Thoughts from the Stacks Blog

I feel as if the desensitization to violence that seems to have taken over in our country has reached a higher pitch. Sometimes it feels like a glorification. I have never been a big movie person, but I do like a great film from time to time. However, my last skim through Apple Trailers provided almost only more of the gore, slasher, thriller, killer – vibe permeating our “entertainment”. On top of that, a few weeks ago, my housemates and I thought we would try out the Japanese...

Last night, as I was trying to drift off into sleep, what makes up our human defined Sense of Style popped into my head and how that word is used and applied to individuals. (This sprouted from my contemplations of purchasing a new dress with white, knee-high cowboy boots like the woman in the picture modelling said dress that I definitely do not need.) The etymology of the word ‘style’ actually brings it back to the Latin ‘stilus’ which pertained to “stake, instrument for...

I recently read an essay about how language is being drained of its power. After listening to my mother rehash an article listing Lake Superior State University’s annual tongue-in-cheek Banished Words List of 2023 (a list compiled by LSSU since 1976!), I was interested to hear what others had to say on the topic, as it has been something that has been nagging at me for a while now. There are some words that worm their way into the popular vernacular that start to grain at me (and...

My mother and I have always wanted to travel to India. There is something about that land and the spirituality that exists within and around its borders that are like a siren call to us. Plus, the saris are beautiful, the people seem so at peace with the world and most follow a vegetarian diet. Well, I am currently finishing up a book about one woman’s experience as an expat there in the early 2000s, and my Disney-fied, romantic, “it will be like living The Darjeeling...

“What do you seek in these shelves?” -Ajax Penumbra, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore Could there be a more magical question from a caretaker of a bookstore? Or a librarian? Not going to lie, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is definitely an ode to the magic and power of books, but is that not a question that we ask ourselves when combing the shelves of a library or bookstore, on the hunt for our next great read? “What am I seeking in these shelves?” ...

I recently finished up the last season of The Crown and it got me thinking about change and the natural tendency of the human brain to cling on to personal convictions; its aging inability to form new connections and evolve with time. Specifically, I was ruminating about how the queen (as depicted by the show’s writers and producers) refused or was unable to reconsider her convictions and way of being to accept the changes of the current times. For instance, being so steadfast and...

The other night, as I was trying to drift off into sleep, I begin thinking about books (surprise, surprise). More specifically, I was thinking about the book I am currently reading – Sourdough, by Robin Sloan – and how simply bizarre and delightful it is. My mother devoured it in one sitting on a Saturday. That in turn got me thinking about how there are all these unfound gems sitting on library book shelves across the country, each different and unique to their communities, and that...

I have found myself in that unfortunate and maddening place of not knowing what it is that I want to read. You know that place? For me, this place involves spending quickly dissolving time scouring the internet looking for book lists that spark my interest. For example, I’ll find a book on Goodreads that I once read and then scroll down to the book lists that it is including in (i.e. “What Women Born in the 90’s Are Reading Spring 2022” or “52 Book Club: #9 A Book That Sparks...

It feels as if I have been living in a handful of different worlds at present. I just finished reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, whose writing – as an acquaintance so aptly observed – is like delving into the mind of a method actor and embodying the main character. Then, because I felt my life needed some lightness and idealistic love, I began watching the Korean rom-com Romance is a Bonus Book. (If you know anything about Korean dramas, you know that those things will just...

My boyfriend and I are going through a challenging period in our lives, which is carrying into our relationship (because how can it not?). As two rather sensitive individuals, the cultural climate and external events hit us harder than others. And in the case of my boyfriend, personal challenges are also dominating this sensitivity space as well. (Not to mention that he is a poet and if you are one that understands that ‘poet’ – every artistic identity really – is a verb and...

Lately I have been confronted with the challenges of language. The development of a common language within a group of people is quite convenient. It is much easier to tell someone that there is water than to gesture wildly and get that person to move with you toward the source. In that sense, it makes communicating with other people who speak your same language much easier. However, there is so much left to interpretation in language. Take any book and ask two or three people their...

Since returning from a short vacation, I feel as if a shift has occurred in the world. Or maybe not necessarily the world, it feels like there has been a shift in the town of which I live. Maybe it is all the planets that are currently in retrograde affecting the energy flow or maybe there was a shift within myself or maybe we are all just losing it. I think it is a combination of all three plus many other factors, but there has definitely been a surge in aggressive energy and actions of...