this week’s style inspo:
Anna May Wong, the first Chinese movie star in Hollywood
what I’m clicking:
The life and death of the American Mall | A deep dive into age-gap relationships | Learning to play piano when there is no recital | AI is about to photoshop your memories | Everyone is a girl online | I know what you did on the playground |These women tried to warn us about AI | Finding Jordan Neely | The war on ecoterror | Kids are living in a different digital world | MAGA’s paranoid Taylor Swift fever dream | Elmo asked an innocuous question and opened a yawning chasm of despair
what i’m wanderlusting:
I really need to go back to Indonesia
what i’m listening to:
Like everyone who saw Saltburn, I can’t get Murder on the Dancefloor out of my head
what i’m watching:
I watched the entire Star Wars franchise from start to finish in chronological order this winter for some reason. It was ok? I almost had to turn off episode one because I had such bad secondhand embarrassment but by the time The Force Awakens rolled around, I cried when I saw Carrie Fisher on the screen (I had no idea all the OGs would be in it!)
what i’m coveting:
Why do i feel like i NEED these shearling birks?
what i’m talking about:
My friend Lena interviewed me about my top 5 travel destinations for 2024
what i’m recommending:
I got this exfoliating peppermint soap from Flamingo Estate for Christmas and I’m obsessed with it (the scrubby bits are poppy seeds!)
what i’m bookclubbing:
We’ll be discussing Pam Zhang’s Land of Milk and Honey tomorrow!
what i’m reading:
Allie Rowbottom
This book is not quite what I expected (or how the critics describe it) but I devoured it. It felt very realistic and believable, even though it’s sort of in the realm of speculative fiction.
Did it make me laugh or cry: No, but it made me shudder with apprehension.
Would I recommend it: Yes.
Would it be a good movie: I would watch it. In my head I cast Faye from Euphoria as the main character.
Kim Stanley Robinson
Speaking of speculative fiction, this is one of my favorite post-apocalypse books of all time. I loved reading it, but I think it had the potential to be even better (and a bit more literary). I really hope somebody does a good job of adapting it, because I would watch six seasons of this show.
Did it make me laugh or cry: I think maybe we’re supposed to cry but I didn’t.
Would I recommend it: Yes, this book should be required reading for everyone.
Would it be a good movie: YES!!!! (tv show)
Katherine Heiny
Loved this short story collection and it reminded me that I need to read her novel, Standard Deviation
Carola Lovering
A very creepy friendship story that I COULD NOT PUT DOWN
Dwyer Murphy
Reading this book felt like watching a movie and made me think I should be reading more bro fiction?
Antoine Wilson
A juicy art world exposé in novel form
Helen DeWitt
I LOVED reading this short little “storybook”
Deborah Hemming
This book is silly (I wanted it to be sinister) and has some very annoying plot holes but it was fun to read (even though I hated the narrator)
Yu Miri
Got 75% of the way through this book before I read the back cover and found out the main character was a ghost and I’m like how????? would I have ever known that???
The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Stuart Turton
I wanted to love this book (it’s sort of like a darksided Downton Abbey x Agatha Christie collab with a dash of Groundhog Day) but mostly it just made my head hurt
Nina LaCour
This book sets out to be a sad book but it’s a little too specific to be relatable (and also it’s for teens so maybe that’s why I couldn’t care enough to cry)