{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Kimberly Hirsh", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2022/8984.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/", "feed_url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/03/04/finished-reading-wuthering-heights-by.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë 📚

\n

Well. This was not what I expected. Heathcliff isn’t the ghost, the ghost is barely on page, and Heathcliff and Catherine have minimal time on-page together. Still a compelling read if, like me, you’re comfortable with the 19th century language and writing style.

\n", "date_published": "2026-03-04T10:49:42-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/03/04/finished-reading-wuthering-heights-by.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/03/02/im-reading-wuthering-heights-in.html", "content_html": "

I’m reading Wuthering Heights in hopes the Secret Goth Cabal will let me keep my Goth Card and I have to say, this book would make a lot more sense if people didn’t all have the same or similar names.

\n", "date_published": "2026-03-02T15:56:39-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/03/02/im-reading-wuthering-heights-in.html", "tags": ["Notes"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/03/01/finished-reading-viscount-vagabond-by.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Viscount Vagabond by Loretta Chase 📚

\n", "date_published": "2026-03-01T00:11:13-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/03/01/finished-reading-viscount-vagabond-by.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/27/finished-reading-the-lightning-thief.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 📚

\n

Read it aloud to my kid. I read it once about 15 years ago. Super fun.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-27T22:56:22-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/27/finished-reading-the-lightning-thief.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/27/finished-reading-a-kingdom-of.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught 📚

\n

Brilliant and old school.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-27T22:54:19-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/27/finished-reading-a-kingdom-of.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/27/ive-learned-that-i-am.html", "content_html": "

💬📺🖖🏻 “I’ve learned that I am a lot.” S.A.M., Starfleet Academy 1x08, “The Life of the Stars”

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-27T06:41:30-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/27/ive-learned-that-i-am.html", "tags": ["TV","Notes","Quotes","Star Trek"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/21/read-attempting-to-garden-my.html", "content_html": "

🔖 Read Attempting to Garden My Way Out of Sadness by Geetha Iyer (Electric Literature).

\n

This is a gorgeous essay.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-21T10:14:16-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/21/read-attempting-to-garden-my.html", "tags": ["Links","Notes"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/21/sometimes-im-trying-to-read.html", "content_html": "

Sometimes I’m trying to read and words won’t go into my head, and it makes me feel like not-myself. 📚

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-21T09:54:34-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/21/sometimes-im-trying-to-read.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/21/finished-reading-bet-me-by.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Bet me by Jennifer Crusie 📚

\n

Brilliant. Perfect banter, achingly romantic. I miss the way we talked in 2004.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-21T02:47:53-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/21/finished-reading-bet-me-by.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/19/read-how-crocheting-is-bringing.html", "content_html": "

🔖🧶Read How Crocheting Is Bringing Me Back To Myself by Emily McGowan (The Good Trade).

\n

This is a beautiful article about crafting not just beloved items, but our very lives.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-19T07:29:21-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/19/read-how-crocheting-is-bringing.html", "tags": ["Links","Notes"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/18/finished-reading-soulless-by-gail.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Soulless by Gail Carriger 📚🎧

\n

Been listening to this audiobook for literal years. It wasn’t as steampunk as I thought it would be. I was pleasantly surprised by how much romance it incorporated.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-18T22:02:45-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/18/finished-reading-soulless-by-gail.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/18/the-things-i-was-going.html", "title": "The things I was going to do in 2026 and haven't done yet", "content_html": "

In late November and early December last year, I started thinking about the things I would do in the new year.

\n

I was going to journal, using The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad as a guide. I was going to prep more of my own and my child’s food. He and I were going to be less sedentary. I was going to use the craniosacral therapy tool I bought years ago. I was going to hand-code a new version of my website. I was going to blog more. I was going to make something most days. I was going to actually do all the online courses and seminars I have access to.

\n

These weren’t resolutions, I told myself. They were just things I was going to do.

\n

Then, on December 19, I had a cough. The cough turned into a respiratory illness that required me to sleep most of the day. I was better enough to see family on Christmas, but that was a long day and I overdid it. I relapsed. I was well enough by New Year’s Eve to take my kid and his friend to our local museum. I overdid it. I relapsed again. Four and five weeks after this illness started, I was still wiped out even more than usual. I still had a productive cough.

