#ballad of the whiskey robber

[lascapigliata]

the audiobook i'm listening to has an absolutely stacked cast but nowhere that actually clearly specifies who plays who, and it takes place in hungary so everyone's putting on accents. specifically tommy ramone and eric bogosian i really want to know who they are but i KNOW i won't know who tommy ramone is and i'm not even sure behind an accent i'd know bogosian's voice lolol

[jovialtorchlight]

Ballad of Johnny Kidd

My name is Johnny Kidd. I’m a bad, bad man. I’m cold, on the verge of death, stumbling through a fierce winter storm somewhere just North of Bangor, Maine, a bullet lodged in my thigh. I was following an old logging road out of the deep woods. I got lost, trailing spurts of blood like a breadcrumb trail. I see it; a tiny flicker of light through the lashing white snow. The cabin. I pound on the door. 

“Mister! Please, it’s so cold out here! Please, let me in! I’ll…I’ll freeze to death!”

An old man unlatches the door; I practically fall into the cabin, legs giving out, trembling. He’s walking towards the fire, doesn’t offer to help me up. Doesn’t even look at me. I think shit, I’m bleeding all over his floor, but the bleeding has stopped. 

“Strip to your birthday suit, right there in the mudroom. Hang it up. It’ll dry.  Don’t be bashful, kid. I won’t peek. Got a pair of long johns hanging on the coat rack. Once you put them on, grab the folded blanket, wrap yourself in it tight,” he says. 

I follow his directions. 

“You’re a real kind person, mister. Thank you,” I said, ambling towards a chair by the fire. 

“Kindness has nothing to do with it. Just don’t want to see anyone else freeze to death on this mountain path. Hard times claim enough good folk around these parts. Don’t need to lose anyone else,” he said, staring into the crackling flames. 

            Goodness has nothing to do with it, I think. I’m naked under the blanket, ‘cept for a sawnoff shotgun strapped to my back. 

“I really owe you my life, sir. I can already feel my bones warming. Blood thawing out.” 

“Any frostbite?” the old man asks. I looked down. I was already toasty. Fingers and toes looked fine. 

“I don’t think so, sir.”

“Good, good. Sit. Warm yourself by the fire. Don’t have a bed in this shack, but you can sleep in the chair. Hopefully the storm will be finished by morning.”

I linger, not sitting. I’m scoping out the cabin, ready to pull the loaded gun from my back and spatter this oltimer’s brains on the wall. He doesn’t have much. It’s a bare wood cabin with cedar planks and a woodstove with rusted pots and castiron pants.

“I do appreciate it, sir. Truly. It’s a whitewash out there. Any longer, the snow would have swallowed me completely. My company wouldn’t have found me until the spring thaw.”

The old man doesn’t break eyecontact with the fire. He chuckles. 

“Company. You mean your gang of bank robbers?”

My hand moves to the gun. I’m about ready to end this foolishness.

“Sir, what do you mean?  I work cutting trees.”

The old man’s voice drips with contempt. 

“No you don’t. You’re a much better shot than you are a liar. You’re Johnny Kidd.”

I drop the blanket, naked. I draw the gun from my back. The Old Man doesn’t flinch. 

“Damn. Nothin’ gets past you, old man. Move and this room gets a new coat of paint. Say, you haven’t even looked at me yet. Am I that famous? You can tell who I am just from my voice?”

“I know you, Kidd.” the old man says.

“I guess so. Have we met?”

“I’ve seen the newspaper clippings. A sheriff came by the cabin a few days ago, said your gang might be around. Wanted by the federal government, and every bumbling, whiskey drunk county sheriff this side of the Mason-Dixon line. Look. I know you got a shotgun pointed at my cranium, to your back, and I know you’ve been thinking about shooting me in the head since you first came into this cabin. But I ain’t no lawman, and I ain’t trying to collect the bounty on you…even if I could finally retire down to Rio with your blood money,” the old man says, a soliquiy into the fire.

My hand lingers over the trigger. But instead, I speak. 

