Even now that I've finished this and enjoyed it, I'm not entirely sure how to read it. It's cleverly written and goes into some depth about navigating relationships during times of extremism. There's also a fatalism to this alternate history, a sense that with culture becoming increasingly polarized into extreme viewpoints, certain outcomes are inevitable. Extreme positions of any kind give opportunists and narcissists a platform to thrive.

Low-key readathon: Activated!

Only trouble is, the cat is so cozy, I'm about to fall asleep myself. 😴

#JumpStartSummer @TheSpineView

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii
1) Finished out the read-aloud year and brought home the book bin.
2) Bought a wagon so I'm less likely to injure myself taking the book bin to the main office next week.
3) Orchidelirium! Orchids have so much character!
4) Played my first piano recital.
5) Silo, our resident Distinguished Fellow.
Not pictured: I had a great informational interview exploring a new-ish field for me.

I've got a busy weekend of music (both professional and talented student musicians) and stagehanding (if that's a word), but I'm hoping to sneak in some reading each day. I'm working on some Percival Everett for #authoramonth, Solito for book club, and the tagged just for fun, although I'm leaving open the possibility of just mood reading. #jumpstartsummer @TheSpineView

After hearing the synopsis, reading the first few chapters and skimming the rest, I think I have the basic idea: You'll be happier and more successful if you aim for an ideal but measure yourself by your progress, not by how far you are from the ideal, like heading towards the horizon to give you direction, not because you expect to reach it. Decent idea, but it doesn't need this many words to convey it.

Bookends post for March and April 2025 is finally up: https://imperfecthappiness.org/2025/05/22/bookends-march-april-2025/

I list what I read in those months and ponder an unsettling temporal development.

Overall, I found this book to be moderate, data-driven, and interesting, with a couple of caveats. First, Twenge sometimes doesn't flag clearly what is data and what is her opinion. This is fine, it just means I have to pay closer attention. Next, I found the GenX section disappointing. She ignores outliers and nuances she points out in the Millennials section, and she reaches different conclusions from some data than I do. (cont'd ⬇️)

10/100, but it's more like 75/100 adjusted for Ulysses.

Notable titles of those I read:
1) Howards End (loved it)
2) The Trial (loved it)
3) Ulysses (loved being done with it)

#ThreeListThursday @dabbe

1) Reminding myself that, assuming we're not living in the Matrix, I only know for sure that I have this one life, so it deserves my attention, care, curiosity, and joy.

2) Tagged, although there are several I could name at different points in my life.

#WondrousWednesday @Eggs

Today I finished the last read-aloud session of the academic year with the tagged book. I volunteered to bring my school's book bin back to the main office next week and to pick up and return as many as three other bins from other schools. I'm in good shape, but lugging this bin a city block to my car left me a sweaty mess with an ache in my back, so I ordered a heavy duty wagon to help with the other bins. Volunteering can get expensive!

Lalami's writing is sometimes a little obvious in its intentions, but this one plays with nuance a little better than The Other Americans, which I appreciate. It's definitely paranoia-inducing, so if you're reading fiction to avoid doomscrolling or if you don't want to look at your smart devices with suspicion, this might not be your best option. But aside from those caveats, I quite enjoyed this one.

I had a lovely time at the orchid exhibition at the botanic garden yesterday. It was a nice break from national news, unlike the tagged, which I started on audio. It seems pretty good, but I don't know if I'm in the right headspace to cope with the paranoia. (I also played at a piano recital and was so nervous that I pretty much blacked out during my performance, so I might need something lighter to read to help me even out.)

A quick and impactful read, this book by Richard Haass is like a distillation of David Brooks's writings about character. It was written before the 2024 election but predicts many of the threats to democracy that resulted. The suggestions are moderate and bipartisan, although in the current environment would likely be considered radical.

TL;DR: Protecting democracy is necessary, nonpartisan, and requires our active participation.

Back when I was a recent college graduate, I wrote a letter to John Glenn, one of my senators at the time, proposing an expansion of benefits associated with voluntary civil service (essentially making AmeriCorps service and military service equivalent). I never got a reply. Here in Obligation VIII, Haass proposes almost exactly what I did at age 21. I feel vindicated and also a tiny bit wise beyond my years (retroactively).

Please don't let one of the obligations be strict sobriety. 🤞

@MaleficentBookDragon I was inspired by your bourbon posts to make myself a Friday night Harlequin Racerunner (except with rye instead of bourbon because I wanted something less sweet).

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii
I continue to feel down this week, but there were definite joys:
1) Mother's Day vampire movie! (Along with the recent discovery that my younger kid shares my love of scary movies...I've got a bunch out from the library to watch with him!)
2) After 2+ weeks, the new dishwasher is finally installed!
3) Silo looking cozy.
4) Silo looking regal.
5) Silo and Camille "hunting" an alligator lizard through the screen door.

