On the Common 100

Two years and a century of posts.

Welcome! Thanks for opening up my one-hundredth newsletter. I’m thrilled that we are all here. We’re also two years old this week! Reminder: the first newsletter I ever wrote was called I Don’t Really Know What I’m Doing. Cheers to this milestone, which means I kind of know what I’m doing, at least more than I did then.

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The Part Where There’s an Essay: The Tops

I try not to major in stats around here — in fact, I try to ignore them as much as possible. But number one hundred provides an opportunity to look back at some of our facts and figures.

The most popular post here at On the Common — and it’s not even close — is this little ode to Kathleen Kelly and how we all struggle with feeling small sometimes.

Most of you find me through your emails each week, but some of you just navigate to this site directly. This year lots of you found me through my post at Risen Motherhood, and many of you wandered over from Instagram.

My commonplace series on Instagram, by the way, is a holdover from my homeschooling days. I used to have the kids keep a commonplace notebook, and we would do it together around the morning table on Tuesdays. That’s how #ontuesdayswecommonplace came about. The first entries were not fancy like they are now. They were in my handwriting.

It’s been a unique joy, as I have exited the world of homeschooling full-time, to find an avenue for one of my favorite parts of it: children’s books. That’s why developing the Book Basket this year has been extra fun for me. From the time I took my children’s literature class in college, I have loved the world of picture books, authors, and illustrators. I am always happy to hear from young moms who have a bunch of titles on hold at the library because of some Book Basket recommendations. I am off to pick up some holds at the library today, hoping to make your Christmas a bit more bookish.

If you happen over to Instagram later today, you’ll find that I’m running a giveaway to celebrate On the Common turning one hundred — or turning two. I’d appreciate a share if you hang out over there. No hard feelings if that’s not your thing.

Thanks for being here, as always. We have just a handful of issues left for this year, and then on to 2024. Onward.

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For the Anglophiles

Welcome to Gladstone’s, “The UK’s Only Residential Library.” Who is going to sponsor me to stay here for a bit?

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Reads & Listens of the Week

This Twitter-er¹ deserves applause for the thoroughness of this thread of The Reformation as Told Through Friends GIFs.

Last week we finally received our copy of the new graphic novel of Watership Down. Joe Sutphin worked for a sweet forever on this thing, and it’s just glorious. Here’s a nice interview about the book from Weekend Edition.

I haven’t seen Killers of the Flower Moon yet (though I hope to!), but I found this interesting about the costumes in the wedding scene. “They merged their newly acquired fashions with their tribal customs and aesthetics — wearing traditional wool blankets with Stetsons and Spanish-heeled cowboy boots, and adding embroidery and bright plumage to the towering silk hats they wore at weddings.”

I absolutely loved this book², and I’m excited to see the film. Coming Christmas Day, The Boys in the Boat:

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Eustace had read only the wrong sort of books. They had a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons. - C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

1. I will never call it “X,” not ever.

2. I read it twice; I don’t usually do that with nonfiction.