At the end of 2023, I went to the Seattle Art Museum to see the Alexander Calder exhibition Calder: In Motion and as expected, I really enjoyed myself. Seeing the work in motion is really something else.

One unexpected thing was seeing this photograph of Alexander Calder taken by Gordon Parks:

First, I don't think I had ever seen a photograph of Calder before? I don't know what I was expecting, but it probably should have been this, and second I didn't know who Gordon Parks was, and I didn't really think about it.

But at the library a week or so later, I pulled out a book that I thought seemed interesting, and opened it up at random. And guess what, there he was again. Gordon Parks. Alexander Calder.

Life is a little funny. It wanted me to know Gordon Parks and now I do.

Fevered Star (Between Earth and Sky #2), Rebecca Roanhorse
The Sophie Horowitz Story, Sarah Schulman
Girls, Visions and Everything, Sarah Schulman
Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
My Rock 'n' Roll Friend, Tracey Thorn
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1), Martha Wells
Beverly, Nick Drnaso
The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth #3), N.K. Jemisin
Small Game, Blair Braverman
The Lying Life of Adults, Elena Ferrante
Severance, Ling Ma
Shadow & Claw, Gene Wolfe
Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
Second Place, Rachel Cusk
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel

Notes:

I really love Sarah Schulman's fictional work, and I keep reading it instead of her non-fiction. I've had Conflict is not Abuse on my to-read list for a long time, but I haven't felt the pull quite yet. Maybe 2024 is the year.

I started the Broken Earth trilogy in 2022 and finished it this year. While frustrating at times, I thought the world building was incredible and I picked up Shadow & Claw per recommendations to fill the void. The void still exists.

A couple of themes came up: love (romantic, platonic, self), pandemics, time-travel. I read more than one time-travel pandemic book this year which is odd, considering I had read zero before.

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange—
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist.

— Wendy Cope

source

Each of us needs to look at our own behavior. Am I perpetuating and reinforcing the negative messages so pervasive in our culture, or am I seeking to challenge them? If I have not been exposed to positive images of marginalized groups, am I seeking them out, expanding my own knowledge base for myself and my children? Am I acknowledging and examining my own prejudices, my own rigid categorizations of others, thereby minimizing the adverse impact they might have on my interactions with those I have categorized? Unless we engage in these and other conscious acts of reflection and reeducation, we easily repeat the process with our children. We teach what we were taught.

— slate