Tag: status updates

📖 reading log: climate resilience by kylie flanagan

Book Info

Topics: Nonfiction, Feminism, Environmental Activism, Climate Change

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/book/291465827

Acquired from: Little Free Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA [see visit log]

Started reading: August 9, 2025

Finished reading: August 13, 2025 (DNF’d)

Reading Updates

Page 0: Picked this book to read next because it’s the heaviest— I don’t want to have to worry about trying to pack it and take it with me!

It’s a relatively new book (published 2023) and is basically a collection of interviews with climate activists.

Came with a bookmark from the Ann Arbor District Library (Seed Sampler, which promotes their seed library!). It’s a really nice bookmark and I’m probably gonna keep it for my collection.

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📖 reading log: seasons of the wild by sy montgomery

Book Info

Topics: Nonfiction, Nature

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/3092900/

Acquired from: Little Free Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA [see visit log]

Started reading: August 6, 2025

Finished reading: August 9, 2025

Review

A book with enthusiastic views of nature (animals, plans, seasons, etc.) presented in a way that just wanted me to see sources. Like, many mentions of things that happened in “recent times” (the 90s) but in a way that reminded me of those newspaper tidbit sections that were just there to give you something to read. Bibliography at the end which does include things used to write the book itself, but I personally would’ve preferred something more science-y rather than casual info-sharing.

Reading Updates

Page 0: This one didn’t come with a bookmark like Moby-Duck did, so I’m using one I got from Downtown Books in Milwaukee. I picked up this book partly because of the topic, partly because the blurbs on the back (“Sy Montgomery has insight into the Others that every nature writer on this continent envies.”), and partly because the author photos shows Sy holding a barred owl.

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🎧 listened to: gender spiral podcast “money sucks -and- you can do it (w/river nice)”

Listen to the episode here / Transcript / Youtube / Podcast RSS

Really excellent money-focused episode which talks about some of the differences between how queer people handle money vs. non-queer people (example: needing money for HRT, money to move out of the country for safety, etc.), some of the ways you can get started thinking about money in a healthy way, how to talk about money with your friends, mutual aid and how to plan for it, and lots more!

I especially liked a part about how older gen can’t handle how things have changed for us, not because they’re being willfully obtuse, but because it makes them scared for us! And they don’t have the emotional regulation skills needed to handle it properly.

Also this quote from River Nice, from 00:52:20:

I’m like, “I empathize a lot for my parents. I empathize for anyone in debt.” It’s like, we’re in truly unimaginable times that we all have to somehow navigate, but we have each other. Actually, all we have is each other. We literally don’t have anything else. We don’t have the money in the bank, it’s not real. You say the stock market might not exist in 30 years, that’s so true.

That’s where it all has to come back in all of the work that I do is like, “Yes, I want you to understand how the rules currently exist, how they’re currently played. I want you to creatively play them as best you can, but also, what can we be setting up that we have options in the future? We can talk about diversification. We can, some of us put some money in the stock market to have some options there.

We can buy some property to have some options there. We can invest in skills, like trade school, like cooking, gardening. We can invest in relationships, in healthy conflict.”

River Nice’s website, Be Intentional Financial. Free stuff offered (on resources page) include: How to Live Your Life While In Debt, Budgeting workshop, How to Talk to Loved Ones about Money, How to Buy a House Outside the Nuclear Family.

📖 reading log: moby-duck by donovan hohn

Book Info

Genre: Nonfiction, Popular Science, Travel

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/book/291465892

Acquired from: Little Free Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA [see visit log]

Started reading: July 29, 2025

Finished reading: August 6, 2025

Review

(Written August 6, 2025; cross-posted to LibraryThing)

Overall I enjoyed this book, though I think the title/cover does it a bit of a disservice. It makes it seem like a very scientific book with a lot of history about plastic ducks floating in the ocean, but really it’s more of a travel memoir with some popular science bits mixed in. The last two sections in particular were heavy on the personal anecdotes and less about plastic ducks– possibly because the author hadn’t seen any for years by that point.

That said, it DID make me more interested about oceanography and oceanographers. I enjoyed the mix of travel, science, and history. The author describes people vividly, without being rude about their quirks, and you can tell he likes people. I’m uncertain if it was worth it for him to quit his job and pursue the plastic ducks (especially since he had a young child at the time!) but I suppose that’s just me being judgemental. (Although considering how many times he quotes Arctic explorers, I can’t help but wonder if wanting to explore himself mixed with fear of fatherhood led to suddenly wanting to go on a multi-year quest. Anyway.)

Reading Updates

Page 1: Found a promo postcard for 4Ocean.com inside the book and am using it as a bookmark

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📺 watched: solo traveling with tracee ellis ross (2025)

🎬 Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross. Tracee Ellis Ross is packing her bags and inviting audiences to join her solo trips to experience the joy of solo travel. 🔗

I kept seeing clips from TER’s TikTok and thought it looked cute, so I’m watching it! Three episodes, set in Morocco, Mexico and Spain. She’s very bougie and stylish, and self-aware about it, which is fun. Very obvious product placement, which I suppose is how it’s making money (besides the ads).

Watching on Roku Channel, currently halfway through the first episode.

Edit: OH! It’s her own beauty line. So she’s promo-ing (and probably paying for?) herself.

Edit 2: Episode 1 was fun, she went out to the market and the desert and did shopping, etc.

Episode 2, Mexico, was slightly forgettable because she spent it at a resort. It did look very relaxing.

Episode 3, Spain, was exciting because she got food poisoning (from airport food?) and was stuck indoors. The last scene was her having a great meal, where she then had a conversation with other female travelers at a restaurant who said basically “we saw you sitting on your own and thought that it wasn’t good for you.”

I suppose they’re the type of people who’ve never gone someone alone and would never even think of doing it– not even in their own home town. Tracee gently corrected them and explained that not only was she used to it, but she enjoys it. You could see they were full of disbelief, but also they acknowledged their daughters would travel solo happily.

It just makes me feel so sad for them. It’s not that I think everyone should be able to travel the world alone for months on end (like I do), necessarily, but to not even think that someone (a woman) could do have dinner alone and NOT be depressed or sad or lonely…? It’s just so out of their worldview, they were gobsmacked.

Overall more of a show if you’re interested in TER herself (she talks about her POV a lot, of course), or like watching people wearing great outfits in foreign locations. Not so much a “travel show” where you learn specific destination stuff.

📺 2025 Watched List