A September Maelstrom // Weeks 36 - 39

My general feelings can best be described by the following tweet:

Ng's newest novel, Little Fires Everywhere, was released Sept. 12th and it's fantastic, btw.

Odysseus encounters a number of challenges in the Odyssey, but one of the biggest is when he is forced to navigate his ship through a treacherous ocean pass. On one side is Scylla, a relentless, six-headed beast, and on the other is Charybdis, a maelstrom that destroys anyone and anything in it's path. I've been trapped between my own rock and hard place lately, and I feel a little like the whole month was a maelstrom that I'm lucky to have escaped.

There are a few things that helped me survive with my sanity intact. First is my latest obsession: Scorpion. I'd watched the first few episodes of the show when it came out, but it wasn't until I signed up for CBS All-Access so I could watch the Emmys that I got sucked in. It's a procedural about a group of high-IQ people solving problems for the government, along with their average counterparts who help them navigate social situations. I binge-watched all 3 seasons in just a couple weeks.

I finished Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me which is intimidatingly articulate and deeply personal. I loved listening to the audiobook, narrated by the author, but can't help but feel that there was much I missed because I didn't have the ability to stop, research, and take notes as I would have liked. I'll definitely be rereading this when I pick up a copy.

I'm currently listening to Diane Keaton's Then Again. I've been on a celebrity-memoir kick this year, and this is two memoirs in one. Keaton shares stories from her own life, as well as stories from her mother's. Her mother, a 50's housewife, lived a completely different life from her own, but both are women searching for identity and an outlet for their creative spirit. I really enjoy books narrated by their authors, and this one is no exception.

Late to the party, I finally started listening to The Mountain Goats. I knew of the band, but I mainly knew John Darnielle through his book Wolf in White Van, which is weird and wonderful. I don't know why it surprised me to discover that he is also a songwriter, but it's interesting to see how his voice comes through in a different medium. I'm hoping to start listening to Joseph Fink's podcast, I Only Listen to The Mountain Goats soon.

I'm off to grade because if I don't tackle this avalanche soon, you'll have to send in search and rescue. Can't I just staple this GIF to everyone's papers and call it a night?