Reading but not writing

I’ve taken a few weeks off from blogging here at bookconscious — I just wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t feeling much of anything. Something that is so common right now that the New York Times wrote about it: languishing. Anyway, I was reading, I just didn’t feel like writing about it. Book I read since my last post:

Not In My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped A Great American City, by Antero Pietila, about Baltimore’s racially segregated neighborhoods that was the campus wide read at my alma mater, Goucher College. A tough book, meticulously researched. Pietila was a reporter at the Baltimore Sun for 35 years. In the Zoom discussion of the book, I heard about a new book on the topic, The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America by Lawrence T. Brown, that I’d like to read.

With Sighs Too Deep for Words: Grace and Depression, by my friend and bishop, Rob Hirschfeld, which my chapter of The Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross read together last fall. I didn’t read it at the time, but decided to after I heard Rob speak at our chapter meeting, and then it sat in my to-read pile for a bit. It’s beautiful, and not just for those with depression but those who love them, too.

The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community by Stephanie Spellers. I’m facilitating a discussion of this book starting this week. It’s interesting and thought provoking.

The American Agent, second to latest book in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. I saw that a new one is out and realized I had missed the last one. Loved it as I do the whole series.

Persuasion, another #APSTogether pick, which I’ve read before and loved again. Jane Austen is wonderful, and I had heard Rachel Cohen, who led the APS discussion, at an online event, also at Goucher. I also heard Ta Nahesi Coates at a Goucher event (the recording doesn’t seem to be online) and realized that he loves Jane Austen.

So when I finished Persuasion, I decided to read Clair Tomalin’s biography, Jane Austen: a Life, which I picked up on a sale rack in a bookstore/coffee shop in Maine a couple of year’s ago. It was very interesting, both re-reading Persuasion and reading the bio. I’ve loved Jane Austen’s work since college, and her novels are among a handful of things I own that I’ve read multiple times. But, I’ve never read Sanditon. I think I’m going to give that a try at some point, and plan to watch the series on PBS. It’s a very modern story.

Speaking of modern, when I wrote about I Told My Soul to Sing, I mentioned that I was going to watch Dickinson on Apple TV. I watched both seasons and found it very entertaining.

This weekend, I read The Library of Exile, about Edmund de Waal’s exhibit of the same name. I had given this book to my dad for his birthday after we both read The White Road, and he loved it and decided I needed a copy too. The book includes an essay by Elif Shafak, which reminded me that after I read her book Honour last summer, I wanted to track down more of her work, and I haven’t yet.

So, that’s what I’ve been reading. I’m sure I’ll get back to more regular blogging when I’m not feeling so “meh.” I spent a lot of time outside this weekend, getting all my seedlings planted out in pots and beds. That definitely lifted my spirits!

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