The Spirit is Willing
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Currently reading:
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
Out There Screaming, edited by Jordan Peele
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
Books finished this week: 1
★★★★☆
Where this book came from: Received as part of my attendance at a launch event at Ripped Bodice<3
Why this book: As I noted last week, the book I’m working on with Emma at work just got announced——which I’m incredibly excited about——and I love any chance to support my authors! (Yes, even if their books are being published by other imprints.)
Thoughts: I am not much of a historical romance girlie, aside from my still burning obsession with season 2 of Bridgerton. But Emma brought so much sweetness and charm and glorious yearning to this sapphic romance, and I was in from the idea alone. The story felt a bit slow in spots, and though I mostly didn’t mind anachronisms (especially if it meant one lucky lady could call the other “hot”), some of them did stand out a bit. Overall, though, this rivals-to-lovers story set in Bath in the early nineteenth century was such a fun read! And I’ll be thinking about the spicy scene for a long time.
Library updates:
I’ve decided to DNF the Wuthering Heights audiobook. (I know, I’m sorry!!) I read a physical copy of the book a few years back and enjoyed it, and I do still want to reread it, so I’m going to try again in print sometime this month or next. I think this is a format and content mismatch for me, as I just didn’t find myself able to follow what was going on as well as I did with my previous two audio attempts. I found it too easy to zone out while listening, and often wouldn’t remember where in the story I was when I came back to it on my next train ride.
Years ago, I bought an audiobook edition of Pride and Prejudice because 1) I had never read it (and I still haven’t; please don’t come for me!!) and 2) Rosamund Pike narrated it. As excited as I’d been to jump in when I first downloaded the book, I remember a similar struggle to follow the plot and stay engaged. Maybe it’s the classics that don’t work for me in audio? Maybe British accents confuse me?? (The Wuthering Heights edition I started listening to was narrated by Aimee Lou Woods, of Sex Education and The White Lotus fame.)
Anyhow, I may just need to stick to nonfiction in audio for a bit longer, until those muscles are up to snuff! Thankfully, I’ve got a few other audiobooks locked and loaded.
I also feel like I’ve been trying to do a lot of things recently, with mixed success. I’ve been making time to write, which is fantastic, but I want to also make time to read, and that doesn’t always happen. I’ve fully fallen off my habit of reading one poem and one short story every day (as you can tell by the fact that I’ve had the same poetry book and short story collection sitting in the “currently reading” list for literally months now) and I think I might need to adjust to one poem a day and maybe one short story each week?
One thing I have made progress on is getting up earlier. I used to be something of a morning person——not totally a lover of being awake to go to school or work at an obscene hour, but the minute my alarm went off, I was up and at ’em. That habit slowly faded over the pandemic, when I had no office to go to and also the existential dread became too crushing to get myself up to shower and put on real clothes, let alone get up early and suffer through even more hours in the day. Then I had two more jobs that were fully remote, and then I was unemployed (and grieving my cat), so there really wasn’t much impetus to do more than roll out of bed at 8:55 to start answering emails by 9am.
Now, I have to go to the office three days a week, so this has been a bit of a struggle. I mentioned it to the nurse practitioner who prescribes my Lexapro (shout-out Jamie!), about how it was difficult for me to get up. I’m fairly certain it isn’t an anxiety or depression thing. It might be partly a work stress thing, like resetting my alarm over and over again will somehow delay the inevitable workday to come. She suggested I get a real alarm clock, instead of using my phone, and that I put the clock somewhere that requires me to get up to shut it off. She also suggested getting a clock that slowly gets brighter, simulating sunrise.
I’m thrilled to report that I did just that, and it’s been working out well so far! I got up at or before my alarm every day this week, giving myself plenty of time to get ready for the day either before logging on or heading out for my commute. I still love laying around in bed (and I do still have both the alarm clock and my phone at my bedside), but this dumb little light-up alarm has given me hope. There are a ton of things I want to be doing that feel tough. But this alarm thing makes me feel like I’ll get there with other stuff, too.
Closing thoughts:
Beep beep, time to get up!
