E. A. Fredericks
@efredericks.bsky.social
West Coaster in exile, pining for sunshine & teaching literature to college kids in the Midwest. Ruled by a tiny dog. Books, baking, baseball (3rd generation Dodgers fan), film, #toastie
Nothing hits like a thank you note from a student that arrives *after* final grades are turned in. But really, this was a little salve for the soul.
January 26, 2026 at 11:46 PM
Nothing hits like a thank you note from a student that arrives *after* final grades are turned in. But really, this was a little salve for the soul.
Forcing my dog to labor hard in the cuteness mines today in order to help with the Horrors. Here she is for all the rest of you, too.
Much love to Minnesota today, and to all with grieving hearts. No one should have to endure what's happening now.
Much love to Minnesota today, and to all with grieving hearts. No one should have to endure what's happening now.
January 24, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Forcing my dog to labor hard in the cuteness mines today in order to help with the Horrors. Here she is for all the rest of you, too.
Much love to Minnesota today, and to all with grieving hearts. No one should have to endure what's happening now.
Much love to Minnesota today, and to all with grieving hearts. No one should have to endure what's happening now.
Finished The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family this morning while hiding from the subzero temps outside. This was mostly for fun, though since I teach lit from this time period, also some fun context/history. Truly what a wild family. 💡📚💙
January 24, 2026 at 4:04 PM
Finished The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family this morning while hiding from the subzero temps outside. This was mostly for fun, though since I teach lit from this time period, also some fun context/history. Truly what a wild family. 💡📚💙
Finished Joseph O'Connor's The Ghosts of Rome a couple days ago. I think My Father's House is the more powerful novel, but O'Connor's look at resistance in Nazi-occupied Rome is still engrossing & well-realized. The cast of narrators for the audiobook is excellent. 📚💙
January 24, 2026 at 1:27 PM
Finished Joseph O'Connor's The Ghosts of Rome a couple days ago. I think My Father's House is the more powerful novel, but O'Connor's look at resistance in Nazi-occupied Rome is still engrossing & well-realized. The cast of narrators for the audiobook is excellent. 📚💙
Oh nooooo please let this silly creature solace you a little
January 21, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Oh nooooo please let this silly creature solace you a little
Finished Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's latest poetry collection, The Map of the World, today. It ranges all over history & literature in just over 50 pages, with an especial interest in what is resting underneath & behind what's been spoken, said, recorded. 📚💙
January 20, 2026 at 7:59 PM
Finished Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's latest poetry collection, The Map of the World, today. It ranges all over history & literature in just over 50 pages, with an especial interest in what is resting underneath & behind what's been spoken, said, recorded. 📚💙
Got 8 good hours of sleep last night & I still feel wrecked today. At least it's my WFH day, & I can do everything in soft clothes while huddled in blankets (it's flipping freezing today) with the dog.
January 20, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Got 8 good hours of sleep last night & I still feel wrecked today. At least it's my WFH day, & I can do everything in soft clothes while huddled in blankets (it's flipping freezing today) with the dog.
Finished Saou Ichikawa's Hunchback (longlisted for the International Booker Prize, translated by Polly Barton) tonight. What a strange ride of a read. It's darkly funny in places, weird & discomfiting in others. 🖋️📚💙
January 18, 2026 at 3:24 AM
Finished Saou Ichikawa's Hunchback (longlisted for the International Booker Prize, translated by Polly Barton) tonight. What a strange ride of a read. It's darkly funny in places, weird & discomfiting in others. 🖋️📚💙
Belatedly getting back to the Booker Prize longlist, and finished Tash Aw's The South tonight. A family in Malaysia visiting their decaying countryside property while their connections to each other also slowly decay, & teenage Jay kindles a tentative romance with the son of the caretaker. 🖋️📚💙
January 16, 2026 at 2:07 AM
Belatedly getting back to the Booker Prize longlist, and finished Tash Aw's The South tonight. A family in Malaysia visiting their decaying countryside property while their connections to each other also slowly decay, & teenage Jay kindles a tentative romance with the son of the caretaker. 🖋️📚💙
The PhDog has reported for spring semester duty.
January 15, 2026 at 4:14 PM
The PhDog has reported for spring semester duty.
Survived teaching, am completely exhausted. It has snowed almost all day. But good groups overall, I think. One intro class is rather quiet, so we'll see if they relax as the semester progresses; the other is more willing to talk. My Victorian/Modern group seems like they'll be delightful.
January 14, 2026 at 9:48 PM
Survived teaching, am completely exhausted. It has snowed almost all day. But good groups overall, I think. One intro class is rather quiet, so we'll see if they relax as the semester progresses; the other is more willing to talk. My Victorian/Modern group seems like they'll be delightful.
