Down to the Wire
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You can see a list of local organizations in need of monetary and supply donations at the Stand with Minnesota website. If you have the means, please donate.
These two are already highlighted on the site, but a friend pointed to UNIDOSMN and the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota as being high-priority. Please check out the full list to see other places that need monetary help and deliveries of supplies to care for Minnesotans and keep them safe.
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The photo featured as the cover image of this week’s missive is the Minnesota State Capitol. Stay aware, stay informed, stand with Minnesota, and fuck ICE.
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Currently reading:
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Out There Screaming, edited by Jordan Peele
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë [audiobook]
Books finished this week: 1
★★☆☆☆
Where this book came from: Libro.fm<3
Why this book: My friend Jess (hi, Jess!) said this one was a good audiobook to start with, especially because of the narration by Ramon de Ocampo (which, hard agree, for the record). I’d never read it before but always meant to, so it felt like a good second audiobook option.
Thoughts: I’m very late to this particular party, and I’m almost 100 percent sure that influenced my reading experience. At the start, I was anticipating this would be at least three stars, maybe three and a half, though I was open to (and hoping for) an even higher rating. But then I almost rolled my eyes out of my head at so many of the cringey lines, and I found myself getting so fed up with Alex, and I had to start listening on 1.5 speed, and I realized even a middle-of-the-road rating would be too generous. I really did love the romance between Alex and Henry, and I think so much of my annoyance with the book stems from that fact; I just wanted more of it. There was so much delicious tension that could’ve been milked out of “we’re rivals and we hate each other but we’re forced to spend copious amounts of time together and then WHOOPS now we realized we want to make out and be together forever.” I appreciate that McQuiston seemingly didn’t want to relegate the political trappings to the background, but I wish they...had? I found myself losing the cute and the moving and the meaningful beneath all the “hooray, Democrats!!” talk, especially with the state of our country in this present moment. I know the McQuiston couldn’t have known what was coming down the pipeline when they wrote and published this novel, and I acknowledge that perhaps I’m a heartless——or just a very sad——person to not be able to see the romance for the millennial cringe and the obnoxious West Wing-esque political takes (and, listen, I love The West Wing, but just, sometimes...oof). The premise sounded so fun, but, in my opinion, the writing didn’t deliver.
Library updates:
The 100-words-per-day streak continues, thankfully. On Thursday night, I got home after a Reading Rhythms event, got myself ready for bed, climbed into bed, shut off the lights, and then realized, I didn’t write today——FUCK. I turned the lights back on and hopped on my computer at 11:55pm, and typed out the speediest 169 words of my life, getting them done just as the clock stuck midnight and turned me back into a bed-bound goblin.
Consistency is something I’m working on in my life, and this week has felt like a huge win. Because I got out of bed and wrote those words, instead of letting my streak slip. And I’m writing this missive on Sunday evening, because I didn’t have the brain power to get it done earlier, but I still wanted to share my book review and a few other thoughts with whoever cares to read.
And with writing also comes a lot of thinking about where writing belongs in my life and what my end goals——if any—are by pursuing and prioritizing it. I want to get published; I won’t say I don’t. I wouldn’t have gone to grad school and wouldn’t currently be putting myself through the querying trenches if I didn’t want to see my book traditionally published. But what I think I really want is to be paid to write. Like, maybe if I got a patron, like they did back in the day? And that patron didn’t mind if I just sat and had fun with my silly little worlds and figuring out plot puzzles, and they rarely, if ever, got to read any of my work or see it published. What I really want is to get paid to have fun, and writing has slowly become fun for me again.
Anyhow, to close out the missive this week, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the third shooting and second murder of a person in Minnesota at the hands of ICE agents. Rest in peace, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, who should not be dead, and rot in hell, every single person who has joined ICE; every single person who thinks these killings and assaults and deportations and kidnappings are acceptable; and every single person who sees what is going on with their own two eyes and chooses to either justify the atrocity or ignore it.
And in case you missed it at the top of the post:
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See Stand with Minnesota for a list of local organizations that need your support. Consider monetary donations to UNIDOSMN and the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, but please also check the list for many other organizations in need of donations of money, supplies, and time, if you’re in the area.
Additionally, to fight fascism across the country, consider a donation to the ACLU, or use their website to find trainings and local actions. Also check out Mobilize.us for events, petitions, and other opportunities to make your voice heard. In New York City, sign up for updates from Hands Off NYC.
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Closing thoughts:
“Oh god, you’re gonna get it. You’ll be sorry that you messed with us.”
Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 193
(Total books added to the Moratorium Library: 408)
I went to a quiet reading night at Love & Legends. The ticket came with $10 in store credit. What do you think happened?
And then I got to see the wonderful Emma Alban talk about her new book at Ripped Bodice, and my ticket came with a copy of Like in Love with You<3