\n

In the next week or two, I got better.

\n

Then we had an ice storm. My kid was out of school for 3 days.

\n

My mom had some medical stuff that seemed resolved.

\n

The pipe in the library burst. (It was the ice storm in the library with the pipe.)

\n

We had a snowstorm. My kid was out of school for 2 days.

\n

My mom’s medical situation got worse again.

\n

I was running myself ragged being an eldest daughter, trying to figure out the library situation, and trying to engage my kid anytime there wasn’t a friend around so he didn’t turn into a screen zombie.

\n

I have not done the things. I’ve done a little of some of the things, but they’ve all fallen off.

\n

I like to let myself celebrate New Year’s multiple times: on January 1. On the spring equinox. On my birthday, in July. At the start of the new school year. At Rosh Hashanah.

\n

And between those, I like to think about the next one coming up, to reflect on what I want to do differently.

\n

Right now, ahead of the spring equinox, still in the middle of the library restoration process, living with chronic illness, I’m thinking I want to learn to be flexible. To hold intentions but be ready to adjust when unexpected things happen.

\n

To learn to cope.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-18T14:09:42-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/18/the-things-i-was-going.html", "tags": ["Long Posts"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/18/finished-reading-texas-chase-by.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Texas! Chase by Sandra Brown 📚

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-18T09:48:03-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/18/finished-reading-texas-chase-by.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/16/kelly-jensen-continues-to-be.html", "content_html": "

📚 Kelly Jensen continues to be a key voice informing readers about censorship in libraries and schools both at Book Riot and in her personal newsletter.

\n
\n

“Government officials now ultimately determine what is on the shelves of public libraries, and therefore our books are on the ballot every time we go vote.” Leila Green Little, plaintiff in Little v. Llano County

\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-02-16T07:36:26-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/16/kelly-jensen-continues-to-be.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/16/read-the-trump-administration-is.html", "content_html": "

🔖 Read The Trump administration is illegally gutting NASA’s largest research library. by Brittany Allen (Literary Hub).

\n

Read the article. Stand up for science every day, but especially March 7.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-16T04:09:41-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/16/read-the-trump-administration-is.html", "tags": ["Links","Notes"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/15/finished-reading-texas-lucky-by.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Texas! Lucky by Sandra Brown 📚

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-15T12:19:14-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/15/finished-reading-texas-lucky-by.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/13/finished-reading-close-enough-to.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Close Enough to Touch by Victoria Dahl 📚

\n

Excellent contemporary cowboy romance.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-13T04:34:23-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/13/finished-reading-close-enough-to.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/11/she-was-as-uncomfortable-with.html", "content_html": "

📚💬 “She was as uncomfortable with her body as she was serene about her mind.” David Rieff of his mother, Susan Sontag, in the preface of Reborn: Journals & Notebooks 1947—1963

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-11T21:02:47-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/11/she-was-as-uncomfortable-with.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Quotes"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/08/finished-reading-devils-bride-by.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens 📚

\n

A classic historical romance. I liked the way this one tests the couple by having them get frustrated because they’re each scared the other will get physically hurt and neither is willing to stop putting themselves at risk to protect the other.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-08T16:43:16-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/08/finished-reading-devils-bride-by.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/06/it-takes-me-about-two.html", "content_html": "

It takes me about two hours after waking up to reach full brain power.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-06T10:28:50-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/06/it-takes-me-about-two.html", "tags": ["Notes"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/05/it-could-be-worse-there.html", "content_html": "

It could be worse. There could be a Hellmouth in the school library. 👱🏻‍♀️

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-05T13:48:41-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/05/it-could-be-worse-there.html", "tags": ["Notes"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/05/the-library-where-i-work.html", "title": "The library where I work had a pipe burst in the ceiling. 📚", "content_html": "

A little over a week ago, as I was getting into the car with my kid to drive to his school, where I work as the Lower School librarian (serving grades 1-4), I got a text from the head teacher. (Sort of like a principal.)

\n
\n

Good morning, I’m sorry to be reaching out with bad news, but I’ve just learned that a pipe burst in the lower school library. I’m on my way to school and will assess myself and text you back with updates. I just wanted you to have a heads up so you weren’t surprised when you got to school.

