Joy Ladin and Stephanie Burt are very different. Despite both being middle-aged Jewish trans women who came out later in life (at age 46, in fact -- Joy in 2007, just after getting tenure; Stephanie in 2017, having gotten tenure back in 2010) and are poets and scholars of poetry, and are each married to a woman.

I had gotten from the library a copy of Stephanie's edited volume Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Perks after Stonewall after Abby told me about finding it in a bookstore.

It's non-renewably due back in a couple days and I hadn't really opened it, but at lunch today I read the last poem in the volume ("So Your GF Wants to Come Out as Bi and Polyamorous to Her Very Conservative Family'") and then I started reading the commentary after it, and Stephanie casually notes that the poet (The Cyborg Jillian Weise) uses she/her and cy/cy pronouns, and this was so different from the Joy Ladin essays that Ari and I had read recently. I think my brain, knowing it was reading commentary on queer poems, had at some level been sort of expecting Joy Ladin.

Here are some suggestions for books about Palestine/written by Palestinians:

• Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh [fiction; first published in 1976 -- author was born in Nablus in 1941; she divides her time between Amman, Jordan and Nablus, Palestine]
  
• The Drone Eats with Me: A Gaza Diary by Atef Abu Saif [nonfiction, 2016; war diary of Israel’s 2014 invasion of Gaza -- author was born in Jabalia Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip in 1973]
  
• Evil Eye by Etaf Rum [fiction, 2024 -- author was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, by Palestinian immigrants]
  
• On Palestine by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé [nonfiction, 2015 -- Chomsky was born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pappé is an Israeli historian, political scientist, and former politician]
  
• I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti [memoir, 2003 -- author was born in the West Bank in 1944]
  
• Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis [nonfiction, 2016 -- author is African American, not Palestinian]
  
• Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa [fiction, 2021 -- author is a Palestinian-American writer and political activist]
  

I read ten books Palestinian books last year, so here are a few that I really enjoyed/would recommend as well:

• The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan [fiction, 2022 -- author is Palestinian-American]
  
• In My Mother's Footsteps: A Palestinian Refugee Returns Home by Mona Hajjar Halaby [memoir, 2021]
  
• A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar [fiction, 2009 -- author was born in Chicago in 1978. She grew up in Kuwait and Egypt, and moved back to the U.S. at thirteen.]

When it comes to boycotting, just a thought. It’s okay if you can’t quit a company cold turkey. In Master Gardeners, when we encourage people to switch to native plants, the goal is 70% native, not 100%. If you were shopping at a store 80% of the time and cut it back to 60%, that 20% still hurts.

And that 20% that you’re taking elsewhere is definitely going to help smaller businesses that were struggling to compete with the corporate giants.

• read Abby approximately 16 picturebooks -- mostly (entirely?) from Betsy Bird's 31 Days 31 Lists
• finished The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk (2023) for December DEI book club (we started it in November for Native American Heritage Month, but spread it out over 2 months)
• [YA sequential art] girlmode written by Magdalene Visaggio & illustrated by Paulina Ganucheau (2024)
• [YA] Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia (2024)

• Abby and I finished watching Agatha All Along (1.05-1.09)
  
• Tumblr had been informing me that there was an Agatha Harkness episode of  What If...? S3, so we watched What If...? 3.02 "What If... Agatha Went to Hollywood?" -- which I was pretty meh on (I maybe would have been more into it if I had seen Eternals and cared about the Celestials?)
• we also watched Marvel Studios: Assembled 2.09 "The Making of Agatha All Along" thanks to Tumblr informing me of its existence

• The Thanksgiving Play with Abby and Jo (Bridget had covid, alas)

  Isn’t it time we rethink Thanksgiving?  That’s the question on the table when four politically correct performers get together to create a new take on the traditional holiday pageant.  Good intentions turn into outright tension as the group struggles to re-envision history, all without ruffling any feathers.  Rambunctious, wild, and fearless, The Thanksgiving Play serves up history and humor with a steaming side dish of uniquely American hypocrisy.  Are you ready to eat your words?

