Love Burchner and his writing. This one felt like a hodge lodge of others recounting his life and didn’t hit in the same caliber it usually does. GoodLove Burchner and his writing. This one felt like a hodge lodge of others recounting his life and didn’t hit in the same caliber it usually does. Good reminders about taking notice of God and being aware of the world around us. Very simple message hence the name remarkable ordinary lol ...more
Erika gave this as a bday gift and I really loved reading it the past two lazy mornings. Enjoyed the imagery of ordinary life she creates!
POTB:
In AnotErika gave this as a bday gift and I really loved reading it the past two lazy mornings. Enjoyed the imagery of ordinary life she creates!
POTB:
In Another Country Cernobbio, Sunday Morning
The trick is to leave yourself behind, to disguise yourself in the unselfconscious body of a woman you always meant to be, to sip a glass of prosecco in the sun like sipping the sun itself. I pluck the petals of a dozen daisies and always get the same answer; but here where language consists not of words but of syllables of music, no answer matters. There are only flowers. There is only the lake, concealing in its blueness the drowned gates of that first vineyard. And we are still locked safely in, the wine somehow alive in every glass, our tickets home, like the angel's final summons, no more for now than the mother of beauty....more
On a memoir kick- and WOOOOW. So beautifully written about the pain and grief of being a Black woman left behind by death.
“Men’s bodies litter my famOn a memoir kick- and WOOOOW. So beautifully written about the pain and grief of being a Black woman left behind by death.
“Men’s bodies litter my family history. The pain of the women they left behind pulls them from the beyond, makes them appear as ghosts. In death, they transcend the circumstances of this place that I love and hate all at once and become supernatural.”
So much of what it means to be a woman, to live in poverty, to be Black, to be surrounded by racism, to provide for a family as a single mother, to lose the ones you love and feel like your community is being picked apart. Impactful
QOTB: “After I left New York, I found the adage about time healing all wounds to be false: grief doesn't fade. Grief scabs over like scars and pulls into new, painful configurations as it knits. It hurts in new ways. We are never free from grief. We are never free from the feeling that we have failed. We are never free from self-loathing. We are never free from the feeling that something is wrong with us, not with the world that made this mess”...more
Audiobook to and from Richmond to pass the time. Feel like I need to do more research on the Duggars but what a ride. 19 Kids and Counting from TLC anAudiobook to and from Richmond to pass the time. Feel like I need to do more research on the Duggars but what a ride. 19 Kids and Counting from TLC and one of the older daughters shares her insight. The amount of religious baggage and lack of family boundaries was wild to hear about. So fascinating what we are told as kids and how we so easily believe in the family way without questioning how to create our own. I respect how she called out the silencing and flaws of her family while also acknowledging the love she has- felt like it held the complexity of relationships well...more
This was not it for me. Honestly felt like a lot of flexing of artsy/famous people and places and I just wanted to get through it. Gave me Maestro vibThis was not it for me. Honestly felt like a lot of flexing of artsy/famous people and places and I just wanted to get through it. Gave me Maestro vibes in the relationship dynamic department. Very tortured artist struggling to make ends meet to live out the dream ...more
Sorry book club- but this just wasn’t it for me. I will caveat that I went into this half heartedly and def skimmed a lot. Time travel is usually a buSorry book club- but this just wasn’t it for me. I will caveat that I went into this half heartedly and def skimmed a lot. Time travel is usually a bust in my opinion unless it’s About Time. Felt cheesy and pointless to me tbh. ...more
Sad book alert. Follows family lineage and genealogies of Indian heritage, colonialism, substance abuse, etc. I knew it was gonna be a doozy characterSad book alert. Follows family lineage and genealogies of Indian heritage, colonialism, substance abuse, etc. I knew it was gonna be a doozy character wise when they had a family tree at the beginning. I particularly was struck by how Indian folks identified as invisible because of their existence and culture being wiped out of the picture. Insane how people “survive” and what they have to do to simply keep moving forward. I wished there was more elaboration on specific stories and characters
QOTB: “But surviving wasn’t enough. To endure or pass through endurance test after endurance test only ever gave you endurance test passing abilities. Simply lasting was great for a wall, for a fortress, but not for a person.”...more
An absolute must read. Chalk full of information and research on eviction, poverty, renting, landlords, inequality. So moving. So important. So prevalAn absolute must read. Chalk full of information and research on eviction, poverty, renting, landlords, inequality. So moving. So important. So prevalent. “Rent eats first.” Broke my heart to think of the hopelessness in urban areas where you can’t pay rent, you can’t keep jobs, you can’t keep your children in stable homes. “Every condition exists,” Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, “simply because someone profits by its existence. This economic exploitation is crystallized in the slum.” Exploitation. Now, there’s a word that has been scrubbed out of the poverty debate.” Such a wake up call to those with privilege on the ability to right the wrongs in the home-owning/renting process.
