October Reads [Books 51-57/72]

Monthly Goal: 7/7

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51. Social Chemistry: Decoding the Patterns of Human Connection by Marissa King

52. Spite: the upside to your dark side by Simon McCarthy-Jones

53. The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe by Clifford V. Johnson

54. Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea by Edith Widder, Ph D.

55. Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo by Jo Koy

56. Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by Lisa Genova

57. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Notes & Errata re the photography—I found that I had a very difficult time with this particular setup for this month’s book pics. I’m not entirely sure what was so difficult about capturing this scene, but it took the entirety of the month to “get it right the first time.” Book No. 57 was the only book that I shot once and captured “correctly” [in this singular instance] in that single shot. Most months I can find my stride by book two, no later than book three, and it’s nearly unheard of to take seven books to “get there.” #inremembrance

[find more writing at Lady Polarity, also on wordpress]

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September Reads [books 45-50/72]

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Books 45-50/72

45. Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States by Jonathan Levy
*this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the book is a large 700-page tome roughly the same height as the vase … the cover of the book is the color of old parchment and a small two-line border outlines the cover … in the middle of the book reads the text “A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES” in an all-caps blue, double-line, sans serif typeface … around the four corners of the centered text are four small depictions (beginning from the top left, working clockwise) of an old wooden ship, locomotive, prefab house, and modest-sized skyscraper … and at the top and bottom of the cover sits the title, “AGES OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM” and author, “JONATHAN LEVY,” in tall, thinnish, all-caps, sans serif, red typeface, with “Capitalism” and “Jonathan Levy” being in the same point size and “Ages of American” sitting slightly smaller.    

46. Year Book by Seth Rogan
**this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the cover of the book is a bright blue with the title, “YEAR BOOK,” centered near the top of the cover in a sans serif blue with red shadowed thick, square, all-caps typeface, where “Year” sits atop “Book” … in the center of the cover is a cut out to the hardcover of the book itself … through the small, vertically rectangular cutout, you can see the image of Seth Rogan in a cartoonish drawing of Rogan in a red hoodie with orange t-shirt underneath, full beard and fluffy hair, blue-lensed “Wayfarers” and a background made of yellow behind the hair, a thin pink horizon line above the sunglasses, where the blue begins and completes the background of the small drawn yearbook photo … centered beneath the cutout and depiction sits the author’s name, “Seth Rogan,” in the same typeface as the title and the same positioning of “Seth” above “Rogan.” 

47. There Plant Eyes: A Personal And Cultural HIstory of Blindness by M. Leona Godin
***this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the book’s cover is a faded purple that begins in a blush pink on the right side of the cover that blends into a light purple that fades into white … the color changes hues and shades from the right edge toward the left spine … the title, “There Plant Eyes,” sits atop the cover, left justified, with “There” placed above “Plant Eyes” in a black, serif-style typeface, while the subtitle reads, “A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness,” in the same typeface as the title but in italics and a faded dark grey, with the text reading, per line, “A Personal” then “and Cultural” followed by “History” and finally “of Blindness” … below the subtitle, the author’s name, “M. Leona Godin,” sits in the same typeface as the title in an even further faded, lighter grey, with “M. Leona” atop “Godin” … underneath each line of text for the sighted is the embossed (assumedly as I do not know how to read braille) title, subtitle and author of the book in braille. 

48. Trouble The Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson
^this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the book cover is a dark navy designed in an art deco style of thin, tall lines … the cover has a red-lined border of thin lines that also border the centered title … across the middle, in an all-caps, san-serif, white, thin, tall typeface sits the title, “TROUBLE THE SAINTS” (“the” in a much small point)  in a shallow upward diagonal from left to right, where “A NOVEL” is set in a small point in the rightmost acute angle formed by the title’s diagonal reaching the vertical of the cover’s border edge … the title’s diagonal serves as a mirror-like horizon line between the two highly stylized depictions of a woman above and below the title text as if reflecting on herself … the upper image being of a woman, cigarette in her right hand, in a red dress and fancy earrings, while a small asterisk-like symbol made of three crossed knives sits just above the tip of her cigarette, while the woman, depicted upside-down, is adorned in what looks to be maid’s attire of blue shirt, white bibbed apron, headscarf and duster in her right hand while the same asterisk-like symbol sits just above the duster … at the top of the cover, above the red-lined border in not all-caps, reads a quote in praise of the novel, “‘Juju assassins, alternate history, a gritty New York crime story … In a word: awesome,’ —N.K. Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fifth Season” … and at the bottom of the cover, beneath the red-lined border sits the author’s name in a smaller version of the same all-caps typeface of the title, “ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON”. 

