Currently reading (and immediately absorbing): The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

I saw "Ex Machina" this past weekend and, while it's not perfect, I would recommend it. It's definitely a movie where you're better off knowing as little as possible before going in, so I'll say no more.

Image: source.

So good I can hardly stand it: Things I’ve Learned About Heterosexual Female Desire From Decades Of Reading by Mallory Ortberg

Another wonderful piece by Thomas Page McBee: A Trans Story Is a Ghost Story

Nonviolence as Compliance: "When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con."

Mmmhmm: Why Are We Waiting So Long To Not GAF? and I will Never Apologize for being Vulnerable.

If you are looking for a way to donate to the efforts in Nepal, I would suggest you consider donating to Oxfam. I know multiple people who work there, and I trust their choices about how to spend donation money, as well as their commitment to providing both immediate response and long term efforts towards recovery.

A great article, lots of food for thought: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school? "High-achieving, low-income students, often the first in their families to attend college, struggle to feel they belong on elite campuses."

Image: source.

NYTimes: Justices’ Ruling Allows Illinois Man, Jailed at 14, to Reconsider His Future

Now reading: New Life, No Instructions by Gail Caldwell, and The Fever by Megan Abbott.

Currently listening to: Waxahatchee, 'Ivy Tripp' Also: tiny desk concerts: Chadwick Stokes

I've gotten into climbing (again) these past few months, and am totally swooning over Brooklyn Boulders in Somerville. Amazing space and awesome people....doesn't hurt that it's next to a cool brewery as well. I tweaked my shoulder while bouldering this weekend and I hope it gets better soon so I can get back on the wall....Climbing has turned out to be a great mix of mental and physical challenge for me, I'm really enjoying it.

Wonderful read: The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work." (Wendell Berry)

"Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can’t cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It’s just there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to live through it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal." - Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things