We now know the truth. Diversity results not in universal good but in evil. We know that music, art, dance, poetry—all these ancient and deviant activities—only inflame the emotions. They must be rooted out. We discovered long ago that there is but one road to Universal Good, and that road begins with Conformity. Conformity begets Harmony begets Tranquility begets Peace begets Universal Good. ⬇️

I will read anything Thich Nhat Hanh writes. I‘m not Buddhist, but he is a wonderful teacher. His words are ever a balm in a world where there is so much pain. This book is about our relationship with the living worlds around us, and how to get that connection back in order to heal ourselves and the other beings around us.

This book looks at the old matriarchal societies, differing greatly from the ones we live in today. Once, women ruled. They had many rights and were not only respected but looked to for guidance on the deepest matters of life. They played every role in a community. Today, we have fallen far from the relationship we once had with nature, the living worlds around us. The book examines the demonization of women and its parallels to the⬇️

I enjoyed this intimate memoir of one woman finding friends, herself, and witchcraft in 1990s NYC. She learns about history, mythology, the old ways, how to tap into various forgotten but ever present energies. She also learns how the misogyny still playing itself out today has ancient origins.

I‘ve always been a medieval nerd, so I enjoyed this memoir. The author decides to take a pilgrimage on foot to Canterbury, just like the peasants of older days did. Filled with history, this is an educational memoir with healthy dollops of Chaucer thrown in. Folks who enjoy Renn fairs will enjoy this book.

I‘ve had this book for years and finally read it so I could give it to a friend. It was a roller coaster. A bit of a slow burn at first, the pace picked up towards the end. The antisemitism was a bit much at times but I understand the point the author was desperately trying to make. Takeaways for me: we never know when our most vulnerable moments might come, and we don‘t know the story of someone else unless they decide to tell us; is the⬇️

The best way to overcome [the fear of death]—so it seems to me— is to make your interest gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river— small at first, nearly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks ⬇️

Still one of my favorites!
Link to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nprs-book-of-the-day/id1587369865?i=100073...

Marcus Aurelius was among those who offered another way to come to grips with a prospective of nonbeing: the period after death, he pointed out, is like the period before birth. You didn‘t spend the billions of years before you were born in a state of anxiety and apprehension, because there was no “you” to be aware of anything. Looking back now, it doesn‘t seem frightening that there was once a time when you were not conscious. Why then ⬇️

If death marks a permanent end of your consciousness, then from your point of view when you die, the entire future of the universe (running into tens of billions of years or more) must telescope down not just into a night, as Socrates described, but into a fleeting instant. Even if the universe were to go through other cycles of expansion and contraction, then all of these cycles as far as you are concerned would happen in zero time. What ⬇️

Oh, to hear Anne‘s voice again. Link to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nprs-book-of-the-day/id1587369865?i=100073...

One of my favorite books🎙️🩸🪦

Link to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nprs-book-of-the-day/id1587369865?i=100073...

In these stories of the apocalypse, happy endings are possible. That doesn‘t mean that people haven‘t died, or that horrible things haven‘t been done. But what it does mean is that those humans who populate the world and maybe the world itself are different, better, even, because of what has been endured. It means that in the great battle between life and death, the only war that matters, we continue to choose life, life in all its ⬇️

Someone recommended this book to me years ago. Reading it now, it saddened me when the different chapters presented an imagined circle of women surrounding me, to help me through each new stage of my life. (Growing up within a fundamentalist household, I didn‘t have this). What if? My life might have turned out very different. Maybe someday, we will finally break free from patriarchal hold. Until then, (and always), love the women⬇️

This was a scary and depressing book. Every moment, our bodies are at risk of something else we cannot see claiming it as its own, whether in becoming badly disabled, very ill, or dead. I couldn‘t help but think of Mr. Brainworm himself, RFK Jr, while reading this book. Frightening times.

I used to have more of an interest in hearing about spiritual and religious journeys than I do now. Maybe it‘s got something to do with the United States becoming a theocracy…
This memoir has a little humor. The author has a moment when he thinks about death, and is inappropriately asked about his spiritual state; he then goes in search of something but not knowing what, and meets many interesting people on different paths along the way. ⬇️

I really liked this book. The author has died but his words are ever significant. The book isn‘t just First Nations spirituality and teachings. It goes deep into examining the harmful systems we live in today that are destroying us and our planet. Recommend.

I came to know of The Lady Chablis thanks to the southern scandel in Savannah, GA (‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil‘). In this memoir, I got to know her a little better. She had quite a life and was never afraid to live her truth.

‘Maus and the Power of Images‘, via Borrowed and Returned‘ Podcast. Link to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/borrowed-returned/id1453877748?i=100072806...

Mama got the name Chablis off a wine bottle. She didn‘t think it up for me though. It was supposed to be for my sister. Mama got pregnant when I was sixteen, and she wanted a little girl. She was gonna name her La Quinta Chablis. But then she had a miscarriage, and I said, ‘Oooh Chablis. That‘s nice. I like that name.‘ And mama said, ‘Then take it, baby. Call yourself Chablis from now on.‘ So ever since then, I‘ve been Chablis.

Another wonderful book in the peculiar series. The adventures are more dangerous and more enlightening. Ancient time loops, more magic, and the origin of the hollowgasts! You don‘t want to miss this!

I was in ninth grade when the Columbine massacre happened in 1999. Since then, many more have occurred, and the violence is only increasing. In this memoir, Dylan‘s mother shares her grief and tries to make sense of the actions her son and his friend Eric made on that fateful day. Heartbreaking.

I love the peculiar series but haven‘t finished it yet—I still have to read 4-6. This short collection is full of more folks from the peculiar universe…and there are some strange ones, with moral lessons in each story. My favorite? The Splendid Cannibals. It has to be one of the strangest stories I‘ve ever read, but I love it!

I love food, cooking, and ghosts, so I knew I wanted to read this as soon as I saw it in BookPage magazine. The main character has a unique ability (clairgustance) to taste a dead person‘s favorite thing, down to the last detail. He makes the dishes, and briefly, the person appears. I was picturing Carmy from The Bear the entire time.

I loved this book. We have gotten away from community death care but it is making a comeback. The author shares her experiences with this, and her own experience after her mother died. The book is written beautifully and has many resources for green burials and beyond. I found it fascinating when she spoke about the mysterious storm that came on immediately within minutes of her mother‘s passing, and again, exactly one year later. Recommend!

Like mothers all over Littleton, I had been praying for my son‘s safety. But when I heard the newscaster pronounce twenty-five people dead, my prayers changed. If Dylan was involved in hurting or killing other people, he had to be stopped. As a mother, this was the most difficult prayer I had ever spoken in the silence of my thoughts, but in that instant, I knew the greatest mercy I could pray for was not my son‘s safety, but for his death.

💔

Sit down, Vance.

Link: https://bittersoutherner.com/hillbillies-need-no-elegy-appalachian-reckoning

Who was ‘Uncle Tom‘? Find out here⬇️. https://archive.ph/2023.09.08-130604/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archiv...

This book features a conversation about the right to die movement and its legalization in America. The author speaks to supporters and non-supporters, but most of the discussions are very affirming. Laws have expanded since this book came out, so that MAID (medical aid in dying) is more accessible now. There is a documentary on PBS for these interviews. As each conversation about MAID does, this book touched my heart and only reaffirmed my ⬇️

I went into this book thinking it might be a more personal deep dive into the hidden abuses revealed in the shiny happy people documentary. It was more about Jill talking about how uncomfortable it was to be on camera all the time, the double standard of how her brother was treated by her father versus how she was treated, and later financial abuse. I‘m glad Jill found her way out of the fundamentalist stranglehold, but I think she‘s still in⬇️

This was free at the library today…I grabbed it to give to my hospice patient. 💙

This book brought up a lot of feelings, questions, and painful memories for me. I was raised in a fundamentalist household. I was groomed to be what is called today, a Christian Nationalist. I left all this behind a long time ago. Today, I‘m atheist with friends of different faiths, and none at all. I subscribe to John‘s podcast and follow his socials. I can count on one hand how may people I know who practice their faith like John⬇️

A lot of people were reading this book and looking to it for guidance earlier this year, with LA on fire, billionaires taking over with their insatiable wendigo greed, and a fascist back in power. Olivia saw these events coming and she wrote about it in 1993. Earthseed is an idea, but it‘s also a world that we can bring into being. It is community, it is love, it is service to others. We are witnessing frightening times and each day, we are ⬇️

I had no idea what this book was about until the author was featured on a podcast I subscribe to: Feminist Buzzkills. I knew I had to read it! Here we have a story of young girls being forced to carry out pregnancies, hidden away from the rest of the world. When they meet the mobile librarian, things begin to change drastically with a single book. Though I did find parts of this book to be cheesy, I still enjoyed it. It reminded me a lot⬇️

I hope people who read Parable of the Sower will think about where we seem to be heading—we the United States, even we the human species. Where are we going? What sort of future are we creating? Is it the kind of future you want to live in? If it isn‘t, what can we do to create a better future? Individually and in groups, what can we do?

