Enjoying the cool weather (by Florida standards, anyway) after hurricane Ian. I‘m grateful we had minimal damage and we‘re safe. We have some work to do to fix up a few things around here and help out some neighbors, but for the moment, I‘m going to enjoy this book.

Library haul for my 9 year old. We‘re in the “cone of uncertainty” for hurricane Ian, and part of my hurricane prep is always making sure we have plenty of books to read (part of the essentials, really).

“Pride is an illusion and the path to conceit.”

Small book haul after a visit to B&N with my sister who‘s in town for a few days. Excited to spend time with my big sis, and excited for these two!

My daughter and I both loved this one. The illustrations are beautiful and whimsical, I love the characters, and the story is entertaining. It was a fairly quick read, but I try to really take in the art as well. I added book 2 to my wish list for my daughter and I to share next 😊

I‘ve been following Kristen Hong on IG for a while now and always love her posts. I never tried to follow her lead though. But I‘m trying to develop healthier habits and get things organized around here to make that a bit easier on me. So I decided to buy her book. It will probably take me a while to post a review on this one but I can‘t wait to try her recipes and techniques.

“If I let the specter of certain doom stop me, I‘d never get anywhere!”

My daughter wanted me to read this one. I love Cad so far😊

My next listen is historical fiction 😊

I absolutely loved this. It was a quick listen, but the author‘s voice is so soothing. I might listen to this again at bedtime. She turns creativity into a spiritual practice, which is right up my alley. She speaks on creativity being something to nourish and tend to. She connects certain myths/folk stories to it all, which was entertaining/enjoyable. It offers practical advice as well, like the active imagination technique (which I want to try).

The last of my Drawn & Quarterly warehouse sale haul. I really enjoyed the story in this one. I liked the MC and there was a good amount of humor and drama. There was a bit of a twist at the end, but there was a decent character arc and I like how it ended.

I read this one rather quickly. It‘s more visually appealing than anything, the stories don‘t follow any kind of formula and or even a theme really (not that I could figure out, anyway). These are stories for the sake of telling stories, if that makes sense. They‘re enjoyable but really strange. There are some erotic bits, so NSFW (or around kids for that matter) lol. I think this one might be an acquired taste.

I love the illustrations and there were some heartbreaking scenes. But I found the protagonist selfish, and didn‘t see the ending as any kind of resolution for her. There was no character arc. The topics of getting older, finding love, and dealing with heart break and betrayal are ones that anyone can resonant with. But I definitely needed more from the MC and the ending.

“The truth of the matter is, all you have to do to create, is to stand out of the way.”

My next listen, at the intersection of fiction and nonfiction… I was craving something on the topic of creativity.

I love the series, & I‘m happy with how it ended, but this was my least favorite. There were slow parts that made it difficult to focus, & there‘s a couple of questions left unanswered for me. Such as, something happens to one of the main characters connecting him to a curse among Greta‘s mummy patients (even though he‘s not a mummy), & yet we never find out why/how he was connected. But I enjoyed the story & the narrator is still amazing.

I resonated deeply with this as a wife/mother. Yamada focused on realism and according to the afterword, wasn‘t one to romanticize married life. I‘m not as cynical but I respect what she did here and how she felt about it. There were plenty of light-hearted/funny moments in between the serious ones. Ultimately, the focus is on women finding their own identities outside of their home/family. Which seems to transcend time and is personally relevant.

Currently reading the afterword essay by the translator. I love learning about artists and their life/work. But I‘m getting a little irritated with the translator who wrote this essay. Speaking on the author‘s abusive 1st husband, he seems to lack understanding/compassion as to why the author felt the way she did about the patriarchy and marriage. Personally, I respect the author even more but can‘t say the same for the translator.

This made me LOL, literally 🤭

“When I start feeling guilty for acting high and mighty as a parent, spoiling them tastes sweet… that is, as long as it‘s mixed in the same bowl with love and familial bonds.”

“The tasks of housework are sundry, but they are entirely unremunerated. Raising children, on the other hand, isn‘t so thankless. ‘Your children‘s happiness‘ and ‘a mother‘s contentment‘ are a kind of remuneration. I want the same for being a wife.”

“There‘s plenty between us that‘s hard to talk about. There are plenty of words that are supposedly sacred and inviolable… But they‘re worth reconsidering sometimes.”

“My kids are not me. They might resemble me, but we are different. We are separate beings. They are not my accessories.”

The proper use of a book, according to Sunny.

