Hello, Friends. How are you? How was your week? Our kids have a two-week school vacation that starts this weekend. Last year for this school break, we drove to Switzerland to enjoy a few days in the snow. For this pandemic variation, we’ll focus on movie marathons, baking, and lots of reading time.
Speaking of reading, I’m happy to report I did some casual fiction reading and really enjoyed it! (I know I mentioned I haven’t been able to enjoy fiction lately.) We started listening to the audio version of book one of the Scythe series on our last drive to Paris, and I was into the story, so ended up getting the kindle versions and zipping through all three. It feels like it had been soooo long since I had gobbled up a story like that. Now I’m on the hunt for another good fiction read. Would definitely love to hear what you’ve enjoyed reading lately.
Ready to dive into links? Here are a few things I’ve been wanting to share with you.
-“Amid awful suffering, Texas Republicans decided to fight a culture war. In doing so, they are emblematic of the national party, which has abandoned even the pretense of governance in favor of the celebration of endless grievance.”
-Rush Limbaugh captivated dads like mine and created America’s modern fascist aesthetic.
-Really enjoyed this profile of Glennon Doyle.
-Stop worrying about inflation.
–Mammoth teeth were discovered that are 1.6 million years old. So cool.
–Eight former child slaves of the Ivory Coast are taking on western capitalists.
-Perseverance, NASA’s most sophisticated rover to date, landed on the surface of Mars. (!!!)
–In the Before Times, I had been busy. Profoundly busy.
–Have you checked out Clubhouse? (I haven’t.)
-When your kids sue you for giving birth to them.
-Getting lots of questions about the yellow sneakers I’ve been wearing in my Instagram stories.
Here are some tweets I saved for you:
-Even if his state wasn’t mid-catastrophe.
Everyone is so mad at Ted Cruz for going to Cancun during a state-wide weather emergency that we've completely forgotten to dunk on him for flying his whole family to Mexico during a global pandemic.
— Sophie Vershbow (@svershbow) February 18, 2021
-He came back, but still isn’t helping.
An astute observer notes that Cruz came back and…immediately set to work doing media.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) February 19, 2021
what Ted Cruz just did is what every wealthy person's response will be to climate catastrophe.
— eh (@BethLynch2020) February 18, 2021
-Gerrymandered and voter suppressed.
–Hahahaha.
babe what’s wrong? you’ve hardly embodied my idealized version of you today
— ely kreimendahl (@ElyKreimendahl) February 16, 2021
-I didn’t know there where photos taken on the surface of Venus!
-A thread I’m still considering.
I am going to say something very uncomfortable. Read before you react please.
— Jo Luehmann (@JoLuehmann) February 16, 2021
Purity culture encourages pedophilia, a thread:
–So gross.
let’s check in on how America/capitalism is handling the latest crisis pic.twitter.com/vZxOWESglK
— onagapnotsew (@westonpagano) February 17, 2021
-The data may not contain the answer.
This comment from Tukey (1986, https://t.co/El7wxTsemV) should be read out in the first 10 minutes of every statistics class, and at 20-minute intervals thereafter. pic.twitter.com/gfpUPBqV28
— Nïck Brown🌻 (@sTeamTraen) February 14, 2021
Still unclear how there’s a temperature at which people become worthy of shelter
— James Hamblin (@jameshamblin) February 18, 2021
friendly reminder that a label on your gender or sexuality is a tool that is supposed to serve you, not a test you have to pass, not a cudgel to bludgeon people, and not a box you get stuffed in that constricts your breathing or your movement or your imagination
— sensitive fruit 🍉 (@gonnabemessy) February 17, 2021
-I hadn’t read this before.
-A very sweet thread about preserves.
Incident in a NJ Supermarket
— Michael Perino (@ProfessorPerino) February 14, 2021
At the supermarket today, I found a small, elderly woman standing in front of a high shelf holding @BonneMamanUS preserves. She was having trouble finding the flavor she wanted because the jars were set back on the shelf.
–Hahaha.
