Films
- Blood Tea and Red String, Christiane Cegavske (2006) ♥︎ 🗘 I got to see a 20th anniversary theatrical screening of this with a Q&A with the director! Some of the puppets and props were even on display in the theater, and we got to see a sneak peek of Cegavske's current project, Seed in the Sand. I still feel the same way about this wonderful film as I did when I wrote a review of it in this zine. I think I actually liked it even more this time around.
- Jennifer's Body, Karyn Kusama (2009) ♥︎ 🗘
- Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, Ally Pankiw (2025) 🗘 Is it odd to rewatch a documentary? IDK, this is just such a comfort watch for me. God I wish I'd been there...
- Obsession, Curry Barker (2025). I don't feel as strongly about this one as everyone else seems to. I thought it was a really decent horror-blockbuster-of-the-summer. Eerie, sometimes funny, solid characters and storyline. I really felt for Nikki and what happens to her is devastating. Without spoiling it, I feel like they had two different ideas for an ending and tried to do them both but I think they should have just chosen one or the other. I'm a bit perplexed at how everyone I talk to is so enamored with this movie. It's the kind of thing that's a lot of fun to watch in the theater or with a group but I'm not really thinking about it much after the fact, y'know?
- The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson (2025). To paraphrase my Letterboxd review: I'm just really not in the mood these days to watch a redemption arc for a man who embodies the archetype of the colonial-capitalist. The protagonist in this film admits to being responsible for slave labor, famine, and war profiteering, and the audience never once sees the actual consequences of this, in favor of following this man's quirky antics and father-daughter bonding time. The issues are resolved with a newspaper headlines that flashes on screen for just a few seconds. I just don't find it as cute as I think Anderson wants me to. I've really enjoyed a lot of his recent movies and I think I'm even in the minority with Asteroid City being one of my favorites of his, but this one felt very paint-by-numbers for Anderson - a bit hollow, not real connective tissue between events. I felt nothing. It was just fine. I did really like the tableaus of the characters in the afterlife, though. And I'd like to see more of Mia Threapleton in the future.
"I am pursued down the empty streets at night by ghostly figures. Though I always run to the bakery, the door is locked, and the people inside never turn to look at me."
- Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, pg. 114.
Assigned Reading & Research for Personal Projects
- "Balancing Precision and Usability: Librarian Perspectives on Abstracting and Indexing Databases Versus Discovery Services in Academic Libraries," Mohammed M. AlHamad, Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 29, Issue 2 (2025), pg. 169-180.
- "Librarians' Roles in OER Authoring and Open Pedagogy: Lessons from the Field," Nancy A. Henke, Mark Anthoney, & Jennifer Burke Pierce, Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 29, Issue 1 (2025), pg. 73-82.
- "Cultural Humility in Libraries," David A. Hurley, Sarah Kostelecky, & Lori Townsend, Reference Services Review, Vol. 47, Issue 4 (2019), pg. 544-555.
- "Why the Current Model of Academic Publishing is Ethically Flawed - and What We Can Do to Change It," Emilia Kaczmarek, Journal of Scholarly Publishing, Vol. 56, Issue 4 (2025).
Books
- Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes (1966) ♥︎ Such a devastating book. Hurts just to think back on it. I expected the representation of mental disability to be questionable given when this was written, and there were definitely parts that I found iffy, but there were also points at which I was surprised at how sensitively the main character is portrayed. It's a mixed bag in that regard but overall feels genuine and effective in its critique of the urge to "perfect" the human being at the cost of invididuals', well, humanity. Plus, a genuinely horrifying psychological odyssey/descent.
- I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, Lorrie Moore (2023) The concept was intriguing but dear God this had some of the most obnoxious dialogue I've read in a really long time. I truly couldn't stand it. This is a short book but it felt like it lasted forever.
- The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Vol. 9-12, Housui Yamazaki & Eiji Otsuka (2008-2009) ♥︎ Finally continuing with this series! Still as enjoyable as ever. I always enjoy following these characters solve their wacky mysteries. Also the outfits are great lol.
- Pile Press, Issue 12, edited by Sarah Ann Harvey & April Hernandez (2026) ♥︎ My poem "Where I Live was published in here!! Not only that, my friend Abigail had a poem and a piece of short prose accepted into this issue (and they're really good). I swear I'm not biased when I say there's a lot of really good stuff in here, I genuinely love so many of these poems.
"So will we die of shock? / Die without a trial / Die on Good Friday / While holding each other tight / And this is kind of about you / And this is kind of about me / We just kind of lost our way / But we are looking to be free"
- PJ Harvey, "We Float"
Albums
- Chelsea Girl, Nico (1967) ♥︎
This one kinda snuck up on me as I listened. On the surface, it has a sort of sweet tone, but further listening - and especially attention paid to the lyrics - reveals something heartwrenchingly bleak. I'd heard "These Days" before and yeah, that song makes me cry every time. And the whole album, (though nothing else hits quite as hard as "please don't confront me with my failures / I had not forgotten them"), is sorta like that.
