"With grace of alacrity towards the mirror gilt Cantrell and Cochrane's she turned herself. With grace she tapped a measure of gold whisky from her crystal keg. Fourth from the skirt of his coat Mr Dedalus brought pouch and pipe. Alacrity she served." -- Ulysses, James Joyce #reading

Pitching a movie to Pixar about the "whees!" born from every popped cork of champagne. Kids are gonna love it.

"Her secrets: old feather fans, tasselled dancecards, powdered with musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. A birdcage hung in the sunny window of her house when she was a girl." -- Ulysses, James Joyce #reading

I want Netflix to start releasing new cuts of movies made for people who actually watch them without looking at their phones. 90 minutes tops. The "I Pay Attention" Cut.

If you, like me, want to keep abreast of issues, interests, and creative ideas coming out of a mostly diasporic Latinx community this list is for you. Some of the most interesting content I get in my feed comes from writers here.

"Endless, would it be mine, form of my form? Who watches me here? Who ever anywhere will read these written words? Signs on a white field." -- Ulysses, James Joyce #reading

I'm sure Joyce intended these reading conditions.

"Many people are honest simply because they’re fools." -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky #reading

How it went in June. I finished only one book in June but read many pages of The Brothers Karamazov. July is devoted to Ulysses. That's right, my time has come. This year's Summer Reading Project 2026 is Joyce's mostly unread masterpiece. You'll be seeing my highlighted quotes soon.

"If Shakespeare had never existed, he asked, would the world have differed much from what it is today? Does the progress of civilization depend upon great men? Is the lot of the average human being better now than in the time of the Pharaohs?" -- To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf #reading

"“No, not really repentant, don’t write that down. I’m not good myself, gentlemen, that’s the thing, I’m not so beautiful myself, and therefore I had no right to consider him repulsive, that’s the thing. Perhaps you can write that down.”" -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky #reading

I love checking out what other people are reading, especially when they have great taste, so I made this list of some of my fav readers who stay on top of what's new and must read in the world of upmarket and lit fiction.

"You see, gentlemen,” Mitya frowned, “it seems to me that you have no right to question me about my feelings. You are empowered, I understand that, but this is my business, my inner business, an intimate thing, but …" -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky #reading

"All of us here, if I may be so bold as to express myself on behalf of all, all of us are prepared to recognize you as a young man who is noble in principle, though one, alas, carried away by certain passions to a somewhat inordinate..." -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky #reading

The USMNT is looking very strong so far in this cup. We have some real stars on the team. Shout out to my Cottagers bringing up the rear!

"They live only for mutual envy, for pleasure-seeking and self-display." -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky #reading

"Miusov and Ivan Fyodorovich were already entering the Superior’s rooms when a sort of delicate process quickly transpired in Pyotr Alexandrovich, a genuinely decent and delicate man: he felt ashamed of his anger." -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky #reading

I made a list of some of my favorite accounts with aspiring writers actively working to get their voices heard. These writers are querying, publishing, and posting about works-in-progress.

I regret not spending more time on my day moves.

"“There is no immortality either.” “Not of any kind?” “Not of any kind.” “Complete zero? Or is there something? Maybe there’s some kind of something? At least not nothing!” “Complete zero.” “Alyoshka, is there immortality?” “There is.”" -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky #reading

I had to say goodbye to my old friend Uma on Monday. She was my dog for 14 years. Though I know she lived a long and happy life I'm still devastated. The house is empty without her.

"He glowered, clenched his teeth, his fixed stare seemed to become still more fixed, more intent, more terrible … Which made it all the more unexpected when, with inconceivable swiftness, his face,..." -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky Richard Pevear Larissa Volokhonsky #reading

"What’s shame for the mind is beauty all over for the heart. Can there be beauty in Sodom? Believe me, for the vast majority of people, that’s just where beauty lies—did you know that secret?" -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky Richard Pevear Larissa Volokhonsky #reading

It appears the death of the midlist may be erroneous but don't worry, novelists still have it bad (worse). therepublicofletters.substack.com/p/how-publis...

