#lydia millet

[dk-thrive]

To keep me company, I have both dreams and memories.

— Lydia Millet, My Happy Life (‎Soft Skull, March 1, 2009)

[seidkonaz]

I met the girls and instantly liked the girls. Of course I liked the girls. A girl is better than a feast.

Lydia Millet, from ‘Snow White, Rose Red’ in the collection My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me

[seemoreandmore]

I have always wished the present to resemble memory: because the present can be flat at times, and bald as a road. But memory is never like that. It makes hills of feeling in collapsed hours, a scene of enclosure made all precious by its frame. -Lydia Millet, My Happy Life

[litandlifequotes]

It is not learning we need at all. Individuals need learning but the culture needs something else, the pulse of light on the sea, the warm urge of huddling together to keep out the cold. We need empathy, we need the eyes that still can weep.

 Oh Pure And Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet

[queerveganbooknerd]

Book 25 of 2025

I tried. 3/5.

A rich dude walks from NYC to Phoenix because he's bored, but before the book starts. And then he makes friends with the family next door. That's all that happens. Birds show up a few times.

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Atavists: Stories

By Lydia Millet.

[whiskeyandtheraven]

“At that time in my personal life, I was coming to grips with the end of the world. The familiar world, anyway. Many of us were.

Scientists said it was ending now, philosophers said it had always been ending.

Historians said there’d been dark ages before. It all came out in the wash, because eventually, if you were patient, enlightenment arrived and then a wide array of Apple devices.

Politicians claimed everything would be fine. Adjustments were being made. Much as our human ingenuity had got us into this fine mess, so would it neatly get us out. Maybe more cars would switch to electric.

That was how we could tell it was serious. Because they were obviously lying.”

~ Lydia Millet, A Children's Bible

[7r0773r]

A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet

At that time in my personal life, I was coming to grips with the end of the world. The familiar world, anyway. Many of us were.

Scientists said it was ending now, philosophers said it had always been ending.

Historians said there'd been dark ages before. It all came out in the wash, because eventually, if you were patient, enlightenment arrived and then a wide array of Apple devices.

Politicians claimed everything would be fine. Adjustments were being made. Much as our human ingenuity had got us into this fine mess, so would it neatly get us out. Maybe more cars would switch to electric.

That was how we could tell it was serious. Because they were obviously lying.

We knew who was responsible, of course: it had been a done deal before we were born.

I wasn't sure how to break it to Jack. He was a sensitive little guy, sweet-natured. Brimming with hope and fear. He often had nightmares, and I would comfort him when he woke up from them—dreams of hurt bunnies or friends being mean. He woke up whimpering "Bunny Bunny!" Or "Donny! Sam!”

The end of the world, I didn't think he'd take it so well. But it was a Santa Claus situation. One day he'd find out the truth. And if it didn't come from me, I'd end up looking like a politician. (p. 27)

***

If you could be nothing, you could also be everything. Once my molecules had dispersed, I would be here forever. Free.

Part of the timeless. The sky and the ocean would also be me.

Molecules never die, I thought.

Hadn't they told us that in chemistry? Hadn't they said a molecule of Julius Caesar's dying breath was, statistically speaking, in every breath we took? Same with Lincoln. Or our grandparents.

Molecules exchanging and mingling, on and on. Particles that had once been others and now moved through us.

"Evie!" said Jack. "Look! I found a sand dollar!"

That was the sad thing about my molecules: they wouldn't remember him. (pp. 36-37)

***

On the second day it was discovered that the twins were missing. Their parents hadn't noticed before, figuring they were with us. The mother's bottom lip was so chewed up from the Ecstasy it had swollen halfway down her chin.

Jack and Shel went looking and found Kay. She was sleeping in the fishing shed, surrounded by small rodent skeletons and junk-food wrappers. It was curious, Jack said: the skeletons were fresh.

As far as we knew, she was a picky eater who usually insisted on white bread with cold cuts. On the other hand, her mouth was smeared with what looked a lot like dried blood. She smelled rancid.

Don't ask, was our approach. We marched her back to her parents.

There was no sign of her sister. (pp. 80-81)

***

"They say God in the book, said Jack. "But me and Shel figured it out. God's a code word. We figured it out!"

"Do tell, said Jen.

"They say God but they mean nature."

Shel signed.

"And we believe in nature," Jack interpreted.

"OK,” said Terry. "How about Isaac and Abraham? Was it nature that told a guy he had to knife his son to death?" Shel signed a bunch more. He stood up, agitated.

"Nature gets misinterpreted," said Jen. "Shel says."

