Susan Cushing

@sdcushing

#EastCoastKin Arts Collective member #BlueBrew Coffeehouse Host, founder #BlueBrewBooks Host, founder Relentless arts and photography advocate. Eclectic and inveterate sharer. Retired arts administrator. Former dancer. Bookish. 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ LGBTQIA+ friendly

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Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Jul 5

#BlueBrewBooks Currently reading The House in the Cerulean Sea and Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune. Harry Potter meets LBGTQ+ and fantastical children in these fun fantasy novels!

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Jun 26

Oh wonderful! I read Whistler, which I thought was pretty fantastic, and am finishing the Emily Wilde series now. Perhaps I should read some TJ Klune!

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· May 20

Hello Jane Mulvaney @loscctgl.bsky.social ! Your full-sized portrait of Loki may lost in the mail for now, but we’re happy to have this miniature copy on our coffee table! Happy #WhiskersWednesday!

Portrait painted by Jane Mulvaney of LokitheKat

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Apr 26

#BlueBrewBooks This week I started reading: Moo by Jane Smiley c. 1995 414 p. thanks for earlier recommendations from folks here at BlueBrewBooks! for more, see ALT/text

Moo is a novel about an imaginary university in America’s Midwest. It’s also about a lovely but ever-becoming-much-larger hog named Earl, who is being raised in the finest of laboratory conditions to achieve his maximum hog-weight. Earl serves as a metaphor for the ever-expanding university itself, and does so well.
Smiley has a wonderful time trotting through the many layers of academia, student life, and the fundraising mechanisms that allow for the university’s expansion. It’s an easy read albeit somewhat dated. Still, Smiley’s dexterity with the literary form is evident and must be celebrated. I’ve not finished the book so I can’t give it a rating yet, but I think it’s safe to say that it will not go down as one of my all-time favorites as her novel “A Thousand Acres” did. Perhaps I’m just not that good with satire. It has failed me before, so we’ll see. 😉

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Apr 19

#BlueBrewBooks This week I’m reading Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit 2021 268 p. plus notes and index see ALT/text for more

I love this book.

I began reading “Orwell’s Roses” because it was highly recommended in David George Haskell’s new book, “How Flowers Made Our World” and also discussed here briefly in BlueBrewBooks with Trina Carter. I was in search of Solnit’s writing about Columbia’s industry supplying roses to the United States. I continued because of the sheer delight of reading her essays, and then because of my increasing fascination with the similarities between Orwell and Solnit as they were committed to the wonders of nature and good writing.

From there, as NPR notes in their review of the book, “‘clarity, precision, accuracy, honesty and truthfulness are values to him, and pleasures,’ (Solnit) writes about Orwell. But she might as well have been describing her own, or this book’s aesthetic values and pleasures as well.”

So far, I’m pretty blown away. I’ve been reading the seven sections in any order according to my whim, and it has worked well for me. I’m about halfway through, and I’ve already touched on trees, roses, lilies, the writing of “1984”, and Orwell’s life in the Spanish Civil War and the London Blitz. It all circles round, again and again, to Orwell’s roses. I’m there for it.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Apr 15

Uh-oh. It appears I missed posting Loki’s birthday yesterday, a fact for which I am sorry, but apparently not yet forgiven. 🤦🏼‍♀️ 🐈‍⬛ So, on #WhiskersWednesday, here’s a big huzzah for LokitheKat, now 8 (human) years old, and so big compared to that little kitty we brought home! 🥳 #ShelterCats #ECK

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Apr 14

Another rare shot from me of a monarch in our yard, for Rina’s @rina2012.bsky.social #ButterflyWeek. I think that’s all for the butterflies, folks. Have a wonderful celebratory week! 🦋

Bright orange monarch butterfly is surrounded by the purple of a butterfly bush and a rust red plank on our deck.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Apr 13

Popping in for Rina’s #ButterflyWeek with one of my few pictures! Have a great week, everybody! #ECK #Butterfly #Swallowtail #Buddleja

Swallowtail butterfly on a Buddleja, the plant commonly known as the “Butterfly Bush”

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Apr 12

#BlueBrewBooks This week I read the recommended Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries By Heather Fawcett 2023 Book One in a Series of Three See ALT/text for a little bit more….

A fun diversion for me. This book is a fantasy of an “academic” novel, complete with footnotes! A curmudgeonly professor is ostensibly writing notes in a journal for her planned book, but the result is simply wonderful storytelling. As you’ll see on the cover, this book was one of the New York Times’ Notable Books of the Year for 2023. A great book to put on your list for when you want a break, but are still willing to be caught up in another world. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and thank the several others here in BlueBrewBooks who recommended it.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Apr 11

LokitheKat, posing for Jane Mulvaney @loscctgl.bsky.social on a #Caturday.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Apr 7

#TheCampfire This is me, with my nephew (in-law) Go to ALT/text for story

I was married once, in my twenties, for less than seven years. Less time than I have spent in most relationships since. Yet there is still an entire drawer full of photographs from that life in my home.

As I look back at this picture, I am reminded of what went wrong.

We were supposed to be the perfect couple, right? I guess many people think that when they begin. Supportive family. Laughed a lot. Fun at parties. Shared values. He was an aspiring journalist who played in a rock band. I was an aspiring dancer and arts administrator. Just one thing ruined my fairytale. I was desperate to have a baby. He was - not so much. We had plans to move to NYC, and he had landed a job offer there. He felt that babies were not compatible. Not just then. It felt to me like - not ever.

We moved to New York. The glue of the idea of family had fallen apart. Shortly thereafter, I suggested two apartments. I launched myself into graduate school and then into my career and we divorced.

Now, finding this picture, I remember how lost and conflicted I felt back then.

I never had children, and for the most part, I don’t regret it. I had a great career, surpassed my own goals, walked proud. And once upon a time, I held a baby.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Apr 5

#BlueBrewBooks Just Finished “The Language of Flowers” by David George Haskell and loved it! (See my comments last week) Here’s my latest To Be Read Pile (many recommended by folks right here at BlueBrewBooks - thank you!) Please See ALT/text for titles

•Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

•Moo by Jane Smiley

•The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

•Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit

•The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

•The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

•The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

•Underland by Robert Macfarlane

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Mar 29

Yes! A favorite, Trina!

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Mar 29

#BlueBrewBooks I’m reading a book released this week, “How Flowers Made Our World The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries” By David George Haskell Illustrations by Lucy Smith 282 p., Nonfiction See more in ALT/text

I am a big fan of David Haskell, and was able to see his Zoom release of this book earlier this week. That reading should be up on YouTube very soon.

Apparently, 90% of all plant species on the planet are flowering plants, so Haskell does not underestimate the fact that we are living on a floral planet. Flowers appeared about 200 million years ago, and “by 100 million years they were the foundation of most habitats on land.” Quite simply, we humans would not be here without them.

In chapters as diverse as the Magnolia, Goatsbeard, the Orchid, Grass, Seagrass, Rose, Tea, and Pansy, Haskell dives into such subjects as plant sexuality and motherhood, fragrance and color, evolution and roles in gardens, agriculture, perfume and ceremony.

The book so far is a fascinating and engaging read. It even includes a segment at the back on Flower Play, inviting the reader to engage directly with flowers to discover more about them.

The illustrations are beautiful, but limited to chapter breaks. I wanted more.

I’ve read about half the book so far, and I’d definitely recommend it.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Mar 22

#BlueBrewBooks This week, I’m recommending: Entangled Life - How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures By Merlin Sheldrake, 2020, 225 p. Nonfiction 5 out of 5 ⭐️ I can vouch for it being great as an ebook or paperback. Go to ALT text for a bit more…

If you’re even remotely interested in fungi, lichens, the mycorrhizal networks among trees and other plants, the ‘WoodWideWeb’ or even psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms, here’s a brilliant and very readable book for you. I loved the writing itself, which is wonderful and lyrical, and have become somewhat devoted to its amazing author. (Among other things, Sheldrake fed his manuscript to the pleurotus fungus with the goal of producing edible oyster mushrooms, making his book into an actual edible object.)

