Weekend Reading: The Blink and You Miss It Edition

Ugh, I hate it when a week goes by and there are no "real" posts between my two Weekend Reading posts.

But there's nothing I can do about that now, so I guess I'll just plow ahead with my weekend links.

Sadly, I don't have that many links to share, for the same reason that I didn't write a post: I've been busy with offline things.

For one thing, my oldest daughter turned 9(!!!) and we of course needed to celebrate that. I was also catching up after logging some extra hours at my main gig (they had a short term project that they wanted my help on). I want to keep my other projects on track, and they had suffered a little bit during the previous two weeks, so I tried to make that up this week.

So anyway, it was a busy week.

But I do have a few links for you:

Is Soylent really any different from Slim Fast?

This article about the somewhat miraculous recovery of a man with a brain injury was really interesting.

Melissa Harris-Perry interviews Anita Hill. The "Anita Hill hearings" (which were really about Clarence Thomas) were a huge part of what made me realize in college that the men around me were experiencing things very differently than I was. Looking back, I think listening to my male classmates make crude jokes about them was one of the first things I stuffed in my internal "bullshit box." I'm not sure I could stand to see them dramatized, to be honest.

Here's a nice review of Hope Jahren's new book, Lab Girl. And here's a nice interview with Hope Jahren about the book and her science.

The Toast is running a series from Anne Boyd Rioux about women writers that deserve to be rediscovered, and her first choice is Constance Fenimore Woolson. I featured her novella, A Florentine Experiment, in Missed Chances.

Speaking of old stories... one of the things I got done this week was to make good on a goal I've had for months of creating a "thank you" gift for Tungsten Hippo subscribers. I formatted the classic short story Daisy, by W. Somerset Maugham, into an ebook and new subscribers will get that once they confirm their subscription. Existing subscribers will get links to download it in this week's email. My plan is to switch out the freebie ebook every six months or so, always sending the latest freebie to the current subscribers.

I believe this series of tweets was prompted by something that someone said about Hillary Clinton, but regardless of what prompted it, I applaud it:

Today is the day I stop apologizing for any and all ambition. I've been doing this my whole life and I see clearly now that it's fucked.

— Heather Havrilesky (@hhavrilesky) April 6, 2016

Stay small and you'll be a better person = such a message women internalize. Fuck that noise.

— Heather Havrilesky (@hhavrilesky) April 6, 2016

Fuck it, ladies. Let's hustle like a motherfucker until the end of time. Time to make all of the $$$, brag about it forever, give back, etc.

— Heather Havrilesky (@hhavrilesky) April 6, 2016

You can apologize for every single stupid thing you do, and it does no damn good. Time to start owning what you want without apology.

— Heather Havrilesky (@hhavrilesky) April 6, 2016

Go out there and upstage everybody. Take it all. Be the boss. Be hated. Let the rats come out of the walls to take you down. Welcome them.

— Heather Havrilesky (@hhavrilesky) April 6, 2016

Happy weekend, everyone!