Plot Points #98 💌

Victorian orphan girls, crooked branches, analysis paralysis, and Wuthering Heights

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A Scene on the Ice by Hendrick Avercamp

Hi friends! Happy Friday and welcome.

It has been a pretty quiet week here, but there’ve been some fun developments, too. I got hired for a self-publishing project, Lucy’s playing softball again, and winter break is next week. We’ll be doing a whole lot of nothing for it, but I am planning a family trip for spring break in April. I love to plan vacations: the thrill of a bargain, the search for the perfect stay…I totally nerd out. I’m trying not to rush winter, but I won’t lie and say I’m not looking forward to a sunny day at the beach one day soon!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for spending some of your time with me today,

Wendi

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Word of the Week ✍🏻

Zabernism: (n.) The misuse of military power or authority; bullying; aggression.

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Point #1: Analysis Paralysis is real.

As a Mother Academic who finds great joy in running down rabbit trails, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by just how much there is to learn…and how much of it I’ll never be able to do. Kerri Christopher understands the struggle of being paralyzed by options, and she has some great insight into how we can handle the “Coulds” of life.

What If Everything You Could Do Is Stopping You From Actually Doing Anything?

Point #2: In another life, I was a Victorian orphan girl.

If some of your favorite books include Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, or Little Women, Eurydice has the perfect reading list for you!

Friday Post: Victorian Orphan Girl Novels

Point #3: Keep the door to magic open.

Why do fairy tales still matter, even when we’re grown up? What do they have to teach us that, perhaps, we couldn’t learn as children? In her latest essay, Mariella Hunt writes that “We are never truly finished growing” and, like Lewis before her, I think she has a point.

On Becoming Old Enough for Fairy Tales

Point #4: The world has so much beauty.

They were robbed of the gold medal—ROBBED! I TELL YOU—but Madison Chock and her husband Evan Bates are still winners in my book.

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Reading in The Nook 📚

I got about halfway through Emily Henry’s Great Big, Beautiful Life this past week and DNF’ed it. One reviewer wrote that it was like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo from Temu, and—while savage—I have to say I agree. The one great thing about Henry’s latest novel is that it’s clearly set on Tybee Island, one of my favorite places in the whole world and where my family and I vacation every summer. The Georgia island is called Little Crescent in the book, but Henry describes a bunch of my favorite locations on Tybee in detail, so that was lots of fun to read even if the plot was meh and the characters were dry as cardboard.

The other book I finished, however, was extraordinary. The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins is the story of two mothers—one living in Ireland during the Great Famine and one in present-day Queens, NY—who are distantly related and connected by their own harrowing experiences of motherhood. I’ve never seen someone write about the emotional violence and beauty of being a mom like Cummins does here. It’s a stunning book.

I’m also reading Wuthering Heights for the very first time, and, as I mentioned in my Notes this week, Cathy Earnshaw is absolutely the worst. (I don’t actually know how this tragic, toxic romance ends, so please no spoilers!)

What are you reading right now? 👇🏻

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“You owe it to all of us to get on with what you’re good at.”

—W.H. Auden—