I hope you’ll enjoy this book. It’s simply dazzling.

There’s now an illustrated version as well, though I don’t know how my little book could have been any better. It’s peppered with lovely illustrations, has color plates, extensive notes, and a great index.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Mar 15

#BlueBrewBooks This week I read: Writers & Lovers by Lily King (previously reviewed here by Janet @bluemoon3143.bsky.social ) and am just finishing: Water Moon by Samantha Soto Yambao (recommended here by Petie @pmgibbs.bsky.social ) Go to ALT for more

Lily King is, as Janet suggested, “good, fun, and easy to read, so she’s a good cleanser between more complicated writing…”. In ‘Writers & Lovers’ the main character’s determination to finish writing her novel as she waits tables and tries on a couple relationships is, as the cover indicates, “heartfelt”. 4 out of 5 ⭐️ for me, as it was for Janet.

‘Water Moon’ is an amazing fantasy novel set initially in a Japanese pawnshop that collects peoples’ regrets. When a physicist happens upon an apparent ransacking of the shop, things propel him into a world far beyond his imagination, with the proprietress of the shop co-navigating the mystery. It is, so far, a mind bending story that seems destined to be a future film. I’m guessing I’ll finish this book (I’m close!) at 4 out of 5 ⭐️ as well.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Mar 8

#BlueBrewBooks This week I read: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle By Haruki Murakami See ALT text for more

As I write this on Saturday night, I have just finished this book, and I am pretty blown away. I now admit I should not have read this in a week. I should have read it as more of a meditation. It contains many extraordinary passages I should have lingered over much longer. But it had been highly recommended by several good friends, and I was curious, so I charged through.

I must admit it wasn’t the book for me, though it is a nearly flawless work.

This is a book that starts out with a missing cat and goes on to plumb the darkest depths of the Japanese-Russian conflicts of WWII. It dances through the highs and lows of a marriage, and up and down the alleys of realities. I appreciated the quality of the writing, but as with the one other Murakami book I’d read (“Norwegian Wood”), I found it all to be a bit removed from feeling and passion. I am prepared to believe that is my own culture gap with the author’s style.

“The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” has become a classic in literature. I’ll be looking at it more over this next week as I decompress from this reading.

4 ⭐️
©️ 1997
607 p.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Mar 3

#TheCampfire OPPOSITES I never should have been let out of the states. Though it may not show in this picture, Mykonos would be more than a destination for me. And though I have a horrible smirk on my face in this shot, it is the only photograph I have left of a beloved moment. (ALT)

I was in my early 30’s, traveling with my sister and mother, just finished with a divorce and a job in New York. I was ready, clearly, for something new.

I saw him, in passing at the hotel, and he gave a smile. He was so dark, with a perfect gap between his front teeth. As I boarded a craft to shuttle me into town, he went to a roof to paint, a handyman, I now realized. We waved through the distance.

It would be months before I would discover that he was not allowed to mix with the guests. Yet by that night we were together in every spare moment - on the beaches, in the bars, at restaurants, in the discotheques.

Three months later, I packed my belongings in the states and moved to Mykonos. I took my books and my dog and got a small room for the winter.

Did he speak English? Not exactly, but we stumbled through. Time passed, and we learned each others’ languages. We took endless walks with my dog Homer on the beach, where he tossed spiky sea urchin shells in the air. We went to the few restaurants that were open in winter, watched Greeks dance in their tradition.

Listener, it was not to be. By the time I got my orientation there, I was already sick with an infection. The doctor asked me out on a date as he passed me my medications. He asked me for my address in New York. I suddenly understood why I was the only non-islander I could find that winter. I was a target.

When Grigoris asked me to walk a few steps behind him when with his friends, I was startled. We fought, argued not for long, and I packed my bags back to Athens. He followed me, pleaded. But he would not give up his ways.

There is no happy ending here. As quickly as it had begun, it was over. I was heartbroken, enraged, alone, and it was entirely my fault for being so shortsighted about the culture shock I would experience.

