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Richard Gay's avatar

I find your prose (in your blogs, I haven't read your book yet, shame on me) very evocative, and I look forward to every post.

Winter is a small jubilee against all the demands of the warmer months.

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Antonia Malchik's avatar

That's such a compliment! Truly. And it won't kill me if people don't read my book; my spouse has never read it and probably never will and that's just fine.

So many people here complain about the cold, snow, or gray (to be fair it can be *very* gray for long periods) and it makes me a bit sad for them that they can't seem to let it just fill them up.

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Chris La Tray's avatar

Congrats to you and your mom! In similar news, I secured a vaccine not only for myself tomorrow morning, but I got one for my mom as well, and hers is for today. I'm pretty happy about it.

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Antonia Malchik's avatar

I am so glad to hear that! My mom's is for today, too. Big vaccine-y bear hugs all around.

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Greg Davis's avatar

The "hush and pause." Yes, this. And thanks for so many book/video/essay suggestions!

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Antonia Malchik's avatar

I actually thought of you as I was reading Autumn Light, Greg :) It's one of the few things I've read over the last few years that didn't just *talk* about the importance of pulling back attention to the world around us, but managed to move my mind to do just that. It's light and lovely but also talks about the really fundamental difficulties of life -- losing those we love, one way or another.

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Chris La Tray's avatar

I started reading that book when it first came out and then went through a deep crash into resenting people of privilege, so I abandoned it. I should probably take another stab at it.

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Antonia Malchik's avatar

I think it depends on where you are. He's a mentor of mine, so reading this feels like spending time with him in person and I'm not sure how I'd receive it differently without that. Privilege gets under my skin in a big way but he's such a kind and generous person himself that it mitigates it for me. It's kind of a big shift for me because I used to love travel writing so much, but by now he's about the only travel or travel-adjacent writer I can stomach except maybe Kate Harris. There is a fair bit in this one about his Japanese in-laws' experiences of World War II, which is a perspective I hadn't read before.

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Greg Davis's avatar

Thanks, Antonia; I just requested a copy from my indie bookseller and look forward to reading it. To be able to turn toward these issues, as opposed to suppressing them, is, in the long run for us all, a good thing.

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