what i read in november & december
things I loved, things I hated, and things I can't stop talking about.
Instagram | Subscribe | 100 Books
this week’s style inspo:
A bog mummy.
what I’m clicking:
The worst Michelin starred restaurant ever | True crime is rotting our brains | When multilevel marketing met Gen Z | Inside a Gen Z conspiracy theory | What you learn after 350 hours of Joe Rogan | The notorious Mrs. Mossler | What it’s like at LuLaRoe’s top seller convention | The art of botox | How Q Anon viral trafficking conspiracies hurt actual kids | She didn’t just “snap” | Half a billion in bitcoin lost in the dump | The Duggars knew their problem from the beginning | What happened to Amazon’s bookstore? | The fragility of billionaires | The Emily Ratakowski you’ll never see | Marilyn Manson is a monster hiding in plain sight | Drawing Ghislaine Maxwell | Alison Roman just can’t help herself | The abortion I didn’t have | How the Alice Sebold case unraveled | Don’t blame Alice Sebold | Reaching for bell hooks in the darkness | Hanya Yanigahara and the pandemic novel | The 1619 project and the demands of public history
what I’m wanderlusting:
Ecuador has been on my mind a lot lately. Take me to Quito and the jungle and the volcanoes and the Galapagos!
what I’m watching:
The HBO docuseries Murder on Middle Beach that came out this year. It’s so fascinating and well-done, sort of like a 4-episode version of Unsolved Mysteries.
what I’m coveting:
A pair of marble-dyed clown pants.
what i’m recommending:
‘Tis the season for a cheerful fuzzy slippy. I have these from Emu and I love them, especially with a good pair of socks.
what I’m preordering:
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
what I’m writing:
I wrote about clothing rentals and subscription boxes for CNT.
what I’m reading:
Claire Luchette
I was about 15 pages into this book when I knew I would love it. It was such a cute and refreshing read with a cast of characters and a setting that felt truly original and 100% believable.
Did it make me cry: I cried pretty early on in this book and maybe cried again at the end, but maybe the second time was more that I was sad the book was finished and less about any particular thing that happens in the book.
Did it make me laugh: Yes, I actually LOLed multiple times.
Would I recommend it: It’s so short and sweet but it’s also clever and weird and interesting. I loved it and I hope you do too.
Is it a good pandemic book: It’s a good pandemic book in that it’s a book that feels literary, but it’s also so readable and short that it feels more like reading something light and frothy.
Would I read it again: Probably not.
Would it be a good movie: I think the movie would have a hard time with the funniness of it all. Like maybe you’d just have to go all the way and make it a screwball comedy but then It would be definitely bad. This book is not meant for the screen.
Frank Herbert
My main reason for combining my November and December newsletters is that I basically only read one book in November, and this was it. So many people have recommended this book and everyone always talks about how amazing the “world building” is, but I seriously think that people who are obsessed with sci-fi should try reading literally any other genre. Why is the writing always so bad? These dudes are using the blandest descriptions and laziest characters to try and create something that they expect to be magical and fantastical and it’s just…not.
This guy had a great seed of an idea for a book–wonderful. Then he spent all of his creative energy making up a fake language and religion that’s honestly so tangential to the actual story and then the rest of the book is like reading a manual for an incredibly boring piece of machinery.
Did it make me cry: No.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Would I recommend it: No, this was such a slog.
Is it a good pandemic book: Ok, so I love old sci-fi books that feel especially prescient, even though that’s kind of a cliche way to describe them. This book is whatever the opposite of that is. Yes, the ecology and the stuff with water is cool, but I feel like this book could have been so much better if it was written from a post-colonial mindset but I think he just isn’t very bright. Everything in the book is just taken at face value with no real philosophical inquiry, which is sort of the whole point of writing about other worlds!
