READ ALL ABOUT IT
Since 2012, I’ve been writing about books. And the act of reading. And the importance of story and narrative. But, mostly, the underlying theme of all I write is how taking a moment to stop and digest some longform text — instead of scrolling, instead of watching a video, instead of multitasking — can be one of the most grounding things we can do for ourselves. Here’s the one-stop online home for all this writing.
You can read more about me and my work by moseying over here. Want to peruse periodic “essay drops” — excerpts from my work-in-progress essay collection about Homesickness? Here ya go.
Surrender
“A story line is everything.” – Bono, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.
Turning Nairobi’s Public Libraries Into ‘Palaces for the People’
Here’s a NYT article about the McMillan Library in Nairobi and how a dedicated group of organizers and fundraisers have gone about restoring the colonial-era institution — initially serving only white patrons — and turning it, and other libraries like it, into “palaces for the people.” According to Keynan publisher Angela Wachuka, “…we are here to also reclaim history, to occupy its architecture and to subvert its intended use.”
Sartorialists, Fashionistas, Readers
Survey says? 💃🎩🪡🧑🏽🎤
The School for Good Mothers
This book made me so tense, which doesn’t happen often. (While reading a book, I mean…)
Unaccompanied
Last month I was trying to read a memoir called Solito by Javier Zamora. It’s about the author’s solo journey as a child from El Salvador to the United States, where both of his parents were living.
Literary Fandoms
Do you have a favorite author? I do. (Yes, I’m talking about Carol Shields again.) However, I can’t follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her newsletter because, well, she is deceased.
Happy All the Time
Like a classic New Yorker cartoon. Or an older Woody Allen film, à la Hannah and Her Sisters or Annie Hall. Throw a Wendy Wasserstein play in there too. If that's your thing!
At the Bottom of the River
I cannot stand winter in the Northeast US. I don’t mind the cold (rather like it, actually), don’t mind the snow (love, it actually), it’s not like I have seasonal affective disorder and need to move to Florida (no) or get a special lamp. Rather, I just really, really dislike the grey-ness and I really, really, really dislike the barren trees that all look dead. “Look at that marsh over there,” says Matt with an admiring tone on our drive. “You mean the one with what looks like toothpicks sticking out of it?” I think. Pass! Sorry to offend any diehard NE’ers here, but well...
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
My journey through this book — the everyone-loves-it Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin was ↗️↘️↗️↘️. I wish I could type out more of a parabolic line, but the arrows will have to do. I don’t mean “up and down,” like I liked it and then I didn’t like it. No, I mean that this novel — that uses gaming as a foil to explore friendship, love, grief, and how work and ambition weave into all of those emotions — so beautifully mirrors the heave-ho of a real, offline life.
No Thanks to the Colleen Hoover Coloring Book
Two truths and a lie specific to this account:
* Salka Valka is my favorite Halldór Laxness book. (IYKYK)
* Favorite author = Carol Shields.
* I have read a Colleen Hoover book.
Memoir as Fantasy
Hello. In case you weren’t aware, there is a new tell-all memoir out called Spare. Have you heard of it?
Trust
What makes a book “very readable”?
A Book Prize From Those Behind Bars: Goncourt des détenus
As always, I’m spending too much brain space on this notion of celebrities becoming book pushers. So this NYT article from a couple of weeks ago was a nice change-up. The Prix Goncourt is France’s version of the Booker or the Pulitzer, but in some ways it might be more akin to being bestowed the Oprah stamp of approval: The monetary prize is only €10, but the payoff in book sales is considerable.
Seven Empty Houses
First book of 2023: FIN. (To be fair, I had literally 3 pages left when I put it down yesterday. What is my problem.) Seven Empty Houses, by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell.
Curiosity > Accomplishment
Ahh, New Year’s Eve…the dawn of a New Life ™️. I truly love Jan. 1 — clean slate, fresh start — and do spend time thinking about how I’d like the impending year to unfold. Or rather, how I’d like to respond to how the year unfolds. I love a good quantifiable challenge —which, let’s face it, is what most people’s resolutions are — but I’m more interested in how an outcome might shape my outlook on life instead of just “I lost 5 pounds.” (Or, to tie in to this account: “I read 1,000 books.”)
The Days of Abandonment
On the back of this book — The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante — a blurb by Mona Simpson states, “[Ferrante] is the Italian Alice Munro.”
Library or Police Station in McFarland?
Whooooo… (Picture me whistling in an ‘oh boy’ kind of way, not that I know how to do that). I picked up this article the other day. It’s part of the New York Times’ “Across the Country” series. In this installment, a reporter goes to McFarland, California, a migrant farming community. The Police Department needs more space, and it’s eyeing the public library. Not surprisingly, conflict has ensued. The library of course offers services beyond checking out books: “Perhaps more so than in wealthier places with more options, the library serves a vital role. On average, 200 to 250 people come through the doors daily.” And many would agree that communities need effectively staffed and resourced police departments. McFarland, in particular, is seeing higher crime rates and an uptick in violent gang activity.
Demon Copperhead
Ohhhhhh….I really wanted to lovelovelove Demon Copperhead, by the beloved Barbara Kingsolver. I did like her much-anticipated novel (very much so), a retelling of Dickens’ David Copperfield. It’s the ultimate “Bildungsroman,” as readers follow protagonist Damon (nickname Demon) from the first line (“First, I got myself born.”) to young adulthood set (mostly) amidst Lee County, Virginia — just one area in the middle of a pigeonholed-for-all-the-wrong-reasons region.
Sam Bankman-Fried Doesn’t Read
Booklovers went bonkers over this WaPo headline the other day: ‘Sam Bankman-Fried doesn’t read. That tells us everything.’ I shared it in stories because Matt had sent it to me with the comment that it sounds a bit “vegan-ish,” meaning people who create their entire identities as “book people” project the same sort of superiority and inflexibility that vegans stereotypically do.
Salka Valka
For those who haven’t seen my Instagram stories in the past month: I have finished Salka Valka by the late Icelandic novelist Halldór Laxness, and it is Annie Proulx’s “favorite Halldór Laxness book” according to a back blurb on this new translation by Philip Roughton and published by Archipelago Books. I don’t think many people outside of certain literary circles even know who Halldór Laxness is (I was in this camp, for sure), so I got a chuckle about how the heck had Annie Proulx (Barkskins, Brokeback Mountain, etc.) read enough Halldór Laxness books so that she could say Salka Valka was her “favorite”??
