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What I'm reading


* The State We're In, by Anne Beattie

A book of short stories all set in Maine. I've been dipping in and out of this one for a couple years - perfect little character-driven stories for in-between larger books. 
* Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race, by Debby Irving. I heard Debby speak alongside Shay Stewart-Bouley, who mentioned that this is a perfect "primer" for a white person who is beginning the wake-up journey. I am impressed with how honest Debby wrote about her journey, it already feels, well, really white; I've encountered some points where she's generalized about race or dumbed down the content. What's interesting is in her talk I could hear where Debby has already moved far beyond where she was when she wrote the book. I appreciate that because it shows how much we all have to work to reprogram our white superiority upbringing, to see where we have benefited because others have been oppressed. 
* The Carrying, poems by Ada Limón
Limón's Bright Dead Things collection split open my heart and made me a reader of poetry, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on her most recent collection. I think we may be around the same age because her poems hit right at my heart - right in the moment in which I'm living and feeling. 

 *Almost Everything: Notes on Hope, by Anne Lamott
"I am stockpiling antibiotics for the Apocalypse, even as I await the blossoming of paperwhites on the windowsill in the kitchen."  These are the opening words, and pretty much sum up everything I've felt for the past 4 years. I refer to Anne Lamott always as "my best friend Annie" because I've felt for about 20 years now that she really does walk beside me. Her irreverent reverence is exactly the lift I often need, and even though some of these essays ramble a bit (not as badly as in her previous book), there are nuggets of powerful truth and beauty to treasure. 

 On deck: 
*Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson
Atkinson's novel Life After Life knocked my socks off (I can't believe it took me so many years to pick it up!) and friends have told me this one is even better...can't wait to snuggle up and read. 

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