  The blurb (above) didn't particularly sell me, but the Wiki kinda did:

  The main ideas explored in The Thanksgiving Play involve the attempt of an all-white cast to create a respectful and politically correct Thanksgiving play that includes Native American themes. This idea is paradoxical, considering the play is written by a Native American playwright. Larissa FastHorse wrote the play in response to the common notion that her works couldn't be produced due to the perceived difficulty in finding Native American actors. To challenge this casting limitation, FastHorse crafted a play that tackles Native American issues without relying on Native American actors.^[11]

  In the play, white characters take on the task of writing and producing a play about Native Americans without consulting them directly, highlighting the complexities and impossibilities of the endeavor. The play sheds light on issues such as the underrepresentation of indigenous actors, misguided attempts to represent Native Americans in American society, the presumption of a homogenous Native American identity instead of recognizing diverse tribal identities, and other challenges faced by indigenous people in America.^[12]

  Through its satirical tone, The Thanksgiving Play humorously delves into the conflict of creating a politically correct portrayal of Thanksgiving without involving Native Americans. Beneath the humor and satire, the play subtly critiques the historical and ongoing misrepresentation of Native Americans by referencing past portrayals involving redface and the inaccurate portrayal of indigenous culture.

  I also loved this from the playwright's Wiki: "As a playwright, FastHorse requests that theaters who produce her work hire at least one other Indigenous artist for the production, and showcase at least one other Indigenous artist's work in the building."  (For this production, the Director is Seminole. And the Dramaturg is Cherokee.)
  
  It's a satire, which I think is not my favorite genre? I appreciated that during the community conversation after the show, an audience member noted that it felt uncomfortable because they saw themself in the characters. Because some of it's so over-the-top (see above, satire), I think it can be easy (as an audience member) to experience it as criticism of Others who are Not Like Ourselves.
  
  There's a scene that re-enacts a massacre, and in the community conversation, the Director talked about the intentional choice to use shaving cream instead of fake stage blood, given the reality of school shootings.
  
  The Director's Note in the digital program notes that:

  In the first few pages of the published script of The Thanksgiving Play there is a casting note that reads, "...BIPOC that can pass as white should be considered for all characters". This play has had countless productions all over the world, on Broadway, and even right here in the greater Boston area; however, this is the first production that has honored that note with a full cast of Native and actors of color. Additionally, this is also the first major production that has been led by a Native director.

  During the community conversation, I asked the director to say more about the choice to cast all BIPOC actors. I think I still wasn't entirely satisfied? Though I do appreciate the idea of having BIPOC folks in the room shaping the development of the production.

So, Bethany of The Transfeminine Review did Reader's Choice Awards this year (as I posted about earlier).

The night of Dec 24, Bethany posted:

Okay in the context of having just read a short story:

The “Outstanding Short Story” category is *by far* the least definitive right now, and I would very much like to not have to break a sixteen-way tie.

If you have a favorite short story from this year and haven’t voted yet, 🥺🙏

The morning of Dec 25, Bethany posted:

THE 60-HOUR TRANSFEM SHORT STORY CHALLENGE

There’s just 2.5 days left in the 2024 TFR Awards. Feel like you haven’t read enough to vote? It’s not too late!

Before the Dec. 27th deadline at 11:59pm EST, I challenge you to read as many of these stories as possible and vote for your favorite! 🔥

with a link to this GoogleDoc.

I definitely kinda wished I had bought Embodied Exegesis: Transfeminine Cyberpunk Futures since a whole bunch of the nominated short stories were in that and our local bookstores (and library network) didn't have it.  (I could have bought it in ebook, but that's really not my preferred way to read things.)

But some stories were available online, and some I even managed to read.


• "The V*mpire" by P H Lee -- okay, I started reading this and took a break.

  Author’s Note: This story is set on tumblr in the early 2010s. It depicts, among other things: internalized and externalized transphobia, homophobia, and misogyny; grooming; alcoholism; intimate partner violence, including both physical and sexual assault; murder; cannibalism; gaslighting; the online culture of the period and the weaponization of that culture to silence, manipulate, and abuse.

  I think I'm used to content warnings having become where you cover all the things that come up even a little bit in your story Just In Case, but these warnings are really warranted here.
  
  (I did come back and finish it, though.)
  
  
• "Can You Hear Me?" by Grace Byron -- this is sort of like a Casey Plett story
• "Rachel Is at a Protest" by Esther Alter

  And after the deadline:
  

• "Sim City" by Erica "ERN" Rivera -- trans-masc protagonist
  
• "Kindly Basilisk" by AutumnalWalker -- "A human mech pilot who wants to be a machine, an AI who wants to be human, and the relationship they form."
  

