Yum & Yuk

I'm reading two good books right now. The first is, of course, a mystery - "Silent Voices: A Vera Stanhope Mystery" by Ann Cleeves. I remember watching and liking at least one episode of the Vera Stanhope series on BBC, and I'm enjoying the book so far (even though it's not the first in the series - oops, started with number three). Cleeves has a great sense of a humor and a straightforward manner that matches Vera's attitude. I'm also reading a very different book - "The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" by Ayana Mathis. It's been on my "to read" list for a while but I admit that I deprioritized it probably because it's an Oprah book. Even though I'm personally a fan of Lady O, I still get embarrassed seeing that emblem on the cover of books. Anyways, I was a fool because "Hattie" is incredible. Sad, and unusually structured, but powerful and readable and just incredibly written. It was hard for me to stop reading it this morning!

Image: source.

The Importance of Sadness: "Sadness isn't necessarily something to be avoided. In fact, Susan Piver says despair can be the consequence of fighting it. Compassion is what happens when you don’t."

Now We Are Five: A poignant essay by David Sedaris.

Fit & Feminist nails it, yet again: What Does Domestic Violence Have To Do With This Blog? Everything: "This is why I fight so hard against the social constructs that say women and girls are weak and inferior, and why I refuse to accept a model of fitness that is adamant that women should want only to be as small as possible. (This is why I cannot abide Tracy Anderson!)...As you can see, the belief fitness is a feminist issue is one that is very personal to me, and not just in the sense that I can critique mainstream fitness until my fingers fall off, but because I know first-hand of the way that the pursuit of fitness can be a force for positive change in one’s life. I’ve seen how it can be used to keep women anxious and weak and vulnerable, but I’ve also seen over and over again how it can accomplish the opposite, how it can help women learn to take up space and to be courageous and to believe wholeheartedly in their own personal power."

"The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door." - Clarissa Pinkola Estes (Thanks, ELM xo)