This book has a low Litsy rating & I understand why. The blurb on the back cover refers to its “otherness,” which is the perfect word to describe it. Much of the story is un-pin-down-able. The time period is unclear. The characters‘ identities, allegiances, & moralities are unclear. It‘s hard to find your footing. And the answers we get by the end aren‘t fully illuminating. There are still pieces I feel confused about. 👇🏻

Oh, look! Someone made an “I drink & I know things” meme just for me. 😅

Many of the poems felt personal to the point of exclusion; I struggled to connect with them. Still, there were some gems. If ever I have a Writer‘s Corner, the following will be on the wall:

“All things written feel a little terrified at first,
...
but making anything you have explored time,
and exploring time you have created the world,
even if it is only a little cairn of broken bricks
at the end of the rainbow.”

For these words, I‘m grateful.

I think Cordova tried to accomplish a bit too much in just one book. I also “wish” the source of the family‘s magic didn‘t come from quite so far afield…but I still enjoyed this magical tale! Perfect for fans of Encanto, The Night Circus, & The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, with themes of family, secrecy, communication, prejudice, mother-daughter relationships, folklore, domestic abuse, & generational trauma.

This is why I live in The Ocean State, & why I seek out the quietest beaches possible. 🌊

Looking through reviews, I‘m noticing a common theme…& it‘s one that echoes my exact sentiments: “I‘m surprised by how much I enjoyed this/how good this was!” Honestly, I haven‘t enjoyed a YA book this much in ages. It‘s a (gruesome) story full of complex characters, & complex (& evolving) ethics & morality. It‘s about escaping a traumatic upbringing & about the possibility of healing afterwards. Nothing is (forgive me) “cut & dry.”

Hungry?

Made a snack for my Scare Your Pants Off Book Club for Teens at the Library.

Who else went for a nice walk today? 🌸

I‘ve been busy &, therefore, quiet. But…I‘m reading!

These are current reads, plus a book club book I need to start & finish by the end of the month. I *never* read this many books at once. Truly a sign of how scattered & overwhelmed I‘ve been feeling, tbh. I have to figure out which things I need (or want!) to be dedicated to, & which I can allow myself to shrug off. It‘s a season of growth! 🌱

“People carry electricity for me; they have a current that surges around my body until I‘m exhausted. It‘s hard to pinpoint what it is, exactly; something about their noise, their unruly movement, the unpredictable demands they make on me. It makes the air feel thick, like humanity has…not a scent, but a texture.”

Taking a big step here & admitting that I‘m not actually reading the tagged. I was supposed to read it for my book club, which met last week, & I just never found the time. I‘ve been sitting on it since then & not reading *anything* because of the shame. 🙈😅 I know better. I swear I do. And yet…

Anyway, my husband took this photo (& a few others) of me recently to use as a headshot on the Staff page of my Library‘s website. It‘s nice! 🌿

I am SO excited for this! What a title! And I *loved* Wintering. 😍🤩

I wanted to kick off the rededication of my mornings to poetry with something unassuming & undemanding; I thought white-out poetry/found poetry would do the job nicely. It did…too well, in fact. 😅 I was more ready for more words more quickly than I imagined. While a few of these caught me (p.8, 18, 22, 33), most felt like more like thin gibberish & happenstance rather than careful craft. Still, I imagine creating them was a simple pleasure.

American Gods is THE BOOK that kicked off my life of pleasure reading after college. It was recommended to me by the book buyer at the small, indie bookstore where I was employed; I‘d like to think I would‘ve found my way here without her & without Neil Gaiman…but who knows?

This was a reread to prep for getting a tattoo inspired by one of the characters (the goddess Easter/Ostara). It was just as enchanting & multilayered as I remember. 👇🏻

Home sick today. My at-home test says it‘s just a standard cold, which is a comfort. A rather intense headache is making reading tricky, though, so I‘m indulging in one of my favorite lazy pleasures: episodes of Escape to the Country.

Dreaming of little, thatched cottages; rolling hillsides, & wading plovers.

As a *MASSIVE* Buffy fan (I was once the treasurer of an “I Love David Boreanaz” Fan Club; I role-played as Queen C in Buffy chat rooms; later, I wrote my letter of intent to get into grad school *ABOUT* Buffy), I was obviously going to be disappointed by this book. And I was. 😅🙈 More spoiler-laden details in the comments…but suffice it to say that if you‘re going to write a BtVS book, you have to stick to the vampire lore created for the show.

Getting my Poetry TBR ready for the 1st!