—Octavia E. Butler
Pasadena, CA
May 1999

She‘d tried everything to fix this. She‘d searched for Humphrey‘s 11 but couldn‘t find it anywhere. She‘d bought a bottle of castor oil and drunk the whole thing, but it only gave her the runs. She‘d jumped off her dad‘s worktable in the basement over and over until her legs gave out, lifted the dictionary above her head until her arms cramped; she‘d even drunk turpentine, but she barely managed a capful before throwing up. She‘d closed her⬇️

President Joe Biden chose the first Black Woman to sit on the highest bench in America: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. This memoir tells the story of all that came before this extraordinary moment. She shares with us the story of her grandparents, parents, her education, her marriage, her children, her values; what it means for her to sit on this bench and all that it took for her to get there.

A (Goose Creek Goose) Hogwarts student 🤣 (of course this is at a library )

Damn it! The library got me sidetracked again! I was out, and of course had my current read with me. But I needed somewhere to go for about an hour and a half. So, my husband said, go to the bookstore! Or go to the library you haven‘t been in yet! And that, dear friends, is what got me. There were so many I wanted to check out. So many! The anxiety I feel to get through the now stack of 8, so I can get back to my shelves…🤓🤯📖📚

I have heard a lot of chatter about this book in the last few months. Local indie bookstores never had a copy. I wasn‘t going to read the graphic novel adaptation first, but I couldn‘t resist. I wasn‘t prepared for how devastating, dark, and violent the story would be. I can only imagine what the actual book will be like. There is a small bit of hope in the end of the story. Themes: end stage capitalism, billionaires, climate change. 🌎🔥

This was a gut punch of a book. Told in different time frames by three different women, each is connected by invisible threads. People tend to think that those who choose to parent and those who choose abortion are different people. But they aren‘t…they are the same people, at different points in their lives. This book shows this and takes place in Canada, before and after abortion was legal there. A powerful story. A reminder of ⬇️

This is a special book. Filled with stunning art, it is a history told by a grandmother to her granddaughter. Black History did not begin on the shores of America; it began long before. It continued on The White Lion, and it continues today. As books are banned, history whitewashed and erased, it is now more vital than ever that we continue to tell these stories. A must read.

This was really cute. Two young travelers are visiting Japan, and end up with a camera they are told is very special: it can photograph yokai that are invisible to human eyes. So the journey begins!
This book is a reminder of how wonderful Japan is, how fascinating the culture is. I hope to travel there one day! 🇯🇵

Seen on FB! 🤣
🤡🎈☔️

I found a series of episodes from different podcasts about these horrible Fundamentalist Christian ‘comics‘ that were passed around like candy when I was a kid. They were scary even though I don‘t think I believed the content. They were and still are, traumatizing. When and if I find them these days😩, I throw them away quickly. Link to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/our-curious-past/id1619531814?i=1000578134...

Margaret Atwood fires back in the latest rounds of attacks on books.

Now listening.
Book Bans are a problem everywhere. American bullshit has infected the lives of Canadians. Canada: WE ARE SO SORRY. So many of us don‘t want this!!!
Link to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/front-burner/id1439621628?i=1000724951628

My holds came in today! Just waiting on one more. After this last stack, I‘m going back to my own shelves again to read and donate to die kleine kostenlos Bibliothek.

(Litsy doesn‘t have the full volume/compendium in its database, and that is what I read). Gou Tanabe has a talent for bringing Lovecraftian horrors to life; his art brings the nightmares to life on the pages. Known mostly for his Cthulhu Mythos, that is the heart of this short story. After reading it, you‘ll know why this frozen landscape is called ‘the mountains of madness‘. Wonderful manga style adaptation, recommend for all Lovecraft fans.

Nurse Julie started her career in ICU. After some painful experiences she observed with other patients, she knew she wanted to take another approach to care: the most important care we so often don‘t talk about: care for the dying. So began her work in hospice! I follow her socials and recommend it as it is very educational. As a hospice volunteer, I was already familiar with many things in this book, but, there is always more to learn, ⬇️