Hurray! This is a fun post over at @literaryhub.bsky.social with a bunch of great books in it - including my Beowulf, and @profgabriele.com's The Bright Ages. I love a reading list with a heap of extremely fun reading in it.

Matt Gabriele@profgabriele.com · 2d ago

love this piece in @literaryhub.bsky.social #medievalsky lithub.com/what-to-read...

Dreamed I was working at a small, exquisite college in Ohio, where I was teaching in the rare book room, but things went askew and I lost both my top and my shoes during a swimming expedition - the rare book room had a swimming hole? I had to borrow a sweater from a baby. What does it mean?!?

I love Where the Wild Things Are. I teach it all the time when I'm teaching fantasy lit. But damn, when you have teenagers, sometimes the wild things are in your house, roaring and gnashing, and it doesn't matter what kind of hot dinner you give them, they're still gonna eat you up.

Ooooh I hate it when I get a book about folklore, wondering why I've never heard of this book before, something that is, in its description, totally my kind of thing, and then... Astoundingly bad writing, bad analysis, bad logic, bad everything. Whooof. No, I'm not gonna say it's name, but ?!??!?.

I love a gold lamé witch collection.

Michael Jay McClure@mjmimages.bsky.social · last wk.

WHAT: Saint Laurent (spring 2027) OCCASIONS: chic hopscotch or at a cocktail party you hear a ringing, a calling, & simultaneously 15 of you drop your champagne coupes & form a sisterhood—to OWN THE NIGHT IF IT WERE A SCENT: wheeled suitcase over cobblestone EMOTIONAL RANGE: 🔑/✨ #MJMfashionGuide

WHAT: Saint Laurent (spring 2027) OCCASIONS: chic hopscotch or at a cocktail party you hear a ringing, a calling, & simultaneously 15 of you drop your champagne coupes & form a sisterhood—to OWN THE NIGHT IF IT WERE A SCENT: wheeled suitcase over cobblestone EMOTIONAL RANGE: 🔑/✨ #MJMfashionGuide

Fig leaf aperitif wine coming soon.

Ask me how many times people who hear that I translated an Old English epic have insisted that Old English is just Shakespeare (whose plays are written in Early Modern English.) Note: someone just screwed up, it's not gonna be in Old English, folks.

Just landed in boston for 24 hours. I have little bits of time available tomorrow. What should I do with my three rare and precious hours?

Working on a story and the question is, should I keep on tonight until this story is done, despite the fact that I don't know how to get to the ending (which I know), or should I wait until I know how the damn ending happens. Ever thus.

This is the truth. Keep your brain happy. Read hard.

Porter Square Books in Cambridge & Boston@portersqbooks.bsky.social · 3w ago

Deep engagement with books is one of (maybe the) best ways to inoculate your mind against our (almost aggressively) toxic intellectual environment. So, we've been doing these micro-courses on BlueSky to help with that engagement. Look for the next one on Friday morning!!!

Fuck's sake. When I was a kid in Idaho, there was lots of religious terror of vaccines in our rural area. Kids died often, of things no one needed to die of anymore. But we all knew rabies was a thing you didn't want to call to your side. I feel like maybe we need a national dose of Old Yeller.

Chise@sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 3w ago

May I remind everyone that there is currently NO cure for rabies. May I also remind everyone there is absolutely NO scientific proof connecting ANY vaccine that we produce today with autism. This is true regarding vaccination in both humans AND in dogs. Vaccinate your pets please.

I just read this essay - it's beautiful and funny, and resonant for all - especially artists of every category. ❤️

Saeed Jones@theferocity.bsky.social · 4w ago

A friend of mine just published this deeply moving and funny essay about his father, 9/11 and PTSD.

Almost certainly the best photograph I have ever taken from an Iron Age hillfort of the sun setting over an estuary as summer segues majestically into autumn.

A gem at the county fair art show. 🎨

Frivolous, but it's Sunday morning, & I have a story of small victory. I have a set of linen sheets that I've been battling for a good ten years. When I got them, I was very excited, and put them on the bed, but they were itchy & horrible. So bad they were capable of making both sleep and sex bad.

Tonight, despite the chaos mess of my house after multiple suitcases and boxes of items from my mom's house arrived here, I made a panna cotta with peach nectarine compote, and it was easy, and soul restoring. You should make it too. It takes minimal ingredients, and it's ridiculously delicious.

There is no forestfall like the forestfall of the house occupied by a small dude who grows out of shoes daily and whose clothing is dropped every single place he walks. I feel like a nurse log.

The entirely predicable result of having an anti-vaccine kook in charge of public health in America but Bill Cassidy couldn't work up the nerve to vote against his confirmation.

I'm intrigued by anything bog.

Meghan Wilson Duff 🦑@mwduff.bsky.social · last mo.

This is a good book 📚

I think what’s important to remember about Dolly Parton’s philanthropy in the world of the wealthy is that she was a poor woman who became rich through talent rather than a rich guy who was born rich and got richer through failing up.

Thank you Empire State Building. NYC ❤️ Dolly.

[Exit Queen.]

it's possible to live a life where everyone grieves its end

Dolly Parton was the best. Lots more to say about her, but that also covers it. I've got most of her catalogue memorized, like an ancient epic, except in country western twang, and keeping it in my mind brings me so much joy. What a magnificent force she was. ❤️

Why aren't there night vision goggles that can detect missing children's glasses? I need a Spider-Man power that just applies to this task.

Almost 3 months away, cleaning out my mom's house, making her memorial party, selling a lot of art... potentially more to sell, to an outside Boise audience if we can figure out how to ship it. It was months of grief & complexity, & I am so so happy to see my own bed again.

"Young-old woman hobbling. No one even looks at me. You don't really own anything. Nothing is yours forever, not your body, not your youth, not even your own mind." A wild novel from @mariadahvana.bsky.social. The story of Grendel's mother transplanted to the America of Desperate Housewives.

Here's an obituary I wrote for my mom, trying to do her justice. There are a million stories, and about a million paintings. www.legacy.com/legacy/adria...

Back in the old hometown, Boise, for my mom's memorial this week. I'm cheering myself by doing an event at Oldspeak. Not sure about ticket availability, but you never know! It's the 19th! www.eventbrite.com/e/beowulf-a-...

BEOWULF! A Reading & Conversation with Translator Maria Dahvana Headley

Step into the world of Beowulf with translator Maria Headley & discover why this thousand-plus-year-old epic is anything but ancient history

eventbrite.com