Despite not being a fan of the ending, I really enjoyed this book. It's weird and quirky, and the tone almost reminds me of Stan Schmidt's Life of Fred series of story-based math books (a reference only a few homeschoolers are likely to get, but that's what it made me think of). I haven't read any James Bond books, so I can't say if it's like any of those. #authoramonth

I started this in Spanish and finished it in English because I read too slowly in Spanish. I'm not sure if that's ironic or not. Newport writes in this book that he aims to write in a style that's a cross between Stephen Covey and Malcolm Gladwell, and I think he's succeeded. He presents anecdotes from which he derives hypotheses about productivity, and then he offers possible solutions to reduce performative productivity. It's interesting.

What first struck me about this novel about art getting out of hand was how quickly I felt close to the characters. There's an event near the beginning that's foreshadowed clearly, but still it felt like a blow when it came because I had connected with the characters so much already. I listened to part of the novel in the car and found myself self-consciously turning down the volume at stop lights. (Guess which section that was.) #authoramonth

Our library system already has a budget that's lower than the average per capita library spending for the state, and last week more budget cuts went through, with plans to close libraries on Sundays and Mondays and reduce cleaning and maintenance services. I'm angry and discouraged that our city isn't prioritizing libraries, especially when literacy is under attack on a national level. So, I'm visiting the library and enjoying humorous signage.

For #TuesdayTunes, I'm revisiting the debut album of Tift Merritt, a North Carolina artist whose music almost always hits the spot for me. https://open.spotify.com/track/4pd9x8AzxZHEd17QT7vH6B?si=PtFE0iHTTjedh3W32GPEZQ&...
@TieDyeDude

I read The Plague years ago (while pregnant with my first, whose 20th birthday is today), and while I kept meaning to read this one, it took my second-born reading it in high school and begging his father and me to read it to get me finally to pick it up. It's a quick read, the style reminiscent of Hemingway in the first half. As my son promised, there are some fire quotes in here, as well as musings about existence in the modern age. I liked it.

"So, with all the sleep, my memories, reading my crime story, and the alternation of light and darkness, time passed...days could be both long and short at the same time: long to live through, maybe, but so drawn out that they ended up flowing into one another. They lost their names. Only the words 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow' still had any meaning for me."

He's talking about prison, but this works to describe how a lot of 2020 felt, too.

I quite enjoyed this novel, with its distinct, richly drawn characters, complex relationships, and cultural critique. I also appreciate the author's perspective on lockdown and its effect on how we relate to others. It's refreshing to read about lockdown from the perspective of characters who believe lockdown and masking were necessary with negative side effects, rather than either ignoring that period or acting like it was all an overreaction.

The characters are definitely characters, and Paley's dialogue is quite colorful, which makes this book of short stories something of an experience, even as I found it difficult to discern what the heck was going on at times.

This was a #Roll100 title from January.

As a matter of fact, yes, I did forget to finish my #WeeklyFavorites collage for April until the 10th of May.

@Read4life

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

Counterclockwise from bottom left:
1. Lounging cats.
2. Live music.
3. Ephemeral art by high schoolers.
4. Bibliotherapy.
5. Curious towhee at my garden camera.

I woke up in a similar despondent, low energy mood as when I went to bed last night, so after making myself work out, I indulged in some audio-organizing and decluttering. I cleared out three bins of homeschool stuff (only 6 more to go 🙄), reorganized our games and some of our books, and dusted underneath the piano. Finally having all of my library books in one place reminds me how aspirational my checkouts often are. I feel moderately better.

After a frustrating day, I'm going to follow Camille's lead (although I'm going to try to finish one story from the tagged before I lose consciousness)(and I likely won't fall asleep perched on the back of the sofa).

For read-alouds today, I read the tagged (and experienced the absolute joy of hearing 4-year-olds say "lellow") and the pictured "scary book," as the students proclaimed it. I also wore my rainbow heart "Library For Everyone" shirt, which is always a hit. Only two more weeks before the reading year ends; I'm going to miss sharing books with these kiddos every week.

What an odd little book this is! It's taking me a while to figure out how to read it (and not just because I didn't realize at first that it's short stories). We'll see how it hits me as I make more progress.

This is not among my favorites. It feels more like an interesting idea that Christie is exploring in writing than it does a complete story. And Miss Marple doesn't play nearly as large a role as I would prefer her to.

Today I was lucky enough to visit two of the places that help me rebalance myself: the ocean and the library. If I could also swing a walk in the forest, I could probably reach enlightenment, but I need to get my kid a haircut, so enlightenment will have to wait for another day.