"Plus it's a story," added Jack. "Things are symbols." (p. 87)

***

The headlight shut off and the front doors of the van opened. Burl and Luca got out. David flicked on a flashlight. Duffels and sleeping bags were unloaded. I was relieved and not sure why—maybe because that was all.

Just the four of them. No parents had come along.

I felt a new rush of dizziness, looking at the ones who'd returned. Behind them, hazy, I thought I could see the absent parents when I squinted. The night blurred. Or maybe just the shapes of them, their effigies. Or no, it wasn't them, I realized—was it?

It was them and not them, maybe the ones they'd never been. I could almost see those others standing in the garden where the pea plants were, feet planted between the rows. They stood without moving, their faces glowing with some shine a long time gone. A time before I lived. Their arms hung at their sides.

They’d always been there, I thought blearily, and they'd always wanted to be more than they were. They should always be thought of as invalids, I saw. Each person, fully grown, was sick or sad, with problems attached to them like broken limbs. Each one had special needs.

If you could remember that, it made you less angry.

They'd been carried along on their hopes, held up by the chance of a windfall. But instead of a windfall there was only time passing. And all they ever were was themselves.

Still they had wanted to be different. I would assume that from now on, I told myself, wandering back into the barn. What people wanted to be, but never could, traveled along beside them. Company. (pp. 139-40)

***

"So if God stands for nature, then Jesus stands for science. That's why they call Jesus God's son. It doesn't mean actual son. God doesn't have sperm."

"Goodness! You know the birds and bees!"

"Darla. He's not in kindergarten," I said.

"It just means science comes from nature. See?" (p. 142)

***

"What happens at the end?" Jack asked me.

He was sick by then, but I was going to make sure he got better. Whenever I wasn’t at his bedside, I was researching symptoms and diagnoses. How to repurpose the medicines we had. Home remedies.

I wished the angels were still with us. Luca. And Mattie.

Or even the owner. Descending in her black chariot. Where was the owner when we needed her most? 

Still I was dedicated. If it was the only fine thing I ever did, the single worthwhile thing, one day he'd be all right again.

"The end of what, Jack?"

"You know. The story. After the chaos time? It wasn't in my book. But all books should have a real ending."

"They should."

"She said the real end wasn't even in the kids' version. She said it wasn't nice. Too violent. She said that children couldn't handle relevation."

"I think she said Revelation."

"So what happens after the end?"

"Let me think. Hold on a minute. I'm thinking."

"Think better, Evie."

"OK. Slowness, I bet. New kinds of animals evolve. Some other creatures come and live here, like we did. And all the old beautiful things will still be in the air. Invisible but there. Like, I don't know. An expectation that sort of hovers. Even when we're all gone."

"But we won't be there to see them. We won't be here. It hurts not to know. We won't be here to see!"

He was agitated.

I held his hot hand.

"Others will, honey. Think of them. Maybe the ants. The trees and plants. Maybe the flowers will be our eyes."

"Flowers don't have eyes. That's like something Darla would say. It's not science, Evie."

"You're right. It's more like art. Poetry. But it still comes from what they used to call God, doesn't it?"

"What they used to call God, he murmured.

He was happiest when I was there talking to him, but he was getting so tired in those days. So very tired.

"You had it in your notebook, right? You wrote it down yourself, didn't you."

"I wrote it down."

"I think you solved it, Jack. In your notebook. Jesus was science. Knowing stuff. Right? And the Holy Ghost was all the things that people make. You remember? Your diagram said making stuff.'

"Yes. It did."

"So maybe art is the Holy Ghost. Maybe art is the ghost in the machine."

"Art is the ghost."

"The comets and the stars will be our eyes," I told him.

And I went on. The clouds the moon. The dirt the rocks the water and the wind. We call that hope, you see. (pp. 222-24)

[dwellordream]

Best Reads of 2024

this year i read 300 books. which i think is impressive but not as impressive as it sounds bc many of these books were very short, easy reads meant to be like, stuff you read at the airport or sitting by the pool on vacation. so it's not like i was tackling the harvard classics. i also read extremely fast; it only takes me about an hour to do 300 pages unless it's a super dense complex text. that said, here is a list of all the books i read this year that i would rate 4 stars or higher, separated by genre: Fantasy/Magical Realism: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett Highfire by Eoin Colfer Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi Chlorine by Jade Song The Passion by Jeanette Winterson The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter Realistic Fiction: We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent Only Child by Rhiannon Navin Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper Prima Facie by Suzie Miller Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg Piglet by Lottie Hazell The List by Yomi Adegoke A Winter's Rime by Carol Dunbar The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas

Mystery/Thriller: Queenpin by Megan Abbott Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley The Guest by Emma Cline Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti Kala by Colin Walsh Descent by Tim Johnston Wahala by Nikki May When We Were Bright and Beautiful by Jillian Medoff We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll Nothing Can Hurt You by Nicola Maye Goldberg Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon The Lagos Wife by Vanessa Walters Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald Sea Wife by Amity Gaige Last Seen Wearing by Hilary Waugh The Black Cabinet by Patricia Wentworth Historical Fiction: Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning All You Have to Do is Call by Kerri Maher Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt Payback by Mary Gordon A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley The Affairs of the Falcons by Melissa Rivero Longbourn by Jo Baker The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson Go to Hell Ole Miss by Jeff Barry The Divorcees by Rowan Beaird Consequences by Penelope Lively Iron Curtain: A Love Story by Vesna Goldsworthy Homestead by Melinda Moustakis Not Our Kind by Kitty Zeldis Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell Teddy by Emily Dunlay Science Fiction: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom Fever by Deon Meyer The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen

Romance: Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson American Royalty by Tracey Livesay The One by Julie Argy The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin Queen of Urban Prophecy by Aya de Léon That Dangerous Energy by Aya de Léon The Dove in the Belly by Jim Grimsley Fatima Tate Takes the Cake by Khadija VanBrakle Faro’s Daughter by Georgette Heyer Horror: Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka Cujo by Stephen King Night Watching by Tracy Sierra The Garden by Clare Beams The House of Ashes by Stuart Neville The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman True Crime: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Columbine by Dave Cullen Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou While Idaho Slept: The Hunt for Answers in the Murders of Four College Students by J. Reuben Appelman The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

History: Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel The Burning Blue: The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and Nasa’s Challenger Disaster by Kevin Cook The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House by Sally Bedell Smith As Long as We Both Shall Love: The White Wedding in Postwar America by Karen M. Dunak Babysitter: An American History by Miriam Forman-Brunell Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin All She Lost: The Explosion in Lebanon, the Collapse of a Nation and the Women who Survive by Dalal Mawad Psychology: Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction by David Sheff Misdiagnosed: One Woman’s Tour of -And Escape From- Healthcareland by Jody Berger Stolen Child: A Mother’s Journey to Rescue Her Son from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by Laurie Gough Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood by Tanya Frank I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy Us, After: A Memoir of Love and Suicide by Rachel Zimmerman Everything Is Fine: A Memoir by Vince Granata Juliet the Maniac by Juliet Escoria

Memoir: Upstairs At The White House by J.B. West A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival by Kelly Sundberg This Boy We Made: A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown by Taylor Harris I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU by Adam Wolfberg The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team by Kara Goucher and Mary Pilon Remedies for Sorrow: An Extraordinary Child, a Secret Kept from Pregnant Women, and a Mother’s Pursuit of the Truth by Megan Nix Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie by Julia Haart Minding the Manor: The Memoir of a 1930s English Kitchen Maid by Mollie Moran Love in the Blitz: The War Letters of Eileen Alexander to Gershon Ellenbogan by Eileen Alexander Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story by Lis Smith The Apology by Eve Ensler Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur One Way Back: A Memoir by Christine Blasey Ford Biography: The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty by Susan Page Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson by Rebecca Boggs Roberts King: A Life by Jonathan Eig Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams by Louisa Thomas American Girls: One Woman’s Journey into the Islamic State and Her Sister’s Fight to Bring Her Home by Jessica Roy Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli

Gender: Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement by Andi Zeisler All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership by Darcy Lockman Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks Enslaved Women in America: From Colonial Times to Emancipation by Emily West You’ll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love by Marcia A. Zug The Red Menace: How Lipstick Changed the Face of American History by Ilise S. Carter Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America by Lillian Faderman

[dk-thrive]

It is not learning we need at all. Individuals need learning but the culture needs something else, the pulse of light on the sea, the warm urge of huddling together to keep out the cold. We need empathy, we need the eyes that still can weep.

— Lydia Millet, Oh Pure And Radiant Heart (Mariner, July 3, 2006)

[artemis-potnia-theron]

Hi 💙

I would like to worship Artemis, i've looking and investigate about hellenic polytheism and i have a special bond with the Delian triad (Artemis, Apollon and Leto), i love them, but i'm new in this and i want to start first with Artemis...

How i could start? How do you begin with her? I don't know how to start and what i have to do... Could you help me? I see how is your relationship with her and i love it ✨

Khaire! 🫂

So excited to hear about your interest in the trio!! They all hold very special places in my heart, so I love to hear when other people find them as well!

