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| 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 thats me!!
What I'm reading rn: I lived out my high school dreams and finished The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Apparently most people read this in school? I was not one of them...but I am now!! Ok look, this is going to get me fired from the internet, but I didn't love it. I appreciated it – the style and rhythm of the vignettes The wrestling with race, class and gender in ways that brought it alive. So ya, I'm glad I read it, but what I loved most was the introduction in the 25th anniversary edition. Cisneros gives this stunning journey through her life which ends in an anecdote about her mother that moved me to tears. I sorta wished the whole book had been more of that (again, internet don't fire me. I appreciated it!!!) Oh, and speaking of Cisneros bylines I love...if you haven't read her poem "Ass", I suggest you do. I officiated a wedding (THE Palm Springs wedding) which included this reading and wow wow wow, like my own ass, what a house of enormous happiness.
What I dog-eared the shit out of: What is true love? What is a life of partnership, and do we over-index on that form of love? What role does our community play? If you've ever asked any partially existential question about love, might I suggest you read All About Love by Bell Hooks. I devoured this book in one long sitting on a sunny winter day in the park. I wanted to underline literally everything, but I didn't have a pen or a phone with me so I took to dog earring just about every page instead (which poses a real problem when you want to dog ear both side of a page!!!! A problem I never knew I needed and still don't know how to solve). I promptly bought the book in bulk and handed it out like candy. (And I fantasized about anonymously mailing it to every ex who couldn't seem to wrap their heads around commitment lulz). Reading all about love was like finding my center of gravity, and I hope every one of you find it through this book, too.
What I'm writing: That Novel I'm working on really kicked my ass last week folks. I basically got my weekly submission back from my writing coach with "YOU WHIFFED...HARD" stamped on the front of the 20 pages. JKJK, Julie (writing coach) is too supportive and wonderful and brilliant to ever do that to me. But let's just say, I wasn't "getting it" when it came to deepening the character development at the re-worked opening scenes of That Novel. Which I share to remind you that, sometimes significant things take multiple, countless tries. We fail until we "get it" but only if we keep going. My double-monitor writing command center upgrade couldn't have come at a better time!!! |
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| What gets passed down becomes our history. A few for the canon: Ok, you're going to notice a theme here as soon as I tell you that the piece you must must must read is What if friendship, not marriage, was at the center of life by Rhaina Cohen for The Atlantic. It's about 3 years old, but I just stumbled on it. And there's a high likelihood if we texted this weekend, you received this link from me...married or not. It's a beautiful examination of friendships, their intimacy, and our lack of language and social constructions for lives that revolve around our BFFs. Because That Novel is based in the late 1800s on real women with real friendships, I've read hundreds of preserved letters between best friends. And they sound like they're deeply in love with one-another to a 2023 woman (me) limited by what society tells me a platonic "friendship" can look and sound like. I think my new goal in life is for one day some futuristic outsider to read the handwritten letters I sent to my girlfriends (because I send many) and think to themselves, she's deeply in love with them! Because I am. xx
To have kids or not to have kids? Press reply if you have thoughts. JKJK but that's the central question at the heart of this Dear Sugar Advice Column: "The Ghost Ship That Didn't Carry Us". Some background here: Dear Sugar was my absolute favorite blog a long time ago. "Sugar" is Cheryl Strayed, who later found fame with her book turned movie WILD. One of her taglines was "Write like a motherfucker" which I obviously loved then and I love it now. I posted a photo of a mug with that slogan on it to my facebook page in 2010 and it almost got me fired from my first real job. Three lessons here, 1) Don't accept friend requests from your boss 2) don't work for people who don't get how facebook works [like no, your board member I've never met didn't see this, and if they did who cares??] 3) I'm only just realizing I desperately need this mug in my life as a reminder of the poetry of it all. But back to Dear Sugar...Not only is the writing and life philosophy hauntingly beautiful for any situation, not just kids, it's spot-on reflection for most big decisions. It's long, and worth it for anyone circling around this ever present theme in a woman's life. |
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