What I'm Loving Now

"...doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age." 

    - Benedict; Much Ado About Nothing

Things change. People change. The things we love for a time are not always the things we love forever. 

I am, of course, speaking of the shallower things of life - dumping one movie for another on your Top Ten Movies I Love list. Things like that. No deep philosophy today. 

Rather, I'm going to talk about the things that I am loving right now, in March of 2021. I may not love them by March of 2022, or I might. Or maybe what I'm loving right now will lead me to something else to love and enjoy down the road. 

First, podcasts. Although they have been around for quite some time, in the past couple of years, I have caught on to the trend and found some that I really enjoy. 

My favorite teaching podcast is "Brave New Teaching." They have a realistic but creative and rigorous approach to teaching in the English Language Arts classroom and share the best ideas. Sitting down with that podcast is like sitting in the teacher's lounge and laughing over the day - the good, the bad, and the ugly - but then getting some terrific ideas to make the next day better. 

My favorite podcast, the one that first got me interested in podcasts and the one I come back to most consistently, is "What Should I Read Next?" When I started listening to WSIRN, my TBR pile exploded! Pretty quickly, I learned how to find the show notes, and to go immediately to Goodreads to learn more about the recommended books and put them in my virtual TBR pile. I will never get through all of the books on my Goodreads list, let alone all of the books in our house, but I'm okay with that. I just like to be surrounded by books and by people who like books, and that is what WSIRN does for me. Teaching teens and trying to instill a love of literature in them can seem like a Herculean task some days, so sometimes it is fun to slip into Book Nerd mode and hang out with fellow Book Nerds. 

This leads me to my favorite books at the moment. (Again, this is not my "All-Time Favorite Books" list, just the "What I'm Enjoying Now" list.) 

First, I devoured the first three books of the Mirror Visitor Quartet by Christelle Dabos, translated from French by Hildegarde Serle. Yes, it is translated so I feel very cosmopolitan and fancy. The fourth one is not out yet, but I plan to eat it up as soon as it pokes its nose out of the publisher's warehouse. This might be considered YA, I'm not sure, but it tells a terrific yarn with complex and memorable characters, and a fascinating world. I will confess I am a little concerned about the "character" they call "God;" sacrilege is not something I want to recommend to anyone. But I am reserving judgment until I see where Dabos goes with this. 

Second, in a much different vein, I just finished Passing by Nella Larsen. Larsen was among the intellectual elite of the Harlem Renaissance, and that intellect is evident in this stunning exploration of the lives of two women, each of whom are light-skinned enough to "pass" in white society, and who make different uses of that ability. It is told from the perspective of Irene Redfield, who, we gradually realize, may be ranked with some of Poe's best "unreliable narrators." Not only is it a good story, though, it is a fascinating exploration of race in the 1920s, but with clear relevance to the 2020s. I highly recommend it. 

My final favorite for March is crochet! Still a favorite. I finished a lovely little shawl with a variegated blue/green/purple cotton yarn in a simple "granny square" stitch - clusters of three double crochets. Finishing a project is always fun and makes me feel like I'm making progress. I also finished a bunch of Easter eggs and a jellyfish in cotton pastels. I am team-teaching a crochet elective at school, so this has kept me working on new and different projects. The big project I'm working on now is a throw blanket with a simple stitch (sc and dc alternating) in a gingham pattern. I am stalled on it at the moment because I had to order more yarn, but I am eager to get back to it! Crochet continues to be the simplicity and order my mind craves at the moment. 

Actually, a favorite which relates to books and crochet are audiobooks. I love to listen to audiobooks while I crochet. Recently, I listened to books #5 and #6 of the High Society Lady Detective series by Sara Rosett. Enjoyable, well-written, and fluffy enough that I don't have to invest a lot of emotion, they are perfect for some light entertainment. 

That's it! Those are the things filling my non-school time and brain-space. What are you enjoying these days? I'd love to hear!