Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #229

THIS WEEK IN REFLECTION

This was my one week off all summer, so I did house cleaning activities on Grab the Lapels. Several years ago, another blogger suggested I break up my Reading Fatness project into different pages by genre. I thought, “This person has great advice!” So, I did that, but in recent years, having so many pages to edit makes it hard for me. Whether it makes it harder for readers to find books, I don’t know. I don’t think so. Therefore, I spent several hours merging pages and data and going through lists to add URLs and delete duplicates. Now I simply have a TBR, Recommended books, and Not Recommended books pages. It looks cleaner to me and I avoid jumping between pages to edit them.

I also went through my StoryGraph TBR and deleted several books. Some were interesting at the time but not anymore, and honestly, some may have been recommended to me. But, if I haven’t gotten to them in years, and I’m trying to deplete the TBR of books I own, then I don’t need them anymore. The gift of letting go is a good one, especially in light of how many books by and about fat women I own that I haven’t read.

I started getting price quotes for my psychology textbook to see what I could sell it for. One local place said $15-20. I paid $50 for it, and that was about 1/4 the asking price at the time (a good deal!). But first I went to a different local book store, and I thought the guy said $47, so I happily signed the book way for the agreed amount. I got to the register only to realize 1) he said $8.47, and 2) I clearly sign things without reading them. I had to use all my therapy tools to reel this one in, because I was devastated. I was self-conscious about my hearing and a loss of . . . the $12 difference. Part of my thoughts included what else I happily buy that is more than $12, and how the textbook suddenly dropped in price compared to when I bought it three months ago because the market is flooded. In the end, I told Nick, “I’m flush with cash; I have $8.47” and took him out for ice cream, which he thought was hilarious.

Speaking of stranger danger (damn you, book store stooge!), we contacted a guy on Craigslist who posted free Rose of Sharon bushes — bring shovel. Either we were getting some sweet plants, or digging our own graves, I’m not sure, but away we went. We ended up getting five of them at this guy’s insistence and didn’t know where to put them when we got home and pulled out five veritable trees from the back seat. In the process of digging holes, Nick admitted there was a dead squirrel in the yard. Nick takes animal death harder than I, so I wandered over to learn that not only had the squirrel exploded in the heat but started melting into the yard. But for you careful readers, you will remember I had a shovel. I flung the squirrely corpse into the woods, crossing my fingies that it wouldn’t be offended by the free ride and resurrect itself in the name of vengeance, squirrel-shouting, “How dare you yeet meeeee!”

Kitty loves the new ironing board
Kitty explores a bush
Kitty and my sunflowers, WHICH DID NOT TOTALLY GET EATEN BY BIRDS!
Kitty explores the corn field, which is when I realized we’re getting corn, not soybeans this year.
Nick digging a hole for the Rose of Sharon. I am designated plant holder.
Volunteering at a fundraiser for Deaf Olympics
Me checking if he’s cooking to death in the sun

#20BOOKSOFSUMMER

Since not all of my books are appropriate to review on Grab the Lapels (i.e., I have several authors who identify as men on my list), I’ll give you a couple of sentences of each that I read.

I didn’t finish any books by men this week, but I am trading out #19 Fingerwording: The Art & Structure of Fingerspelling Words by Molly O’Hara because I was assigned another textbook for Philosophy class, Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes. Obviously, I need to read my textbook, so I’m saving Fingerwording for the fall when I’m taking an advanced fingerspelling and numbers class.

THIS WEEK’S BLOG POST

While catching up on reading, I shared a post about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer authors I’ve read, or characters I’ve read about. Bill @ The Australian Legend made a comment that got me thinking about how much of the face of LGBTQ in publishing is white and privileged? Are there Black, disabled, underprivileged, Deaf, Asian, Latin, Middle Eastern, Indian, African, Native/Indigenous, etc. people who are LGBTQ getting noticed? I ask because when I Googled “fiction by gay men” to respond to Bill’s comment, most books that showed up were by . . . straight women.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Pexels.com

NEXT WEEK’S BLOG POST

As I implied above, going through all the books in my Reading Fatness pages really made me realize how many I have to go, and how few I’ve read lately. Thus, I’m glad I added Health at Every Size by Lindo Bacon to my #20BooksofSummer challenge. Review of this work on Wednesday, and it may surprise you.