“Huh. Well, you marked me pretty good, oldtimer. Most people start cowering, throwing their watches and jewlery at me  when they figure out who I am.”

For the first time, the old man turns to face me. He’s normal, saggy skin and a long gray beard.  

“Kidd, when you first came in here, you said I was a kind person. I ain’t kind.  I could plead, sure. I could beg, say I just saved your life. But that don’t matter. You’re not the type of person that responds well to kindness, are you?”

Ha. Kindness, I think.  Fuck kindness. 

“No, I reckon not. I ain’t apt to “kind” my way out of a shootout.  Kindness ain’t ever done nothing for me. Pops was kind before he was fileted in his sleep by a drunkard he let stay in the hayloft.”

“That’s why I’m here. You ain’t gonna respond to charity, kindness, or the yolk of human compassion, are you, kid?”

His tone drops into a command. 

“Look into the fire.”

I try to pull the trigger, but my finger locks. I start to move towards the fire, like I’m being pulled like a boxcar on a railine. I try to fight the movement, but I can’t. I bend down and gaze into the dancing flame. 

“What do you see?,” the old man asks. 

“Jesus, what kind of witchcraft is--”

“Answer me. What do you see?”

I saw her. The boys and I had the bank on Main Street locked down, about to grab the bags of cash, jump in and speed away to hit the next town. She came out of the washroom, unaware we had the place held down. I shot her through the neck. She choked on her blood. I meant to shoot the wall to scare the clerk into opening the vault…the bullet ricoheted..I didn’t mean to shoot her.

“I see her. Jesus, shot her through the neck. I swear to God, I didn’t mean to--”

“Course not. Is that what you tell yourself when you’re alone at night? Is her throat, ripped open, the image burned in your eyelids?” 

I collapse on the floor, holding my face in my hands. The old man stands up from his rocker for the first time. 

“I’m almost sorry for you, kid. There ain’t any other way to set you straight but raw power, right? A kind sheep is still a sheep, and you’re a wolf, right, kid? You’re a predator, ain’t you? You sink your fangs and take whatever you want from those poor fieldmice cowering in fear, right?”

“Shut up,” I sputter. I gather myself, uncrumple from the floor, stagger to my feet. 

“You’re talking real funny, sir, and I implore you to stop--”

The old man laughs, spittle flying. 

“You ain’t gonna implore me to do nothing, kid.  Like I said,  I ain’t kind. But I’m just.”

He sits down. 

I draw the gun, aim it at his temple. 

“Ha. Just. You mean, you’re an agent of justice? What are you gunna do, old man? Tie me up and take me down to the jail? Kill me? I got a gun pointed at you, but I got a sawblade in my satchel... I’m gunna have some real fun with you.”

Old man sinks back into his rocker. 

“I ain’t going to cower, kid. I’m gunna show you something. Sit. Down.”

Despite everything in my body, I sit. 

“Watch the fire.” 

Depsite every voice echoing in my mind, I gaze again into the fire. 

“A dozen lawmen are tracking you. Been following you since you killed her.  In fact, they’re closing in on your camp now. Budd’s just got pumped with lead. Big Frank’s brain is oozing out. They’re following the tracks. They’re gunna find you, kid. Rather, they’re gunna find your frozen body next to your dead horse.”

I feel the pain of freezing to death; like someone stuck my body into a pit of ice blue flame. 

“Oh my god.” All I can manage. A whimper. 

“God ain’t got nothing to do with it,”  the old man says. “Savor it. Not a lot of men get to see how they die, Johnny.  But it doesn’t have to happen like that. You got a way out, kid.”

I don’t belive him. Ain’t no way out, I’m an cornered cat and he’s a rabid dog.  

“Instead of killing me, get up, take my seat by the fire. You’ll be waiting for a while. For as long as I have. Till some other poor fool gets lost in the storm. You help them, you help them thaw out, you send them away. Keep waiting by the fire. Or, you kill me. Outside these walls, it’s just ice. Ice, snow, and death,” he says.  

