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See #2

1. Read a lot of books

Finished more than my one-a-week quota! Among this year’s favorites:

– Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg, about an artistic, highly-strung family living in Italy under Mussolini.
– Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Mathias Enard imagines that Michelangelo lived in Istanbul for a year to build the bridge over the Bosphorus.
– Exhalation by Ted Chiang, science fiction stories with big brains and hearts.
– The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai opens in Chicago in 1985, when a mysterious disease stalks the gay community, then continues in Paris 2015, when a mother searches for the daughter who left her.
– Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday, a fictionalized account of the author’s affair with the much older Philip Roth–her deft portrayal of the balance of power shows exactly why such relationships are problematic.

* For the books I am currently reading, follow us on Instagram.

2. Adopted Buffy the rodent slayer

Buffy, Jacob’s sister, is from the family of cats that has lived downstairs in my building for many years. Several times a week she would present the guards with a freshly-killed rat that was almost as big as she was. After she gave birth to four kittens she looked so scrawny and exhausted that after the kittens were weaned I decided to adopt her. Now the vicious killer is a sweetie.

3. Watched a lot of movies and TV series. Among this year’s favorite movies:

– Once Upon A Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino. Saw it five times at the cinema. The second time some schmuck in the front row was on his iPad the whole movie and I would’ve strangled him but that would require taking my eyes off the screen.
– Avengers Endgame by the Russo Brothers. Okay, more of a theme park, but loved it—never has the lifting of a hammer been so exciting.
– Uncut Gems by the Safdie Brothers. Everyone go home, that Oscar is Adam Sandler’s.
– The Irishman by Martin Scorsese. Requires multiple viewings to appreciate every part of its greatness, so there are advantages to having it on Netflix.
– Marriage Story by Noah Baumbach. His parents’ divorce was the subject of The Squid and The Whale. This is about his own divorce, and though it is comparatively civilized it still turns the couple inside-out.
– Pain and Glory by Pedro Almodovar. The quietest Almodovar, and the most moving. Hollywood has never figured out what to do with Antonio Banderas (and Penelope Cruz), but in his own idiom he is a master.

4. The Sanity Maintenance Program on Studio B.

Writers, filmmakers, artists, actors, therapists talk about how they keep their balance in a world that grows bonkers by the day. Watch the episodes here.

5. Published The Collected Stories of Jessica Zafra

Got the book?

6. Did book events (See previous posts)

7. Literary residency in Spain

Read my Spain diary.

Read Last Tour with Carlos Celdran in BusinessWorld.

8. Walked a lot, got more health-conscious.
9. Got used to having white hair.

Anti-anti-aging

10. Fed a lot of cats.

Thank you for a good year. The world is on fire and going bonkers, but it’s comforting to know that there are humans who think, read, and want to understand. Thank you for being alive! We have something for you.

Start the new year with a fresh outlook. Come to our Free Sanity Maintenance Workshop on Saturday, 11 January 2020, 2-6pm at the Nexus Center, 1010 Metropolitan Avenue, Makati.

2-4pm Lord Fernandez on Mindfulness–what it is, how to practice it, and how it helps clear the noise from your head.

4-6pm Jessica Zafra on Writing–how to stop procrastinating and actually write something.

We hope you can join us. Parking is available. DM us @jessicazafrascats to reserve a seat.

Jessica and moderator Deo Giga do a Q&A at the launch of her Collected Stories last November 2 at Nexus Center.

It was also the first death anniversary of Saffy.

This is the first part of the Q&A.

We’re still trying to find out about Deo’s super-secret life.

I read a lot of books. I’m in the book trade so I have an advantage (and I spent six weeks in Spain reading books), but you can read regularly if you want to. The benefits to mental health and cognition are great, but I think we should read for pleasure. Want to read more?

1. Spend less time scrolling aimlessly through your social media feeds and pick up a book. If you’re new to this, don’t be ashamed to ask for reading recommendations. One quick way to pick up a reading habit: Detective series. My friends recommend Tana French and Michael Connelly, and of course there’s the grande dame, Agatha Christie.

2. Watch a movie based on a book, and then pick up the book. Greta Gerwig’s Little Women is coming up—see it, then read Louisa May Alcott. Or watch Henry Cavill in The Witcher, then read the books.

3. Join our book club, the Bibliophibians Reading Group. We assign a book every month, then meet on the last Saturday to discuss it and have drinks. For January we’re reading Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. We meet on January 25, 4-6pm at Tin-aw Art Gallery in Somerset Olympia, Makati Avenue beside the Peninsula. Everyone who’s read the book is welcome. There is no charge, but if you want to bring a bottle or chips we won’t decline.

4. Turn off your devices three hours before you go to bed and read instead. You’ll sleep better.
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Yes, I am holding my new book. You can buy it at Fully Booked, Mt Cloud, Solidaridad and Shopee, or order a signed and gift-wrapped copy right here.

I apologize for not having blogged regularly in the last couple of years. The page views had dropped, but that’s not an excuse. I figured the readers had all decamped to the social media, so I asked my friends to set up and manage social media accounts for me. This blog has a Facebook page and my cats have an Instagram account—they’re updated daily by our social media manager Bubbles, and doing very well, thank you. My hiatus from blogging allowed me to figure out how to keep writing for a living when all my old jobs have died or mutated.

The answer, funnily enough, is Books. Having spent the last quarter-century wondering how to support myself so I can write books, I find that I should just write the blasted books. The digital revolution has killed a lot of things, but books have survived and are thriving. Yay!

So this blog is aliiiiive, and from hereon I will be updating it at least twice a week. I hope my old readers will come baaaaack and new readers will wander onto this site. In the coming weeks I will post photos, videos, and podcasts from my book talks in November.

You can reach me in Comments, by email at saffron.safin@gmail.com, or DM @jessicazafrascats.

Have a comparatively stress-free holiday season, and don’t feel compelled to act happy unless you really are happy!