March reading roundup #3

Friends! Somehow it’s nearly April. As we wrap up the month (with a cold, rainy Holy Week), here’s what I have been reading:

Taking Sides: A Memoir of Love, War, and Changing the World, Sherine Tadros
Tadros is a British-Egyptian former journalist who now works for Amnesty International on human rights issues. This memoir traces her childhood, her early career reporting in war zones, and her experiences in Egypt during the Arab Spring. It loses a little steam when she changes careers, and I get why: advocacy and activism are slow work, often hampered by bureaucracy. But she’s a thoughtful writer. I was struck by how many of the crises she reported on 15 years ago (especially in Gaza) have not changed.

A Thousand Times Before, Asha Thanki
Ayukta sits down with her wife, Nadya, to finally address the question of having a child. Her reluctance is borne of a strange family story: a tapestry that gives women access to their ancestors’ memories. Ayukta recounts her grandmother Amla’s life: her childhood in Karachi, her traumatic experience of Partition, and her eventual passing on of the tapestry’s secret to her daughters. So much here about family, lineage, Indian politics, memory and what we choose to keep. Rich and wonderful. To review for Shelf Awareness (out July 9).

The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science, Kate Zernike
I was captivated – and infuriated – by this excellent nonfiction book, detailing the careers of Nancy Hopkins and several other standout female scientists, and the constant discrimination they faced in academia. Zernike broke the Boston Globe story about Hopkins and a cohort of other women challenging MIT’s administration in the 1990s; she expanded the story into a book with such care. Vivid, powerful and inspiring. Also set in my adopted city, and I loved the glimpses of familiar streets.

How to Protect Bookstores and Why: The Present and Future of Bookselling, Danny Caine
I picked up this book at Malaprops, last summer – fittingly for a manifesto on the merits of indie bookstores, packed with useful tips for supporting them. Caine profiles a dozen standout bookstores (including my adored Shakespeare & Co. in Paris) and shares lots of thoughtful solutions (at the individual and policy level) for protecting bookstores. So good.

The Book of (More) Delights, Ross Gay
I love Gay’s exuberant, big-hearted, rambling, honest writing and adored this collection of (more) delights, especially since I took a class on writing delight this winter. I savored his musings on (among other things) sweet potatoes, footnotes, babies, graffiti, paper menus, and looking for the right light.

In the Air Tonight, Marie Force
At 17, Blaise Merrick witnessed a rape of one classmate by another – and never said a word. Haunted by the event and her own inaction, Blaise finally decides to speak up when she hears the rapist is running for Congress. This sets off a chain reaction of ramifications in her small Rhode Island hometown. A gripping thriller; not my usual cup of tea, but very compelling. To review for Shelf Awareness.

To All the Dogs I’ve Loved Before, Lizzie Shane
Librarian Elinor Rodriguez is trying to avoid her first love, Levi Jackson – but that’s difficult when he keeps having to rescue her escape artist dog. I loved this smart, witty second-chance love story – part of a series I adore. Found at the delightful Bookmans in Tucson.

High Tide in Tucson, Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible blew me away as a college student, and I love her warm, smart, incisive voice. These essays range from parenting to fashion to climate change to performing in an author-centric rock band. Fun, entertaining and thoughtful. Found at Bookmans.

Most links (not affiliate links) are to my local faves Trident and Brookline Booksmith. Shop indie!

What are you reading?

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On Nature, Spring and Paying Attention

There’s a quickening in the air this time of year, as the (Northern Hemisphere) calendar turns toward spring. Buds are swelling on the trees; the light lingers a minute or two longer each afternoon. And though we still may get snow here in the Northeast, brave green spears–crocuses, snowdrops, even a few early tulips–are pushing up through the half-frozen ground.

As I watch for blooming trees and blue skies, I’m reaching for books that both reflect the changes I’m seeing in the natural world, and remind me to pay attention to them.

