Miss Clueless

How I yearn for personal space and time alone! Long stretches of time alone to do nothing else but think, read, be creative and create. At the moment, that's not happening. But I have been reading as much as I can within the time I have. And I am grateful for what I have, and I know my time will come. I read some pretty good books in September. In order of my liking, starting with the one I like most, here they are: Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (What a complete gem of a book!!🫶🏻) Circe by Madeline Miller The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison A Mercy by Toni Morrison Rosa Parks by Kristen Susieka The Cassandra Complex by Holly Smale Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison:  That feeling when you finish a book, think you've just read one of the best books ever, and know this is not the only time you'll read that book. Yup! I got that with Song of Solomon. I guess I have a thing for magical realism. But it's not just that. This book surprise...

 "When we are young, we think ourselves the first to have each feeling in the world." Not me. When I was young, it never occurred to me to think that way, or I don't remember now. But I can imagine how it can be true for others. By the way, this is a line from Circe by Madeline Miller, not the opening line. I've been reading books that are just there, available to me. But amid that, I felt like reading Circe, remembering a friend's recommendation from some time ago or maybe because I saw it mentioned in some Reddit thread.  Now I'm not well-versed in Greek mythology. It seems Circe is a side character in The Odyssey, which I have not read. But I very much prefer this retelling of the life of goddess Circe as the heroine of her own epic. I could relate to a few things here, learned a few things, or got reminded of things I was forgetting. I just love this kind of book. And no, I'm not going to write a review. Just some lines and my thoughts. "...in a s...

There was a time when we had seven to nine cats in our home. Now we have just three. All males. Yumleima, our last female cat, passed away on Aug 10th.  Rex, the rottweiler, is also gone. So unexpectedly. August is also the month we cut down all our bamboo. New things are coming up. Our home used to be surrounded by bamboo on two, almost three, sides. Most of it was cleared. But for a long time, we had a small bamboo grove in one corner. Now it's also gone. No more bamboo shades. Hotter now. Sad. I like having plants, trees, and bamboo around the house. Lots of them. Anyway, I read/listened to these books in August. Five are books I got from an Instagram bookstore giveaway. One is an audiobook. The No‑Show by Beth O’Leary Genre: Romance Three very different women discover they’ve all been ghosted by the same man and uncover unexpected emotional truths.  I liked the twist towards the end. Fun read. The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund‑Broka  Genre...

August has not been very kind. Our Rex died. 23rd August 2025. A seven-year-old healthy Rottweiler. He was never once sick. How did this happen? I am having a hard time believing he's gone.  Every day, after I wake up, I let him out to do his nature business. Within our walls. As usual, he did and came back. Then later in the morning, I went to feed him. I saw that he had vomited everywhere. But he looked okay. He came out, did his business again, and came back. I took him up to the porch and sat him down on the sunny side. I thought he was cold and having indigestion. But he kept getting up. So I moved him to the shaded area. He drank some water and sat. I went into the room and read for some time. While reading, I could hear the sound of his chain jingling. That was normal. Maybe he was scratching himself, causing the sound. Nothing new to cause concern. I finished the book and went out to check. What I saw was horrible. He was seizing. I thought it was that. He was lying on his ...

What books have I read in July? Let's see. 1. The Indispensable Zinn, Howard Zinn 2. A Livable Future is Possible, Noam Chomsky, C.J.  Polychroniou 3. Manufacturing Consent, Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky 4. History of Manipur Pre-Colonial Period, Gangmumei Kamei 5. Rebel India, Henry Noel Brailsford 6. Rainbow Valley, L.M. Montgomery The Indispensable Zinn is a curated collection of Howard Zinn's most influential writings. The book highlights his lifelong commitment to social justice, anti-war activism, and grassroots democracy. It includes selections from A People's History of the United States and his speeches, essays, and personal reflections. He made a powerful case for ordinary people as agents of change in history, which is exactly the kind of thing I want to read, learn, and get inspired by. I'm very glad I picked this up. A Livable Future is Possible is a series of interviews with Noam Chomsky conducted by journalist C.J. Polychroniou (sounds like a chemical su...

 Scrolling through Instagram, I was seeing clips of a debate where one guy was openly declaring himself a fascist and laughing out loud; another guy was not answering a straight question of whether or not Israeli snipers shooting Palestinian children in the head was the fault of Israel. Instead, he tried to justify that those children may not be innocent. Seriously!! They were CHILDREN, for goodness' sake!!! Then there's another guy saying, White people are Native Americans. 🙄 These are actually clips from a YouTube debate titled "1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives (ft. Mehdi Hasan). Of course, I watched the entire thing straight. I have to say Mehdi Hasan is excellent at what he does. So satisfying to watch. I felt bad when the guy with the pink shirt and white cap told him, "Get the hell out." I am not surprised, though. I know these people exist. Racist, fascist, privileged white supremacists who do not accept that people of color can be Americans an...

 It's 3:23 am, Friday the 27th of December, 2024. I am up because I had a bad dream. I tried going back to sleep, but I felt that I should write down how I was feeling. Perhaps I will feel a little better or more relieved after doing that. I don't know whether the way we left off our phone conversation or the news about the total shutdown had anything to do with the dream. I mean, we didn't finish our conversation on good footing. We nearly, no! We most certainly raised our voices. And there was news about the shutdown, which was a reason for some panic.  So, in the dream, I was in a big lecture hall with benches & seats on big steps. There were many people. The person beside me was just telling me to be careful, more like hide my face, because I, with two other people (I didn't know who they were), looked a bit like Kukis. (I mean, what?! How did this even pop up in my dream, huh!?) He said that we were more susceptible to attacks, so it's better to be safe and...