Friday Thoughts and Things to Share
Monday was President’s Day. All the schools and daycares closed. Another four-day week trying to kill me. It’s just too cold for this mess! I don’t mind these federal holidays in the summer, you just take the kid to the pool or the beach. But at least where I live, we’re experiencing a brutal winter, complete with frigid temperatures and enough wind to rattle the house endlessly. It’s actually kind of ominous? Like I feel as though I’m perpetually forced to abide in the space *right* before the jump-scare in a horror movie. I’m over it!
Anyways, I’m glad you’re here! In case you missed it, I learned and wrote for you a very, very brief history of Black History Month, along with book recs from some extremely talented Black authors, including a cookbook author for you home cooks out there.
I love the articles I selected for you today. I hope you enjoy them!
Articles to Share:
“Fires destroyed their kitchens. ‘But you can’t take away the spirit of the cook’” by Betty Hallock, Los Angeles Times
Cookbook author, food influencer, and Los Angeles resident Molly Baz actually lost her home in the Eaton fires last month. She has used her platform to open a pop-up shop to restock wildfire victims’ pantries, calling on all the companies and brands she’s previously worked with or shouted out on her Instagram to donate wares. It’s a lovely initiative, just one more way people are banding together to care for each other in the wake of loss and devastation.
“Jia Tolentino on Joan Didion’s “everywoman.com” by Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker
It’s not so much that I’m fascinated with Joan Didion herself, but more that I’m fascinated by the way people write about her, and the cultural role she played in the sixties. But I am totally fascinated with Martha Stewart after watching her Netflix documentary. So when Jia Tolentino, one of my favorite culture writers, wrote an article about an article Joan Didion wrote about Martha Stewart back in 2000 for The New Yorker - okay, that was a lot, but I knew I had to dive in, and I’m so glad I did! The piece is so well-written and captivating, chock full of riveting insights on contemporary feminine ambition.
“Meet the Redditors Who Spend Hours Snarking on Influencers” by Brooke LaMantia, The Cut
As someone who used to be a food blogger and spent way too much time perusing GOMI (remember the 2010s??? And no, my blog never showed up there, thank God), this article was fantastic! The interviewees really unpack why we love to hate influencers.
Television:
I’m still watching The Perfect Couple (Netflix) with my husband every Thursday night. We’re about halfway through, and debating all kinds of theories! I think the killer ends up being the pregnant sister-in-law; was it actually Benji boinking Merrit and she lies to Amelia to avoid devastating her? Is Benji trying to get his father out of a jam, because Tag just doesn’t strike me as a man who’s ever once had to clean up his own mess. Don’t tell me!!! This show is really fun if you haven’t seen it.
I’m late to the party, so late, but I just discovered the joy and obsession that is Yellowjackets!! In fairness, I was struggling through a very difficult pregnancy when it first aired, and the show’s uh, subject matter, might have been too much for me then. But now? How amazingly good is that show, I’m beyond obsessed.
Book Recommendations:
In keeping with Black History Month, all my book recs are by Black authors.
NONFICTION:
The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy
This is a bold, loud feminist manifesto that advocates women and girls breaking the rules laid out for them by the patriarchy to uphold the patriarchy. Seven chapters devoted to seven supposed sins: Anger, Attention, Profanity, Ambition, Power, Violence, and Lust. Eltahawy has seen too much misogyny, and her full-throated championship of women and girls everywhere is aggressive, serious, and also heart-warming.
FICTION:
The City We Became by N.K. Jemison
Is any science fiction writer better at constructing alternate universes than Jemison? I can barely offer an adequate description of the basic plot here, because her idea to basically anthropomorphize real cities and give them origin stories is so creative, and the way Jemison imagines and writes her idea is so enthralling. The city to which she refers in the title is New York, and her world in which New York fits is so imaginative and captivating. You don’t have to be that into scifi to love this book. I’d recommend it to literally anyone.
TBR for me:
The World We Make by N.K. Jemison: It's the sequel to The City We Became! I do need to read it!
And that’s all for this week! I hope your weekend is lovely!