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.
Annie John
When you’re a child, “school” and “family” are the countries you travel between, each offering up a seemingly impenetrable border. I attended four different schools for K-12 (if you count a trimester I spent at a “sister school” across the country), and because none of them were a part of a natural progression (i.e. the elementary that feeds into the middle, etc.), each transfer felt like an initiation into a new nation where the students — even if residents of the same region — were different. Adults don’t necessarily notice these nuances, but kids sure do. School is their LIFE. I’ll always laugh at the line “She doesn’t even go here!” from Mean Girls because it totally encapsulates the “in” or “out” situation of being a part of an institution. (And also because if you ever met someone in a different context, you automatically knew what they meant when they asked, “Where do you go?” No need to finish that prepositional phrase.)
Growing Up Rich
“But isn’t all art derivative?” = a short topic of discussion this weekend with a friend.
The Marriage Portrait
I was an English major in college, but I have not read a text with the same intense scrutiny as I did then since…then. (That would be 1998 for purposes of tabulation and judgement.) Well, maybe I did back in 2019 when I (haphazardly?) decided to read one Shakespeare play per month. I mean, I do think I read carefully and with a critical eye and all that jazz, but it’s still different. Who has time to consider and then write 10-page papers about the meanings and various uses of “the”? (Just to exaggerate a tiny bit…)
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
The NYT’s “Overlooked” column, “a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times” — has got to be one of the most interesting recurring features in a daily newspaper. (Just my 2c.) I’ve posted about different ones before, including Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (author of Dictee). This one, about the 19th-century Black poet Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, was published toward the beginning of February, Black History Month.
My Phantoms
I like reading about visual artists and their work and how capturing those elusive things like “light” and “shade” might be what makes a work…work. And how the work of a truly skilled person differs so greatly from the caricature-ish work of, well, me — or a child who reaches for a crayon to draw a house with a pitched roof, four windows, and curlicued smoke coming out of the chimney. What the non-artists among us put to paper might be how we see and interpret an object, but when set against the actual setting, the disconnect is clear.
Now is Not the Time to Panic
My friend Ashley sent me this article about a woman who, oopsies, knocked over a Jeff Koons sculpture that then shattered into “at least 100 pieces.” This story conjures a lot of responses, which I will first summarize via emoji: 😱😂🧐 They are: 1) second-hand shame and embarrassment (because who else has “what if this happened” thoughts in museums and galleries?); 2) genuine laughs at its ridiculousness, esp since it’s love-him-or-hate-him Jeff Koons; 3) (this is the best one) intrigue about how “the meaning of art” perpetuates itself in unexpected ways. (See to see an excerpt of the part of the story wherein people wondered if this was Banksy-esque performance art and someone wanted to purchase the shattered pieces.)
Through the Window
Nearly 10 years ago, I read this: “…writing is a matter of examining the world, reflecting upon it, deducing what you want to say, putting that meaning or message into words whose transparency allows the reader, now gazing through the same window-pane from the same position, to see the world exactly as you have seen it.” – Julian Barnes, Through the Window: Seventeen Essays and a Short Story
What a Reader Wants
“That’s all a reader really wants — to know the author better. Even if it’s a novel, they want to know the author.” – the novelist Cecil Dawkins to Natalie Goldberg.
Lessons in Chemistry and Easy Beauty
Everyone loves Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. What’s not to like? It’s entertaining, it’s charming with brisk storytelling, it addresses important topics. It’s pretty heavy-handed in that regard, but I wonder if that’s partly Garmus’ point since the characters’ one-dimensionality must be intentional. (I really do believe this has to be a stylistic choice on the author’s part.) I decided to read it sort of like a fable. Like how I think La La Land is a fable. (I am a huge La La Land fan! I wrote about it together with Milkman by Anna Burns back in 2019.)
Let’s BeReal
From Newsletter Issue No. 12:
Sometime this autumn, I became a BeReal-er. (I just made up that term. We have TikTokers, so what shall we call people who use the app BeReal?) If you’re not familiar, BeReal sends a notification at a different (i.e. unexpected) time each day to all users with the cue, “It’s time to BeReal!” Users then take a photo of whatever they’re doing, wherever they are at the moment — simultaneously, the app takes a quick snapshot of your face. Here's a rundown of the app from the New York Times Magazine back in August.
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.