#CatsOfLitsy

“…the visceral response is about immediate perception… Great designers use their aesthetic sensibilities to drive these visceral responses. For designers, the most critical aspect of the behavioral level is that every action is associated with an expectation… resulting in satisfaction or relief, disappointment or frustration. The reflective level… is where deep understanding develops, where reasoning and conscious decision-making take place.”

“The brain is structured to act upon the world, and every action carries with it expectations, and these expectations drive emotions… Cognition attempts to make sense of the world: emotion assigns value.”

“Two of the most important characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding.”

“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.”

This book was exactly what I needed and I received it at the right time too. This is only the beginning of a long process, I know, but it helped me see it as a process that deserves patience and grace and not like something to dread. Dr. Faith‘s writing style is real and amusing, and one I resonate with. People who are offended by curse words might not appreciate it like I do. From here, I do the work, seek therapy, and journal/meditate on this.

“Forgive the deed, but remember the lesson… Forgiveness doesn‘t make you weak—it reinforces your strength.”

“In reality, relationships don‘t come with guarantees.”

“…you can‘t forgive what someone did to someone else, only what they did to you… Forgiveness work means releasing our direct connection. If we try to widen our net to forgive the harm experienced by other people, we get lost in vague complexities that make the work impossible.”

“…we have a tendency to attribute our own behavior as a response to our circumstances, but attribute the behavior of others to the core essence of their badness… Giving people the benefit of the doubt that they are reacting situationally to the world around them, just as we are, takes the edge off the hurt they cause us.”

“…people who practice episodic forgiveness develop something termed trait forgiveness. All this means is that you center forgiveness of others as a fundamental part of how you navigate the world for your own emotional health. They are calmer, have better skills for overcoming obstacles, and are less likely to take the actions of others as personal attacks.”

“Your baggage does not have to be your identity.”

“Forgiveness doesn‘t mean letting people continue to stomp all over your boundaries. Instead, forgiveness takes the emotionality out of a toxic relationship, which helps you establish and maintain more solid boundaries in the future.”

“Moral anger is vital to human survival, but needs to be handled as carefully (or maybe more carefully) than other forms of anger. This goes back to walking the path of anger—recognizing it‘s validity and coming up with a plan that is proactive instead of reactive.”

“Our feelings are completely our own, and we shouldn‘t blame others for them. We can, however, ask them for different behaviors that better respect our boundaries. Or we can change our own interactions to better protect ourselves.”

“The trick with emotions is to use them just for what they are: Information to take into consideration. Not necessarily to be acted on with our initial impulses—maybe not acted upon at all—just another piece of evidence to consider before you respond.”

“Anger provides the energy needed for change. Maybe your situation, maybe yourself. But learning to respond to your anger, not react from it, is the key to healthy usage.”

“All emotions are information, designed to help us make decisions that will protect us and keep us safe.”

I have a lot of resentment to contend with lately, things from my past keep bubbling to the surface and it‘s making me irritable. On top of trying to find a therapist, I felt I needed to try something, anything to help me start the process of forgiving and letting go. The tagged book had good reviews and aligned with what I think I need, and the other is just for added measure. I need to take better care of myself in all respects.

“Correcting breathing dysfunctions and improving our daily breathing habits should be our first priority. And not just first, but constant. We cannot ‘fix and forget‘ our bodies.”

Book 2 of the Discworld series didn‘t disappoint. It‘s such an amusing read, and even though the characters were going through all kinds of craziness, for some reason I find these books such a comfort. I love how it ended and I can‘t wait to see what happens next in the series.

“…the sort of voices that mere typography will remain totally unable to convey until someone can make a linotype machine with echo-reverb and, possibly, a typeface that looks like something said by a slug.”

I guess studying Graphic Design made me appreciate this joke more than I should have lol

Kids being back in school means I‘m back in the car line, which means plenty of extra reading time (at least till the line gets moving lol).

Got this on Kindle after someone recommended it to my best friend. I looked into it and was intrigued…

I like the way Jedidiah Jenkins thinks & the way he writes. There were a few things he shared his thoughts on that I don‘t necessarily agree with, but he gave me new perspectives & he broadened my curiosity. He reminded me that I want to be less cynical (easier said than done), that I want to be more open & more in love with my life, not so nihilistic. Such wonderful essays to make you feel deeply & force you to take a look at life with fresh eyes

“Why am I astonished? This is the one and only world any of us know. Why should we find it strange? And yet we do.”

“We, meaningless matter, write stories about fictional meaningless matter, to make ourselves feel things, even sadness.”

“…the measure of good character is how you treat people who can do nothing for you.”