Related Recs

📚

recent reads

Fates & Furies - Lauren Groff, liked this a lot The Fourth Wing series - fantasy has made it possible for me to get back to reading in the way that I used to when I was a kid. Just absolutely mainlining books. And it kinda makes me feel like a kid, too! But this series is FOR SURE not for children lol 👀 The Southern Reach trilogy - now a quartet! Next on my TBR is the new installment, Absolution. Really hoping for some answers but sheeesh this series is mysterious and gorgeous. Super weird science fiction. Birnam Wood - I attempted to start this and didn’t like the first couple chapters. Has anyone read and can you tell me if it’s worth it? Song of Achilles and Circe - stunning, gorgeous, obsessed, loved. I think I preferred Circe but SoA really had me sobbing lol. The Shadow of What Was Lost - book 1 in a trilogy by James Islington. Picked it up because I loved The Will of the Many and the second isn’t out yet. I’d say not even close to as good as TWOTM but still an entertaining read. Will likely pick up the second from the library soon.

@phebson

Nov 11, 2024

📚

The will of the many

Just listened to this book (by James Islington) on a road trip and oh boy you guys, it was great. Incredible characters, immersive storytelling, really impressive world building. Flavors of HP — I know we’re all looking for a replacement since JK is a hateful rotten snake. Fantasy/YA. First in a series (the rest isn’t published yet). Read it!!! I loved it.

@phebson

Apr 23, 2024

⭐

Robertson Davies’ deptford trilogy

This has been following me everywhere since I first encountered book 2 (the Manticore) on the CODEX dollar cart. I have historically been a dollar-cart sceptic, but since inhaaaaling this (Very quick ! Utterly charming !) series I’ve been changed. Read Robertson Davies. You can probably find him as I have, in boxes of free shit on the sidewalk, the shelves of your favorite used bookstore, or the depths of some old lady’s closet in a very good estate sale on Long Island. Read if you like: a Fable, Jungian analysis, the traveling circus

@dev

Jan 22, 2024

Top Recs from @bluz

🫶

You Aren’t Alone — we all are

From the Atlantic: ”There is no statistical record of any other period in U.S. history when people have spent more time on their own.” I don’t know anything about you—how funny is that? I couldn’t even begin to guess what your life looks like. I couldn’t spot you in a crowd. If I were a friend, I’m sure I could give better advice. Perhaps suggest joining a local group  I know of, or a class at the gym that always puts me in a good mood. Perhaps introduce you to someone I’ve always thought you’d get along with.  The beautiful thing about the internet is that you can ask this question to the void and the void speaks back. It’s so much easier this way, but so much worse.  Geography, family, shared interests, shared labor. Community used to be inescapable. We still depend on each other for everything, but we do it all at a distance. I’ll chat for an hour with a friend across the country, but I know nothing about the people across the street. It’s a selling point if the grocer can name the farmer who grew your food. I could have been writing this to send to a distant family member, who I want to reconnect with, or an old friend—instead I’m writing to you, a stranger. It’s easier. Our community ties have been broken.  So: what do you, an individual, do? You may find more success if you develop individual friendships tied to a place—several articles about the loneliness epidemic talk about the gym—or a group that meets regularly. Apparently, the best way to beak down peoples’ walls is just to see them constantly. This is true for new friends and for deepening relationships. For those friends and acquaintances you’d like to be closer to, keep inviting them to shit. Set your boundaries, but keep trying. The thing about people is that everybody is interesting and confusing and stupid and wise and mean and wonderful—but it’s safer to spill all that on the internet, where no one can spot you in a crowd. Let people know that you’re around and interested no matter what, and see what happens. It will take a long time, but it’ll be worth it. Not just for you, but for them. For everyone, if we all put the effort in.  I’m sorry—it shouldn’t be this way. But we have to try. We’re all counting on each other <3

@bluz

Apr 23, 2024

⏳

your 20s are for figuring it out

Whatever life you envisioned for yourself, your 20s are when you find out if it’s viable—or what you really want. Money and time matter way more (in my experience), and your friends live further away. You get to do whatever you want, which is amazing and awful. Expect to hear about peers working their dream jobs while living in inhumane conditions, discovering lifelong passions and quitting their ambitions, and re-making all the choices that seemed permanent at the time. Maybe by 35-40 you can expect consistency, but in the next twenty years your peers will go through a lot and change even more. Just remember that only having a kid and back issues are forever. When in doubt, find a mentor or a role model. Focus on the present if you can, and journal if you can find the time—it helps. Leaving you w/ this pic of sand—a symbol of the passage of time which is most beautiful when observed closely.

@bluz

Apr 27, 2024

😃

living in present tense

This morning I brought my car to the mechanic first thing. Didn’t have anywhere to be for the rest of the day, so challenged myself to enjoy a slow walk home—could have been 40 min, ultimately took 4 hours. I stopped to smell my neighbors‘ flowers, to buy a new pencil at the art store, and to read in a park for a while (big shoutout to the Libby app and city parks). I‘ve been talking to a therapist about how I wake up every morning worried about whatever I have scheduled, and tend to ruminate on failures towards the end of the day. Today I didn’t dwell on the future or the past, just lived in the present. 10/10 experience.

@bluz

May 10, 2024