What I’m Currently Reading
“Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know” by Rickie Solinger. Are you angry? Because I sure as hell am. This was published in 2013, so it’s definitely missing a bit from the most recent crazy, but the questions posed are still insightful. Such as “What basic reproductive restrictions have been placed on women with disabilities in the past and today?” and “How do policies such as day-care funding and family leave shape women’s reproductive decisions?” You know, the things we should be talking about and actively taking into account as we go about legislating bodies.
What I Should Be Reading
“Man Fast” by Natasha Scripture. It’s the perfect light, travel-y summer read, and I really should be finishing it soon—I’m interviewing the author this coming week for Big Cabbage Radio. But oof, I get goosebumps. In a good way. It’s like reading a weirdly mixed up parallel version of my life. She’s half Indian and even had an Irish boyfriend named Niall. My intrigued eyebrow can’t get any closer to my hairline. This memoir spans the globe and has enough intelligent self-reflection to make us want to think about our own lives. It keeps good company with “Eat, Pray, Love” and “Wild.”
What I Want to Be Reading
“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This was my book club’s pick for last month. Which I didn’t read, because I was caught up reading a murder mystery that I’ll mention in the next newsletter. The praise in our meeting was enough to get me to start. So far, I’ve read it in the bathtub (I think the second bath I’ve had since baby #2 was born) and in my Mother’s Day gift; a hammock hanging under the heavy cream blossom laden boughs of our bird cherry tree. Not my normal reading spots, but that’s what kind of tone this book sets out to evoke: sumptuously rooted. The natural world, indigenous wisdom, and prose that reads like poetry. My soul feels healthier from having read each page.