I recently read this piece about how the people who bring us the early morning news wake up and get ready for the day. I’ve always loves articles like that. I love hearing about morning routines, night time routines, self-care, meal planning. I just really love hearing about how individuals live their every day lives. But today I thought about how much I love mornings.

Mornings are a quiet and sacred time for me. Especially now that it’s cooler and cooler outside. Fiona helps me to stay focused and present in the mornings. She thrives on routine and that’s all I’ve ever wanted.

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It was the late 80’s—the summer after Kindergarten and all my friends could ride their bikes without training wheels. I was quite embarrassed about my tardiness to bloom (a theme that has persisted throughout my whole life) and one afternoon I decided that I was going to learn how to ride. It was past time for me to learn this skill and by golly, I was going to make it happen!

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September is here, which means that fall is on its way–my favorite. I’ve been thinking a lot about a lot of things but before I write about them, I’m just going to have to contemplate on them a little bit before I really write anything. Topics that are brewing: putting down roots, caring what other people think of you, life’s not fair, etc. Big stuff needs lots of space for thinking. In the mean time, let’s just do a basic check in shall we?

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The Book of Unknown Americans takes place in an old auto-body shop-turned apartment complex (I know, I can’t really picture it, either)—a home to several different Latino, immigrant families. Throughout the novel we hear from the perspectives of nearly all of the tenants of these Redwood Apartments over the course of seven months. Micho Alvarez is one of the neighbors in this complex. He is a beautifully self-aware photographer who says that these people are the “unknown Americans” because no one cares to befriend them. He asserts that natural born Americans feel that way about them either because they’re afraid or because they need someone to hate.
We didn’t intentionally pick such a hot-topic subject for this month’s book club but it does seem very appropriate considering all the discussions about immigration in the US these days. Either Latino immigration, the topic of refugees, or who should stay in the states and who should go—it’s on everyone’s mind and the tips of a lot of peoples’ tongues.

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