Reading List: Chlorine Gardens

December 9, 2019

I don’t have much time today (it was bound to happen) but I can still throw something out there as part of the reading list. We’re almost there. Tomorrow is Human Rights Day.

Chlorine Gardens
by Keiler Roberts

Dealing with pregnancy, child-rearing, art-making, mental illness, and an MS diagnosis, the parts of Chlorine Gardens’ sum sound heavy, but Keiler Roberts’ gift is the deft drollness in which she presents life’s darker moments. She doesn’t whistle past graveyards, but rather finds the punch line in the pitiful.

“If the Good Lord made me bipolar on purpose, it must be because he’s (she’s? they’re?) bipolar. That’s the only way to explain how consistently great and terrible His creations are. Now that I’ve figured that out, maybe I do believe in God. I can imagine creating cancer on my darkest day, and then the Grand Canyon to make up for it.”

architecture, engineering and construction

Ma il mio Capitolato Informativo fa schifo?

Domanda legittima. Dato che settimana scorsa ho scritto due righe a proposito dei riferimenti normativi obsoleti, qualcuno ha pensato che potesse essere una buona idea mandarmi il suo capitolato informativo per sapere se fosse ben fatto oppure no. A prescindere dal fatto che un lavoro

January 19, 2026 9:00 am

books and literature

Rashōmon and Other Stories

There’s a time limit, apparently, that saves you from having a book with a tacky cover and a sticker that says “From this, the major motion picture.” 76 years seems to be enough. So yeah, Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is a collection of short

January 16, 2026 9:00 am

books and literature

SciFi Friday — Mellonta Tauta by Edgar Allan Poe (1849)

TO THE EDITORS OF THE LADY’S BOOK:I have the honor of sending you, for your magazine, an article which I hope you will be able to comprehend rather more distinctly than I do myself. It is a translation, by my friend, Martin Van Buren Mavis,

January 16, 2026 1:00 am