#5SmartReads - August 23, 2022

A native of Mumbai, India, Shibani lives in Cleveland Ohio with her husband and two dogs. She's an avid reader and amateur floral gardener - you can find her book reviews and her flowers here.

When The Weather Gets Hot Enough To Kill (Bloomberg)

Sometimes I fall down a rabbit hole of time spiraling about climate change, and then I see things like this and it feels justified. In the meantime we have a Supreme Court that is gleefully rolling back environmental protections. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!

How The Cuyahoga River Got Its Otters Back (Next City)

If that last climate change story made you sad, maybe this one will give you hope. Good stewardship of land and water has amazing results. At one point the Cuyahoga river was so polluted it would catch on fire - multiple times. It’s why you will find lots of “Burning River” named things in Cleveland. And look how far we’ve come…

Breaking Up With A Friend Is Just As Serious As Ending A Romantic Relationship (Women’s Health)

Unfortunately I’ve had my fair share of friendship breakups over my life. Some of them were 100% my fault, others were unresolved miscommunication, and the most common were just losing touch. It’s normal to make and lose friends over your life. It’s also normal to have grief around your lost friendship.

Loneliness Is A Public Health Emergency. Here’s What Helps According To Experts (TIME Magazine)

If you’re feeling lonely, it’s probably having an impact on your health. You can call a friend or a family member, or join a social group (there are a LOT of fun FB groups like The Stripe or Forever 35) and please all seek out mental health professionals if you can!

Don’t Call Them Trash (The Atlantic)

As always, I'm leaving you with something fun. I read romance. I'm a romance reader. They are not "guilty pleasures" they are plain joy, and I will not be embarrassed. Even though romance is the top selling genre, it's still (and has always) been met with disdain. "The intellectual disdain for novels enjoyed by women often went hand in hand with a paternalistic sense of unease about how these kinds of stories might influence the innocent, unsuspecting reader." Without a doubt, reading romance has made me a more empathetic person, taught me so much, including what healthy (and unhealthy) relationships look like, all while providing endless hours of entertainment. I encourage you to pick up a romance this weekend.