FRANKENSTEIN, NO-THEMES, AND CONSCIOUSNESS

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that's me!!

Boats and Marriage: I finished the non-fiction telling of Marilyn and Maurice: An extraordinary True Story of Love, Shipwreck and Survival and even got to discuss it with my dear friend Judy Walsh who'd beaten me to the punch! The first half of the book was definitely the most interesting to me – who isn't hooked on a story of a married couple lost at sea?? The will they, won't they kept me very engaged. Admittedly the second half reads more like journalism and less like a book – but it was contemplative around the ideas of life, companionship, adventure, and the tradeoffs we make.

I've started my next read, an astronaut book, which I'll tell you all about next week!!

WOMEN’S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history.

Telepathy Tapes Szn 2: I've been on a big “what is consciousness” binge (casual) and so Ky Dickinson's release of the second season of Telepathy Tapes: The Consciousness Channel was right on time. Season 1 was one of the best podcasts I listened to in 2024, and one I still regularly talk about and recommend. Because it challenges everything we think we know about reality, our shared experience, the way our brains work. And it gives a lot of credence to things I have experienced or felt but haven't had proof or language for. My favorite episode of the new season (so far) has been Ep 3: are ideas alive and do they choose us? (my answer is yes and yessssss!!)

The goal with patterns is not about never re-engaging with them, it's about exiting them sooner. This writing from Vienna Pharon was so wonderful to read, especially if you've found yourself in a dynamic that feels familiar...one you said “you'd never do again.”...She gives us so much grace for growth in this. That it's not about “not doing that again”, it's about handling ourselves differently when it inevitably shows up. I just had something familiar show back up, but I was a totally different champion for myself within it...and that felt really, really good.

A Woman Out Of Time I got into a delightful text exchange about a not-delightful topic (the erasure of women's stories and contributions) with my dear author friend Daria Burke (read her memoir Of My Own Making if you have not!!!). I recalled this instagram reel that is SO WILD that I've kept saved about Mary Shelley, the mother of science fiction and author creator of Frankenstein – relevant esp with another Frankenstein adaptation out! Anyways, it sent me down another Shelley rabbit hole (worth it!). Also this one on how we all misunderstand her story!

Other stray links: I've been watching and digging Down Cemetery Road on AppleTV...Katie Couric reading a reddit SLAM to Scott Galloway was the epitome of Post-Menopausal, Post-Network IDGAF omgomgomg.

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here's one of mine: Everybody loves a themed party. But have you ever dressed in head-to-toe THEME for a party, that in fact...had no theme? Well that's what happened to me and my buddy Glenn Saunders. His wife, my college galpal, sadly was traveling which meant she got to miss out on arriving to a themed party that had no theme. We (ahem, Glenn) was told it was a “cosmic” party it. So naturally we went as the NASA astronaut coaching staff since I now am in possession or more NASA merch than you can possibly count. It was in fact...just a backyard birthday party. No theme. Regular clothes by all who attended. Except for us of course. But if there's one thing that is true...there is no better conversation starter with an entire party of mostly strangers than being full tilt on a theme that no one else knows about. Roll with it!? ...NASA tap us in?

Woman on xx