Links
π Read The open social web is the future of the internet. Here’s why I’m excited. by Ben Werdmuller.
This is a great articulation of what’s good.
π Read 10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won.
This is helpful.
π Read Please publish more (on your website) by Colin Devroe.
Micro.blog is the best way I’ve found to do this. (Full disclosure: I contract for M.b sometimes.)
π Read Spinning your wheels by Annie Mueller.
This is a great read. Sometimes the only way out is through, and the only way through is patience, and that can feel really hard.
π Read
Motherhood Is Antarctica: On the Underexplored Landscape of Postpartum Loneliness lithub.com
π Read The IndieWeb is for developers.
This is a great set of points.
π Read Chaos Layouts and Other Tales from Electric Worlds by Melon.
I love this so much. I want to be on Melon’s web. I think to make myself a space there but also keep using Micro.blog for my home will require me to enhance my technical chops.
π Read The Comfort of Drawing Batman by Austin Kleon.
Austin Kleon’s newsletter is the one that I let come to my inbox even after I’ve switched all the rest to RSS. You should read the preview of this and if you like it, do the 7-day trial so you can read the whole thing.
πππ₯€ Read The Enduring Mystery of Cook Out.
A Cook Out Junior Tray with a cheeseburger (mayo only), double fries, and Coke was the first meal I had after giving birth, and it was the best meal I’ve ever eaten. (I can’t remember if I also got a shake.)
ππ Read Sherlock Holmes self-insert fanfic written by a 7th grader in 1903.
I love this so much.
π Read Frida Kahloβs life of chronic pain by Carol A. Courtney (OUPblog).
Looking for examples of chronically ill and disabled creatives to be models for myself. Frida Kahlo is such a great one.
π Read Welcome to Your Cronehood by Catherine Newman (Cup of Jo).
I am not psyched about menopause. I’ve already lived a lot of my life for me rather than other people, so I feel ahead of the curve there.
ππΊοΈ Read How Paris Hopes the Summer Olympics Will Transform the Cityβfor Good by Lindsey Tramuta (CondΓ© Nast Traveler).
This is a fascinating article. Paris’s commitment to hosting the most sustainable Olympics ever and transforming an underresourced area for the long-term is inspiring.
ππ 100 of the Greatest Posters of Celebrities Urging You to Read by James Folta (Lit Hub)
This is the kind of content carefully calibrated to please me, specifically.
ππ Read Notes on Romance Novels as “Camp”.
Andrea, author of the Shelf Love newsletter, does an amazing job of arguing for romance novels as Camp.
ππ Read The Literary Power of Hobbits: How JRR Tolkien Shaped Modern Fantasy by Verlyn Flieger (Literary Hub)
Dr. Flieger says:
- Tolkien created modern fantasy via fae-ery, the creations of secondary worlds.
- The inclusion of hobbits in Middle Earth grounds Tolkien ’s fantasy.
π Read Ten Years Out of Academia by Anne Helen Petersen.
I’m 3 years out from my doctoral defense and 6 months out from holding an academic job. I told an internet friend:
Right now it feels like librarian is the identity that was always really mine and academic was borrowed.
ππΊ Read The Donald Trump I Saw on The Apprentice.
For 20 years, I couldnβt say what I watched the former president do on the set of the show that changed everything. Now I can.
Woof. I don’t think stories like this will move the needle for Trump supporters, because I don’t really think anything will move the needle for Trump supporters.
But I kind of hope they turn some non-voters into voters.
Today:
- woke up way too early
- read about Romance Writers of America filing for bankruptcy and the absurd way they’re trying to blame it on Courtney Milan ππ
- had my first mammogram (later than I ought) (they used cute stickers to mark my sebaceous cysts)
- caught up on Season 3 of Bridgerton πΊ
ππ Read Jamaica Kincaid and Kara Walker Made an Irreverent, Charming Kidsβ Book by Stephen Bell (Harper’s Bazaar).
I’m super curious to see the book. The article only contains one sample page. It’s gorgeous and I look forward to seeing more.
ππ Here is the actual study with the evidence of the correlation between fiction reading and cognition.
ππ Read If You Read a Lot of Fiction, Scientists Have Very Good News About Your Brain.
It’s always good to look at the actual studies behind news articles like this, but the evidence that reading fiction is associated with improved cognition suggests the importance of libraries, I think.
π Read a pair of pieces about art and mothering:
The βImpossible Lifeβ of Equal Devotion to Art and Mothering by Jessica Grose (NYT Gift Link)
“Is This The Best Use of My Time?" Sara Fredman in conversation with Catherine Ricketts, author of The Mother Artist.
ππ Read How Pregnancy Forever Transforms the Body and the Mind by Lucy Jones (Literary Hub).
ππ Read What Eve L. Ewingβs Career Trajectory Tells Us About Black Womenβs Place in Mainstream Superhero Comics by Ravynn K. Stringfield.
Dr. Stringfield does an awesome job illuminating how Eve L. Ewing’s comics career highlights structural inequality in the comics industry