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"Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.'" Kurt Vonnegut

bookmarks:
lisa MUSIC
websites (social media)
travel (cemeteries)
I DON'T LOVE
adulthooding
  • Read a YA nonfiction book
  • Read a retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, or myth by an author of color
  • Read a mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman
  • Read a graphic memoir
  • Read a book about a natural disaster
  • Read a play by an author of color and/or queer author
  • Read a historical fiction novel not set in WWII
  • Read an audiobook of poetry
  • Read the LAST book in a series
  • Read a book that takes place in a rural setting
  • Read a debut novel by a queer author
  • a memoir by someone from a religious tradition (or lack of religious tradition) that is not your own
  • Read a food book about a cuisine you’ve...
dec 4 2019 ∞
may 26 2020 +
  • Call Me Zebra, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
  • Census, Jesse Ball
  • The Dictionary of Animal Languages, Heidi Sopinka
  • The Golden State, Lydia Kiesling
  • The House of Broken Angeles, Luis Alberto Urrea
  • The Italian Teacher, Tom Rachman
  • The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner (4)
  • Milkman, Anna Burns
  • My Sister, The Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite (1)
  • The Overstory, Richard Powers
  • The Parking Lot Attendant, Nafkote Tamirat (3)
  • So Lucky, Nicola Griffith (2)
  • There, There, Tommy Orange
  • Warlight, Michael Ondaatje
  • Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
jan 1 2019 ∞
aug 19 2019 +
  • vault living room ceiling
  • remove asbestos popcorn ceilings of death and destruction
  • washer and dryer solutions (get washer out of kitchen)
  • paint everything inside white
  • decide on sandblasting outside block
  • what to do about the fence
  • bathroom renos
  • kitchen reno
  • prioritize this list
jan 16 2018 ∞
jan 16 2018 +
  • Filthy Rich (Netflix) ★★★
  • It Felt Like Love ★★★
  • Call Me By Your Name ★★★ (good man eye candy, book was way better, 5 stars for Aciman)
  • Still Walking ★★★★★
  • Stranger Than Paradise ★★★★★
  • Paterson ★★★
  • Cleo from 5 to 7 ★★★★
  • The Cranes are Flying ★★★★
  • Pete Davidson: alive from ny ★★
  • Midsommar ★★★ 1/2
  • parasite ★★★★★
  • Long Shot ★★★
  • mike birbiglia: the new one ★★★★
  • The Report ★★★
  • Stage Fright (Jenny Slate, Netflix) ★★★ 1/2
  • Lobby Baby (Seth Meyers, Netflix) ★★★
feb 3 2017 ∞
jun 22 2020 +
  • lies incorporated, ari rabin-havt
  • spiral: trapped in the forever world, mark danner
  • private empire, steve coll
  • dark money, jane mayer
  • while the city slept, eli sanders
  • pumpkin flowers, matti friedman
dec 19 2016 ∞
dec 23 2016 +
  • Unorthodox ★★★★
  • normal people ★★★★
  • tiger king ★★★
  • trials of Gabriel Hernandez ★★★★
  • love is blind ★★★
  • Don't F**K With Cats ★★
  • Cheer ★★★ 1/2
  • Unbelievable ★★★★★
  • This Way Up ★★★
  • Glow, Season 3 ★★★★
  • Years and years ★★★ 1/2
  • euphoria ★★★★★ (kat), ★★★ (everyone else)
  • After Life ★★★★ 1/2
  • Five First Dates ★★★★☆
  • Killing Eve, Season 2 ★★★★ 1/2
  • Fleabag, season 2 ★★★★★
  • Love After Lockup, Season 1 ★★
  • Dead to Me ★★★ 1/2
  • PEN15, Season 1 ★★★
  • Catastrophe, Seasons 1-4 ★★★★☆
feb 23 2016 ∞
may 26 2020 +
  • Recovering History, Constructing Race, Martha Menchaca
  • The Beautiful Struggle, Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • How to Slowly Kill Yourself & Others in America, Kiese Laymon
  • The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
  • Citizen, Claudia Rankine
  • Between the World & Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • The Half has Never Been Told, Edward E. Baptist
  • Empire of Cotton, Sven Beckert
  • The Heart of Everything that Is, Bob Drury
  • An Indigionous Peoples' History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
  • The Locust Effect, Gary Haugen
  • Overrated, Eugene Cho
  • Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson
  • The Third Plate, Dan Barber
  • This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get you Killed, Charles Cobb
jun 22 2015 ∞
sep 15 2015 +
  • Power, Kanye
  • In Between Days, the Cure
  • What's the Frequency Kenneth, REM
jun 2 2015 ∞
jun 2 2015 +
  • A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25=The Icarus Girl, Helen Oyeyemi
  • A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65-Blue Nights, Joan Didion
  • A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people) - Redeployment, Phil Klay
  • A book published by an indie press - The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson
  • A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ-Adam, Ariel Schraig
  • A book by a person whose gender is different from your own-So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson
  • A book that takes place in Asia-Silence Once Begun, Jesse Ball
  • A book by an author from Africa, Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • A book that is by or about someone from a...
jan 12 2015 ∞
jun 9 2016 +
  • it's hard to be nice when you feel lonely
  • I don't really like drinking anymore and lots of other people do
  • being a good parent is a constant struggle when I'm running on fumes
  • being a good wife also
  • time management
  • laziness
  • out of shape
jan 5 2015 ∞
jan 5 2015 +
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  • james gandolfini
  • hugh laurie
  • alan cumming
  • tim curry in the rocky horror picture show, Dr. Franknfurter
  • seth green
  • jeremy sisto in 6 feet under
  • dave grohl
  • michael cera (because he is barely 18)
sep 12 2007 ∞
dec 27 2007 +