• Oh, and I forgot that earlier in the month I had read Sascha Stronach's hopepunk story "Tomorrow, Dawn".  She had written:

  alright it's here, the short story where I poured all my disappointments in 'hopepunk' as a concept, and tried to write what I thought when I first heard the term, which electrified me with its promise, a promise I found unfulfilled
  
  cw for shitloads of gore

  She had posted Dec 11, and Bethany's using publishing standard, so, "The book must have been published in between December 1st 2023 and November 31st 2024.  We’ll push new titles from this Dec. to next year." [x] and I assume that applies to short stories as well.

• Melissa Ferrick concert at Passim -- Abby and I went with Bridget+Jo and Bridget's cousin who was visiting
  
  I thought I knew "Drive" (2000) but I listened to it before the show and was like, "I maybe only knew OF it?"  But no, the chorus felt familiar -- "I'll hold you up / And drive you all night / I'll hold you up / And drive you, baby, till you feel the daylight"
  
  Ferrick talked about coming up at a time that The Indigo Girls, Suzanne Vega, and others were playing shows in the Boston area. It makes sense, but it still felt sort of wild to be like, "Yeah, those are artists I associate with e.g. my first year of college [2001-2002] when I also was introduced to the one song I know of yours." Like, very throwback to such specific memories of a time in my life (sitting at my desktop computer in my first year dorm room, with Ethernet connection for the first time, downloading music from Internet friends...).
  
  She played a song written very intentionally in the style of Shawn Colvin (whose best-known song was from a 1996 album, so also very much of that era).
  
  She opened for Morrissey's 1991 "Kill Uncle" tour. She played "Closer" -- sad words to a happy tune, a la The Smiths.
  
  She talked about doing a song-writing sort of thing with Mary Gauthier (whose name I didn't recognize) and Lori McKenna and being the one to provide prompts & follow up &c. -- "I'm a Virgo." ♍
  
  She grew up in Ipswich and now lives in Newburyport, which I definitely did not know. I'm not used to thinking of artists as being from around here.
  
  
• Midwinter Revels with my mom and Abby

  Midwinter Revels: The Selkie Girl and the Seal Woman
  A Celtic and Cabo Verdean Celebration of the Solstice 
  
  About This Year’s Production:
  In a small fishing village off the shores of Galway Bay, a community gathers in the local pub to celebrate the season. A child enters looking for a package that may have been delivered for his mother, who comes from another coastal town – in Cabo Verde. Songs and dances are shared, and the pub dissolves into a portal for fantasy with a transformative retelling of the Selkie story, a Celtic myth about living between two worlds. Irish songs, jigs, and reels share the stage with dance, drumming, and traditional songs from Cabo Verde. In the Revels tradition, new community is catalyzed, and with it hopes for a new year.

  I was hoping for more selkie, and Abby was maybe hoping for more Cabo Verde?
  
  Abby and I appreciated that in one of the selkie stories, the selkie gets a wife.

yuletide

A couple more horror/thriller options I'd be interested to read:

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle (2023)
"A searing and earnest horror debut about the demons the queer community faces in America, the price of keeping secrets, and finding the courage to burn it all down."

Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns (2023)
"novel about a queer South Asian rideshare driver scraping by in a Toronto-esque city"
satire, inspired by Taxi Driver

• [Huntington] Sojourners w/ Abby & Fiona (first in the 9-play Ufot cycle)

  Rising star playwright Mfoniso Udofia launches her sweeping cycle with a family’s origin story. Marriage, migration, and the pursuit of education collide when a young and brilliant Nigerian couple arrives in Houston, looking to earn their degrees and bring insights back to their home country. But when Abasiama discovers that her husband has been seduced by Motown records and American culture, she has to choose between the Nigerian Dream and her obligations as a matriarch. Director Dawn M. Simmons helms the lively and funny Sojourners at the historic Huntington Theatre following her acclaimed production of K-I-S-S-I-N-G at the Calderwood Pavilion.

  
  
• [Central Square] Galileo's Daughter w/ Abby & Mark

  When a playwright's life is turned upside down, she travels to Florence to study the letters between Galileo and his daughter Marie Celeste, who is forced to join a convent after her father's earth-shattering controversies. Captured in the letters are her strength of will and own genius as she secretly assists her father in furthering his discoveries about the shape of the universe, inspiring a path forward for the Playwright. Alternating between Tuscany of present day and the 1600’s - and the liminal space between playwright and audience - Jessica Dickey has crafted a play examining faith, forgiveness, and the cost of speaking the truth.

