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elizzabethannne.bsky.social
✨Liz✨
@elizzabethannne.bsky.social
140 followers 350 following 110 posts
✨She/They✨
ALL reading IS political 🔥📖
Masters in Public Health (MPH) 😷
Navigating life with Chronic Illness
🌈 ♾️In screaming color♾️ 🌈
I stream co-working 📚 and cozy games 👩🏻‍🌾 on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/elizzabethanne
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elizzabethannne.bsky.social
The rest of the world was black and white but we were in screaming color 🌈
Chicago skyline lit up for pride month in rainbow colors Rainbow fan with Taylor Swift Era’s tour crowd in the background in Chicago with Girl in Red on the Jumbotron Taylor Swift during the eras tour performing lavender haze
September 26, 2025 at 3:28 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
I’ve been so ill this week but at least that gives me a good excuse to be in bed and cuddled by this little baby girl 🥹
Black and white cat sleeping Black and white cat sleeping
August 29, 2025 at 1:27 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
I’m really grateful for this book as it added more detail to concepts I learned about during my public health program. I really recommend this audiobook! I listened to it over many weeks on walks with my dogs and learned so much. Heavy topics but very important! #booksky
Screenshot from Storygraph: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents Isabel Wilkerson 14 hours, 26 minutes, audio, 2020, 5 stars, nonfiction history politics psychology race sociology challenging informative reflective medium paces borrowed from the library Finished Apr 21, 2025 Screenshot from Fable: 5 stars, Very Well Research. Very well written. Very necessary. Very much something you should read! Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
April 21, 2025 at 4:55 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
I re-read the original Hunger Games trilogy after the events of October 7th to help me process the poignant reminder that what I may have read as a child labeled “dystopia” was based on real events of the past, present, but what doesn’t have to be our continued future.
Screenshot from StoryGraph: Sunrise on the Reaping The Hunger Games #0.5 Suzanne Collins 382 pages first pub 2025 5 stars Finished Mar 22, 2026
March 22, 2025 at 8:05 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
Leigh Bardugo does not disappoint with Ninth House, a dark academia fantasy thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. Bardugo has such a talent for writing flawed, morally grey, yet likable characters that you can’t help but love.
Screenshot from StoryGraph: Ninth House, Alex Stern #1, Leigh Bardugo, 448 pages, first pub 2019, 4.5 stars, finished Mar 9, 2025, fiction, fantasy, thriller, adventurous, dark, mysterious, medium-paced Screenshot from Fable: Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1) Wow! This started out a bit slow but Bardugo’s dark and thrilling writing and plot pulled me in quickly and kept me up multiple late nights needing to read just one more chapter. At times, I felt a bit overwhelmed with the world building but I believe this added to the mystique of the magic system and allowed us to experience the plot better through the eyes of Alex, the initially naive protagonist whose adaptability and experiences allows her to put the pieces together of a very compelling murder mystery. Please read trigger warnings before picking up this urban fantasy thriller. I am eager to pick up the sequel.
March 9, 2025 at 11:58 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
I have no doubt that I will be returning to read this when I’m feeling low or uninspired. If you’re feeling like that right now, I really do recommend this (and maybe some deep breaths 😌) The world is scary but our dreams can be extraordinary. #booksky
For Every One by Jason Reynolds Review from Fable: 4 Stars. If you’re a dreamer or someone who needs a reminder about the power of dreams and going after them, I really recommend this letter of poetry. A very quick read but one that I will come back to whenever I need to hear these encouragements again. I’m interested to look into Reynold’s other works. Screenshot from Storygraph: For Every One by Jason Reynolds 112 pages first pub 2018 4.0 stars Finished Feb 23, 2025
February 23, 2025 at 4:42 AM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
Please check your TWs for this book but wow, Beartown was my first book by Backman and not only did I really appreciate his writing style but how he approached such difficult and complicated topics. Please encourage the men in your life to read this. We can raise a better generation of men.
Bear Town by Fredrick Backman: I wish all men would read this book. While this was very difficult to read at times because of the content, it was so beautifully written and handled so sensitively that I don’t feel emotionally destroyed or despondent about the state of the world but rather reminded that there are people out there that stand up for what’s right. We don’t need a culture of silence. We need a culture where we can talk about the difficult things with those we love and raise the next generation to not make the same mistakes over and over again. If you have a son, a brother, a father, a boyfriend, a husband, etc. please put this book in his hand and talk about it. Screenshot from StoryGraph: Beartown, Beartown Series #1, Fredrik Backman, 421 pages, first pub 2016, 5 stars, fiction contemporary literary sports emotional reflective sad medium-paced
February 16, 2025 at 7:23 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
A poem that really resonated with me and I feel is so applicable to our current events is “Take Time Out.” I really recommend reading that one if you need a reminder about how we can support one another. Our time and attention is so powerful!
The Complete Poetry of Maya Angelou 5 Stars: I know I’ll be coming back to these poems throughout the year (and the rest of my life) as I work to annotate and analyze them, read her other works, and dive deep into the analysis of others who have been inspired by her life and legacy. So while I may have “finished” reading this collection, I am just beginning to unravel them. One of my favorite aspects of Angelou’s style is her musicality. I was first introduced to her work through choir arrangements so I’m not surprised that the music jumps off the page throughout her collections. I always try to read poetry collections slowly but I felt ravenous to read poem after poem in this collection. Her ability to convey such complicated, nuanced, and difficult topics in a few stanzas is so impressive.
