read with me: welcome!
read with me!
hi all, starting a semi-regular newsletter with my favorite books, articles, and other things."
books
Read this book to experience perfect sentences and metaphors. Deftly translated from Korean, this book is, dare I say it, genre-bending. Each page stands on its own and reads like poetry, reminding me a bit of Maggie Nelson’s Bluets. A meditation on grief, white objects, and the often tragic circumstances of our births, this book will hit you in the gut.
Read this book if, for whatever reason, you’ve ever been curious about early 20th-century erotica. I recently brought this book on a weekend trip with friends and got a few raised eyebrows. People were curious to know what it was about, so I did a dramatic reading (one of my favorite activities) of the short story, “Mallorca.” (You can listen to a free reading of the story here). Voyeurism, opium dens, and naked ocean swims, this book is sometimes steamy, sometimes creepy and would 100% never be published today.
The New Better Off by Courtney E. Martin
Read this book if you’re interested in building and sustaining loving community in the 21st-century. Martin posits that living in the economically precarious post-recession United States has forced many of us to return to a village mentality and rely on the generosity of our neighbors, sharing our possessions, and abandoning a tired conception of the nuclear family and American dream. Martin weaves personal insight, interviews, and literary excerpts to make a compelling argument about what a contemporary “good life” looks like.
other reading i've enjoyed
Feminize Your Cannon: Etsy Hillesum
“The reader is left in little doubt that Hillesum, had she lived, could have invented an entirely new language, written novels to rival her beloved Russian epics, and become an important spiritual guru: a female Viktor Frankl.”
The Challenge of Going off Psychiatric Drugs
“It felt like a revelation, she said, to realize that ‘the objective in being alive isn’t the absence of pain.’”
Susanne Bartsch's Sunday Routine
“For the next hour I go through my clothing. I’ve turned the bathrooms into closets. I put on wigs and pick out what I’m going to wear to my upcoming events and performances.”
“The British coal miners who battled Margaret Thatcher hardly claimed that their coal pits were fun. The question “Is sex work good?” has little to do with “Should sex workers have rights?”
my month was better because
The Jungle, one of the most well-written, thought-provoking plays I have ever seen. Mongolian metal throat singing. Almond Butter + Puffed Quinoa Human Chocolate aka the most delicious chocolate you’d never know is vegan. The best $13 sauvignon blanc. Life-changing noodle soup recipe. I normally don’t like sweet wine, but I tried this dessert wine at the Bonny Doon tasting room in Davenport on route 1 (this place rocks) and it tastes like flowers and honey.