Laura Ansley
@lmansley
Director of Publications, @historians.org | Emerita, @nursingclio.bsky.social | she/her
What’s everyone reading this weekend? Here are my current books in 📖 | 📱 | 🎧 :
It’s @bookstoreromanceday.org! Stopped by my local indie Scrawl Books for a couple little treats. 📚❤️🩷❤️
17. Read a book by a deaf author. @novicsara.bsky.social’s Mother Tongue is a superb mix of memoir and research on deaf experiences, language acquisition and deprivation, and parenthood. Can’t recommend this one enough. (Her novel True Biz is also great.)
16. Read a book by an intersex author. I got to share this task with my whole book club, by choosing Alicia Roth Weigel’s Inverse Cowgirl for our July book. 🏳️🌈
15. Pick a challenge from any of the previous years. For “Read a short story collection” (2015): Ladies in Waiting, an anthology that gives Austen’s side characters romantic happily ever afters. Mixed bag, but mostly quite fun!
On vacation for the week in the Finger Lakes area and I’m just happy to be out of the 95° heat.
14. Read a novel with a main character who uses they/them pronouns. I’ve enjoyed @anitakellywrites.bsky.social’s books for adults, and her YA novel Donut Summer was cute!
Summertime is especially a good time for superb books. And goodness, am I enjoying Ann Patchett’s latest novel, Whistler. (I loved her last one, Tom Lake, too.)
13. Read a gothic novel published within the last ten years. You don’t really need to give me an excuse to read @kjcharleswriter.com, whose books I always enjoy. But this newish one fit the task and was extra gothic.
Suffs was a delight. And I dug out my vintage pins, which I haven’t done in a long time, and add my sorority badge, as several of our early sisters were suffragists.
Our managing editor has never been happier than when she got a photo from Spielberg’s West Side Story on the December ‘25 cover.
12. Read a book about a cult or cults. In Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America, @janeborden.bsky.social made some intriguing connections between history and culture in the context of a variety of groups, from the Pilgrims to Nexium. A fun pick!
11. Read a queer picture book. It Feels Good to Be Yourself by @unicornsrunfree.bsky.social has a simple but lovely message, and the art by Noah Grigni is just gorgeous.
10. Read a book by an African author. I wasn't a fan of Oyinkan Braithwaite's first book, but I'm SO glad my book club read Cursed Daughters. One of the rare books that everyone enjoyed and it still led to a good discussion. And what a cover!
First blooms since we arrived at our new house. Hydrangeas off the back deck!
8. Read a genre book in translation. Naturally I looked for a translated romance. And while Charlotte Lucas’s Your Perfect Year (trans. Alison Layland) came up in my search, it was not really a romance. And I kinda hated it? But I finished it, so task done. 🙃
7. Read a sports book by a woman, trans, or nonbinary writer. Samantha Saldivar's Play You for It is a lesbian romance between a sports journalist & a men’s college basketball coach—scandalous! Especially as the 1st woman head coach of a D1 men’s team.
I (and my marriage) survived a furniture build with pieces numbered 1–54 and hardware lettered A–P. 😅 So tomorrow I get to work from my new home office!
My undergrad advisor sent me home from Cleveland with a print of one of her beautiful paintings. This will hang in my office after we move to our new house! (Here’s her website for art: reneesentilles.com)
CWRU will always have a part of my heart. Happy to be back, and with such fine spring weather! 💙🤍💙
@alexfinley.bsky.social's latest piece about her research on the IWW includes love poetry for our times. alexandrafinley.substack.com/p/the-romant...
Look what I got, @lollardfish.bsky.social! Preorders are shipping, apparently.
The Everlasting by @alixeharrow.bsky.social is a novel I’ll be thinking about for a long time. It’s about history and storytelling and love—all my favorite things. Plus it’s got a lady knight to rival Alanna Trebond.
I drank or ate passion fruit almost every day of this trip, including this juice at our final breakfast. Getting amazing fresh fruit like this in our winter has been such a treat.
Also had one of the best meals of my life last night at a restaurant with a female chef that is entirely operated by women. Incredible end to this journey.