Day 4
Started Today On: Page 86
“The hardest thing about writing is getting it in every day, breaking through the membrane.”
That is the opening sentence on today’s first page. The same could be said for reading today.
Grief takes a front seat in the following chapters. Our protagonist, Casey, begins to visit her local library with the goal of researching Cuba and reads into writers and their “dead mothers“.
“During the time my mother was out West, I did some of the same sort of rearranging of objects that I do now after writing sometimes. I always had to put on my right shoe, then the left. I could never leave a shirt inside out. If I followed the rules, my mother would definitely come back from Phoenix.”
Mourning becomes a topic that resembles Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, and I’m brought back to the 1st of January.
“When I was visiting her a few years ago she hugged me and said, ‘Tomorrow after you leave I will stand here at this window and remember that yesterday you were right here with me.’ And now she’s dead and I have that feeling all the time, no matter where I stand.”
Page 88
It was this year’s first Book Club pick, and 2026 began with unexpected reflection. One I wasn’t ready to revisit today. Many of you already know that we kicked off the new year with tears and shame on my end, for misunderstanding the title.
By page 92, after 2 chapters and 6 pages, I decided to put the book down. I simply didn’t have the energy to read the kind of words that I tend to dedicate my entire presence to. I promised myself to keep every post full of transparency and honesty, to track a true look into an ordinary person’s varied relationship with a passion that I don’t want to be half-involved in.
Started Today On: Page 86
Ended On: Page 92
Pages Read Today: 6
I have some time to spare while I wait for an event tomorrow, and I hope to finally get some reading in. I’m really hoping I can get 40 pages in as I sit on some bench in the sun.
Read you in the comments!
In Between the Lines
Leave a Reply