I’ve had a very fun but busy weekend. I think the thing that struck me just NOW was that I am not dreading the week. How amazing is that? Maybe it’s not. I mean, I don’t often dread the week, but I had a fun weekend (for once, not only working, hardly any work at all!) and now I’m looking forward to a less busy than normal week, followed by another weekend with some fun stuff.

My friend’s wedding was fabulous, super great. We stayed overnight at the hotel where it took place (about an hour away) and then slept in, got breakfast there, and then did a 6 mile hike at the nearby State Park (Pere Marquette). The weather was phenomenal, truly the best weekend weather we have had here in awhile.

We ate lunch at Old Bakery Beer Company and then came home and I went to see Emily St. John Mandel talk at a nearby library. I can’t remember going to an author talk before, but I really enjoyed it: she was interesting and a really cool person. If you aren’t familiar with her, her most famous book is Station Eleven.

One thing she said that stuck out to me was that nothing is permanent, and that that gives her hope. And that yes, the impermanence of life can be devastating, but also, it’s great that bad things don’t last forever. I have thought of this before as well, that either the bad things will eventually end, or, you know, we will end. I really loved Station Eleven as a very hopeful book: even with all the bad things that happened, people banded together and community and art and music were important. She said that when she talked with a reporter who had spent so much time reporting on wars across the world, that was something that he noticed in real life: people band together, they don’t just end up alone fighting, they form communities to try to survive.

She was also really sweet and kind, and talked about various anti-racism things, like not saying the race of her characters unless it was really important, partly with the thought that, hey, if it doesn’t need to be a white person perhaps a non-white person could be cast in that role if this book becomes a movie or TV show. She mentioned how so often white writers only mention race when it’s a non-white person, because white is the default for them, so she tries NOT to do that. Hey, isn’t it great, I can write about anti-racism again. She also talked about writing while being a mother (thanks to her nanny and babysitters, though perhaps one person in the audience thought that men don’t need to say that, but hey, women are still asked about and men aren’t, so let’s give credit where credit is due, while also asking men how they got to write so much with a new baby), and she talked about various connecting characters throughout her different books.

I have to admit that I haven’t reread any of her books, and I’ve only read Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel, and Sea of Tranquility. I got a signed copy of her most recent book, Exit Music, and I’ll probably read that next, but I should go back and read her earlier works, and then maybe reread the rest, to get a better sense of the overall “Mandel-verse” as one question asker at the event called it.