Godspeed, Cut Through the Bone

It's a small, strange feeling to be typing this last post for this month. I'm taking Friday and Monday off for the holidays, and I hope you all do as well, and enjoy the weekend, whether you're particularly patriotic or not.

I have to admit, I'm not sure I've ever gotten to spend so much time with a book since college, and am not sure I've felt as intimate with a bundle of pages in the 5 years now I've been out of school. Looking over the past month, I can't help but make that comparison.

I'm hardly a professor, but what I feel like has happened here in the past month is reminiscent of what used to happen back at Ball State, when we'd spend a few weeks as a class close-reading some book. One class in particular taught by Patrick Collier about Modernist literature of the early 20th century, was structured much the same way. We spent 2-3 weeks reading a novel, coming to class every MWF, and discussing it at great length, reflecting, responding.

But what else has happened here I never found in any class, and perhaps it's due in large part to the openness and vulnerability of Cut Through the Bone, of Ethel's writing, that allowed us to get away from such a clinical, critical approach to the reading. We bared our own bones here this last month, and I'm truly grateful you've all followed along and taken part in the discussions and shared all you've shared.

I have to admit, I had apprehensions leading into the launch of The Lit Pub. Molly and I put a lot of work and thought into this whole endeavor, Molly especially, and with any grand baby like this, there's always the fear of flop and failure. But I don't feel failure in the slightest. Looking back on this month, I see nothing but light.

So thanks to everyone for getting so involved in this, for sharing what you've shared. I've been amazed at the sheer vulnerability of everyone here, and the smart answers to hard questions, and the grace in hard subjects. Thanks so incredibly much to Ethel for being so active in the conversation, and all the ways she helped to push and promote not just her own featured book, but all the work by Molly and Mike this past month at TLP.

I'll be back next Wednesday with a new book (hint: it's from a Chicago press), and I hope we have just as excellent a time with that book as we did with Cut Through the Bone!

Happy holiday weekend everyone! Eat some beer brats (or veggie shish kababs if you're not of the carnivorous persuasion) and enjoy some summer sun!