Potentially Catastrophic

Episode 16 begins with a loss. I recorded the episode originally, had an amazing moment of thoughtfulness and clarity and then lost almost the entire episode. Re-recording it was an experience in thoughtfulness without overpreparation. The books that are in conversation in this episode are extraordinary and well worth their reading.

Also, surprise children's book moment!

I'm working on getting audio transcripts available, and will get the link up as soon as it's ready.

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Thanks for listening!

There's a lot to look at, and some fact checking to be done. This episode is not a recap, it's more a rehash and check in with thoughts about relationships that maybe I hadn't explored before.

Atmosphere, upside down ness, Shakespeare, and Jemisin.

Travel, war, dream speak, Kincaid, and Rodoreda.

Loss, Growth, Childhood homes, Busquets, and Jemisin.

Aspirations, goth girls, Spalding, and Wright.

Love, risk, the limitless ocean, Cooper, and Engel.

And the one that keeps getting pecked at because it will not leave me alone.

I ended up writing about it in my newsletter: tinyletter.com/joneseyswords

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This episode has unfortunate background noises for a few minutes at the beginning.

Which is a drag because your host goes through a bunch of emotions while talking about the novel This Too Shall Pass, an unexpectedly moving short novel about a woman whose mother has just passed and the journey into and through grief that she begins.

Listener, it ends with even more emotion that you might think.

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Episode 13 starts with your host in a swirl of emotions after finishing Among Flowers in a day because it is such a beautiful book. I learned of it through the POC Travel Book Club organized by Bani Amor (although this book is not on their reading list as yet, it was an option that reminded me that I own a copy and could read it!).

After waxing a bit poetic, I find out that what comes with it is no less disconcerting, but in a wildly different manner.

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Episode 12 opens with a lot of joy and happiness because The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the best burger in LA) by Amy Spalding is a joy from beginning to end. My YA reading group read it for May, and I loved being able to spend some quiet time with it before I spent chatting time with my friends.

This is a lovely book about a girl who is a plus size fashion blogger and apt to crushes on inaccessible girls, until she starts her summer internship and meets the girl of her dreams, who is also her competition. Oops!

And then the next book just flummoxed me. Just flummoxed.

It's brilliant.

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Episode 11 threw me for a good loop. I finished Eloquent Rage and considered the personal damage done to Love and living because of over-policing. Also my roommate came in so I got a bit off track, but got back on track.

The second book is a novel, and the relationships are layered and hard-working.

Check out www.twitter.com/potentcastpod for links to the books and more information!

In this episode, I felt like sitting down with a craft book. So I did. and it was enlightening and infuriating, as craft books tend to be. Being able to make a book is a very cool set of skills, and the book that I grabbed is mostly about making kind of fancy, not necessarily useful books. They are pretty and they take up a lot of supplies and time and will look amazing. And also they will look amazing, but I don't know if I'd use one of them (she writes knowing full well she has a plan for some mac n cheese boxes...)

And then, well, then it just gets weird, but the book is amazing, but it's also totally unrelated to the first one. Welcome to the sound of my brain searching for a vista in a wave pool.

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Episode 9 finds me at the edge of a diving board ready to fly! I start with William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, and am thrilled to discover how much more energy there is in the text of this play than I remember, even from the last time that I read it (which was only a couple of years ago, to be honest (I love my reading group)).

We read this to be ready for Shakespeare Festival St. Louis's production of R&J in Forest Park this summer. It's their 18th year in Shakespeare Glen and this production is magnificent!

And it only gets better when I open the card! Oh, this is a pairing for the ages.

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Episode 8 is about cleaning up untidy ends or middles and sharing some of the more interesting messes that occurred after recording the first seven episodes. I talk about all of the books so far and offer a bit more insight into the lines that may connect them.