A not exhaustive list of what I’m consuming with the air conditioning blasting…
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – If you’re a subscriber (and thank you if you are!) or even if you’re a casual reader of these posts, you’ll know that I am doing Julia Cameron’s creativity course-in-a-book, which I have resisted doing for YEARS, scoffing at the idea that it could help me. This past spring, when I feel exhausted and tapped out and really needed a new book idea, I was ready to try anything.
So I picked up a copy and was immediately comforted and inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s endorsement quote on the back – if she could do the course THREE TIMES, I could do it once. And guess what? After 10 days of Morning Pages (the 3+ pages of journaling TAW required every day), I had a new book idea. Coincidence? I think not. As I write this on July 26, I’m on Week 9 (I’ve taken a few weeks off here and there since starting in early May). But beyond that, and more importantly, I feel universally supported in my creativity for the first time in my artistic life.
Push Off From Here by Laura McKowen – I’m 19 months sober on July 23, 2023! And one of the biggest reasons I’m sober is Laura McKowen. Not only has her writing been an absolute beacon of hope and understanding and wisdom, the recovery community she founded pretty much by accident during the pandemic, is my safe space for sobriety: TLC (The Luckiest Club). I’m not ready to write about this a ton, but I never felt I fit in AA, and I would never call myself an alcoholic. At TLC, I fit and I feel seen, and I’ve made one of the best adult friends of my life and made many other significant connections as well.
Push off From Here is Laura’s second book, and as the subtitle says, it is indeed a book about some truths “to get you through sobriety and everything else.” I highly recommend it if you’re struggling with ANY“thing”—be that drinking, shopping, dieting, sex, love, etc. Her first book, We Are the Luckiest, made serious waves when it came out in 2020, and is a phemonenal recovery memoir. You can also find her here on Substack where she writes candidly about her fascinating life.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang – Usually, I am late to the party, but this past year, I’ve been doing more “zeitgeist reading”—I read Lessons in Chemistry and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow when they came out and everyone was talking about them so I could get in on the conversation, and Yellowface is my latest read in that category. And wow, did I devour this novel. I listened to it, courtesy of my LibroFM subscription, which is how I enjoy pretty much all non-work reading these days.
This novel cuts VERY close to the bone for writers. It goes there with everything, including writerly jealousy and the profound and unfair disparities within the world of publishing. There is so much to discuss, which I’m going to do with two different groups of writers in the coming weeks. I can’t wait.
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley – Another audiobook treat! Steven reads his own novel, which he also did with the Thurber Award winning The Guncle, and he is SO GOOD AT IT. His voice is resonant and warm, and listening to him read his writing makes you feel somehow closer to him and his work. This novel about 5 college friends who reunite for living funerals whenever each of them has a life crisis—a kind of latter-day Big Chill for us Gen Xers—is quintessential Rowley: funny, wise, reflective, and deep. Loved it.
Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh – I avoided reading this novel about a Boston abortion clinic while I was writing All You Have to Do Is Call so that I wouldn’t be influenced by another writer’s thinking about the subject, but now that my book is out of my hands, I’m loving Haigh’s kaleidoscopic take on a contemporary abortion clinic. Told from multiple, unexpected points of view, not only does this brilliant novel offer many compelling reasons to fight for reproductive justice, it paints a dark and textured picture of modern life that helps those of us in the “coastal elite” think outside and even against ourselves.
Forbidden City by Vanessa Hua – I just started listening to this, and I don’t think I would have found it were it not for the fact that it is the inaugural pick of Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s Facebook Books Club. I’m only a few chapters in, and already I’m hooked.
The Bear on Hulu – Okay, so this is TV and not reading, but I’m just finished Season 1—and woah. I needed something good after Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel finished, and this gritty, funny, fascinating series about a Michelin-caliber chef who takes over the family sandwich shop in Chicago is exactly what I need right now. Plus the music is amazeballs.
And Just Like That on Max – I spent my 20s with Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte, and in so many ways their experience of love, sex, career, and New York City mirrored mine. I feel like I grew up with them. And even though I’m no longer a city girl, I feel the same way about them now—older and wiser and sometimes more cynical, but still striving and still believing in love at every stage and age. I also love that this reboot is expanding and building on the original’s groundbreaking portrayal of female friendship and what it really means to support our people through thick and thin.
What are you reading and watching this summer?