read with me: summer 2021
read with me!
Last time I sent this I shared that I would be tardy with my next newsletter because I would be reading Middlemarch. Well, dear readers, reporting back that I have only read 100 pages of the book and have mostly spent the last months getting sunburned and reading James Cain mysteries.
I’ve read interesting and thought-provoking stuff though, and I’m sharing some of the highlights with you.
Please let me know what you’re reading, doing, enjoying, watching, hating, whatever, and send this link to anyone you think would enjoy getting this in their inbox.
Julia
books
The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa
This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long long time. It’s a dystopian novel set on a small unnamed island where people’s memories are slowly disappeared by a militant government agency. The story is so well-paced and unputdownable and I promise that you will be reading late into the night contemplating your own treasured memories.
Save Me the Plums, Ruth Reichl
This is a romp that you should read while sitting in the blazing sun on the Mediterranean coast with a glass of delicious minerally white wine and olives. Sigh The book is a memoir about Reichl’s time running Gourmet magazine (right before it went under) and it’s filled with some of her favorite recipes, magazine and Conde Nast drama, and so many descriptions of delicious-sounding food.
Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
I loved adrienne maree brown’s book emergent strategy but there were so many Octavia Butler references that I didn’t fully understand, and reading some of her prolific sci-fi has been on my to-do list for a long time now. Disturbingly, reading Parable felt more like reading the nightly news than science fiction. The book was written in the 90s and centers around a teenager living in California in the late 2020s during political and climate chaos. Fires burn, water becomes an impossible-to-find resource, and violence and terror reign across the state. I’m still processing the book and would love to talk about it with anyone who has read it. And if you have any other Butler recommendations, please share them with me!
Agua Viva, Clarice Lispector
Agua Viva is like no other book I’ve read and I truly don’t know how to describe it. It read more like a long and winding lyrical poem than a novel, so don’t pick this up if you’re looking for something plot-driven. I often found myself reading sentences multiple times and found the words and Lispector’s self-analysis hypnotizing.
other reading i've enjoyed
- Author Roxane Gay, Who Loves Art But Dislikes the Art World, Has Some Advice for Galleries: ‘Stop Being Terrible’
-
In A Divided Country, Communal Living Redefines Togetherness
things that made my month(s) better
Values Exercise.
I’m glad canned wine is having a moment. Try Waves Wine canned rose.
Birchino wine is also amazing and the labels are perfect.
Ocean Vuong interview(I cried)
Olivia Laing By the Book,
Go Your Own Way Song Exploder.
Late to the party, but I’ve finally discovered Anthony Bourdain and am really looking forward to watching the new documentary about his life.
Listening to audiobooks before bed. (Right now I’m listening to Devil in the White City and The Library Book.)
Watching Now, Voyager and falling in love with Bette Davis.
I’m not embarrassed that I loved listening to Obama and Bruce Springsteen talk for hours.
Barn Burning.
For my Bay Area friends check out: Komaaj, The Marshall Store, China Beach at sunset, and the Sweeney Ridge trail near Pacifica.
If you happen to find yourself in Denver, you MUST eat at Hop Alley
Learning about Corita Kent,
Easy Breezy Existential Summer,
Tara Brach guided meditations