lisapeet: 2026, come what may

Ruth Asawa, "Chrysanthemums", 1965 – lithograph

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Hi everyone, and happy fairly new year! No stats or current reading up top here—this is a strictly linear thread, which I'm going to try and keep up a bit better than last year's... though my online energies wax and wane with work craziness.

Looking at my thread last year, I read one of the big books I had aimed for, Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey, and then didn't even attempt Robert Caro's The Power Broker because life (which is to say work) got too busy in the summer. Maybe this will be my Power Broker year? No promises.

I am doing a group read of The Memoirs of Hadrian with a couple of friends of mine, neither of whom is on LT, starting in February. One's in the UK, so we'll see how the timing of those discussions works out, but I'm looking forward to the book, which I've had on my shelf for years. And I'm a member of a fantastic online book club made up of old friends in which we read books by women, mostly mid-century but some older or more contemporary—our working name is the Iris Murdoch Fight Club. Other than that, I'm not much of an organized reader, so no particular reading plans for 2026.

The above print is from the marvelous Ruth Asawa exhibit I saw on New Year's Eve 2025 at MoMA braving crowds of tourists, revelers, and policemen—even though I had planned to be out of there by early afternoon, I spent 2-1/2 hours in the show, which was both big and totally absorbing. And @ELiz_M met up for a quick and pleasant catch-up, so I can say I did have a f2f LT meetup in 2025!

I finished my first book of 2026 on New Year's Day: Lauren Groff's upcoming Brawler. I'm a fan, and if she wants to write a collection of morally challenged and challenging characters, I'm there for it.

Right now I'm reading Playworld by Adam Ross, because I felt like I needed a dose of 1970s/80s NYC coming of age nostalgia. Not sure about this one, though... it's pretty shaggy and while it's not badly written, it's not particularly elegant either. And the 14-year-old protagonist is not very appealing.

If it were 300 pages I'd probably go ahead and finish, but at about 60 pages into more than 500, I'm still thinking I might put it down. It's an easy read, at least, so I'll give it another couple of days.

Happy New Year, Lisa. Love the art!

I am a Groff fan, so I will pick up her stories. I am reading a really good collection of short stories right now, Atavists, which is a collection of linked stories that I am loving so far. It's about the way social media and the internet have taken over our lives.

I look forward to seeing what else you pick up this year. I hope 2026 is a good one for you.

>1 lisapeet: It's nice that you're doing a group read of The Memoirs of Hadrian: we did the same with @baswood in 2021 (how time flies!), and I think I got a lot more out of it than if I'd read it on my own.

Welcome back, Lisa. I look forward to following your reading, art, and life musings again this year.

Happy new year! Memoirs of Hadrian is on my list too for this year.

Good to see your thread up and running, Lisa, I've not come across Groff before - enjoyed your review.

>1 lisapeet: “Iris Murdoch Fight Club” ❤️ Sounds like the best bookclub ever. Gorgeous picture, by the way. And, of course, yay for meetups.

>2 lisapeet: nice!

>3 lisapeet: i vote ditch! (Do I get a vote?)

Happy new thread, Lisa. Like many others here, I know how busy your work life is. And I admire you for it. I’m grateful you can make time to LibraryThing and CR.

>1 lisapeet: Happy New Year! I love that Ruth Asawa lithograph. How does it manage to threaten cheer like that?

I hope you had a great conference. It was great to meet you and enjoy a tasty meal. We will have to do it again.

>11 BLBera: Love a LT meet up! Any pics?

Unless Lisa had a hidden camera, I am afraid we didn't take pictures.

>13 BLBera: Unless Lisa had a hidden camera, I am afraid we didn't take pictures.
Well, now that you mention it... No, no hidden camera and no pictures. Of any of my get-togethers, come to think of it. I never think to take selfies, not that I'm averse to them, but it just never occurs to me. Also because we were too busy TALKING! And eating. And having a really nice time. I so enjoyed getting together, and hope we have another opportunity to do it again.

I did have a good conference. It was very validating as far as why I do what I do, and a lot of fun socially, both personally and professionally.

... Which is good, because >9 dchaikin: I kind of hate being That Person who's always so so busy with work. I was really averse to that in my 20s and 30s, which is probably why I didn't have any kind of actual career until my 50s. But it's good work, and I love what I do, so I'm just trying to roll with it and keep balanced. Unfortunately it's my online life that gets pushed aside a lot of the time, which is why it's been months since I've been here—not for any lack of affection for all of you or for this place, which is a really nice one. Just how it goes, I guess. But I'm out from under a particularly gnarly month, so maybe I can show up here a little more.

I've been reading some good stuff, though maybe not as much as in the past—eyestrain is a thing—and seeing some interesting art. Hopefully I'll find some pockets of time to talk about them here. I forget how much fun it is to just write out what I think about things.

Can't promise I'll catch up on everyone's threads—gotta be realistic. But I'll try and stay at least a bit current.

