that was interesting
h e l l o from t h e o
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this week’s style inspo:
what I’m clicking:
The skeletons at the lake | What is art and who gets to enjoy it? According to these losers, nothing and nobody | I’m still trying to figure out if the Galactic Federation is a prank | The allure of our unlived lives RIP to the restaurants we lost this year | Dimes Square has its own newspaper now | The senseless killing of Brandon Bernard | How Lindsay Lohan ended up in a bizarre TikTok ad | Whiteness reigns in our cultural obsession with Cleopatra | Weddings to die for | What happened to Man Repeller? | Can Deb Haaland stay a hero? | Buying a nugget on facebook restored my faith in humanity | My mommies and me | Disney, stop turning your black characters into animals | A tech tycoon tweets from prison | The rise of the messy advice column | When the pandemic ends, don’t put off any more adventures | Headlines don’t capture the horror we saw | I get anxiety when I think about all the time I wasted on social media this year. This piece by Stella Bugbee managed to say everything I was feeling. Does anybody have a new year’s resolution to quit instagram? | Cancel NYE forever | The plague year | Where the pandemic will take America in 2021
what I’m coveting:
I want/need every single tiny bottle of lotions and potions from the Kindred Black apothecary. Lip gloss in a glass jar and a plane ticket somewhere warm is all that’s missing from my life right now.
what I’m watching:
I watched that new Meryl Streep movie that takes place on the Queen Mary. I have been wanting to take that trip for a long time and before the pandemic, I actually had a meeting with Cunard and discussed a possible transatlantic voyage in the fall of 2020. Now that I don’t have a job I’m not sure when/if I’ll ever get to do that trip but watching this movie made the boat look FAB. I’m not totally sure what the movie was about and I still have some fundamental questions about the plot points (why was Susan invited on the boat? What was the owl book about and what did Bronwyn Pugh have to do with anything? Did Astrid from Crazy Rich Asians get her fillers dissolved?) but I really enjoyed taking a trip across the pond with those ladies. It was both soothing and compelling.
what I’m wanderlusting:
Take me to the heel of the boot, please.
what I’m reading:
Arundhati Roy
If you’ve ever asked me what my favorite book is or looked at my saved list of 100 favorite books, you’ve probably heard me talk about the God of Small Things before. This was my first time rereading it since I first read it (possibly in high school? Maybe college?) and fell in love with the setting. I distinctly remember the experience of finishing this book for the first time and wanting to go back to the beginning and read it all over--a feeling I’ve only had a few times. There were lots of plot points I couldn’t remember but two things about this book have never left me: the characters and the setting. I think this book is one of the reasons why I have loved India for so long--even before I ever got the chance to visit. This book was just as good as I remember--if not, better--and it’s so worth your time if you’ve never read it, even just for the language and invented vocabulary alone. It’s creepy and heartbreaking yet utterly enthralling. This time when I finished it, I actually did go back to the beginning to reread the first chapter--a move I highly recommend!
Did it make me cry: Yes.
Did it make me laugh: Yes. The way the twins create their own language is so clever.
Is it a good pandemic book: I guess at its simplest it could be considered a book about how things can go horribly awry on vacation, so sure. You’ll be glad you’re not on vacation while simultaneously planning a vacation on one of those cool houseboats in Kerala.
Would I recommend it: YES! Please read this book if you haven’t already.
Would I read it again: Yes.
Would it be a good movie: I thought about this alot while reading because this book is SO cinematic. Sometimes books are just books, but reading this book is like watching a movie that’s only inside your brain. Ultimately, that means an actual movie would never match up to the masterpiece I’ve already directed in my imagination. So, no.
Jane Hamilton
This book was recommended by a friend and at first I was like “I’ve definitely read that before” but then I realized that I read the other two more famous Jane Hamilton books (The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World). So this was a fresh read for me--I’m like 90% sure. Who knows, maybe I read this one before too. It’s a good book but it’s a little bit claustrophobic and I really feel like the denouement could have been a bit more dramatic. At the end I was just kind of like “oh, ok” but I think a different writer could have made this into an “omg, wow.”