  There was more of the Writer in this than I wanted -- in part because I didn't really care about her/like her.
  
  (Someone I know commented, "This conceit has become very popular of late: Modern woman goes in search of information about a historical woman. The play/novel then goes back and forth between portraying the two, and the narrative aims to show how the two stories dovetail and how they contrast. This trope can be quite interesting, but I'm wondering whether it's run its course.")
  
  The play did play up Maria Celeste's special nun friend Louise, so I got the Dava Sobel book (which the online program says inspired the play) from the library to see if that's forreal. (I did not find it via an initial skim and will maybe end up reading the whole book, since it seems like it would read quickly.)
  
  Apparently Maria Celeste's younger sister also went to the convent with her? I understand that including that would have lessened the "it's us alone together against the world" kind of feel of Maria Celeste and her father, but it does feel like a major dramatic license to take to elide her.
  
  
• I didn't watch much of the 5th Annual Black Trans Women at the Center: a New Play Festival, but I did watch one of the short films -- "Poly Pockets" by Morticia Antoinette Godiva (Partner: About Face Theatre, Chicago).
  
  I knew it was a virtual festival, but I had assumed it would be recordings of staged performances, but all the short films were done via Zoom (the full-length play, which was maybe also the feature of the festival?, Shape Shifter by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, Long Wharf Theatre, was a staged production, but I ended up not watching it that Friday night -- I definitely struggled with the short viewing windows: Access Window 1 | 7 Short Plays: Mon Nov 18 at 7:30pm - Wed Nov 20 at 11:59pm; Access Window 2 | Shape Shifter: Wed Nov 20 at 7:30pm - Fri Nov 22 at 11:59pm).  I will probably still try to hold time on my calendar for this festival next year, but I'm glad to have a better sense of what it entails. 
  
  
• [ASP] Emma w/ Abby and Cate

  Screwball antics and wedding fever have struck Highbury in this high-octane adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved romantic comedy!
  
  The precocious Emma Woodhouse has sworn never to wed – and instead is intent on staking her claim as a matchmaker with an incomparable track record. As her machinations upturn the lives of her friends and rivals alike, Emma will need to navigate a minefield of proposals, love triangles, and extravagant balls to play Cupid… and perhaps find that love has been under her nose all along.

  With humor, heart, and a whole lot of amorous hijinks, audiences of all ages will swipe right on this Regency comedy of errors.

  I read a bunch of Jane Austen in college (Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, etc.) but don't think I read Emma. Abby hadn't read it either, and messaged me a few weeks before the play:

  So, I have started the audiobook of Emma because I've never read it, and wow this book is super gay. I mean, at least the opening is.

  Yes, that felt true of the opening of the play, as well.
  
  Cate noted that this play broke the fourth wall more than the last Kate Hamill we saw, which feels true to me as well. I think it worked well, though. I definitely enjoyed this play a lot.
  
  I was really interested to rewatch Clueless after seeing this, to dig more into the similarities -- like Harriet felt so much like Tai, there's literally a character in Emma named Elton... I hadn't watched the movie in probably 20 years (I know I saw it around when it came out, when I was an adolescent, and I maybe rewatched it in college in the early 2000s), so I only remembered some parts of the movie and definitely spent a lot of the play like, "Okay, I can't remember how this part is done in Clueless."
  
  I hadn't realized the director was a Black woman until a promotional email on 11/8 (about a week before the show opened).  In an IG video, she says:

  This past week, I found myself reflecting on the first time I read this play. When I read Kate Hamill's adaptation of this amazing Jane Austen novel, I was struck by 3 things: the sharpness, humor, and wit of the language; its simultaneous fidelity to, and irreverence for, the source material; and the clarity with which I saw and heard Emma in my mind. Possessed of broad knowledge and deep potential, as much of both as she was possessed of charm, personality, and wit... the Emma I saw was a woman of color. And she wasn't infinitely strong, or patient, or full of unceasing wisdom. She was flawed and fallible. Soft and vulnerable. Beautiful and annoying. Kind and self-centered. She could have easily accepted the small nook society had relegated her to. But instead, she aspires to more. Her ambition is a testament to an awareness that she can have a role and purpose beyond society's expectations and limitations. Sure, she has to learn some lessons along the way, but don't we all?
  For me, Emma is a story of a woman who comes into her full, authentic, powerful, sovereign self through female friendship and engagement with her community. She learns to reconsider not just what she is entitled to as a full living person, but also to whom she is obligated, for whom she is responsible. This woman is the lead and a real, full human being. To me, that's the most radical portrayal of a woman of color there could ever be. As a Black woman, that idea excites and inspires me. As a Black artist, it empowers me. And so that's why this play now, and in this way: with a woman of color in the lead, centering the stories of women and their relationships to and with each other, creating a community that uplifts and supports each other, a community of joy and camaraderie. That's what we need now. It's what we need always.

