Messiness

I know you can't see it, but this book is preeeetttttty.  Little white embossed birds all over the cover.  The inside pages have a bird on the edge that flies if you flip the pages really fast.  Just so pretty and well thought out.

Sadly, I didn't really like When Women Were Birds.  It had some wonderful passages.  The concept is hard to resist - the author's mother left her journals to Williams after she dies and upon opening, they were all blank.  Who can resist a starting point like that?  Unfortunately, it felt so scattered that I kept getting annoyed or frustrated.  That feels wrong because she's writing from a place or grief and exploration and that shit is messy.  I just wished for a little less messiness I guess.

Changed

A little bit hopeless

Halfway through the film Another Year, I was really tempted to turn it off.  There's so much loneliness in it, and that's not necessarily good watching for me at the moment. 

However, I couldn't stop watching because it was all so well done.  The actors and dialogue are so normal that it doesn't feel like much is being conveyed, but I think it really was.  The character of Mary was worth spending the time with all by herself and there were many others who were interesting to watch.

Sad and a bit hopeless, yes, but still a pretty wonderful film.

Intricate and impermanent

 

 

 

The murals of Suzan Drummen are astoundingly gorgeous.  Go look!

Livid

This article on civil forfeiture will make you wonder what sort of country we live in. And make you livid. One has to wonder how they thought incentivizing this sort of shit would end well.

In case you were curious

I have not made a real-real post in forever. Life is in the midst of some tremendous upheaval, but I am not abandoning ship - just hoping for some calm waters before I commence writing again. I do plan on working on a new 101 list because I am in need of some serious new stuff, adventures, and experiences in my future.

Unlocked

Like the night is young

Live through this

Graceful

Diving giraffes

A thousand times this

Why society still needs feminism.


I honestly cannot understand women who do not call themselves feminists.  Not a bitchy thing or a pity thing, just a complete non-compute in my mind.  

Not asking much of you

Only flying for a while

Don't need your last name

Hooked

I just started listening to a podcast called What Are You Reading in which the host asks the interviewee "What hooked you on reading?"  It made me think.

The first book that I remember being delighted by was The Search for Delicious.

And then at 12, I read Weetzie Bat which blew my little country girl brain.  I didn't know you were ALLOWED to do those things with language before then.  I still find myself using phrases learned from this book in my brain.

So tired

Hilarious advice on getting babies to sleep.

Crossed

 

 

Doctors' Diaries was a special on PBS that followed med school students and then revisited them later in their career.  It was really good.  The doctors had a variety of focuses and their ultimate directions was really surprising in some cases.  It felt like watching the real-life version of Scrubs (a show I absolutely adored) crossed with the 7 Up documentaries (which I also deeply into). 7/10.  

Normalish

Diving Belles is a short story collection that was right up my alley.  Each story had an element of the fantastic - mermaids, ghosts, people turning to stone, etc - but those elements were treated as entirely normal things that every day people deal with.  The story titled "Notes from the House Spirits" hit me in the perfect spot - perhaps it comes from living in an old house.  8/10.

Where are you going?

Losing

Every Day has a plot that I couldn't resist.  Each day, the protagonist  A wakes in a new body - a person with their own life.  It can be male or female and from any walk of life but always the same age as A, but A is never in the same person more than one day.  And then A falls in love.

Love love love the idea.  The novel not so much.  The author tries to cram in some Lessons.  And those lessons were a bit too ham fisted and obvious.  I wish he'd resisted the urge.

The concept though made me a bit panicky when I thought to much about it.  It reminded me of reading Still Alice, an absolutely amazing novel about a woman with Alzheimer's.  The idea of losing yourself like gives me chills.  This book was similar in that the protagonist has no one to tie themselves to or that would remember them once they'd gone. 

I just wish this book had done better by its idea.  4/10.