Did it make me cry: No.
Did it make me laugh: MULTIPLE lols. Like, one time I think I guffawed(?)
Is it a good pandemic book: No, but ok.
Would I recommend it: The irony of not being able to remember if I read this as a teen is that I would definitely recommend this book to teens. I can’t really think of any adults I would recommend this to.
Would I read it again: No.
Would it be a good movie: No, too much of the book takes place inside somebody’s head.
Sandra Cisneros
I feel like this is the kind of book that should be required summer reading between 8th and 9th grade, but alas, I have never heard of this book until somebody recommended it to me a few months ago. BUT during the summer between 8th and 9th grade I was required to read How the Irish Saved Civilization and then one time in college I mentioned that book in a class assuming that it’s one of those books that everyone has to read at some point in highschool but my professor was SO impressed--so don’t forget to do the required reading, kids. Sorry for the digression but my point is that you should probably read this book if you haven’t already.
Did it make me cry: No. It’s sad, but it’s also kind of sweet and hopeful.
Did it make me laugh: No, too sad for laughing.
Is it a good pandemic book: It’s very short and written as a series of vignettes, so it’s a good mini-distraction for people who feel too overwhelmed by life to crack open a 500-page biography of Oliver Cromwell or whatever.
Would I recommend it: It honestly only took probably an hour or two to read this whole book--it’s so worth it for a perspective I have rarely/never heard.
Would I read it again: Sure, why not.
Would it be a good movie: There’s not really a plot per se, but I think you could take the basics and turn it into an “inspired by” tv series.
Lucy Foley
Just like The Hunting Party, this book was really really bad but I finished it in one day. Even though the ending of this book was sort of dumb and disappointing, there’s something to be said for a book that you can just fly through. Even though I didn’t like the book, I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading it--until I got to the end and realized I had guessed all the twists and that there wasn’t going to be any big surprise. I think these sort of “airport reads” have a bad reputation (helped in no small part by people like me) but sometimes it’s just the perfect thing to read for the time and place you’re in.
Did it make me cry: No.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Is it a good pandemic book: Yes! Escapism! Distractions! A wedding on a secluded island!
Would I recommend it: I don’t necessarily think you’d regret reading this if you’re in the mood for something fun and thrilling BUT I will say that if you’re in the mood for a book like this, one of my all time favorites in this genre is The Favorite Sister.
Would I read it again: No.
Would it be a good movie: I think if you added a bit of cheekiness and humor this movie could be really fun to watch.
Charles Yu
I was really excited to read this book--it won the National Book Award for chrissakes! And it also sounded fun and juicy. Unfortunately, it was pretty disappointing. Perhaps if my hopes hadn’t been so high, I would have been like “cool, that was fun, now let’s move on.” But because it’s so highly praised, I feel like I need to scrutinize this book even more than usual. I think the thing that makes me angriest is that one of the biggest themes in the book is stereotypes and having people--especially immigrants--not be confined to cookie cutter ideals. So in theory that’s a really good idea for this book and the movie within the book but it just doesn’t work at all. Maybe Charles Yu is a bad writer or maybe he just doesn’t care, but his characters fucking sucked. The main character is obviously the hero and I found him to be likeable and compelling enough, but everyone else around him might as well be a ventriloquist dummy or a cardboard cutout. I think satire in general is kind of eye-rolly, especially when it’s done in such a heavy-handed way but one of the other things that bothered me about this book is the repeated anti-black sentiments that are thinly veiled as “satire” or “irony”. I’m really curious to hear what a black person thinks about this book though, because I could be totally wrong. Mostly I just want the writer to stop patting himself on the back for something that was a good idea but ended up being entirely mediocre.
Did it make me cry: I think I did actually cry at one point there towards the end.
Did it make me laugh: No, but he was definitely trying to be funny. Cringe.
Is it a good pandemic book: I think it’s an excellent pandemic book, especially with all of the sinophobic rhetoric and sentiments spewed by Trump and mainstream media. This book isn’t as good as it could have been, but if nothing it will make you stop and think about how abysmally Chinese immigrants are treated in America.