However, although I consider Apollo(n) to be my spiritual father and Leto to be my spiritual grandmother, the relationship I have with Artemis is an intersection of mother, sister, best friend, love of my life, spiritual mistress, queen, ect...so I will be approaching this from a more Artemis focused perspective lol. Hope that's okay!!

First, I would strongly recommend reading She Who Hunts: Artemis: The Goddess Who Changed the World by Carla Ionescu for a really solid, comprehensive overview of her worship. Understanding her history and domains can be very helpful in understanding Artemis as a goddess. Apollo(n) and Leto are featured in it, but mostly in relation to her.

Theoi.com is a good overall resource, but I would recommend sticking to 'scholarly' or peer-reviewed sources as much as possible when trying to get historical information about her cults, worship, and associated religious practices. The same goes for Apollo(n) and Leto.

In terms of personal practice stuff, it took me years to really forge the connection and relationship I have with her how. She can be prickly in certain ways. Her energy is as intense and wild as anything I've ever experienced. Early on, it felt like getting close to a roaming wolf or a hunting lioness. But once you bridge that gap, she's as protective and loves with as much ferocity as a mother bear. Apollo(n) and Leto were a bit less distant, even in the early days - at least for me. So take your time. Don't rush things with any of them, but most specifically not with Artemis lol.

In terms of activities/stuff she likes, I can list some random, everyday ways I connect with her!

- Being out in the moonlight, walking with the nightroaming critters 🌙🦇

- Going on nature walks, hikes, or just sitting outside! Touching grass really works haha

- Work on healing your 'inner child' through shadow work, but mostly importantly through therapy if it's accessible

- Taking care of and/or spending time with animals

- Reading her myths

- 'Ecstatic' dance. She shares a connection with The Mousai (The Muses) and to singing and music in general - a domain she shares with her brother

- Anything involved in childcare and/or childbirth

- Practicing archery

- Standing up for yourself

- Appericating solitude/independence

- Listening to folk music, lol. She loves The Amazing Devil

- Of course, connecting with others close to her helps! Apollo(n) and Leto are the most obvious ones, but she also has close ties to Hekate, Kybele, Dionysus, Persephone, Demeter, Zeus, Athene, Pan, and many more both inside and outside of her 'main' pantheon.

- In terms of symbols and stuff I've found she likes for her altars, she loves deer, bear, dog, fish, boar, and wolf imagery in particular. I associate green, brown, grey, blue, and purple with her. She's loves amethyst. And of course she loves any nature-related offerings!

- I also love connecting everyday stuff with her - albeit in a UPG kind of way lol. I associate the movies Beasts of the Southern Wild and Princess Mononoke with her as well as A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shriely Jackson and that's all super UPG! Personalize your practice to you, your life, and your beliefs.

What matters most is fostering a relationship with a good foundation. As cliche as it sounds, it really can be about the journey rather than the destination when it comes to deity work. Enjoy yourself, be respectful, decide what you believe, and listen to the lessons she has to teach you. The rest will come naturally :)

Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions! May Artemis' arrow guide you always.

- Taylor 🌙🏹🦌

[notmorbid]

a children's bible.

dialogue prompts from a children's bible by lydia millet.

i've got some weed. you want to smoke?

no offense, but i don't have a clue what you're talking about.

discretion is the better part of value.

are you spineless, or just gutless?

you don't win until you're the last one standing.

i had no idea you were so hardcore.

we need 22 garbage bags and plenty of duct tape.

you're dissociating.

jesus, we don't say ____ anymore.

try not to be an assface, for once.

energy bar?

you're flattering me to try to avoid responsibility.

nobody takes the bible literally.

it doesn't feel right here. i know this place.

children grow up. children leave.

they'll find me, when i want them to.

we're not retreating with our tails between our legs.

more importantly, i just don't want to.

my water broke.

you mess up everything. why did you come here?

you have to drive me.

you can always come back.

i'm not sure what we owe our parents.

why are we always complaining? we get to be alive.

i called 911, but i couldn't get through.

it's tough times, isn't it?

i can never read you.

the storm passed.

if we go out there, it should only be to save lives.

i try not to lie.

good job. you really stepped up.

post a lookout at all times.

things felt normal, for a second.

i dreamed about you, once.

i wonder if a makeover would help.

i solve a problem by ignoring it.

you might have hallucinations.

just drink a lot of water and sleep it off.

you're always trying to take care of me.

is that your favorite book?

what did you figure out?

that makes zero sense, small dude.

you can talk?

i'm not going to make out with you.