Novelist and naturalist Melissa Harrison writes a monthly Nature Notebook column for The Times (UK). Her lyrical book The Stubborn Light of Things (which I found at the delightful Book Catapult) collects some of those columns, tracing Harrison’s journey from married Londoner to solitary rural-Suffolk dweller. She muses on birds, beasts, wildflowers, and changing light, and takes readers along on her rambles through parks and fields. (Harrison recorded a spinoff podcast of the same name throughout 2020, chronicling her solitary walks through the changing seasons in the early months of COVID-19. I came late to it, but savored every episode and now love her newsletter.)

Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil pays keen attention to the natural world in her debut essay collection,World of Wonders. From the axolotl to the whale shark to the magnolia trees that dot the campus of the University of Mississippi, where she teaches, Nezhukumatathil draws vivid portraits of flora and fauna alongside reflective accounts of her own experience. Featuring some of nature’s more outlandish “wonders,” the collection captures the mingled awe and comfort Nezhukumatathil has always found in the natural world. It inspires me to look out my own window: there are no narwhals (that I know of) in Boston, but I wonder what else I might be missing.

The above is an excerpt from my latest column for Shelf Awareness – a roundup of my favorite spring reads. Join me over there to read the rest of the column!

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#mondaydelights: third places.

A few weeks ago, I met my guy for lunch in Cambridge on a rainy Tuesday. We had sandwiches at a place we both love, grooving to nineties music, and then I walked down the street to a coffee shop to work for a while. Later, I dropped in at Albertine Press, where I’ve taken a few craft workshops, and went to a yoga class at the studio near my house, where the instructor – sweet Kristina – greeted me by name.

As we move through these spring days, I keep thinking about this time three years ago: the fear and isolation, the masks on the T and at the grocery store, the almost total lack of in-person gatherings (except on warmer days, when we could take walks outside). One of the (many) things I missed during that time was my “third places”: the spaces separate from work and home where I spent time and formed relationships. At that time, those places included Darwin’s (above); the beautiful main branch of the Boston Public Library; Brattle Square Florist; and that same yoga studio, among others.

These days, my third places are the same and different: still the yoga studio; Toasted Flats, where I pick up a pita wrap for lunch every week or two; the East Boston library branch, where I am known by name; and that sweet Cambridge florist, where Stephen always has a smile for me. ZUMIX, where I work, functions as a third place for our students, where they can come and be themselves and make music, and get a little rowdy if they so choose.

I’m thankful today for those third places, and for the people – including my colleagues and friends – who work so hard to make them beautiful and accessible. It’s a true delight to welcome and be welcomed, and I’m grateful every time I walk in.

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#mondaydelights: a really good Spotify mix.

Most mornings, after journaling and breakfast, I pull on my running clothes and head out the door to spend a few miles pumping my legs and getting some fresh air. I don’t always have music playing at home, but I almost always listen to it on my morning runs. My “custom” Spotify mixes swing between the genres I love most: nineties country, mellow jazz, soulful singer-songwriters and Broadway show tunes. And I have to say, lately the mixes have been killing it.

My folk mixes are crammed full of my longtime faves, like the Indigo Girls and the Wailin’ Jennys, and newer-to-me discoveries like Birds of Chicago and Abigail Lapell. My Broadway mixes have been heavy on the & Juliet pop tunes since I saw it in NYC, but they also include doses of Hamilton, Amelie, Come From Away, The Fantasticks and other musicals I love. And you’ve heard me rhapsodize about my love for nineties country: Martina, Faith, Shania, Reba, Jo Dee, and (forever and always) George Strait.

It’s a pleasure when the mix turns up song after song I love, as my feet pound down the familiar paths of the parks or harborwalk or greenway. A good mix – especially one I don’t have to fiddle with – delights me every single time. (I’m convinced it helps me run faster, too.) Good music is so happy-making.

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#mondaydelights: think pink.

