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Reading Week – The Titular Role

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Happy Friday!

I write to you from Midtown Sacramento, from a coffee shop that is right on the knife-edge of Scandi-chic and fart-sniffing coffee-snob central. I like it, though.

I’m pretty taken with the state capital, which I’m visiting for little over 24 hours while Evan makes a business trip. Midtown has a relaxed, leafy-neighbourhood NorCal feel while Downtown feels big, like things are happening, but not too busy. It’s refreshing to be in a walkable city that doesn’t feel overwhelming. Plus, one of the first things we saw when we drove into town was a mural celebrating Lady Bird, the film that was already serving as our touchstone for the look and feel of the city.

I felt differently about Scottsdale, which I visited a couple of weekends ago with my in-laws. No doubt the desert has its charms – the sunsets are stunning and the palm trees and hills are lovely to look at. Old Town Scottsdale was walkable but pretty overrun with Wild West gift shop tat. Aside from that, we mostly saw were strip-malls and freshly poured tarmac. Not unlike Central California, to be sure, but I do love California for its shabbiness. It gives the place character.

Oh yeah, I also turned 30 this month. I feel pretty good about it.

How’s about some links?

OTHER THINGS CAN BE SAID

‘Rage Blackouts,’ a Short Essay on Losing Your Temper by Sadie Stein. My hope for you is that you’ll read this and think, “And I thought I was bad!”.

The web can be weaponised – and we can’t count on big tech to stop it. When Tim Berners-Lee is worried about the internet, we probably should be, too.

Similarly, this writer has concerns about YouTube, The Great Radicalizer.

File this under Things We Know But Are Still Upsetting to Read: Racial Blindness outlines the ways in which American’s founding principles enshrine inequality and white supremacy, and some immediately recognisable ways in which those ideas are expressed in news and media.

In related, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens urges protestors to call for gun control and demand that the government Repeal the Second Amendment. I’m glad someone finally said it.

IT WAS GIVEN TO ME, BY ME

Appropriately, my good friend Rosie wrote about how Lady Bird dares to tackle the mother-daughter relationship that so many films shy away from

Annihilation was a great cinematic, and post-cinematic, experience. I left wondering, just a little bit, why critics had made such a fuss. Then I was doing the dishes and suddenly came up with a whole host of theories. It’s been a fun one to discuss with friends. There are plenty of theories online, but the piece that struck me the most was Anjelica Jade Bastien’s personal and critical essay on How Annihilation Nails the Complex Reality of Depression.

Inkoo Kang asks, ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Isn’t a Great Film, But Why Does It Have to Be? I look forward to a time when women and people from under-represented communities can make an ok-to-bad film and the critical response can be like, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . But if we have to keep talking about it, I think this article makes for a great blueprint.

Meanwhile, Angie Han asks, Why is Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’ set in Japan? We’re not sure either. I haven’t any strong feelings about Wes Anderson, but I think it’s fair to say that film critics (and perhaps audiences) are getting tired of his shtick. As I was about to publish, I found this other point of view that seeks to answer one of Angie’s questions and tell us What It’s Like to Watch ‘Isle of Dogs’ As a Japanese Speaker.

(P.S. I’ve seen neither A Wrinkle in Time nor Isle of Dogs. I might, I might not.)

ON MY SHELF

This month I absolutely devoured Departures by Anna Hart, whom I’ve followed on social media for many years. You may recognise her work from any number of magazines – she’s often the one writing about coworking spaces on tropical islands and what-not. The book is laid out in chapters, each from a different country that has made her: from her childhood in Singapore and teens in Belfast, through student years in Glasgow, to her first forays into solo travel and notable trips that defined her life and career. The book also contains some of her best advice for world travel and many life lessons gained along the way. She writes with an ease and self-deprecating humour that feels warm and generous. She manages to allow you to join her on her journeys while reflecting upon everything from the privileges to the challenges of a life of travel. I highly recommend it.

It seems that the winter of my (fiction) reading discontent isn’t over after all. White Oleander was a delight (by which I mean a great, tough read), but I haven’t picked up much else. Today I finished Women by Chloe Caldwell, which was similar in style and voice to her personal essays. It’s an episodic novella about a woman’s first lesbian relationship. It reads like a memoir and moved along pleasantly enough, but it never really built to anything. It felt like a stone skimming across the surface of a great lake – complete with a sad little plop at the end.

What’s on your nightstand? Hit reply and let me know!

TIL NEXT MONTH…

Your turn! Read anything good lately? Hit reply or tweet me, won’t you?

