3. "The soul is thicker in winter."
Bluesky, Nina's MacLaughlin's Winter Solstice, what our bookshelves say about us, and two books that are currently helping me to write
Dearest reader,
No, you haven’t accidentally stumbled upon a Lady Whistledown bulletin (though I wish Julie Andrews narrated this newsletter, don’t you?). It was a very close friend’s wish that I begin one of my upcoming issues this way—Fabian, I hope you’re happy 😉.
Now, there is one tiny bit of admin that I’d like to get out of the way before I dive into today’s issue. For those of you who are subscribed to the newsletter with a Gmail account, does the new issue arrive in your primary inbox or in promotions/social? And has it changed from earlier?
I’ve had some say that they’d missed it because it suddenly started appearing in a non-primary tab and I wanted to know your experience, so I can perhaps troubleshoot, if needed.
Blue butterflies are better than former birds
I am now on Bluesky.
I’d already received an invite from my sister months ago, but if I’m honest, it was mostly a combination of lethargy and sheer laziness to set up yet another social media account that I left it as long as I did. What finally pushed me was a near-mass-exodus of my Arsenal community to there from X, formerly known as Twitter. And it is when I started interacting on there that it struck me just how much I’d missed the sustaining social interaction that had characterised the glorious early years of my Twitter experience starting 2012. It also struck me how much I’d been avoiding checking the app or posting with any regularity for months now, because it’s now (and has been getting for a while) unrecognisable in the worst possible way. For now, I’m still keeping my account on there but won’t be actively posting.
There is a little sadness. After all, the below will always remain true, no matter how toxic the space has gotten—
I am still getting my bearings, but, so far, Bluesky, though not without its lacks as a new and evolving platform, has been wonderful in so many ways, and I hope we can keep it that way for a long time (I’m choosing to not pay attention to the voice at the back of our head that whispers about how each new social platform goes through this cycle and so on and so forth).
If you are on Bluesky and want to follow me, here’s where you can do so.
https://bsky.app/profile/anushreenande.bsky.social
Lighting up the darkness
How is everyone feeling on this first day of the last month of yet another year? Mild panic, existential dread and reflection, still needing to watch The Wild Robot, Wicked and Gladiator 2, and a plethora of all the good stuff? Yep, me too.
Jokes aside (though I wasn’t strictly in jest earlier), December lends itself to a natural inwardness, even as “the wheel of the year spins on”. One that is, of course, easier to embrace if you have the weather to set the stage. For example, in Massachusetts, where “darkness makes its annual inhale of light” and Nina MacLaughlin wrote Winter Solstice (you can read our chat from last year here). In Mumbai, where we’re lucky if the temperatures fall below 25 degrees for a few hours a day for a few weeks (like now), it’s more of a mental shift, and yet it is something that arrives every single time without fail. This year it crept up on me in November, stirring the “salted fog of grief” that has collected over the past year, the past few years, even. And, so, today, I want to talk more about this lyric essay that I see myself returning to every winter.
“Winter invites a turning in, a quieting, an upped interiority. It’s dark in there. How deep in the well will you go? Will you be able to find your way out? Time will tell. For now, right now, here we are.”
An assertion—a reminder—of aliveness. And, along with it, a reminder to embrace harder the strength and the fragility, both ours and yours, the fears deep down in the darkest places; to bear witness to “the glowing strands that connect us to who and what has come before”, the strands that glow brightest when the light outside is at its lowest. The magic of the incomprehensible unsaid.
“We stand in the dark with strands of light between us. Feel the warmth, the heat, the glow, it's ours to know. I want to give it name and say it to you, but I don't know the words. The soul doesn't let us know, not all the way. We flail and give name to simpler needs. Come. Come closer. Here, sit. Get warm. Do you want honey in your tea? We'll share an orange.”
As with her equally gorgeous Summer Solstice (read about it here along with some of my personal ruminations on nostalgia), Nina softly beckons us in, even as she asks us, once we’re settled on the sofa, who we would invite in on the longest night of the year and what visitors would arrive. She reminds us, even as she thins the veil between us and the ancient, that even though winter begins on the solstice, it already “carries with it, in its large felt sack, the return of the sun”. And she lays bare on the page with an eloquent, brave, luminous vulnerability.
Winter Solstice is a meditation and a celebration of every aspect of winter, from the meteorological to the mythological, by a masterful essayist.
