Here is a list on Bookshop.org with all the Maeve Binchy books I’ve read all year.
Monday, August 26
- Book: Tara Road
- Chapters: 1
- Location: Back Stoop Proper
- Smoking: Blueberry Muffin
What I’m listening to:
Did I cry?
nah man
Thoughts while reading (could be about the book, could not):
Hello. New playlist alert. Except it’s not a new playlist; it is a new (to me) artist.
See? I am a member of AAA24, a $5 a month subscription that gets me a zine, a killer birthday present, and some other fun stuff throughout the year.
This year, that included a scratch-off, and I won money (to spend in the A24 store). I considered my options very closely. For my free birthday gift, I chose the Minari Song Reader so that I could play some new tunes on the piano.
For this new batch of money, I was stuck between two items – the one I got and a metal Marcel the Shell figurine. Here’s what I got:
I LOVED Bodies Bodies Bodies, y’all. The entire movie was a bop – and just look at the neon vinyl. I couldn’t resist.
The package from A24 arrived today and I put on the records immediately (one after the other – not at the same time). I’ve never listened to this score before, just watched the movie a few times.
The score slaps, so of course, I had to look up the composer. That is why we are listening to Disasterpiece, a musician I had never heard of.
Now, let’s read.
”A lot of people look but don’t see properly.”
I feel this to the bottom of my bones. This is one of the things I love about Mickey, our kids, and our friends. We don’t just look at things… we see them. And for a bunch of us – we don’t just see them, we examine them, explore them, and learn more about them until we cain’t learn no more.
It also reminds me of a quote from a Bret Easton Ellis book called Glamorama: “The better you look, the more you see”
I still love that one so much. It can be taken in so many different ways.
New birds heard:
A NEW BIRB!
Eastern Pheobe
Tuesday, August 27
- Book: Tara Road
- Chapters: 2
- Location: Front stoop. It is 2:11 pm and 92 degrees. I am sweating
- Smoking: Blueberry Muffin
What I’m listening to:
Did I cry?
no way man
Thoughts while reading (could be about the book, could not):
Look, I know I didn’t say much about the book yesterday.
It’s good. Of course, it is. It’s a Maeve Binchy book.
I remember a lot of build-up until we got to the story.
This book, however, was made into a movie, which I will watch once I am done reading.
Yikes, this poster is terrible.
Let’s read.
So much of what these characters do is rooted in shame, and it really makes me sad.
It also makes me reflect on so many things I don’t do and the many more things I USED TO refrain from doing because of shame.
Past shame from single instances is like a trigger in my brain to “never do that thing again” because I hated how I felt when I was being shamed.
Sometimes, that shame can come from something as simple as someone asking, “Why are you doing it that way?” with an incredulous look on their face as I do something I’ve done a million times before.
Sometimes, it’s repeated shame, like, “Girls with hips your size should never wear horizontal stripes because it makes them look wider, and that is bad.”
Now that I think about it, why is that bad? I have wide hips. So what? That’s who I am. Why would I want to disguise or cover that up?
Oh, yeah, that’s right – to attract a man so that I could get married. That was what drove most of the things I got shamed for.
Welp, right now I’m wearing a horizontal striped shirt and it’s one of my favorites. I wear it at least once a week. I also have one other horizontal striped shirt in a weekly rotation.
It feels good to let go of shame. I hate that I have to keep reminding myself of that.
New birds heard:
No birbs today, bro.
