m.

lots of pages dogeared at the top and bottom + many stickies! :)

cover with matching stickies :D

i'll maybe update with my favorite lines here later but i finally finished just a few minutes ago and i'm a happy camper indeed 🙂‍↕️

🗳️ april's jury has rung it in - sort of! we got a tie; our pick of the month is the blind earthworm in the labyrinth 🪱

copies on the server 📚 come join! 👥 discord.gg/TuUdwQTuJ7 🌿

From Act 2, Scene 1 The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins Remorse from power. And to speak truth of Caesar, I have not known when his affections swayed More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face. But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend. —So Caesar may. Then, lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel Will bear no color for the thing he is, Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented, Would run to these and these extremities; And therefore think him as a serpent's egg, Which hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous; And kill him in the shell.

this is cwazieeeee... i see you william... i see you ❕️

a copy of julius caesar where the title is in fuschia font. and next to it a wad of matching fucshia sticky notes :) love this luck!

so excited to find my favorite lines in this because the stickies and the title match!

🗳️ the march jury has spoken! our pick of the month is woman at point zero 🌆

don't forget to get your copy on the server 📚 feel free to join 👥 discord.gg/TuUdwQTuJ7 🎶

Photo of Slender Thorns anthology by an actual cactus.

Thanks to author Sahar Mustafah for this beautiful photo of our new collection SLENDER THORNS: Award-winning Flash Fiction in Arabic and English, out now.

🗳️ votes for the february read are in! we'll be starting tomorrow bright and early, with moon of the crusted snow ❄️

get your copy on the server 📚 you're always welcome to join 🌙 discord.gg/TuUdwQTuJ7 🎶

just realized it's the 29th of january and this may not be humanly feasible,

have been finding it really tough lately but i'm getting back on the horse and finishing all my reading goals set for january!!!! 🫡

folger's note on use of the word 'cock' in the play*: an illustration of a cockerel, captioned 'a cock.' *line 151: ...(the cock crows) i'm now thoroughly embarrassed with this post but i soldier on in my commitment

indispensible wisdom of folger, what would i do without you

More at ArabLit: arablit.org/2025/01/07/i...

Our publishers' newsletter went out today: "January 2025: The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (What Hit, What Missed)."

If you work in publishing or are publishing-adjacent, you might find these monthly updates useful. Thanks to Ibrahim & Sawad.

arablit.substack.com/p/january-2025

What Do Gazans Read During War? This is the start of what we hope will be a series of pieces by poet and journalist Husam Maarouf on reading, writing, and publishing in Gaza. By Husam Maarouf Bookselling in times of war might see…

Find "What Do Gazans Read During War?" today on ArabLit. By poet / journalist / publisher Husam Maarouf:

arablit.org/2025/01/15/w...

These shimmering cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. The gas then glows infrared light in what is known as a thermal light echo. As the supernova illumination travels through space at the speed of light, the echo appears to expand. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed this light echo in the vicinity of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)

These shimmering cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. The gas then glows infrared light in what is known as a thermal light echo. As the supernova illumination travels through space at the speed of light, the echo appears to expand. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed this light echo in the vicinity of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)

These shimmering cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. The gas then glows infrared light in what is known as a thermal light echo. As the supernova illumination travels through space at the speed of light, the echo appears to expand. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed this light echo in the vicinity of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)

These shimmering cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. The gas then glows infrared light in what is known as a thermal light echo. As the supernova illumination travels through space at the speed of light, the echo appears to expand. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed this light echo in the vicinity of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)

my jaw genuinely dropped at how beautiful the new jwst image is.

in the middle of hamlet's act one. horatio: A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun, and the moist star Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. And even the like precurse of feared events, As harbingers preceding still the fates And prologue to the omen coming on,

reading hamlet for the first time and horatio is dropping bars...

the way it's rooted in place and habit... it could be january zeal, but i feel really inspired to sketch out the streets & some of the scenes she's described here. there's words i don't know, i want to sketch their definitions as well. everything's so vivid! really delighting in it all so far.

as part of my 2024 reading storygraph challenge (i got 0 done last year, so i'm trying to play catch up as well as fulfill my 2025 challenge on time) i picked up good morning, midnight by jean rhys and i am blown away by how very in-the-flesh it all feels

This is important

NANCY BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER REMEMBER CHILDREN- - - EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THINGS- - - SO ALWAYS TRY TO SEE THE OTHERS POINT OF VIEW ( NANCY IS LOOKING AT A NATURE BOOK, SHE SEES A PICTURE OF AN OPOSSUM HANGING UPSIDE DOWN IN A TREE, SO TO THE TEACHER’S SURPRISE NANCY TRIES HANGING UPSIDE DOWN LIKE THE OPOSSUM)

Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller
January 11,1950

hi on January 10 at around 9 pm, someone stole this backpack and a laptop bag out of my car while I was loading up to evacuate from the LA fires. whoever took it please return the sentimental items, particularly a bag with handwritten notes from my parents and my dads lord of the rings books

Altadena family says disabled father and son were left to burn: 'Nobody was coming' Anthony Mitchell Sr., an amputee who used a wheelchair, and his son Justin, who had cerebral palsy, died due to slow evacuation efforts during the Altadena fire, relatives said Friday.

One of many tragedies. It's not just the rich and white who have suffered in the LA fires.

“He probably could have gotten up and walked away, but he’s not gonna leave my brother"...So the pair huddled together awaiting a rescue that never came...

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Note: if you want to send support to our writer Eman al-Natour (arablit.org/2024/11/20/v...), who is currently requesting assistance, please send it through our normal link with the comment EMAN or FOR EMAN. paypal.com/donate/?host...

Attached is a photo Eman wanted to share of her & her mom.

Word of the Day is ‘uhtcearu’ [ucht-kay-aru, with the 'ch' as in the Scottish ‘loch']:

Old English for ‘the sorrow before dawn', when you lie awake in the darkness and worries crowd your mind.

My novel, The Orange Notebooks. Manuscript finished. Out with Bluemoose Books in May.

Spice, looking out the window at the newly falling snow.

Spice contemplates the snowfall, and her own life choices.

i think in general maybe it's the period-and-setting related #culture that i'm not familiar with anymore having stopped reading this sort of backdrop many years ago. but i have hope for the character getting more interesting as we go further along in the book!!

now that this guy has burnt a single town 3 times within the same number of days, i'm cringing a bit, but at least he is clearly ride or die for his wife so that's idk... something, maybe. i get his actions are inducing the sort of reaction he wants for his end goal but it's excessive 😔

the build up at least was not as quick for what i expected of an ~action novel, but then again it's set in like 16th century europe, i should definitely not be applying movie pacing to a book like this

on the other hand i'm also doing a buddyread of michael kohlhaas, which i saw recommended as The Original John Wick. i said 'say no more!!' and told my wick fan friend and we've started it together. jury's still out on this one :(