BOOKS I BOUGHT

Books I paid for (that are not textbooks) since January 2023:

  • True-Biz by Sara Novic ($1) — BOUGHT TO HAVE A COPY
  • Rants from the Hill by Michael P. Branch ($1) — READ
  • The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories, edited by Peter Haining ($1.50)
  • What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage ($0.79) — READING
  • Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray ($0.79) — READING
  • All of Me by Venise Berry ($0.99)
  • Planet Earth books from Time Life ($4.00 for 7 books) — READING
  • North American Wildlife by Susan J. Wernert ($0.50) — READING
    • Nick and I identified our biggest tree with this book just recently: Silver Maple. Using a guide book was surprisingly easier than Googling, which provides too much info.
  • Your Dog is in The Bar by Celia Rensch Day ($o.79) — READING
  • Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber ($0.50) — RECYCLED
    • I just realized 100 pages are missing because it’s so old the glue came off the spine.
  • Witches’ Brew, edited by Alfred Hitchcock ($0.50)
  • At Wit’s End by Erma Bombeck ($0.50)
  • To Be Honest by Maggie Anne Martin ($0.50)
  • The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding ($0.50)

Running Cost: $13.86

BOOKS ADDED TO THE TBR PILE

Thanks to Jeanne @ Necromancy Never Pays for her recommendation! And, of course, in my organizing I added more books to my project.

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Published by Grab the Lapels

I'm a graduate of the MFA fiction writing program at the University of Notre Dame, which inspired me to follow along with trends in teaching, publishing, and reviewing. I also have an MA and BS from Central Michigan University. I used to teach composition, creative writing, and literature in higher education, then did a brief stint at a civic theater, followed by two years at a references desk at a public library. I'm now working toward my ASL Interpreter license.

38 comments

  1. 1. Wear hats! Both of you.
    2. We both had to think about my comment. As usual, I thought about it mostly after I said it.
    3. Researching The Grapes of Wrath I found that although rose of Sharon is in the bible, no one knows what it is.

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    • 1) We absolutely both typically wear hats. Mine stays in my car for that very reason but it was NOT there. Nick didn’t wear a hat for reasons beyond me, because he typically has one! Believe me, we are pro-hat. I also had him spray all over with a sun screen he hates. I was not outside except to take this picture.

      2) I absolutely think way more about comments after I’ve written them, and because WordPress wants to be difficult, we cannot change our comments on other people’s blogs.

      3) The Rose of Sharon is a hibiscus, so I’m apt to think of that Chimamanda Adichi book. However, perhaps I shall encounter this plant in my upcoming Intro to Christianity class, or the Old and New Testaments next summer.

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  2. Omg! Melanie I can just envision you with that frisbee of a Squirrel. I am very happy you were able to evade the clutches of the Rose of Sharon serial killer with only a “brush” with death. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤦‍♀️

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  3. Well done on the squirrel. Mr Liz is the one who deals with dead things here (usually rats). We have a fork that works although living in suburban Birmingham we have to fork it into a bag in a bag in a bag and throw it away as we know all our neighbours and there can’t be any flicking it over the fence!

    I just read a memoir by a Black trans non-binary person – None of the Above by Travis Alabanza. They present as more femme than masc so could be on here if you get hold of it (they’re British). And I’m just starting the novel Homebodies by Tembe Denton-Hurst which has a Black lesbian as the main character. If that helps.

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    • Do you ever get stuff on Craigslist? It’s either the nicest or jankiest experience ever. One time we drove 50 minutes to meet someone in a Taco Bell parking lot. They had a unique car description. We got there early, because that’s how we roll, and I kid you not, we saw the car fly around the TB parking lot doin’ about 40mph, leave, and then text us that we never showed.

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  5. I laughed at your flying squirrel, but also, I would have buried the critter in one of the rose of sharon holes. Good fertilizer 🙂

    I was going to say “Death to Descartes and all the other Enlightenment arseholes!” But then I realized they are all already dead so that doesn’t really work. So I’ll just leave it misogynist wanker 😀

    I hope you had a lovely week’s break and you feel refreshed and energized for the next round of classes!

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    • Oh my, I didn’t even think about corpses being food for plants. I only thought of them being food for ants. Okay, was that a nature poem….?

