A Mass of Odds and Ends

Have you voted yet? #vote https://instagr.am/p/CG5PdJxJu76/

It’s that time of year when I’m usually checking out lots and lots of books from my college library. I’ll be taking classes remotely this year, which is safer by far but a little sad given that it’s the final year of my MA program. So I thought I’d post this photo of my library book stacks from last fall. 📚
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It shows *only* 55 library books: a pretty modest amount, by my standards! 😆 I’ll miss studying and browsing in the library, but most of all I’ll miss the amazing librarians who keep me and my fellow classmates supplied with the most obscure titles on our must-read lists. Now I bombard them with requests for ebook versions, which they are almost always able to fulfill, much to my delight and eternal gratitude. 💚 @slclibrary 💚
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For anyone else in school, supporting someone in school, or working at a school (from preschool through PhD programs): stay as safe as you can, wear a mask, and good luck this year! It’s going to be a weird one, but we’ll make it through. 💕
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#covid19 #backtoschool #remotelearning #gradschool #gradschoollife #womenshistory #gradstudents #mastudent #librariesofinstagram https://instagr.am/p/CEy35zWp1yA/

Sending some #snailmail out each day to brighten mailboxes. 💌📬 #happymail #outgoingmail #penpals #sendmoremail https://ift.tt/39cWIRL

“We were the slow accretion of the days, built up, like the coral islands, of innumerable things.” - Josephine Johnson, Now in November
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Johnson wrote this book about a family struggling through the Great Depression when she was only 24, and proceeded to win the Pulitzer Prize for her work (women won all the Pulitzer Prizes awarded that year).
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I would definitely recommend this book. It’s an odd, solemn little read with a dark thread running through it, but also moments of beauty (especially when she’s describing the natural world). https://ift.tt/38AxIDB

“In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together.” So begins Carson McCullers’ debut novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
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The book follows five people in a Southern factory town: deaf-mute engraver John Singer, 24-hour diner owner Biff Brannon, tomboy dreamer Mick Kelly, drunk agitator Jake Blount, and black physician Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland. The latter four each befriend Singer, confiding in him, dreaming of him, reading into his smiling face who they want him to be. It’s a sad book, but definitely worth a read. I’ll be coming back to it again.
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#unreadbooksclub #bookstagram #igreads #theunreadshelfproject2020 #igbooks #readersofinstagram #recommendedreads #fridayreads #carsonmccullers #theheartisalonelyhunter #womenauthors #southernreads #bibliophie #marinerbooks https://ift.tt/32XFDK8

The Howell family of #itinerantglassworkers demonstrated #lampworking to hundreds of thousands of people across the United States for more than 70 years. Robert Sr., Maude, Grace, Robert Jr., Nona, and Leigh - plus their spouses - traveled across the country spinning, blowing, and shaping glass into birds, ships, ornaments, and animal figurines. Learn about each of the Howells on gatheringacrowd.com (link in bio)
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Image: Howell Family of Chelmsford, 1937-1945. Collection of the #RakowLibrary, @corningmuseum, CMGL 151522.
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#gatheringacrowd #igglass #librariesofinstagram #glassartists #gracehowell #flameworking #glasshistory https://ift.tt/2uRec7W

“Lost in the anonymity of a giant American city, I am one amoung many: a mother who takes her daughter to kindergarten and organizes playdates. To look at me, nobody would even guess that at one time a military tribunal tried, convicted, and sentenced me to prison for being a revolutionary.” - Gioconda Belli, The Country Under My Skin
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Belli’s book is a #memoir focusing on her participation in the Nicaraguan Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. She’s an engaging writer, which I appreciated given that I’m so unfamiliar with this part of history. Included: encounters with dictators, intimate poetry, musings on class privilege.
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One more quote: “We come into the world with a ball of yarn to weave the fabric of our lives. One cannot know exactly what the tapestry will look like, but at a certain moment one can look back and say: Of course! It couldn’t have been any other way! That shiny thread, that stitching couldn’t have led anywhere else!” #whatimreading https://ift.tt/2wlkPjg

Nella Larsen’s Passing - what a revelation. The book follows Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, the former an active member of the black community in Harlem, the latter attempting to pass as white and the wife of a virulent racist. The two meet after many years, setting a chain of events into motion. It’s at once beautiful and devastating. Absolutely a must-read book.
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Taking Lyde Sizer’s Women, Culture, and Politics in U.S. History class is the best part of going back to grad school. I have discovered so many amazing women writers, read books I’ve been wanting to read for ages, and am finally in a class that combines literature and history effectively! If you follow me on Goodreads (link in bio) you can find all the books I’m reading for this class and a history craft class on my “SLC Reads” bookshelf. https://ift.tt/2VBxOYH

Currently working my way through These Truths by Jill Lepore. Looking forward to seeing her speak on campus next Friday! #whatimreadingwednesday https://ift.tt/2TeA0Tc

“The Antigua that I knew, the Antigua in which I grew up, is not the Antigua you, a tourist, would see now. That Antigua no longer exists.” - Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place #unreadbooksclub https://ift.tt/2SpGkrK