down the shore: Jersey shore recommendations

Don't you dare make me choose between the beach or the mountains, but if pressed, I will always and forever say the ocean—a Jersey girl through and through. My friend Angie recently asked to pick my brain on Jersey shore tips and recommendations and I thought I would write them up similar to other travel recommendations I've shared in the past!

Many Jersey beaches notoriously require beach tags—a pass to use the beach (which pays for lifeguards, trash removal, and keeping the beaches in pristine condition, among other things) which can typically be purchased for the day, week, or season. There are a number of free beaches interspersed as well (should the concept of beach tags prove an impediment either philosophically or financially) along the south Jersey shore.

I have personally spent the most time in Ocean City, Wildwood, Atlantic City, and Cape May, though have been to others as well (Stone Harbor, for one, as evidenced by the childhood photo at the beginning of this post!). When I was a teenager, I loved the sand bar of Atlantic City's beaches for boogie boarding, and Wildwood has a great boardwalk and really nice beaches as well (the location of a most infamous skates [a stingray lookalike] sighting when I was in high school, which resulted in a horde of screaming teenage girls running in from the water; only afterwards did we learn skates are harmless).

HELPFUL LINKS:

Free Jersey shore beaches

guide to all Jersey beaches

Philadelphia Inquirer: other transit options to the shore



FAVORITE SHORE TOWNS & RECOMMENDATIONS/NOTES:

  • Ocean City (NOT to be confused with the lesser Ocean City, Maryland!!) is my all-time favorite, in terms of the beach and the boardwalk. Beach tags are required in OC and can be purchased for daily, weekend, or seasonal durations. There are booths along the boardwalk where you can purchase with cash, or you can use a card at the Ocean City Music Pier office (on the boardwalk between 8th and 9th street and also a convenient location for public restrooms). When you enter the beach from the various ramps or stairs down from the boardwalk, there are beach staff who will need to see your beach tag. When you're out on the beach (definitely on weekends) an employee will come around periodically to check for beach tags. Some people pin theirs to their swimsuit or clothing, but I usually attach mine to my bag in a prominent/visible spot so I can easily show it but it won't get lost or washed off by waves while I'm in the water.

    There are several paid municipal parking lots close to the boardwalk but they are more expensive and tend to fill up early, but nice if you have a lot of beach gear or small kids with you as you won't have to walk far. There is some metered street parking as well but usually it is only for up to 2 hours, so you just have to keep an eye on the time to move your car. I can usually find free street parking if I am willing to walk a little further.




My go-to blocks of the boardwalk and beach are from about 8th to 12th street, but the boardwalk officially begins at 1st street and extends all the way to 23rd so there is lots to explore! (There is a certain ubiquity of vendors along the boardwalk so I don't think an exhaustive tour of the entire length is necessary, but it is definitely possible!) My favorite food vendors are all easily accessible along this stretch from 8th-12th, along with Ocean City Music Pier for beach tags and bathrooms. When you get down to the beach, you can also channel the Amalfi Coast by renting striped umbrellas and beach chairs (or boogie boards!) from Bert's! I just did this for the first time and it was lovely—the high schoolers staffing the booth will set up your chairs and umbrella, and if you need to relocate due to the tide coming in, you just have to ask and they will help you get re-situated above the tide line. They advertised a deal on their website for 2 chairs and an umbrella for the day which was overall very reasonable, and well worth the cost in my opinion.

Ocean City favorites:
    • Manco & Manco's Pizza
    • Kohn Bros. custard
    • boardwalk fries w/ malt vinegar
    • Shriver's salt water taffy (pro tip: store your taffy in the fridge and take a piece out and wait a few minutes before eating. It will soften enough to eat but the time in the fridge will allow the wax paper double-layer wrapper to peel off very easily with no mess!)
    • Fudge Kitchen
    • My favorite shop for tshirts/sweatshirts/hats/etc. (reasonable pricing and they have some great embroidered designs!) is the Shirt Shack, but I feel like I inevitably go in every store to try and find just what I am looking for because it is a boardwalk ritual.

  • Wildwood also has a boardwalk (with Kohr Bros!) and is probably my favorite of the free beaches I've been to. I haven't been since I was a teen but am hoping to revisit this summer!

  • Atlantic City is notorious for many things, but my favorite thing about it is that it provided the origins for the game Monopoly with many of its street names. When I was in high school, Atlantic City was my favorite beach for boogie boarding as it had a really nice, long sandbar. Obviously sand is subject to erosion and deposition and sedimentation, so there's not telling how much things have changed since then, but it's another of the free beach towns with a boardwalk and one of the longest seaside resorts in the country. And this summer (not sure if it's an annual thing or just this year) they have a free jazz series of concerts on the beach! Atlantic City is also the best/most expedient option if you are taking the train from Philly rather than driving!

  • Cape May, at the southernmost point of New Jersey, is quaint and has an abundance of brightly colored Victorian houses. It's also an excellent area for birding! (beach tags required) Cape May also boasts the Cape May-Lewes ferry which you can take to Delaware if you are visiting any of the Delaware beaches and prefer the sea route rather than driving on the highways.


SOMEWHAT CONFUSING BUT HOPEFULLY USEFUL DRIVING DIRECTIONS! 

As far as accessing the beaches, there are several ways to get to them, but many face lots of notoriously bad shore traffic on the weekends (be advised!). The Atlantic City Expressway is a toll road that bypasses the back roads of New Jersey in a more direct diagonal path across south Jersey, especially if you are coming from the Philadelphia area. I feel it tends to get a bit backed up in the summer, so it does not always end up being faster. My preferred but probably confusing (anytime anyone spouts driving directions of any kind to me my mind goes blank and I retain none of it, but never fear, I have a TL;DR GPS hack immediately after it) driving route is below.

MY PREFERRED ROUTE: From Philly I recommend taking I-76 East over the Walt Whitman Bridge. Follow signs for Route 42 (there is one interchange right after the bridge where the signage is a little unclear but just don't get off any exits into Camden and stay the course; then the signs immediately after this start showing Route 42. Someday maybe eventually I will contact NJDOT and ask them fix this oversight/point of confusion that still throws me off even though I have drive this route literally hundreds of times). Take Route 42 and then follow signs for and exit onto Route 55 (the signage will say Glassboro/Vineland in case city names are easier to remember than route numbers). You can wave to my family as you pass the Centerton exit! Continue on Route 55, and eventually take Exit 24 for Route 49-E via Tuckahoe. You'll turn left onto Route 49 and then stay on Route 49 until you reach Tuckahoe (about 16 miles). Turn right at the stop sign onto Rt. 50-S (which curves left; stay on 50-South for 1.9 miles). If you are going to points further south than Ocean City, you can stay on Route 50-S which eventually ends at the Garden State Parkway (running parallel to the Ocean). If you are going to Ocean City, after 1.9 miles, turn left onto Tuckahoe Road. Stay on Tuckahoe Road for 5 miles, where it changes to Old Tuckahoe Road, and then curves and becomes Roosevelt Blvd. Stay on Roosevelt Blvd for about 2.5 miles and you will reach a stoplight and intersection with Bay Avenue—you made it to Ocean City! Turn left onto Bay Avenue and once you reach a street number commensurate with the area of the boardwalk you'd like to go to, you can turn right and navigate to one of the cross streets parallel with and increasingly closer to the ocean to look for parking.

TL;DR/GPS HACK: if all of the above is way too confusing (sorry! but also not sorry!), just set your GPS for Millville, NJ upon leaving Philadelphia, then when you get on Route 55 or get closer to Millville, update the location to Ocean City, NJ. The main issue is just that the GPS apps will default to the Atlantic City Expressway which is only faster when there is *no* traffic, which is highly unlikely/unusual on a summer weekend! This confusing method of my insider directions will spare you being parked on the expressway and will allow you to subvert the default route supplied by GPS when it inevitably tries to take you via a route you don't want to go. There will likely be shore traffic but it is usually not as bad as the expressway, at least in my experience!


If you are coming from Maryland/Delaware/DC/points further south, some kind soul on this forum has written up those instructions (which kind of merges with my preferred instructions above after you get on Route 55 and may in fact be easier to follow than what I wrote above: 

Someone posted these directions for me last year and I used them. They were great -- spot on and nice back roads through NJ. Also, there is always the Ferry, which is fun.
I-95 thru Delaware, cross the Del-Mem Bridge. Take the "last exit before toll" (Rt. 40). Follow it thru Woodstown and Elmer to Rt. 55. Exit onto 55 is just before you get to Malaga. Go South on 55 through Vineland and Millville. Exit onto Rt. 49 (look for the big water tower off the highway). Follow 49 to Tuckahoe. Turn right onto Rt. 50, and follow till you get to the split off to Tuckahoe Road. (623?). At Marmora, the road turns into Roosevelt Blvd. follow Roosevelt Blvd across Rt. 9 and under the GSP and into OCNJ. (This route will drop you onto the island at 34th Street. Have a great vacation! (3 to 3.5 hours, depending on where you are starting from and when you are going 'down the shore.)


I may update this as I revisit other shore towns this summer but I wanted to get my baseline recommendations compiled and written so I can share them while there is still a lot of summer left to enjoy the lovely Jersey shore! (take me with you!)

 . . . . 

on a related note: I love this print of Jersey shore towns by illustrator Libby VanderPloeg and Haptic Lab's Jersey shore quilt is probably going to be my graduation gift to myself in a few years.

favorite books of 2023

 
past annual favorite book lists:

2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016

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Sharing my favorite books read during the past year is one of my favorite annual traditions. I had a goal to read 30 books in 2023, and ended up reading 36 total during the year. Of my favorites pictured, I read three on my kindle and listened to two on audio (and read print copies of the rest) so I borrowed those five from the library to include in my stack. Also this might be the first year in which I didn't finish reading any poetry collections—usually I read at least a few during the year, but I have gotten held up with one I started and still haven't finished, so I hope to rectify this in the coming year since poetry remains one of my favorite genres.

Usually I don't rank my favorites, but I will note my standout favorites here: T&T&T, Ghosts, Station Eleven, and the Emma M. Lion series (of which I read vol. 2-7 this year; volume 1 was included on last year's favorites list). But, per usual, and in no particular order below—the complete list!


Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow // Gabrielle Zevin
Wowowow. This novel was incredibly beautiful and moving. The story follows two friends (and some of the people in their close circle) who meet as children, bonding over playing video games in the children's wing of the hospital, and who grow up to form a creative partnership designing video games. On its face, this is not the usual subject matter that would interest me, but I have my friend Allison to thank for introducing me to the artistic aspect of many games a few years back (notably via the game Firewatch, which Allison correct surmised I might enjoy for its storytelling and gorgeous graphics, as well as subject matter). This novel really taps into those aspects of video games, giving you firsthand insight into the minds of several fictional designers who innovate within the industry in notable ways and create games that reflect their unique vision of the world. The relationships within the story are complex and layered, with many years passing over the course of the book. The title is indeed a reference to the famous Macbeth soliloquy and the way this phrase was woven into the story thematically was so deftly done and gave a gorgeous literary and lyrical bent to the prose and story throughout. The way Zevin also used the imaginative world of games to create scenarios that illuminated the inner lives of the characters was truly incredible, and several parts made me cry because they were so beautifully written (you may know I have long loved William Morris as a craftsman and designer; the strawberry thief chapter made me weep). A secondary theme in the novel was chronic health issues/disability which I found very compelling as well. I don't feel I can say much more without introducing spoilers, so I'll leave it at that. I almost didn't get to this book this year but I am so glad I did.


Ghosts // Dolly Alderton
This was another of my favorite novels of the year. Dolly Alderton is best known for her widely loved "Everything I Know About Love" (which I am absolutely finally going to read this year!!) and Ghosts is her first novel. I loved it a lot and found it to be one of the most apt and accurate depictions of the milieu of dating in your 30s I have ever read. I found myself underlining and marking so many passages that felt like they were pulled straight from my own consciousness and life experiences. Alderton hones in on the too-oft-unspoken reality that women in their 30s face—the pressures of our biological clocks (of preserving a future of possibility and choice that we may not now be ready for but still have to consider and grapple with) and how this complicates ones love life. One of the other major themes of the novel is navigating the reality of aging parents/parental health issues as a young adult, and this secondary theme added dimension and depth to a novel about app dating that I had not expected and which I related a lot to as well.


The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volumes 2-7 // Beth Brower
I would not be able to choose a favorite volume if I tried—this year I finally caught up on reading the (so-far-released) rest of the series of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion. They recount the hilarious and delightful exploits of one Emma M. Lion, newly minted 21-year-old by the end of volume 7, our British heroine ensconced in a garret-attic of her rightful-inheritance-residence in a quirky neighborhood in 1880s London. If I could pick one book/series in the world in which I would like to set foot, it is with no hesitation these ones. Beth Brower has created characters who feel so real and wonderful, and this series feels so real with its blend of humorous mishap, melancholy, heartbreak, joy, and at-times mundane reality. The diary format also recalls something of a literary tradition I loved from a young age (Dear America books, anyone?) and I enjoyed every single installment so thoroughly and fully expect that I will reread them in 2024 (and continue to foist them upon anyone who will listen).


Station Eleven // Emily St. John Mandel
I would categorize this among my favorite novels I read this year, but it is typically catalogued as sci-fi which is a fair assessment. I have not read much sci-fi, but I am fully on board the Emily St. John Mandel train and will read anything that she writes (Sea of Tranquility is patiently waiting on my bookshelves). I read this early in the year and at the time was grateful I had not read it sooner, its eerie resonance with our recent CoVID-19 pandemic looming large during my reading. There is a line in it about the protagonist adding a bouquet of daffodils to a grocery store run at the onset of the pandemic in the story, and I remembered doing the same thing when I made a grocery store visit in mid-March 2020, unsure of what was to come but seeking consolation through small acts of beauty. This imagery (and how it has stuck with me months later) feels like the best in-brief summation of a novel that was about the staying power of art and creativity, and how these are essential parts of what makes us human and what connects us to each other. Also maybe 2024 will be the year I finally read King Lear (my friend Sam's favorite Shakespeare play so it has been on my list for that reason and it's about three sisters so it feels like a personal prerequisite [although I realize that the inter-sister politics of King Lear may not be totally accurate to my own sisters-three])? Also Emily St. John Mandel's run-on sentences are masterful.


Under the Tuscan Sun // Frances Mayes
This is a book that transports you, and I read it during the winter months at the beginning of the year and found the escape to sunny Toscana the perfect antidote to a long, snowy Utah winter. I adore the film (it has so many good one-liners and a wry humor that feels slightly different than the rest of the 90s romcoms I love but resonates just as much) and the book was just as delightful.

"In my next life, when I am an architect, I always will design houses with kitchens that open to the outdoors. I love stepping out to head and tail my beans while sitting on the stone wall. I set dirty pots out to soak, dry my dishcloths on the wall, empty excess clean water on the arugula, thyme, and rosemary right outside the door. Since the double door is open day and night in summer, the kitchen fills with light and air. A wasp—is it the same one?—flies in every day and drinks from the faucet, then flies right out."

"The first morning train takes me through fields of red poppies in bloom, olive groves, and by now familiar stony villages. Haystacks, nuns in white four abreast, bed linens flung out the window, sheepfold, oleander, Italy! I stare out the window the whole way."


How to Keep House While Drowning // KC Davis
This book came highly recommended by several friends and it resonated with me so much. Davis reframes the banal, tedious, repetitive chores of daily life as “care tasks,” removing the moral value we/our society has ascribed to them and instead thinking of them as kindnesses we perform for our future selves or our loved ones (if you are a parent or caretaker or partner). The book is for everyone but especially geared toward anyone who is going through a challenging period, deals with any debilitating effects of mental health, or is neurodivergent, with the recognition that any of these things can create barriers or obstacles to handling care tasks without becoming overwhelmed. The layout of the book lends itself to quick bouts of reading or skimming and makes it easy to quickly identify the key points without a huge time investment.

Davis outlines a clear and simple path with a low barrier to entry of navigating care tasks during a state of overwhelm and how to make your space function for you (rather than the other way around). I also think she does this in a very thoughtful way so you can take what serves you and leave what doesn’t; it’s a bunch of ideas along a continuum, not an all-or-nothing approach. Davis’ mindset has been so helpful to me as I have been a bit overwhelmed by life since starting grad school a few months ago. She also reframes rest in ways that were really eye-opening to me and helpful as I continue trying to practice self-kindness around rest and recovery from stress and school and life. She also discusses the gender politics of labor in ways that I could see being very helpful for many of my friends who shoulder the majority of the unpaid caretaking labor in their domestic partnerships—there are several chapters dealing with the quantifying of unpaid or emotional labor and how even those not performing paid work outside the home are as deserving and in need of rest as the wage-earners in a family. Anyway, it’s a quick read and I highly recommend it!


Emma // Alexander McCall Smith
I found this book a few years ago at DI and bought it because I love Jane Austen. This was my first introduction to Alexander McCall Smith's writing—he is best known for his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which I hope to read eventually. This was a clever little novel that was an easy read and low time commitment, so all said I enjoyed it immensely. There were so many understated humorous moments that had me laughing. This retelling is set in 1990s England, essentially just a couple centuries removed from its original inspiration, situated in the same locales. Emma is a university student studying interior decorating and she is trying to find an eligible guy to fund Harriet Smith's gap year [of Emma's projected dreams]. My only complaint is that I felt the friendship/relationship between Emma and Knightley to be a bit underdeveloped. But I thought Smith's cultural positioning to be very aptly rendered, with the Woodhouses occupying the upper class social echelon in their country town with its 90s equivalents of the usual Austenian foibles.


Book Lovers // Emily Henry
This year I joined the ranks of the Emily Henry fangirls. I rarely read from the romance genre, but enough of my friends and trusted readers raved about Henry's work that I delved into the genre a little more this year. I think Book Lovers was a great introduction to Henry's work for me—she taps into a topic I (and most readers I daresay) love—books—and uses this in a great way to connect the two protagonists, Nora and Charlie, who both work in the book biz. Henry also takes some of the most common romance tropes and turns them on end, using them to explore a new side of the genre in a way I really enjoyed (again, not having read much in the genre, but knowing at least a little from past exposure, movies, etc.). I also just really enjoyed her writing and characters.


Tokyo Ever After // Emiko Jean
This YA novel was delightful and a fun, quick read (along with the sequel Tokyo Dreaming). I think the best description of it is "Princess Diaries" meets "Crazy Rich Asians" with a dose of Japanese imperial history and dreamy security detail. I also think the book explored some interesting themes relating to the Japanese diaspora and race, as through the course of the story the main character Izumi has very different experiences in her Washington-state hometown versus those she has in Tokyo, Japan.


The Peregrine // J.A. Baker
This book by British author J.A. Baker first came on my radar through the memoir H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (one of my favorite reads in 2017) and the writings of Robert Macfarlane. The Peregrine is considered a classic of British nature writing, and I completely understand why. I listened to an audio production during my cross-country drive this summer and was delighted to find that it was narrated by David Attenborough. His narration was excellent and I felt it added a lot to my enjoyment and experience of the book, which is Baker's account of trailing and observing a pair of peregrine falcons near his home in the Essex countryside.

Baker's descriptions of the British countryside through its different seasons are striking and lovely. Most of my favorite moments of these books described these encounters with weather and landscape during his romps and excursions watching and tracking the falcons. One particularly gorgeous section describes Baker's encounter with an owl. I also loved the delightful quirks of British prose and Attenborough's delivery—"anti clockwise" instead of counter-clockwise, Attenborough's pronunciation of the word "turquoise." The peregrine falcons are also rendered in incredible detail—my favorite part about the falcons was Baker's painstaking description of their eyes, of their incredible power of vision and sight, the impressive size of their ocular system in proportion to their slight feathered bodies.

"December 3rd. All day the low clouds lay above the marshes and thin rain drifted in from the sea. Mud was deep in the lanes and along the sea-wall; thick ochre mud, like paint; oozing glutinous mud that seemed to sprout on the marsh, like fungus; octopus mud that clutched and clung and squelched and sucked; slippery mud, smooth and treacherous as oil; mud stagnant; mud evil; mud in the clothes, in the hair, in the eyes; mud to the bone. On the east coast in winter, above or below the tide-line, man walks in water or in mud; there is no dry land. Mud is another element. One comes to love it, to be like a wading bird, happy only at the edges of the world where land and water meet, where there is no shade and nowhere for fear to hide."

Anywhere you open the book, open to any page, and it is rife with this prose, never repetitive or dull for a moment in its many intimations of earth, heaven, ground underfoot, birds trailing through the sky. I highly recommend the audio, but I intend to find a secondhand (or kindle) copy so I can reread and further savor the prose.


Spare // Prince Harry
I listened to the audio version of this highly anticipated memoir by Prince Harry. Lots has already been said on the book but I included it on my favorites list as I thought it was very well done and I enjoyed the audio version narrated by Prince Harry himself. Monarchy and its trappings have their own problematic history and present, still I am sympathetic to the Sussexes' plight and think they deserve safety and security just as much as anyone else. In his memoir, Harry really delves into his experiences with the British media and his grief following his mother's tragic death, among other things, and I found these parts of the book especially poignant and heartbreaking.


Beach Read // Emily Henry
This was my second Emily Henry read of the year, and while I didn't love it quite as much as Book Lovers, I would still consider it a favorite from the year and I did really enjoy it. I will say I think the title is a little misleading, as the beach in question is actually more of a lakeshore (rather than the ocean, which is always 100% what I conjure in my mind at the word "beach" as an ocean-loving coastal/Jersey girl), but I will forgive Henry the word choice as I think it is a cute title and I believe the name is meant to conjure another common trope and turn it on its head—"beach reads" is often used as a synonym for "chick lit," another phrase too often used to malign women's interests and the things women like. The protagonist in Beach Read is a writer of the romance genre and I think Henry explored some interesting themes in the book as through the story she explores the things we ascribe with literary merit and as good writing versus those that we don't. Again, not having read much in the romance genre, I appreciate the between-the-lines argument Henry makes to legitimize and normalize the things many women love and enjoy and to give us permission to do the same. Again, as with Book Lovers, I enjoyed Henry's writing and characters a lot. I'm looking forward to her new release to come out this year, and to get caught up on her other books in the meantime.


Trick Mirror: reflections on self-delusion // Jia Tolentino
favorite essays (top favorites*)
The I in Internet*
Always Be Optimizing
Pure Heroines*
The Story of a Generation in Seven Scams*
The Cult of the Difficult Woman*
I Thee Dread

Trick Mirror was the last book I finished reading in 2023 and another that has been on my list for several years at the recommendation of several friends (notably Ynna). Tolentino describes the collection: "These essays are about the spheres of public imagination that have shaped my understanding of myself, of this country, and of this era." Her musings are erudite, personal, and meticulously researched, ranging on topics from the internet and reality TV to the Greek system at her alma mater and the pomp and circumstance of modern weddings. Her writing is incredible and she has such a strong voice and perspective; I look forward to reading more by her.



What are your reading goals for 2024? I am hoping to make a dent in reading more of the books I already own and want to read 25 books this year (a goal moderated by the realities of grad school life). Happy reading!

from the drafts: Sunday studies: control, conspiracy theories, and discerning truth

FROM THE DRAFTS:

I am continuing my slow excavation of my dusty blog drafts with this draft dated August 30, 2020. Most of it is in outline form with some more articulated paragraphs here and there. I think there is value in my sharing it as it shows a glimpse of what was on my mind in August 2020, mid-pandemic and pre-vaccines and grappling with the state of the world as it is and was and will be.

/ / / / / /


personal anecdotes about control

during the pandemic, my life has felt almost anything but under control. my M.O. - existential angst. So I have to try to reel it in any way I can. Often that involves focusing on things I can do to relax and de-stress, that allow my to channel my need for control into a productive avenue that helps me relax my grip on areas and things wholly out of my control.

creative projects, cleaning, cooking, practicing the piano—so many of these contain elements of control but are so subtle. It's taken me a while to reach this conclusion. More and more it reinforces the notion for me that so much of our behavior is motivated by the need to fulfill certain emotional needs. It's fascinating and scary the things our brains project into the world and how easily things can go awry if we don't self-examine and speak candidly of our challenges.



observations about conspiracy theories

crafted specifically to target moral and ethical triggers

gives people a narrative to cling to, often that absolves them of the difficult work of self-reflection and working to change. This is obviously a generalization, but it rings true with much of what I have witnessed of others' subscribing to wildly false claims despite the same being disproven or shown to be untenable by reliable sources.

conspiracy theories often operate to distract us from the matter at hand.


fundamental principles taught in the gospel, agency and truth-finding are core teachings of the plan of salvation.

adam and eve — knowledge is our birthright — the tree of the fruit of good and evil is what brought us all here. Whether you share this religious belief and creation story, even as metaphor it holds resonance. In reading "women who run with the wolves," Clarissa Pinkola Estes recounts other creation stories of different cultures and beliefs, many of them which include some kind of sacrifice and gaining of knowledge, which then give way to the world we know and have inherited.


we have a moral imperative to be truth-seekers. to think critically and deeply. to sit with our confusion and discomfort arising from new ideas. not to take the knee-jerk reaction and path of least resistance, but to do the hard and intricate work of discerning truth from among the noise.


loved this series from MWEG about truth-finding

https://www.facebook.com/mormonweg/posts/1061585637590428

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/where-can-i-turn-for-truth/?fbclid=IwAR3v6cHCpuqQ7G4pjvhw1KeQndyKBvpkE8zC3oTAHFwf6s0tI6FONSwuCwI

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/where-can-i-turn-for-truth-part-two/

from the drafts: to smock or not to smock

FROM THE DRAFTS:

I've been musing on how I miss writing on this little corner of the internet and might dust off my blog in 2024. I have way too many things languishing in my drafts so I am just full-bore blowing off the dust and hitting publish, as-is. This post was started in January 2021 when I was working on a smocking project. I have since abandoned it, as there were some irreparable issues with sizing and process so it was something that got culled prior to my cross-country move this summer. But these inspiration images from Dôen are worth having so I am hitting publish and letting this post serve as an artifact of a one-time project that maybe I will attempt again someday in the future.

/ / / / / 


I have loved the gorgeous handiwork of Dôen for quite some time. Their clothing is a bit out of my price range at present, so I set out on a how-to-can-do journey. On my instagram account for my shop, Un Po' Dappertutto, I have been sharing updates throughout the (learning) process of making a smocked blouse and I have a series of instagram stories saved in highlights here. as well as a couple of posts here and here.

I have been using the book "Dianne Durand's Complete Book of Smocking" as guide and reference.

above: Dôen Hester blouse in Josephine plaid

above: Dôen Violetta dress in cream lady bird floral

above: Dôen Lenor blouse in two colorways of Champignon Floral

favorite books of 2022


 past annual favorite book lists:
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2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016
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I read 41 books in 2022. Thinking back on all my reads from the year and selecting my favorites has become a favorite annual tradition that I look forward to every January. This year included the formal introduction of an e-reader to my library—my stack of favorite books was feeling a little paltry until I considered that of these favorites, I had read several of them on my kindle via Libby (so I picked them up from the library to add for the full visual effect).

As always—without further ado and in no particular order, although with *asterisks denoting my very favorites:

*The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father // Kao Kalia Yang
I only discovered this book because I happened upon it at the Deseret Industries and that is why sifting through books at thrift stores will always remain a favorite pastime. It is a gorgeous memoir of Yang's father, Bee Yang. When I began reading this book, I watched several YouTube videos of Hmong musicians singing kwv txhiaj (pronounced kuetsia), or song poems, to get a better feel for the musical and narrative tradition this book evokes.

Here's a brief explanation of Hmong song poems, which I really feel also captures the ethos of this memoir:

"Kwv Txhiaj, or Hmong Song Poetry, is the art form that perhaps best captures the zeitgeist of Hmong culture. ...[T]hese compositions have been used to pass down history and culture. Often melancholy, they speak of longing: for loved ones who’ve passed away, for a lost homeland, or for a family that life has forced you to leave behind. Linguistically, these songs are incredibly rich, using the most advanced expressions, metaphors, and descriptions that the language offers. As such, kwv txhiaj can be difficult to understand, especially for the uninitiated. However, the payoff is extraordinary; kwv txhiaj capture emotion in a unique way, acting as a catharsis not just for an author or singer, but for a people. They are songs of mourning, yes, but they are also monuments to the resilience of Hmong around the globe."

Kao Kalia Yang’s writing is beautiful and her accounting of her father’s and family’s stories is moving, the book itself a beautiful tribute. My favorite chapters were "Track 3 Brothers & Sisters" and "Track 4 Love Song." The book takes you through Yang's father’s childhood, adolescence, and coming of age in a mountain village in Laos, followed by the brutalities and horrors of war, Laos’ consequent expunging of the Hmong people (many of whom faced either genocide or made an escape to live as refugees), family life in the refugee camps of Thailand, and then decades of poverty and racism experienced as immigrants in the midwestern United States. The quiet grace exhibited by Bee Yang, Kalia’s father, is remarkable and this book is a beautiful account of a family and their experiences. Kao Kalia Yang has authored several other books that I'm looking forward to reading.

related reading: If you've never read it, might I also recommend Anne Fadiman's classic "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down"? It's approaches ethnography in its subject matter—an accounting of the cultural clash between eastern and western medicine and traditions over the care of a young Hmong girl in California with epilepsy. If you're not very familiar with the Hmong people, this book was for me a great introduction to some of the traditions and worldviews of the Hmong, the Hmong who have sought refuge in California following political turmoil in their homelands, and most importantly Fadiman approaches her account with the utmost compassion for everyone involved in the story.


*Little Weirds // Jenny Slate
This was the last book I read in 2022 and possibly my very favorite, if I had to pick only one (but don't you dare make me choose). My copy is pencil-marked and dog-eared and it's like Jenny Slate peered into my soul many times over. Creative non-fiction forever.

Favorite essays (asterisks by very faves, obvi)
Treat
*Introduction/Explanation/Guidelines for Consumption
My Mother
Restaurant
Daydreams/Tides
*Color-Spirit
*Beach Animals
A Prayer
I Was Born: About to Bust
Nice Things to Do for Tipping Yourself Toward Gentleness and Simple Joy
Hillside
Important Questions
*Kathleen/Dog-Flower-Face
Letter: Super-Ego
*Creed
Kinship
Geranium
Blue Hour
From me to you, from me to everybody
(but also everything)


*The Force of Such Beauty // Barbara Bourland
My sisters and I all read and loved this book so it comes with a recommendation in triplicate! What a stunning novel (brief plot summary here). I have so many favorite passages; it was difficult to narrow it to a couple short ones. Bourland's writing is so visceral—that is the adjective I keep returning to, to describe this novel as her writing is dazzling and dizzying. The way the glittering world of a faux-European dynasty materializes and then swallows Caroline whole as she descends into its murky depths is masterfully rendered and discomfiting. (It was also kind of fascinating to read this just as the Sussexes' Netflix miniseries dropped. IYKYK)

"He touched you like he was invited, finding places to graze with ease, the inside of an elbow or the top of a hand, lingering on you until you lingered back."

"All fairy tales serve the same purpose. One woman's story, told to warn the others. Here is how I lost my feet; here is how I lost my voice; here is how I lost my children. Here is the moment I was given from my father to my husband. Here is where the danger lies: the man with the blue beard, the ogre in the forest, the tricky gentleman, the lying merchant, the prince in the tower. Fairy tales are not about sparkling shoes or white cats. They are about the ribbons that adorn, then sever, your neck."


All About Love: New Visions // bell hooks
This was my first bell hooks read and surely not my last. hooks has some striking observations about religious fundamentalism, romantic love, and children and discipline within this text. Many of hooks' writings and ideas about love, particularly her emphasis on the importance of community and friendship in our personal and societal conceptions of love, deeply resonated with me. I also found a lot of resonance between her ideas and some of the views expressed by Kate Bolick in "Spinster," another book I love.

"When we see love as the will to nurture one's own or another's spiritual growth, revealed through acts of care, respect, knowing, and assuming responsibility, the foundation of all love in our life is the same. There is no special love exclusively reserved for romantic partners. Genuine love is the foundation of our engagement with ourselves, with family, with friends, with partners, with everyone we choose to love."


The Bell and the Blackbird // David Whyte
There is a clarity to Whyte's writing that I really love and admire. Many of his poems feature the landscapes of human thought, emotion, and relationships, as well as actual landscapes. I loved these juxtapositions with their similarities and contrasts. I'm also looking forward to reading his book "Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words," which I've had on my shelves for a while. Another highlight of this collection of poetry was the many British Isle land-words.

favorites:
Lough Inagh
*The Bell and the Blackbird
Twice Blessed
Cleave
*Much Has Been Said
A Mind Shaped by Moorland
Blessing for the Light
*Winter Grief
Close Companion
Seeing You
Dream
Newly Married
Sleep

"but love may find / its fullest, most imagined / and most courageous form / when it leaves the abstractions / and safety of the timeless / and the untrammeled / to make its promises / amidst the fears, vulnerabilities, / and disappearances of our difficult, / touchable and time bound world." -Much Has Been Said


Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup // John Carreyrou
I read this after watching the hulu series "The Dropout" starring Amanda Seyfried and it was definitely my favorite non-fiction, non-memoir read of the year. John Carreyrou originally broke the story for the WSJ about the too-good-to-be-true underbelly of Elizabeth Holmes' biotech startup Theranos. He later authored this book and I am grateful for his courageous reporting, as well as for his sources, former employees who raised the alarm, the individuals who filed whistleblower complaints, and more. Having witnessed some complicated medical diagnosis processes, the fraud perpetuated by Holmes made my blood boil—her actions caused tangible harm to so many people whose medical and physical well-being was under threat from falsified data and misinformation. The evidence against Holmes is damning and I hope her story effects change both within the biotech industry and in how companies in that industry are regulated and audited.


Citizen 13660 // Miné Okubo
"Citizen 13660" is an early graphic novel (published in 1946, it actually pre-dates the term!) and memoir of artist Miné Okubo documenting her years in the U.S.'s Japanese internment camps, including the Topaz camp in Delta, UT. Okubo's artistic training took place in the United States, but she spent several years in Europe, even studying under Fernand Léger for a period of time. Back in the States, she was commissioned by the WPA to do a number of artworks in the 1930s (including this piece in the MoMA's holdings). American-born and a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, Okubo was part of the contingent of Japanese Americans who were sent to the Tanforan assembly center in California and eventually the Topaz interment camp in Utah. Okubo's monochromatic ink illustrations accompany a sparse text documenting her life during those years—the degrading conditions of the camps, the racialized treatment of the residents, and camp life (including that she taught art classes to the kids). 

(A while ago I went down a rabbit hole of trying to find images of some of her murals and mosaics for the WPA and other governmental agencies, but I wasn't able to find much, as it seems many of the original structures or buildings where she constructed these have sadly been demolished; Wikipedia did have this mural image though!)


The School for Good Mothers // Jessamine Chan
This novel was gripping and a great book club read. It's a little bit of a psychological thriller and fascinating treatment of race within the context of modern motherhood set in a dystopian alternate universe. It is such an inventive premise and Chan's afterword about CPS prompted a lot of discussion and further reading among our book club group.


Poison for Breakfast // Lemony Snicket
(not pictured; borrowed & read from my sister's shelves during a summer visit)
I will always and forever love everything Lemony Snicket (née Daniel Handler) writes. And books about writing, especially so. This is a really excellent one—Snicket-y musings on thoughts and thinking, living and dying, swimming and being living, breathing bodies of water.

"I read something once that describes the sea as "all a case of knives" and I have never forgotten it. It is a description I admire very much, because it is so startling that you know no one else has thought of it before the author did, and yet so perfectly clear that you wonder why you never thought of it yourself. All good writing is like this. It is why a favorite book feels like an old friend and a new acquaintance at the same time, and the reason a favorite author can be a familiar figure and a mysterious stranger all at once."

"I have always suspected that if and when my actual finest hour arrives, those perfect sixty minutes, I might be in a body of water, but of course I am always, in a way, in a body of water. The human body is about sixty percent water, more than half of each and every one of us. Being a body of water is something you can say about absolutely anyone, so if you are ever asked what a certain person is like, and you cannot think of anything nice to say, you can just reply, "They're mostly water.""


Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essays // Minnie Driver
I listened to this on audiobook and highly recommend it in that format (it includes the loveliest bonus chapter of Minnie in conversation with her friend, the writer Emma Forrest). Minnie Driver is a wonderful writer and these essays carried so much warmth and emotional depth. Her writing is delightful and her turn of phrase is so distinctive. I loved the essays and stories about her childhood, recollections about her English teachers, acting school, and a Malibu wildfire/maritime incursion (that phrase!). The chapter about her mother's experience with cancer was so deeply moving and poignant. And lastly, I loved her musings on creativity, including the role/effect of restrictions upon our creativity and the potential inherent in the notion of creativity—that there is always something new to create and how this motivates us as humans.


Sorry for Your Troubles // Pádraig Ó Tuama
I was first introduced to Pádraig Ó Tuama's work through the popdcast OnBeing. He hosts OnBeing's podcast "Poetry Unbound," which I still haven't actually listened to, but he was a guest on a regular OnBeing episode and it was incredibly lovely so I tracked down one of his books. I love this preface from Ó Tuama: "Many of the poems in this book were written as responses to hearing the stories of people hwo lived through troubles. The poem titles have spaces between each letter as a way of indicating the importance of silence, listening, grief and the things beyond words." I found many of his poems to be quiet meditations on the melancholy and world-worn parts of life.

favorites:
[ t h e ]  n o r t h [ e r n ]  [ o f ]  i r e l a n d 
T h e  F a c t s  o f  L i f e 
P o s t c a r d s  t o  t h e  c e n t r e
B u r y  t h e  H a t c h e t
A n d  i s n ' t  i t  t r u e  f o r  a l l  o f  u s 
I n  t h e  b e g i n n i n g ,  p a r t  I I 
T h e  Q u e e n ' s  I r i s h 

"That you will learn most from the situations / you did not choose." -T h e  F a c t s  o f  L i f e 


*The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 1 // Beth Brower
This is exactly the type of bookish-heroine cozy fiction that I always need. I was first introduced to Emma by my friend Adrienne, and at her recommendation purchased the first several volumes together so I wouldn't have to wait long before reading the next one. I read Vol. 1 in December, so I'm looking forward to having some more cozy fiction to delve into this winter.


And Yet: Poems // Kate Baer
This is Kate Baer's third volume of poems and I loved it as much as her first (her second, of found poems, is lovely too but Kate's own words always speak to me the most). With a long list of favorites, I feel like at that point you should just take my word for it and read it, but as is my wont and tradition, the list-within-a-list:

Beach Body
*There Are Days
*Ideal Heaven
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Can the Universe Be Poetic Without a God?
Bliss
Hot & Bothered
2022
The Garden of Eden: Updated Jacket Copy for the Modern World
*Astronomy Lessons
*Sad Olympics
*Halfway There
Fatal Flaw

"Remember the story of the lion / lost without his courage. / Too scared, full of fury, / the great wizard / standing in the emerald tower, / knowing the lion was already brave." -Halfway There


The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse // Charlie Mackesy
A lovely volume of the ilk of "Le Pétit Prince"—illustrated in gorgeous brushstrokes with accompanying pithy but earnest dialogue between the characters that served up many beautiful reminders of what it means to live and be human.


Good Bones // Maggie Smith
Before reading this collection, I had only read "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith, which I loved as soon as I first discovered it. Maggie Smith's work considers the heights and depths of humanity, shadows and light alike. I love how her poems walk this line between the two and acknowledge the reality and impact of both—the beauty and good we aspire to, but also the stark reality of world we have inherited—a hopeful realist, you could say.

*First Fall
This Town
Twentieth Century
London Plane
*At your age I wore a darkness
Past
Size Equals Distance
Harrowing
*Rough Air
The Mother
*Good Bones
Poem with a Line from Bluets
*Rain, New Year's Eve


Beautiful World, Where Are You? // Sally Rooney
Going to link my Goodreads review for this one as I don't have a lot to add to what I said there. I appreciated this novel as the headspace of Rooney's characters resonated a lot with the general millennial-societal-grappling that I and many of my friends are facing.


/ / / / 

honorable mentions:
The Human Condition // Hannah Arendt
Including this on the list not because it's a favorite but because I toted this absolute TOME around for 9 months out of the year and am still in disbelief that I was actually able to finally finish. "The Human Condition" provided an interesting theoretical background to some of my thinking around life in this modern age of influencers and fast fashion and ethical consumption, which was an unexpected takeaway. Arendt's views on the role of pluralism in human societies are fascinating and gave me a lot to consider as I read this book. It was definitely one of the more intellectually challenging texts I have read—very dense, very cerebral, and very grounded in centuries of political theory that I've not specifically studied or read. Due to my Italian civilization classes in college, I could keep up with the references to the organization of society and classes in Ancient Rome. The Ancient Greek political history was a little more muddled for me—I was mainly going off of my childhood PBS consumption and my 8th grade "Greek-opoly" board game project (lol). Arendt is also a bit of a purist, so her polyglot footnotes are a fun (?) challenge as well—I could hold my own with the Latin (due to my study of Italian) and French (thanks to a semester in college), but I was always at a bit of a loss when she moved into German or Greek.

The main theory Arendt posits in this book regards the interrelatedness but also mutual exclusion of labor, work, and action and how these things are implicated or involved in the private, public, and political realms. I can't even begin to explain this briefly so I will defer my further thoughts to another post another time. But of everything I read last year, this is what feels most like an accomplishment.


House Made of Dawn // N. Scott Momaday
My Goodreads review, which is much more detailed as to my thinking around this book, can be found here. Although I didn't particularly care for this novel, I loved Momaday's writing and hope to seek out more of his work—I have a book of his poetry that I'm really looking forward to reading. My favorite passages in this book were the preface and also a scene of a desert thunderstorm that was so stunning and striking in its accuracy. From the preface:

"My parents and I were a camp within a camp, and we supported each other in many ways. My mother was a writer, and she was securely grounded in the English language and literature. She gave to me a love of words and books. My father was a visual artist and a Native American whose first language was Kiowa. From him I learned a good deal about painting and would become a painter myself. Moreover he told me stories from Kiowa oral tradition when I could first find my way among words. Later my interest in and knowledge of the oral tradition would shape my work as a writer and a professor of literature. From both my parents I received the gift of inspiration."

favorite books of 2021



 past annual favorite book lists:
++++++
2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016
++++++

(several volumes listed below not pictured due to library loans, friend loans, Libby ebooks, etc.)


Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty // Patrick Radden Keefe
This was one of my very favorite reads of the year. This massive volume represents truly courageous reporting by Patrick Radden Keefe to connect the dots and expose much of what has been obscured and obfuscated for many decades regarding the impact and influence of the Sackler family and their big pharma holdings, notably the advent and marketing of OxyContin, delayed release opioid painkillers that have played a significant role in the modern opioid crisis. Patrick Radden Keefe speaks truth to power, and the sheer volume of information and documents he would have had to sift through to research this volume is astounding, and renders this finished work even more impressive for its clarity and ability to cut through all the noise (the Sacklers' signature move during lawsuits being to flood opposing counsel with millions of documents, box after box of loose sheafs of paper). The volume begins as a classic rags-to-riches American immigrant story, with some notable contributions of the Sacklers to the advent of modern mental health treatment. I appreciated the well-rounded treatment of the Sackler brothers from the onset of the book—an acknowledgment of some of their significant, positive contributions in their early careers. But the reality is that their story quickly devolves as their pursuit of wealth takes the front seat over ethics. One of the more striking plot lines in the Sackler story is that of Arthur Sackler as advertising executive—during the Mad Men era, Arthur Sackler was blazing his own trails in the field of medical advertising and it was fascinating to trace the modern medical world of big pharma (big $) to many of the innovations Arthur introduced in its early days. This was such a compelling read and when I read this in July, I couldn't stop talking about this book. I truly think it deserving of the Pulitzer for non-fiction and I'll be crossing my fingers it is awarded, as I think this is an important story to be told and upon which to shine a bright floodlight. My dad was reading Patrick Radden Keefe's book "Say Nothing" around the same time and he spoke highly of it, so I'm looking forward to reading that as well.


Homegoing // Yya Gyasi
I'm a few years late to reading Yya Gyasi's debut novel but no less enthused. Her writing is wonderful and she weaves a masterful multi-generational, multi-continental tale (hard to do well without it feeling gimmicky, but she does so adroitly and naturally). The novel begins with two Ghanain half-sisters who inhabit different villages. One sister is captured and sold into slavery, and the other continues life in her village, then each chapter that ensues follows an individual in each successive generation of each branch of the family tree. Gyasi's characters are fleshed out so impressively for the brevity of the chapter-length vignettes and I felt like I wanted to read an entire novel's-worth of each chapter and its cast of characters. Initially I found myself flipping back frequently to the family tree in the beginning pages of the book, but after a couple chapters I quickly learned and was able to keep straight the names and situations of the characters in each generation, which kept the novel flowing steadily as I read. I think some of the most compelling chapters to me were those centered in Ghana, illustrating the situations local peoples faced as regarded the transatlantic slave trade and British colonization. Not that any such situations were merited (far from it); rather, that there was a lot of nuance in the lives of the people who often enacted devastating practices as a means of saving their own families or communities. I felt a lot of compassion for the people subjected to such horrible (to everyone) choices which rendered them pawns in a system not of their own inventing, but which wrested complete control of their lives and those of the millions of African people enslaved in an abject, unconscionable system for so many centuries. In particular, I knew very little of Ghanaian history and so reading about the Fante and Asante nations' dealings (albeit in novel form rather than a history text) was very illuminating. I think Gyasi also captured the experience common to many Black Americans regarding their family trees and the many missing pieces to their family stories due to the inhumane horrors of enslavement, and subsequent decades of sharecropping, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and other racist inventions of the American system. This was another top favorite of the year and if you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it. I'm very much looking forward to reading Yya Gyasi's more recent novel, "Transcendent Kingdom."


Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning // Cathy Park Hong
This book packs a punch and the essay "The End of White Innocence" alone makes this book worth its weight in gold (especially her indictment of the white imagination as rendered on the silver screen, see p. 73). Cathy Park Hong's recounting of her family's trauma is harrowing and personal and you know her family's story is only one of many thousands of families torn apart by the arbitrary and imperialistic division of the Korean peninsula. Park Hong's essays cover a multitude of subjects, all of them fascinating. I loved reading about her work as a writing professor and poet, and I'm looking forward to reading some of her poetry.

favorites: (*asterisks to refer to my very favorites)
Stand Up
The End of White Innocence*
Bad English
The Indebted

"In my search for an honest way to write about race, I wanted to comfort the afflicted, but more than that, I wanted to afflict the comfortable; I wanted to make them squirm in shame, probably because I too identify with the comfortable."


The Weatherhouse // Nan Shepherd
This is a bit of an obscure novel and probably wouldn't appeal to every reader, but I really loved it. I was introduced to Nan Shepherd's work through Robert Macfarlane, and although I haven't yet read her more renown works ("The Living Mountain" and "In the Cairngorms"), I already fell in love with her writing in "The Weatherhouse." Weatherhouse recounts the social goings-on in a village in rural Scotland, bereft of its population of young men due to the Great War. In the post-war years, the village still has a quiet bucolic feel. I found a lot of resonance between the themes of this book and that of "The Crucible," (kind of an odd comparsion, maybe). Although the overall tone and ethos of the two works differ vastly. the rendering of small town life and how tales are spun from rumors and hearsay and how that infiltrates every level of the society are similarly fascinating and prescient. My favorite moments in this novel centered on the characters' experiences in nature, for obvious reasons.


Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times // Katherine May
This was one of my favorite books of the year. I had several friends read it, not realizing it was a memoir and consequently having mixed feelings, so I'll note that first—it's a memoir! Part memoir, part self-help (a label I despise as I think it doesn't do justice to some of the better books of the genre), Katherine May's writing is exceptionally lovely and this book was a breath of fresh air to my emotionally battered self (my nerves being more than a bit frazzled a year into the COVID pandemic and with the then-uncertainty of the timing/arrival of eventual COVID vaccines). My copy is very dog-eared and it's one I think I'll turn to again and again to read bits and pieces as I find myself in need of reminders that a change of pace is normal and natural with the changing seasons of the earth and also of our lives. Mostly this book issues a lovely reminder to be gentle to ourselves as well as practical solutions of how we might more often do so. My cousin Becca has also highly recommended the episode of On Being with Katherine May, which you can find here.


The Highly Sensitive Person // Elaine Aron
This book was absolutely revelatory for me. I have long known I am a Highly Sensitive Person, but this book articulated so many of the finer points of high sensitivity in applicable contexts and has been a valuable lens through which to consider various situations in my life. Some chapters did not resonate much with me, but the chapter on vocations in particular struck a very resonant chord. Elaine Aron has a short quiz on her website regarding HSPs as well as some helpful resources; if the prospect of a longer book is too much, I think you can still get a lot of value out of some brief perusal of her website.


Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor // Layla Saad
This is such an important book to read and most importantly do—each chapter ends with journaling questions and that is where its true power lies, in its ability to cause deep probing and self-reflection about how you and I are complicit or implicated in a system that is so ingrained in western modernity after centuries of reinforcement, and likewise, consequently, how we might better be party to its deconstruction. Layla Saad's book is an excellent primer, covering dozens of topics in brief but salient detail, and it's a great leaping off point for anti-racism work as it provides the reader and journaler with a lot of food for thought and tangible, practicable insight as a result of the journaling questions. In particular, I think Layla's guiding philosophy of the notion of becoming a good ancestor is incredibly lovely, and helps to short-circuit the shame cycle that so often kicks into high gear for people with white privilege who encounter the realities of their/our part in structural racism—the primary ethos of doing this anti-racism work should be that of creating a better world for all those who will follow us into it.


All Things New: Rethinking Sin, Salvation, and Everything in Between // Fiona and Terryl Givens
I don't always write full reviews on Goodreads, but I did for this book and I think my earlier review says it best:

As a lover of words, one of my core beliefs is that the language we use matters—that dearly held notion is at the heart of this book. As a tide of fundamentalist backlash has gripped the country politically, and in an almost microcosmic way, has also gripped the American quotient of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this book read (to me and in my current headspace) as a beautiful declaration against such narrow and narrow-minded readings of our origins and histories. The Givenses explore the theological underpinnings of Restoration gospel and how our collective consciousness has been shaped by early and recent Christian history, including and particularly by the Protestant Reformation and the Great Awakening. Fiona and Terryl Givens deftly carve out the ethos of our beliefs in the restored gospel, noting how these truths differ in critical ways from traditional readings of age-old doctrines or ideas. They cite some of my favorite writers, including Robert MacFarlane and Marilynne Robinson (with part of my favorite passage of “Gilead”) and invoke these writers’ and thinkers’ most beautiful ideas in support of their thesis, that our beliefs require a reimagining and re-articulation worthy of their (and our) limitless potential. Their conclusion which encourages reconciliation and community-building with others of the Christian tradition is likewise a beautiful one underscored by many ideas throughout the text.


Thirst // Mary Oliver
One of my very favorites from this year and the loveliest gift from my friend Alexa. <3 Thirst is so different from the rest of Mary Oliver's body of work, and strikingly so—it's the most overtly religious of her work that I have read and as a result, I loved this glimpse into her personal theology. Gethsemane is probably my favorite poem from the volume, followed closely by When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention.

favorites:
Messenger
The Poet Visits the Museum of Fine Arts
Musical Notations: I
When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention*
Mozart, for Example
Making the House Ready for the Lord
What I Said at Her Service
Praying
Gethsemane*
The Uses of Sorrow
Heavy*
On Thy Wondrous Works I Will Meditate (Psalm 145)


Dream Work // Mary Oliver
This volume sequentially follows "American Primitive," for which Oliver was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1984. Her earliest works are nearly impossible to get one's hands on, given that most are out of print and therefore the remaining first editions exorbitant in price. So this book is especially wonderful for being some of her only earlier work that is more accessible outside of the selections in the larger anthologies. Having read many of her collections and prose, both volumes of her New & Selected works, as well as Devotions, I feel by now to have a good sense for her writing and work and how it evolved over the course of her career. I found some of the poems in this volume to be quiet heavy in content or theme, and in that way quite different from much of the rest of her vast body of work. Overall I loved it as I love all her work, but the thematic tone made for an interesting reading experience, which has underscored my ongoing seeking out of each of her published volumes in addition to the anthologized selections.

favorites:
Dogfish*
Morning Poem*
Trilliums
Wild Geese (obviously)
Robert Schumann*
Members of the Tribe
The Journey
Stanley Kunitz
Orion
Poem
Sunrise
The Waves
Landscape*
Coming Home
The Sunflowers


We Have Always Lived in the Castle // Shirley Jackson
The first of my series of spooky reads during the month of October. I'm in awe of Shirley Jackson's writing and really look forward to reading her memoirs. I had previously seen the Netflix adaptation of this book, which I enjoyed, but I think I liked the book even more. The woman knows how to make your spine crawl. In this book, much of that spine-crawling feel is owed to its narrator, the eerily juvenile and dark Merricat or Mary Catherine Blackwood.

“All the Blackwood women had taken the food that came from the ground and preserved it, and the deeply colored rows of jellies and pickles and bottled vegetables and fruit, maroon and amber and dark rich green, stood side-by-side in our cellar and would stand there forever, a poem by the Blackwood women.”


The Haunting of Hill House // Shirley Jackson
The second of my series of spooky reads during the month of October, which resulted in a very fun book club discussion. I haven't seen the Netflix adaptation, but I am told there are notable differences from the novel. It begins with a very cheery plot line which makes its eventual descent into horror even more gripping and terrifying. These two books by Jackson are my first experience with the horror genre and altogether not what I expected from it—her work seems to be much more psychological in nature than gory and scary, but I can't speak to how representative or not it is of the genre given my relative inexperience (and usual disinclination from) reading other horror novels. In this book, I think what I found most gripping were the architectural oddities of the house and the (seeming or actual?) descent into madness of the main character, who early on is set up as an unreliable narrator. You feel as in the dark as everyone else in the story, which lends to the effectiveness of the plot devices.


Intimacies // Katie Kitamura
Katie Kitamura’s writing is so captivating and it was my favorite part of this novel, which is overall quite cerebral (in that its main character has a rich inner life and much of the novel is a transmutation of her thoughts) and a bit of a slow burn. Much of the book centers on the inner life of the narrator and how she mediates the world through a lens of translation, which is her line of work but also how she interprets social situations with their changing contexts and narratives. Having studied Italian in college and read various works of literature in Italian and English, I’m continually amazed at the skill and linguistic dexterity required of translators; Kitamura captures these complexities and articulates them so well and with such precision. The themes and ways in which translation appears in other contexts is also so interesting—how we translate and interpret social situations and even how we interpret the meaning of others speaking to us in a shared language and the room and potential for different meaning. I don't think everyone would love this book, as I mentioned it's a slow burn, but I really enjoyed the writing and will probably make my way to eventually reading Kitamura's other work.


Breathe: A Letter to my Sons // Imani Perry
This is a short and lovely book, which I discovered by accident somehow and then borrowed on the Libby app; I always like to have at least one e-book in my rotation for moments when I may find myself with a few spare moments of downtime but without a physical book. Imani Perry's book reads as a mother's counterpart to Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me," which I read about five years ago, and I loved them both. One of my fellow book club readers had the presence of mind to keep track of all the music references Perry makes and he made this awesome Spotify playlist aggregating all of them into a short one-hour listen that really augments the experience of the book. Imani Perry's writing is lyrical and lovely, and this short read is well worth your time.


Devotions // Mary Oliver
Included on last year's list as well (so I left it out of this year's photo), but I finished it during 2021 so I'm including it again! A wonderful compilation of so much of Mary Oliver's work, this volume is utterly wonderful. I feel like I talk about Mary Oliver ad nauseam so probably you know by now how I feel about her and what her work means to me.


God Went to Beauty School // Cynthia Rylant
The titular poem is by far my favorite—it's so good. The volume is maybe a quarter of an inch think and held more such meditations on the mundane and the divine—and ultimately on how the mundane is divine.


Jesus and the Disinherited // Howard Thurman
Another book where I'm going to just refer back to/include my Goodreads review below. For some context/background, Howard Thurman was a classmate and contemporary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. and Dr. King, Jr. often carried a copy of this volume with him.

Thurman is a wonderful theologian and his writing shares something of the quality of C.S. Lewis in its lyrical but straightforward, expositional quality. Thurman’s methodical examination of Jesus as a figure both spiritual and actual, of divine birthright but also born of his era and time, a Jew under Roman rule and occupation, is captivating and striking. He writes of the common struggles faced by the disinherited and oppressed, those to whom he refers as having their backs against the wall. When faced with the unspeakable, what succor does the religion of Jesus have in store for those marginalized individuals and populations, and how is it done? Thurman’s exploration of these topics is wonderful in its sincerity and empathy, and beautiful in its promise of deliverance, echoing the message of one Jesus of Nazareth. I particularly loved Thurman’s early chapters, which touched on the subject and history of Christianity used as a weapon, as it has so often been through many eras in time. Thurman’s hypothesis is not a naïve or oblivious one; he fully comprehends the complexity and inherent unfairness or inhumanity that so often characterizes life for the disinherited, and with this understanding, I found his writings all the more powerful.


The Book of Moods // Lauren Martin
Part pop psychology, part relatable memoir, this book was a delight to read and it was game-changing for me. I discovered Lauren Martin through her work on Instagram, a curation of Words of Women and then discovered she had written a book, which I immediately tracked down. I regularly experience the out-of-body feeling that is a cognizance of my own worst moments and emotions yet a helplessness to pinpoint the complexities of the “why” behind them. I’ve come to accept existential angst as my good friend but this book made me feel much less alone in that. Martin's explorations and musings on her own emotional states of being were very insightful and included practical tips for how she navigated the world in a way that helped her to be more self-aware and active in her emotional regulation. I think things like emotional regulation are of the sort that are a constant challenge, especially when we are tired or hungry or not feeling our best, but this book was a reminder to me that there is a lot that is within our control and sometimes it is simply a matter of paying more attention so that we can more readily assess the situation and our reaction to it.


The Wild Iris // Louise Glück
I borrowed this book from my friend Elizabeth, who is incidentally herself a poet and whose book of poetry debuts this week! One thing I really love about poetry is the associations I have of certain poems or poets with certain people, who either love particular poems or first introduced me to them, which is why I mention the book loan. Previously I had read a few poems here and there by Louise Glück, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Poetry in 2020, but this was my first full-length collection by her. Glück's work often utilizes nature imagery, which I love, but her tone is quite different from many other nature poets that I've read, which makes her work stand out. My favorites from this volume were Lullaby and Matins (both included here).


I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems // Kate Baer
Kate Baer's second volume of poetry, after her first NYT bestselling "What Kind of Woman." This volume utilizes and repurposes messages from strangers in Kate's DMs, current day politics, and more, which she reimagines as found poems. This repurposing is cathartic and instructive and while the volume is a quick read, its messages have a staying power.


Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar // Cheryl Strayed
A Christmas gift from my sister several years ago and one of my favorite reads of the year, it's a wonderful volume full of Cheryl Strayed's signature candor and warmth; my friend Alexa said she keeps it always by her bedside for perusal at a moment's notice. I read Cheryl Strayed's memoir "Wild" back in 2014 or 2015 and loved her writing. Her advice columns are so refreshing—a genre that can easily devolve into the saccharine, hers stays its course as she deftly navigates topics at times heartbreaking or horrifying, but whatever their nature, always utterly human.

"I hope when people ask what you're going to do with your English and/or creative writing degree you'll say: Continue my bookish examination of the contradictions and complexities of human motivation and desire; or maybe just: Carry it with me, as I do everything that matters. And then smile very serenely until they say, Oh."


Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic // Sam Quinones
I read this at the end of the year after having read Patrick Radden Keefe's "Empire of Pain" about the Sacklers during the summer. It was interesting to read them in the sequence which I did, and I almost think I'd recommend that sequence if you're interested in reading both books. Sam Quinones takes a much more global/national view of the opiate epidemic that barely scrapes the surface of the Sacklers' role in the medical sphere; I liked having a greater familiarity with the Sacklers' part of the story going into Dreamland, as I was more familiar with the intricacies and timeline of the medical advancements that contributed to the opioid epidemic as a result. Dreamland covers so many elements and complex factors and was an impressive volume as a result, but very approachable and readable in spite of its length. Quinones discusses a lot of issues but among them, probably the most significant/important being the prevalence of black tar heroin from the Nayarit region of Mexico, and how the kingpins in that region revolutionized and introduced innovations to the heroin industry in the United States, resulting in the far-reaching and large-scale epidemic which has gripped the country for several decades now. Quinones makes many observations and connections that tie together seemingly disparate parts of a complicated web and he does so very skillfully, switching between veins and storylines to drive the narrative of the book. The edition of the book I read included a more recent afterword by the author, which I felt added to the reading and left me with more optimism about how the tides of the opioid epidemic may finally be changing as more people speak up about how opiates have affected them or their families on a personal level, and as more lawsuits move forward and bring critical information to light.


Seven Seasons in Siena: My Quixotic Quest for Acceptance Among Tuscany's Proudest People // Robert Rodi
This is more of a niche read that would probably hold the most appeal for fellow Italophiles, but I absolutely loved it. I spent a summer in Siena during college in 2011 and it remains a formative season of my life. Robert Rodi's book plunged me into a nostalgic experience in the best of ways and I adored every page. He captures the ethos, civic pride, and vibrancy of the Sienese people so perfectly and his observations of Italian and specifically Sienese culture were laugh-out-loud funny; my favorites related to Poggibonsi (with which I have my own personal history/connections/hilarity) and a description of an Italian giving directions, which is below in its very apt entirety. I also adored Rodi's minutest recounting of attending the Palio, which I experienced for myself in July 2011. My blog archives are full of my own writing and photographs from that summer, and I shared a few on my Insta stories in the summer of 2021 in honor of ten years since that most dreamlike experience of living and working in Siena. If you know, you know.

"In my halting Italian, I interpose myself between smiling natives and ask plizz excuse but can you say how is to find Duomo, and am graciously bestowed a full complement of fulsome instructions and extravagant gestures, almost as though I asked not for guidance but for an abbreviated performance of Puccini's Suor Angelica. But it does the trick."


Autumn // Karl Ove Knausgaard
I think this book is a case of Jane Austen's famous remark that "The commonest, dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker." In this book, Karl Ove Knausgaard writes small vignettes of everyday topics to his unborn daughter, recounting his view of things in the world. Some of them are quite mundane, but many are heartfelt and humorous, and overall I loved this book and his writing.


honorable mention:
Jazz // Toni Morrison
The novel itself didn't rank highly for me, but I absolutely LOVED her writing. Looking forward to reading more Toni Morrison soon.

favorites reread:
Dandelion Wine // Ray Bradbury
To read this book is to love this book. Need I say more?


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What were your favorite reads of 2021? I'd love to hear/read about them! What's on your list for 2022? I am in desperate need of clearing out space in my personal library, so my goal of 35 books necessarily includes 20 that I already own. Wish me luck in the impossible task of paring down my shelves' contents!
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