“It’s Halloween; everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” “It’s Halloween; everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” —Final girling it once again as Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978) https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/832035506736988160 #halloween #everyone #entitled #good #lauriestrode #final #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

In Mariana Enríquez’s collection of connected essays, Somebody is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery… In Mariana Enríquez’s collection of connected essays, Somebody is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys, translated by Megan McDowell, she writes about a lifetime of visiting and exploring cemeteries and their stories around the world, from her native Argentina to Barcelona, Paris, Guadalajara, New Orleans, and more, examining the ways these different cities and cultures have treated death and their dead, taking a macabre pleasure in the classic graveyard tales and reflecting on her own life. Enríquez does tend to fall into a trap that’s familiar to me, because it’s one that often used to get me as a younger woman: which is to believe that you are not a tourist, that the hordes are; you are different and so, better than, those disrespectful simpletons. As I’ve grown older, I’ve accepted that a wise, respectful, and reasonable tourist is still undeniably a tourist. Enríquez is sometimes on board with that in these essays, but often not, and it can hinge on irritating. (An example is when she insists she isn’t like the foolish tourists going off on their own in the catacombs, and then she, with a map, steals away from her tour group and into the catacombs.) That aside, it’s a fascinating and delightful macabre book about the dead and where they lie. Every graveyard has a collection of things: a dead teen ghost who draws people in, a miracle woman or child, someone who was buried standing up, and a story of a dare that goes wrong. Enríquez meditates on these tropes, on the ways the architecture and art of graveyards reflect the culture of the dead, and explores local stories, sad, fun, and uncomfortable. The ending is abrupt, and it is more of a collection than a coherent whole, but it’s a satisfying one nonetheless, and an excellent October read. I also had the small yet spooky realization that Enríquez and I were in the same city at the same time, and that I was possibly even one of the Harry Potter loving tourists she mentions in Greyfriars Kirkyard in 2017. Cameo alert! CW mentions of anti-indigenous sentiment, sexual assault, racism & lynching, suicide, self-harm, necrophilia, pedophilia. Moments of fatphobia. https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/831825549754269696 #marianaenriquez #connectedessays #cemeteryjourneys #grave #somebody #walking #collection #neworleans #meganmcdowell #greyfriarskirkyard #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

“Stop trying. Take long walks. Look at scenery. Doze off at noon. Don’t even think about flying. And… “Stop trying. Take long walks. Look at scenery. Doze off at noon. Don’t even think about flying. And then, pretty soon, you’ll be flying again.”—Kiki’s Delivery Service https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/831734502840795136 #stoptrying #longwalks #takelong #look #scenery #noon #flying #eventhink #deliveryservice #kiki #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

A new chronic illness diary about managing changes in plans and routine. A new chronic illness diary about managing changes in plans and routine. https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/831487173513641984 #chronicillness #illnessdiary #managingchanges #newchronic #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror, edited by Cynthia Pelayo, is a fun collection of… Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror, edited by Cynthia Pelayo, is a fun collection of horror, suspense, and mystery stories featuring authors including Agustina Bazterrica, Mariana Enriquez, and Isabel Cañas. From a brother born of a grapefruit to zombies avenging the land to tales of a wolf shedding her skin, these stories are at turns frightening and funny, grim and emotional. As in many short story collections, the quality varies. I really loved the introduction by Brenda Lozano, translated by Heather Cleary. “The Immaculate Rebirth of Nicki Duran” by Zoraida Córdova was a favorite, with a story investigating the horror of waking up impossibly pregnant. Ananda Lima’s tale, “Specter,” about a demonic presence hiding behind a crocodile without eyes, was superb, as was Juan Martinez’s story, “Mechanical Servants LLC,” which includes mysterious tiny objects haunting a lonely man. “Her First Cruise Ship” by Ann Dávila Cardinal was a delightfully dark story about cruise-ship tourists as mindless hordes. The stories cast a wide range, and some were skippable, but together, they were all firmly resting in the Latinx world, drawing on ideas of colonialism, vengeful spirits, the grief of missing home, complicated family relationships, and more. Content warnings for body horror, incest, sexual assault, violence. https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/831230900989755392 #cynthiapelayo #somethingfollowed #latinehorror #funcollection #home #tales #edited #marianaenriquez #agustinabazterrica #isabelcanas #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Some days you just have to go to the lake. Some days you just have to go to the lake. https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/831135744113442816 #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

more more coffee pls https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/831019606810460162 #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia is a fascinating and necessary text written… Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia is a fascinating and necessary text written by scholar Sabrina Strings that is accessible to read. It tracks the connection between the rise and cementing of anti-fatness in the UK and the US, and how these shifting ideas of beauty are connected to the slave trade, the rise of Protestantism, race-making, and eugenics. I found this text absolutely fascinating. Strings notes the appreciation for fleshiness in beauty standards in the Renaissance and follows how perceptions of Blackness shifted to a focus on Black people’s inherent inferiority and its evidence in their physical existence. She argues that because female bodies are the main object of scrutiny, women are particularly effected by shifting standards of physical signifiers of class and race. As Protestant ideals took over, and more justification became needed for slavery, Blackness became connected to gluttony and idleness, and these in turn were linked to fatness, which became a measure of moral goodness. As different immigrant classes became disdained in American society, they were inevitably linked to fatness. Despite the pervading cultural belief that fatness was indulgence, there was quite a bit of concern that white women were too thin and unhealthy, into the 1920s, buttressed by eugenicists’ determination that white women be healthy and strong. Only with the incursion of eugenics into medicine, and the rise of insurance companies, did fatness become a measure of health. As religion faded in American value systems, medicine took its place. Everything about this book was informative and wild. I was particularly blown by explorations of the “thinness epidemic” of the 1920s, which mirrors language about the “obesity epidemic” in every way. This book tells a clear and compelling story of how anti-fatness and the valorization of thinness developed in close tandem to “race science” and eugenics. She outlines the clear hypocrises and reveals how even in these moments, medical voices and even popular opinion were arguing counter to the rising anti-fat ideas. I’m going to be thinking about this book, and talking about it, for a very long time. https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/830847100450455552 #fatphobia #racialorigins #blackbody #necessarytext #textwritten #sabrinastrings #blackness #american #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

It’s prime reading and walking season. Cool temperatures, the leaves crunching under your feet, the… It’s prime reading and walking season. Cool temperatures, the leaves crunching under your feet, the hints of decaying leaves in the air… https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/830200552031911936

Spoopy tales? An apple cider slushie? Playoff baseball and basketball? I love October! Spoopy tales? An apple cider slushie? Playoff baseball and basketball? I love October! https://whilereadingandwalking.com/post/830381331027492864