Weekly Journal 6.15.26

Reading

I finished The Corrections, the first long novel I have read in ages. (I feel like the last thick novel I read was The Poisonwood Bible, maybe?) I'm not a good analyzer of fiction. I do know that this book explored themes of intergenerational discord, aging, mental health, societal expectations, and geopolitics, but I couldn't tell you quite how they all weave together.

Next I took home a literary blind date from a local used bookshop, and kept it wrapped until I finished my other book. (I don't like two-timing books.) This turned out to be A Mighty Long Way by Carlotta Walls LaNier, one of the Little Rock Nine. I hadn't previously read anything about that ordeal since learning about it in school, so I'm diving in with great interest.

Watching

Patton Oswalt has a solid new special called Tea & Scotch for free on YouTube. I recommend every piece of standup he's ever produced. Also, Josh Johnson has a very funny hour called Symphony on HBO Max.

Cooking

Our blueberry bushes are on their way to yielding a few gallons of fruit, if I had to guess. I picked exactly one and one-third cup to make this blueberry muffin recipe. They came out perfectly tender.

Doing

I'm going through a first set of revisions with a professional editor for a piece that was recently accepted by an online magazine. I have scarcely workshopped any of my writing, let alone handed it over to an editor, so this has all been a new experience. I was too scared to open the marked-up version of my piece for a few days. Writing is a labor of love, and I was worried about seeing my work torn apart. Turns out, of course, it was very thoughtfully annotated and lightly revised here and there. I actually had a wonderful time doing the revisions and I'm excited to see what comes next.

Listening

I revisited Live's Throwing Copper, which I listened to repeatedly in the mid-Nineties but hadn't heard in a long time. The opening twang of "Selling the Drama" reaaaaallly took me back.