Whilel there's been no movement on this list, I can't say that the trade-off is a bad one.

  • puerto escondido in mexico
  • kenya and tanzania
  • bali
  • spain
  • madagascar and timbuktu
  • iran, israel and jordan
  • india again (southern this time)
  • south africa
  • japan
  • cambodia
  • thailand
  • argentina
  • antarctica
  • lapland
  • sri lanka
  • the maldives
  • new zealand and australia
jul 2 2007 ∞
jan 5 2015 +
  • A Book Becoming a Movie in 2019
  • A Book That Makes You Nostalgic, Save Me the Pulms, Ruth Reichl
  • A Book Written By a Musician (fiction or non) Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, Carrie Brownstein
  • A Book You Think Should be Turned into a Movie, Crossing to Safety Wallace Stegner
  • A Book With at Least 1 million Ratings on GoodReads, The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan
  • A Book With a Plant in the Title or On the Cover, The Things She's Seen, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Ezekiel Kwaymullina
  • A Re-Read of a Favorite Book, The Orchid Thief, Susan Orean
  • A Book About a Hobby, The River, Peter Heller
  • A Book I meant to Read in 2018, Barracoon, Zora Neale Hurston
jun 27 2019 ∞
jun 15 2020 +

I'm allowing books written in exile. Some of these would have been hard, if not impossible, to find in translation otherwise. Noted with an asterisk

  • Afghanistan: The Patience Stone, Atiq Rahimi*
  • Albania
  • Algeria
  • Burundi, A Small Country, Gael Faye*
  • England, GHost Wall, Sarah Moss
  • Ireland, Normal People, Sally Rooney
  • Japan, The Emissary, Yoko Tawada
  • Morocco, The Perfect Nanny, Leila Slimani
  • New Zealand, The Things She's Seen, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Ezekiel Kwaymullina
  • Nigeria, My Sister the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite
  • Vietnam, Inside Out & Back Again, Thanhha Lai
nov 23 2018 ∞
oct 9 2019 +