      I don’t know anything about any of the people I’m reading this semester, so we’ll see when all my lil alarm bells start going off.

      I did have a great break, though I wish I had read more. Now I’m sitting up, it’s after 9PM, and I’m trying to cram in Genesis, but got stuck on why Noah cursed poor Canaan instead of Ham. But I have Google to help me!

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  6. Oh dear, re your text book. That sort of error/mistake/bad luck can make you feel sick when you know it didn’t have to be BUT I’m glad you were able to see the funny side. As I say to myself when things like that happen, “no-one is going to die”. Still, what a shame.

    I agree that Letting go is a gift!

    And, re your pages, overall I like one page too though my Author Index page is getting very long. The aforementioned Bill suggested I do a Jane Austen Page, so now I have my Main author page, and a couple of other pages for authors about whom I’ve posted several times. They have a link on the main author page. I think it works well, but I wouldn’t like to have too many because as you say it’s a pain going to lots of pages.

    Re Bill again and LGBTQI+ publishing, I have actually read quite a lot of queer First Nations writing. In fact the story review I posted last night is one such. We have quite a diverse LGBTQI+ publishing community here, not only First Nations, but from other cultures too besides straight white. At least, that’s what I’m finding in my reading.

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    • I think a Jane Austen page is a good idea because you wouldn’t mix that up. My pages were all the same topic, just different genres. That was challenging. I was deleting duplicates again a day ago.

      I disagree with Bill, too, though I think he has a point that white gay men get a lot of attention in publishing. However, I’d argue in the last ten years things are changing.

      Bill, are you being disagreeable this week?? Okay, I tease, and I only tease because I saw the comment about 1:1 nurses on Lou’s blog, and I agreed with you there until she explained it and we both conceded.

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      • Thanks Melanie.

        Sorry for the late reply. This week has been busy cleaning cleaning cleaning.
        I’m glad you agree with me about things changing in terms of gay white men. I think I’ll have to go and check Lou’s blog when I come out for air.

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  7. Rose of Sharon is very pretty! My
    Mom loves those. We have some in our backyard that were there when we bought the house.
    Good job organizing your blog. I bet that was satisfying.
    It is ALWAYS satisfying culling a TBR list!

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    • The Rose of Sharon spreads like crazy if you let it. That’s what happened in the Craigslist guy’s yard. There were little ones all over the place.

      I feel really great after organizing the blog, like hanging up a bunch of laundry that sat in the basket on the couch too long.

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  9. I’ve tried selling books and am always disappointed by the prices I’m offered. Sometimes it’s not worth the hassle of packaging the book and getting to the post office so I just donate them to whichever charity shop I think will be interested

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    • That’s a good point, Karen. I try to sell them at a garage sale, and if they don’t sell, I put them in a Little Free Library. Not sure if you have those in Wales! And I apologize; I’m behind on responding to comments.

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  10. I agree with your first commenter ( I think he’s Australian?) you should both be wearing hats. Signed, a pale person.

    Anyway, I love that you got free Rose of Sharon bushes (not sure I actually am familiar with that plant, but it sounds lovely). I would have been super pissed about that book thing too, so I totally get it, but I love that you turned it into a silver lining and bought Nick ice cream.

    Also – a squirrel can explode from the sun???

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    • Yes, Bill is a trucker from Australia and I just love him. He’s totally right, and Nick and I are always — with the exception of this one day! — hat people. I’m pretty anti-sun except when it comes to hanging laundry on the line. Remember last May when I had that surgery on the skin on my back? That was done by a dermatologist, so I am very aware. I appreciate that others care about us 😀

      Well, I described the squirrel to my mom, and she thinks someone shot it, but then why is it in my yard? The neighbor apparently has a dog, but I’ve never seen it. Maybe the dog was leaving a hello present? And yes, all the organic creatures can explode in the sun. Their insides fill with gases and they decay and then burst open if it’s hot.

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  12. Your flowers are so gorgeous – it looks very summery there! I accidentally killed the flowers on my balcony because we had a mini heatwave and I forgot they would need to be watered more often because they’re in a pot.

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    • Outside potted flowers are hard because they really need a great drainage system, but then they die in the sun. Or, you water them at the wrong time and the droplets refract in the sun and cook the leaves. Or, or, or….

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