Wasn’t planning on spending my hottest years living like the grandparents in Charlie and the Chcolate Factory but here we are
— Emma Ketchum (@emmaketchup7) February 17, 2021
I finished Naomi Novik’s ‘Uprooted’ and ‘Spinning Silver’s recently and loved them both so much!
“Wasn’t planning on spending my hottest years living like the grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but here we are” Ok, that’s funny…and I always thought that was weird as a kid. Hope you are well, Gabby! Love hopping over and doing a catch up with you! Doing an art residency in France this October, hoping to anyway!
Seconding these!! Both are really great. I recently read her book, ‘Deadly Education,’ and I did like it but loved these two more.
I loved Katherine Arden’s ‘The Bear and the Nightingale,’ and the rest of that trilogy. I also enjoyed Sara Porter’s ‘Vassa in the Night,’ which is based on the same Russian folklore but in a very different take.
I just finished Susanna Clarke’s, ‘Piranesi’ and loved it. I also really enjoyed her book, ‘Jonathan Norrell and Mr. Strange.’
I’ve always liked your “A Few Things” posts but this was my favorite! That collection of tweets!
Fiction: The Dutch House, Such a Fun Age
Non-Fiction: Hidden Valley Road
Have you read The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (just saw it was already recommended) or The Glass House by Mawer? In both books the house has such a presence in the story that it is almost as if it is a character of its own. Happy Reading!
Signed up for my first book club ever! Zoom, of course! Reading ‘The Island of Sea Women’ by Lisa See. Learning so much about the deep water female divers, the matrifocal haenyeo society in Korea, and Korean history of the last 80-90 years. Much to think about.
24 people died in Texas. Millions of people were without power and water for days in single digit temperatures. A friend of a friend’s 3 children and mother died. Hundreds of thousands of households had pipes burst and plumbers are backlogged for months.
I, miraculously, had power, and hosted my elderly parents and two sets of friends without power for 4 days during a pandemic. We are boiling our tap water to drink and wash dishes. We can’t wash our hands.
I’m choosing to focus on the human side of this instead of the politics. Gotta go boil some water now.
I devoured Honeybee by Craig Silvey. A trans teen is literally about to jump off a bridge when they notice an older man about to do the same. Together, an odd couple, they save each other as their back stories unfurl. It’s beautiful and not too hard but gritty enough to feel worthwhile.
That Vogue article is spot on! Our family has spent the last year together almost completely 24/7. It’s been _the_ bright spot of this horrific pandemic, for me. As we begin to move toward the (hopefully) end, I’ve started to think about how I’ll adjust back to things that were normal in the Before Times. I don’t want to be painfully busy like I was. I also don’t know how I’ll be able to go to in-person work meetings again. For all its faults, Zoom has good points. I can turn off my camera when I need to. I don’t have to monitor my facial expressions. I can sit in a comfy chair. Yet, I have the privilege to complain.
Thanks for the great collection as always!❤️
That’s terrible about the grocery store that threw all their perishables away! I read another story about an HEB who, when the power went out, told everyone to fill their carts and let them walk out the door and take all the inventory for free.
Some wonderful fiction to consider:
Little by Edward Carey – a fictional retelling of the life of Madame Tussaud, and a very enjoyable adventure through revolutionary era France
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – an excellent, thought-provoking novel about life choices
Beartown by Frederick Backman – a very insightful novel about small-town life
They all have dark moments, but they’re all lovely books, and I still think about them months after reading. :)
The tweet from Zucchini reminds me of the 25th chapter of “The Grapes of Wrath.” Steinbeck writes about California in the springtime, with an abundance of beautiful fruits and vegetables…and because California’s farmers have done such a good job cultivating the land, and also because of the laws of supply and demand, all the abundance means that the fruits and vegetables aren’t worth much. So the farmers let the beautiful fruits rot, and some land owners even spray kerosene on the produce to prevent starving people from eating it (therefore reducing supply and driving up demand). “A million people hungry, needing the fruit–and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains [of oranges].” “…[I]n the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.” It sends chills down my spine every single time I read it–because I think about how we have chosen to create hell on earth. Better to let people starve and keep prices up than to create a system that shares abundance.