Notes
Finished reading: Nimona by ND Stevenson 📚
Weird I waited so long to read it. A lot going on here and I’m always delighted by the way ND Stevenson’s art reminds me of Quentin Blake’s.
Finished reading: Ana María and The Fox by Liana De la Rosa 📚
🔖📚 Read Let the Kids Get Weird: The Adult Problem With Children’s Books by Janet Manley (Literary Hub).
🔖📓 Read Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time by Ellen Samuels (Disability Studied Quarterly).
Photo of my lovely husband W & myself in front of Ferris Bueller singing in the parade! Thanks to Retro Film Series!
I have a (relatively subdued thanks to new meds) migraine (3 hormone shifts a month cause these for me whee!). I also went and had 3 fillings all on the left side of my mouth. So my brain is not in its finest shape right now, which is why I sent 3 emails with factual errors.
Finished reading: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna 📚
What a sweet, cozy cup of tea of a book. This one made me so happy. And for the first time in a while, I feel like writing a full review. Stay tuned.
💬📚 “It was always irksome when an idea went nowhere, but Mika knew by now that there would always be new ideas.” Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Okay it’s not noon and my library’s collective daily borrow limit for Hoopla has been reached which… I feel like we must have a really low collective daily borrow limit.
It’s my birthday Friday! I’m keeping Kimbertide low key this year. If you want to play along, watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or The Muppet Movie, play an arcade game, or eat some pizza.
Finished reading: Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin 📚
Another sweet romance set in the Toronto Muslim community from Uzma Jalaluddin. This one has Shop Around the Corner/She Loves Me/You’ve Got Mail vibes. It includes a community dealing with racial hatred and coming through in a joyous way. Highly recommend.
🔖🎭📚 Read It’s Getting Hard to Stage a School Play Without Political Drama by Michael Paulson (NYT, gift link) via Book Riot’s Literary Activism newsletter.
When I was in Europe reading censorship news from the US, I kept thinking, “I just want to fight censorship and make theatre.” Turns out these two things are related.
I’m signed up for Threads. I’ll actually use it when it implements ActivityPub and/or is available in-browser.
Finished reading: You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi 📚
I read this start-to-finish in about 8 hours. It’s a romance that illuminates grief and what can come after. It made me cry. It made me hungry. Highly recommend.
My On This Day page surfaced this blog post today:
Constructing websites as constructing ourselves: Thinking out loud
I still think about this all the time. I still feel that as I build my site, I’m building myself.
Apparently my idea for what counts as the prettiest hair is bound to the year 1993. This soft hair on Deanna Troi, with thin bangs, the front pulled up, tendrils in drint of the ears, and big loose curls in the back resonates for me as true beauty. (ST:TNG 7x11 Parallels, airdate 11/29/93) 🖖🏻
Finished reading: Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin 📚
This is a beautiful homage to Pride & Prejudice, as well as to the Toronto Muslim community. A sweet love story with beautiful language. And so much tasty-sounding food and drink! Highly recommend.
📝 Brilliant gem from Jaya Saxena in today’s #1000WordsOfSummer letter:
my writing got better the moment I allowed myself to be the kind of writer I am, even if I don’t work the same way as the writers I want to be.
📚 Me, reading Ayesha At Last: This is a Pride & Prejudice retelling, I know this, so when is Khalid going to go all Mr. Darcy?
Author Uzma Jalaluddin, on page 40: Here you go.
I am on Day 4 of a migraine. I’m about to try a new medication for it. Here’s hoping it makes a difference.
Picard: I feel as if I’m in the Scottish Highlands.
Colonist: The cornerstone of every building was taken from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen…
Me, A Jerk: Those aren’t in the highlands.
🖖🏻
Hey friends, what are some good values statements from organizations? (I’m deliberately not defining criteria for good, but please feel free to explain why you think the ones you mention are good.)
🔖 Read What Is A Third Place? (And Here’s Why You Should Have One) by Emily Torres (The Good Trade).
I’ve been thinking about third places, their role in fiction, what they look like online, & how they overlap with affinity spaces for a few days so it felt like serendipity when this hit my inbox.