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Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

April 2026 TBR

Posted in Books, Cozy, Fandom, Health, Poetry, Reading Challenges, Resolutions, Seasons on April 2, 2026| 3 Comments »

Unpopular opinion – Spring is, objectively speaking, the very worst season. At least in Texas. But I imagine any place with trees or floral plant life is just unbearable right now.

So what does that leave? The desert? Desert people – how are you right now? Can you breathe? I’ve forgotten how it feels to be able to do that. Is it wonderful? I bet it’s wonderful.

The pollen is really pollening. My gray car has taken on a perpetual yellow tint, despite vigilant rinsing. I’m constantly drugged, and as they are providing no actual symptom relief, I’ve concluded the allergy meds are merely keeping me alive. I have a constant wheeze. It’s a miracle I can open my eyes wide enough to read print at all.

That must be why the audiobooks I read in March outnumbered the print books I read. For the first time ever. Incredible.

It’s National Poetry Month, though, so I’m going to power through with puffy, watery eyes to enjoy all the lovely collections I’ve planned. Print is always my preference with poetry.

[Disclaimer – I am a Bookshop.org affiliate – I get a cut of the sales from most of the links below.]

Book Clubs

  • A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
  • Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan (Rise & Shine theme – something blue)
  • The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (I haven’t quite finished the previous ones in the series, so I’m going to have to read them OUT OF ORDER to get this one read by the time book club comes *melodramatically breaks out in hives*)
  • Black. Single. Mother. by Jamilah Lemieux
  • Katabasis by R. F. Kuang
  • Choose your own poetry adventure – see the poetry section below!

Cozy

Poetry

It’s National Poetry Month, and I’m going to celebrate not only by reading lots of poetry but also by learning more about how to write it well from some of my favorite poets.

Anti Brain Rot Challenge

PopSugar

52 Book Club

Libro.fm

  • Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert  (narrated by Adjoa Andoh) – Listen to an audiobook by a disabled author (Part of The Great Audio Reading Surge of March 2026. It’s so good! I’m excited to read the other two this month.)
  • Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (narrated by Robert Sean Leonard) – Listen to a banned book (Another part of The Surge. I am glad I didn’t read this as a child. I was way too sensitive to have been able to handle this then. It was almost too much for Adult Me to try to listen to during lunch and while driving. There was ugly crying involved.)
  • Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab – Listen to a Libro.fm staff pick (Also read in March. While I liked Schwab’s series – Shades of Magic and Villains, specifically – better, it was a solid read, and the audio was fantastic.)
  • Judge Stone by Viola Davis and James Patterson (narrated by Viola Davis) – Read an audiobook from your wish list (Just waiting on my libro.fm credit for the month to pop up!)

Nowhere Book Bingo

Bad Bitch Book Club

  • Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky – A collection of poetry written by someone who has a chronic illness or disability
  • Finger Exercises for Poets by Dorianne Laux – A nonfiction book about art or creativity
  • Judge Stone by Viola Davis and James Patterson (narrated by Viola Davis) – An audiobook narrated by the author

Overeducated Women With Cats

  • Shady Hollow by Juneau Black – A book with an anthropomorphic animal
  • The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley – A book that blends genres (specifically, sci-fi and romance)

Alphabet Challenge 

Read My Bookshelf

Book Riot Read Harder

  • Game Changer by Rachel Reid – Read a sports book by a woman, trans, or nonbinary author
  • Smothermoss by Alisa Alering – Read a book by a librarian

I hope spring is treating you more kindly than it is me, and I hope you get to read a lot of poetry (or whatever you want) this month!

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Friday Five – Awe

Posted in Alive, Beauty, Church, Cozy, Friday Five, Mental Health, Music, Poetry, Wonder on March 20, 2026| 2 Comments »

“When was the last time you felt in awe of something?”

I appreciate nature. I do. Especially the sky. There are few things I love more than driving down a country road under a vast canopy of blue.

While nature may be my reactive response to the question, though, there are lots of other experiences that make me pause and take notice.

