Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz. During a series of meetings with a job counselor, Cara Romero, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, goes off topic and offers the story of her life. Although her narrative can be funny, it’s more often heartbreaking, especially when Cara fills out application forms that have zero cultural sensitivity. I folded down one page in which she was asked “What band poster did you have on a wall when you were in high school?” to which she answered, “It’s true that the Americans don’t have any idea of what life is like for us.” This is a book that changes you.
Listening: It’s often very quiet when it’s very hot, which is July in western North Carolina. I appreciate the summer hush.
Watching: Young Sheldon. I just love this show for so many reasons and am glad I have a number of seasons yet to watch.
Candice Huber / Membership:
Reading: As you know if you've been keeping up with this at all, this has been a really tough reading year for me. I have such a tough time getting my brain to concentrate on reading with everything going on. I've been really burnt out! I'm hoping to at least get some of these books finished that I started.
Listening: There's a lot going on in the summer! Folks walking around, birds chirping, waves on the lake, etc. The sounds of summer are so calming.
Watching: Started what is supposed to be a horror comedy show called Z Nation, which is an older show. Watched a few episodes and really liking it so far!
Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Moving is leaving very little time to do anything but pack and clean!
Listening: I am now on to the audio versions of Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy. That may last me a week or so.
Watching: Zilch. Zip. Nada.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: I finished Kirsty Gunn's thoughtful and wistful My Katherine Mansfield Project, for my book club. Gunn leaves her adopted London home to return to her childhood city of Wellington, New Zealand to research and write about fellow Wellington emigrant Mansfield. I read the ebook but I have ordered the hard copy, as it is a beautiful little thing.
Listening: The song of the week has been Little Feat's "Got No Shadow" on Sailin' Shoes (1972). It's summer, and I came of age in the South in the mid-70s. What choice do I have? "you keep your dreams, it may be dark tonight/tomorrow dark to light/it's up to you and me."
Watching: Speaking of summer in the South, I watched the gayest, stickiest, gothicest, Southernest movie of them all to close out Pride month: 1959's Suddenly, Last Summer. Screenplay by Gore Vidal, adapted from Tennessee Williams's play (Williams famously detested the movie); starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift; set in New Orleans; and featuring far too many outlandishly over-the-top things to list here.
Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: Zomromcom by Olivia Dade, to get excited for Bookstore Romance Day in August. It's spicy and fun!
Listening: One of my neighbors is doing some kind of loud work on their home today and I do not care for it.
Watching:The Ultimatum: Queer Love! I am going to have a hard time waiting between episode drops.
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