49. In The Company Of Men by Véronique Tadjo
^^this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the book’s cover looks to be a hand-drawn depiction of a large tree with large, above-ground roots, thick trunk, many variegated branches and sage-green bushy leaf, with a small group of tiny people in and around the tree, one person leading  a packed camel on the right side of the tree, and in the distance the look of another tree and the shadow horizon of small mountains or large hill in the background … in the center of the cover reads the title, “IN THE COMPANY OF MEN” in a semi-thick, all-caps, red sans serif typeface, neatly fitted into a white circle outlined in a thick black outline placed directly over the center of the drawing of the tree as if the title were under the drawing and the circle serves as a window onto the text … “IN THE” sits atop “COMPANY” that sits atop “OF MEN” that sits atop a very small “A NOVEL” in a black version of the same typeface …  and near the bottom, the author’s name “VÉRONIQUE TADJO” is in a white version of the title typeface.

50. Josephin Baker by Catel & Bocquet
^^^this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the cover of the book is simple in that the background is a solid blue-grey with the title “JOSEPHINE BAKER” splashed across the very top, nearly from edge to edge where “Josephine” sits atop “Baker” with “Baker” indented so that the “B” aligns with “O” in a chunky, sans serif, all-caps typeface in white … a hand-drawn drawing of “Josephine” in motion sprawls across the center of the cover with “Josephine” in a profile position, facing the right side of the cover, balancing on her left leg, right knee lifted waited high, back arched, face looking upward, eyes closed, right arm stretched down, left arm reaching upward toward two o’clock, while adorned in a flouncy lime-green grass skirt and four strands of lime-green beads that cover nothing more than her crotch and nipples, respectively … directly to the right of  the demi-pointed toe upon which the drawing of “Josephine” stands, the names of the authors “CATEL & BOCQUET” are placed in a smaller, beige-khaki version of the title font, with “CATEL” above “& BOCQUET” where “& BOCQUET” shares the same horizontal plane as the toe on which “Josephine” stands, where the indented “&” sits centered below the “C” and “A” in “CATEL”. 

[all photographs are edited in a warm, brown tint of faded light effects and a light grainy film effect]

August Reads [books 39-44]

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39 Premonition by Michael Lewis

40 While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

41 Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

42 HRH: so many thoughts on royal style by Elizabeth Holmes

43 home body by rupi kaur

44 Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

July Reads [Books 34-38*/72]

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34. The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey

35. The Origins of Creativity by Edward O. Wilson

36. On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

37. Metazoa by Peter Godfrey-Smith

38. Noise by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein 

*Officially finished Noise on 02Aug21 but since I read most of the thing in July, I added it to Julyś reading list because my ego found it difficult to have read only four books in July.

Visit my writing sphere … Lady Polarity … for … writings … and a further explanation for my tardiness … *peace*

June Reads [books 29-33/72]

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29 FLAVOR by Bob Holmes

30 SWIMMING BACK TO TROUT RIVER by Linda Rui Feng

31 THE FOUND AND THE LOST by Ursula K. Le Guin

32 LONG DIVISION by Kiese Laymon

33 ANTITRUST by Amy Klobuchar

to see the unabridged list of 2021 completed reads, visit “72 in 2021” on Lady Polarity^^

April Reads [books 17-21/72]

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Feline Philosphy by John Gray

You Don’t Belong Here by Elizabeth Becker

Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin

First, Become Ashes by K.M. Szpara

Silent Covenants by Derrick Bell

March Reads

BOOKS 12-16/72

…if you’d like to see the full list of completed reads this year…feel free to visit my writing site…

LADY POLARITY

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*as exclusive library users, we almost never have the same book in our possession at the same time…it has happened before in the past, but we were thrilled to have it happen to us again with Obama’s book!!!

**a quote too good not to share :)

February Reads—mean regression

I read five of the six books I needed to this month (…i had to return the collection of LeGuin novellas at about a third of the way through, to the library, which was supposed to be book six for this month, and i need to keep a six-book monthly average in order to hit my year-length goal, but i wouldn’t have finished it anyway, and i had a very physically tough month battling the snow on my commute to work many more mornings than i found fair [but that’s bt me and the universe bc i realized that TIME doesn’t give a fuck about what i think or want, and i didn’t get as much reading done as i would have liked, however, the effectiveness of the mean forced me to fight my own regression {the thing against which i must fight every. single. ephing. day.}, and i refuse to regress!], on the other hand, i grew physically stronger, and the no-snow days are easy as pie ) …i would have liked to hit this month’s reading goal, but all i can be responsible for is my effort, and i feel really good about my work (in all respects).

…next month, however, i must double down and buckle down and really get after it bc, afterall, i’m here…might as well make the most of it  

What did i learn most this month? That learning how to rest is just as difficult as learning how to get started.

Happy Reading!

(on insta @amateurtattletale … &you can find my complete list of reads HERE or here :)

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February Reads … Books 07-11/72

The Rib King by LADEE HUBBARD

The Quartet by JOSEPH J. ELLIS

One Life by MEGAN RAPINOE 

The Constitution Today by AKHIL REED AMAR

Survival of the Thickest by MICHELLE BUTEAU