Catch up Buttercup!
Your Easy End-of-Summer Reading
Greetings Gorgeous,
Soon it’ll be August. The homestretch of summer before September arrives as an exhale into fall. Around here, in my little sliver of Earth, July has been the quite the month in all the best ways. Such a gift as it was my birthday month.
At the start of summer I had the honor of facilitating the Museum of Nails’ book club discussion of Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Thick: And Other Essays. I’m so grateful to author Arabelle Sicardi for the invitation to facilitate. Readers not yet familiar with Sicardi’s multi-modal work can start here. Earlier this year our book club read their stellar work, The House of Beauty: Lessons from the Image Industry.
Then, in mid-July Venus of the Mind readers had the pleasure of chatting with author Alicia Kennedy about her newest (and fabulous!) book On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of my Appetites. To delve into Kennedy’s expansive oeuvre as a writer, editor, and educator, explore here.
Throughout the month, I crafted sentences and regaled readers with blogs that can be found below. Every post is less than five minutes in read-time and there’s range. If something slipped through the cracks of your inbox, it’s all gathered here for you to enjoy through summer’s crescendo into the season’s denouement.
Final note: Venus of the VINE, a wine-themed vertical from Venus of the Mind is back in the works! For readers who want to or do not want to receive wine inspired writing, subscription preferences can be adjusted by going to the account settings in the upper right hand corner of one’s account through —> venusofthemind.com —> manage subscription. Your registered email is the login. There’s an option to toggle on/off different verticals within a publication.
When I engage with food and drink my mind goes to the metaphysical and the quotidian. Fellow oenophiles can expect wine writing that is freewheeling and sensorially attuned.
I’ll see you on the other side of summer.
Con amor y cariño,
Ivana
Summer Sale on Subscriptions Now Through September Equinox
Catch Up Buttercup…or, Revisit a Fave :)
💖
Live Hungry, Die Free. A Prayer.
Life before 30 is like living with a lobotomy.
There are times I wish I’d made more inadvisable choices in my lobotomized years. I was a miserable square who was too careful and so my 20s were quite boring. Too much introspection and being “wise beyond your years” (saying this to kids simultaneously stunts them and gives them a God complex; don’t do it, let them be their age), not enough caution thrown to the wind. Keep Reading
Notes from a facialist by day and catadora by night.
Every Saturday I work a double shift. A few hours past noon, I peel off my med-spa scrubs, refresh, and don an outfit reminiscent of my style icon — Beret Girl from An Extremely Goofy Movie. I then walk out to the employee garage and nap in my car. Upon waking, I am a different service professional. No longer interested in hearing about someone’s skincare routine, what I’m now curious about is their palate. Keep Reading
Please invite me back though?
For most of Q2 this year I considered giving-up on Venus of the Mind and would ponder (whine) about my inclinations to my loved ones who patiently listened but made no attempts at dissuasion. Keep Reading
Or, what to drink after a funeral.
This weekend I accompanied my mom to the funeral of her longtime colleague and friend Mrs. Garner. I had spent time with Mrs. Garner one to four times a year, every year, since 2002. However I did not know her until the funeral. Keep Reading
Memory and Hearsay
I never liked my father’s mother and I believe that she never liked me. My clearest memory of her is at dinner. The specifics of when and why she was visiting are hazy. When I close my eyes to remember it feels like summer and she’s most likely visiting before we all go off to church camp. Keep Reading
What I’ve Heard and What I Know
I always knew my mother’s mother, Rosalía. She loved me and I still love her. Sometimes, like two Sundays ago on the eve of a new moon in our shared sun sign of Cancer, it feels like she’s talking to me, telling me she still loves me too. Keep Reading
My personal winding-down-of-summer reading spread.