Firsts
Currently reading:
James by Percival Everett
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver [ongoing]
Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962–1972 by Alejandra Pizarnik [ongoing]
Books finished this week: 1
★★★★★
Where this book came from: I can genuinely find no record of this (which is making me nervous that maybe I forgot to log some book purchases . . . ?) but I’m 99 percent sure I bought this at the Center for Fiction
Why this book: Sabrina (hi, Sabrina!) mentioned it to me a couple weeks ago, and once I saw that it was about a crime and rich assholes in the 1970s, I was all in.
Thoughts: This is a slow burn and a sweeping story, and I fully acknowledge that it may not be for everyone. But I loved it. The multiple POVs, the dueling disappearances, the deep dives into characters, the twists and turns of the investigations, the summer camp vibes, the rich people behaving terribly, the very Clarice Starling-esque female investigator——truly, there was nothing about this book that didn’t feel like it was for me. It’s an almost-500-page book and I flew through it; it was hard to stop reading at the end of a commute or before going to bed at night.
Library updates:
Hallo-week was action-packed. It started off strong with a Big Weekend reunion at Ripped Bodice, where I walked in with every intention of buying nothing and then was seduced by the pretty wrapping paper (and fascinating book summary) of the Blind Date books.
After unwrapping, I realized I actually bought the first book in this series on another trip to Ripped Bodice. Tell me it has superheroes and I’m all in (and you know I’ll call it research for my novel).
Britt (hi, Britt!) and I saw Halloween at Bibliotheque on Tuesday night and then we——meaning me and my hyperfixation with that series——dominated the movie trivia afterward and won a witchy wine goblet.
On actual Halloween, Tori (hi, Tori!) and I saw Drunk Dracula, a spooky experience from the Drunk Shakespeare troupe, which was incredibly fun, even for someone like me who knows the book inside and out and sometimes gets annoyed by inconsistencies. (And I’m not just saying that because I volunteered——and was selected to——chug a beer via straw before the drunk actor finished bobbing for apples. It was a whole thing.) The Drunk folks just know how to lean into the absurd and put on the most entertaining shows——though I do worry for all of their livers.
And the week wrapped up with a lot of firsts. Jumping to yesterday, Saturday, Tori (hi again!) and I went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and then adjourned to Fraunces Tavern for what was either a very, very late lunch, or a slightly early dinner. Before yesterday, I had never been to any of those places. I spent most of my time on Liberty Island comparing the experience to 2000’s X-Men, and have come to the conclusion that there is absolutely no way you could fit four X-Men and a Sabertooth in her crown. Also, as Tori helpfully pointed out when I wondered aloud how they were all able to get up there in the first place, “They’re superhuman.” Those stairs are no joke.
Ellis Island is also where all the world’s leaders are gathered for a UN summit of some kind in the climax of X-Men (2000), but I managed to get most of the references out of my system at the Statue of Liberty. On a more serious note, I learned so much on Ellis Island——including finding my three-year-old grandfather and his mother on a ship manifest when they returned from Czechoslovakia in 1928 (!!)——and am very grateful to have visited.
Staying on the theme of firsts, I had therapy on Friday night (not a first) and was catching my therapist up on all kinds of things that have been happening over the last few weeks, because we had to reschedule our last session. And I found myself using a lot of positive words——excited, happy, looking forward to——to describe what’s happened and what comes next. I realized that, for the first time in a long time, I am genuinely content. I am happy. I can use my journal to record day-to-day activities, whether they’re exciting or mundane, and my reflections are all joyful. There are obviously still tough days and difficult tasks. But I am so proud of myself for all the work I’ve put in, especially over the last two years, to get here.
Closing thoughts:
Reflect on the new and relish it.
Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 110
(Total books added to the Moratorium Library: 211)
The aforementioned Blind Date with a Book from Ripped Bodice.
