pickPolitically, I agree with most points the author makes. Some essays about traveling with her kids were wonderful and completely describes the feeling of loving America (what we think it might be) with what it is, and its history. I think what would have made this a 5/5, is the people that her family met- not just the landscapes and attractions. Though these are America, the people and our ability to (hopefully) be neighborly is what I came for.
so-soI listened and I loved her voice - there was something purely comforting about it (perhaps because she‘s from the PNW?). Her childhood is heartbreaking. Her mother? Yikes. I‘m not familiar with her music, and I got confused by when she was coming out with albums (I didn‘t follow the timeline very well once she was in BC). But I don‘t think I would have stuck with it if I was reading it myself. Something didn‘t attach.
pickLike almost everything else that has been written by Dan Barry, this was amazing.
#2025Book44
On the stool to my right was a sweat-drenched comic named Sammy, talking about how he had killed that night; if this were true, humor had been the victim.
#BookHaul
While I was in Chester, I popped into Waterstones and got the top two books, then found a lovely little indie, Books on the Walls, where I got the bottom two.
On Agoraphobia: the author's bibliotherapy led him to discover that the literary world is full of agoraphobics, and this book is about them 😰
Medusa: A 1920s weird novel set at sea 🦑
Alien Gods: Only 97 pages, but they are translations of Korean reimaginings of H.P. Lovecraft ⬇️
Among the other necessities, we packed pens and paper because I am naked without them. I have rustled through life with a notebook pressed against my chest and a pen bleeding in my pocket. They are the instruments I use to ease the low-grade panic born of the absurd sense that it is my mission to record moments. I chase stories with pen and paper the way a child chases fireflies with a glass jar and a hole-dappled lid.
pickA bit more of a guide than a memoir, you get a more straightforward introduction to Smith's early years, a brief account of his journeys in the wilderness, primarily in Canada (felt ridiculously proud of his admiring descriptions of BC), prior to settling in one wood. But the story of his time at Loch Treig is divided more along the lines of what is essential to think about/know/do if you contemplate this lifestyle, especially in the Scottish 1/?
“You shouldn't feel self-conscious about saying kind words to anything.“ 🥰🌹