Today’s Friday Five brings you five things that inspire awe for me:

  • A really good cup of coffee. Not just a decent cuppa that gets the job done, but a truly exquisite coffee. That will stop me mid-sentence. So many factors go into producing the perfect cup of coffee – where and how it’s grown, how it’s harvested, how the beans are cared for before/during/after roasting, how it’s ground, how it’s brewed, the temperature at which it’s served – it’s a remarkable moment when they all come together to make something special.
  • Zoom choirs. As tired of Zoom as I got during the 2020 shutdown, some of the most beautiful things that came out of it were the choirs. I mean, I love choral singing anyway, and it’s a fast way to get to awe for me, but coupling it with the commitment to making sure people could still enjoy it despite the obstacles of social distancing was particularly touching. The amount of collaboration from all the participants and the hard work from the editors that it took to put these presentations together yielded something marvelous.
  • Meditation. My favorite style of meditation usually involves prayer, but even when it doesn’t, it’s still full of wonders. At its base, it is quiet and still and open. I am seldom closer to awe than when I’m meditating. There is so much noise in the world, and it’s so easy to get distracted from my own soul and my own purpose. There are many different ways to meditate, and I highly recommend finding one that works for you. 
  • Reading poetry. I am easily uplifted by the exceptionally worded sentence. Well-crafted poetry takes it one step further. 
  • People who excel. I love watching people who are very good at what they do – who have found their niche and revel in it – perform. Artists, musicians, writers, actors, dancers, athletes. Even if I don’t generally give a flying fig about what they’re doing (looking at you, most sports), if they are exceptional at it, I suddenly can’t get enough of it. This also extends to people I have worked with. In the grand scheme of things, very few things about any job I’ve ever had are earthshaking. But when I see someone really make a difference in a student’s day or their college experience, or enrich their life in some way, the impact of that moment makes it easier to get out of bed for a while.

Where do you experience awe?

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Friday Five – Icy Conditions

Posted in Denton, Friday Five, Mental Health, Poetry, Work on January 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

After a winter storm last weekend that expanded into icy conditions pretty much all week here, I have spent a lot of time working from home. Grateful to have a reliable setup to do so. Here are five things on my mind this Friday.

I hope your weekend is wonderful, friends.

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Friday Five – Art and Books

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Coffee Shop Road Trip, Dance, Friday Five, Fun, Home, Music, Poetry, Seasons on November 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

This week was pretty busy but also really fun.

  • I took Monday and Tuesday off so I could drive to Tulsa to attend Travis Baldree’s book signing for Brigands & Breadknives. He talked about writing, answered questions, and read from Chapter 15. He narrates the audiobooks of this series, and I highly recommend listening to them, because he is a delight. 
  • During this little adventure, I also got to visit two bookstores and a coffee shop I’d never been to before. Magic City Books in Tulsa, Green Feather Books in Norman, and Gray Owl Coffee in Norman.
  • I got to read poems and listen to some great music at Joan of Bark at Rubber Gloves on Wednesday (and also going to be performing on December 13 at the Fest, which you should come see if you’re local or want a reason to travel to Denton)!
  • This is the collab I didn’t know I needed. “No Good Deed” with Cynthia Erivo and Misty Copeland.
  • Simon Sinek interviews Fredrik Backman, and it’s just as lovely as you imagine it would be.

I am very excited about this evening and tomorrow, when I will be catching up on all the taking care of my home that I have been neglecting whilst out gallivanting around. I might even go ahead and put up the tree. ‘Tis (almost) the season!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, friends.

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April 2025 TBR

Posted in Beauty, Books, Hope, Poetry, Reading Challenges, Resolutions, tagged , , , on April 1, 2025| 2 Comments »

Yay, poetry month! There are lots of ways to celebrate National Poetry Month. As usual, I’m going to read a lot of poetry (as well as prose written by poets), and I hope to write some as well during April.

Today, I am kicking off the celebration with a donation to the Friends of the Denton Public Library, a group that does so much to support the work our local library does for our community.

In addition to poetry, there are a couple of books that are coming out this month and some other exciting reads on my radar. 

Book Clubs

52 Book Club Challenge

Libro.fm Challenge

  • Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio – Listen to an audiobook mentioned on the Libro.fm podcast [general fiction]
  • Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd – Preorder an audiobook and start it on release day [mystery]

Bad Bitch Book Club

  • The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden – an anticipated sequel to a book you loved [mystery] – stayed up past my bedtime reading this in one night. No regrets.
  • The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin – a book that takes place in a library or bookstore [books about books]
  • The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – give an author a second chance at winning you over [fantasy/magical realism]

Nowhere Book Bingo

Overeducated Women With Cats Challenge

  • The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich – a book reviewed by OWC [general fiction]
  • Dear Writer by Maggie Smith – a book published in 2025 [books on writing]

What are you most excited to read this month?

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January 2025 TBR

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Poetry, Reading Challenges, Resolutions, Wonder, tagged , , , on January 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

More than any other month of the year, my January TBR most closely resembles what it’s like inside my brain. It’s a unique blend of structure and chaos. Between my ambitious “these are the topics/challenges I’m most excited to explore right now” and my book clubs’ equally ambitious “let’s start the year off with a bang” and also my “maybe I should also read something light and fun because rest is resistance/important” tendencies, the list is all over the place. It’s also super long, because this is Ridiculous Optimism Week, and I love it. 