How it went in May

"A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn’t it?" -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky Richard Pevear Larissa Volokhonsky #reading

"In most cases, people, even wicked people, are far more naive and simple-hearted than one generally assumes. And so are we." -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky Richard Pevear Larissa Volokhonsky #reading

The One Tree Hill theme song just violently interrupted my day again. Are we a syndrome? youtu.be/8gFCW3PHBws?...

"While he walked up the drive and Lily Briscoe said yes and no and capped his comments (for she was in love with them all, in love with this world) he weighed Ramsay’s case, commiserated him, envied him, as if he had seen him divest himself of..." -- To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf #reading

"and then, with a natural instinct to complete the picture, after this swift movement, both of them looked at the dunes far away, and instead of merriment felt come over them some sadness—because the thing was completed partly, and partly..." -- To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf #reading

Is anyone else watching Widow's Bay? I really hope so. It is far and away my favorite show right now.

I started diagramming sentences to show something to my son. He has since drifted off to another room (happened quickly if you can believe it) and I'm still diagramming because it's so fun!

"Never did anybody look so sad. Bitter and black, halfway down, in the darkness, in the shaft which ran from the sunlight to the depths, perhaps a tear formed; a tear fell; the waters swayed this way and that, received it, and were at rest." -- To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf #reading

How it's going so far in May.

"In a moment he would ask her, “Are we going to the Lighthouse?” And she would have to say, “No: not tomorrow; your father says not.” Happily, Mildred came in to fetch them, and the bustle distracted them." -- To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf #reading

My friend Simon is a comedian and truly one of the funniest people I know. Just naturally hilarious. Watch him. youtu.be/Qi0iE5zPy9s?...

"How then did it work out, all this? How did one judge people, think of them? How did one add up this and that and conclude that it was liking one felt, or disliking? And to those words, what meaning attached, after all?" -- To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf #reading

I pass by this dentist office every week and I still can't believe it's real. Don't change your name. Stay true to your Poo!

"What Tyler really thought was that the dead were so absolutely beyond anything the living might do for them it was almost past comprehension and he had no commitment to meet anyone anywhere." -- Twilight, William Gay #reading

"Well there’s one sure way to tell if Fenton Breece was lyin, Harris said. Did you happen to notice if his mouth was movin?" -- Twilight, William Gay #reading

"All so long ago. The old man from his house used to hear the cries of revelry. Love or what passed for it in these regions, old rivalries brought to fruition. The music from their dances, like dispatches from a world he’d forsaken or it him." -- Twilight, William Gay #reading

"I don’t know you. I don’t know where you go when you’re wandering around. What you think. No one’s ever known what you think. You get what you think out of a book." -- Twilight, William Gay #reading

A little review of Provinces of Night but I am not finished with William Gay by a long shot. I just started his debut, Twilight, and it is every bit as impressive. www.adrianasturalvarez.com/provinces-of-night/

"Before he knew it blue dawn light was fading out and the day began to gather itself out of the darkness. In the east a reef of salmoncolored clouds was rimlit by a bright metallic color he had no name for." -- Provinces of Night: A Novel, William Gay #reading

"’m goin where the climate suits my clothes, the song said, not saying the frustration and despair that created it, saying that in the sheer lonesomeness of the sound, in the old man’s driving banjo." -- Provinces of Night: A Novel, William Gay #reading

"Light through an intricate wickerwork of branches moved and swayed, moved and swayed. Light and shadow latticed together moved endlessly on the earth and she stared at it, thinking for a time that she could divine pattern there, order." -- Provinces of Night: A Novel, William Gay #reading

It's Bolaño's 13th birthday today! The Cake: egg, peanut butter, apples, baking soda.

How it's going so far in April (to the surprise of absolutely no one who follows me). Expect a newsletter post about Provinces of Night next week.

"Landmarks rose out of memory. A stump, a tree. The way a horizon held against the heavens. Here we lost my shoes one time, had to backtrack a mile and a half to find them. The pale shoe box against the drifted leaves." -- Provinces of Night: A Novel, William Gay #reading

"There was something mystic about crossroads, they doubled the options, confused both pursuer and pursued. He didn’t know which he was, and after a while he made a pillow of the magazines and slept this night at the crossroads." -- Provinces of Night: A Novel, William Gay #reading