That's okay I don't need space
Hooked_on_books 🐶💙 7y
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That's okay I don't need space
LITSY. I have returned. So many life changes this year, I took a step back from an extra social community to try to shift focus elsewhere. But, co-hosting #24in48 this weekend reminded me of what a safe, book-centric place this community is; it was heart balm. I'm tucking into some rye and ginger and short stories tonight; what are y'all reading?
"I never realized how fun it could be to get a current partner and a past partner together and then pit them against each other. I mean, if you can't find a good book to read."
Rory's face every time I tell her something crazy that happened in Scythe.
"What must it have been like to believe in something greater than oneself? To accept imperfection and look to a rising vision of all we could never be? It must have been comforting. It must have been frightening. It must have lifted people from the mundane, but also justified all sorts of evil. I often wonder if the bright benefit of belief outweighed the darkness its abuse could bring."
I'm here I'm here, #24in48! I marched yesterday and spent today in DC searching out sign / protest remnants before dropping my best pal off at her bus (full of marchers!) back to NYC. I don't have words yet (maybe not ever), but it was an incredible day literally packed with badass women that made me remember what hope feels like. Curling up with one of my favorite black feminist writers to revel in this feeing a little while longer.
Rounding out my day of reading black authors by finally starting this collection. I hope your days have been filled with reflection, books, and determination.
The juxtaposition of John Lewis' memories of the Freedom Riders' buses being firebombed with his memories of attending Obama's inauguration is one of the most moving & weeping-inducing constructions I've ever read. #MLKDay
"Hatred, love, all muddled up in that space inside a whisper, when the words don't matter anymore, when the baby's half asleep and you can carry it all the way there if you want, on nothing but the tone of your voice. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. Sing it as softly as you like—the words clench their own teeth. The child still falls." || THIS BOOK, y'all.
An engrossing, necessary, heartbreaking read (listen) on the way home to NoVA after spending two weeks in a rural area filled with still-standing campaign signs for they-who-must-not-be-named. More determined than ever to keep doing the work.
panHere's the thing. Whitehead is an unquestionable genius and master of language. Literary fiction about zombies is just not a thing that I am here for, apparently. I wish this was a novella or short story; I'd probably give it five stars if it was only 35-70 pages. Still glad I gave it a go—I've made him my backlist author of the year—but whew. I need something snappy after this slow (not really burning) burn.
pickI'm not often happy to shut the door firmly on a year but I've locked and barred this one. Here's to 2017 and all it will bring, pals. Here's to beauty, love, strength, humanity, and resistance. Wishing you all as much joy as you can hold with rainbow sprinkles on top. 🖤💕❄️✌️
Getting in some light end-of-year decompression reading to round out 2016.
Our book club did a holiday book swap at a wine bar in DC tonight; scored this beauty and I'm feeling pretty festive about it. 🎄📚🍷
Happy Birthday to my forever literary love / homegirl Jane Austen. 💕📚🎂 || (While this photo makes it look like P&P is my fav Austen, it's just the portion of my Austen shelf that happened to be in the frame. I'm a Persuasion girl through and through, as evidenced by my ink. 😉)
"Over time, it seems to me, people called her ugly because they felt they needed one thing to be counted against her brilliance.
The animal will be tender with you, and you with it, but the animal never forgets that when what it wants for survival requires your death, it will become unafraid to kill you. And so you cannot forget this, either. It is, on reflection, good training to be a courtesan. A woman of any kind.
Saturday sickness and holiday cheer goes best with a side of Bartleby sass.
I wasn't in the right headspace for this one a few months ago; I like my weather cold and my blankets warm when I sink into an atmospheric novel. Crossing my fingers for this second attempt. Escaping to historic Paris seems like a fabulous idea right now.
I'm in between, part-way through, and undecided on various inclusions in this stack. Hoping December brings some settled brain space and reading opportunities. Have y'all read any of these yet?
"You know, I used to be a real hardass about stuff like this. No retreat, no surrender! But now? I honestly don't know if the world would be better or worse if we all held ourselves to the vows of our youth."
so-soI loved the first tattoo / stories installment from Fitzgerald and MacNaughton SO much that I think this one was always destined to be slotted behind it in my book pantheon. As always, gorgeous illustrations and a diverse cast of well-tatted humans show up to share their stories and lives. Worth picking up if you loved the first one but if you only have time for one: go for the original.
