Good afternoon/evening/day/morning to you! I’m writing to you well sunned and fed after a week in the Bogue Banks and ready to power forward into what will be truly an insane fall semester. Stay tuned at the end of this post for some updates and cool info about what that will look like for this newsletter, but in the meantime, let’s discuss summer reading.
I have been milking my summer job at my local library for absolutely all it is worth, and recommend that you all do so as well. It is such a joy to be reminded of the wealth inside the books that are available to us, and the fact that they are just a fraction of the services that public libraries provide to us. Despite it all, I never tire of them and I never forget them. One thing I do tire of, as y’all know, is bad books or boring books or anything in between. Read on for my highlights and lowlights of this summer’s shelf!
The Big Reveal by Jen Larsen
If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for dance media. Thus I often endure some truly heinous things just to catch a glimpse of a portrayal of the enormity of the things that dance makes me feel. Unfortunately, this book was one such case. I expected gooey YA with some unavoidable cringe, but the full on caricatures of what some may understand Gen Z to be were enough to make me sigh from the very first chapter. Also a totally out of pocket description of intersectional oppression as a difficulty level on a video game…chile let me leave it at that.
The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton
Did we as a world need tradcath Social Creature? That’s my only question of Burton and her readers as I finish what feels like a mirrored tale that reflects the aforementioned novel, one I really loved and still do to this day. I want to give Burton due credit for being a great storyteller, but I fear the intense destructive female friendship shelf in her office storyboard is probably getting a little full.
You Play The Girl by Carina Chocano
This was one of the last of many essay collections I read this summer, and it truly stuck with me viscerally. Using a sharp critical lens and feminist perspective to study what a girl represents in media of all sorts, Chocano pulled me in and immediately made me want to devour everything else she’s written. That’s on the fall to do list for now.
Carefree Black Girl by Zeba Blay
I wanted to love these essays so desperately. They’re extremely up my alley and I think it’s very important that they’re heard, but by the end of this book I felt as if no new impression of the joys and boundaries borne by black women for centuries had remained with me. I’d recommend this to someone looking to understand the importance and uniqueness of a black woman’s position in society, or someone who doesn’t know how social trends originate, but for someone like me, it just rang as an all too familiar song with no new twists.
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
I’m late to reading this book but anything but late to the saga it encapsulates - that of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes in general. After canvassing for Amanda Seyfried’s Emmy campaign and obsessing over the TLAM solidarity flanking Holmes in court, I finally got around to reading this brilliantly researched, incredibly well written book. I was reminded of the immersive nature of a well crafted documentary which invites you to learn and treats you as worthy of the opportunity to do so.
Dress Code by Veronique Hyland
Besides the Millennial Pink one, most of these essays were pretty forgettable to me. I did love how honestly this book engaged with fashion history and the time it took to not only deconstruct trends but survey the repercussions of their presence but the emptiness of their absence.
Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen
These essays have been my hands down favorite book of the year. Hearing Isen’s voice through her work for the first time was such a revelation, and I could read her grocery list with rapt attention at this point. This book accomplished what I felt “Carefree Black Girl” could not, and surpassed that by reinventing what could have been corny or overly personal concepts and turning them into stories that honestly confess for an audience who needs to listen and accept them. If you like culture, or humor, or writing, or hate law school, read this book. Then read it again!
Those have been my most eventful reads, but this summer has reminded me that as I’ve said before, it’s not worth it to slog. Put the book down if you want to. Its feelings won’t be hurt.
Now to look forward! Next week’s issue will be our one year anniversary (big milestone, I know, time flies) and I have something sweet planned for all of you. Two days after that, I’ll be moved into my dorm for the year and unofficially starting my sophomore year of undergrad. I have 20 credit hours, 4 leadership roles, 3 mentorships, 2 jobs and the lovely weekly commitment to engage with you all to honor this fall. It’s going to be a lot, and I hope to update you as I find out how to swallow down all the the things on my plate (rather like overordering on DoorDash and viewing the receipt of shame after you finish it).
Even as I practice meaningful and productive discipline that doesn’t burn me out, I hope you all will understand when I may have to shift things in this space - for example, posting every other week as opposed to every week. This ensures that you’re still getting quality, unrushed work from me and I’m not literally dying. I also feel comfortable with this leniency given that this newsletter is not a paid product at this time, which means we’re all here just because we love it! I’m so so grateful to each person reading this, and I’ll gush all about it to you more next week so I will stop myself now. See you then!