  Except Emma was played by a white woman?  Jane Fairfax was played by a Black woman, but the cast was generally white (see).

• Gender Reveal live show w/ Abby

  The Gender Reveal podcast

  Three transsexual friends/morons present a night of comedy and games. Imagine if a variety show was actually good!

  For seven years, Tuck Woodstock has hosted the beloved trans podcast Gender Reveal. Now, we dare to ask the question: What if instead of “interviews” and “guests” and “thoughtful analysis,” Gender Reveal was a series of high-concept games and bits presented by Tuck and his two most available friends? Expect comics (both kinds), historical personal ads, lightly coerced transitioning, and something called “Jeremiah AFAB Sweatpants.”

  Tuck Woodstock is the host of the podcast Gender Reveal and the co-editor of 2 Trans 2 Furious. mattie lubchansky is a cartoonist and illustrator, and the author of Boys Weekend. Calvin Kasulke is the author of the novel Several People Are Typing.

  We were definitely skeptical about how much we would enjoy this, but we actually enjoyed it a lot.

• [Nov 13 climate change book club] This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein (2014) -- Okay, despite my statement last month, I ended up powering through reading this.
  
• [Nov 14 local library LGBTQ+ book club] You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat (2020) -- novel about a queer Palestinian-American woman.  I wasn't super into this.  It's kind of litficcy, maybe?  idk. I was engaged reading the book -- but also the character doesn't grow or change much.
  
• read Abby approx 2-5 picturebooks
  
• [Dec 1 feminist sff bookclub] The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz (2023)
  
• Lucy, Uncensored by Mel Hammond and Teghan Hammond -- YA, trans-fem (authors are sisters; Teghan is trans, she/they)

• finished watching WandaVision (1.08-1.09)
  
• Abby and I started watching Agatha All Along (1.01-1.04)
  I gave her context from WandaVision a bunch during Episode 1, but I think you could come into the show cold and catch up as you go (though one of my coworkers said she tried to do that and then looked up lots of stuff on the Marvel Wiki because she was confused). If you do come to it from WandaVision, you will ALSO be confused -- though that confusion gets sorted by the end of the episode.
  
  Abby was not prepared for just how hot Aubrey Plaza was. The Internet had maybe oversold to me how much of the show Aubrey Plaza is in? Though at the time of this writing we have seen 6 episodes, so there's still more show left.

• [WQ: Docs] Short Film Program Queer In This Together: Stories of Communities and Iconoclasts

  Join us for five stories of how our community lifts itself up for survival, for success, and for our future. From preserving the political history of elder lesbians to learning how to know yourself and others through role play, these five stories from across the planet put a spotlight on those who bolster themselves up to thrive in this world.

  
  
  • Pup Perfect -- about puppy play; I learned a bunch but was also somewhat disappointed that it was only about gay men and didn't even really nod to the fact that the community/kink extends beyond that
    
  • The Kiki House of Vase -- about a ballroom house in Taipei
    
  • Trans Heaven Pennsylvania -- about New Hope, Pennsylvania; this was really interesting, and I was sad that the venue that had been at the heart of this got sold and the developer turned it into a parking lot :(
    
  • Old Lesbians -- about the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project; I cried a bunch; I also don't think I'd realized that Smith has the collection?
    
  • Alok -- I only knew of them prior to this and I have learned that they are not really for me.
    
    For reference, here are the full blurbs from the WQ:Docs website: ( Read more... )
  
  
  
• [WQ: Docs] Reas

  Yoseli has a tattoo of the Eiffel Tower on her back and has always wanted to travel, but she was arrested at the airport for drug trafficking. Nacho is a trans man who was arrested for swindling and started a rock band in jail. Gentle or rough, blonde or shaved, cis or trans, long-term inmates or newly admitted: in this hybrid musical, they all re-enact their lives in a Buenos Aires prison.
  This film is presented in Spanish with English subtitles.