Winter Solstice*
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Summer Solstice*
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US readers*
The trajectory of taste
Now, onto a lighter meditation. As always, this is the time of year I start compiling my best reads of the year list (the list will be included in my final issue of the year on December 29). It usually coincides with my annual bookshelf cull, when I first go through all the physical books I have to see how many I still want to keep—and this includes the ones I haven’t yet read—before going through my Storygraph want-to-read list and doing the same. It helps keep matters somewhat manageable.
I’ve previously written about why I reread and how it allows me to access all my past selves and understand myself better in the present—https://anushreenande.substack.com/i/127297678/rereading-a-micro-essay—but this year is the first year I’ve really thought about how looking back over all the books I’ve read so far also offers a real-time development of my taste, and in turn a window into my life, my mind, my beliefs, and my personality at any given point. Though, of course, it’s only through deeper conversations about the books and what their particular appeal is to us that we can make any truthful connections between story and person, but it’s all there if we so choose to analyse.
What do your bookshelves (physical and digital) say about you, do you think? And does anyone want to make a few guesses about mine through the books I talk about on the newsletter? You can also take a look at my instagram here, even if just to ogle the pretty book photos:
https://www.instagram.com/anushreenande
I’m going to be sharing more about changing selves and tastes in relation to writing in the next issue, so stay tuned!
Which brings me nicely to…
Two complementary writing guides
Last week I started Steering the Craft: A 21st Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by the legend herself, Ursula K. Le Guin. Each chapter comes with her thoughts on different areas of craft, prescribed writing exercises, and a variety of reading excerpts from writers she loves. It’s meant to read slowly, with each writing exercise given the time and care it demands, even if it’s a no-editing-free-write with a time limit, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, as I start planning the novel I have in my head (more on that in due course). I shall report back as and when—maybe even share some of my output for the writing exercises if there’s enough interest.
I had started Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg in tandem, as I’d read that this book, which brings together Zen meditation and writing, was less “how to” and more a book that you read when you need to be reminded of how and why you write and why it’s worth it, when you need to refresh a perhaps jaded approach to the world. And while it did get a little too repetitive and New-Age-y the longer it went on, it did make me want to immediately sit down and put pen to paper. Feverishly so. What more can I ask for?
Steering the Craft*
Writing Down the Bones*
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Before I close out this issue, I wanted to share this lovely (and very timely) article by Molly Templeton that I read in the week. It’s titled “It’s a Really Good Time to Get Loud About the Books You Love” and has a range of ways to act, if you so wish—and I hope you do, because what would we do without good books?
Full article here: https://reactormag.com/its-a-really-good-time-to-get-loud-about-the-books-you-love
Okay, okay, there’s actually one more thing I wanted to share with you today. It won’t take long, I promise, and I hope many of you in similar positions take on board this suspiciously simple yet so important reminder that I really needed to hear right now.
Anyway, remember how, in the previous issue, I spoke about my struggles with separating out personal and work reading?
I received a lovely response from one of the many delightful people I’d never have met if not for the internet. Michael Joll, a fellow Gooner (though we found that out after we crossed paths through the Commuterlit community), is a writer from Canada. In fact, my first-ever blurb was for his collection of short stories, Perfect Execution (and Other Short Stories) and I was honoured to be asked. This is what I had to say—From San Francisco to Barbados to Calcutta to Ontario and beyond, this collection takes you through time and history with fresh, delicate turns of prose, surprise twists and engrossing stories with images that stay with you beyond the page.
Michael’s advice?—“Read for fun, otherwise it’s just work.”
So I’m off to do just that!
If you’ve enjoyed today’s issue, here’s a few things you can do:
click on the heart to like it
turn this into a conversation by leaving a comment below or dropping me a line via email, even just to say hi—I always love hearing from you 😊
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And of course, send me your recommendations and tell me what you’d like me to write about next! Let me know what you’re currently reading and watching, send me rants/ramblings/excited monologues, GIFs and memes (especially them). 🤓
Take care and I’ll see you next on December 15!
Anu
You can find me on Bluesky at @anushreenande (yep I finally created an account and I’m really enjoying it—my Twitter remains online so far but I’m not actively posting on there anymore) and on Instagram at @anushreenande. You can support my work at https://buymeacoffee.com/anushreenande.
*the book buying links I share on here are affiliate links, which means that if you make any purchases through those links, I will receive a small commission from the sale at no additional cost to you.
I love re-reading, too. I always read with a pen so I can see what I valued on a first, second, or third reading. Thank you so much for including Miss Morgan's Book Brigade! xo
Dear Anu, an excellent read as usual. The musings about winter are a bit alien to those of us living in Mumbai. For me personally winter means shifting from half-sleeved shirts to full-sleeved ones. 😊 Best wishes.