The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Sava

This is a quiet novel. It is a meditation on modern life and modern love, with some juxtaposition between the older generation and the younger one, between those who immigrate and those who stay put, and finally between those on the brink of living fully adult lives, and those who are on the brink of it, maybe for some time to come. Asya and Manu have been living together in a foreign, unnamed city in a foreign, unnamed country for several years. Estrangement – from the city, from society, from the self – lies at the center of this story. Asya and Manu are not like their parents, who live in faraway countries and send dispatches, good and bad. They have a small social circle, but more often than not, it’s just Asya, Manu and their close friend Ravi who spend the days of their lives together – drinking, talking, dreaming, and revealing themselves in these still moments that they spend together.

Rachel Clark's Quilt Coats

I am taking a class with this artist in June and I wanted to watch her QuiltCon lecture to get a sense of both her work and what I am in for when I spend two days with her. She brought over twenty coats that were modeled by four different volunteers, and it was feast for the eyes. She grew up with garment makers in her family, but Rachel’s life as a quilter didn’t fully blossom until she got married to her husband, Gary, and moved from New Orleans, Louisiana to Watsonville, California in the early 1970s. After this long-distance move, she found herself without community for the first time.

Clark discovered that even though she wasn’t very good at approaching people and striking up conversations, she was very good at designing clothing that could serve as an excellent conversation piece. People will approach you to talk about what you wear—she did say in her talk that you should not wear it if you need to run through an airport—people who want to ask you about your jacket will just slow you down and you could miss your plane. Clark loved both dressmaking and quilting, and didn't feel the need to choose between the two. She explored the possibility of combining them to make unique clothes with quilting techniques. People were interested in her clothes, and in turn, interested in her. She used clothing to “invite people in.” Well, I share some of these traits with her—not the creative one or the garment maker one—the shy with people I don’t know one—and I hope this pieced garment phase I am about to enter will be a good one for me.

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

It is hard for me as a mental health professional to be truly dispassionate about a popular literature book that summarizes information about mental health literature, but this has some really good points that I can get behind. The bottom line is that growing up is still complicated and increased access to technology and the increased obsession with social media doesn't do kids any favors, but--like smoking--tech companies have no incentive to shield kids and every motivation to hook them early, so it is up to us to suspend access for as long as possible. Recommendation summarized: Delay phone access: Put off smartphones until high school and social media until age 16 Make schools phone-free: Ban smartphones in schools Increase independence: Give kids more opportunities for free play, responsibility, and real-world experiences Replace screen time: Replace screen time with real-world experiences with friends and independent activities How to implement Model good habits: Parents can model the screen time habits they want their children to have Encourage independence: Encourage kids to take on tasks they've never done before, like going to the store by themselves Support kids: Be supportive and loving when kids take on new challenges Change laws: Change state laws to make it clear that giving kids independence isn't evidence of neglect Change norms: Change group-level norms by encouraging teachers to assign homework that encourages kids to try new things

Roasted Cabbage with Miso Sauce

This is a great year round vegetable side dish. 6 tbsp butter divided 2 tbsp miso paste 1 Napa Cabbage cut into eighths 0.5 cup Panko breadcrumbs 0.5 tsp garlic powder 2 tbsp chopped parsley optional Instructions 1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Cut the cabbage into quarters. 2. Mix 2 tbsp of the softened butter with the miso paste and brush on the cabbage quarters all over, including the base. Place the cabbage wedges on a baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until charred on the outside and still slightly crispy. 3. While the cabbage is roasting make the breadcrumbs. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in a pan, then add the breadcrumbs and the garlic powder, toast while stirring continuously to avoid burning until golden, then remove from the pan immediately. 4. Sprinkle the cabbage with the breadcrumbs before serving. You can also add chopped parsley if using.

We Will Be Jaguars by Nemonte Nenquimo

Nemonte Nenquimo is a Waorani woman from Ecuador’s Amazon region who co-founded the Indigenous-led Ceibo Alliance that scored a major legal victory in 2019, protecting half a million acres of rainforest from oil drilling. She and her family lived within nature, with food from the river, the rainforest and their gardens. A monkey was her childhood pet. According to family lore, she knew she would become a spirit jaguar when she died. But things were changing fast: A huge metal tube had descended from the sky not too many years before she was born. The missionaries who emerged from it didn’t speak her language, but they persuaded her community’s leaders to put a mark on a paper in return for clothing and other gifts. Within a couple of decades later, her river was black with pollution, much of her forest was cut down, her community’s men had been coerced into laboring for oil companies in exchange for pieces of paper their way of life had no use for. Missionaries said Nenquimo and her community must worship their god. She and other children were herded into schools that forced them to put aside their traditions--and as seems to almost always be the case with these set ups, there are sexual predators involved. This memoir conveys the sheer confusion and terror of colonialism for the Waorani and other Indigenous peoples. Missionaries, oil executives and government officials used underhanded methods to wrest control of the region from families like Nenquimo’s. Ironically, the missionary education gave Nenquimo and others the tools they needed to fight back. Her story is one of fierce determination to claim a heritage that was nearly stolen from her.