#NationalPoetryMonth

Much as I‘m inclined to complain about a lot of things in this book (as super-fans are wont to do when something new appears in their fandom), I wont be complaining about this chapter heading. It‘s perfect.

I wrote a blog post about #PoemsBeforePhones for work. The idea (which I started way back when, here on Litsy!) is that you read (at least) one poem each morning before reaching for your phone.

Note to self as much as others: Stop doom-scrolling through social media before you‘ve even had a goddamn cup of coffee! Who does that serve???

Here‘s a link to my post, where I recommend some of my favorite collections: https://tinyurl.com/AlyishaPoetry

I enjoyed these unsettling short stories in graphic novel format. The ambiguous endings make it the perfect choice for a Teen Book Club. My favorite selection is “The Nesting Place,” which seems to shout the lesson, “If anything can save you, reading can!” I especially liked the darkly twisted allusion to the bedroom from “Goodnight, Moon” in the conclusion. Heavy on the red, black, & blue color palette. Be prepared for sharp teeth & eyelessness.

Oh! I forgot to say…I (FINALLY) made it to the Post Office today! 😱📬📦

@Amiable @Nute

It‘s all happening…⚰️

Let the nostalgia commence!

My local indie brought this book to my attention. No one‘s posted about it yet so here‘s a blurb:

An idiosyncratic study of American utopian experiments--through the lens of one woman's quest to create a more communal life in a time of unending economic & social precarity. Shirk seeks solace in her community of friends, artists, & theologians. They try to imagine a different kind of life: What might be replicable? What might be doomed?

It took Ray & Moth twice as long to hike the South West Coast Path as their guidebook, by Paddy Dillon, said it would. Similarly, it took me at least twice as long to read their story as I hoped. Though I‘m sure the pacing was true to life (as they weren‘t out for a leisurely stroll but walking [in their fifties] as a way to contend with their sudden homelessness & a terminal medical diagnosis), it was slow-going. Sometimes painfully so.👇🏻

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread.”
-John Muir

I just put a *bunch* of poetry (& poetry-adjacent) books on hold. Tagging the collections below for anyone who‘s interested!

Photo by my good pal, Dave.
(Instagram: @ decent_nature_photography)

Which new books of poetry should I check out?

I‘m always a sucker for nature poetry.

Looking for beauty & hope (twinned in with whatever else the poet has to offer).

Illustrator Sally Nixon (@ sallustration) posted this drawing of me, today, on her Instagram.

Okay…so, it‘s not actually me. But it might as well be! I love her art so much.

Here to admit I don‘t always love this book the way that I want to. It can be SLOW GOING. Take the following:

“Charlestown, previously West Polmear, remains a picaresque harbor built, oddly enough, by Charles Rashleigh, who wasn‘t even slightly egotistical & changed the population from 9 lobster-pot-weaving, pipe-whittling fishermen to 3,000 warehouse workers filling cargo ships with clay, quicker than you can say “kaolin poultice anyone?”

WHAT.

I waited too long to review.

Here‘s what I remember: the prose is captivating & full. I started out thinking I was going to LOVE it…but the weight & unexpected pattern of the sentences lost me partway through, and I ended up just really liking it. It‘s about a young, unsuccessful Black artist who gets involved with a married couple. When she loses her job, she unexpectedly moves in with her lover, his wife, & their adopted, Black daughter.👇🏻

OOF. I‘ve been horribly negligent but these ARE (& have been!) wrapped & ready to go. I just have to find some time to get to the post office! 📦🎀

@Amiable @Nute

Still reading this. 🙈 @TheKidUpstairs

Also, I‘m finally being tested for allergies (for the first time in my life). Guess what the biggest bump is for?

“I am not good at parties…It is a foregone conclusion I will once or twice hurt someone‘s feelings deeply because of something I say or a face I make, which I will of course think about when I ride the train home, and actually, forever, even though I tried to be merry and keep the conversation light, even thought I can‘t sleep and I can‘t shit, and someone is dying but that one song tells you to slide to the left and you have no choice.”

Because the two people at the heart of The Salt Path (current read) are broke, they‘re constantly hungry and thinking about food. Therefore, there are many passages devoted to “chips.” As such, I took a break from reading & went out for beer & fries. 🙈

It‘s been a lazy few days for me, reading-wise (& otherwise, tbh).

Bonus pic for @Clare-Dragonfly 🐿

See? Squirrels are perched prettily atop their branches. But birds & mushrooms are partying in The Upside Down. 🌀

I don‘t know if anyone else follows the Instagram account @ parkingonthewildside …but Moxie & I do.

