Notes
Finished reading: Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome 📚
Finished reading: Thank You, Omu! (Caldecott Honor Book) by Oge Mora 📚
A lovely picture book about generosity with super cool cut paper mixed media illustrations!
Finished reading: Shadow’s Heart by Kresley Cole 📚
In How to Tell When We Will Die, Johanna Hedva writes about how they are going to be in pain no matter what, so they choose to go out and have experiences that might cause them more, because they can’t avoid pain. I thought I wasn’t like that, but lying here in pain after spending the day at the zoo with my kid, I realize that’s where I make this choice. I do stuff with my kid even if it will cause me pain, because pain will come anyway. It’s just a matter of degree.
Finished reading: What I Did For a Duke by Julie Anne Long 📚
Oh wow. I love both main characters in this one. The heroine is so tired of being seen as a reliable dog geyser person. The hero is deliberately prickly and mysterious. I love them.
Finished reading: The Secret Garden by Mariah Marsden and Hanna Luechtefeld 📚
The Secret Garden is one of my favorite books from childhood and this is an excellent graphic novel adaptation that captures its magic beautifully.
🔖🍿 Read Why Minecraft Movie Fans Are Getting Rowdy and Going Viral by Lynn Zubernis Ph.D. (Psychology Today)
Found this via Austin Kleon’s newsletter. I love this explanation of how rowdy theater behavior is developmentally appropriate.
And there’s a whole Science of Fandom Column? I am excite.
💬📚 “Rather than seeing ChatGPT as a threat that will destroy things of value, we should be viewing it as an opportunity to reconsider exactly what we value and why we value those things.” John Warner, More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI
💬📺 “The thing, Hastings? Do you think Poirot concerns himself with mere thingness?” Season 1, Episode 2, “Murder in the Mews,” Agatha Christie’s Poirot
Finished reading: I Kissed an Earl by Julie Anne Long 📚
A headstrong lady! Shipboard romance! As always, Julie Anne Long does the job.
💬📚 “Do you want to look back on a life of items crossed off lists drawn up in response to the demands of others? Or do you want to hang on to, and repeat, and remember, the thrill of discovering things on your own?” Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing
📺 Watched The Residence.
So great! A country house mystery where the country house is the White House. Uzo Aduba is wonderful, as always. Full of fun actors in smaller roles.
🍿Watched A Minecraft Movie.
Super fun if you’re familiar with Minecraft. I loved seeing it in the theater with a bunch of folks who clearly love Minecraft and applauded as each key bit of Minecraft lore was revealed.
Finished reading: How to Tell When We Will Die by Johanna Hedva 📚
This book challenged me. I don’t know the last time I had to look up several new-to-me words in a book, but we’re talking decades. This book was full of essays that resonated deeply with my own experiences and others that were like a window into a completely different world. I’m so glad I read it.
📚💬 “I want a life capacious enough to contain what I choose to be true about myself and that which I did not but have nevertheless learned to work with, to use, to wield.” Johanna Hedva, How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom
📚💬 “…kindness is a form of magic we can choose to know how to do. What matters is attending to suffering, no matter why it’s there.” Johanna Hedva, How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom
Finished reading: Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson 📚
A great picture book about the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham in 1963, perfect model of how kids can make a difference.
Finished reading: The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander 📚
A gorgeous picture book poem.
Finished reading: Since the Surrender by Julie Anne Long 📚
Julie Anne Long is really good at the job. Lots of yearning in this one, in the best way.
Thank you @cygnoir@social.lol for sharing this link of how you can be an ally on Transgender Day of Visibility and every day! 🏳️⚧️
Looking at my online presence you might believe all I do is read books, but I also play Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters.
Bio update! My bio everywhere now reads:
Three books in a trench coat. Escribitionist. Mom. School librarian. Citizen of Romancelandia. I manage multiple chronic illnesses. I love books and games. 🌈♿
📚💬 “In illness, the now feels like punishment.” Johanna Hedva, How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom
📚💬 “Maybe the blast radius of disability destroys everything and also makes new worlds. Maybe these are worlds of paradox: both the radical limitation of what you used to be able to do and an explosion of the horizon around what you thought would ever be possible.” Johanna Hedva, How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom