Links to Click: November 17, 2023
Cheers to the lingonberries.
I am on my annual yoga retreat this weekend, having decided to take an extra day off work and use it to relax in a hotel away from home. It’s been nice, with unseasonably warm weather. I enjoyed a nice stack of Swedish pancakes with lingonberries to kick it off.
What is unfortunate is it seems no amount of time off or self-care helps anymore. I can and do truly enjoy being away when I can, but nothing seems to really help my mental health or my well-being in any long term way. I say that not as a means of screaming for attention–it’s not–but rather to help anyone else who feels that way. The -isms are completely crushing us and no amount of individual work solves a systemic issue.
Let’s dive into some links for the week. Actually, it’s two weeks of links, since I took a little break last week.
My Work The Last Two Weeks
Over this week, I talked about Book Sanctuaries and specifically, the catalog of places who have declared themselves as havens for all of the books being challenged and banned across the country.
In last week’s newsletter, I wrestled with the reality of one of my books being banned in retaliation for my anti-censorship work. I would be lying if I said I was any flavor of over it or feeling better about it. I’m not. I might be feeling worse the longer this goes one and nothing happens.
There was some good news at the polls for public libraries whose funding was in question earlier this month.
On Book Riot’s , I looked at some recent research in the world of literature, including what kinds of book titles we’re most likely to remember, the value of reading comics, and more.
Book Riot released our list of best books of the year. Mine is Daniel Kruas’s Whalefall, and here is why.
What I’ve Been Consuming Lately
My pal wrote about how Plano ISD in Texas is overriding the process of book evaluation in order to utilize BookLooks as a tool for deciding whether or not books will remain in the district.
A fascinating read about the mental dictionary that we all carry around.
There is a new postpartum depression drug–I believe I shared this in a newsletter here earlier this year. But it comes with a hefty price because of course it does. Why would medication to help a “woman’s condition” not cost $16,000? (Before you come to be with the “what about,” all medication is overpriced, but those for conditions relating to women’s health are purposefully overpriced and continued excuses for the lack of research into women’s issues). Postpartum depression has been heavy on my mind following the Britney Spears memoir.
Chuck E. Cheese is getting rid of the creepy animatronic characters in all but one location. I remember during the early part of the pandemic when my husband and I kept seeing this sign for what sounded like a new pizza place in our neighboring town. Turns out it was just Chuck E. Cheese using their corporate name.
New research shows that small acts of joy have a temporary impact on our well-being. It’s science, but it’s also common sense. I’m very grateful for the piece in here about how this is not a breakthrough nor a solution to, like, the crushing realities of the systems under which we all operate. I guess it bears repeating again that individual solutions do not change systemic issues.
The fact so many young people turn to TikTok for news is scary. This is why they’re suddenly enjoying Osama bin Laden and sharing clips of Tucker Carlson that they agree with–they, like every book banner, are going for the clips and not for the context. We know that TikTok and similar social media are on algorithms that favor reaction, so all of this is a giant firestorm of mis-, dis-, and mal- information for an entire generation–a generation whose parents are removing books that would help them actually learn how to research, learn, and understand context.
I just finished Adrian Shirk’s Heaven Is A Place on Earth, a fascinating memoir that explores the question of what makes a utopia. Yes, it’s a bit of a history, includes a look at several utopian communities past and present in the US, but ultimately, it is a memoir about the very question of utopia.
I’m not sure if there will or will not be a longform post Sunday. I guess we will find out this weekend.