πŸ’¬πŸ“š “Don’t be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


πŸ’¬πŸ“š “You wouldn’t be a writer if reading hadn’t enriched your soul more than other pursuits.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


πŸ’¬πŸ“š “… everything we need in order to tell our stories in a reasonable and exciting way already exists in each of us.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


πŸ’¬πŸ“š “I don’t think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won’t be good enough at it, and I don’t think you have time to waste on someone who does not respond to you with kindness and respect.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


πŸ’¬πŸ“š “Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


πŸ’¬πŸ“š “Take the attitude that what you are thinking and feeling is valuable stuff, and then be naive enough to get it all down on paper.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


Finished reading: Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins πŸ“š

I loved the heroine in this one. Spring is a tough rancher who has been cut off from her feelings for years, except for the feelings she has for horses.


Finished reading: Rebel by Beverly Jenkins πŸ“š

Ms. Bev knows her business and does it well.


πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “We can’t hide in romance. We have to find strength in it.” Adriana Herrera in today’s episode of Fated Mates


Finished reading: After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez πŸ“š

So great. It made me cry. Jeremiah, the hero book, is a phenomenal example of an engaged scholar.


πŸ“š Happy book birthday to Adriana Herrera and A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke!


Finished reading: Rule of the Aurora King by Nisha J. Tuli πŸ“š


Finished reading: A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles πŸ“š

A Tory pursuing seditionists for the Home Office and a radical pamphleteer fall in love in Regency England and it’s just as perfect as you’d expect. πŸ”₯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯


Finished reading: A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles πŸ“š

Just excellent.


πŸ“šπŸ’¬ “Kill the protestors, arrest the leaders, gaol the journalists. It’s what they do. It’s what tyrants do.” K. J. Charles, A Fashionable Indulgence

Just… In case you were wondering whether romance tackles serious issues.


πŸ“š Reading notes on ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Timothy Snyder

  1. Do not obey in advance.

  2. Defend institutions.

choose an institution you care about and take its side.

Mine is libraries. I’ll be posting resources on defending libraries soon.

  1. Beware the one party state.

Any future elections will be a test of American traditions.

I fear we’ve lost this already. What can we do? In the face of the challenge to the NC State Supreme Court election especially?

  1. Take responsibility for the face of the world.

  2. Remember professional ethics.

For me, this is about protecting library patrons’ privacy.

  1. Be wary of paramilitaries.

  2. Be reflective if you must be armed.

  3. Stand out.

  4. Be kind to our language.

Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.

The effort to define the shape and significance of events requires words and concepts that elude us when we are entranced by visual stimuli.

  1. Believe in truth.

Post-truth is pre-fascism.

  1. Investigate.

The individual who investigates is also the citizen who builds.

Once we subliminally accept that we are watching a reality show rather than thinking about real life, no image can actually hurt the president politically.

  1. Make eye contact and small talk.

You might not be sure today or tomorrow, who feels threatened in the United States. But if you affirm everyone, you can be sure that certain people will feel better.

Having old friends is the politics of last resort. And making new ones is the first step toward change.

  1. Practice corporeal politics.

  2. Establish a private life.

  3. Contribute to good causes.

…one element of freedom is the choice of associates, and one defense of freedom is the activity of groups to sustain their members.

  1. Learn from peers in other countries.

  2. Listen for dangerous words.

People who assure you that you can only gain security at the price of liberty usually want to deny you both.

The feeling of submission to authority might be comforting, but it is not the same thing as actual safety.

It is the government’s job to increase both freedom and security.

  1. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives.

For tyrants, the lesson of the Reichstag fire is that one moment of shock enables an eternity of submission.

  1. Be a patriot.

The point is not that Russia and America must be enemies. The point is that patriotism involves serving your own country.

nationalist β‰  patriot

A patriot… wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves.

A patriot says that it could happen here, but that we will stop it.

  1. Be as courageous as you can.

EPILOGUE

We will have to repair our own sense of time if we wish to renew our commitment to liberty.

The whole notion of disruption is adolescent: it assumes that after the teenagers make a mess, the adults will come and clean it up. But there are no adults. We own this mess.

In the politics of eternity, the seduction by a mythological past prevents us from thinking about possible futures. The habit of dwelling on victimhood dulls the impulse of self-correction.

The danger we now face is of a passage from the politics of inevitability to the politics of eternity, from a naive and flawed sort of democratic republic to a confused and cynical sort of fascist oligarchy.

To understand one moment is to see the possibility of being the cocreator of another. History permits us to be responsible: not for everything, but for something.

History gives us the company of those who have done and suffered more than we have.

I’ll say that those of us who are neurodivergent and disabled may need to modify #s 12 and 13. But the sense of them is to interact in meat-space with other people. Get to know your community. Show up in more ways than posting online. And even if we struggle to make eye contact or can’t move our bodies in ways that facilitate protest, we can find ways to meet people and show up for them.


Finished reading: On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder πŸ“š

This was a good book to read today, full of helpful ideas. Reading notes coming soon. Highly recommend.


Finished reading: The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh by KJ Charles πŸ“š

A fun short story. A hot πŸ”₯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯.


Finished reading: Priest by Sierra Simone πŸ“š

Y’all, this is both explicit and taboo. Content warning for suicide (one of the MC’s siblings, before the book takes place but the MC finding her is mentioned). A VERY hot πŸ”₯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯.


πŸ’¬πŸ“šπŸ“ “For some of us, good books and beautiful writing are the ultimate solace, even more comforting than exquisite food.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


πŸ’¬πŸ“šπŸ“ “…we no longer need Chicken Little to tell us the sky is falling, because it already has. The issue now is how to take care of one another.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


πŸ’¬πŸ“šπŸ“ “…a moral position is not a message. A moral position is a passionate caring inside you.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


πŸ’¬πŸ“šπŸ“ “The core, ethical concepts in which you most passionately believe are the language in which you are writing.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


Finished reading: Dark Lover by J.R. Ward πŸ“š

Listened to the audiobook. This one is very much of its time (2005).


Finished reading: How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days by Kerrelyn Sparks πŸ“š

The pacing in this is wild, and by wild I mean slow. But it was interesting enough to keep me reading.