Would I read it again: My biggest issue with this book is that it doesn’t even end properly. It ends at the beginning of the end, and we’re just left to assume the rest (or slog through the other 97 books in the series, some of which I’ve read the Wikipedia summaries for and have no interest in pursuing). No, I wouldn’t read this again, I’m not reading any sequels, and at this point I feel like even the movie is a waste of time.
Would it be a good movie: It would just be SO corny. There’s no twist, there’s no mystery, there’s nothing thought-provoking about any of this. I would like to see what the planet looks like though.
Matt Haig
The first word that comes to mind to describe this book is: trite. It’s exactly what you think it’s going to be and just feels lazy and unoriginal. That said, I finished it in one sitting and definitely cried.
Did it make me cry: Ugh, fine.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Would I recommend it: No.
Is it a good pandemic book: No, I actually found it to be very stressful and thought-provoking in an entirely negative way.
Would I read it again: No.
Would it be a good movie: This movie would be dumb as hell and it has been made before in 1000 ways. For some reason the first movie that comes to mind is that Nicholas Cage one that’s sort of a remake of A Christmas Carol.
Fredrick Backman
I once read another Fredrick Backman book that I thought was dumb, and so I picked this book up because I was in the mood for something dumb. It did not disappoint! Dumb as hell but also pretty cute.
Did it make me cry: I think “making people cry” is this author’s #1 goal in life and yes, he succeeded this time.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Would I recommend it: No.
Is it a good pandemic book: No.
Would I read it again: No.
Would it be a good movie: No.
Gary Shteyngart
I need to say something: I fucking hate the pandemic books. I’m not talking about books about pandemics (I loved Severance and Station Eleven) but books that were written during/about COVID lockdown. This book was tiresome and shallow and also completely infuriating in its inaccurate timelines and descriptions of New York City in 2020. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook is excellent, but this man needs to seriously be banned from writing.
Did it make me cry: No.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Would I recommend it: Absolutely NOT.
Is it a good pandemic book: No, it’s quite literally the worst pandemic book that has ever been written.
Would I read it again: Hah!
Would it be a good movie: If somebody makes this into a movie I will be so furious.
Kirthana Ramisetti
I love preordering books and forgetting about it and having books like this one surprise me on my doorstep one idle Tuesday afternoon. Even though the premise is sort of unoriginal, the fact that it’s set 50 years in the future makes it so much fun to read.
Did it make me cry: No…. but maybe? I can’t remember.
Did it make me laugh: I didn’t LOL, but I think it was supposed to be funny. I smirked.
Would I recommend it: The thing is, I thought this book had SO much potential, but it just felt a little bit sloppy there at the end, with lots of continuity errors and glaring timeline issues that were just really distracting. It felt like it was edited in a rush.
Is it a good pandemic book: The setting is a sort of a parallel lockdown (snowed in on an island over Christmas) so that part was sort of relatable and cozy.
Would I read it again: No.
Would it be a good movie: Yes, I would LOVE to see this movie. I think it would be a bit better than the book, especially with flashbacks.
Octavia Butler
I know I just talked a lot of shit about sci-fi and yes, Octavia Butler is the queen of sci-fi, but I actually think this book is not sci-fi at all. I’m a little bit furious on her behalf that she’s been miscategorized for so long which is definitely why I had never heard of her until about a year ago. It’s just a good old-fashioned apocalypse book that is set in an incredibly believable future version of our world. This book was so fascinating.
Did it make me cry: No.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Would I recommend it: If you like apocalypse books you MUST read this one. If you don’t know if you like apocalypse books, you MUST read this one. If you definitely don’t like apocalypse books, I think you should read this one anyways. My one caveat for recommending it is that the main character is supposedly 14 but very much not actually recognizable as anyone under the age of 45. It’s a little distracting.
Is it a good pandemic book: Yes! Omg yes.
Would I read it again: No, but I do have the sequel waiting for me at home…
Would it be a good movie: Yes, but they’d have to make the main character more relatable and believable.