Season’s greetings, friends!

It’s been quite awhile, and I hope you’ve all had/are having a safe, peaceful, if somewhat bizarre holidays. I’ve been reading and art-ing, playing around with paper cranes and my mother’s very cool paper cutting machine, walking the dog, writing letters, getting back into cryptic crosswords, and more of the usual. What have the past months looked like for y’all?

Anyway, I’ve got my readings from November and December to share, along with some accumulated Internet findings. No plans as of yet for a special year in review or New Year’s edition, but there’s still time for inspiration to strike!

As always, I’d love to hear about what you’ve been up to, about what you’ve been reading/watching/creating/listening to/observing/thinking.

Cheers to 2022!

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Links

Articles that made me think:

• I Miss it All — David Kelly on the commodification of community… very quotable!
• The Odor of Things — A Harper’s article covering scent from its biological origins in the olfactory bulb to the scent wars between laundry detergent manufacturers, from perfumery to, of course, ambergris. An expanded “interesting fact,” you could call it.
• A heartfelt Modern Love column from the New York Times.
• Mackenzie Scott on philanthropy, how the definition has narrowed, and how we can make it more inclusive.

Quick & cool things:

• The time, in the context of somewhere in some book.
• Find the city that fits your priorities… I was recommended some small towns in California and Hawaii, which I don’t disagree with. Where does the algorithm place you?
• 52 interesting facts!
• This cyclist is quite innovative. Just watch.
• Kinda interesting: the most common language spoken in every state, besides English or Spanish.
• I had more fun reading this guide to Netflix’s Christmas movies than watching the 2.5 I have so far.

Planet Earth

• Another mesmerizing map of Earth and its atmospheric goings-ons.
• Recommendations for the most effective places to donate to re: climate change (they’re all policy-related, because…. that’s where we need all the help we can get these days)

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November 2021 readings

• This was a somewhat disappointing month of reading, unfortunately. Not much else to say.

November 2021 books

• The Sympathizer — Viet Thanh Nguyen
  • I’m trying really hard to get into this, and I just can’t. But I’m pushing through… will get through it… somehow.
• Women Talking — Miriam Toews
  • Much less engaging than the last book I read by Toews, as of a quarter ways in. But I liked that one so much I’m willing to keep giving this a try…
• In the Midst of Winter — Isabel Allende
  • A beautiful story tinged with humor and tragedy, following the lives of three immigrants in Brooklyn. Allende weaves the characters’ backstories into the main plot in a way that constantly held my interest— and as always, I appreciate a book where I learn about the world, this time, the culture and chaos in South America.
• Mona at Sea — Elizabeth Gonzalez James
  • An unemployed, cynical millennial, circa 2008. I couldn’t stop listening to this, and got through the ~8 hours in less than two days, if that’s a sign of how engaging the novel is. Gave me lots of vibes similar to Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
• Privilege — Mary Adkins
  • I’m a sucker for books set on college campuses, and for novels structured as multiple storylines of individual characters that eventually collide, so I obviously enjoyed this. Moments of humor, serious discussion of sexual assault, commentary on socio-economic status, and more, though some of this felt slightly forced. I liked the book for the reasons mentioned previously, but won’t remember it for long.
• Palm Springs — Mary Adkins
  • I wanted a light, entertaining read (listen), and that’s (mostly) what I got, aside from some commentary on absurd wealth inequality and close calls with terminal genetic disease.
• The Tattooist of Aushwitz — Heather Morris
  • While the book well conveyed the absolute horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, it’s narrative and characters did not capture my attention in any way. I read it to finish it, and the love story did nothing to soften the brutality of its setting.
• The End of the Myth — Greg Grandin
  • Very political, somewhat disillusioning. Kind of boring.
• The House on Mango Street — Sandra Cisneros
  • Grabbed this from the library on a whim, figuring it was a quick classic to read. Poignant, in a word.
• My Year Abroad — Chang-rae Lee
  • Trickily, the titular year abroad is not actually explained till nearly halfway through the novel, despite many a teasing reference. Those kept me interested enough through some seemingly random and somewhat boring narration, all with a sort of absurdist twist— and the actual travelogue section was colorful enough to make it all worth it.
  • Then, once the narrative shifted more to the “past” section, the updates on the “present” kept me engaged— very clever and effective writing!
• Crossroads — Jonathan Franzen
  • A classic family saga. Got drawn in, despite not really liking any of the characters, which is an achievement.
  • …until about page 400, when I lost interest completely. The ending was… not worth it.
• Beach Read — Emily Henry
  • It was what it said it would be, and I enjoyed it.

