Hello!
Happy Wednesday!
I’m trying to send these out every Wednesday morning (sorry I’m late today!). Make sure to add moushkaa@gmail.com to your contacts so these emails don’t go into your spam folder. If you missed last week’s installment, you can find it (and all my old ones) here: http://tinyletter.com/theodora/archive
If you’re forwarding this to friends who might want to sign up, they can do so here.
What I’m clicking on:
In the last few days of Obama’s presidency, I’ve been doing a lot of reading: The Bush sisters write to the Obama sisters. Obama the groomsman. Obama’s third term. Escapism through books.
What I’m looking forward to:
The Women’s March on Washington. Here’s Ann Friedman on why she’s marching.
What I’m working on:
Trying to knit a bunch of pink hats by Saturday. So far I have half of one completed...
What I’m reading:
Joan Didion
I am embarrassed to admit that I have never read a book by Joan Didion. I'm also embarrassed to admit that I was mostly unimpressed by this book. It's a shame because the premise of the book is actually pretty cool: she sets out to write about the worst year of her life with a journalistic approach - with quotes, facts, dates, and numbers. However, the end product is just a little too boring and her relationship with her husband made me feel sad, but not in a good way. She's totally obsessed with him, with everything about him and every detail of their life together, but what they have (or had) does not seem special. There's no love, there's no passion, there’s just a coexistence. Every memory of him is just them driving home from dinner at some D-list celebrity’s house and talking about nothing.
Speaking of D-list celebrities, this book is also very name-droppy and I had no idea who most of the "celebrities" she was talking about were. I have also never heard of her husband. Should I have?
I have a favor to ask. Can somebody who's a die-hard Joan Didion fan please recommend something of hers that I should read? I'd really like to give her another chance. Just make sure it's nothing autobiographical - her life is bland and her internal monologue is humorless.
Did it make me cry: There’s one point in the book where it goes from focusing on the husband to focusing on the daughter and that was devastatingly sad. Yes.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Did it make me miss a subways stop: No.
Would I recommend it: I would recommend it to people going through the same thing. I think it would be a really helpful resource.
Would I read it again: Maybe when I’m old and my boring husband dies.
Would it be a good movie: What? How would that even be possible. There’s no way.
Otessa Moshfegh
This book made me feel a lot of complicated things, in a very good way. I admired and liked the narrator, but she’s also a psycho and pretty disgusting. The setting is so good and bleak and everything about this book is so ugly it’s beautiful. It gave me a physical reaction, similar to what I've felt reading books like Dark Places, Kiss Me First, and The Little Friend.
Did it make me cry: No.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Did it make me miss a subways stop: I didn’t read it on the subway but I would not be surprised! This book is pretty unputdownable.
Would I recommend it: YES. It’s so short and so well-written and just a perfect dark scary little book.
Would I read it again: Yes.
Would it be a good movie: Ellen Page would win an Oscar for this, hands down. I’d like to see her opposite Margot Robbie. Can I please make this movie? All it needs is an excellent soundtrack and there's no way it would be bad.
What I’m reading right now:
The House of God by Samuel Shem
What’s on my bookshelf waiting to be read:
This One is Mine by Maria Semple
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
What books are on my list to buy (this will take me months to actually do):
Now that I have established myself as a Miriam Toews fan, I want to see what else she has up her sleeve: A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, Irma Voth, and her memoir, which sounds like it was inspiration for AMPS.
Since I read this article, I added a few more books to my list. This list is growing faster than I can keep up.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
The new Bernadette book
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
M Train by Patti Smith
That Patty Hearst book
H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
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)
Do you like my book banter? Tell your friends to sign up! http://tinyletter.com/theodora