**Apologies to subscribers for not receiving my last few posts via email. It’s been fixed** It’s been another emotional week. I had a good cry this morning. The pandemic, the protests… there are so many things right now. And my cat ran away. Quote of the week:“Most people resist change, even when it promises to — Read More
Author: Kim Hooper
Weekly Roundup: June 5
This has been one of the most troubling weeks in recent times (and that’s saying a lot considering we are in the midst of a global pandemic). Quote of the week:“White people need to do a lot of introspective work to understand the ways in which they personally contribute to, benefit from and tolerate white — Read More
Weekly Roundup: May 29
Last Friday in May. My family is still quarantining, though the world around us seems to be reopening (for economic reasons; the statistics, at least in our area, do not show any actual slowing of the virus). Strange times, folks. Quote of the week:“Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who — Read More
Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel
You’ve probably seen this meme before. And apparently there is merchandise too! I’ve always laughed at this, but it became somewhat of a more serious discussion in my life recently when two friends expressed their concerns that I would write about them (wait, does the fact that I’m writing this blog post mean I’m writing about — Read More
Weekly Roundup: May 22, 2020
I’m not sure how it’s Friday again, but my calendar tells me it is. Quote of the week:“You can make the right choice and still feel sad. You can love what is and want something else.” —Nora McInerny (in her newsletter) What I’m reading:The Other Family: A Novel by Loretta Nyhan What I’m listening to:A Good — Read More
Weekly Roundup: May 15, 2020
Welcome to my first Weekly Roundup, where I review the things grabbing my attention. Quote of the week:“We can’t be grateful all the time. Gratitude is deeply important and healing, but this is a time where we also have to make room for complaints. There’s a reason we have ten words for ‘complaining’ in Yiddish. — Read More
The highly sensitive writer
Throughout my life, I have heard the following phrases: “You’re just so sensitive,” “Don’t be so sensitive,” “You’re too sensitive.” It was completely ingrained in me that this was a terrible trait, a character flaw, something I needed to “work on.” I don’t think the people who have said those things to me were trying — Read More
Nonfiction books that blew my mind
Hey, look, it’s May and we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic. I figured it was time for another reading recommendations list. I had a few people request a nonfiction version, so here it is. I’ve been reading more and more nonfiction over the years, usually because I’m researching something for a book — Read More
Finding flow during a global pandemic
In the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi analyzes the much-desired and often-elusive “flow state,” which is basically a fancy term for being “in the zone.” It’s that feeling of being completely absorbed in something, to the point that you lose track of time. It is, in a word, delicious. — Read More
The times they are a-changin’
I’ve been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan lately. He always strikes the right chord with me when I’m particularly contemplative, melancholy. When the country first started to shut down, I was in emergency mode. The Adrenalin was pumping. I felt almost manic as I started to sort out our new normal. Now, as — Read More