The January Archive

Like you I love love, life, the sweet smell of things, the sky-blue landscape of January days. (Roque Dalton)

Feb 01, 2024

to read —

Betty by Tiffany Mcdaniel. (2020)

a quote that stuck with me: “Everything we need to live a life as long as we're allowed has been given to us in nature,” he'd say. “That's not to claim if you eat this plant, you will never die, for the plant itself will one day die, and you are no more special than it. All we can do is try to heal the things that can be healed and ease the complaints of the things that cannot be. At the very least, we bring the earth inside us and restore the knowledge that even the smallest leaf has a soul.”

**from goodreads:** "A girl comes of age against the knife." Inspired by the life of her own mother, Tiffany McDaniel sets out to free the past by telling this heartbreaking yet magical story - a remarkable novel that establishes her as one of the freshest and most important voices in American fiction.

Lila by Marilynne Robinson. (2014)

a quote that stuck with me: If you think about a human face, it can be something you don’t want to look at, so sad or so hard or so kind. It can be something you want to hide, because it pretty well shows where you’ve been and what you can expect. And anybody at all can see it, but you can’t. It just floats there in front of you. It might as well be your soul, for all you can do to protect it.

**from goodreads:** Marilynne Robinson, one of the greatest novelists of our time, returns to the town of Gilead in an unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder. Revisiting the beloved characters and setting of Robinson's Pulitzer Prize–winning Gilead and Home, a National Book Award finalist, Lila is a moving expression of the mysteries of existence that is destined to become an American classic.

(articles corner)

Letter From a Region in my Mind by James Baldwin. (november 9, 1962)

to watch —

The Innocents (directed by Jack Clayton, 1961)

a quote that stuck with me: — Do you have an imagination? — Oh, yes, I can answer that. Yes. — Good. Truth is very seldom understood by any but imaginative persons… and I want to be quite truthful.