Monday Miscellany: I have all this care to give

Notes from November 3 - 9

Nov 10, 2025

Hello, friends! I picked up a shift at the coffee shop this morning, and since I usually only work there Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’ve completely confused myself as to what day it is. Turns out: Monday. It’s Monday! I hope yours is off to a good start so far.

Read this week

After Jeff O’Neal talked about it on the Book Riot podcast and

Michelle Martin

recommended it in her newsletter here on Substack, I knew I needed to pick up Poets Square by Courtney Gustafson. Finding a face-out copy in the new nonfiction section at the library recently felt like fate, and I proceeded to tear through it over the course of a day or two. The subtitle, A Memoir in Thirty Cats, and the whimsical watercolor cover design might give the impression of something cutesy and lighthearted, but do not be fooled. There are lots of sweet and funny moments here, yes, but Gustafson is writing about her experience learning to care for feral cats, so she also addresses animal suffering and death, as well as her own mental health struggles, the misogyny she encounters in her work, housing insecurity in the communities she visits, and other difficult subjects.

But she manages to strike the perfect balance between funny anecdotes about the colony that started it all:

Once, crouched quietly in the carport with all the cats, I suddenly had to sneeze. It was like a bomb had been dropped, the way the cats fled. They never came back out that night and regarded me warily the next morning. (25)

and poignant observations on subjects that her unexpected new hobby (and ultimately, full-time job) brings up for her:

Now all my friends are having babies. Every time someone announces their pregnancy, I feel a vague sense of loss I can’t quite parse.
I have all this care to give. (125)

What I’m saying is that I loved this memoir so much. Beyond the cats that Gustafson describes, all of whom are full of personality and infinitely lovable, she’s doing a lot: delving into the decision not to have children, pushing back on society’s expectations for how women should look (and considering what it means to “let yourself go”), highlighting inequities in housing and police protection, digging into the relationship between adult children and their aging parents, figuring out what a healthy romantic partnership looks like, finding purpose and fulfillment in life, and more. If any of this sounds up your alley, and/or if you enjoy the “nature writing plus memoir” genre (think H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald),1 this is absolutely for you.

My book club is discussing The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey tonight and in somewhat uncharacteristic fashion, I finished it a few full days early! There’s some mysterious stuff going on in this one, so I won’t say too much about the plot. Basically, we’re introduced to Vincent and his two identical brothers, all of whom live in a home with other sets of twins and triplets, watched over by Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon, and Mother Night. Very slowly, the truth about who these boys are and the details of what’s going on are revealed—and in the process, Chidgey contemplates class, progress, and what it means to be a human being with a soul. The vibes are reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and I found it deeply compelling.

If you purchase a book through the bookshop.org affiliate links in this post, I earn a small percentage commission. This is an easy way to support my work at no additional cost, and I appreciate it very much—thank you! ♥︎

Seen and heard this week

I first encountered Kedi (2016) when it was featured in our local RiverRun film festival years ago and have rewatched it several times since. It’s a documentary all about the street cats in Istanbul and the people who take care of them. Every time I watch it, my faith in humanity is restored just a little. It’s also a perfect pairing with Poets Square, so if you’re thinking about reading that, I would recommend rounding out your experience with a viewing.

We also rewatched Over the Garden Wall (2014) this week—it’s a series, but the episodes are about ten minutes each, so the whole thing only takes a feature-length film amount of time. This is an animated tale of a journey, of two brothers in the forest trying to find their way home, and it’s so extremely autumnal in setting and themes. It’s whimsical and funny, but the sinister undertone keeps things nice and balanced.

I’ve been working my way through The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017) off and on for the past couple of years, I think? And I’m happy to report that I finally made it to the end. There’s so much to love: the costumes, the 1950s aesthetic, the quippy dialogue, the feminism, the family dynamics, the characters, the friendship between Midge and Susie… I could go on. The timeline jumps around a bit in the last half of the final season and sometimes I got a little lost, but I think Amy Sherman-Palladino nailed the landing.

Any bluegrass fans in the house? No? Okay, but stay with me. Alison Krauss has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard (she’s in my top ten, easy) and she recently joined back up with Union Station2 for a new album, and it’s good. Arcadia (2025) has the same folksy twang and expert picking that I remember from New Favorite (2001) and Lonely Runs Both Ways (2004) but with a notable darkness. Even if you’re not into the banjo and mandolin energy, give the first track a try—the way Alison’s voice soars on the word “goodbyeeee” is everything.

Lastly but not leastly, I bring to you glad tidings of A NEW MOUNTAIN GOATS ALBUM! It’s called Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan (2025) and it’s all about a couple of guys who end up stranded on an island together after a shipwreck. The title of the album came to John Darnielle in a dream, and when he woke up and remembered it, he decided to flesh it out into a full narrative: who is Peter Balkan? where are these people and how did they end up there? I think this is such a creative and interesting way to make music, and the result has been a big hit with me so far.3

As always, I love John’s lyrics. A few lines that have stuck with me after these first listens:

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Free as the churn of the riptide
Free as a wreck in the drift
Nothing’s ever promised to anyone
Everything you get is a gift

—From “Fishing Boat”

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Well the first thing you learn
is how strong you can be if you have to
And the next thing you learn
is how cold it can get at night

—From “Cold at Night”

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I will turn these stones to bread
and all who hunger will be fed
Plates will shift and the earth will groan
and no one here is going to die alone

—From “Dawn of Revelation”

A golden hour walk through the park on Friday

Haiku round-up

Haiku is a poetic form that originated in Japan, containing seventeen syllables in a five-seven-five pattern. At the beginning of 2024, I started writing one every day, and while traditional examples include thematic reference to the seasons, mine tend to be a bit more all over the place. Here are this week’s efforts—enjoy!