aka Like I need another reading challenge

  • A book made into a movie you've already seen, Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn
  • True crime, People Who Eat Darkness, Richard Lloyd Parry
  • The next book in a series you started
  • A book involving a heist
  • Nordic noir
  • A novel based on a real person, small country, gael faye
  • A book set in a country that fascinates you, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, Barbara Demick
  • A Book with a time of day in the title, the remains of the day, kazuo ishiguro
  • A book about a villain or antihero, Social Creature, Tara Isabella Burton
  • A book about death or grief, caypso, david sedaris
  • A book with a female author who uses a ma...
dec 26 2017 ∞
jun 15 2020 +
  • A book about sports, the incomplete book of running, peter sagal
  • A debut novel, goodbye vitamin, Rachel khong
  • A book about books, The Return of the Honey Buzzrd, Aimee De Jongh
  • A book set in central or south america written by a central or south american author
  • A book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative, exit west, moshin hamid
  • An all ages comic
  • A book published between 1900 and 1950
  • A travel memoir
  • A book you've read before, Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn
  • A book set within 100 miles of your location
  • A book set more than 5000 miles from your location, a separation, katie kitamura
jan 5 2017 ∞
feb 16 2020 +
  • Learn to quilt
  • Learn to read tarot
  • Learn to make pasta-2017
mar 3 2016 ∞
dec 26 2017 +
  • the new world, chris adrian & eli horowitz
  • the sellout, paul beatty
  • bats of the republic, zachary thomas dodson
  • the turner house, angela flournoy
  • fates & furies, lauren groff
  • our souls at night, kent haruf
  • ban en banlieue, Bhanu Kapil
  • the story of my teeth, valeria luiselli
  • the tsar of love & techno, anthony marra
  • the sympathizer, viet Thanh Nguyen
  • the whites, richard price
  • oreo, fran ross
  • the book of aron, jim shepard
  • the invaders, Karolina waclawiak
  • a little life, hana yanagihara
jan 20 2016 ∞
oct 3 2016 +
  • The Devil's Highway, Luis Alberto Urrea
  • Savage Harvest, Carl Hoffman
  • On the Rez, Ian Frazier
  • In the Kingdom of Ice, Hampton Sides
  • The Emerald Mile, Kevin Fedarko
  • Born to Run, Chris McDougall
  • The Last American Man, Elizabeth Gilbert
  • The Tiger, John Vallient
  • On the Burning Edge, Kyle Dickman
  • Crazy for the Storm, Norman Ollestad

FILMS

  • Valley Uprising
  • Virunga
  • The Cove
  • The Crash Reel
jun 6 2015 ∞
jun 14 2015 +
  • Chicken coop
  • planter garden
  • mud kitchen
may 28 2015 ∞
may 28 2015 +
  • Big Sur - Glen Oaks Motel
  • Missoula
  • Joshua Tree - Mike & Katie's wedding
  • Antelope Canyon, AZ
  • Anchorage to visit Ash (solo)
  • Tuscon, to run Marathon in Dec (possible solo)
jan 12 2015 ∞
jun 4 2015 +
  • Optimism
  • frustration
  • overwhelmed by my responsibilities
  • irritated with my propensity/inclination to put things off while simultaneously doing nothing to change my modus operandi
  • exhaustion
jan 5 2015 ∞
jun 7 2015 +

Perhaps if I rate the experience on a 1 to 5 scale, I will continue to plod through these? Let's see.)

  • Dreamland
  • Black Mirror
  • transparent 5
  • Mad Men
  • Game of Thrones
  • Finish the Wire (season 5)
  • Undeclared
  • The West Wing
  • Downton Abbey
  • Friday Night Lights
  • Gossip Girl
  • The Office (UK)
  • Undeclared
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Breaking Bad
  • arrested development
  • Olive Kitteridge
  • orange is the new black - season 1 gets a...
jun 13 2013 ∞
feb 9 2016 +
  • Before Midnight
  • Frances Ha
  • Stories We Tell
  • Sun Don't Shine
  • The Bling Ring
  • The Mysteries & Mentors of Ricky Jay
  • The Kings of Summer
  • This is the End
  • room 237
  • fruitvale station
may 19 2013 ∞
apr 13 2016 +
list icon

This was one of my first lists about 7 years ago, but is still mostly true and good for some inspo on inspiration deficit days

  • sincerity at the expense of coolness
  • my children (2015)
  • my nephews and nieces (2015 - updated)
  • expensive heels, the more impractical the better
  • brilliant food
  • tapas and sangria
  • crumbly old buildings that have been reinvented and put to new use
  • viszlas
  • warm sugar cookies
  • amateur photography
  • people who put other people first (not countries or governments), even when it can harm them to do so
  • inclement weather with belle & sebastian
  • spoon-kill the moonlight
jul 5 2007 ∞
jan 5 2015 +
  • A Book Published in 2020, Writers & Lovers, Lily King
  • A Book by a Trans or NonBinary Author
  • A Book with a great first line, Heavy, Kiese Leymon
  • A Book about a book club
  • A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics
  • A bildungsroman, The Girls, Emma Cline
  • The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed
  • A book with an upside down image on the cover, Less, Andrew Sean Greer
  • A book with a map
  • A book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast or online book club, American Kingpin, Nick Bilton
  • An anthology, The Fire This Time, Jesmyn Ward
  • A book that passes the Bechdel test, The Fever, Megan Abbott
nov 21 2019 ∞
jun 22 2020 +
  • An epistolary novel or collection of letters
  • An alternate history novel
  • A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018, The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai
  • A humor book, And Now We Have Everything, Meaghan O'Connell
  • A book by a journalist or about journalism, Bad Blood, John Carreyrou
  • A book by an AOC set in or about space
  • An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America
  • An #ownvoices book set in Oceania, The Things She's Seen, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Ezekiel Kwaymullina
  • A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads
  • A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman, The Emissary, Yoko Tawa...
dec 12 2018 ∞
nov 12 2019 +
  • A book published posthumously, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara
  • True crime, People Who Eat Darkness, Richard Lloyd Parry
  • A classic of genre fiction (western, sci fi, romance, mystery), Time Was, Ian McDonald
  • A comic written and illustrated by the same person, The Strange, Jerome Ruillier
  • A book set in or about one of the 5 BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
  • A book about nature, Pure Land, Annette McGivney
  • A western
  • A comic written or illustrated by a POC, the best we could do, thi bui
  • A book of colonial or postcolonial lit, the best we could do, thi bui
  • A romance novel by or about a POC
dec 26 2017 ∞
may 26 2020 +
  • The Fire This Time, Jesmyn Ward ★★★★
  • Heavy, Kiese Laymon ★★★★★
  • Tribe, Sebastian Junger ★★★
  • Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid ★★★★
  • The Knockout Queen, Rufi Thorpe ★★★★
  • Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri ★★★
  • Writers & Lovers ★★★★
  • The Girls ★★★
  • City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert ★★★★
  • The Folded Clock, Heidi Julavits ★★★★
  • Less, Andrew Sean Greer ★★★★ 1/2
  • To the End of June, Cris Beam ★★★
  • All That You Can Ever Know, Nicole Chung ★★★1/2
  • Say Nothing, Patrick Raddon Keefe, ★★★
jan 17 2017 ∞
jun 22 2020 +
  • the association of small bombs, karan mahajan
  • the north water, ian mcguire
  • the underground railroad, colsom whitehead
  • the vegetarian, han king
  • war and turpentine, stefan hertmans
  • at the existentialist cafesarah bakewell
  • dark money, jane mayer
  • evicted, matthew desmond
  • in the darkroom, susan faludi
  • the return: fathers, sons and the land in between, hisham matar
dec 7 2016 ∞
jul 31 2018 +
  • Horace & Pete
  • The Mindy Show (Hulu)
  • Transparent (season 2)
  • War & Peace
  • Mr. Robot
  • Portlandia (seasons 2-now)
  • Baskets
  • You, Me & the Apocalypse
  • Last Man on Earth
  • Grinder
  • Brooklyn 911 (seasons 2-3)
  • fleabag
feb 9 2016 ∞
jan 18 2017 +
  • a horror book, Head Full of Ghosts, Paul Tremblay
  • a nonfiction book about science (sapiens), when breath becomes air, paul kalanithi
  • a collection of essays, Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit
  • a book out loud to someone else, All of the Cat & the Hat, Curious George, Madeline books to my kids (also Ping)
  • a middle grade book, the tale of desperaux, kate di camillo
  • a biography (not memoir or autobio)
  • a dystopian or post-apocalyptic, Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
  • a book published in the decade I was born (1970's), Kindred, Octavia Butler
  • an audible book that has won an audie, city of girls, elizabeth gilbert
  • a book over 500 pages, 11/22/63, Stephen king
jan 20 2016 ∞
may 18 2020 +
  • the wolf pack
  • the overnight
  • Amy
  • kung fu master, agnes varda
  • an honest liar