  I was pretty meh on this.
  
  
• [WQ: Docs] I streamed A House is Not A Disco

  A surprisingly intimate and humorous doc that peers with empathy and curiosity into one of the world's only "homo-normative" communities, the island "paradise" of Fire Island Pines. Told through home video, archival footage, and eccentric character portraits of the vibrant present, A HOUSE IS NOT A DISCO finds a Fire Island in transition; confronting diversity, inclusivity, gentrification and the frightening and growing peril of coastal communities worldwide...climate change and rising seas.

  The documentary does touch on all those things listed, but it felt to me largely like we were only sort of skimming the surface.
  
  I did appreciate that some trans women get featured. (Early on in the film, people were talking about how it's such a queer haven, but, like, it was basically all white cis gay men -- so I appreciated that the film dug into that some.)
  
  Watching it I kept thinking of Lesvia (Λεσβία) from Wicked Queer's spring festival -- about the evolution of the queer community in the birthplace of Sappho.
  
  
• I did not catch Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story during WQ: Docs, and it wasn't streaming during their virtual encore, but it was streaming through DOC NYC I saw on Bluesky, so I watched it that way.

  WQ: Docs:
  A lost R&B star who eclipsed Etta James and Little Richard, trans soul singer Jackie Shane blazed an extraordinary trail with an unbreakable commitment to her truth. Forty years after vanishing from public view, this 20th century icon finally gets her second act.
  
  DOC NYC:
  Groundbreaking trans soul singer Jackie Shane was on the cusp of stardom when she turned away from the music industry and the world. After her death, family members who never knew their pioneering aunt, piece together her remarkable life, uncovering her personal struggles, immense talent, and unmistakable voice. Through never before heard audio recordings and beautifully expressive animation, Jackie tells her own story, in her own words. – Brandon Harrison

  This was in so many ways such a well-constructed documentary.  (And it tied with Janis Ian: Breaking Silence for Runner Up for Audience Award Winner at Wicked Queer Docs -- I learned from an email today.)
  
  Elliot Page was one of the executive producers -- probably in part because it was a Canadian production (Jackie Shane was from Nashville, but found a home in Toronto).
  
  Among the various talking heads in this documentary, there were a couple Black women who I only partway through realized were also trans. The credits indicated that they were also the re-enactment actors: Sandra Caldwell & Makayla Walker. (The former was pretty easy to find online, but I struggled to find the latter until the Wiki for Jackie Shane informed me that she is also known as Makayla Couture.)
  
  Someone else in that bsky thread said, "This fall, Nashville installed a historical marker, memorializing Jackie Shane and her role in the city's queer history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgbOgQTyzik " so I watched that news clip.  It included a (very brief) clip of Crys Matthews covering "Any Other Way" (of course, because Nashville).
  
  
• Clueless with Abby -- after we saw Emma
  
  It has not held up as much as I would have liked, but I still enjoyed it (and I think Abby did, too?).
  
  I did appreciate seeing it so soon after seeing the Emma play. Not only did I get to match up things like Christian is Frank Churchill, but right out of the gate we have Cher trying to get her dad to drink orange juice, which is the reversal of Emma's father trying to get everyone to eat "gru-el."

• [Oct 9 climate change book club] Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
• read Abby ~12 picturebooks
• [Oct 17 local library LGTBQ+ book club] Pageboy: a memoir by Elliot Page
  
• [Oct 20 feminist sff book club] The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach (Maori trans woman author) -- I liked this a lot.
  
• [Oct 23 DEI book club -- October is Filipino American History Month] Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista -- This was really engaging (the author is a journalist).  I think my favorite part was the backstory history of the Philippines (Chapter 2) -- "In the aftermath of the Edsa Revolution, Thai protestors filled the streets of Bangkok. Another man stood before another tank at Tiananmen Square. The Berlin Wall fell, with Germany thanking the Philippines for showing them the way. Once upon a time, we were heroes." (pp. 31-32)
• The Sunforge by Sascha Stronach -- sequel to The Dawnhounds, but which I think I didn't like as much as The Dawnhounds?
  
• It Gets Better... Except When It Gets Worse: And Other Unsolicited Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me by Nicole Maines

One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.