As one of my reading goals for the year is to read more broadly across the different genres on my TBR, I’m going to note the category that I have each book listed under in brackets. 

Book Clubs

Wonder

I loved starting my word for the year during Advent (the start of the church year). It’s especially useful to do so when the word of the year is wonder, and both Slowing and Enchantment [both are inspire/self-help/community care] were a great place to start. So I’m going to continue with both of these books and add a few more. 

Goals

When I set a goal for myself, one of the first things I do is gather information (sometimes I gather too much and get bogged down in all the scintillating details, but that’s another story for another day). So here are some books I’m reading/starting this month to get me started on my resolutions.

Reading Challenges

My two main reading challenges this year are from the 52 Book Club and Libro.fm, but if/when Overeducated Women With Cats and Nowhere Bookshop post theirs, I’ll probably jump on those as well. I joined another online book club and I’m not sure where I’m going to put the prompts, but they’ll probably be in this section as I ease my way into the community. For now, though, here are the books I’m reading this month for specific challenges.

52 Book Club:

  • Couplets by Maggie Millner – told in verse [poetry]
  • Search by Michelle Huneven – title is ten letters or less [foodie fiction]
  • Small Rain by Garth Greenwell – “I think it was blue” [queer lit]
  • Go as a River by Shelley Read – set in the 1940s [general fiction]
  • Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig – last sentence is less than 6 words long [gothic fiction]
  • The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (et al.) – explores social class [essays/short stories]

Libro.fm

  • The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, read by Richard Gere and Haley Joel Osment – Reread an old favorite on audio [fantasy/nonrealism/sci-fi/etc.]
  • The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop – Read a winning audiobook from our 2024 Bookseller Choice Awards [memoir]
  • One of the prompts is to share Libro.fm with a friend or family member. I’m still trying to figure out how to pick a book for that prompt for my StoryGraph tracking, but in the meantime, click this link to check it out!

Bad Bitch Book Club

  • The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny – an anticipated sequel to a book you loved [series]
  • House of Light by Mary Oliver – a book under 150 pages [poetry]

Additional Reads

I’ll probably also start the next/first books in a few of the series I want to read.

Here’s to a new year of reading!

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Friday Five – Rest and Reading

Posted in Books, Friday Five, Fun, Health, Music, Poetry on April 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Happy April! In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had some time off from work to rest and breathe, and it was so good. I should do that more often. Noted.

Here are some things I’ve enjoyed in the last few weeks.

  • On a Facebook post my friend and bandmate Jesse described the music they played during his head CT. I especially loved this quote at the end: “Overall it was a magical concert albeit brief, but this is a simple reminder that the beauty of music and art is fleeting, ephemeral. The only reason I didn’t give it a 5/5 was because the light show left something to be desired, and there was no encore,” and the link he provided to D Magazine’s article about listening to the symphony in space. 
  • Enjoy these 7 reasons you shouldn’t date a reader. Accurate. 
  • I’ve been anxious and insomnia-ed lately and super steroid-zoomie lately, and somatic yoga has helped. 
  • I loooove Ollie Schminkey’s poem. And the delivery? Wonderful. I love the enthusiasm, the frustration, the insight, the passion. I especially love the parts that the audience clearly loves, too, particularly “I am not trapped in my body; I am trapped in other people’s perceptions of my body.” Worth a watch (and a re-watch), especially for those who find themselves in a place of “I just don’t understand.” This might help.
  • “And Yet the Books” – a treasure to read for National Poetry Month from Czeslaw Milosz via Susan Cain.

I hope you have a good weekend!

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April 2024 TBR

Posted in Books, Poetry, Reading Challenges, Resolutions on April 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Hello, friends. It’s National Poetry Month! There are several specific volumes of poetry I have in mind for this month already:

I’ll probably also read some May Sarton. Probably some Louise Glück. And because the libro.fm reading challenge prompt, “Listen to at least ten minutes of an audiobook every day for a month” will make me listen to just a little bit of poetry every day, Poetry Unbound, curated by Pádraig Ó Tuama.

One of my in-person book clubs is participating in a choose-your-own-adventure poetry night, where we share our favorites of the poems we read this month with each other. The library book club is discussing our favorite young adult selections. The other two are reading:

Other than my book club selections and the heightened focus on poetry, though, I am taking the rest of my reading time this month to read the things from January-March’s TBRs that I haven’t finished yet. Or at least make a dent in them. My focus and reading speed have been way down recently, but given everything else that’s going on, I suppose that makes sense. Taking a month to acknowledge that and regroup.

