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Misty


Ask Misty #DPLWhatsNext

I grew up reading anything I could get my hands on. One summer, when I had read and re-read all of my Nancy Drew books, fairy tales, and everything Laura Ingalls Wilder ever did, I climbed to the top of my dad's closet where resided his collection of paperback novels – detective and adventure stories by authors like Agatha Christie, Jack London, and Arthur Conan Doyle - stored well out of my reach. "I'll just take one at a time" I thought, "so he won't notice." I covertly worked my way through the books until eventually he saw me reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes. It was an enormous book, over 1,000 pages long, and not easy to conceal. Dad said, jokingly, "Has Holmes died

on the Reichenbach Falls yet?" and was completely surprised and apologetic when I burst into tears. I'm not eleven anymore but I still become emotionally invested in books and their characters. These days my predilection for magic, mystery, and adventure are often combined in genres such as urban fantasy, magical realism, and literary fiction. When I'm not reading I like to garden, take photographs, work on DIY projects, and watch movies - especially fantasy, cheesy horror, noir, and art house films. Get in touch if you'd like some recommendations from me!






Houseplants and Plant Parenting
Like many people, you've probably spent a lot of time at home the past two years finding ways to improve and enjoy your space, and what better way to bring life and vibrancy to your home than by adding houseplants? Every plant has different needs, and many new plant parents find themselves struggling to keep their new plants alive, much less thriving. Check out these selections to get started with simple tips on plant care and cultivation!

Banned Books Week Selections
This spring, the school district in Leander, Texas removed and suspended books from its secondary school book club reading lists, including titles from Jacqueline Woodson, Margaret Atwood, and Carmen Maria Machado, among others, in response to a campaign from some local community members against books they say are “inappropriate” for children. Normally, a student can pick one book that interests them from a list of 15 each semester. The controversy started when some parents had an issue with content in the memoir In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, and the scrutiny quickly expanded to all the books listed. Many of the book selections address difficult but important issues related to race or gender, including racial discrimination, LGBTQ+ relationships, mental health, and sexual assault and violence, and in response, many of the authors signed an open letter to the school board through PEN America protesting censorship and the exclusion of diverse voices and points of view. Celebrate banned books week by checking out the list below to read some of these selections for yourself!

Final Girls: A Horror Trope Becomes Self Aware
A final girl is a heroine left at the end of a horror movie. She's the only one in the film who manages to defeat or escape the killer. She is usually the smart, "boring" one in her friends group who gets made fun of for not wanting to party in the abandoned house, take the shortcut through the cemetery, or get high and hook up at the lake at midnight who ends up the lone survivor of a massacre, crying and being taken away in an ambulance. These selections explore what happens next, when the final girl becomes self aware. 'Finality' is determined and we glimpse the final girls now in the aftermath of the horror trying (and often failing) to live 'normal' lives. From The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix to catching up with Laurie Strode in her safe house in the 2019 installment of the Halloween franchise - these final girls are determined to become something other than a horror cliche.

Jack Parsons: Forgotten Genius, Occultist, and Father of Modern Rocketry
Jack Parsons was a man of contradictions - an American rocket engineer, chemist, poet, and Thelemite occultist. He was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation, and invented the first rocket engine to use a castable, composite rocket propellant, pioneering the advancement of both liquid-fuel and solid-fuel rockets. Parsons believed that rocketry could be a boon to mankind just as strongly as he felt he could summon mystical beings to Earth using explosions and magical rituals. The leader of a sexually liberal black magic commune, of which Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was once a member, he was eventually pushed out of the JPL and died under mysterious circumstances. Check out these selections (or don't - do what thou wilt!) to learn more about this strange story which proves that sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction.

Getting by with a Little Help from these Books
This past year has been hard.  Come down to it, the years before that weren't exactly easy. Health issues, losing loved ones, work stress, and the entire world shutting down in the face of a global pandemic - well, this is the sort of thing that makes you take a long hard look at what's really important.  Check out this list for no-nonsense advice on every kind of life adjustment from improving your mental health and outlook to sorting out your personal space.

Learn to give yourself permission to rest from Laziness Does Not Exist: a Defense of the Exhausted, Exploited, and Overworked by Devon Price, or work though exercises to improve your life using Tara Schuster's book Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: and Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who's Been There.

Improve your life and mental health by uncluttering your space using Marie Kondo's approach for keeping things that spark joy as recommended in her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, or the more explicit and funny advice to Unf*ck Your Habitat from Rachel Hoffman.

Lastly, it's reassuring to know you are not alone - which is why I love Jenny Lawson, the Bloggess, and recommend her new book Broken (In the Best Possible Way) for heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes about the author's life and mental health journey.

Art Documentaries
If it's been a while since you've been to a museum, get your art fix with these artist documentaries!  This cross section of art includes street artists, film and design, and performance and outsider art.  Learn about graffiti artist Banksy in Exit Through the Gift Shop and Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art, Basquiat and the 1980s New York art scene in Downtown 81, and take a fascinating look at a failed film project by the transcendental visionary Alejandro Jodorowsky in Jodorowsky's Dune. Most intriguing to me are stories about outsider artists, driven by the impulse to create without ever sharing their work, and the posthumous discovery of their art.  In Finding Vivian Maier see the amazing work of Chicago street photographer Vivian Maier, and enter the vivid fantasy world of eccentric collage artist Henry Darger In the Realms of the Unreal: the Mystery of Henry Darger.

Nature & Gardening for the Family
Despite one last stab of wintery weather, spring- with it's promise of renewal, new life, and growth- is on its way. Check out these family-friendly selections for projects to teach your kids about nature and making your outdoor spaces bird, bee, and butterfly friendly!