March 2021, a month that needs to believe in itself
If you want something fun: Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
I always hate March and this year was no exception. For a year, I’ve not seen my friends, I’ve hardly seen my family, I have not gone out to eat, I have not gone to a theater, I have not taken a trip, and I have not done anything that involved me having to sit down and math-out the logistics. For awhile, this was the right thing to do and we were all mostly doing it. And then things got a little more…open? confusing? and people started to make the choice to go out and do some things — masked and socially distanced, of course!! This created an us vs. them dynamic and all of a sudden, the ball swung in the other direction. Suddenly people who were staying home were paranoid and privileged.
It is a huge privilege for me to not have to risk my life to work in a building or around other people during a pandemic, not to mention giving up a commute. But that does not make my all of my choices privileged choices. The frustrations that I and many other people have felt as we watch our friends take vacations and fly for fun and go to restaurants three times a week does not come down to privilege. There’s a difference between a person choosing to go bar hopping during a pandemic and my baby brother who has to be at his job in a thrift store during a fucking pandemic.
The reason I stay home without making exceptions or heading out to a restaurant just because I can and I feel safe is because I’m used to making sacrifices and some people just aren’t. I don’t want to take a trip while people are mourning the loss of their loved ones to a global virus. The pandemic has not been easy for people who like to stay home anyway. What’s easy (for me!) is the choice to give up what I have or could have for the safety and well-being of others because I did it all my life growing up.
Last year after George Floyd was killed, the uproar on social media was both inspiring to see and feel and at the same time, it was incredibly triggering. I had no idea I felt that way until the recent shooting in Atlanta. The dehumanization and harassment of Asian people in our country is not new. I care deeply about the way people of color are treated and I have always been the kind of person to insert myself to defend anyone who is being ill-treated. When the shooting in Atlanta hit social media, there was discussion of posting yellow squares, people started yelling at each other to pay attention, and I was swiftly reminded of how awful that was for me and other Black people last year. My silence is not complacency here, but I’m not adding to the white noise on social media as everyone jumps all over themselves to prove who is the best ally. There are other ways to show up. That’s a reminder for me and for you.
Okay, here’s the reading!!!!
[Books I Read With My Eyes]
Mango and Peppercorns: A Memoir of Food, an Unlikely Family, and the American Dream by Tung Nguyen, Katherine Manning, Lyn Nguyen with Elisa Ung, published 2021
Quick summary: In the 70s, Tung Nguyen and Katherine Manning opened Hy Vong, a Vietnamese restaurant in Miami, and here they share their story about it. Including recipes! | This was a book that the lovely folks at Chronicle Books sent to me to review for this newsletter! How nice that I get a free book in the mail to read and chat about. I’ll be honest — this book’s structure did not work very well for me. Nguyen’s experience and story is much stronger and oftentimes, I felt that Manning centered her whiteness and tended to talk about Nguyen as if she was a child, and not just a Vietnamese person living in a foreign country. I think this would have been better as separate memoirs (including Lyn’s, Tung’s daughter, who has great perspective and stories). The recipes all sound delicious though and it feels like a treat that they were shared with us! I will definitely be attempting to make some soup. If you’d like to make some soup with me, Mango and Peppercorns is out now and you can buy it here! (Also the book itself is gorgeous.)
[food memoir, nonfiction, written by a collaboration of people, quick read]
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert, published 2019
Quick summary: A sexy little romcom! | Chloe Brown needs to shake her life up so she makes this list of things to do like have meaningless sex and go camping and she falls in love with a guy who works in her building. I appreciate this book because Chloe is Black and has fibromyalgia and a regular sized body. It’s nice to read these kinds of books written by Black people featuring Black people, so even when they are overly corny and very eye-roll-y (this one), I still enjoy myself. And I absolutely will read the following two books in this series, which feature Chloe’s sisters, respectively.
[romance, fiction, written by a Black person, medium-length read]
Marriage Vacation by “Pauline Brooks,” published 2018
Quick summary: If you are a fan of Younger, this is the book Pauline writes about her marriage to Charles. | I don’t quite understand how these fiction books come to life. Someone that works for the show writes it and publishes it? But uses the character’s names? I am sure this is a quick google search but here I am anyway. Younger is a show starring Sutton Foster and once-enemy-now-apple-of-my-eye Hilary Duff and it’s great! This book is fine but wasn’t nearly as fun as just watching Younger. (This is TV propaganda now. Put down your books and go watch something!)