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December 2021 readings

• It was an odd moment when two of the books I was reading were discussing Leibnitz and Newton developing calculus, but one (Quicksilver, which I started but sadly had to return to the library when only about 100 pages in) definitely did so in a more entertaining way (compared to Everything and More… so sorry, DFW).
• I’m all over the world here— Australia (Apples Never Fall), South Korea (Crying in H Mart), Ireland (The Elephant of Belfast), Japan (Norwegian Wood). I’ll try to hit South America and Africa next, I suppose.

December 2021 books

• Bewilderment - Richard Powers
  • An expansive view from a convergent source of a father and son— so far a gentle, meandering story full of facts and truths about our world, about grief and ethics and love and loss, and all the things it means to be human in a universe that may be full of other lives.
• The Dawn of Everything — David Graeber and David Wengrow
  • Making me rethink everything I learned in history, and making ponder more deeply what exactly it means to be human in relation to others.
• Everything and More — David Foster Wallace
  • DFW strikes a fine balance of math and… no math, here, in describing the history of infinity. Until the second half, in which… I’ll be honest, I skimmed completely, because I was lost and unmotivated. Yes, the concept of infinity is a mathematical mind-fuck, but my interest stops right about there.
• The Council of Animals — Nick McDonell
  • (Spoiler alert) A council of animals vote on whether to kill and eat the humans. The vote does not go in our favor. A little boy saves our species by promising to have us live in zoos. It’s clearly a fable, and I’m not quite sure what it all means, but it was scary and not as fantastical as it seems. A quick, thought-provoking, entertaining and somewhat confounding listen. Recommend.
• Signs and Wonder — Alex Ohlin
  • Short stories. None particularly caught my attention.
• When You Read This — Mary Adkins
  • An epistolary romantic-ish, grief-ish New York City novel comprising fragments of emails, blog posts, and the like. I like direct action much more than this second-hand narration, and the characters were, in my opinion, not very like-able or well-defined. An overall “meh.”
• The Elephant of Belfast — S. Kirk Walsh
  • The promised climax of the book is coming far too late, but I’m intrigued enough to keep listening through the boring and far-too-drawn-out exposition. I don’t know if I needed all those dashes, but I’m keeping them.
  • So not worth it. The elephant featured barely, the main character was irritating, and this whole tragedy could have been avoided if people didn’t have zoos.
• Apples Never Fall — Liane Moriarty
  • Hard to get into, which was somewhat surprising given the gripping nature of Moriarty’s other books, even when I similarly disliked all the characters.
  • Okay, about 35% in, and I’m intrigued.
• Crying in H Mart — Michelle Zauner
  • Listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author— and her voice was very soothing! Zauner’s memoir conveys a gripping trio of fascinating authenticity about her Korean culture, brutal honesty of her childhood, and pondering processing of her relationship with her mother. Enjoyed and recommend.
• Planet Palm — Jocelyn C. Zuckerman
  • Definitely opened my eyes to yet another incredibly corrupt and horrendous industry in our world, but the book wandered to all sorts of seemingly irrelevant places and could have been much more direct, concise, and powerful.
• Norwegian Wood — Haruki Murakami
  • I saw this as a montage of conversations, self- and relational-reflections with surprisingly relatable insights, stories within stories, and a bizarre amount of unnecessary sexual scenes. Not a book I’d choose to read again, but it was interesting, and I’ve wanted to read at least one of Murakami’s books, and this seemed to be the least weird.
• We Are the Brennans — Tracey Lange
  • For some reason I had extremely high expectations for this family drama, but I just didn’t get into it as much as I wish I would. The “secrets” and plot twists were too expected, the characters relatively flat, and the writing style simple and one-dimensional.
• Early Morning Riser — Katherine Henry
  • Listened to this one. Again, high expectations, again, not quite met. I liked the characters a bit more, but not by much; the writing was somewhat more stylistic and witty, but not exceedingly more interesting.