write on, vol. 1: best books & microwave meals
Dear friend,
Greetings, salutations, & a belated happy(?) new year!
You might be wondering: what, prithee, is the reason for this newsletter? Well, there are a few. One: there are many beautiful people that I treasure who live far away and who I don’t get to see as often as I like, but who I would like to keep in the loop about my passing fancies. Two: I sometimes worry about sharing professional news and other Big Updates because I fear becoming a self-centered narcissist who you never want to spend time around—but I also want you to know my professional news and other Big Updates. I want to tell you about the cool books I am working on, but I don't want it to detract from my ability to conduct normal conversation! Three: those who have known me for many years will know that I love to document, and as such, I like the idea of the newsletter as an artifact of what I am thinking/doing/reading/eating at a particular point in time. My initial feeling is that these bulletins might arrive on a quarterly basis, but only time will tell whether this proves true.
Here is a photo of a pine cone to get us started:
(a select few may recall that in my grad school days, I wrote a whole story about pine cones—and guess what? I still like 'em!)
READING
Because I read so much for work, most of my reading is actually listening on the public library’s Libby app (which I would highly recommend—so very user-friendly! so very free!). My favorite listens of 2021 (ancient history, I know!) were Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian, which is a novel about a couple of Indian-American teenagers in suburban Atlanta who take up alchemy in the hope of getting into prestigious colleges; Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, which for me was the rare literary novel that lived up to the hype; and of course, the tasty treat that is Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston.
Over "the holidays," I actually read some books in their old-fashioned paper format and was absolutely delighted with Sam Cohen's bonkers, very gay collection Sarahland; on the nonfiction side, I had lots of deep thoughts about late capitalism and working from home while reading Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Wartzel's Out of Office, which I would certainly recommend to anyone else experiencing the virtual workplace. If you’ve read either, I would love to discuss with you!
AGENTING
It will come as a surprise to no one that I spend a lot of time at my computer sending emails and reading Word documents. The thing about publishing is that it takes a loooong time before the books that I'm working on actually enter the world, but it's finally starting to happen. In fact, I had two books come out in the fall of 2021, including the very adorable picture book Calvin, by JR and Vanessa Ford, which tells the story of a little trans boy on his first day of school; and my first solo sale, Julia Ridley Smith's The Sum of Trifles, a memoir in essays about the long process of Julia sorting out all the stuff left in her parents' house after their deaths. It's about grief and what our belongings mean to us, but also gets down with literature, art history, the legacies of racism and class privilege, and the question of how to properly dispose of a prosthetic limb—an array of topics Julia approaches with intellect, curiosity, and wit. (In a classic instance of literary incestuousness, Ashley interviewed Julia about the book here.)
I have a whole handful of beautiful books coming out in 2022, and I look forward to telling you all about them in future volumes of this newsletter. (Of course, I’m assuming you’ve already heard plenty about Raft of Stars by Andrew J. Graff, but if you haven’t, well—educate yourself! It just came out in paperback 1/11/22.)
EATING
As many readers of this newsletter may already be aware, our kitchen has been under construction, which means I've been doing a lot less cooking than usual—still, a gal must eat, which has meant some very exciting takeout, an pre-omicron outing to a local Moldovan restaurant (called, you guessed it, Moldova!), and, this week, a tour of Trader Joe's frozen Indian meals. We are limited to the selections without nuts, which I would rank thusly:
butter chicken
lamb vindaloo
saag paneer
chana masala
During a short residency at Ashley's parents' house around Christmas, I made a loose interpretation of this frittata, which I would highly recommend for all your breakfast-for-dinner needs. Make it with Brussels sprouts! Make it with broccoli! Make it with bacon! Make it meat-free!
A sneak peek of kitchen before & after (really, during & during—and I am pleased to note that, since the second photo was taken, we have made fresh strides in the form of a faucet, stove, and backsplash!):
ALSO
I have been enjoying:
The Bonne Maman advent calendar—a gift from my darling cousin and arguably the highlight of my December: twenty-four tiny jars of exquisite jams, jellies, and marmalades! We still have five tiny jars in progress, but I have already set a reminder for next fall to buy the 2022 edition the moment it is released.
The 1 Second Every Day app—I am not smart enough to figure out how to embed a video, but trust me when I say that one second clips of even the most boring day are often very entertaining.
Yoga with Adriene—I know she is basically a cliche, but I swear that Adriene is one reason that I have not turned into a literal gremlin from sitting at my desk. Also: I would love someone to write a short story inspired by Adriene in the way that Curtis Sittenfeld wrote this, one of the greatest stories of all time (beware a New Yorker click!), about the Pioneer Woman, another internet lady of note.
DO YOU HAVE THOUGHTS?
About frozen meals? The best or worst books that you read or listened to in 2021? Youtube workout videos? The next installment of this newsletter? Feel free press reply and tell me all about it—or just say hi and tell me one thing that you’ve eaten recently that was delicious.
like most things in life, this newsletter would not be possible without my in-house proofreader + beloved spouse, Ashley Trebisacci, who I thank for their ceaseless support of my weirdo projects and willingness to eat ice cream as frequently as I could ever ask.