Tuesday Slice: Comfort

"What are you doing?" my husband asks.  "Looking for a book," I replied, sifting through the dusty stacks by the couch, "I bought in in August..."

"That makes it even funnier," he said, chuckling at me.  I am blessed with a husband who tolerates my ever-growing TBR piles.  

"I didn't have time to read it then, and then I wanted to re-read the first book before reading this one, and I just finished the first one again...here it is!"  I pulled the slightly dusty hardback out from under two other books and tossed it on the bed for my send-off to la-la land.

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I am reading again, just like I am writing again.  I avoided quite a bit of both during the last half of 2024. I blame overconsumption of social media; exhausting changes to my job and the overwhelming, almost constant pondering of retirement; the election; and an overall negative attitude.  With a short attention span and a base desire not to add more pessimism to cyberspace, I bowed out of my reading life and my writing community.  Oh, I still read kidlit for my job, managing to push through a middle grade novel here and there, but the stamina was gone.  Laying on the couch to read usually resulted in a nap instead of a book coma, no matter how good the material.

Now, I am turning to books for escape.  I just finished re-reading The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune; its companion, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, is waiting for me to finally crack it open tonight.  Another series I read chapter by tender chapter was Becky Chambers' Monk and Robot.  I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment of that hope-filled, thought-provoking sci-fi story.

The Cerulean Sea series carries a strong message about overcoming fear of "the other", making room for everyone in this magical world for the betterment of us all.  Monk and Robot is a futuristic view of what life could be like if all of our basic needs were met through communal sharing, leaving us free to contribute what brings us joy.  Is it any wonder that both authors happen to be queer, writing about the need for acceptance in a kinder, gentler world?  Isn't that what we all want?

I'm off to bed, to drown out the current horrific political chatter by burying myself in a book, hoping that someday in the not too distant future, our world will look a bit more like the one I find between the covers.