What are you excited about reading next?

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Friday Five – Rest for the Puny

Posted in Books, Friday Five, Fun, Health, Home, Poetry, Quiet, Work on March 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Feeling a little puny this week, but otherwise, it’s been a pretty good one. I have a slow weekend ahead, and I’m looking forward to that. I actually get to sleep in tomorrow morning!

Next week is the students’ spring break, but I’m also taking off a couple of days and then a few days the week after that to make a long birthday weekend. Shaping up to be a good rest for the next couple of weeks!

  • “In another life, I’m a booktuber.” Susannah Conway is one of my favorite people on the internet, and I love this short piece. I like my life and my choices in general. But I’ve been a bit blue this week and musing on the lives I could have had is a little bit of a breather. 
  • In niche news, I’ve been into villanelles lately (e.g.,  “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”). I find their rhythm both inspiring and soothing. Might try doing something with that. Stay tuned.
  • A little inspiration for getting my garden started this weekend. That’s the one big task I have planned for home for this weekend. I have my soil and seeds and here’s hoping another big freeze doesn’t come through before Texas spring really springs.
  • I love this piece on embodiment and approaching living as an art form, taking into account possibilities as well as limits – The Art of Living (The Convivial Society)
  • Happy International Women’s Day! Here’s a little light reading to celebrate. In addition to being Women’s History Month, March is also National Reading Month. Also, the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced. So…take time off work for a reading staycation? I feel like that’s what all of these things are telling me to do.

I hope you are having a good day and that your weekend is everything you want it to be!

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Friday Five – Mean Green Move-In

Posted in Books, Friday Five, Poetry on August 11, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Today is the first big day of move-in for the academic year. People have been filtering in early over the last week, but today the doors of all 14 halls are officially open. Our office is open in case anything goes awry, but with as much planning as everyone has been doing, it should move like clockwork.

In other news, though, as is our custom, there are a few things I ran across this week that I want to share with you. Enjoy!

  • I have a love/meh relationship with this piece on “Reading Well.” Things I like – the encouragement to read slowly and savor what you read, to re-read books you adore (especially by audiobook – I LOVE doing this), and to make the effort to make personal reading recommendations (btw, that’s one of my favorite things – when someone has read something and is like “I think you would like it – here you go”) rather than just broad ones (although I do enjoy broad recommendations, too). As a chronic chronicler, I am intrigued by the idea of not having any idea what’s on your shelves – just wandering through, constantly discovering things. I’m not sure I have the personality for that, but it’s a romantic thought. Things that elicited a hearty scoff – book clubs ruin nothing shut your mouth sir, and in defending fiction’s role in learning and being influenced and becoming a more well-rounded, excellent human (with which I heartily agree), he seemed to imply that most nonfiction doesn’t allow for that, which I haven’t found to be the case. Also, speaking of becoming a more well-rounded human – an “unsystematic thinker,” if you will – perhaps all the books one mentions in one’s piece about reading to be more open to the world and its stories shouldn’t just be those written by men. Ahem. At any rate, the piece definitely got a reaction, so there’s that.
  • Death by Water by Kerry Greenwood – I don’t always post mini-reviews of each book I read in a series, because I tend to view the series as one really large book and would basically say the same thing about all of them. But I like it when authors of long-running series (e.g., this is book 15 of Phryne Fisher) mix up the setting so that we get a couple of familiar characters but otherwise a whole new cast. This one was a thoroughly enjoyable escape and just what I needed last weekend. I also like to spend time in August reading about vacations where you need sweaters. Let me live vicariously through you, Miss Fisher.
  • Oh gosh, I love this so much, both the tribute and Emily Levine’s reading of “You Can’t Have It All.” Take a minute to give yourself the treat of listening to it as you read along.
  • I also really like Frederick Joseph’s take on the Foxx/Aniston incident. We talked about a lot of these issues in training this week with my staff, particularly as they pertain to responsibility and accountability in conflict resolution. 
  • I have joined Book Chat Noir. First, because it’s a cute name. Second, because they suck up to my people (i.e., introverts). Third, importing my Goodreads list seemed easy (Asterisk. I have 4,571 imports, which may have broken BCN. My book list page shows up as a gray box and then gives me the dead face and says it overheated or something. Dang.). Fourth, it promises to (eventually…hopefully) be more customizable than Goodreads and also is not owned by Amazon (as far as I can tell – Amazon’s reach is pretty vast). Fifth, it is free. A win most of the way around in my book. 

I hope you’re having a good Friday!

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