Weekly Roundup

Bridge Disaster Edition

Hello everyone and welcome back to another weekly roundup! First of all, a big thank you and welcome to everyone who has subscribed recently. I’m glad you’re here, and I hope you will enjoy the chaotic literary ramblings that abound.

If you don’t live in Rhode Island (which is probably most of you), a bridge went out this week and I am not joking when I say it messed up traffic in the entire state. I don’t entirely understand what happened, but apparently it can lead to a catastrophic failure at any moment. I knew Rhode Island was small, but I didn’t know it was *this* small. Point being, it’s all we talk about now, and I’m not venturing outside because hoo boy there’s so much traffic. With that image in mind, here’s what I’ve been doing in my comfy, cozy interior to pretend like the world isn’t literally crumbling around us as we speak.

What I’m reading:

I’ve been reading this cozy little novel: Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This was translated from the Japanese, and it is a three-quel? Third sequel? A sequel sequel? In any event, the original book is Before The Coffee Gets Cold, and this is one of three sequels. (The others being Tales from the Cafe and Before Your Memory Fades.) Before the Coffee Gets Cold was very popular in Japan, and was turned into both a play and a movie.

This is what I would call cozy fantasy - a subgenre the likes of which was made famous by Legends and Lattes. Basically, there are fantastical elements - you can time travel at the cafe where the book takes place, but it is otherwise grounded in the real world. No flying dragons here. But there are strict rules to the time travel: you can’t move from your seat. You can’t change anything that happened, and you can only see people who have visited the cafe. Given this, it’s a quiet story about who would want to visit the past under these restrictions and why.

I’ve read the first three books, and was eagerly awaiting this one. As expected, it was a deliciously quiet and a quick read, populated by some of the same characters who are in the previous books. While the books are all connected, they’re not dependent upon each other; you could pick up any of them and read them out of order.

• Great for: people who are looking for cozy reads, people who like fantasy

• Bad for: people who are not looking for cozy reads, people who do not like any kind of fantasy

Also, a brief note: I have been gathering all of the books I mention in this newsletter into my own Bookshop affiliate store. I would get a small commission if you bought any of the books using the links, but honestly this is more about making sure all of the books are in the same place for reference purposes. I am an overly organized Earth sign - I just want everything to be neat and orderly. I don’t care if you buy books from these links or your small bookstore - just please not Amazon. Never Amazon.

What I’m writing:

Not what I should be, I’ll tell you that! Instead of my novel, my brain wants to write about my wibbly wobbly joints more, so I’m working on an essay tying together my EDS and the other disparate threads in my life that started in 2017.

The same advice that applies to reading can be applied to writing. That is: go where the motivation is. This is what I’m interested in working on right now, so might as well write it. Will I have to go back to my novel and force my bum into the chair? Yes, obviously. But the good thing about where I am in my career right now is that I have no time limits. No one is waiting on me to deliver anything. So I’m going to continue to follow my interests and hope they lead me to complete a piece of writing sometime soon.

• Great for: my ability to maintain multiple ideas at once

• Bad for: my novel draft

What I’m listening to:

I’ve mentioned this previously, but I can’t work in complete silence. It does something to my brain. So when I’m catching up on email or doing general life stuff, I like to have something ambient playing in the background. ‘Tis the season, so enter: a dark academia playlist of Christmas carols. It’s an hour exactly, which is great when I want to have a time limit on something. And otherwise it’s a pleasant (if not slightly darker) instrumental versions of famous Christmas carols.

• Great for: fans of dark academia, people who like Christmas carols,

• Bad for: people who despise Christmas carols - even the instrumental versions

Mug Moment of the week:

This overly festive view brought to you by: a mug I got at TJ Maxx seven years ago, a candle from Rifle Paper Co, and a pre-lit swag from Wayfair. The mug is surprisingly hefty, and has the lovely green and gold trees on it. The tea is once again the Twinings Lemon and Ginger tea. I’m a gal of habit, you know?

I’m a Christmas-decorations-go-up-the-day-after-Thanksgiving-and-they-stay-up- until-Epiphany/Orthodox Christmas/January 6th-person. So in the gathering dark, I am managing by turning on all my Christmas lights (including my tiny tree) and lighting seasonal candles, making for these lovely vistas.

What about you? Do you decorate for the holidays? Do you have strong feelings about the darkening evenings or decorations in general? Let me know in the comments!¹

1. A footnote for posterity’s sake.