QOTB:
“The home is the center of life. It is a refuge from the grind of work, the pressure of school, and the menace of the streets. We say that at home, we can “be ourselves.” Everywhere else, we are someone else. At home, we remove our masks.
The home is the wellspring of personhood. It is where our identity takes root and blossoms, where as children, we imagine, play, and question, and as adolescents, we retreat and try. As we grow older, we hope to settle into a place to raise a family or pursue work. When we try to understand ourselves, we often begin by considering the kind of home in which we were raised.”
Audiobook that actually kept my attention now I wanna watch the movie. Tragic and wild story- need to hear more details on the true story. Incredible Audiobook that actually kept my attention now I wanna watch the movie. Tragic and wild story- need to hear more details on the true story. Incredible reminder of resilience and how people will create worlds of their own to get through something. The way this mom loved her son and fought for him made me weepy. The audiobook was told from the perspective of a little boy and tbh the voice was annoying. Insane to think about the reality if the first 5 years of your life were in captivity. Wish I heard more from the moms perspective and what actually all went down ...more
Felt really predictable from the get go of the plot but was an overall good read. Wouldn’t rave about it but gave context on what it is to have unresoFelt really predictable from the get go of the plot but was an overall good read. Wouldn’t rave about it but gave context on what it is to have unresolved loss in losing a family member and the layers of lies that people will take to the grave. Trust your gut ruthie is all I have to say
QOTB: “I found it strange that no word exists for a parent who loses a child. If children lose their parents, they are orphans. If a husband loses his wife, he’s a widower. But there’s no word for a parent who loses a child. I’ve come to believe that the event is just too big, too monstrous, too overwhelming for words. No word could ever describe the feeling, so we leave it unsaid.”...more
User error because I audio booked this when I was tired and traveling and not super paying attention. I also think historical fiction sometimes has meUser error because I audio booked this when I was tired and traveling and not super paying attention. I also think historical fiction sometimes has me a little bit yawning although I know this would be up someone’s alley. I would probably truthfully rate it higher if I read it. Really important acknowledgment of slavery and the “othering” of black folks. Even down to the way James in this novel deceived his masters by changing his diction/speech. The de-humanizing aspects and lack of control that slave families have for themselves is heartbreaking. It did bring in characters like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer soooooOoooo that threw me?!
