Books & Bookmarks

Sometimes, just to give a little order to the ongoing chaos, I like to align the colors of my books-in-progress and their bookmarks. I just finished Dear Ann, by Bobbie Ann Mason, a sort of rewriting one's personal history through the imagination kind of novel. When I took a picture of it with my phone next to the Reveal the Teal bookmark, I learned how to use QR codes. 

Now I'm reading Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan, with a hand-made bookmark from a friend who understands my relentless book-acquisition habits. Her clever bookmarks for members of our book club show what would be on our t-shirts! Mine says, "One does not stop buying books beause there is no more shelf space." So true. But at least my book buying is affordable (ongoing library used book sale) and often includes book donating at the end! 

My kids were just here, doing another round of getting rid of stuff (recycling, donating, or tossing games, puzzles, clothes, shoes, memorabilia, past school/art work), and they almost sold a loft bed contraption with bookshelves in it that would have disrupted my world! Fortunately, I have a little time...

During their stay, I stopped writing & posting my chalkboard poems. But (by getting up earlier than my kids) I kept writing a poem a day for National Poetry Month. As the poems continue to roll out, the rejections continue to dribble in. Likewise, the weather--a glorious week of warmth and sunshine while they were here, and now a return to chilly, wet weather with dribbling rain. Up so early to take our son to the airport, and now sadness will descend.

My nonfiction reading, slow going due to its devastating topic, is Still Life With Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains, by Alexa Hagerty, automatically renewed via interlibrary loan. Its bookmark is wisdom by Confucious: "Respect others and others will respect you." Hope that's true!