“I’m dead either way, ain’t I? I’m dead right now, ain’t I?” The question flashes like an explosion. “Am I dead? Am I dead?”

The old man shakes his head.

“I can’t answer that for you. You got to make a choice, now. Before the fire dies. We’ve been in here for a good bit of time already.”

I look at him squarely. He’s not reacting. Just a dirty, saggy, weathered old face. My fists clench. I want to kill him. But I let the wave of hate roll over me, and I’m left with whatever is left in the wreckage. The old man gestures for me to pass. I sit in his rocker. I look at the flames, for a few moments, an hour, a day, a year. I don’t know. I don’t care to know. The old man is gone. 

It’s cold. Someone is pounding on the door. 

“It’s freezing out here,” someone calls from outside. “You gotta help me, Mister!”

I don’t look up. 

“Come in. Door’s unlocked. Mind you don’t track in too much snow.”

[anothersebastianblog]

More books he reads, like the Mars trilogy, which is science fiction:

www*instagram*com/p/CjByzrOL__a/

 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

www*instagram*com/p/CgXmBLSPiki/

Mike Nichols

www*instagram*com/p/CSaCTIWF1Mt/

“The Catcher In The Rye”,  “Ballad Of The Whiskey Robber“, “Still Life With Woodpecker“ and “The Course Of Love“

www*instagram*com/p/CCPCacBlFQh/?img_index=1

.

[cricketnationrise]

Books I read in quarantine: Part 1

So on Friday, March 13, 2020 something not that chill happened. We all know what that was. Anyway for me the silver lining was that I got a lot of my TBR knocked out by not being at work. I read over 150 books from mid-march to mid-october.

1. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: yes, it had been on my list for a while, yes it was awesome, yes, its still worth the read

2. Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey: eh. listen. she’s one of the most prominent women in fantasy/sci-fi writing and that’s great. and maybe some the later books aren’t quite such a product of their time. but there are some aspects to the dragon “bonding” that feel especially uncomfortable and there’s a lot of violence toward women. so.

3. Briar’s Book by Tamora Pierce: I was in the midst of a Circle of Magic reread. Unfortunately for me, this one is about a plague. It’s still one of the best CoM books and I enjoy it immensely. Its definitely going to be harder to read from now on

4. The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera: loved this. empress and ruler of the steppes as lesbians that also battle demons? i needed a family tree, but that’s normal for me. still need to get to the next one in this series.

5. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull:  middle grade fantasy novel. i hesitate to say lighthearted because there are definitely some heavy themes, but all the fantasy creatures you encounter are cool AF and this one at least doesn’t end on a cliffhanger.

6. Magic Steps by Tamora Pierce: less strong than some of the others in the Emelan series, but has some cool worldbuilding that got better fleshed out in the Beka Cooper Tortall books. featuring UNMAGIC. v dark. also dance magic. and romance between two older characters

7. The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan: delightful romance, not super explicit, very wish fulfillment if your wish is to run away from your life in london and live off the proceeds of a mobile bookstore in a tiny town. which. is not unappealing.

8. Street Magic by Tamora Pierce: features 9 cats, street urchins, and a VERY TERRIFYING wealthy widow straight up murdering kids for fun and games, stone magic

9. Scythe by Neal Shusterman: okay so take our world and then solve all physical ailments and have everything run by the cloud. except that death is still a thing but only if you are picked by a Scythe. first book in a trilogy. fast paced, amazing, violent (someone gets their head cut off), standard dystopia stuff. you’ll want to have the next two books ON YOUR SHELF

10. Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke: there is definitely someone out there who will like this more than me. one of them is my roommate. it was just too dark of a friendship/enemyship for me. lots of unreliable narrators. and like, they were just kind of horrible to each other? the actual plot was kinda cool and i definitely would have liked it more if it ended lighter

11. The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. LeGuin: a giant of fantasy and science fiction. this was my first of her sci-fi stuff and the first of the hainish cycle that i’ve read. quick read. definitely makes you think.

12. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark: number two in a series, but i didn’t know that going in. absolutely going to read the others. a cairo where all sorts of spirits and demons exist and actively interact with the “normal” world.

13. The Girl Who Reads on the Métro by Christine Féret-Fleury: i’ve never been to france but this feels VERY french. magical realism about bringing the right book to the perfect reader. super cute.

14. Fire Starter by P. Anastasia: first of a series. i wanted to like this better based on the magic system. romance felt forced. also it turned out to be aliens. which like, not a problem, but don’t spend 100 pages telling me its magic and then boom alien virus. maybe the others are better, but i’m not going to find out.

15. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros: i had to read this in middle school and definitely didn’t appreciate it enough. highly recommended.

16. A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow: a fantastic short story about reading, libraries, magic and supporting teenagers who need it. you can read it online or as part of Apex Magazine Issue 105 from Feb 2018.

17. On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden: really long graphic novel about a found family in space trying to do a good job repairing various buildings and stuff. enough queer content for anybody really. gorgeous art.

18. Doughnut by Tom Holt: book 1 in the YouSpace series. very discworld-esq except that its our own world plus a pocket dimension that’s only accessible with a lot of math and a prayer. hilarious at times, but a decidedly darker tone than discworld so just be aware if that’s not what youre looking for

19. The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind by Jackson Ford: teenage girl in california has powers that let her move things with her mind. works as part of a government program with a whole band of misfits. she thought she was the only one and then someone else starts doing crime (TM) and murder with telekinesis and she has to stop them. found family toward the end. graphic violence toward the end. wildfires.

20. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein: what it says on the tin, basically. NONFICTION. this dude in europe had way too many day jobs that were actually crime and his story is WILD. last update i saw was that he was still alive, paroled from jail, and making pottery??

21. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: 800+ pages of epic eastern fantasy. some dragons. a witchy big bad. betrayal. queer romance as a main plotline. magic. seriously good.

22. Transcription by Kate Atkinson: flashback within a flashback within a flashback and reversing that path as you move through the book. woman just wants a secretary job during the war. somehow ends up as a spy??? i liked it, i keep meaning to get more of her books

23. Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire: first in the wayward children series. under 200 pages if you’re looking for a quick read. what happens to kids that have gone through a door, had an adventure, and then forced back into our world? they don’t quite fit. and when that happens they go to Eleanor West’s School. fantastic series that is still being added to (number 7 comes out next year). can be very dark/sinister at times. but theres a lot of queer representation and found family stuff to balance out.

24. Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire: book 2 in the wayward children series. focuses on Jack and Jill’s backstory of their time before book 1. they are from The Moors where a Vampire Lord and a Mad Scientist are battling against each other to keep the balance of the world with a village of innocents between them

25. Go Fish by Ian Rogers: short story published on Tor.com about a group of paranormal investigators. there’s a fish factory that no one will go in because it’s haunted and/or cursed and people have been dying from going in there

[musette22]

not really sure if it's something you know, but is there like a list of books the boys have posted quotes from? like we know chris was reading Hesse from the pic on his stories, was wondering if they had ever shared other suggestions :)

Hi honey! Oh that’s a good question... I remember Chris quoting from ‘Wandering’ and from ‘Siddhartha’, both by Herman Hesse, as well as Hannah Arendt and Jack Kerouac (can’t remember which books, though). Sebastian has apparently said some of his favourite books are ‘Still Life With Woodpecker’ by Tom Robbins, ‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger, ‘Ballad of the Whiskey Robber’ by Julian Rubinstein, ‘The Course of Love’ by Alain the Botton, and ‘Sapiens’ by Yuval Noah Harari. I’m pretty sure Chris mentioned ‘Sapiens’ once too, actually, and Sebastian also mentioned liking Jack Kerouac, as well as Charles Bukowski. Seb has also said he likes reading non-fiction books such as biographies, history books and ‘space stuff’, and so has Chris <3 I think that’s about it as far as I know, but if someone else can think of any other titles or authors, do let us know!

[thestangossip]

Tomorrow’s Brazil right? If anyone’s going can you please ask Sebastian about “The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber”. Sebastian said at Houston Con that he was trying to develop it into a movie. He didn’t go into specifics, and nobody in Houston (much to my disappointment) followed up. Ask him would he want to direct it, produce it, star in it? What would be his involvement. Someone please ask him, because it’s one of the few interesting things he said at that con and I want to know more. 

[jimmyhowards]

have any of u read Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts? bc i am super interested in it but it'll break my heart if it's bad u feel

also here’s a summary of the book if any of u are interested in knowing what it’s about. i’m just Super Interested in this book bc it sounds like a fuckin ride

[seaglassandeelgrass]

Folk songs of outlaws and rogues.

Cover image is an illustration from a broadside ballad in the Bodleian Libraries’ collection, catalogued as Firth b.34(4a).

The Lincolnshire Poacher (Roud #299)- John Graham Donaldson

The Sheepstealer (Roud #2410)- Magpie Lane

The Female Highwayman (Roud #7)- Lucy Ward

Wild Colonial Boy (Roud #677)- Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem

The Farmer of Chester (Roud #2638)- Joe Jones

The Poacher’s Fate (Roud #793)- The Watersons

Brennan on the Moor (Roud #476)- Tom Kines

The Gallant Poacher- Martin Carthy

The Saucy Bold Robber (Roud #1464)- A.L. Lloyd

The Newry Highwayman- The Johnstons

Van Diemen’s Land (Roud #519)- Shirley Collins & The Albion Band

Whiskey in the Jar- The Dubliners

The Bold Poachers (Roud #1686)- The Voice Squad

Adieu to All Judges and Juries (Roud #300)- Joe Murphy

14 tracks; 42 mins {Playmoss}

[lascapigliata]

This Is How You Lose The Time War went viral on twitter a few weeks ago bc someone with a very funny username gave it a shoutout and it blew up so in a way i'm actually late to the party and this isn't like an unknown masterpiece that i'm TRYING to get everyone to read even though that's how i phrased the tag.

anyway. to make up for that phrasing here are some books i am constantly trying to get everyone to read bc they DIDN'T go viral. tale for the time being and/or book of form and emptiness, the leavers, claire of the sea light, in the woods, number one chinese restaurant, ballad of the whiskey robber, self-help, the comet seekers, one thousand and one nights. please to fuck read these books they're so good

[overbookedofficial-blog]

I haven’t written here in a while and I forgot a picture, but here’s what I read in the last two weeks:

Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

California by Edan Lepucki

The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison

So I have a lot of things about this, but seeing as no one reads this column let me say the important thing up top: Everyone must read The Empathy Exams !! A heart-slaying book, an examination of why and how we care about one another, our attempts to understand each other, how we fail, how we succeed, every elegant thought pivoting into the next surprising place. This is a gorgeous and tremendously intelligent, thoughtful book. I bet living in Leslie Jamison’s mind would be thoroughly overwhelming. BUT YOU CAN! for a couple hundred pages !!!

Also A Visit from the Goon Squad was a re-read for me and let me tell you it does NOT get old. There’s a reason that one won a Pulitzer. What a fucking masterpiece of heart. Ballad of the Whisky Robber I had lying around after John Green recommended it, and if you like action and humor and nonfiction, this is such an enjoyable read. I got sucked into while laying on the beach, and as a result got a horrible horrible sunburn.

The other thing this made me think about: Teen Fiction. I picked up Sarah Dessen’s new book because

I loved her books as a teenager

I follow her on The Twitter and didn’t know how I feel about her activity there, but she was talking a lot about this new book Saint Anything

Honestly as a young person did not care that all her plots were the same because they felt well-executed and kind of cheesy but cathartic and you cared about all the characters

Saint Anything fell far short of expectations. And I refuse to say it’s because I’m older now. We assign teens some lower level of intelligence, which is frankly bullshit. Maybe different experience / maturity level as an intrinsic consequence of age, but not intelligence. We dumb stuff down for them and have a largely horrific YA section of books, marketed towards teens. We say girls are dumb for loving One Direction. Then we say YA lit is stupid. NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE TRUE.

