h e l l o from t h e o
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this week’s style inspo:
Rei Kawakubo, the ultimate goth queen
what I’m clicking:
The divorced couple fighting over frozen dead bodies | What Bachelor in Paradise can teach us about the influencer economy | Sally Rooney and the literature of the pose | Vibes, explained | How the ultra-rich are traveling during COVID | Who is the bad art friend? | The cult of the nap dress | Rick Steves says hold on to your travel dreams | My accidental visit to the pandemic’s party capital | Blue marriage and the terror of divorce | Gabby Petito is forcing us to reckon with our true crime obsession | 1 billion tiktok users understand what congress doesn’t | Millennials never wanted ping pong tables at work | The myth of Asian American identity | How do you keep a tragedy from becoming just another tourist attraction? | Mr. Weber’s confession | Revolt of the NYC delivery workers | When escaping from poverty means leaving your family
what I’m wanderlusting:
Gay Paree
what I’m watching:
No show on television makes me as happy as The Great British Baking Show, which is back with a new season (!)
what I’m coveting:
This fruity bejeweled set from Interior.
what i’m recommending:
I fondled this $2500 Loewe purse at Saks the other day and I think it’s the most perfect bag that has ever existed. Obviously I didn’t buy it, but I did purchase the $128 version from Fossil and it’s great.
what I’m preordering:
The Paris Apartment. I cannot resist a trashy thriller set in a foreign country.
what I’m reading:
Diane Johnson
This is now the fourth (!) book I’ve read by this woman (they’ve all been horrible) and maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome but this one was just...not that bad. I’m not saying you should read it (don’t) but I’m saying if you’re somehow trapped in a library that only has books by Diane Johnson, this is probably the one to read.
Did it make me cry: No.
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, the plot is completely ridiculous.
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney
I don’t know what the book version of jumping the shark is but there’s this thing that happens when people become super successful authors where they just sort of stop getting edited and sadly, I think that happened to Sally Rooney. I LOVED her first two books, this one was just sort of a head scratcher. I thought she did a really good job writing annoying characters that get under your skin, but I just think this book was highly unnecessary. Curious to hear from somebody who loved it and how it made you feel.
Did it make me cry: No, I don’t think so?
Did it make me laugh: Maybe?
Would I recommend it: No.
Is it a good pandemic book: No, and at the end of the book the characters are in covid lockdown and I was like UGH WHY.
Would I read it again: No.
Would it be a good movie: I would 100% watch this movie, but it probably wouldn’t be good.
Cecily von Ziegesar
Does this author’s name sound familiar to you? If so, you were probably a preteen girl in the early 2000s when the Gossip Girl books first came out. The authors back with this superbly dumb but incredibly readable book about one neighborhood in Brooklyn.
Did it make me cry: I can’t remember but everything makes me cry these days so probably.
Did it make me laugh: No, although it’s definitely trying to be funny? It’s more smirky rather than “ha ha” funny.
Would I recommend it: Nope. Maybe if you live in Cobble Hill you’d get a kick out of it, but even then probably not.
Is it a good pandemic book: Not particularly.
Would I read it again: Oh no.
Would it be a good movie: I’m not sure what this movie would be about. So, no.
Frances Cha
Everyone is obsessed with Korea right now, including me. This book is interesting because it’s written by a Korean-American woman in English for American audiences--a sort of cultural primer to modern Korea through the eyes of the women living in one apartment building. It’s so good, so fascinating, and I was so sad when it was over.
Did it make me cry: No, but it’s sad, like, existentially.
Did it make me laugh: No, see above.
Would I recommend it: Yes. This book was so well written, I loved it.
Is it a good pandemic book: Not quite.
Would I read it again: No, but I would read anything else by this author!
Would it be a good movie: I think more of a TV series on this one, it’s a complex enough cast of characters and not much really happens.
Emily Henry
This is probably one of the dumbest books I have ever read, but my main qualm is that the title (catchy! intriguing!) has literally NOTHING to do with the book. Nobody meets anybody on any vacations, at all.
Did it make me cry: No, these characters are the biggest losers in literature history and I could not possibly care less about their boring little lives.
Did it make me laugh: No, I hated these people. They are so annoyingly unhappy.
Would I recommend it: Please don’t read this book, it sucks.
Is it a good pandemic book: It MIGHT have been a good pandemic book if it was actually about PEOPLE meeting other PEOPLE on VACATION, like the title suggests. There are only two characters in this book, and they are terrible.
Would I read it again: No, but it feels good to get this worked up about something so MAYBE.
Would it be a good movie: Maybe, like, on the Hallmark Channel? I wouldn’t watch this.
Katrine Engberg
I love a thriller set in a foreign country, so naturally, I read this book in one sitting. I got a sneak preview copy, but it’s not on sale until the spring (but you can preorder now).
Did it make me cry: No.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Would I recommend it: It depends what you’re into. Did you love Girl With a Dragon Tattoo? Then this book’s for you.
Is it a good pandemic book: Yes! I couldn’t put it down and it felt like a very creepy little vacation to Copenhagen.
Would I read it again: No.
Would it be a good movie: Honestly it would probably be a better movie than a book. I’m surprised nobody has turned any of her books into movies or a series yet.
Yaa Gyasi
I loved, loved, loved Homegoing so much that it really bummed me out how...meh...I felt about this book. There are some interesting concepts, I guess, but it all just felt so tiresome and at the end of the book I still felt like I didn’t know the characters very well.
Did it make me cry: I think I might have cried. It’s pretty sad.
Did it make me laugh: No.
Would I recommend it: I think it’s possible that more science-y lab-y people would like this book, but it just wasn’t for me.
Is it a good pandemic book: No, too depressing.
Would I read it again: No, too depressing.
Would it be a good movie: A movie might make the characters feel more real and there are definitely some cinematic scenes, but I don’t think there’s enough plot here.
Jenn McKinlay
For some reason unknown to me, this year I decided to explore the genre of the modern romance novel. All the covers all look the same: a candy-colored background with a faceless illustration of two people. And every single book in the genre has the same happy ending (they always get together in the end). I don’t know why I keep reading these but honestly, I kind of loved this one.
Did it make me cry: I may have shed a few tears at the corniest part of this book. It just got to me, okay?!
Did it make me laugh: No, but it’s kind of funny.
Would I recommend it: No, there are so many better corny-ass books out there.
Is it a good pandemic book: There are some fun travel moments, so I’ll give this a hard maybe.
Would I read it again: Absolutely not.
Would it be a good movie: I would definitely not watch this movie, but somebody probably would.