>9 dchaikin: As it turns out, I didn't ditch Playworld, for better or worse. The setting was too seductive. Maybe it's not having my parents around anymore, or siblings who were my age and living at home at the time, or friends from that period in my life, but it was fun to be reminded of those dysfunctional days.

>10 rasdhar: I know, right? And she has that quality of attention that I really want to cultivate more of in my life.

>14 lisapeet: Good to see you here, Lisa. I never think of photos at the time. It's good that the conference was worthwhile. I hope you will be back!

A Lisa sighting, how wonderful! How is your grandson doing these days?

>14 lisapeet: I'll count myself lucky that I have two selfies with you. One at our group LT meetup at The Strand and on another occasion of the two of us at the Cloisters. :-)

>15 lisapeet: it’s nice to see you here again

>16 lisapeet: glad you persisted. It sounds like you nostalgic backyard

>18 BLBera: I hope to! The weather was just crappy enough that I didn't do much exploring outside of the conference (thanks largely to a convenient walkway straight to my hotel), so I'd really like to come back and just poke around and have fun. Not always a given because my travel pretty much exclusively depends on conferences these days, but it's not out of the question either. And I have so many friends there to hang out with!

>19 labfs39: That's right, we've gotten together in person a few times! And taken photos, probably because you remembered. William is doing great—walking, almost talking, a happy little guy. I'm figuring out what weekend in May we can get up there—as I think I've mentioned, coordinating my time with my son's rare weekends off (he's a fourth-year surgical resident) is challenging, and they got some extreme winter weather in February and part of March that kept me away. But I can't wait to give him some squeezes and remind him who his grandma is.

>20 dchaikin: Good to be back, Dan. Hope to keep the momentum a bit. Easy to say on a commitment-free Sunday, but hope springs eternal.

Some William for y'all:

        

As I mentioned in WHAT ARE YOU READING?, I'm currently in the middle of Anna North's Bog Queen right now. It's lightweight but hits a lot of good notes for me: a neurodivergent contemporary scientist and an Iron Age druid in dual timelines, and both are women. A third narrator is: moss—gotta love that. There's nothing remarkable here so far, but it's an enjoyable read.

I also was/am reading William Kentridge's A Natural History of the Studio, a series of lectures he gave at the University of Oxford in 2024. I love artists talking about art-making (when they're not completely solipsistic or boring, neither of which Kentridge is), and was having fun dipping in and out of this between other books. But it was an e-galley and expired just before I hit the final lecture, and it won't be out for another couple of weeks. I'll probably get it from the library when it's available, unless I decide to buy a copy to give to an artist friend who I know likes Kentridge as much as I do... Friends don't mind when friends crease the spine of a book just a little before giving it away, right?

>15 lisapeet: what at have you been seeing? I tend to stick to the big museums, but am curious about what else is out there

>21 lisapeet: beautiful baby and family

>21 lisapeet: Great photos! Sandra Boynton is the best, especially if you sing the words. Make sure to check out Philadelphia Chickens, my favorite of her albums, on Spotify. Some unexpectedly fun vocals from Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Natasha Richardson, among others.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2fypVQtNRNBZk33AkTjDtj

>21 lisapeet: I enjoyed Bog Queen as well.

William is a cutie.

Yes, we need to hit Louise Erdrich's bookstore next time. :)

>23 ELiz_M: I've mostly been in large/medium museums too this spring, though I went to one closing party for a friend of a friend at a little hole-in-the-wall gallery on East 3rd St. and Ave. A (a bit in the Manhattan boonies, for those who don't know the city layout), and I was so delighted to see that those still exist! They were everywhere when I lived downtown ('80s - '90s), and put up all the weird, fun, experimental stuff from non-big-name artists... now they're noteworthy for having survived or started up in this economic climate. The paintings were of wildlife in the artist's upstate yard, done in paint and encaustic, really cool and atmospheric.

Some other stuff I liked:
Helene Schjerfbeck at the Met—really masterful use of paint and composition, all the more because she was a single woman in Finland in the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries, who was able to pursue her art with all the seriousness accorded men at the time, but not so often women. I'm still lusting after the catalog, though holding out for now...

I went to the Whitney Biennial in its preview stage, which was nice because the crowds weren't aggravating. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews, including people taking it to task for not being more focused or political. I really liked it, though—it was much more craft- and storytelling-oriented than past Biennials I've seen, and I really liked that aspect. Storytelling is advocacy, right? And advocacy is political. So use a little imagination, there. Plus there was quite a bit of dog art, which made me happy.

Went to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Red Grooms/Mimi Gross Ruckus Manhattan "sculptural comic book" installation—I'm a big fan of that work, but was a little disappointed that there wasn't more on display, and that the central piece, the ferry, was fenced off so you couldn't get a really good up close and personal look. But it was still fun, and then my friends and I took a turn around the American Art—they live practically next door, but I don't get down there too often so it was really good to spend some time with their excellent permanent collection.

