my thoughts...
on a few authors and books!
March 27, 2025,
7:52 P.M.
Tonight I was on my DOST (designated outside time… tonight was a walk), which Dawson and I might also call a Cat Walk when it is between 6-8 in the evening. I was partially listening to a podcast, frequently making stops to pet cats, and thinking greatly about how I wish I could perceive my surroundings and then reiterate them in a way similar to the likes of Patti Smith, Mary Oliver, or Donna Tartt.
In January of 2023, I read Patti Smith’s 2010 novel Just Kids. Last month, while speaking about relationships in relation to a quote that I know longer remember, I spoke of Oliver’s relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Mapplethorpe was an artist, Smith a poet, the two of them together were a creative muse, and maker. Robert was the muse for Just Kids, and Smith the creator. When I read the thoughts of Smith in a Holiday Inn bathroom fifteen minutes away from the Las Angeles airport for the first time my life was changed. Her words absorbed me in a cloud of feeling understood, of capable, adaptable.
I was thinking this, on my walk. I was also thinking of Camille, because I saw a tree that was so purple in the same way Camille might be, and then I thought of Mary Oliver. This purple tree, along the creek, is so vibrant - I know that Oliver could walk along a similar path and think of a way to tie the purple of the tree, green of the trees, and washing of the creek to her creator. I think of her collection, Devotions, sitting on the backseat of my car. Added to my car following the significance of Oliver to Camille, a silent way of saying I understand you.
I suppose this leads me to Donna Tartt. The two works I have read by Tartt have both almost ended my desire to read, but somehow I end up wanting to devour more. Both The Secret History and The Goldfinch walked me through pivotal times of my life. I feel like a time portal opened between the reading of them, a vault opening with The Secret History, and closing with The Goldfinch. Time can be passed in so many perspectives, I think the first time I solidly grasped this was while reading works by Tartt.
I am currently reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, (I mentioned this in weekly cup of jo (3.17.2025 - 3.24.2025) by Betty Smith. I am predicting that it will somehow end up there for my top books read this year (I think this is book 7 or 8). Being enrolled in three History courses is also providing me with plenty of readings on all kinds of fun topics. Included, but not limited to: slavery, Capitalism, Classic Liberalism, Industrialism, Imperialism, the rise of Yellow Journalism, Genocide, and so much more!
Spring wishes,
꩜ ⋆｡°✩ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 ⋆｡°