Life on Holidae

I know I rarely update

I rarely update butttt its about time I do. I love my job. Life outside of work is far more hectic. And I start volunteering at a hospice program in November. I’m excited about that. Officially graduating is a whole other matter.

I want to visit Jenn and my old roommates sometime in October. And I don’t know why, but I really want to go to Rochester.

I’ve read quite a number of books this summer. Another Country by James Baldwin, Passage to India by E.M. Forster, Beloved by Toni Morrison, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, Chango’s Fire by Ernesto Quiñonez, City of Glass by Paul Auster, The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee. Alot of New Yorker articles and just reading everything I can get my hands on.

I strongly recommend Baldwin’s Another Country if you’re up for something spicy, intense and beautiful.

For something more intellectual go to Auster’s existential mind trip City of Glass.

For a thoughtful introspectice take on the ways of nature check out Annie Dillard’s book.

For something really sad and depressing read Disgrace by Coetzee.

For something with a clever feminist read anything by Margaret Atwood. The woman is a disgracefully clever and delicious writer. She’s the kind of writer that makes other writer’s jealous. She is that good.

As for my favorite of the ones I’ve read this summer I didn’t put mention it on that list because I have been attempting to read it for 5 years. James Baldwin’s Just Above My Head. Talk about heartbreaking, mad intense. For anyone that saw Requiem for a Dream do you remember that sensation of relentless drama emphasized by the soundtrack? Do you remember how the movie left you slightly disturbed and shaken? Well thats how this book is. Except its over 500 of the deepest sadness I’ve ever read.

I can’t read the book in one stint I have to pick it up, read, digest and absorb, rest and then continue.

Its a terribly beautiful book on the life of a dead homosexual, black gospel musician as told through his older brother. That shit is DEEP.

I think there are more books I read, but not necessarily worth mentioning. So that’s the roundup.

ALSO. Lolita was insane. Talk about shameless.