Super cute modern Cinderella retelling.

May 6, 2025

πŸ”– Read Should You Ditch Fixing Your Weaknesses And Lean Into Your Strengths? by Nicole Aherling (The Good Trade).

My top 3 strengths are either Input, Learner, Communication or Love, Curiosity, Creativity. Either way, I’ve built a life where these strengths lead the way. πŸ’—

πŸ’¬ “I feel like I’m spending half my work time managing my mental and emotional ability to navigate a situation where I can’t confidently apply what I learn to what I’ll do next.” Kim Werker on Canada-to-US book tariffs feels applicable to a lot of us right now.

Finished reading: Deep Blue (Survival Instincts, #0.5) by Adriana Anders πŸ“š

May 5, 2025

Finished reading: Between the Devil and Desire by Lorraine Heath πŸ“š

Thank you @cygnoir@social.lol for pointing the way to this beautiful thread about the power of connections we make online. πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “She strode the earth clad in the invisible armor of their virtual companionship.” ― Lev Grossman, The Magician King

May 4, 2025

Much like I sometimes try to find Paramount+ on my phone by looking for the Star Trek app, just now I tried to find the Poirot app (which is, in fact, Britbox).

May 3, 2025

Please enjoy this extremely Kimberly blackout poem by Austin Kleon.

May 2, 2025

Am I Nostalgic for the 90s Because They Were Legitimately Great or Only Because I’m Middle-Aged?: The Kimberly Hirsh Story

Finished reading: In Bed With the Devil by Lorraine Heath πŸ“š

Lorraine Heath is great at her job.

Me: Masquerade NYC posted a time, an intersection, and a passcode! But we can’t participate because we don’t live in New York. Spouse: I’m sorry. Me: It’s okay. I’m not gonna move to New York just to play in a Phantom of the Opera Alternate Reality Game. *heroically doesn’t search for an AirBnB*

April 30, 2025

Finished reading: Born In Ice by Nora Roberts πŸ“š

This one made me a little weepy.