Monday Miscellany: You sweep up the shards

Notes from January 5 - 11

Jan 12, 2026

It’s a new week—and I have no idea how to start this letter because I’m struggling to stay sane in the face of headlines that keep getting more horrible and dystopian.

And yet, we’re here. There are neighbors who need our help, and there are good things to live and fight for. I hope you are taking care of yourself however you need to. Here are some books and movies that have been getting me through:

Read this week

I fell in love with Emily Austin’s writing back in 2022 when I read her debut novel, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead. Since then she has published two more novels, both of which I devoured, and now her fourth, Is This a Cry for Help?, comes out tomorrow. Since I knew I would love it, I’ve been saving my early copy1 as a treat for the beginning of this year—and my god, did that turn out to be the right call. This one is about a 30-something lesbian librarian named Darcy who is newly back at work following a mental health crisis leave of absence. As she continues to process the unexpected death of an ex, the incident that sent her spiraling, she also faces the fresh hell of super vocal conservatives who object to certain library policies and want to remove LGBTQIA+ books from circulation,2 and she’s doing all of it alone—her wife’s sister has just given birth, so her wife is away helping with the new baby. On the surface, it’s a lot. But Austin’s tone is gentle and funny, and the amount of care and empathy she shows to these characters more than balance the heaviness of what they’re going through. This book, like her others, is a warm hug when everything feels like too much, and it’s exactly what I needed right now.

Speaking of hope in the face of dire circumstances, might I recommend a story about a ragtag crew of robots who start a noodle shop in the war-torn San Francisco of the future? Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz is a novella about about Staybehind, Cayenne, Sweetie, and Hands, all of whom power up to discover that while they’ve been offline, the ghost kitchen where they work has flooded. Finding no trace of the shop’s former human owners, they band together to repair the damage and get a new restaurant operation up and running. The story is action-packed and full of heart, all about acceptance and cooperation and persistence in the face of hate. If you like Becky Chambers, this will be right up your alley.3

Past Emily might have gone a little overboard at the end of 2025 requesting early copies of new titles, but so far none of them have been duds, so I guess I can’t be too mad at her. Discipline by Larissa Pham4 is another such upcoming release, set for January 20. It’s about a young woman, Christine, who is touring to support the novel she has just released, an imagined revenge tale based on her real-life relationship with a much older painting professor during her art student days. There isn’t a ton of plot, but the vibes are everything. We’re in Christine’s head as she travels and ponders, having thoughtful conversations with the people she meets along the way and musing about everything from art to nostalgia to the passage of time and all the different versions of the self that make up a life. The dreamlike stream-of-consciousness quality of the writing reminded me of Ayşegül Savaş, whose book Walking on the Ceiling I loved a few years ago and whose other work I’m eagerly looking forward to reading.

Firmly in an art mood after finishing the Pham novel, I decided to pick up Amie McNee’s We Need Your Art next. This is nonfiction, a motivational manifesto encouraging the reader, whatever their creative medium, to “stop messing around and make something,” and as a perpetually procrastinating lettering artist myself, I thought it might be just the kick in the pants I needed at the start of the year. I was right.

My favorite question to ask myself when I am avoiding my art is this: What am I running from? (71)

McNee strikes the perfect balance between conversational writing and scientifically-backed content, providing useful information about such topics as art’s effect on human thought processes and stress levels, the ebbs and flows of motivation, why we procrastinate, what perfectionism does to our brains in the long term, and how to rebuild trust in ourselves and our abilities by establishing consistent habits. As I type this, I’m noticing the urge to read back over my words and edit them as I go, and yet simultaneously remembering McNee’s advice to let yourself be imperfect, to complete the draft and edit later, to know when something is good enough. It is a struggle. She outlines a simple two-week reset toward the beginning of the book and I’m already making plans to start mine. If you work in a creative capacity or make any sort of art as a hobby, you will likely find some much-needed encouragement here.

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! ♥︎

Watched this week

Upgrading our DVD collection to Blu-ray has become a full-blown project for this year! And as I’m finding replacements at the used bookstore, I’m trying to watch through them before putting them on the shelf. It has been fun to revisit some older films this way and I’m looking forward to continuing the process.5

Your Sister’s Sister (2011) is about a cabin retreat that’s meant to allow Jack solitude and space to grieve his brother’s death, but the plot thickens when he arrives to find that the place isn’t empty—the friend who invited him to stay didn’t realize her sister would be there too, processing her own recent breakup. What follows is the best kind of romantic dramedy, full of misunderstandings, secrets, newly realized crushes, and big feelings. It’s hopeful and queer and reimagines what a family might look like.

Cinderella (2015) is a visual treat, plain and simple. The costumes, the setting, the Lily James and Cate Blanchett of it all. With the despair of winter and the horror of current events really weighing on me lately, it was so nice to escape for a little while to a magical place where kindness ultimately prevails.

I missed Flow (2024) when it played at our local indie theater, so I was delighted to find a Criterion Collection copy to bring home! It’s an animated story about a cat who bands together with a capybara, a lemur, a golden retriever, and a large mythical bird to survive a flood. There’s no dialogue, just music and sound effects, and I loved the art style and color palette. Aside from a few acutely stressful moments (so help me, kitten, if you drown!) that ultimately resolved, I found it meditative and hopeful.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) is back on the big screen at our aforementioned indie theater for a few showings this week, and we got to see it Saturday night! Along with The Royal Tenenbaums, this is one of the Wes Anderson films I know best and love most. Ralph Fiennes as M. Gustave is just a perfect character, the architecture and visuals are stunning, and there are too many good moments to name. If I could live inside this film, I would.

50/50 (2011) is about cancer, and friendship, and family, and hope. It features Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick at the height of their early-2010’s rom-com powers, plus Anjelica Huston perfectly cast as main character Adam’s seemingly-overbearing-but-it’s-just-because-she’s-lonely-and-misunderstood mother. This is another solid bet if you need a reminder that all is not lost and there’s still good in the world.

Foot bridge at Old Salem, still decorated in Moravian stars, for Tuesday’s poem

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!