Library Haul

I meant to write this post up yesterday, but I was in a bad, not very companionable mood.  I’m feeling better today, having, among other things, cooked some beautiful dal and finished watching Mother!, which was much better than last autumn’s reviews had led me to believe it would be.

Other news? I’m looking forward to seeing Deadpool 2, probably this weekend, hoping to go out for  meal or ice cream (or both), my chocolate quinoa pancakes continue to be excellent, and Solo is getting some pretty mediocre reviews. Oh, and I’m falling behind on reading Travels with Charley.

Here’s what else I have checked out:

Books:

• Travels with Charley
• How to Break Up with Your Phone
• The Little Book of Lykke: The followup to the widely acclaimed Little Book of Hygge. I’ve actually already finished it, just not ready to return it yet.
• Lolly Willowes
• Ripley’s Game: Wondering if this third installment will be the one that puts me off the Ripley series
• The Wings of the Dove: I really fear the day when I have no more big Henry James. This and The Golden Bowl. That’s all I’ve got left, I think.
• The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Movies:

• Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood is bae.
• Lady Snowblood: Miss Havisham goes violent samurai.
• Mother!
• Enter the Dragon: Triggered by a youtube video pointing out a very extra extra.
• The Furies: Barbara Stanwyck is also bae.
• My Name is Nobody
• The Old Gun: Yay westerns!
• Prisoners
• Frenzy: One of the chronologically last Hitchcock films and one of the last ones I haven’t seen yet.
• Amarcord: The first movie of Fellini’s that I’ve liked.

Wellness on a $0 Budget

I talk about wellness way too frequently.  It’s getting to be one of my favorite topics, along with the inexhaustible lists of books and movies.  Partly it’s me (what kind of millennial yoga-loving anorexia-surviving introspective vegan would I be if I didn’t?) and part of it is the current craze for wellness, mindfulness, and all of the associated paraphernalia (rose quartz lamps).

Interrupting this broadcast: I HEAR THUNDER THANK GOD FINALLY

Anyway…

I have ambivalent feeling about the current cultural boom being experienced by wellness.  On the positive side, it’s helped me find more people who share my interests and brought my niche interests to a much wider audience.  Yay! An opportunity for new friends with new shared interests!
Additionally, as society and the market adapts to appeal more to this current cultural climate, it also suits me better.  There are increased vegan dining options, more articles around that I find compelling…. more things are available that resonate with my lifestyle and mindset.

Friday Links 5/19

Hey my graduation is this weekend! (Except not really because I’m not going!).
Did you go to your graduation? Almost everyone I’ve talked to has been some combination of stunned or outraged to hear that I’m skipping it- which is a reaction that’s quite taken me by surprise.
Neither of my parents went to their graduations, so I think I just kind of grew up not thinking it was a big deal. My cousin Sean went to his graduation but sat with his family in the audience.  And I went to my high school one (but I was valedictorian *pats on back* so I kind of had to).  But there are so many things I’d rather do!
Namely: anything. Sitting around in a big group of people and listening to speeches just isn’t my thing and I know that makes me sound terribly unsentimental, except I’m also such a nostalgic person that I know that can’t be it.

A Shower of April Links

This is my new desktop for the month of April! Isn’t it lovely? (And not at all in line with the cold wind we have in New Haven or the sloppy snow I’m hearing about from Boston, but hopefully it will be more appropriate by the end of this month).
The photograph is from this delightful-looking book, Encyclopedia of Rainbows.

I always feel like March is the month that pasts the fastest, although logically you’d think it would be February.  Maybe March feels like such a flash because you’re bolted into it from February and before you know it it’s already rolling.  It might just be a matter of personal history for me; March was the month that it first occurred to me how quickly time passes.  I have a distinct memory of some time in Elementary school- I think second grade- sitting on the big communal rug, watching the teacher flip the calendar and contemplating the lightning-quick passage of the month of March.
Anyway, I’m thinking of doing two list posts a month because I seem to accumulate way too many interesting links in a span of thirty days to compose a normal length post. Any thoughts? Do you enjoy these random excursions into the internet, or should I cut down my number of links?
But that’s a question for a different month (May? Is it really so close as all that?), for now, buckle your seat belts.

Current Trends v. Practicality

This is a topic that’s been on my ‘Blog Ideas’ list for a little while, and I realized that as the seasons change, tackling it is becoming a now or never sort of thing. Time waits for no one. Soon enough, the trends I don’t like now will fade out and be replaced with other styles I find similarly distasteful.

Not that there aren’t trends I don’t like- I simply find a bemused feeling of fond irritation to be my natural element. And that’s how I feel about the obsession with hygge, so let’s begin.

My Personal Philosophy in Books

Well, yesterday it all went downhill, but I’m so frustrated and tired with talking about my health that I’m absolutely not going to get into it today.

Instead I’m going to go into books (it’s been a while!), in particular, into the books that inspire or resonate with my personal view of life.  Maybe that sounds very woo woo to you, or maybe you know what it’s like to read something and have the feeling that the author is looking at things in the same way you do?  Or even in a way you would like to be able to?

I love that feeling of reading a book that feels like an extension of your heart.