Have a lovely weekend,
Nicola x

Reading Week – Dreaming

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Happy Friday!

It’s been a slightly bummer month. I had horrible cramps for a week. Then we went up to Monterey for a fun weekend. Then I got food poisoning. Then I spent a week on the couch. This week, I decided to shake it off. I booked a haircut. I couldn’t decide whether to go darker or lighter. So I went very, very blonde.

That’s all I have to say about that. Here’s what I have to say about what I’ve been reading and watching lately.

ON ICE

While I was sick last week, I dove head first into the Winter Olympics, probably for the first time in my life. I got pretty into figure skating in particular. Virtue and Moir, the Canadian champions in ice dancing, were a clear highlight. Everyone is obsessed with their sexual chemistry on the ice. I think it’s both a testament to, and a distraction from, their mastery of the form. But no-one would argue that they aren’t a ton of fun to watch. Here’s their final free skate (without commentary).

Also, did you know that Short-Track Speedskaters Are Lopsided?

I love Jessica Furseth’s creative article ideas, and thoroughly enjoyed her latest for Atlas Obscura, Remembering When London’s Pubs Were Full at 7 a.m.

I’m returning to Glasgow in April, and a friend and neighbour is renting out her place, so I’ll be staying in my old neighbourhood. It has given me a little pause, however, since I read Dyan Flores on the weird feelings that arise When Your Friend Moves Into Your Old Apartment.

“The question I, and many of my writer friends, have been asking in recent years is not whether to be active on social media, but how to do so without damaging the soft, fragile, interior place from which the work itself emerges.” – Dani Shapiro on the Hard Art of Balancing Writing and Social Media.

BY SEA (& ON SCREEN)

I wish I had more updates on Oscar nominees for you, but I’ve only seen one more Best Picture-nominated film since I last wrote. It was The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo Del Toro. It’s nominated in 13 categories. While it’s luscious to look at, well-cast and, on the whole, well put together, the story really let it down for me. The moments of threat were flat, I wasn’t invested in any of the characters, and some of the subplots grew like weeds. I’m not convinced that the performances were as good as they could have been: Michael Shannon and Michael Stuhlbarg are great even when they’re on autopilot, and they seemed to be squeezing every last drop of meaning they could out of the limp script.

Some people seem to love it, though. It also spurred this great piece about Women Masturbating on Film.

I also tried to see The Post… twice. The first time, my friend and I were running late and ended up seeing Pitch Perfect 3 (which is terrible, but still fun if you like the franchise). Since then I’ve been ill so I still have some catching up to do. The final 3 Best Picture nominees I need to catch, The Post, The Darkest Hour, and Dunkirk, are all playing at my local cinema this week and I’m aiming to catch them all before the Academy Awards. More to come!

ON MY SHELF

As I mentioned last time, I’ve been out of stride with my reading for the past few months. In particular, I’ve struggled to find novels I’m interested in. A few things that helped were: reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson with my friend Eva (who is super into evil houses in fiction and also has an excellent Tinyletter), ditching the book club book that I suggested but ended up hating, and starting a novel that I’ve been meaning to read for many years.

The latter is the book I’m currently reading, and thoroughly into: White Oleander by Janet Fitch.

I also read The Pisces by Melissa Broder, whose name you may recognise from So Sad Today. (I’d heard of the site, but haven’t followed it.) The novel is narrated by Lucy, a 38-year-old PhD candidate whose life has stagnated and who, on a whim, suggests she and her boyfriend of thirteen years break up. It takes. After a break-down, she goes to house- and dog-sit for her sister, where she joins a therapy group, goes on Tinder dates, and strikes up an affair with a merman. Um, yeah. It’s part examination of depression and attachment, part erotic fiction. I loved its energy early on, but it felt long (even at 220 pages) and, towards the end, it spent a lot of time wrapping up answers to questions I didn’t have. It’s released on 1st May from Hogarth Press in the USA and 3rd May from Bloomsbury in the UK.

In non-fiction, I read Upstream by Mary Oliver, which was a rather delightful selection of nature essays – some of them gently heartbreaking. Since then, I have begun to dabble in The Abundance by Annie Dillard. This best-of collection opens with her fantastic essay, Total Eclipse, which I saw being shared around during the last total eclipse but failed to read. Please don’t be as foolish as I was.

What’s on your nightstand? Hit reply and let me know!

TIL NEXT MONTH…

Your turn! Read anything good lately? Hit reply or tweet me, won’t you?

Have a lovely weekend,
Nicola x

Reading Week – The Return

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Happy Friday!