grab some gear and run.

stay hidden until i come looking for you.

we shouldn't go that far.

you have a very black aura.

don't say i didn't warn you.

i can't give you what i don't have.

i don't say it to claim i'm innocent. i say it because it's true.

they have no idea how good you are.

it's gonna be sunset soon.

he wasn't all bad, my father.

are you too cool for high fiving?

why do you think i ran away?

you're living in a fantasy.

are they going to fix it?

is it the cops?

they broke the rules.

get by the heater, you're freezing.

you shouldn't play with tasers.

who else is there to blame?

what could we have done, really?

i don't think anyone is coming.

do you have somewhere to go?

you gave it the old college try.

chin up, kid. everything's gonna be okay.

you're too young for that responsibility.

it's unhealthy to wallow in everyone else's misery.

i trusted you once.

i'll concede that not everything you say is nonsense.

what happens at the end?

i wish the angels were still with us.

it hurts not to know.

[inclineto]

Books, September-December 2024

Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation - Tiya Miles

The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight - Andrew Leland

We Loved it All: A Memory of Life - Lydia Millet

Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution - Menno Schilthuizen

Trust & Safety - Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman

The Jane Austen Cookbook - Maggie Black and Deirdre Le Faye

Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet - Hannah Ritchie [Interesting throughout, extremely convincing at times, and chirpily, naively positive, with more than a whiff of the effective altruism girlie - of course the math makes sense, we just have to do it! - which finally becomes explicit in the conclusion (my effective altruism rant, which I will spare you in full - and to be fair, this book is very far from its worst exemplar - has a lot to do with its practitioners' tendency to fixate so completely on the numbers that they see ALL of the inefficiencies and frictions of humans being human as only avoidable weaknesses, rather than the sometimes necessary work of living in community. And look, I, too, hate having feelings in public, and find attending community garden commission meetings screamingly frustrating, but every so often both of those things just have to happen.)]

Longbourn - Jo Baker *

The Wood at Midwinter - Susanna Clarke

A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel - KJ Charles

The Way Home - Peter S. Beagle [Given how much "Two Hearts" made me sob the first time I read it, I should have known better, but now we can add the SeaTac north satellite and seat 20F of a Boeing 737 at midnight to the list of places I've publicly wept over someone's writing...which is an accomplishment, since I also didn't much care for, and sometimes actively disliked, quite a bit of "Sooz"; it's not that Beagle can't write from the perspective of teenage girls - see the master class that is the entirety of Tamsin - but this time the plot comes with more than a whiff of well-meaning dudeness and the fact that it's in first person absolutely does not help]

The New Naturals - Gabriel Bump

[galaxseacreature]

I just read A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet and I thought it was excellent! A group of children (mostly teens) who have been on summer vacation with their parents have to look out for themselves amidst climate change driven storms as society begins to collapse. Also two of the younger kids have been reading an illustrated children's bible and they don't exactly believe in the Christian God but they do try to save a bunch of animals like Noah and reinterpret the trinity as Nature, Science, and Art.

I would say if you are put off by the summary being about a group of kids or just the plot sounding sort of odd or far fetched, but are potentially interested in the themes, try reading a sample if you can. I was so skeptical based on the blurb, but was drawn in quickly once I actually started reading. The tone is pretty consistent, and being from a disillusioned teen's (often surprisingly funny) perspective certainly won't be for everyone, so you can probably decide fairly quickly if you want to continue. And the story provides A LOT of layers to unpack-extensive biblical allegory, climate disaster, parenting, neglect, culpability, inaction...... I'm still mulling over a lot of it, at the moment I am especially impressed by the sharp socioeconomic commentary at work, the positioning of these families as upper middle class comes off as very deliberate.

[your-dandy-king]

Eleven years of vocal training have prepared me for this... Or maybe not. I don't know how Bessiéres' afterlife nightmare opera place thing works...

I guess what I want to say is - I have some expertise in singing, so if that could possibly help, I'd be glad to come along. I don't think it's too wild to assume that whatever's alive about that place may like music.

Let me know what you think!

-Lydia-

((This is my first attempt to actively roleplay here. I have no idea how this is done, but I really wanna learn. Starting with a self-insert because I don't really wanna start by immediately butchering a historical character 😅))

That small bird that Murat left behind and in charge of his mail may be dumb and horny enough to try to have sex with his perch, but he manages to handle correspondence pretty well. When he isn't shredding it, anyway.

To Madame Lydia,

King Murat wished to go in alone to find Bessières. However, if you have any interest, your inquires should be directed to @murillo-enthusiast.

Thanks and can I have a millet?