Favorite tracks: "These Days," "Winter Song," "I'll Keep It With Mine" - Dead Man's Party, Oingo Boingo (1985) ♥︎
My friends played this during a game night and now I'm an Oingo Boingo fan! How is this the first time I realized Danny Elfman was the lead singer??? Anyway, it's just so fun and had me shimmying in my seat.
Favorite tracks: "Just Another Day," "No One Lives Forever," "Same Man I Was Before" - Death in the Business of Whaling, Searows (2026) Vibe-y but not a lot of it stood out to me. EXCEPT "Dearly Missed," I am fucking obsessed with that song and have listened to it multiple times every day for the past two weeks.
- Miles in the Sky, Miles Davis (1968) When I want to listen to Miles Davis I usually just put on Bitches Brew so I don't think I'd ever heard this one before. It's very different from what I'm used to! A lot smoother and blends into the background a lot more. Pleasant but not really memorable or attention-grabbing to me.
- Rabbit EP, Coaltar of the Deepers (2018) "Dear Future" is a banger (iykyk). Everything else is kinda whateva.
- Ruins, Grouper (2014)
Very beautiful ambient work that kind of peters out in the final portion. Great for writing to.
Favorite tracks: "Lighthouse," "Clearing," "Call Across Rooms" - SAVED!, Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter (2023)
Not everything in here hit for me - some tracks felt more like they were there to set the tone than be songs in their own right - but when the songs hit? Fuck, they hit hard. I adore the way Hayter can create a ghost story out of adopting religious/apocalyptic imagery and musical motifs. Nobody does it quite like her!
Favorite tracks: "Idumea," "The Poor Wayfaring Stranger," "I Will Be With You Always" - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (1967) 🗘
Small bit of Sick Sad Library lore - one of my grandmas is a huge Beatles fangirl. I'm talking OG boy band fanatic. At her old house, there was an entire room dedicated to Beatles paraphernalia. (If you're curious, her bias is Paul McCartney lol). Anyway, there was a summer when I was maybe 9 or 10 that we went to visit her in Florida and we stayed with her for over a week, and I ended up hearing so much of The Beatles that my whole family genuinely couldn't stand listening to them for months afterward. The rest of my family recovered, but the overexposure left me Beatles-apathetic until only recently. I've been going through and listening to all of the CDs in my collection so I gave this another chance after so many years and... I don't know. Maybe I'm still suffering the effects of that summer, but I think maybe The Beatles just aren't my thing? Or at least many of the songs on this album. Most of them are a bit too... mmm, is cutesy the word? Saccharine? Sunshine-y? And they go on for a bit too long. Oh well.
Favorite tracks: "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!," "She's Leaving Home" - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, PJ Harvey (2000) ♥︎
So many earworms on this album, it has lodged itself firmly into my head. It's such an oddly hopeful and sweet album as well. I've had it on repeat!
Favorite tracks: "One Line," "We Float," "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore" - Twilight, Bôa (2001) 🗘 ♥︎
A certified Sick Sad Classic, as y'all may or may not know. Always listen to the US release titled Twilight instead of the original Race of a Thousand Camels, as this version has some essential extra tracks that this album simply isn't complete without imo ("Little Miss" and the gorgeous acoustic version of "Duvet.")
Favorite tracks: "Duvet," "Deeply," "Little Miss," "Fool," "Twilight"
Fragments
- In my manga & comics era!! Accumulating a bunch of comics from the library that are waiting in a stack while I finish the Kurosagi series. Next up will be A Guest in the House, Beautiful Darkness, and volume one of Pretty Deadly. I also have a craving to re-read at least my favorite volumes of The Wallflower. If anyone has any other recommendations, let me know!
- Our toilet broke but I fixed it!!! Honestly the hardest part was just tracking down the replacement pieces. Our toilet uses a float ball type of float valve, which is apparently an "outdated technology." All I needed was a replacement for the ball and the rod (this was what broke - the rod had corroded and the ball had snapped off completely) and it is not nearly as easy to find as I thought it would be. Had to buy it online which I usually try to avoid but it worked out this time. Actually replacing it was a walk in the park, though. I love fixing things, it always makes me feel so accomplished, even if it's something this simple!
- Honestly I've been feeling really grumpy this month. I don't like people very much and some days it feels like everything is complete and utter bullshit and I just don't want to deal with any of it. I can't wait to get out of public-facing work so that I can stop getting stuck in this hyper-speed autistic burnout loop. I'm so tired of having one day of high energy, spending it all on masking at work, and then being depressed, anxious, overwhelmed, misanthropic, exhausted, and otherwise miserable for the whole week after. There's gotta be a life for me that doesn't look like this... right?