What I've been reading this year

[sonia]

Links go to my book blog, Curious, Healing.

Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith and Boulet
The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Somebody I used to Know by Wendy Mitchell
If the Buddha Married by Charlotte Kasl
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed
Weaving Hope by Celia Lake
Alexandra's Riddle by Elisa Keyston
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
Surviving Domestic Violence by Elaine Weiss
Seaward by Susan Cooper
Very Far Away From Anywhere Else by Ursula K. Le Guin
Kitchens of Hope by Linda S. Svitak and Christin Jaye Eaton with Lee Svitak Dean
What It Takes to Heal by Prentis Hemphill
The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong

Currently reading "Hospicing Modernity" by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira Andreotti, which is a down-to-earth, practical manual on how to expand past the limitations that modernity puts on our thoughts, imagination, and experiences. The author talks directly about how difficult it is to address people's frozen assumptions without triggering defensiveness, while encouraging the reader to open up, side-step defensiveness, and explore wider possibilities.

I just got past the introductory exercises, which feel similar to the trauma-healing work I've been doing all this time. I always feel like I'm behind, trying to catch up to people who had more ordinary and loving childhoods but maybe those aren't so ordinary, and maybe all that work leaves me in a more flexible place.

Highly recommended! You can read a couple of sample chapters at decolonialfutures.net/hospicingmodernity

Comments

[house_wren]

The book "Hospicing Modernity" seems unlike anything I've read. Thanks for mentioning it. I might get a copy.

Also, a sentence of yours really caught me: "I always feel like I'm behind, trying to catch up to people who had more ordinary and loving childhoods...." I had not put it into words, but that is a feeling I've had most of my life. It's only now, with illness and old age and some bitter disappointments, that I have stopped trying to catch up and am more focused on being myself, whoever that is.

[sonia]

If you get the book, I hope it speaks to you. And that you get a sense, like I did, that all this healing work actually puts us ahead in some ways, rather than eternally behind.

I'm glad you're more focused on being yourself these days. I keep telling myself it's the only option I have, even when it seems really painful and hard and embarrassing.

[sheafrotherdon]

You're the third person to recommend Hospicing Modernity to me. Clearly need to get a copy!

[sonia]

I hope it's the right next thing for you!