It’s been a week of unsettling news and I’m still feeling very sad about Friday’s Supreme Court news. I don’t think the government has a say in ANY health decisions made between a woman and her doctor. And as someone who had a miscarriage at 6 weeks I can say that my experience reinforced my view that conception may mean possible life, but it doesn’t mean baby. I can’t believe we’re at a place that if my miscarriage happened now it would be considered suspect.
On a positive note, Jason and I went out to an actual restaurant without the boy for the first time in over two years last night. We ate outside which is really what I’m comfortable with at this point. We made it to the bottom of the strawberry daquiri 🙂
Gage finished up his third week of camp with his fourth starting tomorrow. This week he’ll be going with two friends and we’re going to carpool! As a stay at home mama I’m usually the one to trek the kids around if necessary, but this week those working moms have insisted on covering 3 days. I am grateful.
Books finished
Lady Emily has spent her life being perfect so that no touch of scandal could touch her cash strapped family. Lord Julian Belfry needed this pristine reputation to bring respectability to his theatre. It was a marriage of convenience. Will these two, both looking for acceptance from their parents, fall in love along the way? It is a romance after all!
My favorite character was Cecil, the kitten who brought bloodshed to their wedding night 😽. This is book 3 in the Regency Vows series and can be read alone, as I did. But I do wish I’d read the first two so I could have spent more time with Emily’s friends.
Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi is pure delight for lovers of literature and its power of illumination. My book club read her bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, a few years ago and I loved it for all that I learned about Iran. In this book,as an American citizen now, she takes on current America.
What’s missing in our current discourse? Nuance and empathy. These are things that you can find in great literature, especially those books that go against the norm and force you to think about what’s being said. She takes on politics, democracy, freedom, and Trump by analyzing some of the greats like Morrison, Baldwin, Atwood, and Plato.
It’s a book to be loved by anyone who has spent time reading literature. I mostly listened but had my hard copy handy to mark up thoughts I wanted to revisit. She’s got some powerful stuff in here.
There are 5 sections and in section 3 I was so moved that I put one of the books she talked about, Places & Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning by former marine Elliot Ackerman, on hold at the library. He writes fiction now, but this is his memoir.
This was in my latest #gettbr box and it was just what I needed. It’s not an easy read, but one I’m glad someone chose for me.
On the Screen
We watched two little known movies this week.
I LOVED The Devil All the Time on Netflix.
We’re in the middle of the mini-series, The Night Manager and are really liking it.
Plans for the weekend
Yesterday was so busy so I promised Gage a quieter day today. We’re going to visit a few houses on the Parade of Homes and he’s got to visit a home to get directions for his next pet sitting/plant watering gig.
What’s up in your corner of the world?
Stacy's Books 
A new book by Azar Nafisi sounds much needed to contemplate our deteriorating political system now dominated by the evil Supreme Court, as you mentioned. I’ll have to add it to my list, but I am not sure I can face it right this moment. Too much to handle.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I read it before the Supreme Court nonsense. I don’t know if I could read anything challenging at the moment. Too upset about it right now.
I love Lolita so I put this on my TBR list.
Took me a minute because I went to the classic Lolita and my mind didn’t think I’d mentioned it, haha. I love both Lolitas 🙂
How wonderful that you and Jason were able to spend time together this week. And isn’t it great that the working moms are stepping up? After this difficult week, I’m looking for good things to keep me going, and these are two very good things.
Read Dangerously came in for me from the library last week. I’m happy to see how much you enjoyed it.
These two moms are some of my favorites 🙂 I don’t know why that Supreme Court decided to add one more crisis to everything else we’re dealing with. I’m angry.
This has been a difficult week for sure. I am very worried for young women today and am afraid Friday’s ruling was just the beginning. So glad you and Jason got to enjoy an evening out by yourselves… outside dining is still all we’re comfortable with, too. Just added Read Dangerously to my library hold list. Thanks for the recommendation.
Hope you like it. I still can’t believe that women are not sovereign over their own bodies. Makes me so sad.
I know so many people who are so upset about the ruling. I have 2 sisters that lost babies. One before her due date. The other had the baby but he was born with so many things wrong with him that he stayed in ICU for 2 months hooked up to many machines, and then died. She stayed with him the whole time and never even got to hold him until after he had passed. If she had had the choice I don’t know what she would have chosen, but she should have had the choice! My oldest granddaughter is terrified about what this means for women!
How awful for your sister 😦 I’m scared for women and their second class health care status right now. Once pregnant there are many, many reasons and woman may want or need an abortion and none of those reasons has anything to do with me or the the robed ones in the Supreme Court 😦
Hooray for a date night! And that cocktail sounds delicious right now. I’m curious about The Devil All the Time and will have to look it up. The NIght Manager is really good! We just finished The Staircase and are trying a new series called Acceptable Risk.So far, so good.
It has been a tough week. I wasn’t surprised by the Supreme Court decision (we knew it was coming, right?), but I’m still very angry about it. I’m also very concerned about other rights that may be taken away in the coming months/years. This decision and the January 6th hearings are making it a little difficult to get enthusiastic about celebrating the 4th of July. Sigh.