[romance, fiction based on fiction, written by a fictional white cis woman so who knows?, medium-length read]
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, published 2017
Quick summary: Very famous old Hollywood star Evelyn Hugo decides to give her final tell-all interview to a fresh journalist | This book is very similar to Daisy Jones in its concept — historical fiction that feels almost real. Daisy is heavily inspired by Fleetwood Mac and Evelyn Hugo is heavily inspired by Ava Gardner and her final memoir. I find that approach to storytelling kind of…easy?? yet I can’t pretend I don’t have fun reading Reid’s books. This one came highly recommended to me and though I have some *issues with Reid’s writing, it was an absolute delight and not exactly what you expect going in. A friend and I chatted about this book after I finished and it really is layered and interesting and a perfect book club book if anyone has one going!
*sometimes tries too hard to be ~woke~ and ends up sounding like she just got out of a 101 class on How to Say the Right Thing
[historical fiction, written by a white cis woman, pretty decent length read]
Outlawed by Anna North, published 2021
Quick summary: A western! | I don’t know how but It Happened to Me: I’m kinda into westerns! I would have read this book anyway (it’s buzzy) but it also piqued my interest because my boyfriend and I have watched a few westerns in the past couple of months and I have been surprised to find that I enjoy them. My dad loves them and idolizes John Wayne so maybe it’s genetic. That all said, Outlawed is not your papa’s western! It’s short, exciting, thoughtful, and queer! Pretty much all I want in a book.
[western, lgbtq+ literary fiction, written by a white woman, shorter read]
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, published 2021
Quick summary: Someone who spends too much time on the internet has a real life family tragedy. | That summary doesn’t quite do this book justice but if you are familiar with Lockwood, it’s probably good enough. Lockwood is very online which means she speaks and thinks twitter even when she is not scrolling twitter. The first half of the book feels like scrolling twitter and the second half of the book feels like when you have to face reality — in this case, a dying niece — when your brain is broken.
[satire, fiction, written by a white cis woman, short read]
Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh, published 2017
Quick summary: Fourteen funny, unnerving short stories. | I enjoy how Moshfegh writes people because she’s honest and weird — and so are people! This was one of three books I purchased the last time I was able to go into a bookstore and make a spur of the moment choice. And I’ve finally read it.
[short stories, fiction, written by a cis woman, medium-length read]
Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers by Hannah K. Chapman, Lauren Burke, and Kaley Bales, publishing in April 2021
Quick summary: See title! | This was a lovely review copy sent to me by the folks of Chronicle Books and what a little treat it was! The illustrations (by Bales) are absolutely lovely and I think this is an innovative way to tell the stories of some of the most well-known writers. Of course, I would have loved to see more women of color included but in some ways, that is a history problem as much as it is a research problem. Why She Wrote is out in April and you can find it through Chronicle Books!
[Audiobooks]
Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose by Nikki Giovanni, published 2020
Quick summary: Poems! | I wrote about Giovanni enough in the last letter, but I read this because Kara Brown picked it for her book club! I decided to listen once I realized Giovanni was reading them herself. It was nice to hear her voice.
[contemporary poetry, written by a Black cis woman, poetry length listen, read by the author]
Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson, published 2021
Quick summary: Ms. Cicely Tyson’s whole life. | There is nothing short of incredible about Cicely Tyson and not much I could say here to describe how it felt listening to 16 hours of this beautiful Black woman’s story, mere days after she died. I keep hearing her voice ever since this book ended. I hope that doesn’t go away.
[Hollywood memoir, Black history, nonfiction, written by a Black cis woman, long listen, read by the author]
One Life by Megan Rapinoe
Quick summary: A lil’ memoir by soccer superstar Rapinoe. | I heard a lot of buzz about this memoir last year and it came highly recommended by a friend and it was a quick listen read by the author so I was in! I did not expect so much of Rapinoe’s memoir to highlight racial injustice and deep-rooted white supremacy so frequently. I appreciate the way Rapinoe uses her platform and pays respect to Colin Kaepernick and the WNBA for shaking shit up first.
[sports memoir, nonfiction, written by a queer, white cis woman, short listen, read by the author]
[What I Recommend]
If you want something fun: Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
If you like westerns and/or queer fiction: Anna North’s Outlawed
If you like old Hollywood, sports, memoirs, and civil rights: Cicely Tyson’s Just As I Am and Megan Rapinoe’s One Life
