Michelle Athy's Blog, page 7

2019 Reading Challenge Stats

In 2019, I read 23 out of 20 books! And as every year, here are my stats. First, the last book I finished for this year: 23. Can't Escape Love (Reluctant Royals #2.6) by Alyssa Cole. Fiction/ Romance/Contemporary/Novella. 3 stars. Out of 23 books total, 5 were nonfiction. 3 were memoirs, two of them historical memoirs about Russian history. 1 was a sociology political book. 1 was a

2019 Reading Challenge Round Up

Well, I have surpassed my 2019 reading goal of 20 books, proving that you can, in fact, read things that are not graduate school related when you are in graduate school. Here are my final group of books for the year. Stay tuned next week for reading challenge stats! 17. A Prince on Paper (Reluctant Royals # 3) by Alyssa Cole. Romance/Contemporary Romance. 3 stars. 18. The Nordic Theory

Hey, Whatcha Reading? 5

This month, I asked a writing friend Tonja Drecker, "Hey, whatcha reading?" 1. What books are you currently reading? Right now, I'm readingLiving in a Star's Light (2019, self-published)by Steve Lindahl andStarlight: A Starlight Chronicles Novella (2019, The Parliament House)by J.B. Malcolm. I didn't realize how similar the titles are until I answered this question, but the two stories

British Pathé

I'm a nerd, so sometimes I go to YouTube, type in "Pathé," and off I go. Pathé was a newsreel company--so basically, they would shoot important people or events and those clips would be shown before films would start at the movies. I like BritishPathé because the narration is in English and because these films are from the early-to-mid twentieth century, the level of Clipped BBC Heightened RP

Code Switching

I think it was last week (time moves differently when you're in grad school). I was on the subway on the way to one of my classes, listening to a podcast which was an interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda. Y'all know how I feel about Hamilton and Lin's Twitter feed. If I ever run into him somewhere in Manhattan, I'll either be in complete shock or talk to him as if I know him, which will be awkward

Thanksgiving (or any other holiday) food!

Us Americans are gearing up for Thanksgiving this week, which means the start of the holiday season and massive amounts of food. Like, ma-hooo-sive amounts of food. Thanksgiving isn't a big deal in my family. For most of the last decade, it has been the day before I steeled myself to face the masses on Black Friday, working retail. We don't see extended family on Thanksgiving (last year, we saw

Hey, Whatcha Reading? 4

Hey, everyone, it's time for November's Hey, Whatcha Reading? This month, I asked my friend (and Friend to the Blog) Emily Edwards of the podcast Fuckbois of Literature what she's been reading. 1. What book(s) are you currently reading? For the show, I'm knee-deep in a few: Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL (to which the Muppets were *alarmingly* faithful), and two books by Bret Easton

My "Writing Archives"

My best friend and I have a running joke about my "writing archives" and how I'm leaving it up to her to figure out what to do with them. Don't forget about the Twitter and the blog and the ebooks while you're at it, Bestie. (Or did we decide that the digital stuff was Jessi's job? I don't remember.) She once noted: We need to figure out a way to retrieve your text messages, too. Me: So future

Writing Advice I Can't Stand Anymore

Writers read and hear a lot of advice. We seek it out in the beginning stages, unsure of what we're doing, hiving headlong into our imaginations--or outlining and being more methodical--and you come across a lot of advice. Let me tell you, some of this stuff may apply to you. Maybe you still seek out writing advice a lot; I don't. For a while, creative writing advice actively irritated me.

Ghostly Activity!

Happy Halloween, everyone! To mark the day, I asked around and gathered up some ghostly tales from various people.  First, my cousin Liz: Resurrection Mary is a story that originates in Chicago. The story goes that Mary, real name unknown to this day, went to a dance in a local ballroom in like the 1960s or 70s with her partner. Mary and the date got into a fight at this dance and