Ever-Expanding Blog Post
::in beta-testing::
An ever-evolving and thought generating list of books read, questions unanswered, and feminist comments rethinking the capacity of a blog post.
Thoughts on how to move forward much appreciated!
The Books:
December 12th: Even Though I Don’t Miss You by Chelsea Martin. A small book of poetry of acting shitty toward others, feeling lonely, wanting to be loved, and how come we evolved that way? And it’s funny, and reminds me of me and most of my friends.
November 26th: O Fallen Angel by Kate Zambreno. So flippin’ weird. But I like it.
A Feminist Thing:
Sweden rocks introducing a new movie rating system to help consumers better understand gender bias in the movies they are about to pay to see. Called the Bechdel test, movies are graded on three points:
- There must be at least two women with names in the film.
- At least two women must talk to each other at some point.
- The women must talk to each other about something other than a man.
The Books:
November 15th: Everyone is Pretty by Lydia Millet. My new favorite book.
Since the summer I started and stopped a couple chunky novels, including David Foster Wallaces’ Infinite Jest. I think I needed something I could fully dive into without taking me weeks on end to finish (because if you’re anything like me, my brain emotions don’t function correctly if I’m in the middle of a story). So I picked up Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird for a solid reread, and it was amazing and beautiful. After I read my first book by Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius. Being in my 20’s it helped me reflect on confusing times and I also learned a bit about the competitive nature of apartment hunting in big cities. Then I moved onto No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. The psychopathic mentally scared me a bunch while reading, and it was hard for me to get through. The movie is eerily faithful to the book, including the non-orchestral background noises. Then I reread an old favorite, So Far from God, by Ana Castillo, a book I lent to a friend almost 10 years ago and never saw again (it even had my notes in it!). So I reordered a copy, and although it I wouldn’t name it my current favorite book, it is still an incredible story of 5 women’s journeys. And somewhere in there I read Vonnegut’s Hocus Pocus, hilarious and not connected to the Disney movie 😉
The Books:
After attending a brilliant Graphic Medicine conference in Brighton, UK I rushed home to catch up on my graphic novels. I was privileged to meet all of these amazing writer-artists working to sharing personal and cultural stories affected by severe illness.
July 11th: A small piece of work-in progress wherein we hear of Tree Girl’s Roots by Mita Mahato.
July 11th: Epileptic by David B.
July 9th: Billy, Me & You: A Memoir of Grief and Recovery by Nicola Streeten
♦
June 23rd: Backcountry by Sarah Marcus. Congratulations on a brave and beautifully lyric first collection publication!
A Feminist Thing:
Participate in Project Nice! For more information visit: Smart Girls at the Party and send your nice videos to [email protected]
The Books:
Now Reading: What is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics by Adrienne Rich
June 16th : Crossing the Water by Sylvia Plath. “From her lips ampersands and percent signs”
June 14th : Space, in Chains by Laura Kasischke. A reminder of the real role riddles play in our lives.
June 11th : The Last 4 Things by Kate Greenstreet and accompanying short film. A real tribute to spoken and visual performance of poetry. Watching the Greenstreet’s film from Kicking Wind giving good vibes to one submit to The Body Electric Poetry Film Festival.
June 10th : Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. It took me until the last page of narrative, right before the “Notes” to learn that this is actually nonfiction. That’s a lot of things happening to one town! Seems like Savannah gossip life could be more dangerous than phone tapping.
A Question:
To those who write characters. Have you ever almost finished a piece of significant length, and then realized your character has had to change drastically? For example, this whole time you were writing toward a love scene between Character A and Character B and then your realized that they actually have to be siblings? I dunno, just an example, but I’m curious.
A Feminist Thing:
I recently listened to an Alison Rosen is Your New Best Friend postcast with Aisha Tyler as guest. The two women gave amazing insights on how to make decisions quickly, be dedicated artists, faithful partners, and healthy individuals all at the same time. I learned how to limit the choices of the minor activities in my day, like outfits and breakfast, to save brain space for those really important decisions. They really kick butt, and you should listen to them for inspiration!
