tag:dreamwidth.org,2015-12-06:2468865 windinthemaples windinthemaples 2015-12-14T23:52:57Z tag:dreamwidth.org,2015-12-06:2468865:725892 2015-12-14T23:52:57Z 2015-12-14T23:52:57Z public 0 This week, the <a href="http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/12/11/best-books-teens-2015">New York Public Library released their Top 10 favorite YA books of 2015 list</a> and it included my best friend and high school savior, Shaun's, anthology <i>Violent Ends</i>. (Huzzah!) The library also compiled a list of their 51 favorite YA reads of the year, with all kinds of searchable filters. It was great fun to navigate through. I'm trying to outwait an uncomfortable headcold, so this was perfect timing to find some new books to read. <br /><br />Based on my interest in historical fiction with female protagonists, it steered me towards <i>The Hired Girl</i> by Laura Amy Schlitz and <i>The Wrath and the Dawn</i> by debut author Renee Ahdieh. I've been quite happy with the recommendations!<br /><br />How do you keep up with new releases or decide what to read next? Are there any websites you follow that I should know about? I use a massively imprecise system of word-of-mouth, cover-art-snap-judgements, and chance encounters at the book store. There must be a better way! :)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=windinthemaples&ditemid=725892" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments tag:dreamwidth.org,2015-12-06:2468865:725493 2015-12-09T20:33:33Z 2015-12-10T02:07:56Z public 4 <b>Why I'm Here and Not There</b><br />You may wonder why my entire journal teleported over to Dreamwidth. It is a long story, I guess, that I don't know if I have the right to share with any great detail. What I can say is that two years ago, I had a terrible fight with someone I love and respect a tremendous amount. Both of us were hurt by it and our relationship has been altered by it. What I learned in an email this week, though, is that she is still greatly wounded by that phone call and the experiences that led to it...so much that seeing me or reading about me on social media was leading her to continually relive that sense of heartbreak and betrayal and hurt. <i>And, you know, that's about the worst thing I could hear about someone I love that much.</i> The years on LiveJournal have knitted a complicated tapestry of friends and mutual friends that has spilled over onto all kinds of platforms--Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Facebook, Good Reads, blogs--all parts of the social glue of my long-distance friendships. I'm everywhere and connected to so many of her people, her support system, that secretly feeling this way for this long must have been pretty unbearable. And it is weird, too, because I'm left wondering who my true friends are in the midst of all this bottled bad feeling. Were they both hating and loving me all this time, too? I don't know. What I do think, though, is that the only thing I can do, beyond the apologies I've sent for the pain I've caused (intentionally or not), is to give her some space without me in it. I've deleted my LJ, my Twitter, and my Instagram presence. I've moved here to an out-of-the-way corner on Dreamwidth. I'd rather my friendship be an 'opt-in' sort of thing instead of a 'there's no nice way to unfriend Rachel and I don't want to hurt her after all the history we've had'.<br /><br />It really sucks, though. I have this mental image that there was a land mine and someone's leg is shattered and hanging on with shreds of skin and muscle and ligaments. Like, there's no repairing that damned leg and it is hurting you with every step and it has been for two years. I've been that lower leg and I needed to be amputated and all this time I just didn't know. <br /><br />So that's what's brought me here to Dreamwidth.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=windinthemaples&ditemid=725493" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments