Shannon Sometimes | Personal essays, books, internet findings, thoughts, opinions.
Quarantine Diaries 03: Learning to Love Cooking
A few short years ago, cooking was the most frustrating practice that I put myself through, outside of fad diets and occasionally going on dates. Since college, I’ve loved baking cakes and other desserts from scratch. But cooking was a whole other beast to me, a necessary evil that...
I Read 45 Books in 2021—These Are My Top 10
I didn’t quite reach my reading goal of 50 books in 2021, but I read some amazing books nonetheless. And 2021 was the year I started to embrace audiobooks a little more—partly due to a Libro.fm membership that I forgot about for many months—and listened to...
Quarantine Diaries 02: Breaking My Own Heart
I’m not the type of person to choose a “word for the year.” Doing so never interested me, as I pegged that type of thing for emotionally intelligent people who enjoy creating vision boards at the end of the year and writing “30 goals before age 30” lists. But...
Quarantine Diaries 01: All the Introvert Jokes
“Maybe y’all will dance,” I said. “I’ll just take pictures of you.” As soon as the words left my mouth during a trip with friends in mid-2021, I knew they weren’t true. Those words were familiar and even accurate in years past, but they no longer felt...
The 6 Best Books I Read in 2020
The only good thing about reading far fewer books this year than last year is that it was much easier to pick favorites. I only read 30 books in 2020 (compared to 55 in 2019). My mind just wasn’t there this year. Life and work seemed busier too, but...
My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2019
It was really hard to narrow down this list this year (as you can tell from how I included honorable mentions at the end for the first time). I read some very good books in 2019—55 in all. I’m currently reading number 55, Friday Black by Nana Kwame...
How Words Have Failed Me
When my mind reaches back to my childhood, I picture small journals with metallic covers. I’ve never been much good at keeping a diary, but 10-year-old me had the most success, and she also started my first blog. When I think of my childhood, I think of Mildred D....