It’s been awhile. I thought about reviving Reading Week a few times last year, but you know how it is. So we’re back, and we’re taking this baby monthly. But we’re keeping the name Reading Week, because who doesn’t love a little anachronism?

As before, I’ll be sharing articles I’ve enjoyed or found thought-provoking, a little bit of my reading life, and any other snippets and tid-bits that took my fancy this month.

Expect me to be sliding into your DMs (er, email inboxes) on the list Friday of every month.

EMPTY YOUR POCKETS

I’m a prolific Pocket user. In fact, I’ve often felt like Corinne Purtill who said that she wishes she were the person her Pocket reading list suggests she is. “There will be things left on the list until my own end, when I have to reckon with all the selves I never was and everything I never understood.” Like her, I took some time to cull stories that I’m not realistically going to read, and to devote some time to the ones I’ve abandoned there for months – so some of these were published some time ago. I’m sure you don’t mind.

I loved Jessica Furseth On Synchronicity, how the sensation of stars aligning is often an illusion and how sometimes, the pleasure of coincidence is enough.

Eula Biss is characteristically excellent on the pleasure and challenges of writing non-fiction. I think I had forgotten that she began her writing life as a poet, which made me want to seek out even more poet-turned-essayists. (After her, I also discovered and loved Maggie Nelson and Sarah Manguso. If you can recommend any others, let me know.)

Austin Kleon began the new year with A few notes on daily blogging, which is giving me the itch. I was heartened to read, here and in a few other places, that some people still have the good sense to prize the platforms they own and control. I hope it becomes more of a trend in 2018 as the rise of algorithmic feeds continues to fail us.

Opioids and American exceptionalism is a necessary, unnerving read.

PAINT IT SILVER

It’s Oscar season and I have a new cinema buddy so I’ve been getting back into that cinema-going life. I used to work as a film critic, but I’ve been on the outs with the movies since a little while before moving to California. It’s been lovely to reconnect with the big screen and watch some thoughtful films.

Last weekend, Evan and I watched Phantom Thread, which is nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. I didn’t love it, but as ever, there is always lots to discuss in Paul Thomas Anderson’s films. I did think it was an interesting deconstruction of the Great Man Theory, and I also thought that my former university tutor could have written a dissertation on its use of food. So I very much agreed with Helen Rosman’s essay in which she purports that, Phantom Thread Is the Best Food Movie in Ages.

I also watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri this week. Much of its praise is well-deserved; it’s a tight screenplay and despite McDonagh’s impenetrable nihilism, the black comedic moments tended to work and some of the performances were excellent. Though McDormand is getting all the praise for her gives-no-fucks portrayal, it was Sam Rockwell who really stood out for me. The second act is almost breathtakingly violent, often in ways that felt unnecessary, and it butts heads with but never really tackles racism; but I liked how it played with power dynamics and how no-one is immune from making mistakes and the interest lay in how the characters dealt with them. Woody Harrelson was super charming, and McDonagh got a do-over by including Peter Dinklage, who was absolutely heartbreaking in his small role as a harmlessly hapless local loser.

ON MY SHELF

I have missed telling you about my reading.

In case you missed it, I did a quick round-up of my Favourite Books of 2017, which included a couple of surprise entrants, and two new favourite authors.

I began the new year with the final Elena Ferrante novel on my to-read list, The Lost Daughter, which was filled with deceit and simmering righteous anger in the surprisingly mild mind of a middle-aged academic. It was a nice little revisit to some of Ferrante’s best ideas, and it reminded me of some of my favourite parts of the Neapolitan Novels. Alas, now I must lay in wait for her next novel. Fortunately, in the meantime, she has started a weekly column for the Guardian.

This week I completed Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, which is being adapted to film as we speak. It’s a soap opera in a novel. While I didn’t care for many of the details of the wealthy characters’ extravagances, I did find myself pleasantly diverted by it, and I enjoyed reading about Singaporean food culture. It was long, and I won’t be rushing into the sequel (China Rich Girlfriend), but it was entertaining enough.

Next? Next, I don’t know. I’m tempted to begin Riverine by Angela Palm, and I’ve been hopping between essay collections on my bookshelf. I also purchased The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick (partly thanks to this review, but also because it seemed to follow me everywhere for a month). Time will tell!

What’s on your nightstand? Hit reply and let me know!

TIL NEXT MONTH…

Your turn! Read anything good lately? Hit reply or tweet me, won’t you?

Have a lovely weekend,
Nicola x