\n
\n

I thought, “Well that won’t be good but I don’t have many materials stored near where most pipes are.”

\n

We arrived at school. I got M settled in his classroom and then the head teacher showed me the library.

\n

The burst pipe had been in the ceiling in the center of the space. The water from it had destroyed the roof in the center of the library and the library bathroom. Couches had been directly under the collapsed ceiling. When I got there, there was an inch or two of water on the floor. The head of our facilities team said when he had arrived, it had been much more, a flood gushing out of the library door when he opened it.

\n

Well, I thought, at least it was in the part of the library with the fewest books.

\n

That was last Wednesday.

\n

We were out for weather on Thursday.

\n

On Friday, a day I don’t normally work, our administrative assistant called and asked if I could come in. The insurance adjuster was coming and the facilities head was asking if I would be available to assess the damage.

\n

I headed in. We met the insurance adjuster, who was just finishing up and told me they’d need an inventory of damaged materials and their cost. In this moment, I had no idea how much damage there had been, but I guessed not too much.

\n

The head teacher and I met with our head of finance and head of facilities. We talked about what documentation we needed, what the insurance process would look like, what kind of repairs the library would need, and now that a remediation team had come in, facilities head was able to tell us which parts of the library had a lot of water damage.

\n

Facilities head estimated we wouldn’t be back in before spring break, but we might be able to get the construction work done by then and be using the space again when we returned from spring break.

\n

Head teacher and I sat down with the information they gave us, spreadsheets from a collection audit and analysis I did using data from December 2024, and a list of purchases I’d made for the library since December 2024.

\n

Based on where the facilities head told us the most damage was, we determined that about half the collection would potentially need to be replaced.

\n

That’s about 3,000 books.

\n

Remediation/dehydration of the space is ongoing. I still need to assess furniture and classroom supply damage and make a plan for assessing damage to books. Once we know what needs to be replaced and have the money from insurance, I’ll need to order the replacements.

\n

Our book vendor does a lot of the processing including cataloging, putting barcodes on, and putting spine labels on. But on-site we do some other processing, like adding genre labels and stamping the book with the school’s name and address. So that will have to be done.

\n

We’ll need to order new furniture. Once the furniture is in place and the books have arrived, we’ll have to get everything up on the shelves.

\n

I won’t have to do all this alone, but it’s daunting. I’m overwhelmed and stressed out. I’m emotionally devastated and feel like between last week and the next couple weeks I will have spoken individually to each of 120+ children about how things are looking in there and what we know about the timeline for re-opening (not much).

\n

Overnight, my job responsibilities have changed. I thought I would be spending the next several months supporting instruction with materials and providing research instruction, helping kids figure out what to read next, and leading students through the process of voting in the North Carolina Children’s Book Awards.

\n

Instead, there’s a lot of recovery work to do.

\n

At the moment, I need to wait for the remediation and construction team to finish drying out the library, so I’m turning my attention to what library programming looks like when you don’t have access to the physical space or materials.

\n

This has all been a lot.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-05T13:37:53-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/05/the-library-where-i-work.html", "tags": ["Books","Long Posts"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/01/finished-reading-love-in-characters.html", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Love in 280 Characters or Less by Ravynn K. Stringfield 📚

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-01T11:23:10-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/01/finished-reading-love-in-characters.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Finished reading"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/01/book-review-love-in-characters.html", "title": "📚 Book Review: Love in 280 Characters or Less by Ravynn K. Stringfield", "content_html": "

Full Disclosure: I am online friends with the author of this book. We met when she taught a workshop I took on creative nonfiction writing for academics.

\n

Here’s the publisher’s description:

\n

Sydney Ciara Warren is excited as she starts her first year of college, but also nervous. Despite her interests in writing and fashion, she has no idea what path will ultimately be right for her. As she tries to figure out her place on campus and in the world, she finds solace in blogging about her life, putting together outfits with meaning, *and spending time online.

\n

It’s within the digital space that she connects with someone who goes by YoungPrinceX. She may not know “X” in real life, but that doesn’t stop her from developing a crush on him. Except she’s also navigating her first romantic relationship, with a sweet boy on campus named Xavier (who maybe could be X???).

