I have really loved A Rival Most Vial by R.K. Ashwick and Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy. Both are cozy and sweet and totally fit the vibes for this quest! 🤭

As a mixed race person myself, I wish they made Percy Jackson mixed in the TV show. I mean the book Percy Jackson could not be more full of mixed race kid angst. -learning to navigate two worlds -maintaining a relationship with a mum who he loves very much but he has an aspect of himself that makes it difficult to relate to her -meeting his dad from this foreign world, finally seeing where his own appearance comes from -seeing how many kids like him got radicalised because one of the parents refused to claim them -being seen as the one, great hope (similar to how mixed race kid as seen as the great sign of progress and post-racial future and how they’re here to fix racism)

I think the show would be so full of double meanings, if Percy Jackson was mixed race.

Obviously, taking it to its full logical conclusion, every single demi-god would have to be mixed race but I’d settle for Percy.

Either way, the same way the reading of the Hunger Games gains so much more meaning when we imagine Katniss as Indigenous, try re-reading Percy Jackson as a mixed race kid story and you’ll be like “oh my god…how does this work so perfectly?”

Wow this Haudenosaunee principle of thinking not of yourself, not of your family, but of a generation 7 ahead genuinely stopped me in my tracks. That's what, almost 200 years? When I hear most people talk about the future and their hopes and dreams they talk about their intentions for their older self, or they talk about leaving the world a better place for their children, or maybe they talk about a very abstract future they don't really imagine in any concrete terms. I think the specificity of seven generations kind of forces a reframe, to more directly envision a future where you existed and made choices and have been long buried, and you may not even be remembered but your decisions will still have a ripple effect. How do you do right by THOSE people, now? What will you work to leave behind?

Highly recommend listening to the audiobook walking around outside at 10pm kinda drunk slightly raining. Really get into the scenery, method acting for audiobook some could say

"Joy is not the opposite of grief. Grief is the opposite of indifference." - Malkia Devich-Cyril

Today, I cried reading the chapter Hope and Grief Can Coexist. Kaba and Hayes do their work in Chicago and as such a lot of this book takes situations from and surrounded Chicago. Today, September 6th, 2025, sitting President Donald Trump threatened war against Chicago and hinted at deploying national guard in the city just as he's done in DC. Today, Chicago has made it clear that they will not roll over and allow a tyrant to take over their city. DC, Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, and many cities across the USA continue to protest and resist the fascist regime that is attempting to sweep the country.

I struggle to allow both grief and hope into my heart in these trying times. Grief I have plenty of but hope I struggle with greatly. This chapter reminded me that without both grief and hope we cannot make the changes we want to see in our lifetime.

I'm crying too much to say anything else that would make any sense. Take another quote from the chapter:

"The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out." - James Baldwin in Nothing Personal