read with me: august 2019
read with me!
books
Normal People, Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney, who has been described as the “first great millennial author,” published her debut novel Conversations with Friends, when she was just 26. Normal People, possibly one of the most instagrammed books of 2019, is addicting and often cringe-inducing, and the dialogue is so on the nose that I often felt I was listening to recorded conversations. It was refreshing to see teen and young adult love depicted with nuance and complexity and I found it impossible to put it down.
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth is a social novel/ marriage plot that felt oddly resonant, despite being published in 1905. The story centers around Lily, a single woman nearing 30 who is addicted to material objects and gambling and needs a steady source of income to keep her position in New York high society. Lily is beautiful and intelligent and countless men present themselves for marriage, but she finds them too repulsive or repugnant or stifling to marry. Eventually, the women in her social sphere view her singlehood as a threat and she is ostracized, losing the image she worked tirelessly to cultivate. It was eerie that many of the book’s themes, such as the single woman as a pariah or the social restrictions of marriage, remain today.
Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino
Jia Tolentino is one of my favorite essayists writing right now. As a staff writer for The New Yorker, she tackles everything from athleisure to campus sexual assault to reality television to the early aughts of the Internet with simplicity and authority while leaving space for uncertainty. Tolentino rarely weaves personal details into her writing, but Trick Mirror, which was published earlier this month, delves into what shaped her as a writer, including her religious upbringing in the suburbs of Houston Texas and her role on a reality show as a teenager. 10/10.
other reading i’ve enjoyed
“No, it’s not the lack of time which surprises me. It is those people who have no time but are generous nonetheless. Those radical, literary activists.”
“There is nothing more humiliating to me than my own desires. Nothing that makes me hate myself more than being burdensome and less than self-sufficient.”
Voices on Addiction: How to stay
“Drinking is the opposite of staying. For the rest of the summer I inched sideways towards sobriety like a crab. I watched myself drink, hoping—against reason and experience—that I could find something that would redeem my behavior.”
my month was better because
Love poem and apologies, - ada limón Maitre De Chai Sauvignon Blanc, Drop by Drop the Jar Fills Up, Sequoia Nama Sake, seeing Paul Simon crush it during his performance at Outside Lands, Shura’s new album forevher, Pickling things (we used this sauerkraut recipe), Sara marlowe hall plaster paintings via Ofakind, Iyazako Rintaro (the sashimi! The whole fried fish! The udon noodles!) rope swinging into bass lake, the new mural in our apartment painted by the incredible Kailey Geary, the biker shorts trend (idk why, but I love it so much)
As always, let me know what you’re reading or what’s bringing you joy and share with anyone you think would enjoy!