Routine
Currently reading:
El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott
New Orleans Noir: The Classics, edited by Julie Smith
The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
Books finished this week: 3
★★★★☆
Where this book came from: Picked up at the book’s launch event at the Center for Fiction a few weeks back.
Why this book: I love (and have reread multiple times) Susan Choi’s American Woman, but I loathed Trust Exercise. I still want to read more of her earlier work, but I also figured a new novel was a good chance to give her another shot.
Thoughts: This was long and slow, but I kind of loved it? In my opinion, nobody writes life stories like Choi, who digs into all the good, bad, and ugly details of being a human in the world and makes characters who feel so incredibly real and realized. And in this one, when all the stories started to converge and things picked up around Part IV, it was magic. That said, this wasn’t a five-star read because . . . did it really have to be this long? I’m torn. Because part of me thinks I wouldn’t care as much about the “exciting” stuff later on if I didn’t have all this background on the characters. But the other part of me still thinks a lot of the early stuff could have been tightened up to leave room to point more toward the later stories/mysteries. This one was hovering around a three-star rating for a while, but I eventually decided on four, especially after the very moving ending. (And, yes, now I do want to reread American Woman again. God, that BOOK.)
★★★★☆
Where this book came from: The Barnes & Noble in the mighty Mall of America.
Why this book: The cover caught my eye in a “best books of summer” round-up, and then I realized I like the author, too, so I added it to my TBR. And then I saw it on a display at B&N when I stopped in to grab a book after I finished Flashlight.
Thoughts: Is Ivy Pochoda one of my favorite authors? I read and loved her novel These Women a few years back, years after receiving or winning a galley, and I regretted not having read it sooner. Ecstasy was a great semi-impulse purchase (it was already on my TBR, so not a totally random pick) and the lush summer vacation, cult-y, eerie vibes are perfect for summer reading.
★★★★★
Where this book came from: Ordered from B&N on November 6, 2024.
Why this book: Three guesses -__-
Thoughts: Just . . . read it. It’s a very short overview, but full of helpful historical context and some thankfully uplifting ideas.
Library updates:
Hello, and welcome back to the Sunday missive from the Moratorium Library! Did you miss me last week? I feel like I’ve been doing better this year with the Library, in terms of consistency of posts, and I was sad to miss last week. But I was away until Saturday night and then got home much later than expected due to some shady Lyft happenings at JFK, and when I woke up exhausted on Sunday, something had to give.
Anyway, enough excuses, I’m here now! And last week, I was in Minnesota, which was just as hot as New York was this week, which feels like a cruel joke. But here are some highlights:
Speaking of the heat——AH. I didn’t leave my apartment much the last couple days, aside from a journey into Brooklyn on Monday night for the last meeting of a writing workshop I’ve been doing the last few weeks. (Have I mentioned that before? I’m too lazy to check.) I canceled or rescheduled a lot of things I had planned for the week, too, in an effort to avoid having to leave the air-conditioned box that is my bedroom. When just existing outside feels hard, and sweat pours off your Lexapro-laden body the moment you set foot in the world, it’s probably best not to subject yourself to the elements.
But it’s okay, I’ve been working on rebuilding some routines. While I was away, I let myself just be away——sleeping in, reading a lot, writing none, just generally lounging and lazing about. That was incredibly enjoyable, but I do feel like I was also on the edge of a breakthrough with my personal routine and then tossed all of that out the window. That, and also the heatwave. Mostly, I’m blaming the heat for my lethargy. But I spent more time writing this week, plucking away at some short story ideas and editing again, and it feels good to find my way back to those routines.
And now if it can just be maybe fifteen degrees cooler, all will be right with the world.
Closing thoughts:
Be flexible with yourself and your time. Adjust as needed to give yourself what you need. Also, drink water and wear sunscreen!!
Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 164
(Total books added to the Moratorium Library: 318)
I didn't anticipate finishing Flashlight and so didn't pack a second book——the one time I've under-packed on the book front for a trip. But thankfully, a quick trip to the Barnes & Noble in the Mall of America fixed that! (And, as you’ve read above, Ecstasy was a great purchase.)
Also, my Megan Abbott pre-order came in at Kew & Willow<3