February 15, 2025 at 8:16 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
I borrowed Mutual Aid by Dean Spade from the library. I really appreciated the accessibility of this resource but it has made me realize I want to read more books specifically on the Black Panthers and their approach to mutual aid. If you have any recommendations please feel free to share! #booksky
Screenshot from StoryGraph Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next) by Dean Spade with Stephen R. Thorne (Narrator) 4 hours, 41 minutes first pub 2020 (editions) Mutual Aid: This was an accessible introduction to mutual aid and how to work well with others for a common purpose. I think it’s very important we have accessible resources for people regardless of their education or background. Ultimately, this provided me with some ideas and advice on how I can approach working within and outside of problematic systems. I really think people who have experience working for nonprofits (within the system), such as myself, should especially read this. Mutual aid can be another piece of the puzzle for how I can serve my community but also grow as an individual through recognizing my own strengths, weaknesses, skills, and personal experiences and how they can help a collective.
February 11, 2025 at 8:04 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
If you have any scholars you recommend that analyze Maya Angelou’s poetry please share! I’ve been enjoying reading through various journal articles, essays, and blogs discussing her work.
I have read a handful of poems from Maya Angelou before but I find that reading them in the context of their original poetry collection is incredibly impactful. I’ve just finished reading the poems in “Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diie” and am struck with the power and unapologetic ferocity contained within her verses. It’s beautiful. I’ve been enjoying looking up academic analysis of her poems as well which helps me catch references my untrained eye does not see upon my initial reading. Stand out poems so far, personally, include In a Time, The Detached, When I Think About Myself, Time-Square-Shoeshine-Composition, To a Freedom Fighter, My Guilt, On Working White Liberals, Sepia Fashion Show, and Harlem Hopscotch. Picture of The Complete Poetry of Maya Angelou
February 5, 2025 at 5:35 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
Autobiographies are just such an interesting way to gain context into a historical period and this account from Eleanor Roosevelt was no different.
I feel that for every statement Eleanor made that I agreed with wholeheartedly there would be another that would give me pause. However, that is what reading autobiographies or biographies from historical figures is all about in my opinion. What I found the most fascinating is how Eleanor Roosevelt’s ideologies changed over time due to her exposure to some of the best and the worst the world has to offer. While some of her opinions are dated, others are still startlingly relevant. Ultimately, this work helped to fill in some of the gaps in my education around this time in history and I am eager to go down further rabbit holes to better understand the state of the world as it is now. “Perhaps the older generation is often to blame with its cautious warning: “Take a job that will give you security, not adventure.” But I say to the young: “Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of a competence.” “It is, I am afraid, true that frequently various religious groups endeavor to exert pressures and control over different legislative and educational fields. It is the job of all of us to be alert for such infringement of our prerogatives and prevent any such attempts from being successful. Like all our freedoms, this freedom from religious-group pressure must be constantly defended. What seemed to me most deplorable” “Sometimes, even now, I am still taken aback to discover how closely one’s most trivial movements are followed in this day of television. It seems as though one can find privacy only within the silence of one’s own mind.” “I learned, too, while I was groping for more and more effective ways of trying to cope with community and national and world problems, that you can accomplish a great deal more if you care deeply about what is happening to other people than if you say in apathy or discouragement, “Oh, what can I do? What use is one person? I might as well not bother.” Actually I suppose the caring comes from being able to put yourself in the position of the other person. If you cannot imagine, “This might happen to me,” you are able to say to yourself with indifference, “Who cares?” I think that one of the reasons it is so difficult for us, as a people, to understand other areas of the world is that we cannot put ourselves imaginatively in their place.”
February 2, 2025 at 10:01 PM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
I fear I will be devouring accounts of the buildup to WWII and it’s unintended consequences throughout this year as a way to work through current and future events. Anyway… Free Palestine. 🇵🇸
I find autobiographies fascinating primarily because it gives you a glimpse into the context that historical events, attitudes, prejudices, and values have upon a person’s life and their impact on the world. I have a vast amount of complicated feelings about Eleanor Roosevelt but it does help me to see the world through her eyes, even if I don’t agree with all of the conclusions she drew about the world based on her observations.
February 2, 2025 at 4:05 AM
elizzabethannne.bsky.social
I’m currently making my way through my first essay collection of George Orwell’s, All Art is Propaganda, and it’s maddening how the issues Orwell writes about in this collection are still so relevant. Highly recommend this essay collection if you’ve already read his novels. #booksky
I’ve just finished Orwell’s first essay included in this collection about Charles Dickens and I found it absolutely fascinating. I’ve previously read Orwell’s novels Animal Farm and 1984 which I highly recommend if not insist you read. It’s important for us to understand how all writing is inherently political and a key to recognizing this is looking at what the author intends you to get out of their work. I can apply Orwell’s skepticism to how I interpret modern works of art, especially in our current times. “But every writer, especially every novelist, has a “message,” whether he admits it or not, and the minutest details of his work are influenced by it. All art is propaganda… On the other hand, not all propaganda is art.” The second essay of this collection, “Boys Weeklies,” did not disappoint. I have talked before with my male partner about how it’s very deliberate how young boys and men are marketed to when it comes to film & media (this happens to women as well obviously.) This exact topic is discussed in this essay and it was fascinating to see some of the origins for this propaganda. Orwell even talks about how there is not a “left-wing” pipeline for boys and this is still a present phenomenon in our society in 2025. Ultimately, I believe what is excluded from a story is just as political as what is included in a story.
January 27, 2025 at 4:07 PM