Fix things Friday (er, Saturday)

I've had a cold for much of the last two weeks, so not that productive. But I have:

- Gone to a rally in support of people who are protesting the shut-down of a maternity ward by occupying it (this is out in the countryside in northern Sweden, where health and other state services are getting cut down).
- Written up a draft of the yearly plan for 2017 for my environmental organization (not as much work as it sounds, when you can modify the old one...).
- Put up a page on the website about the annual meeting for my environmental organization.
- Emailing about lots of things, such as answering inquiries from new members of environmental org, giving feedback on texts, participating in financial decisions, etc.

Recent reading

Savage Coast by Muriel Rukeyser
I was wondering if this could be recommended to skygiants as a "romcom of the revolution", given that the text on the back says that the book charts the author's political and sexual awakening as she witnesses the Popular Front resistance to the fascist coup [in 1936 Spain] and falls in love with a German political exile who joins the first International Brigade. But no, the word "romcom" is in no way applicable. I feel that I didn't appreciate this book as it deserved--I got a cold and didn't have the brain for it, so I took a break halfway through for some lighter reading. The author is a poet, and it shows--the writing is lovely, and somewhat stream-of-consciousness-y. And I thought the book was good, but I didn't love it (why didn't I love it?). That was also my reaction to Sylvia Townsend Warner's Summer Will Show, which is actually quoted in this book. Which makes sense, because that book is also from 1936 and also features a woman traveling to another country, getting mixed up in a revolution, and falling in love (though with a woman). (Interesting aside: in Summer Will Show, the love interest is heavily exoticized for being Jewish. In Savage Coast, the main character is actually Jewish, but we don't learn this until page 200 and then it's just mentioned in passing.)

Baggböleri by Freke Räihä
Poetry about a labor conflict in 1920's northern Sweden. I liked it fine, but I read a prose account of the same event a while back and actually enjoyed it more.