Some Annotated Reading September 19

Why, yes, I am back from a two-week vacation and overwhelmed by the seemingly thousands of minute details of my daily personal and work life. But I've done some reading!

Books

Art History 101 by John Finlay. This was a Christmas gift from a family member. Masses of interesting stuff that I can't really recall now.

A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder by Dianne Freeman. This is part of one of those romance/historical mystery series. The romance here is less intense than some series, but the mystery is strong, particularly in this one.

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple. Maria Semple is the author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, which I enjoyed, though I couldn't tell you now where Bernadette went or who was looking for her. Today Will Be Different is another missing person story, also a good read. It was more of what I think of as an experience book, meaning you enjoy the experience of reading it and don't worry a lot about what is happening. Though what is happening here is more clear cut than I recall Bernadette being.

Short Form

I read a number of the essays in Best American Travel Writing 2018, edited by Cheryl Strayed. I have so many more left to read. Travel writing is not just those things we used to see in the travel section of the Sunday paper. Back when the Sunday paper had a travel section. Back when we read the Sunday paper.

In related news, I read Women's Travel Writing by Patricia M. E. Lorcin at World History Sources. What was interesting here was the idea of using travel writing to teach history.

I Love Little Free Libraries, But Do They Really Benefit the Community? by Kathleen Curtin Do at Books Are Our Superpower. This is an excellent essay, beginning with the personal and moving on to the greater world, which is my understanding of what a good personal essay should do. 

Exclusive: Doug Emhoff Makes a Pre-debate Pitstop at my Boyfriend's Philadelphia Record Store by Amanda Marcotte at Salon. What I like about this is the idea of politicians having interests. Almost any interests.

Keeping Up With the Joneses by Andrew Jazprose Hill at Counter Arts. James Earl Jones' father was an actor, too! Very interesting early life.

Did I mention the NaNoWriMo series of messes before I went on vacation? In case I didn't, here you go.  NaNoWriMo 2024 AI Controversy Explained by Klein Felt at The Direct.

Two Shakespeareans Take Stock at The Millions Well, to be truthful, I like Judi Dench, who is one of the two Shakespeareans here, not Shakespeare.

Humor

Coming back from vacation is a temporal landmark, a time to start anew. Assuming you aren't overwhelmed with stuff to get back to. Nonetheless, I am trying to establish both a daily yoga practice and daily Medium reading. 

I'm the Parent of the Class Troublemaker. How About a Play Date? by Caroline Horwitz at Frazzled. Hey, troublemakers need play dates, too.

Cuckqueans and Cackles: Scrabble With James Joyce by Walter Browne at MuddyUm. I don't even like James Joyce or Scrabble, and I enjoyed this. 

The Eco-Green Yoga Mat Guide To Navigating Our Sliding Scale Payment System by Jordan de Padova at Slackjaw. I like yoga and meditation humor.