skip to main content
maya sheth
Happy new year Maya's Musing #44
type musings
created 2025/11/11 modified 2026/04/15

Hey friends,

Happy (very belated) new year! I accidentally closed all my Safari tabs a couple of weeks back, which has greatly delayed the writing of this Musings edition... Without further ado, here's what's caught my attention this year.

Cheers,

Maya

"Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make." — Sister Corina Kent, in the rules for the art department at The Immaculate Heart College

  • Really enjoyed this musical explainer on nuclear reactors... I hope this launches new genre of educational media.
  • Pattern Collider lets you generate kaleidoscopic geometric grids — very inspired to draw some Islamic geometric patterns after playing around with this!
  • This illustrated series of lessons on typography for each letter of the alphabet is equally playful and informative, and has made me consider fonts with much more depth. The S lesson is one of my favorites!
  • A map may not be the territory, but this article by the Kontinentalist tells the story of how maps create both nations and our worldview.
  • Why read novels? Is it the performative increase in social capital that masks itself as "enjoying" reading? (This might be my worst fear.) Because they're a "useful form of social context"? Because they're entertainment? A way to "explore your thoughts"? Because reading is an act of doing rather than consuming? Because sometimes reading is the best thing you can do with your time?
  • An incredible compelling rebrand of Amazonia, with letters traced from actual bends in the Amazon River.
  • This list wouldn't be complete without mentioning the two apps that have taken up 70% of my time this year.. Real Sports (which somehow got me following every major sport) and SkyCards (which somehow got me tracking all the flights to all the airports)

Sports

Sports get their own section because I've spent a lot of time listening/watching/thinking about them lately...

  • Reading (listening to audiobooks) a lot less because I'm listening to the Hockey PDOcast more... great content covering the strategy/tactics, business, and analytics side of the NHL.
  • In honor of Messi leading Inter Miami to an MLS Cup (a long time ago, now): the sports analytics article that started it all: Lionel Messi is Impossible
  • "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." — Bill Shankly, manager of Liverpool Football Club from 1959 to 1974 (very relatable)
  • Finally, and in honor of the playoffs coming up soon... check out HOCKEI, where you can hate-watch all your NHL rivals

Books

Playground — Richard Powers

Strangers I Know — Claudia Durastanti

  • Another Italy book; transl. from Italian by Elizabeth Harris
  • "One of the advantages of solitude: there's no symmetry to recreate."
  • "Stranger is a beautiful word if you're not forced to be one. The rest of the time, it's just a synonym for mutilation— a gun we point at ourselves and fire."
  • "Genre in the end is just a game of possibilities and clues. It takes only a little misstep to slip out of a novel, to fall into an autobiography and resurface again as an essay, all in the short span of a sentence."

I. M. — Isaac Mizrahi

  • Autobiography, read by the author!
  • This was pretty out of my wheelhouse in a few ways— I'd never actually heard of designer Mizrahi before; fashion and film are firmly not my fortés, and I didn't relate to a lot of Mizrahi's personal experiences. I'm not sure how I.M. ended up on my "to listen" list, but I'm glad I followed through! What's the purpose of reading if not getting a glimpse into another person's umwelt?

The Ministry of Time — Kaliane Bradley

  • Five-star novel with elements of so many genres (sci-fi/time travel, historical fiction, romance, spy thriller...). I fell in love with the characters, main and side alike, who were complex and morally nuanced; the mystery-thriller plot was compelling, suspenseful, surprising, and again, crafted in shades of grey; the narration was poetic and tangible, with tasteful breaking of the fourth wall; the conclusion wrapped up with just enough hope for me to accept it. Would recommend and maybe read again!
  • A few quotes that resonated:
    • "People know, and then they choose not to know."
    • "Forgiveness and hope are miracles. They let you change your life. They are time travel."

The Center Cannot Hold — Elyn R. Saks

  • [My Journey Through Madness]
  • I believe I added this book to my "to read" list from a reference in Jonathan Rosen's The Best Minds, and I've been a bit hesitant to start it because it hits a bit close to home. For good reason, too: Saks's writing is raw and painful to hear, but I think that's also what makes it so valuable. There isn't any other way, in my opinion, to convey even a little what the internal experience of any kind of mental illness is without doing it that way. Despite different specifics, there were some ideas Saks describes that articulated so well parts of my own journey and mindset. In particular, I've always struggled to wrap my mind around the simultaneous experiences of achieving in academia and intellectual things while the rest of my mental and physical health spiraled out of control. I can't forget or even understand the day my doctor told me he didn't believe I'd survive till graduation if I didn't get serious help, then a few hours later getting accepted to grad school. Anyway, lots to ponder.
  • Some words & themes that I especially related to:
    • "I'm not sick, I'm bad."
    • On the voluntary nature of all mental health treatment in the UK: "Even at my craziest, I interpreted this as a demonstration of respect. When you're really crazy, respect is like a lifeline someone is throwing you: catch this, and maybe you won't drown."
    • "As I watched everything I valued disintegrate, I nevertheless fought to somehow hang on to my autonomy— my self. Whatever this was I was fighting, it was my problem. I would have to find a way to solve it."
    • How, when the rest of your life is falling apart, all the importance and value gets concentrated into work
    • The loneliness of dropping in and out of your life
    • Rilke: "Don't take my devils away, because my angels may flee too."

We Breed Lions — Rick Westhead

  • [Confronting Canada's Troubled Hockey Culture]
  • Read by the author, listened to while wandering San Diego
  • Should be required reading for fans to understand some of the dark side of the sport (and for parents, and coaches, and... but that's another story)

Godwin — Joseph O'Neill

  • Benin book; more sports!
  • The titular Godwin hails from Benin, and a visit to the country (an outsider's view of its flora and fauna, including the African wild dog; family and broader social dynamics; the socio-political scene) is vividly described over a long evening by an old French man to one of our narrators.

Small Things Like These — Claire Keegan

  • Another Ireland book, but I honestly could not pay attention to this for more than 5 minutes at a time, so I'm not gonna record it. I wouldn't say the book was actually boring, I just was not in the mood to appreciate the very quiet, contemplative, and depressing nature of the novel(la?).

We Begin at the End — Chris Whitaker

  • Heartbreaking, great character voices, a very California novel

In Ascension — Martin MacInnes

  • A bit weird, another reminder that I personally am just not a fan of sci-fi-adjacent genres

You Dreamed of Empires — Álvaro Enrigue, tl. Natasha Wimmer

  • Vibes are a fun mix of the ancient epics and modern day soap operas (starring the much-beleaguered Montezuma, but with a human sacrifice twist)
  • "Like everything in the temple court, they were individually covered with stucco so that they reflected the golden light of the sun down low in the sky. In Mexico City at the time of the winter solstice, night doesn't fall. It spills."
  • On the bleached displays of skulls that rattled as a form of prayer: "It wasn't an edifying display of which errors in conduct would lead, but a representation of things as they are. Inside each of us is a skull, and that's all that will be left of us when we're done. Thanks for your participation."