NETFLIX

  • The White Helmets (sep 16)
  • Amanda Knox (sep 30)
  • into the inferno (Oct 28)
  • the JT Leroy film
  • the nice guys
jun 16 2015 ∞
oct 3 2016 +
  • The New Bohemians, Justina Blakeney
may 28 2015 ∞
may 28 2015 +
  • The Storied Life of AJ Fikry
  • If you could be mine for either LGBT or YA book
  • tell me again how a crush should feel (same)
  • Hammer Headm Nina Mac Laughlin
  • what the world will look like when all the water leaves us (short stories)
  • let me tell you, shirley jackson (not yet published)
  • Red or Dead, David Peace
  • Caffeinated, Murray Carpenter (not yet published)
  • a few seconds of radiant filmstrip
  • a girl is a half-formed thing
  • smile/sisters, raina tegemeir (YA)
  • citizen, an american lyric (poetry)
  • find me, laura van den berg
  • the lobster kings, alexi zentner
  • Better than Before, Gretchen Rubin
  • Self Help, Lorrie Moore
jan 26 2015 ∞
aug 22 2017 +

I really thought about having two lists - the realistic and the aspirational. In the end, decided to be optimistic and put 'em all on realistic. I reserve the right to create the unrealistic but still thrilling aspirational list at a later date.

  • More recreational writing (not just for work). every day would be nice.
  • Work out every day for my mental(primary reason) and physical (secondary/vanity reason) health
  • run a 5 K
  • run a half-marathon
  • run a marathon
  • avoid any fun runs or obstacle courses or anything that requires paint, fairy dust or mud hitting any part of my person
  • read 52 books (ya heard me, self. do this thing. there was a time in which a book a week was childsplay. Now literal childsplay has usurped me reading time)
jan 5 2015 ∞
jan 6 2015 +
list icon
  • dancing and dinner with a Romany (gypsy) family in Romania
  • paragliding over Neuschwanstein Castle south of Munich
  • roadside chai near New Delhi
  • getting trapped inside nepal cut off from all communication (cell phone, email, etc.) when the king closed the borders and shut down phone lines (02/05)
  • running into an old friend from India on the streets in Budapest
  • camping on the banks of the ganges
  • Halong Bay in Northern Vietnam - most beautiful and otherworldly place I've been
  • stumbling upon a buddhist monastery outside of Hue by scooter - the trees sounded like wind chimes as we approached
  • sharing chai and rice at a sikh community centre center near agra
  • after having been mildly assaulted by a drunk serbian war vet on the train to belg...
jun 25 2007 ∞
jul 15 2007 +