We are having (I keep saying) a grey winter around here. A friend exclaimed last week, “Oh, you’re having such nice weather in Boston!” and I laughed out loud – clearly I’ve only been posting on Instagram on the (rare) days the skies are blue.

In the wake of last week’s snow/sleet/rainstorm, I’m looking for scraps of color – which, at the moment, looks like cheery hits of pink, wherever I can find them.

Whether it’s flipping through old flower photos (above), the pink parrot tulips I bought from my beloved florist recently, or my cozy new sweatshirt, pink is making me happy these days.

I’m waiting for the cherry blossoms and redbuds to spring forth (and loving the photos my friends send me in the meantime); dotting my journal entries with bright, spring-hued stickers; and generally searching for pops of pink (and other colors) to counteract the grey. I’m even sporting pink eyeshadow once in a while – anything to brighten my inner (and outer) landscape.

What’s keeping you sane while we wait for spring?

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March is for local adventures.

As previously stated, it feels like this winter’s been a long one. And despite my glorious getaway to San Diego in February, I have been hankering for some additional travel. I’ve got one trip on the calendar and am dreaming of a couple of others, but mostly, this March, I am staying local. So I’m trying to make the best of it – despite grey skies and rain – with local adventures.

My guy and I went to the Gardner for their Free First Thursday evening, which involved gorgeous live music by Fabiola Mendez, and the chance to wander the exhibits. I always love seeing the crowds who show up on First Thursday – usually a younger, hipper, more diverse group than you typically see at the museum.

We perused Isabella’s travel scrapbooks, and I revisited some familiar pieces. It was especially fun because I’d just read a novel about her (The Lioness of Boston, which was excellent). We always talk, too, about colonialism and privilege and wealth when we visit the Gardner – because someone had to labor for all this beauty, and it’s important to acknowledge the stories that don’t always get told.

The next week, I headed over to Albertine Press for a calligraphy workshop – which ended up being a one-on-one session with Jen, an accomplished calligrapher. It was both fun and soothing to trace letter forms with beautiful brush pens, and watch Jen demonstrate the strokes and shapes. I did a bit of shopping afterward, and came home with the beginnings of a fun new skill to practice.

On a Sunday afternoon, my guy and I headed to the Map Room Tea Lounge at the Boston Public Library, to toast some exciting developments for him, and brighter days ahead. We sipped delicious cocktails and enjoyed yummy savory bites – and got to sample a few treats from the adjacent tea room. It was just the sparkle our weekend needed, and a semi-hidden gem tucked into one of our favorite places.

I’ve got some live theatre on the list, too – an ushering stint at my beloved Lyric Stage and a trip to Into the Woods with a girlfriend, soon. And my guy and I have a concert date on the books. So, though I’m hankering to hop on a plane, I’m doing my best to enjoy what’s right in front of me – while I wait eagerly for the spring sunshine.

What local adventures are you having these days?

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Mystery Monday: Veronica Speedwell

Today’s #mondaydelights post is a bit of a double-up – rather like its main character. Veronica Speedwell, whose name signifies both a plant and the butterflies she studies, is a lepidopterist working in (or, when she can, out of) 19th-century London. She’s the star of a mystery series by Deanna Raybourn, and her adventures have been keeping me highly entertained this winter.

I read Veronica’s first adventure, A Curious Beginning, several years ago, but picked the series back up after reading Raybourn’s recent witty standalone, Killers of a Certain Age. The series’ format is more or less standard by now: Veronica and her colleague, Stoker, a natural historian who has also had plenty of adventures abroad, are plugging along with their standard work of cataloging a natural history museum for their wealthy patron. A mystery, often brought to their door by a friend or one of Stoker’s brothers, interrupts their cataloging, and the two of them go haring off around London (or, sometimes, other parts of England) to recover a stolen item or solve a murder or clear a man’s name before he hangs.