Also really liked Come Together: 3,000 Years of Stories and Storytelling at the Morgan. Very imaginatively curated, and it appealed to my love of illustration in all its forms.

And the orchid show at NY Botanical Garden was fun! There was a combination of installations using orchids as a medium for these kind of cartoony homages to NYC (laundromats, taxicabs, etc.) and then the orchids themselves along with all the other plants in the conservatory. Orchids are so weird and wild... like how did they become what they are? Evolution is so mind-boggling.

>24 dchaikin: >25 labfs39: >26 BLBera: Thank you for all the nice words about sweet William. We're headed up there in a few weeks and I can't wait to see him and squish him and read to him! I'll have new books in hand, of course...

>28 lisapeet: Ha! I'm wondering how restrained I'll be when the time comes. Lots of people around me having kids and my gift is always a stack of board books (and in the case of my husband's Rivian colleagues, I include a copy of Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go).

>29 RidgewayGirl: As a huge, t-shirt wearing, sticker-sticking Richard Scarry fan, Cars and Trucks and Things that Go is definitely on my William list in another year or two. Also What Do People Do All Day?, which I have used as an article title in recent memory.

This is one of my very favorite t-shirts I own:

I love that!

I love Lowly Worm! My kids LOVED Scarry. I think I have given Cars and Trucks and Things that Go to most of my nieces and nephews.

Greetings! I'm really mad at myself for having missed the Helene Schjerfbeck exhibit at the Met. We did finally get to the Frick this past week, a wonderful experience! Also we had fun a few weeks ago at an open studios art/performance evening in a converted old warehouse in Jersey City. The evening included a five-woman flamenco dance choreography to the Leonard Cohen song, "You Want it Darker." See you soon, finally, I hope!

>32 wandering_star: It just works for me on so many levels...

>33 BLBera: Yes! William is definitely getting a copy in another couple of years.

>34 rocketjk: Hi Jerry! It'll cool off someday, and we should absolutely get together. If you haven't seen it yet, and if you're even slightly a fan, the Leonora Carrington sculptures at L'SPACE gallery in Chelsea are amazing—really alchemical, how she translates her wonderful mysterious art into three dimensions. It comes down in a few weeks, so if you're in the area I very much recommend. Also Paul Klee at the Jewish Museum, which comes down on the 26th too—beautiful and heartbreaking.

And... hi! Still alive, not completely melted, embarrassingly grateful for the three-day weekend.

We went up to Syracuse for Memorial Day weekend and saw the wonderful William and his folks, which was great:



He's a super happy, confident, curious, smart little guy.

Hopefully getting up there again in August, since my son is working nights all this month and even though they say we're more than welcome, I have a feeling company is a lot. Plus I do like to see him too, honest.

Other than that, business as usual. I was in Chicago last weekend for the American Library Association conference, which was a good one—I schmoozed and got some good info and ate a LOT. The weather turned hot as soon as I got back to NYC, so we've been sticking close to home. I'm very glad for a weekend of doing nothing much, after essentially working two weeks straight. In honor, I just started Patricia Hampl's The Art of the Wasted Day, which @ BLBera sent me a while back. This really is Montaigne weather...

I've seen a lot of good art and hung out with friends and that's about it for my summer.

Let's see, what have I been reading... My book club read Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes, which was a really good discussion title, especially for an all-women-of-a-certain-age group.

A friend gave me a signed copy of Louise Erdrich's latest short story collection, Python's Kiss, when I was in Minneapolis in April.

I'm on a bit of a graphic novel kick this year.

Hi Lisa! Summer is flying by! William is a cutie.

Forbidden Notebook sounds like one I would like. I still have The Red Convertible to read, so I will wait a bit before reading the new collection of Erdrich's stories.

Enjoy The Art of the Wasted Day.

>40 BLBera: I think you'd like it, Beth. There are a lot of layers to it, and a lot of universality about questioning the choices (or non-choices) we make as women. Not to be exclusionary—I'd be interested to hear what some of the men here think—but I've only talked about it with cis women around my age.

>41 BLBera: It's fun so far. I like a rambling essay book (if it's not too long).



Jasper is happy that he survived the Fourth, which wasn't as bad as some years but still loud enough—we live in a neighborhood of fireworks lovers. Let me put in a plug for Sileo, a noise aversion med for dogs. That's pretty specific, right? Not sure how it works, but it must act on some kind of sound receptors... I could look it up, I guess. Anyway, we have enough for the rest of the week as people use up their stashes, though it's going to rain for a few days, which should put a literal damper on that.

>37 lisapeet: I'm adding it to my WL. It's great that there is medication to help dogs with fireworks. I'm going to mention it to my daughter.

>36 lisapeet: William’s eyes on those bubbles

Nice to see updates, Lisa, and your beautiful grandchild. Forbidden Notebook sounds terrific

Love the updates. Can't believe how big William is getting!