My first stack of holiday book gifts is @sarahmaclean Scandal and Scoundrel series (with some saucy socks that I think Sesily would ❤️). I love these books SO much and I'm beyond excited to share them with a friend this Christmas after a particularly rough year for humankind. What books are you gifting this year?
Post-family backseat road trip dogpile Audible listening.
Avoiding football, dishes, and sobriety like a BAMF. Thankful for book, all of you, and this corner of the Internet. 🍂🍁
The post-incident reading continues. This library pile was amalgamated from various lists and twitter recommendations; anyone picked these up before? (Shout out to @GregZimmerman for my first Bill McKibben!)
pickI think this is an excellent resource to talk to older children and mid-teens about why parallels are being, can be, and should be drawn between the hate and ideals spawned by our president-elect, his team, and supporters and Nazi Germany. I have some adult books coming into the library on this subject but wanted to span age ranges for upcoming holiday conversations with younger relatives. H/T @bookriot
Things I will try to sociologically understand with a cup of tea: how non-racist / homophobic / xenophobic people could feel so strongly regarding other issues that they'd vote for a racist, homophobic, xenophobic presidential candidate.
Things I will NOT try to understand with a cup of tea: the appointment of a white supremacist as a senior advisor of said president-elect.
I haven't been able to read, or do much else, since Tuesday. I've been giving money, paying attention, researching wildly, and sitting silently, letting voices of the LGBTQ community and POCs fill the void of pain as they have far more right to it than I. I don't know exactly where we go from here other than up; I don't know precisely what to do other than fight, support, protect, and amplify. We are stronger together. Keep reading. Keep striving.
It's Friday! We made it! There is a work day to get through, to-do lists behind that, and waves of media to live through but you can do it. We can do it, together. We have lives to live and coffee to drink and books to read. The sun is shining, there's a lovely breeze, and I'm glad you exist. Happy Friday, Littens.
pickI ended up reading most of this aloud to my husband because it was equal parts hilarious, enlightening, gross, fantastic, & horrifying. It'll eradicate your misconceptions about idyllic Victorian life while increasing your gratefulness for all the women who have gone before to clear the way. We are still fighting, things are still broken, but we have come so far & have no plans to stop. 💪 Highly recommend; I'll be gifting this more than once.
It's been a hot minute since I've read this and I'm really enjoying my reread. Forgot how much I love it. ❤️ "And it never fails that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way."
Still, in my personal life, I am often stricken with a wish to be beyond all that. I am burdened with anxiety. Anxiety for the lamb with his bitter future, anxiety for my own body, and, not least, anxiety for my own soul. You can fool a lot of yourself but you can't fool the soul. That worrier.
Went to the bookstore today with nothing particular in mind and could not leave without these beauties. 😍
ALSO HELLO I AM FINALLY HERE #readathon PALS!
Drooling over today's #bookmail. 😍
pickCouldn't pass up the #FunFridayPhoto chance to share my well-worn and yellowed copy of The Phantom Tollbooth. 💕📚
A portrait of the reader as a master's candidate. Nightstand contents: two books I'm very slowly making my way through, this week's unit to-do list on a stack of post-its, at least one highlighter and one pen, fresh cup of herbal anti-anxiety tea. Happy hump day, litsy friends. I'm so glad this corner of the internet exists.
These days, most of my reading snippets look like this: a cheap cup of coffee grabbed as I rush from my work desk to campus, trying to arrive early enough to read 10 pages before class starts. I'm trying to be even more conscious about what I read because the moments are so few and far between. This examination of life after rape and the possibility of justice 20 years later is a difficult, important, honest read that is well worth the time.
Littens! I started this without knowing it was a sequel! Can I get by without having read ZEROES?
Don't ever underestimate people, don't ever underestimate the pleasure they receive from viewing pain that is not their own, from delivering bad news, watching bombs fall on television, from listening to stifled sobs from the other end of a telephone line. Pain by itself is just Pain. But Pain + Distance can = entertainment, voyeurism, human interest, cinéma vérité, a good belly chuckle, a sympathetic smile, a raised eyebrow, disguised contempt.?
Happy Monday, y'all! What book are you racing through work to get back to this week?
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