Which is why I was so disappointed in Saint Anything. I wanted it to validate my insistence that YA has heart, which most of Dessen’s other books do. But here it felt formulaic, a little directionless, and then presents the opportunity to talk to young girls about rape culture and sexual abuse, AND COMPLETELY DROPS THE BALL! In fact, its quick resolution and dismissal of the subject is probably even more harmful to young female readers. Ugh my jaw dropped and then the book was shortly over and all the plot tension was for naught and I wanted to pull out my hair omg it was NOT the most thoughtfully plotted move.

YA lit has the unique opportunity to speak to an audience that will take the message and the literature very seriously, to an audience that’s trying to parse out the whole adult thing and figure out which morals matter and in what way, and what things to prioritize. We do a disservice to humanity when our children’s and YA lit in particular fails us.

Maybe it’s unfair to be harder on YA lit than like, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book but hey

[g-nomey]

So I finished this book. It was really good. Apparently it has 5 stars on Amazon, so make of that what you will. But I thought it was pretty awesome too.

Things I liked:

Non-fiction that reads like fiction, AKA my favourite genre

Protagonist IRL has really great hair.

#history about Hungary, a place I knew literally one thing about before reading this book (in case you were wondering, the only thing I knew about Hungary before reading this book was that it was the oft overlooked other half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

Things I didn't like:

The description on the back of the book is like barely at all what the actual book delivered.

But

That was OK because then the rest of the book was a bit surprising, if also a bit less sensational.

So. You should all go read the Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein and then idk get back to me about it or something? Anyone else read it and liked it too?

[openbookstore]

Lizzy recommends “Ballad of the Whiskey Robber” by Julian Rubinstein

This story is true but you will not believe it. It is also HILARIOUS! This is a story of an incompetent Robin Hood figure and his amazing adventures. READ IT!!!!

[potawewe]

I highly recommend reading Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein. The book is nonfiction but reads like fiction. It's interesting, funny, outrageous, and thrilling. It also gives historic backgrounds on Romania and Hungary I never got to learn in any of my history classes. His robberies are so funny and adorable you wonder when he's going to get caught. It's a fascinating and funny book that is hard to put down.

[lascapigliata]

i was tagged by @halftruthsandhyperbole​ and for once am actually going to DO THIS instead of just having a reminder in my drafts for a year:

MOVIES: (unexpectedly this was by far the hardest one)

lord of the rings (the whole thing)

stardust

academy award® winning captain america the winter soldier m

mad max fury road (keeping this one)

attack the block

10 things i hate about you

silverado

clue

john wick

the sting

BOOKS - SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE INDIEBOUND.ORG:

the blind assassin by margaret atwood

in the woods by tana french

the world to come by dara horn

the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay by michael chabon

the goldfinch by donna tartt

ballad of the whiskey robber by julian rubinstein

daevabad trilogy by sa chakraborty

bellweather rhapsody by kate racculia

broken earth trilogy by nk jemisin

a tale for the time being by ruth ozeki

MUSIC (this will probably change like TOMORROW):

green day

queen

bruce “the boss” “i’m from new jersey” springsteen

tété

bleachers

carly rae jepsen

the struts

cowboy boy

hozier

the killers ? (choosing #10 is impossible)

TV SHOWS:

lost

black sails

leverage

schitt’s creek

harlots (rip)

the borgias

big 3 hbo shows: the wire / deadwood / the sopranos

avatar

star treks tng through voyager

the expanse

I am tagging: @hibiscusly (a retag), @hohomylad, @isleofapplepies, @mayyouwalk & to ditto sonja as always no pressure :)

[openbookstore]

The always great Robert Gray has a particularly great story about the subject of one of our favorite books: Ballad of the Whiskey Robber.

So great to hear about these life/book intersections! ^KE