Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays | 
Four book club meetings in 6 days. 😊 📚 (Tagged book is tonight‘s.)
"I was sure the building stood for all matters having to do with that four-chambered, fist-shaped muscle we carry- that carries us-with constancy. That beats-did you know?-more than one hundred thousand times a day".
"Tell a woman she is beautiful, and she might- it's very possible- feel like a fool. Roses die quick. They will do.
The girl you want does not exist.
The girl you want does exist.
But not like that. And not like that. Or like that. Or like that.
She is sitting across from you, looking just beyond you- at herself".
"Even when I was nothing, I was arriving"
pickReally insightful essays, so beautifully written. I wanted to underline every sentence.
No joke this is one of my favorite parts of Before Sunset (a movie that I love deeply), and mentioned in the same sentence as Beetlejuice. I feel very seen right now!
A family is more than it shows. That the future‘s unspecified terms provide a few recognizable basics, and that I might find, somewhere in me, a tension—the good kind—for tapping into what springs me forward, is, I reason, the hope. Growing up, for a long period that‘s not worth mentioning here, I thought the expression was “Play it by year.” As in, take your time. A whole year. More. Whatever you need. There‘s no rush.
(Photo: my family)
This book of essays is beautiful, like an extended prose poem. It was a hidden gem I found at #TheStrand on Thursday. I love the line "I am no longer a human but an undulation."
#nyc
“There are nights when I go to bed a little foolish and pretend the world is a disco ball and that the stars are simply reflected dots. That none of this is too dire and how the impossibility of not knowing everything is an advantage.” Day two #riotgrams #currentread
pickI think that Heart Museum might be the most lovely piece of writing I‘ve ever had the joy of reading. It‘s meandering and precise and relatable and distant and so many other beautiful things. I‘m three hours in to the readathon and might need to take a break to just bask in the memory of this essay. #24in48
pickYou know how you sometimes read a book at the exact right moment in your life, and it‘s so all-consuming that you have to stop yourself from openly weeping while reading it? Oh wait... that‘s not a thing? Just me? ok cool.
"We have an arrangement that was never formally arranged. A consideration for turning down invitations. We are happy for the person who is indulging in her space" - Durga Chew-Bose, Too Much And Not the Mood
pickThis essay collection reads like diving into the mind of Durga Chew-Boss, and I loved it. Her insight to the world as a daughter, a daughter of immigrants, a first-generation Canadian woman really spoke to me. Especially this passage. She articulates almost perfectly the divides that a first-generation individual lives. It's a really fantastic book and I'm looking forward to reading more from her in the future.
These essays are bringing to mind moments of my childhood. Very much enjoying it.
I hope everyone is having a good Christmas! I'm diving into this collection while Christmas dinner is being cooked and before the rush of family members arrive.
pickPersonal essays in a style that reminds me of Maggie Nelson‘s, with so many philosophical meanderings that I felt it necessary to relinquish control and just see where Chew-Bose‘s introspective thoughts would take me. The first essay, Heart Museum, takes nearly half the book, and it‘s a gorgeous riff on the heart: our connections to the people in our lives, and also how we find the inner resources to survive hard times. 💗🇨🇦#SouthAsian
History is not indelible. History hardly exists. History is a pool of questions that begin with “Whatever happened to?” History is not—on its own—staunch. History is not the number of suitcases you moved with, the plants you carried with you, the people you left behind. History is an obligation that ages you. It trips you up. It skulks and grovels, particularly for those trying hard to move on.
My paternal grandmother, a statistician who‘d go to work every day at the Writers Building [...] was the director. She was in charge of an office of only men who called her “sir.”
… as a little girl, I connected to Matthew Cuthbert more so than Anne.
When sisters walk side by side, they move slow and talk speedy, and seem somehow capable of time travel. Or perhaps sisterhood is, plainly, a version of time travel.
(Photo of me, on the right, with two of my sisters. 1963.)
I care little for plot and prefer a lingering glow, and often flip back a few pages because I overlooked a crucial turn while half reading on the train, distracted by a group of French teenagers who are, by some chemical law or cultural precedent, cooler than I‘ll ever be.
I wasn‘t hungry when I got up, but after taking the time to make pudla (chickpea crepes) stuffed with squash and peas, NOW I‘m hungry!
Two more pages during supper, now off to a poetry reading. 😊
Writing is awkward work and it‘s become clearer to me why friends of mine have relinquished their desks and write instead from the comfort of their beds. Not in bed. From bed. Like sea otters floating on their backs, double-chinned and banging their front paws on a keyboard.
That spiked measure of awe—of oof—feels like a general slowing, even though what‘s really taking place is nothing short of a general quickening. The sheer, ensorcelled panic of feeling moved.
There was Marisa Tomei‘s squeak. Her stomp. Her invention. In My Cousin Vinny, as if contriving a new hybrid of Bambi from Brooklyn, she pronounced deer as dia. Tomei as Mona Lisa Vito was a woman with demands who could disqualify you by merely raising the ridge of her brow. Her eyes semaphore. I was mesmerized.
We talked about manatees because I‘d recently seen an ad to adopt one. “For the Holidays,” the ad proposed. “ Nature‘s Precious Treasures.” Jackie & I both agreed how naturally forlorn manatees look—like underwater shar-peis stuck in some forever torpor. Like they‘d already surrendered themselves to their endangered fate. For half a block we pondered adopting one & sharing custody, because when friends move away, what else is there to talk about?
I️ think I‘m in a reading slump because some readers raved to me about this book and, aside from a handful of quotes, I‘m like MEH. 🤷🏻♀️😕
My nail color matches the gold leaf on my current read! I‘m feeling very on brand, haha.
I bought this one earlier this year in NYC and one of the booksellers at Strand told me it was her favorite book of the year! I was sold.
A friend and I both got a copy and were supposed to read it together, but she forgot to tell me she started it, so I‘m playing catch-up. 🙃
It‘s quite good so far!
This month our theme is Essay Collections! We have six great picks for you this month, including TOO MUCH AND NOT IN THE MOOD. Download the latest episode for the scoop.
https://www.readingwomenpodcast.com/blog/2017/9/6/ep-29-essay-collections
Weekend TBR: Finishing up a 'secret' book for my postal book group this weekend. Pictured here is the book mail for the week. Also, Winnie is in her happy place next to Mr Wonderful 🐶 Aloha Friday 🌺🌅 #dogsoflitsy
Day 20: #ReadingWomenMonth⠀
Here's my #shelfie for today. This is my immediate TBR (yes, I've had to categorize my TBR stacks...) and I am so eager to get into these books. Have you read any of them? - A⠀
pickThe essays in here were decent with some moments of brilliance.
"She is open in ways that do not attract attention in the same manner she attracts attention. There is a difference. And neither requires your sanction."
"When sisters walk side by side, they move slow and talk speedy, and seem somehow capable of time travel. Or perhaps sisterhood is, plainly, a
version of time travel."
"You don't have to believe in ghosts to feel haunted by the draft of vanishing memories."
bailedThis is too high-brow for me. I need to find a good book soon!
1st book of June. Hoping for a strong month, for the most part wanting to forget May happened with the exception of Beartown.
Is there something to be learned from fast tenderness that wanes just as fast as it forms? Unsophisticated idolatry.
I love it when I'm off work and come back to find new books from my TBR list!
This book! It has some of the most original prose I've come across in a long time.
