eighty-fifth (2023-09-29)
“aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring" - truman capote, from breakfast at tiffany's
photo by steph byce from our recent trip to delton, michigan
happy 5784! i’ve had a beautiful few weeks celebrating rosh hashanah with friends, reflecting and fasting on yom kippur, and charging into the new year with a renewed appreciation for the people in my life and how lucky i am. mazel tov on being here, with me, as a brianimal <3
poems writers
i am bailing on the list of poems i planned to read this year, but i am keeping the list of writers i like updated (below) - i have great taste!
books
the art of gathering: how we meet and why it matters by priya parker, 2018
this was recommended to me by a colleague as a guide to planning and facilitating work meetings. parker writes about all types of gatherings and i found it thought-provoking for work and personal events (weddings, dinner parties, etc.) alike. there are moments where i find parker’s insistence on hosting with “generous authority” to be overbearing - like forbidding couples to sit next to each other as guests at weddings and scolding those who break the rule - but overall i appreciate the attention paid to intention and meaning-making because great events rarely happen by accident. and here’s a good summary.
her body and other parties by carmen maria machado, 2017
i loved in the dream house by machado and didn’t realize this collection of shorts was published first. it’s fun to read writers out of order because the distillation of their talent becomes manifest. some stories in this collection are bangers, raw and beautifully crafted and provocative, and some fall flat, overwrought and kept alive for too long. despite that, they’re all worth reading because machado’s world-building and aptitude for language is extraordinary.
acts of desperation by megan nolan, 2021
this was fantastic. the novel centers around a relationship i suspect many of us have had in some form, especially younger us - one where we felt absolutely indebted to the other and existed solely to maintain the relationship at the peril of our own desires and wellbeing. in short - a debasing existence of desperation. the protagonist’s descriptions of these acts is visceral and discomfiting but also funny and bright, never letting up on the impending sense of doom. i wanted to reach through the pages and shake the narrator into sense but - cliché alert - what felt more pertinent was to remind myself i’m not that narrator anymore. this is the shadow side of the religion of marriage and love that women are expected to revere - more in this lovely review.
seven empty houses by samanta schweblin, 2015
i’ve loved everything i’ve read by schweblin. she’s a genius at crafting a story that is unsettling without spelling out why, that ends at the exact right moment, that leaves you debating the morality of the characters involved and never reaching a resolution. this collection revolves around the sphere of home and domesticity and the ways families recreate and interrupt cycles of loss and trauma. if you like george saunders at all, i think you’ll love schweblin - they’re not explicitly similar but the dystopic tone rings across both writers. this review is great but my review is better - read schweblin!
event
zadie smith on her book the fraud, in conversation with chris abani at the chicago humanities festival
i bought my ticket for this months ago and ended up biking 12 miles in the rain to attend and it was incredibly worth it. smith is one of my favorite writers and a compelling live speaker. she refuses to be anything but herself: intensely serious, carefully-worded, a scholar of british literature, and disinterested in gratifying the audience. i find her endlessly intriguing and was hanging on to every word, though she would be the first to say her word should never be treated as gospel lest our minds be empty fishbowls. i haven’t read her new novel yet and after i do, i’ll dive into the perennial takedown in vulture, but until then, i’m reveling in the joy of meeting one of my favorite authors in the flesh.
thanks for reading - more to come -
bria