I never returned to Mykonos, a place that will always be a spiky creature, full of sharp, spiny lessons for me. I will always remember it fondly and with reverence.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Mar 1

#BlueBrewBooks Finished: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (see ALT) Also Read: Euphoria by Lily King & loved it! (Already covered by in a great review last week by Janet @bluemoon3143.bsky.social - please scroll back through #BlueBrewBooks to find it!)

Apologies for having spent three weeks here focused on The Luminaries, but for me, it was worth every minute I spent. A novel about a New Zealand gold rush in the late 19th century, and written in the Victorian style of that period, it is enormously clever.

Astrological charts run throughout (though I admit they can be skipped without too much damage). Each section runs half the number of words of the previous section.

The Luminaries revolves around characters as diverse as a prostitute, a tycoon, a Māori man, a shipmaster, a banker, a chemist, an opium den-keeper, a goldsmith, a chaplain, a newspaperman, and a widow. As they, and others, tell their tales, bits and pieces of a story emerge, congeal, and surprise. Numerous contracts and letters also emerge and run their way throughout.

If you’ve read this far, you’ll probably want to devote some of your time to this extraordinary accomplishment. I loved how things wove together, and how many things fell apart.

And I will no doubt read it again.

830 p.
©️ 2013
4.5 ⭐️ out of 5

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 28

Loki sends #Caturday greetings, from one of his favorite artsy quilts. #EastCoastKin #quilts

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 28

Good Morning, BlueSky! My coffee cups are all very #round. 🤣 #BlueSkyArtShow #EastCoastKin

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 26

Thanks for the future 🦞 share! 😋 I’m glad to hear you got your cards printed! Choosing the stock for the back is a lot of fun. I made a template where the backing wad the same size as the cards, then cut them out and just pasted together. Most manageable for me.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 26

Good morning and a Thrilling Thursday to you, Martha. I am looking forward to a good too, and as for giggles, it’s going to be hard to surpass the chicken hat! 🤣 ☕️ ✨ 💫 Though I have been 🤔 seriously about a chicken purse.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 22

Oh good - I’m glad you’re getting out Alina! 🥾 Enjoy! Have a super day too! 🤗 Our Oracle message for today ©️ ToriStevens.art

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 15

#BlueBrewBooks This week I read: The Correspondent, a Novel by Virginia Evans and got started on The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton see ALT text for more

Though I tried, I did not fall in love with The Correspondent, as so many of my dearly respected friends have done. I found the main character to be very unlikable, and though I whizzed through the books within great curiosity, I never came around to her. I further found the writing styles used to be unnecessarily stilted and awkward. Perhaps I saw too much of myself reflected in her, as we have a great many similar characteristics. I have to state again that this brief report goes very much against the feelings of almost all other readers. I urge you to try the book yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Two ⭐️
©️ 2025
281 p.

The Luminaries, by contrast, has quickly swept me into its story about the New Zealand Gold Rush. Its dense, nineteenth century-style writing is fascinating. Eleanor Catton won the Booker Prize for this, and I can already see why. I’ll let you know more next week.

©️ 2013
830 p.

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 14

A simple #Wood ornament for the #BlueSkyArtShow. ♥️ With a happy Valentine’s Day to all! ♥️

Laser cut wooden ornament decorates a vintage white holiday tree

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 14

Here’s silly for you - our Valentine Tree:

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 11

Oh, how good of you! Just starting to make plans for Valentines Day now, but we do have a vintage Christmas tree all decorated for Valentine’s Day!

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 11

Good morning Alina! Astonishing that you got rain exactly as predicted. Wonderful! Is it still raining?! ☕️ ✨ 💫 Here’s our wonderful Oracle card for today: Copyright ToriStevens.art

Susan Cushing@sdcushing· Feb 10

Good morning, Alina! Thank you so much for the lovely nudge of spring! What a cheerful, vibrant shot! We do have warmer weather coming our way, at least for this week! Happy about that! I hope you also have a very cheerful (and of course warm 😉) day! ☕️ ✨ 💫 Fun card today - ©️ ToriStevens.art