Toni Morrison is brilliant and doesn’t shy away from the direct implications of race and othering. These lectures shed light on the dehumanization andToni Morrison is brilliant and doesn’t shy away from the direct implications of race and othering. These lectures shed light on the dehumanization and “othering” of black folks and the history of “foreign” lands and racism in America. So important. Must read! Also helped me understand the background of her other novels like Paradise and Beloved
QOTB: “One purpose of scientific racism is to identify an outsider in order to define one’s self. Another possibility is to maintain (even enjoy) one’s own difference without contempt for the categorized difference of the Othered. Literature is especially and obviously revelatory in exposing / contemplating the definition of self whether it condemns or supports the means by which it is acquired. How does one become a racist, a sexist? Since no one is born a racist and there is no fetal predisposition to sexism, one learns Othering not by lecture or instruction but by example.”...more
Truly delightful. Felt like so many stories wrapped into one- but not to the point where it droned on or got confusing. Perfect character development Truly delightful. Felt like so many stories wrapped into one- but not to the point where it droned on or got confusing. Perfect character development taking a deep dive into a unique and unconventional family estate in the world war era. The boldness of Cristabel and the womanhood she represented was chefs kiss. Then cut to WW2 from the perspective of Britain/France. All things coming of age, bits on war, gender, love, family but had cheeky lil undertones. Took forever for me to find proper time to get through but love love love
QOTB:
"I don't think they'd care. If you were good, and I know you would be, they wouldn't even notice you were a woman."
"But that's the crux of it, isn't it? Either they notice I'm a woman, and they don't want me because of that, or I have to hope they somehow don't notice, which leaves me rather eradicated either way."...more
Started a whole notes section in my phone for quotes from this book. I love Krista Tippett and her wisdom in her podcasts and this book was just that.Started a whole notes section in my phone for quotes from this book. I love Krista Tippett and her wisdom in her podcasts and this book was just that. Interviews and perspectives on wisdom, love, faith, hope etc. Emphasis on the both/and of life itself.
QOTB: “I’m glad for the language of resilience that has entered the twenty-first century lexicon, from urban planning to mental health. Resilience is a successor to mere progress, a companion to sustainability. It acknowledges from the outset that things will go wrong. All of our sol-tons will eventually ourlive their usefulness. We will make messes, and disruption we do not cause or predict will land on us. This is the drama of being alive. To nurture a resilient human being, or a resilient city, is to build in an expectation of adversity, a capacity for inevitable vulnerability. As a word and as a strategy, resilience honors the unromantic reality of who we are and how we are, and so becomes a refreshingly practical compass for the systems and societies we can craft. It's a shift from wish-based optimism to reality-based hope. It is akin to meaningful, sustained happiness not dependent on a state of perfection or permanent satisfaction, not an emotional response to circumstances of the moment, but a way of being that can meet the range of emotions and experiences, light and dark, that add up to a life. Resilience is at once proactive, pragmatic, and humble. It knows it needs others. It doesn't overcome failure so much as transmute it, integrating it into the reality that evolves.”...more
Easy lil morning read of poems. Nothing earth shattering. Some I snapped pics of to remind me and look back on later and some I skimmed on through. ItEasy lil morning read of poems. Nothing earth shattering. Some I snapped pics of to remind me and look back on later and some I skimmed on through. It was more cynical than I thought it would be but such is life. Notes on divorce, children, policies, life etc
POTB:
Animals
The president called undocumented immigrants animals, and in the nature documentary I watched this morning with my kids, after our Saturday pancakes, the white fairy tern doesn't build a nest but lays her single speckled egg in the crook of a branch or a tree knot. It looks precarious there because it is. And while she's away, because even mothers must eat, another bird swoops in and pecks it, sips some of what now won't become. The tern returns and knows something isn't right--the egg crumpled, the red slick and saplike running down the tree-but her instinct is so strong, she sits. Just sits on the broken egg. I have been this bird. We have been animals all our lives, with our spines and warm blood, our milky tits and fine layers of fur. Our live births, too, if we're lucky. But what animal wrenches a screaming baby from his mother? Do we know anymore what it is to be human? I've stopped knowing what it is to be human....more
Felt very “roses are red, violets are blue”. Cute easy poems that hone in on the sustainability of loving and being loved.
“no one would say life handFelt very “roses are red, violets are blue”. Cute easy poems that hone in on the sustainability of loving and being loved.
“no one would say life handed you a silver spoon or golden parachute but you still met married bought a home reared a family supported a church and kept a mighty faith in your God and each other they say love/is a many splendored thing but maybe that's because we recognize you loved no matter what the burden you laughed no matter for the tears you persevered in your love
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