“Fill your paper

with the breathings of your heart.”

~ William Wordsworth

Mother nature has been going through some turmoil this month, and let's face it, she's starting to make some of us feel a little crazy. We've gone from snow and 30 to sunny and 50 and back again several times, and she seems to be having a bit of a personality crisis. Fortuitously, I got a great email from a paper company I love just the week before the rubber band weather started, reminding me that journals can be very important for mental health. I realized it's the perfect time to start a notebook or journal if you're feeling a bit... mad. The best news is that you don't have to know what you're doing to gain benefits from "journal therapy." It has been recommended for relief of all of the following:

~ post-traumatic stress ~ anxiety ~ depression

~ obsessive-compulsive issues ~ grief and loss ~ low self-esteem

~ issues related to chronic illness ~ substance abuse ~ eating disorders

~ interpersonal relationships issues ~ communication skills issues

You spend less time on screens when you make lists on paper, or unwind at the end of the day with mindful journaling instead of mindless scrolling. It's a healthy way to not only express emotions, but it's also a way to track them. Writing things down provides an opportunity for positive self-talk and is a chance to identify negative thoughts and behaviors. The best explanation I saw said it is a way of being able to “speak," by making the abstract concrete.

We've put our new notebook and journal arrivals in one place, and you can click here to see them! Come in and see them for yourself too. We know what it's like to want to pet the paper before you buy it.

Next week, I'll share the staff favorite journals. This week, reply back to tell me about YOUR favorite journal to be entered to win a pile of free books!

Staff Reviews This Week From Jessilynn:

Grief is for People by Sloane Crossley

Life hit Sloane Crosley with a one-two punch she never could have seen coming in 2019: First her apartment was burglarized; weeks later, her best friend died. Although the tragedies are unrelated, the rapid diminishment with which one fades in comparison to the other is a dramatic and tender exploration of loss. Imagine all of the thoughts and emotions of grief as a carousel spinning around the person at the center of the loss. Crosley reaches in, slows down the carousel of heartache, and examines each sensation, idea, and feeling with a clarity that truly took my breath away. It's as if I was turning each page thinking, "Yes! THAT is the exact way it feels." or "THOSE are the words I was looking for!" She filters out all of the noise that accompanies the terribly sad moments that follow a death, and distills the inner monologue we all have onto the page.

As Sherman Alexie said, “When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.” The experience of reading Grief is for People is therapeutic, edgy, and at times, laughable.

The Morningside by Tea Obreht

This novel is for anyone who ever believed that there might just be a (maybe-sort-of-kind-of-out-of-the-corner-of-their-eyes) Boo Radley, Wicked Witch of the West, Baba Yaga, or Maleficent character who lives among us. Reach back, and pull out your memory of Francie from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Next, pull up a time when your imagination ran wild with speculation over the strange woman who lived next door, and what mysterious things she might have been up to. Mix those two together, and you've set the stage to jump in to the slowly decomposing Morningside Apartments.

Silvia and her mother have relocated to this slowly-sinking version of Manhattan, in hopes that better opportunities await them both. Forced from their homeland due to devastating floods and mudslides, they move in with Ena - a great aunt who fills Sylvia's imagination with dark folklore from the "old world." Is the woman living in the penthouse a recluse who loves dogs, or an enchantress who has the ability to turn men into wolfhounds? Sylvia will stop at nothing to find out, but the stakes are higher than she could ever imagine. Addictive and gauzy in the vein of Eowyn Ivy's Snow Child, you will fall in love with the young narrator of The Morningside, and turn the last page with a smile on your face despite what you've been through with the characters.

M&E Merchandise Poll

We're going to be making some new McLean & Eakin Merchandise for this summer and we would LOVE your input! Please answer the following questions for what kind of merch you would like us to carry/what you would wear.

What color of t-shirt would you wear

Black

White

Grey

Bright Colors

Muted Colors