books! books! books! (and some other stuff too)
Hi friends!
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Here’s what I’ve been up to this week:
what I’m clicking:
In defense of reading books you hate | This absolutely nuts story about an FBI agent that fell in love with the person she was supposed to be spying on. I know it’s not supposed to be funny, but it made me laugh out loud. Can I buy the rights to this?
what I’m wanderlusting:
A private cruise down the Nile to see the Abu Simbel Temples in Egypt.
what I’m eating:
My boyfriend made this “Provence in a Bowl” from the NYT and it was delicious.
what I’m watching:
I guess I had never seen Lord of the Rings so I watched the first one this weekend. It was fine, but VERY dated and VERY white. (They can have wizards and dwarves and elves in Middle Earth but no women or black people?)
what I’m coveting:
All the gauzy and ethereal and totally unaffordable dresses from Ulla Johnson.
what I’m reading:
Margo JeffersonThe thing about memoirs is that I seem to enjoy them most when they are written by random people who have no business writing a memoir (see The Glass Castle and The Folded Clock, off of the top of my head).
Margo Jefferson is somebody who should write a memoir…but I just didn't love this book. For a few reasons: the first 40 pages (10% of the book) are just straight-up history. I guess it's important to set the scene, and a lot of it I had never heard before, but nonfiction was just not what I signed up for when I picked up this book. Once I finally got to the memoir part, it’s really focused on her childhood, which to me seemed pretty normal and happy. She's just a regular suburban middle class kid with nice parents who goes to a good school and camp in the summer. She also spends an inordinate amount of time watching TV, and that was incredibly boring because I didn't understand any of her 1950s pop culture references. Just when the book starts to get interesting and go into her adult life and career, it ends. It just glosses over these important milestones in her life. She has a good personality and an interesting enough story, but for most of the book she's just your basic average person, following the crowd and doing what she's supposed to do. Also I think it’s worth noting that I still had to read her wikipedia page after reading this “memoir” because I learned almost nothing about her life.
Did it make me cry: No.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Did it make me miss a subways stop: No.
Would I recommend it: No, but I would recommend it to people around her same generation (60s or older) because they’ll probably understand her 50s TV pop culture references. I would also recommend any of her writing that is not in this memoir.
Would I read it again: No, but I see that she’s written a book about Michael Jackson and I’m very curious about it.
Would it be a good movie: Nope.
Maile Meloy
I think people like to hate books like this - a suspenseful vacation story about rich people on vacation in Costa Rica, where something terrible happens to their kids. I like to think of books like this as a gateway drug to reading and the backbone of the publishing industry. For every book like this that sells a million copies, you get to have hundreds of amazing books that don’t make any money.
Did it make me cry: No, but maybe it would make you cry if you have children.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Did it make me miss a subways stop: I didn’t read it on the subway but probably. I could not put this book down.
Would I recommend it: It’s just a few hairs smarter than your average beach read and there’s no way you won’t finish it, so yes. BRING THIS BOOK TO THE BEACH (unless, of course, that beach happens to be in Costa Rica and you’re on vacation with your children).
Would I read it again: Absolutely not.
Would it be a good movie: Definitely.
Pajtim Statovci
I had a copy of this book at home that I had completely forgotten about until I saw a girl reading this on the subway. I asked her how it was and she was like “good. But REALLY weird.” I agree.
Did it make me cry: No.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Did it make me miss a subways stop: No.
Would I recommend it: Normally I wouldn’t recommend a book like this because I just wasn’t floored by it. But, I think there’s something to be said about reading outside of your comfort zone, and what better way to do that than to read a book about a gay muslim from Kosovo living in Finland with a talking cat?
Would I read it again: No.
Would it be a good movie: No.
what I’m reading right now:
H Is For Hawk. So far I find it totally and incredibly boring, but I’m only on page 4. Should I keep going?
the best book I read in April:
the best book I read in March:
the best book I read in February:
The Bone Clocks and Days of Abandonment
the best book I read in January:
what’s on my bookshelf waiting to be read:
The new Bernadette book (thanks Emily!)
what books are on my list to buy (this will take me months to actually do):
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
M Train by Patti Smith
That Patty Hearst book
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born
What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell
I Love Dick (which is being made into a TV show by Jill Soloway!)
After interviewing Helen Ellis, I added a few books from her “classic trashy” book club to my list.
What are you reading? (You can reply to this email and tell me)
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