Welcome to ALBOAL #10- It's a mix of life reflections, short notes, bullet points, books I read this month and other stuff curated by Moi. I collect things that are worth sharing. This is a monthly newsletter, sometimes more if I have other pieces of writing to share. If you benefit from my writing, I'd love the support of you becoming a paid subscriber or a free one. Sharing my newsletter with others is another way to support my work. You can click on the button below to share.




Pic 1: I have had this picture of a raccoon with a glass of something tasty and a cigarette for a while now; it always makes me smile. Pic 2: I have been making a lot of brownies lately, vegan and not. Pic 3: Cheddar and I are watching my nephew's hockey game from bed; amazingly, a parent streams the game on YouTube for us. Pic 4: My partner, a few weeks back, Vancouver Island is majestic.
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Art + Artists that make me want break bread and connect
Natalie Savage is a London based artist. There is something about painted flowers , food and meals that make me happy.




#3 Decadence and Downfall: The World's Most Expensive Party
My partner and I watch riveting things on YouTube; exhibit A
In 1971, the Shah of Iran, the self-proclaimed 'king of kings', celebrated 2,500 years of the Persian monarchy by throwing the greatest party in history. Money was no object - a lavish tent city, using 37km of silk, was erected in a specially created oasis. The world's top restaurant at the time, Maxim's, closed its doors for two weeks to cater the event, a five-course banquet served to over sixty of the world's kings, queens and presidents, and washed down with some of the rarest wines known to man. Over a decadent five-day period, guests were treated to a pageant of thousands of soldiers dressed in ancient Persian costume, a 'son et lumiere' at the foot of Darius the Great's temple, and the opening of the Azadi Tower in Tehran, designed to honour the Shah himself.
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#5 Piacere Ears
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The Reading Room






The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy after a fateful morning on their Chicago rooftop. Forced to move to a new city, with her strict African American grandmother as her guardian, Rachel is thrust for the first time into a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring a constant stream of attention her way. It’s there, as she grows up and tries to swallow her grief, that she comes to understand how the mystery and tragedy of her mother might be connected to her own uncertain identity.
This searing and heart-wrenching portrait of a young biracial girl dealing with society’s ideas of race and class is the winner of the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice.
Home Safe: A Memoir of End-of-Life Care During Covid-19 by Mitchell Consky
In April 2020, journalist Mitchell Consky received bad news: his father was diagnosed with a rare and terminal cancer, with less than two months to live. Suddenly, he and his extended family — many of them healthcare workers — were tasked with reconciling the social distancing required by the Covid-19 pandemic with a family-based approach to end-of-life care. The result was a home hospice during the first lockdown. Suspended within the chaos of medication and treatments were dance parties, episodes of Tiger King, and his father’s many deadpan jokes.
Leaning into his journalistic intuitions, Mitchell interviewed his father daily, making audio recordings of final talks, emotional goodbyes, and the unexpected laughter that filled his father’s final days. Serving as a catalyst for fatherly affection, these interviews became an opportunity for emotional confession during the slowed-down time of a shuttered world, and reflect how far a family went in making a dying loved one feel safe at home.
The Woman in Me Audible Audiobook by Britney Spears
In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.
Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.
End of the Hour: A Therapist's Memoir by Meghan Riordan Jarvis
What happens when a trauma therapist is traumatized by loss? Esteemed trauma therapist Meghan Riordan Jarvis knew how to help her patients process grief. For nearly twenty years, Meghan expected that this clinical training would inoculate her against the effects of personal trauma. But when her father died after a year-long battle with cancer, followed by her mother’s unexpected passing while on their family vacation, she came undone. Thrown into a maelstrom of grief, with long-buried childhood tragedy rising to the surface, Meghan knew what she had to do―check herself into the same trauma facility to which she often sent her clients. In treatment, trading the therapist’s chair for the patient’s couch, Meghan took her first steps toward healing. A brave story of confronting life’s hardest moments with emotional honesty, End of the Hour is for anyone who has experienced the unpredictable, lasting power of grief―and wondered how they’d ever get through it.
Tell Me What You Want: A Therapist and Her Clients Explore Our 12 Deepest Desires by Charlotte Fox Weber
Chloe is beautiful and fiercely bright, but she feels desperately deprived. Elliot, lost and adrift, is secretly grieving the loss of his famous lover. Rosie has always tried to follow the rules of cultural expectations, but a year into her marriage, she still hasn’t had sex with her husband. Dwight is determined to be upbeat, even in the face of his wife’s betrayal.
Each of us, at certain moments in our lives, can feel lost or confused. We often don’t know how to get what we want, but we share some universal desires: to love and be loved; understanding, power, attention, freedom; to create, to belong, to win, to connect, to control; and we want what we shouldn’t. In each of these twelve chapters, focused on one of these desires, psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber takes you behind closed doors of her therapy sessions as she guides clients towards startling insights and profound change.
With a warm and compassionate voice, Weber blends dramatic and moving personal stories with careful research in this “brilliant and wise” (The Times, London) guide to living well that will stay with you long after you hear the final word.
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a breakup, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.
A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.
Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.
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In 1968, conflict broke out in Northern Ireland; the Troubles" had begun. In this documentary, we explore the waves of political violence & sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, and the roots of the divide between British Unionists & Irish Nationalists. The Troubles | Northern Ireland Conflict | Irish Conflict | IRA | UVF | Belfast Conflict This period saw rise of paramilitary groups like the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Ulster Volunteer force (UVF), the deployment of the British Army in Northern Ireland under Operation Banner. In this video, through interviews with former IRA & UVF prisoners, I’ll walk you through the conflicts roots during the “Plantation of Ulster”, it’s triggers, like "Bloody Sunday”, and where things stand now since the Good Friday Agreement saw the start of peace and reconciliation and a lasting peace process. In Belfast, we spoke with ex-members of the paramilitaries in Northern Ireland - former IRA prisoner Michael Culbert, and former UVF prisoner Billy Hutchinson - to try and understand the violence that swept across Northern Ireland. Sectarian Violence | Impact of The Troubles | Historical Unrest in Ireland. "The Troubles”, a name that does not sit well with some of those who were involved in it, has left behind a collective trauma in Northern Ireland that will be felt for decades to come. The legacy of the Troubles shapes modern Northern Ireland’s communities today, with peace walls dividing catholic and protestant, unionist and republican neighbourhoods.