Finished listening to Katherine Addison's Witness for the Dead last year. If you want a fantasy murder mystery & a fantasy setting that's not medieval and has some Eastern influence in its invented cultures, go for it. I also enjoyed The Goblin Emperor, the first book in the series, last year. 📚💙
January 13, 2026 at 10:42 PM
Finished listening to Katherine Addison's Witness for the Dead last year. If you want a fantasy murder mystery & a fantasy setting that's not medieval and has some Eastern influence in its invented cultures, go for it. I also enjoyed The Goblin Emperor, the first book in the series, last year. 📚💙
The light read for this first week (and good God, light reads are going to be load-bearing this year) was Tasha Alexander's And Only to Deceive. Plot is a little repetitive at times, but a privileged young Victorian-era widow finding out the truth behind her husband's dead is a fun idea. 📚💙
January 9, 2026 at 6:40 PM
The light read for this first week (and good God, light reads are going to be load-bearing this year) was Tasha Alexander's And Only to Deceive. Plot is a little repetitive at times, but a privileged young Victorian-era widow finding out the truth behind her husband's dead is a fun idea. 📚💙
Finished yesterday: Niall Williams's The Time of the Child. Set during Advent, ending on Christmas, in a small Irish town in the 1960s, where an infant is found after a Christmas Fair, & an isolated doctor & his adult daughter care for & fall in love with this abandoned baby. 🖋️📚💙
January 8, 2026 at 3:20 AM
Finished yesterday: Niall Williams's The Time of the Child. Set during Advent, ending on Christmas, in a small Irish town in the 1960s, where an infant is found after a Christmas Fair, & an isolated doctor & his adult daughter care for & fall in love with this abandoned baby. 🖋️📚💙
I started listening to Daniel Kraus's Angel Down in December but had to put it aside while my parents were here & I had no more solo dog walks (my primary audiobook time). WHAT IF: 5 American soldiers in WWI were sent on a mission into No Man's Land & wound up rescuing a literal angel? 🖋️📚💙
January 7, 2026 at 3:54 AM
I started listening to Daniel Kraus's Angel Down in December but had to put it aside while my parents were here & I had no more solo dog walks (my primary audiobook time). WHAT IF: 5 American soldiers in WWI were sent on a mission into No Man's Land & wound up rescuing a literal angel? 🖋️📚💙
Finished several days ago: Dorothy Hughes's The Blackbirder. A terrific little WWII noir thriller that takes place mostly in New Mexico, with a young refugee on the run & searching for her beloved cousin. The ebook's cover is terrible so here is the original first edition cover, so much better. 📚💙
January 7, 2026 at 3:49 AM
Finished several days ago: Dorothy Hughes's The Blackbirder. A terrific little WWII noir thriller that takes place mostly in New Mexico, with a young refugee on the run & searching for her beloved cousin. The ebook's cover is terrible so here is the original first edition cover, so much better. 📚💙
Trying not to judge myself, or my January reads, as harshly as my dog is clearly judging me in this photo.
She is small but her opinions are large. Anyway, here's what I read that she probably disapproves of. 📚💙
She is small but her opinions are large. Anyway, here's what I read that she probably disapproves of. 📚💙
January 7, 2026 at 3:45 AM
Trying not to judge myself, or my January reads, as harshly as my dog is clearly judging me in this photo.
She is small but her opinions are large. Anyway, here's what I read that she probably disapproves of. 📚💙
She is small but her opinions are large. Anyway, here's what I read that she probably disapproves of. 📚💙
Finishing up Niall Williams's The Time of the Child and there are some great passages here in the last part of the text. ✒️📚💙
January 6, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Finishing up Niall Williams's The Time of the Child and there are some great passages here in the last part of the text. ✒️📚💙
Absolutely lethal levels of cuteness from this tiny, venerable lady today.
December 29, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Absolutely lethal levels of cuteness from this tiny, venerable lady today.
I dropped by campus today to get a couple things from my office & was met with a card from my seminar students, with sweet messages & also one of them drew this Tommy in the trenches on the facing page. My lil heart is feeling so warmed.
December 27, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I dropped by campus today to get a couple things from my office & was met with a card from my seminar students, with sweet messages & also one of them drew this Tommy in the trenches on the facing page. My lil heart is feeling so warmed.
Made duck breast with crispy prosciutto and sage for Christmas Eve dinner (plated over seared peach slices) and it was amazing if I do say so myself.
December 25, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Made duck breast with crispy prosciutto and sage for Christmas Eve dinner (plated over seared peach slices) and it was amazing if I do say so myself.
It has taken me about three weeks to work my way through Alice Albinia's The Britannias: An Archipelago's Tale, a fascinating feminist history (with a dash of memoir) of the many islands that surround Britain itself, & the better known history it represents. 💡📚💙
December 21, 2025 at 11:41 PM
It has taken me about three weeks to work my way through Alice Albinia's The Britannias: An Archipelago's Tale, a fascinating feminist history (with a dash of memoir) of the many islands that surround Britain itself, & the better known history it represents. 💡📚💙
It’s just so pretty!
December 21, 2025 at 4:08 AM
It’s just so pretty!
Finished listening to Harini Nagendra's Murder under a Red Moon a few days ago. They're charming books and the setting (1920s Bangalore) is great. Nagendra finds ways to incorporate the history of the moment as well as its social complexity. 🔪📚💙
December 18, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Finished listening to Harini Nagendra's Murder under a Red Moon a few days ago. They're charming books and the setting (1920s Bangalore) is great. Nagendra finds ways to incorporate the history of the moment as well as its social complexity. 🔪📚💙
The only context necessary here is that my dad really does send me 8 point text messages, and they are absolutely RIDDLED with typos, and tonight I chose loving violence when responding.
December 17, 2025 at 2:53 AM
The only context necessary here is that my dad really does send me 8 point text messages, and they are absolutely RIDDLED with typos, and tonight I chose loving violence when responding.