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.
ChatGPT vs. Authors
Perhaps you’ve seen the headline that authors such as George Saunders, Jonathan Franzen, and Jodi Picoult are suing OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, for copying authors’ work “wholesale, without permission or consideration.” ChatGPT works by digesting and regurgitating information found online (fair game, I guess), but AI critics have argued that Google, Microsoft, etc. also feed their systems pirated books found online.
Keep Going!
“A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.” This is one of those reading and writing quotes that gets bandied around — this one’s attributed to Salman Rushdie. From a writing perspective, yeah, that’s great inspiration and advice. From a reading perspective, eh…
I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home
When you read something that sounds an awful lot like something you’d actively avoid — man takes his dead ex-girlfriend (who is now a zombie of sorts?) on a long road trip — but it’s coming from someone like Lorrie Moore…
Machine Dreams
I’ve muddled through this novel — Machine Dreams, by Jayne Anne Phillips — for the past three or four weeks. It’s not the book’s fault; it’s just been a really busy three or four weeks what with moving our children back to school and then moving ourselves about 850 miles away. This is Phillips’ debut novel, and although I had never heard of Phillips until about two months ago, she was apparently once associated with “the girls of Knopf” or a female version of the “literary brat pack” which included excellent company: Lorrie Moore, Louise Erdrich, Mona Simpson.
The Sheltering Sky
This was a fascinating book. Paul Bowles was unknown to me until a couple of months ago, but as you can see from this cover image of his novel The Sheltering Sky, this is a 65th anniversary edition with “a new introduction by Tobias Wolff” as well as a blurb from Dave Eggers. The Sheltering Sky was initially published in 1949, but to me if felt very Hemingway-esque — probably because the plot centers around an affluent and aimless American couple that finds itself wandering Northern Africa after WWII.
“I Think in Terms of Emotions”
“I think in terms of emotions. And feelings. So sometimes what I say may not always be clear. But creatively, there’s a lot to be said for that way of thinking.” This quote is attributed to Brian Wilson, and I think this sentiment is true for many artists. There’s a documentary about the British band XTC where singer Andy Partridge describes his experience with synesthesia; in his case, his brain associates colors with certain numbers. Billie Eilish also perceives things this way: “[I have] a thing in [my] brain where [I] associate random stuff to everything. So for instance, every day of the week has a color, a number, a shape. Sometimes things have a smell that I can think of or a temperature or a texture.”
The Autobiography of My Mother
What I kept thinking about while reading The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid was Sinéad O’Connor’s blockbuster album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. It’s a long and convoluted album name — I once had a dubbed tape of the album and I wish I remembered if the friend who gave it to me was even able to fit the whole title on the cassette cover’s spine. But I feel like it sums up this novel.
Mouthful of Birds
I admit I’ve grown a bit tired of people using the phrase “fever dream” to describe a book. Are we describing a rave, a haunted house, or what? Some phrases get thrown around so much and then become somewhat meaningless and amorphous. What do they really MEAN in real-life parlance? (Is this just my issue?)
Why Baby Boomers Love the Kindle
Hey, it’s just a fun lil’ piece in the Wall Street Journal, so don’t shoot the messenger. But as a younger Gen X-er a few years shy of the Millennial cut-off, I do, indeed, prefer a tactile, paper book. You can scroll down to see some excerpts that I grabbed that also align with my preference/reasoning.
Therapeutic Novels?
Oh…no, no, nope. This headline caught my eye in today’s “Bookmarks” email from The Guardian. The School of Life, a “social media company that offers advice on life issues” founded by Alain de Botton, has a publishing arm and has now put forth its first “therapeutic novel.” It’s called A Voice of One’s Own (hello, Virginia Woolf?) and is about a 29-year-old woman’s mental health journey.
The Sorrows of Others
Here’s an excellent short story collection about…
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?
How do you put a pin on what one’s childhood is “like”? Similar to Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye or an Alice Munro story, or maybe Anne Enright’s novel What Are You Like?, this Lorrie Moore novel — Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?, my first Lorrie Moore (!) — takes all those nebulous emotions that surface while reminiscing and somehow decorates them with prose that just seems to make sense.
How Review-Bombing Can Tank a Book Before It’s Published
Penny for your thoughts?
Actually, no, I admit that I’m not interested in what the vast majority of readers think of a particular book. (Except perhaps for the utility of gauging cultural phenomena.)
Taylor Swift Has Rocked My Psychiatric Practice
There was an essay in the NYT this week called “Taylor Swift Has Rocked My Psychiatric Practice.” In it, Dr. Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell describes the deluge of “What would Taylor Swift do?” queries that seem to have all of a sudden colored her practice. She doesn’t see this as a bad thing; quite the opposite, actually. “[Swift] says: Borrow my strength; embrace your pain; make something beautiful with it — and then you can shake it off.” (Side note: Can we all agree that incorporating Taylor lyrics into text is now passé?!)
Memory Circular Drive
Some 🌀 thoughts on reading…
Just Us / Saving Time
ISO book recs!
Calabash International Literary Festival
“Why is it that reggae achieved global status, but very little else did?” This question appears near the end of this NYT piece about the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica, but this question — posed by Kwame Dawes, one of the founders of Calabash — encapsulates some of my own thoughts about not just literary festivals (or book festivals, or whatever you’d like to call them), but about the role of books in the greater “entertainment” ecosystem. In the case of Calabash, the festival has “strive[d] to create an authenticating pipeline for Jamaican writers along the lines of what brought local musicians international attention.” Booker winner Marlon James “was ready to give up writing” until he attended a Calabash session in 2000. (!!)
Five Tuesdays in Winter
Those who create something are often offering up shortcuts and windows to their soul. Whether it be a piece of writing, a painting, a podcast (or two…thinking of a good friend here!), or, say, an Instagram account, the “creation” in question is an outgrowth of some sort of message, articulated or not, that is burrowed in one’s heart and is in need of conveyance. At least that’s how I think of it, and I know it’s how another friend — a visual artist, and the one who prompted me to finally get this book off my shelf — thinks of it too.
Lucy
I am not really a fan of the “Bloom Where You’re Planted” adage. Do I think that one should “find the silver lining” when they end up in a place that doesn’t quite feel right? Yes, of course. (Been there, done that.) Do I think you can just slot a person into different environments and expect them to simply thrive to their fullest extent no matter what the environment? 100% no. This is the flip side of “homesick” — people often refer to this phrase in a gauzy, nostalgic way, but it also can be experienced as a byproduct of ending up somewhere that just doesn’t click.
All This Could Be Different
“We all have our truth of a place. There is no universal narrative of any city that is also real. Only marketing.” This is very true and this line was a great takeaway for me that I’ve tucked away to use elsewhere. I would say the same sentiment applies to books.
