![]() The second section, “Found,” tells the story of how Schulz fell in love with her wife, Casey Cep, only a few months before her father would die, while the last section, “And,” acknowledges the queasy coexistence of both joy and suffering. It’s an expansion of a 2017 essay she wrote that’s about both her and her father’s penchant for losing things as well as a larger meditation on loss more generally. The first section of the book, “Lost,” charts the capricious nature of Schulz’s grief, the way it manifests as profound irritation, even boredom. In 2016, Schulz’s father, a gregarious Jewish refugee who spoke six languages and eventually became a successful lawyer, died. This memoir by a New Yorker staff writer is a moving story about grief and love in equal measure. I initially listened to this on audio, and while I enjoyed the audiobook, I’m asking for a print copy on my own Christmas list so I can easily refer back to the activity ideas and question prompts. Hawthorne also makes sure to be inclusive of queer and disabled families. What I love most about this book is the numerous lists of questions and prompts to discuss with children divided by age categories and the list of activity ideas. For instance, in the “Healthy Bodies” section, Hawthorne describes how food desserts disproportionally affect BIPOC communities and how to discuss food choice and inaccessibility with children. In each section, Montessori educator and advocate Hawthorne examines how topics affect BIPOC communities, how to discuss key racially charged topics with children in age-appropriate ways, and how to actively support BIPOC communities as a parent. It’s divided into four sections: healthy bodies, radical minds, conscious shopping, and thriving communities. This fantastic parenting resource provides lots of actionable ideas for raising antiracist children. It’s also a great entry point into Limón’s poetry.- M.K. It’s a beautiful and accessible collection that fans of Mary Oliver will enjoy. Why / can’t I just love the flower for being a flower? / How many flowers have I yanked to puppet / as if it were easy for the world to make flowers.” Some poems are wistful, others filled with grief and sadness, and still more are sensual explorations of love, but each connects back to nature and Limón’s tendency to be the hurting kind, the kind of person who cries easily, who makes herself, perhaps, too vulnerable. “I am always superimposing / a face on flowers,” she says in her poem “In the Shadows.” “It is what we do in order to care for things, make them / ourselves, our beloveds, our unborn. Despite Limón’s constant need to place meaning on the natural world, she observes that it is ultimately indifferent to this need and to the meanings she attempts to carve out of it as she grapples with her personal traumas. US Poet Laureate Limón divides her most recent stunning poetry collection into seasons, where in each season, the natural world instigates reflections on the personal, while the personal shapes the landscape. Their differences may cause the dissolution of not only their quartet but also of the HMRC itself. ![]() However, the civil war has caused all four to change in the intervening years, and what Helena fears, Niamh learns to love. Now they join again after a prophecy predicts a young warlock will wreak destruction even more violent than the civil war. These four were once united as girls learning how to practice magic. ![]() Much to Helena’s disgust, Leonie has started her own coven of BIPOC witches, while Elle pretends to be a mundane housewife. ![]() Helena, now the High Priestess of HMRC, lost her husband, as did Niamh, who has abandoned the HMRC for a quiet life as a vet. The HMRC emerged victorious, and witches and warlocks continue to hide their identities, though everyone involved paid a hefty price. Years earlier, the HMRC was divided by a bloody civil war over whether witches and warlocks should dominate mundanes or remain in hiding. Established by Elizabeth I, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, or HMRC, is a secret coven of witches in the UK who hide their identity from mundanes. This incredibly fun and super-queer first book in an adult contemporary fantasy trilogy is perfect for readers devastated by a certain popular British fantasy author’s anti-trans statements.
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