MMGM and #IMWAYR: Books that are gentle with your feelings!

(Y'all, I am so sorry if the post formatting is chaotic—Blogger is such a nightmare sometimes. Now for the post!)

I haven't been reading much lately, and it's kind of a funny reason why. I'd say I'm in a phase right now where I'm trying to feel some important feelings. And it's a balancing act between unearthing those feelings and processing them, and not letting them get in the way of my day-to-day life. (I think I'm scoring a solid 75 out of 100 on that balancing act, which I'm proud of!)

And the thing is, I haven't been reading books because I don't really want to feel anything! 👀 Now, that's definitely an exaggeration—my day-to-day experiences, and thoughts, and the music I listen to all bring up feelings, and I'm happy to feel those. But the idea of plunging myself into a whole emotional universe where I have to deal with someone else's feelings...just really doesn't sound appealing. I have enough feelings to keep busy with, thank you very much. 🤷‍♂️

So then I was trying to come up with a blog post idea, because I'm trying to blog consistently and stay connected with you all...which is hard when I'm not reading! And then I decided, I should make a list of books that are good for when you all maybe feel like I do! For when you're in a reading slump, or sad, or stressed, or trying to make it through, and you just really don't want to take on a whole big emotional burden. For when you want a comfort read, or something healing, or something that will just get that you're in that fragile place, and you need to be cared for.

So I've got a list for you all! With many caveats: It's a Goodreads gadget below because this was faster than torturing myself with images and links in Blogger. The books link to the Goodreads page, not my review, but you can search the book title on my blog and find my thoughts.

The books themselves fall into different groupings. Some, like K. O'Neill's books, lead with compassion, care, and healing, even in the face of pain. Others, like Lucy Knisley's Relish, are nonfiction or memoirs that are less emotional than a fiction story. And still others, like Tyler Feder's Dancing at the Pity Party, are quite obviously about difficult topics but bring either deep kindness, or plenty of humor, or both. I encourage you to research each book and make sure it's a good fit before you start it—or to fight me in the comments if you think I inadvertently picked a tear-jerker for this list! (Some of these I'm a little ambivalent about including myself, but what can you do?)

Also, most of these are graphic novels, unsurprisingly, but a few are not, because I pulled them from the entire history of my blog! (Shockingly, I wasn't always a massive graphic novel reader.) And they run the gamut from MG, to YA, to adult.

Behold, the list:

Books that are gentle with your feelings!

The Kidlit Lovers' Meetup!

We are now one week out from the first Kidlit Lovers' Meetup—I'm so excited!!! I keep checking the sign-up and seeing people I cannot wait to meet—it's going to be so good, y'all.

If you've missed my announcements before, the Kidlit Lovers' Meetups are a chance for us kidlit book bloggers and readers to get together on Zoom and talk about books, reading, blogging, and more. And the meetups will be on Sunday, June 23, 2024 from 5-6 PM Pacific, and Wednesday, July 24, 2024 from 4-5 PM Pacific.

You can RSVP for the June meetup here, and RSVP for the July meetup here. Or you can read more about the meetups in case you're curious!

If you're reading this post, you're part of the target audience for these meetups, so I really hope I'll have the chance to see you there!

Random thoughts:

I've been very into music lately. Billie Eilish came out with an album in May called HIT ME HARD AND SOFT that I absolutely love—it's emotional and confident and creepy and multifaceted and ugh so good.

I also reconnected with the music of one of my favorite bands, Frankie Cosmos—their lead singer and songwriter, Greta Kline, is one of the wisest people alive. Listen to "This Swirling" if you need a song.

Also, something I never talk about here is that I'm a huge nerd about old technology. (I used to read alarm clock instruction manuals for fun. I have a favorite alarm clock model—I have many, in fact. I have written poems about alarm clocks. It's a whole situation.) Sometimes my electronics interest veers into an all-consuming obsession, which is not ideal, but sometimes I can manage it and it's actually a healthy part of who I am! So fast-forward to now—I've been super-into older cameras. I pulled out my mom's 2003 camcorder, which has fade-in and fade-out effects! And picture filters! And titles! And cassettes! And I borrowed my grandmother's 2006 digital camera, which is so chunky and adorable and has a really well-designed menu system. And what's fun is, I actually really enjoy photography (see my inactive photography blog), so I can semi-obsessively nerd out about the cameras themselves, BUT ALSO use them to express myself creatively and get back into an old hobby that's actually good for me!

So those are my goings-on—if you have any goings-on or hobbies on your mind, share in the comments below!

That's all for today—y'all have a fabulous week full of good feelings! ✨✨