We ordered their tapestry back in November & it finally arrived this past week! We may not have a camper van (yet). But we‘re still living the dream in our small way. 🍃🚌🌸

#rabbitsoflitsy

I strayed from The Salt Path to get some work-reading done…but I‘m back now, reading about clawdds (top) & “curzy way” or “crinkle crankle” walls.

@TheKidUpstairs #buddyread

Not at all what I was expecting. This YA murder mystery, with a Criminal Minds meets SVU vibe, is more about the Horror(s) that people are capable of when they‘ve been hurt than it is about jump scares or supernatural beings. Though it‘s true that vampires have always been about power & sexual politics (which is why it was so thrilling that the first vampire featured on Buffy was female…but I digress). A slow read with some style issues.👇🏻

How many points do I get if I recently messaged my first great love, who I haven‘t seen in over 12 years, to recommend a book to him (tagged)? It wasn‘t personal. Just business. 😂

I honestly didn‘t realize it was remotely weird until I‘d already sent the communique. Personally, I think I should get more points for this than for “Recommended a book to a complete stranger.” I take this Reader‘s Advisory stuff pretty seriously. 😜🙈

Did I host the first meeting of our new, horror-themed book club for teens at the Library today? I did.

Did anyone come? They did not. 🙈

But hey, they missed out on a lively (or undead?) discussion about serial killers & gender, a thrilling video by Ask a Mortician‘s Caitlin Doughty about New England‘s *very real* “Vampire Panic,” blood-filled (ok…Cherry Cordial-flavored) Hershey‘s Kisses, & a newspaper flower craft. I was READY to…slay.

I read this LGBTQ MG novel about self-discovery, overcoming tragedy & experiencing your first crush for a book club I‘m leading at the Library. It‘s nominated for a Massachusetts Children‘s Book Award & is my current pick to win.

It‘s so tender & vulnerable, full of art, family, insecurity, bravery & love. Ivy loses her journal, filled with secret drawings, in the aftermath of a tornado that takes her home. But she finds a new sense of belonging.

I submitted 3 literary tattoo designs to an artist whose books opened yesterday! One is inspired by American Gods; the goddess Easter has forget-me-nots tattooed around her left wrist. Another, Harold and the Purple Crayon. It would be a pie with a purple jam smear & a crayon crescent moon. The third comes from my love of the ocean, & a color essay entitled, “Glaucous, the Greeny Blue of Epic Poetry and Succulents” by Katy Kelleher for The Awl.

All Boys Aren‘t Blue is both a memoir & a manifesto. Its tone is both academic & intensely personal. It‘s a lot of things all at once — which makes total sense, given the subject matter (and the nature of humanity)! Specifically, it‘s about growing up queer & black in America - as a middle-class person with a loving & supportive family (not a narrative we hear often). Though it feels crummy to say, I didn‘t think I was going to like it at first.👇

Large disconnect between my reading and my reality right now. 🙈

Also, feeling a bit like Medusa. 🐍

“I had heather and salt air in my veins and flew with the gulls.”

Raise your hand if you‘re easily tempted into wanderlust-filled daydreams by descriptions of tiny churches. 🖐🏻

This is Culbone Church, reputed to be the smallest church in England & definitely one of the most remote. You‘ve got to come at it by foot, 1.5 miles, uphill. The woods surrounding it are filled with fairytale tunnels & are home to the rare, self-cloning, Sorbus vexans trees. It was once the site of a leper colony.

We got a rare day of sunshine before more snow tomorrow! Taking full advantage.

Up next!
Buddy read with @TheKidUpstairs

Hated the beginning. Loved the ending. Shortest review I‘ve ever written. Very hungry after reading all about goat curry, masala dosas, garlic fries, donuts, & Dungeness crab sandwiches. Must acquire nourishment ASAP. No time to waste.

…Although, I‘ll need to change out of my PJ‘s & put real clothes on first. 😅 Love a lazy Saturday morning.

Announcing the winners (plural) of the #NYWD22 Giveaway (I couldn‘t choose just one 🙈): @Nute & @Amiable 🎉! Kimberley, you win for your excellent post about Territory of Light & for being a wonderful daughter; Amy, I don‘t know how you read a book about a pandemic (The Pull of the Stars) while being a hospital-worker during one…but you deserve (more than) a free book. 💞

You can each choose one of my favorite books of 2021 (pictured above)!