I Don't Hate It | A mood
Hey there. I'm watching Russian Doll, the Natasha Lyonne Netflix series you've probably heard about. Emily Nussbaum loved it. I'm enjoying it. I'm also still waiting for the next Damages.
The Penny is in a mood, walking around the apartment and barking. I've taken her out. I've given her chews. She has food, water. She will not be appeased. She just walked over to a chair that is currently holding clean towels in need of folding, looked at it, looked at me, stood on her hind legs, pulled down two towels, and then walked away. She is in a mood.
Last weekend I had an Oscars viewing party. At first the awards were an excuse to have some friends over, but then I got really into it. We had Oscars bingo, a selfie station, lots of food and drink, and my friend Molly brought a cake with the party's hashtag on it. It was delicious.
(Picture by Jaya)
(Picture by Jaya)
1. I finally read Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata (trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori). I say "finally" because I bought it when it was first published in the US last June but didn't get around to reading it before my house burned down so had to acquire another copy. The Japanese novel is Murata's English-language debut. It concerns a thirty-six-year-old woman who works in a—wait for it—convenience store (seems like a grocery store). It's brief; I read it in one sitting. The convenience store woman is nothing like any protagonist in recent memory. I am still thinking about it more than a week later.
2. I know I recommended Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing in a previous newsletter. It's out now. Here's Roddy Doyle's rave in the Times. Because pre-orders are so important to the ultimate success of a book, I've decided to include forthcoming books now and then. I'll only recommend books that I'm psyched about—that I've read in galleys, that I've pre-ordered myself, that I think belong in any library. To that end, I was jazzed to learn that there is a new collection of Kimberlé Crenshaw's writing coming out in September. On Intersectionality: Essential Writings promises to be one of those canonical books that will remain relevant for decades to come.
3. I'm on a bit of a Northern Irish kick (I just finished Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends last night). On the heels of Keefe's Say Nothing, I watched Derry Girls (Netflix). It's a British comedy, set in the early nineties against the backdrop of the Troubles. It was created and written by Lisa McGee and centers on four teenaged girls who attend a Catholic girls' school. There are only six episodes in the first season (available to binge now). It's delightful.