And away we go! #bookspinbingo for May

@TheAromaofBooks #bookspin

April #bookspinbingo card: I managed one bingo in April, although I finished neither the #bookspin nor the #doublespin title this month (and it's better not even to mention how I'm doing on #roll100).

@TheAromaofBooks

May's #bookspin list is ready to go! It's a little haphazard, but what that's a totally reasonable organizational/curation tactic for a personal reading list, in my opinion.

@TheAromaofBooks

I'm not sure if this short book was compelling on its own or just along with my other reading/experiences, but it definitely struck a chord for me. A Silicon Valley insider, Lanier makes a distinction between social media that uses what he terms BUMMER algorithms to target and manipulate users and other, less insidious types of online interaction. I don't like his Solitary/Pack terminology, but aside from that, it's a very convincing read.

"What if listening to an inner voice or heeding a passion for ethics or beauty were to lead to more important work in the long term, even if it measured as less successful in the moment? What if deeply reaching a small number of people matters more than reaching everybody with nothing?"

As one whose passion for blogging diminished with the push to focus on SEO and who's feeling odd about using IG to promote voiceover work, this quote resonates.

This reads a bit like the memoir of someone who's escaped from a cult. The later parts of the book are a little repetitive, but overall it's maddeningly readable. Wynn-Williams seems to be working through her own feelings of culpability for the direction Facebook has gone, but that doesn't mean her claims aren't factual. I'm not sure I can justify keeping my Meta accounts after this.

"Mark tells Elliot to do something about the headlines and Elliot explains that would be difficult because they seem to be true."

I'm doing my best to take this book with a grain of salt as the account of just one person who has her own stuff to work through, but when the book itself, in describing a totally different situation, seems to predict how the release of the book was handled, I'm more inclined to believe the author about other things.

Another read-aloud day done with the two UTK classes. It's hard to believe the school year is almost over!

When I read First the Egg with the first class, I took the dust cover off to show the different images underneath, and a student in front grabbed the dust cover. I got very anxious because I'm out of practice with retrieving tearable things from little hands, but it all worked out okay, and I learned a lesson for the second class.

Well, this dedication hits hard.

San Diego Book Crawl haul! We waited until day 3 of 3, so we didn't bother trying to collect prizes (which were mostly gone, at least at the levels that were realistic for us to reach), and we also scrapped getting our passport stamped, but we did visit 5 bookshops and bought all these and 2 pair of socks. Favorite was the tagged shop, which I'd avoided because the name reminded me of a comics shop where a guy in college took me on a date.

I hadn't read this author, but this is the current selection for our local branch library book club, so I gave it a try. I liked it okay. It's engaging, although some of the situations and relationships stretch credulity. Could be a fun listen during a long drive as it's enjoyable but doesn't require a lot of attention to follow.

"You can always count on people to not have the courage to say anything."

Whew. I finally finished this one. I'm not super impressed. Interweaving the screenplay with the faux-audiobook makes the pacing too slow, and it's difficult to get any sense of tension or momentum, except a little at the end. The imagery is cool, as is the exploration of guilt and hidden objectives, but I'm mostly just glad to be done.

It's a two cats, one book afternoon. I was going to do Dewey's, but I couldn't carve out enough time, and I'm postponing celebrating Indie Bookstore Day and the San Diego Book Crawl until Monday when my elder kid can shop hop with me. (Also, am I ever going to finish the tagged book? I'm on the verge of looking up spoilers and calling it a day.)

Beautifully written, I think I kind of get what this novel is saying (something about inherited trauma and how to move forward while still honoring the past), but the ending left me a little disoriented. I like the literalism.

34/100
Lots of Terry Pratchett (but none that I have read) and Jacqueline Wilson (I haven't read any of hers). I'd like to read some of each of theirs, and my son has me intrigued by House of Leaves, so maybe I'll put that one on my list, too.

Three I was surprised by how much I liked:
1) Kim
2) All Quiet on the Western Front
3) Heidi

#ThreeListThursday #TLT @dabbe

I don't have the audiobook of this, so Camille's reading it aloud to me. There's more meowing and purring than I would have expected, so it's possible she's also translating it on the fly.

(I got, like, 3 productive things done this afternoon and now I feel invincible...and a little punchy.)(Do other people say "punchy" to mean "silly, laughing at everything", or is it regional/familial? I just want to make sure no one thinks it's like "stabby.")

Memoirs aren't always my favorite, but this one was a hit for me on so many levels: I loved the nature and ecology, the exploration of family and belonging and connection to place, defying expectations in a quiet way. I was surprised to learn that Lanham wasn't an experienced writer before this because his prose flows so well, and he does such a great job conveying emotion without becoming sappy (as many memoirs do). Loved this one!