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this week’s style inspo:
what i’m clicking:
Just because you can afford to travel somewhere doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy it | Leave Marilyn Monroe alone | The overwhelming sadness of William Shatner’s trip to space | The aesthetic of bookishness | The genre of “hot girl books” | Why restaurant workers aren’t going to restaurants | The battle over America’s public lands | The most influential postwar women’s fashion | The food instagram vibe shift | The original food influencer opens a Vegas restaurant |The lost art of stone skipping | Why are people fleeing US territories? | Are you the same person you used to be? | A final conversation with a loved one
what i’m wanderlusting:
Japan’s Kumano Kodo trail
what i’m watching:
The Tell Me Lies adaptation is based on events that happened at my college while I was a student so it’s been really fun to watch it and recognize certain themes/people/parties/concepts. It’s *very* different from the book, but it’s still incredibly juicy. I feel like we’re in a golden age of book-to-screen content and there are some other things I’m very excited to watch this fall and winter: Shantaram (finally!) and Luckiest Girl Alive.
what i’m coveting:
The only way to keep my seasonal depression at bay is by shopping for cute coats when I feel the first chill in the air. I have my heart set on a floor-length black trench coat with an over-the-top fur collar, like this Saks Potts number.
what i’m listening to:
I generally think it’s really annoying and not worth the effort when a podcast is only available on Spotify, BUT I really love Crime Show. It’s been billed as “ethical true crime” since it seems to tell stories with the support of victims (and not at the expense of victims) and many of the crimes are serious but not necessarily traumatizing. They took a very long break for summer but they’re back now (hooray!).
what i’m recommending:
This is truly one of the lamest most pedestrian things I’ve ever recommended here, but I switched to ceramic pans two weeks ago and my quality of (kitchen) life has increased tenfold. If you’ve been thinking about throwing away your cancer-y teflon and going ceramic, let this be the sign that it’s time to do it. I got this very basic set, but they have really fancy and beautiful ones, too.
what i’m reading:
Ayad Akhtar
I have this theory that I’ve probably discussed here before, but when a book’s title is like: “Title: A Novel” it’s usually a red flag that this book is unrecognizable as a novel. To me, Homeland Elegies is *not* a novel. It’s a set of semi-autobiographical essays depicting a somewhat fictionalized series of events and topics. Not a novel (cause there’s no plot) but still excellent, unexpectedly hilarious, wildly thought-provoking and honestly just a lot of fun to read despite how heavy the title/cover/themes are.
Did it make me cry: It made me sad, but it also made me LOL. I loved it.
Would I recommend it: The first chapter/essay in the book is pretty boring and not good, but if you can make it 100 pages into this book, I think you’ll end up liking it. The stories only get better as the book goes on.
Would it be a good movie: I think there are 3 or 4 different chapters that could each be made into entirely separate movies.
Kate Green
A friend recommended this random out-of-print book that I’ve never heard of and I was sort of blown away by the fact that this has never been turned into a movie or a TV series. I think if somebody wrote this book now, it would just feel kind of cheesy and “done” but since it was written in the 80s, there’s just something that feels really original about it. Plus, now it’s sort of this amazing period piece about Haight Street hippies turning into 80s yuppies with some themes that might have been more mainstream back then but feel definitely vintage and underportrayed now.
Did it make me cry: No.
Would I recommend it: This is not a great book, but it’s fun to read and it’s really interesting how based in a particular time, culture, and place it is. (1980s ex-hippies in the Bay Area). If that subject matter interests you and you love a good thriller, track this book down on Ebay or AbeBooks.
Would it be a good movie: This is the kind of book that would be 100x better as a movie, especially if it was still set in the 80s. I need somebody to please make this movie!
Lauren Oliver
I’ve been on the hunt for dark YA books that aren’t rooted in sci-fi and fantasy and I was really hoping this one would scratch the itch, but it’s actually terrible. The writing is beyond bad, the pacing is really weird and full of plot holes, and there’s no real twist or mystery behind the thing.
Did it make me cry: No.
Would I recommend it: There are plenty of books for kids that are really fun to read even if you’re definitely not a kid anymore. This is not one of them; don’t waste your time.
Would it be a good movie: You’d have to do a lot of finessing with the plot and characters and setup to make this work, but even so, Amazon canceled the series after one season (I didn’t watch it and probably won’t, but I can’t imagine how they’d make it stretch beyond one season without making things ridiculous).
Elena Armas
Somebody (I hope it wasn’t one of you) recommended this book to me as a sort of “if you liked Crazy Rich Asians, you’ll love this!” and I’m here to tell you that person is wrong and this is one of the dumbest and worst books I’ve read this year (or possibly ever). Cons include: charmless characters you can’t possibly root for, totally cringey ethnic tropes, eye-rolly sex scenes between characters with no chemistry, really bad ESL writing. Nothing about this book is good or fun or interesting and I regret picking it up.
Did it make me cry: No.
Would I recommend it: No.
Would it be a good movie: Absolutely not.