March 21 2022 Journal (Patreon)

Let's make this a weekly Monday feature. Seems like a good way to do it.

Last week I visited family and friends in Connecticut and Rhode Island, a much-needed reprieve from months of college. As a result I didn't read much news or journalism, and mostly focused on leisure reading.

A friend gave me a copy of Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant, a hard fantasy novel about a young woman who rises through the ranks of an empire colonizing her homeland. It's an interesting book - its focus on economic imperialism and a woman's ambition as a survival response are refreshing takes on the genre. It's quite po-faced and grim though, so I can't say I'm in love with it. More respect than enjoy on this one.

Another friend, Phil Christman, recently put out his essay collection How To Be Normal. Like anything Phil writes, it's a good stuff. A walk through politics, art, and life that reminds us to be tender and humble amidst our age's insanity.

I've been reading fewer articles than usual lately, but Dawn Ennis' piece in The Daily Beast about how exhausted trans people are hits home. Keep fighting for us, please.