\n

Can Sydney Ciara not only make it through her first semester, but thrive in real life, as much as she seems to be thriving online?*

\n

It’s an oft-repeated piece of writing advice that you should write the book that only you can write, and with Love in 280 Characters or Less, Dr. Ravynn K. Stringfield has done exactly that. This is an epistolary novel for the digital age, made up of blog posts, tweets, text exchanges, and emails. Our main character, Sydney Ciara Warren, is a freshman at Coastal Virginia University, a fictionalized public university near Virginia Beach. Syd has been writing online for an age and is keenly aware of how digitally mediated her experiences and relationships are.

\n

Dr. Stringfield herself blogged her way through grad school and lived for years on Twitter (that’s where most of our getting to know each other happened). Her scholarship is deeply entwined with Black girlhood, girl culture in media, fantasy, and comics. All of that comes through in Sydney Ciara’s experiences in a way that makes Syd’s understanding of her writing, both public and private, and her navigation of relationships richly textured. There are authors who would write something like this and it would feel hollow, like a person who never wrote a blog post or tweet trying to do what they think would appeal to readers who had a digital adolescence. Dr. Stringfield instead has given us an incredibly rich portrait of a young woman navigating life and love in the digital age. While the specifics of the technology Syd uses are linked to a particular moment in time, this tightrope walk of IRL-or-not is something all of us, but especially people coming of age, will be living for the foreseeable future.

\n

Like Dr. Stringfield’s debut, Love Requires Chocolate, this is marketed as a romance but is more about one young woman’s transition to adulthood than it is about one particular romantic relationship. Most of the book involves Syd connecting with people on campus including a girl with incredible style and perfect baby hairs, a boy with a killer smile and ambitions of being a diplomat, and a PhD candidate teaching assistant who acts as a mentor and supports Syd through some of her most difficult moments. Through all of this relationship-building, she writes about her life, texts her best friend who is at a college a three-hour drive away, and navigates her mom’s ambitions for her to be pre-law when she’s not sure that’s what she wants at all.

\n

Syd is thrust into the online spotlight when she writes about an incident where her best friend’s roommate is followed home from a party and arrested for breaking and entering when he accidentally uses the wrong card to try to swipe into the dorm. In sharing the information she heard from witnesses and the young man’s fellow students, she receives messages of gratitude and solidarity from other Black college students and messages of hate from people who refuse to believe that the young man could possibly be anything other than a criminal.

\n

Syd has to ask herself, is she an activist writer? Is it possible to divorce the political from her writing? In the face of the realities she and her fellow Black college students experience, can she write only about fashion without bringing politics into it? All of this figuring herself out is entangled with her relationships with her best friend Malcolm, her boyfriend Xavier, her sister Janaya, her friend Angie, and her mentor Zion.

\n

I love this book. I’d recommend it to anybody who enjoys coming-of-age stories and especially anybody who is interested in how our online and offline identities intersect. The publisher says it’s perfect for fans of The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest and I think that’s a good comp. I could see Sydney growing up into someone like Lily, the main character in that book, and they both tackle that online-IRL spectrum of experience.

\n

Book: Love in 280 Characters or Less
\nAuthor: Ravynn K. Stringfield
\nPublisher: Macmillan
\nPublication Date: April 15, 2025
\nPages: 320
\nAge Range: Young Adult
\nSource of Book: ARC via NetGalley, Public library

\n\n", "date_published": "2026-02-01T11:20:44-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/01/book-review-love-in-characters.html", "tags": ["Books","Long Posts","Book Reviews"] }, { "id": "http://kimberlyhirsh.micro.blog/2026/02/01/all-of-my-feelings-and.html", "content_html": "

📚💬 “All of my feelings and emotions spill out into what I wear and my life is deeply influenced by the people and things that I love, so my writing reflects all of that, in all of its complexity.” Ravynn K. Stringfield, Love in 280 Characters or Less

\n

This quote from Sydney Ciara, the main character in Love in 280, feels a little like a mission statement for Dr. Ravynn K. Stringfield’s career. Y’all, this book has so much to say about digital writing, love, relationships that weave together the physical and digital, and what it means to be a Black artist in a world where Black love and joy are under constant threat. It’s so great. Full review coming later.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-01T10:09:17-05:00", "url": "https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2026/02/01/all-of-my-feelings-and.html", "tags": ["Books","Notes","Quotes"] } ] }