Sing Sing (2024)

This is--weirdly--a feel good prison movie. It does not romantacize prison. Prison in this movie is a cold, cruel place full of violent men whose daily life revolves around trying not to antagonize the alpha dogs within the prison population or the guards looming over them. Rather it is a story about a group men serving time in prison whose participation in a theater arts program gives them something to look forward to and improves them as human beings. Colman Domingo, who deservedly received an Oscar Nomination for his role, plays Divine G, one of many real people who went through the program. He was an actor and aspiring playwright in high school before his life went off the rails. He’s a devotee of theater, loves to act and read plays, and approaches it all with the quiet fervor of somebody who found religion behind bars. Some of the most memorable images in this movie focus on Domingo’s face in closeup as Divine G performs, thinks, or silently observes others. The movie is upbeat. The scenes are allowed to play out in a way that feels real, especially in the drama club meetings. Participants are shown rehearsing scenes, talking about their meaning and construction, giving each other notes on how to perform the material, and talking about how the art informs their lives and how their lives inform their performances. The end effect is lasting and hopeful, despite all the hate being poured on people of color in the current administration, may we survive it.

The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk

The short review is that this is a version of Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain with a feminist view and a spin at the end. Like the original, sometimes it feels like it gets a bit bogged down in the mundane. Mieczyslaw Wojnicz is a young engineering student who has arrived in the village of Gorbersdorf to stay at a famed sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. He is staying at the Guesthouse for Gentlemen, slightly removed from the main campus, along with a motley crew of other patients, all in varying stages of illness. Wojnicz is an awkward man who is very sensitive to the atmosphere around him. He witnesses something startling on his first day at the Guesthouse letting us know that this place may not be as it seems and the sense of unease steadily grows. The misogyny is lethal in this place. Wojnicz’s days at sanatorium quickly follow a pattern. He visits the doctor, he and the other patients go for walks in the woods, he rests. In the evenings, they gather together at the Guesthouse and drink a liquor made from hallucinogenic mushrooms and discuss their great ideas--all of which leave him as low man on the totem pole, just one rung above women--barely. The reality of the place is slow dawning and devastating.

Quilt As Art: Valuing Our Work, Tara Faughnan

I had an inspiring time at QuiltCan in Phoenix last month, but I purposely did not attend any of the lectures. I find the whole experience to be overwhelming, for one thing. Another is that while on site, I want to spend as much time with the quilts as I can, and finally, I find the leture hall to be too big. I am naturally antsy and to be in an auditorium with row after row of people is just not my idea of fun. So streaming the lectures at home hits all the right notes for me. I took an all day class with Tara Faughnan and it was amazing to be in the room with her for a day and to see her numerous featured quilts in the exhibit hall was an added bonus. Her keynote talk walked us all through her career as a modern quilter, her lack of success in the more traditional quilt world, and how her work fit so perfectly with the modern quilting sensibility, and how nourishing that was for her as an artist. That was all great to hear, but when she talked about quilting as art, how to value what we produce, and how it connects us to generations of quilters who came before us, that really resonated with me. I love those connections, feeling like I am walking in the footsteps of earlier family members--my great grandmother quilted--and to treasure and value my deep seeded love of fabric. She talked about her own drive, which is greater and more talented than my own, but coming from the same place when all is said and done.

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

This book found it's way onto the New York Times Best 100 Books of the 21st Century. This is notable for a couple of reasons. The first is that there is very little on that list that is not fiction. I would say 10% fall into the non-fiction category and even fewer are memoirs. The other is that two of the author's works of fiction are on that list, making her unique in having two forms represented and in an elite group of authors to have three works represented. The book chronicles the deaths of five young American black men that the author knew who were dead before they were 25, one of whom was the author's brother. The causes of death are varied, and do not really touch upon police brutality nor the prevalence of white supremacists in policing across the nation. It is simply a telling of who they were, why they mattered and how their deaths affected her personally. She is bearing witness and remembering them. Such is the uncertainty that African Americans contend with in the United States in the 21st century--even before an avowed racist was returned to the White House after he was convicted of rape. That is the state of young black male life in the US and then there is the paucity of options available to so many – almost one in 10 young black men are in jail and murder is the greatest killer of black men under the age of 24. It is to these statistics that the author attempts to give both humanity and context in her memoir, in which she relates the unconnected deaths in the space of just four years of five young men who were close to her.

Creekside Market, Jackson, Wyoming

This is the first place we have eaten in Jackson that we hands down agree we would go back to. We are only eating in Jackson two to four times a year, it is not a frequent event, but often enough to be more than a little disappointed with the food we have eaten, even discounting the bang we get for our buck. We know it is a town with a lot of tourists and a lot of money, so we do not expect to find a bargain, but we do expect to find something we would return to. This market with a well above average deli counter exceeded our expectations and we would whole heartedly return. Added bonus is that it did not cost the earth. We split an Italian sub and a Reuben and both were delicious. We would 100% get the Reuben again because it was as good as any Reuben, and that is saying something. The Italian sub was a bit over-stuffed for my spouse's taste, but we both agreed that the quality of the meats included were great, and the pickles were delicious--in other words there was an attention to detail. The added bonus is that it is located right across the street from the Elk Refuge (they even sell low priced binoculars in the market should you have neglected to pack yours and be up for elk viewing)--we parked there to eat in our car while watching about 50 trumpeter swans from various distances away, including close enough to be splashed on by some.