Wednesday Reading

[asakiyume]

I have so many saved up for this! And I'm actually writing on a Wednesday. Wohoo, win condition!

What I've just finished

A Family of Dreamers, by Samantha Nock. radiantfracture put me onto this collection by quoting one of the poems. Samantha Nock is an indigenous poet, and her poems reflect that heritage, but also explore family relations, love, self doubt--you know: the stuff we write poetry about.

Some quotes.

From "trickster"

i've never had to ask
the berry bush if they're ready,
we have a perfect understanding:

i take only what i need
and in return
the berry bush sees me
as prairie grass
and wholly human.

From "i'll hold my own hand and yours"

my lips are always
pointing to the horizon
anticipating collapse.

between our bodies
is space
that only time can fill.

jessica says:

"be careful
let it be beautiful
& pay attention,"

and i think i'll listen to her.

* * *

Ideias Para Adiar O Fim Do Mundo, by Ailton Krenak
This has also been translated into English (Ideas for Postponing the End of the World). Ailton Krenak is an indigenous activist from Brazil, of the Krenak people, and this very short book collects talks that he's given, including the title one. He's very, very good at reminding his listeners that there's more than one way of understanding things, more than one way of approaching problems, and that for some people, the end of the world has been happening for a long, long time. (My Goodreads review has quotes that give a feel for it)

* * *

Besty and Tacy Go over the Big Hill, by Maud Hart Lovelace
They do, and they discover a community of Syrian refugees. The more things change...

This story mulls over kings and queens in lots of different ways. Early on the girls write a letter to Alfonso XIII, who upon turning sixteen has become king of Spain. The girls tell him that they'd love to marry him but realize that, sadly, they can't, since they're not of royal blood (also they're only ten, but they don't mention that), but that nevertheless they wish him the best. And then at the end of the story they get a letter back from the royal secretary, telling them the king appreciates their thoughts! And I was thinking how much smaller the world was then--that girls could write a letter to the royal palace in Madrid, and that a palace secretary would actually answer! ... Well, assuming that that incident is based on something that actually happened in MHL's life--it might not be. But it's conceivably possible. Alfonso XIII came into his majority in 1902. Wikipedia tells me that in 1900, the human population was a much more intimate 1.6 billion. Not like our current 8 billion. Palace secretaries could write to little girls in Minnesota!

What I'm reading now

Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. My approach to this has been very roundabout. I'm not a big fan of long books of serious essays, even when I should like them. So I started by just dipping in. But it's won me over, so I'm going to read it straight through.

* * *

Why Didn't You Just Leave, edited by Julia Rios and Nadia Bulkin. A collection of horror stories that answer the question of why people don't just leave the haunted place they're in. Excellent so far.

* * *

Lady Eve's Last Con, by Rebecca Fraimow. A rom-con romcom in SPACE that I've only just started but is highly delightful already, with lines like this:

Ever since we got in on the luxury-liner gambit, money had been dropping into our hands like coolant from a leaky ceiling

and

It wasn't so hard to get someone like Esteban to think that you were their romantic ideal; all you had to do was present an attractive outline and leave plenty of space, and they'd fill in the rest all by themselves.

I think I can see what the end state is going to be, but I am here for the ride!

Coming Soon
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, the next of the Betsy-Tacy books.

Comments

[sartorias]

What an interesting bunch of books!

[asakiyume]

Yes--it's a lot of books :D

[gingicat]

Thank you for sharing!

[asakiyume]

My pleasure!

[osprey_archer]

I love the King of Spain section in Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill. Maud wrote a little follow-up story for the local newspaper years later, when she and the RL Tacy took a trip to Spain in the 1960s - by then I believe Spain actually had a different king, but in the story one presumes that the history of the 20th century has been a little gentler.

[asakiyume]

It's very sweet! I really like overall how MHL looks at kings and queens in that book. Even though I was pained by the contest for queen of the Mahy, I admire how MHL merged monarchy with electioneering there--including some of the tricks electioneering leads to. And the whole common blood/noble blood thing, where someone (or someone's parents) might choose for one to uproot oneself and move to a place where one is "just" a commoner--how that can be a better thing. (Partially this is US civics propaganda, but I do think people, monarchs included, could concede that yes: in some circumstances it's absolutely true.)

What did MHL say about her trip to Spain?

[ranunculus]

My parents, children of the San Francisco Bay Area, thought seriously about moving to New Zealand in the mid-1950's. One of the two main reasons they didn't was that they didn't want to change from being citizens to being subjects. The other was that they learned, over a 6 month exploratory trip, that they loved the Bay Area and it's access to all kinds of different biomes. Ocean, desert, high mountains, central valley croplands, redwoods..

[asakiyume]

I totally agree with their reasoning, but **especially** with the link that they felt with the Bay Area. I understand that viscerally--not that I feel a link with the Bay Area (I've only been there once, and it wasn't long enough to form much of an impression), but there are places I feel a deep love for, that I feel part of, and others that I don't, and I can live in the former but prefer to only visit the latter.

[osprey_archer]

In the story, Betsy and Tacy visit the palace in Madrid, see the King of Spain's study, sigh over the fact that they didn't get to meet him... but when the snapshot from the palace steps is developed, they spot the King of Spain in the background!

[asakiyume]

Oh I see! I thought she wrote about **her own** trip to Madrid. But it was a story about Betsy and Tacy. --But what a good one! I love that they only noticed after the fact that he was there :D

[osprey_archer]

Oh, MHL and her friend Bick (the original of Tacy) *did* go to Europe, and as with the stories of their childhood, MHL fictionalized their RL trip into a Betsy-Tacy story.

[ranunculus]

If you finish Braiding Sweetgrass and like it, try reading Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson. It can feel a little scholarly at first, but is written in a wonderfully readable way. It has wonderful insights into a different way of life and a different way of thinking. I do admit it is California centric, but the heart of it is universal.

[asakiyume]

Thank you for the recommendation! Something that has a specific focus (like California) is good--I like it when universals come out of specifics rather than just floating around untethered.

[rachelmanija]

Thanks for the rec!

[conuly]

Besty and Tacy Go over the Big Hill, by Maud Hart Lovelace
They do, and they discover a community of Syrian refugees. The more things change...

This popped up at /r/whatsthatbook once. The person who was trying to find it only remembered that the girls had a secret path to a foreign country in their backyard! They were a little embarrassed at the revelation that it was a not-so-secret route to an immigrant community, but I can't get the other image out of my head.

[asakiyume]

What a remarkable transformation in their memory! It preserved the soul of it, so to speak, but not the actual mechanics.

[conuly]

I honestly thought it was just charming, and I said so.

[asakiyume]

It is!

[missroserose]

I’ll have you know that these quotes alone were enough to make me look up Lady Eve’s Last Con and I now have it waiting in my Audible library 😁

[asakiyume]

Excellent--it's definitely compulsively readable--as of this reply, i'm 40% in!

[sovay]

between our bodies
is space
that only time can fill.

I like that a lot. Thank you for the additional pointer.

[asakiyume]

You are very welcome--I'm very happy for more people to read her.

She does beautiful things with bodies, space, unmaking and remaking:

from "a brief celebration":

same, please remember
that you're not just a house
built of grief.

this body is song,
it is poetry.

you are not a secret
whispered into your own mouth

She writes two poems to the Kîskatinâw river, and her feelings are so, so relatable:

i wonder what it feels like to be both a mighty
and tender thing?
...
she is so gentle in parts
and so vicious in others (from "Kîskatinâw interlude pt I")

and

i wish there were a better way to say
that i am jealous of a river. (from "Kîskatinâw interlude pt II")