I’ve said before that witty British mysteries are my catnip, and these fit the bill (though I occasionally get tired of Veronica’s rather high opinion of herself). Stoker is a complex, interesting character; their wealthy patrons are kind and also hiding a secret or two; and Stoker’s brothers, plus other London high-society types, provide plenty of wit and intrigue. I appreciate Veronica’s boldness and her scientific mind; the two of them usually land in at least one ridiculous situation, either romantic or life-threatening or both; and each book’s end usually sees them settled back at home, a glass of whiskey (or two) comfortably in hand.

Raybourn’s eye for historical detail is wonderful, including costumes, settings and England’s highly stratified class system. I love watching her and Stoker mix with characters from all levels of society, including aristocrats, Scotland Yard policemen, servants, barmaids and (occasionally) members of Queen Victoria’s royal family.

As both this winter and a head cold have dragged on, I’ve enjoyed curling up with Veronica – and I’ve learned a thing or two about butterflies (and taxidermy) along the way.

Have you read any of Veronica’s adventures? I’d love to hear what you think.

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#mondaydelights: being among the books.

It’s no secret around here that I’m a lifelong bookworm. I’ve got a whole (rainbow) wall of books in my apartment, plus piles on various end tables, and an ever-rotating cast of library reads. And though I adore my bookish retreat, when I need to get out of my apartment, I often find myself heading for a destination where I can likewise be surrounded by books.

There’s something comforting to me about walking into a room full of stories, whether it’s a bookstore, a library or even a book-lined Airbnb. I’ve always thought of books as friends, and I love both the familiarity and the potential for new discoveries when I dive headfirst into the shelves.

I adore visiting bookstores on vacation, of course, but I’m frequently just as happy with a jaunt to my local library here in Eastie or the main branch downtown. I don’t always even have to buy anything: I am among those people, to quote Jane Smiley, “who feel better at the mere sight of a book.”

Several times recently, when I’ve found myself at a loose end – waiting for an appointment, plans falling through, in need of a place to perch and work – I’ve headed straight for the nearest bookish destination. A long browse at the Booksmith, a visit to the new Fabulist cafe at the Seaport branch of Porter Square Books, or a nose around the Brattle – the first bookstore I discovered in Boston – have set me right again. I spent a happy afternoon on Valentine’s Day working at the Boston Public Library, sipping Earl Grey under book-shaped lamps, surrounded by shelves of new releases, and a contented hour there yesterday, writing in my journal and enjoying the buzz.

Tell me: do you delight in bookish spaces as much as I do? What are your favorites?

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#mondaydelights: California citrus.

Last winter, when I was spending time in San Diego, I shipped a box or two of California citrus back to my guy here in Boston. I loved passing orange and lemon trees on my morning runs, and picking up fresh local fruit at the grocery store or the La Mesa farmers’ market. I wanted to send him a handful of juicy SoCal sunshine – tangerines and Meyer lemons and blood oranges to brighten the winter days.

While we ate a ton of citrus during our idyllic San Diego weekend this year, I’ve been craving it still since I got back. So, to supplement the bags of clementines I buy at the grocery store, I’ve splurged on a box or two of citrus from Good Taste Farm. It’s admittedly a lot more expensive than those $5.99 bags of clementines – but I have loved opening up a box filled with tart blood oranges, straight from the sunny West Coast. It’s a splurge I can afford (once in a while), and it’s made me so happy on these grey winter days.

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#mondaydelights: twinkly gold earrings.

Happy Monday, friends. Today’s delight is pure fun: the handful of twinkly gold earrings that are making me happy right now.

I have several pairs: the slender gold rectangles above, a gift from my friend Abigail; the sunbursts I found at an Abilene boutique over Christmas; a pair of tiny bicycles (a gift from my partner); and a pair of delicate gold gingko leaves by the same artist.

I’ve been rotating them out with my winter scarves (or, more recently, during a much-needed long weekend in San Diego), and it brings me a burst of joy to have some sparkle at my ears, especially on these grey winter days.

What’s bringing you sparkle in the midst of winter?

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