Would I recommend it: No, but the last 10 or so pages are really well-written.
Would I read it again: No, except for those last 10 pages.
Would it be a good movie: YESSSSSSS! Somebody get Charles Yu far away from this screenplay because this movie has SO MUCH potential.
Lily King
I loved Euphoria but for some reason I just didn’t care about reading this book (I thought the cover and title were stupid, and I still do) until one of my friends told me it was “gosspiy” which is a buzzword for me. I purchased and read this book in under 24 hours and I have to say that I LOVED it. So much. I just love it when you’re rooting for the main character.
Did it make me cry: Yes, I got teary at the babysitting scene.
Did it make me laugh: There are definitely clever parts that made me smile.
Is it a good pandemic book: Easy to read, easy to love. Why not?
Would I recommend it: I do really really want you to read this book because I have one huge question that I need to discuss: WHY WAS THIS BOOK SET IN THE 90s? Is it because we need phone calls and answering machines to move the plot forward? Is the 1990s considered historical fiction now? I truly don’t understand! I’m thinking about emailing the editor to find out because honestly it was extremely distracting. Could this have been rewritten to be set in the present day? I don’t see why not BUT I do get the feeling that mentioning text messages in a book is seen as tacky by publishers. Like when has a book with published text messages won a major award? Ok this rant is over but obviously I’m desperate to hear your thoughts so please tell me your theories.
Would I read it again: Not until I find out why this book takes place in the 90s.
Would it be a good movie: It just feels too random to make a movie that’s randomly set in the 90s for no particular reason. You don’t even really realize it’s the 90s except for the brief mention of Princess Diana and also the answering machines and also she mails things instead of using the internet. There’s not even a present-day epilogue!
Cazzie David
It’s true I didn’t ask for this book but that didn’t stop a PR person from randomly sending it to me (not entirely sure how I got on that list but THANK YOU!) and it didn’t stop me from reading it as soon as I opened the package. I honestly had no idea Cazzie David even existed until this summer when I read something by her in Air Mail and I was like “who is this person, she seems cool” and then I realized she was only 25 and I was like “WHAT” and then I realized she was Larry David’s daughter and I was like “oh, I don’t feel as bad about myself anymore.” This book was sort of fascinating to me because I somehow just didn’t realize that there were functional, normal-seeming people in the world who were this fucked up, like to the core. This has been a hard year for everyone, myself included, but reading this book was a strange comfort: my very worst days of anxiety, depression, and tears-for-no-reason are better than Cazzie David’s best days. I am truly a happy person and grateful to be alive in the world, and this book was a good reminder of that. I think Cazzie is so endearing and funny and interesting, but while I was reading the book I just didn’t actually find her to be a very talented writer until---UNTIL! The very last essay, which is probably the only thing you have heard about this book if you’ve seen any articles about it. The best and last essay is about her breakup with Pete Davidson and it is incredible, in an awful sort of way. I generally think that unless you’ve escaped from a cult or been shot in the head by the Taliban or you’re just a really good writer you probably don’t have anything worthwhile to impart in a memoir before the age of 25, but in Cazzie’s case, I think her experience with Pete and Ariana is the kind of thing that makes this book worth writing (and worth reading). The rest of it was a little too self-pitying for my taste, but enjoyable anyway.
Did it make me cry: No, but I really truly felt so sad for her that she has to be trapped inside her own head.
Did it make me laugh: Yeah, she’s funny in my favorite kind of self-deprecating way.
Is it a good pandemic book: The whole time I was reading this book I was like “wow, Cazzie David’s life before coronavirus is pretty much identical to lockdown life.” (She lives with her parents, she got a pet to help her cope, she never leaves her house, and she’s a total germaphobe.) I’m not sure if that gave me comfort or anxiety and I’m not sure how it will make you feel, either.
Would I recommend it: Not really, but you should buy a copy just to read the last essay.
Would I read it again: No.
Would it be a good movie: No.