Great Expectations
Currently reading:
Table for Two by Amor Towles
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver [ongoing]
Books finished this week: 1
★★★☆☆
Where this book came from: BookHampton during Hamptons Whodunit
Why this book: I ended up at Brad Thor’s Guest of Honor conversation with Chris Pavone and I thought his life sounded interesting and that his books would be right up my alley.
Thoughts: I was . . . kind of right! Admittedly, my interests and reading tastes sometimes skew toward the middle-aged dad end of the spectrum, so I was totally in on the action at the start. But, my god, this book did not need to be almost 500 pages long. Brad Thor (truly, how is that his real name, HOW) also said in his talk that he doesn’t want the books to feel dated, because he wants anyone to pick up any book at any time and be able to lose themselves in it. On some accounts, sure, he succeeded. This had big, subpar blockbuster action movie vibes. But a lot of the attitudes are certainly dated, if not the technology, and the main character, Scot Harvath, is an absolute Gary Stu. I admire Thor (lol) writing one of these every year for the last quarter-century and I might pick up another of his titles in the future, but unfortunately this wasn’t the start of a new (to me) spy thriller author love affair in the way that I’d hoped.
Library updates:
I talked to my therapist this week about writing. Specifically, about how I wanted to get back into doing it. I haven’t written much of anything in weeks, so now it’s on my to-do list for the week between therapy sessions. I have my potential MFA thesis to keep working on and a few short story ideas to dig into, so the evening after that session this week, I did sit down and write over 1000 words. I have some hope.
The weather is definitely helping with that. I waffle sometimes on which season is my favorite, but I always come back to spring. I love the turn from chill to warmth, the clear blue skies on the early sunny days, the riot of colors the trees become as they bud and flower—pink, yellow, green, white, even deep red, and all of them aggravating my allergies.
The spring makes it easier for me to get outside and to do things. It also helps when you have someone visiting from out of town—enter Tess (hi, Tess!). We spent a week mostly seeing Broadway shows and making not one, not two, but three Margaritaville reservations (and then we still had to sit and wait an additional fifteen minutes for our table). We also spent a lovely day in Cold Spring—and yes, we did both buy books at Split Rock (more below).
But anyway, my ranking of the shows I saw with Tess, from best to eh:
Merrily We Roll Along - my third time #brag
The Outsiders - #GritPit for life!!
& Juliet - featuring a special appearance by Britt (hi, Britt!)
Suffs - middle-aged white ladies are going to love it
The Great Gatsby - siiiiiiiiigh
Just a few choice memories from last week.
Spending time with Tess this past week made me reflect on how I’ve been living my life, too. That sounds way more dramatic than I mean it. I’ve been seeing a lot of shows by myself for the last few years—seeing a lot of movies alone, too, and going to book events, and shopping, and exploring new places, all by myself. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed all that, and I feel thankful to have had the time and finances to put toward those shows and trips. I was also proud of myself for pushing myself to get out into the world and see what else it has to offer, whether I had a companion for it or not.
But this past week showed me that, my goodness, it’s lovely to do things with other people. I think I’ve mastered going it alone at this point, and now it’s time to reach out again, to make the effort to plan and coordinate. I have friends—very good, very close friends—who live very far away, and I’m always over the moon when they can come here or I can go to them and we’re able to snatch these moments or days together. But I have very good friends here, too, and I want to include them in my life again, in a bigger way. I’m looking to strike a balance, and I know it’s going to take time to make it work.
I’ve got some great expectations.
( . . . that’s a reference to The Outsiders the musical. Listen here.)
Closing thoughts:
Balance takes practice—and, ironically, will probably require balancing other things to make sense of everything else. But I think it’s all worth it.
Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 78
(Total books added to the Library: 157)
I forgot that I preordered this beauty.
As I mentioned above, Tess and I also went to Cold Spring last Friday and one of our first stops was Split Rock Books.
And then she, Britt, and I killed time before & Juliet at McNally Jackson.
I also literally just signed up for a reading group that will start over the summer and those books will be arriving soon, but I’m not counting them because they’re more about socialization and human connection, SO THERE.
