Notes
Finished reading: A Proposal They Can’t Refuse by Natalie Caña 📚
Super sweet and a little steamy romance.
I was in Baltimore for just over 24 hours for a conference but I did find time for just a bit of goth literary tourism.
Sorry to have missed the Micro.blog analog meetup! My sense of timing is a bit discombobulated due to conference travel and changes to it. See y’all next month!
Want to read: Grove Hollow Metamorphosis: A 1980s Gothic Paranormal Romance Novel by Shelby Nicole McFadden 📚
Probably going to buy this one but I’ve told myself I have to finish one of the books I own before I may.
Finished reading: In the Case of Heartbreak by Courtney Kae 📚
Highest of recommendations here. This book is a cute romance but it’s also healing to read.
📚🗨️
You are not a burden… You are a blessing.
Just Courtney Kae still wrecking me with In the Case of Heartbreak, that’s all.
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Your feelings are valid and important no matter how they make me feel… you aren’t responsible for my response.
Read this in Courtney Kae’s In the Case of Heartbreak last night and then wept uncontrollably for a while. Is this what a trauma response feels like?
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Get a group of people around you that you love, and that love you… Give them an idea that has enough empty space in it that they can make it their own. When you get it back, it’ll be better than you ever thought possible.
Jim Henson, quoted in this article about Miss Piggy’s creator’s home
Kinda sad today’s idea gardens post from Austin Kleon is one of the paid ones because I want everyone to be able to check it out. For similar vibes, try his blog’s gardening tag and Mo Willems’s idea gardens Instagram post.
Finished reading: Love Requires Chocolate by Ravynn K. Stringfield 📚
Full review coming later, but I loved this confection of a YA romance from Ravynn K. Stringfield, my creative nonfiction for academics teacher. A Francophile Black American girl falling in love with Paris and a cute Parisian. Highly recommend.
Finished reading: The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond 📚
I thought this was going to be a romance book with a heist, but I was mistaken. It’s a heist book with a romance! It’s beautifully done. Full review coming soon. The Frame-Up releases February 13. Pre-order it now!
Friends of the Internet, timelines move too fast for where my head is at right now. I’m not abandoning them but I hope you know that if something big comes up and I don’t weight in, it’s 99% likely it’s because I didn’t see it, not because I’m staying silent on purpose.
🍿 Watched Heartburn.
This one is written by Nora Ephron & directed by Mike Nichols, and it’s mostly very sad.
But the cries it made me cry were mostly happy cries because Meryl Streep’s character clearly loved her kids so much and I love my kid so much, too.
🍿 Watched The Intern.
Another Nancy Meyers film. I really liked this. It made me cry. I think it was a little tricky because it seemed both to critique and support Anne Hathaway’s character’s intensity as an overnight CEO, but I guess that’s a good approach, not moralistic.
🍿 Watched It’s Complicated. Happy to have watched. It seemed to me mostly to be about how a manbaby doesn’t want to contribute to his new family and tries to get his ex-wife to take care of him now that she’s an empty nester and won’t need his help. Spoiler: it doesn’t work.
If you like analog tools, you probably want to sign up for @cygnoir’s analog meetup.
🔖 I’m genuinely thrilled for the Gen Zers and others who have the energy for a weekly everything shower, but this chronically ill Xennial is pretty sure it would use up all of her spoons.
🎮 Finished The Legend of Zelda (NES).
A classic, of course. I’ve never been able to get very far before, but I played it with Nintendo Switch Online and made liberal use of suspend points (aka save states) and walkthroughs. I had fun and finished both quests.
Finished reading: Never Been Kissed by Timothy Janovsky 📚
Another delightful romance given to us by Timothy Janovsky, whose little details feel so calculated to please me. This time: The Great Movie Ride (RIP) figures in a key scene.
🔖📺 Watched Pokemon Concierge and read Pokémon Concierge’s Psyduck Is for the Millennial Pokémon Fans.
I’m a Xennial: Pokemon was more for the kids I babysat than for me, though I did get into the card game my freshman year of college.
Psyduck has long been my Pokemon soul mate, with her constant headaches and love of water. And this article articulates why Psyduck appeals to me even more in Pokemon Concierge.
I like @ayjay’s idea of reflecting on what you’ve read weekly or monthly.
🔖 Read The Web Renaissance Takes Off by Anil Dash.
Sign me up.
(I’m trying to make a web-related pun here about Lucrezia Borgia, but it’s just not happening.)
Finished reading: Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert 📚
I’m late to this party but happy to finally be here. As sweet and hot as the romance here is, it’s the portrayal of fibromyalgia that makes my heart sing.
