October 2024, mid-terms
like, in school
Well, it happened to me, and I didn’t think it would, for some reason. It’s very hard to read books when you’re in grad school. I began my MSW program at the UW at the end of September, and now that it’s early November and I’m somehow more than halfway through fall quarter, I can report back that it’s tough to read all of the things assigned to me and find the time to read “for fun.”
A thing about me is that most, if not all, of the assigned reading in my program is exactly what I read outside of being in school. I guess that’s why I’m in this program. I’ve accidentally been studying social work my entire life, and I love reading about racism, classism, sexism, communities, people, history, reflection, feelings, and stories. This is what’s assigned to me as a grad student, so it’s not that I’m not consuming enough of the subjects I enjoy reading or learning about. But it does mean this newsletter, at least this month, will not be very sexy. What I can read “for fun” right now in my current life and schedule are ~celebrity memoirs~ which y’all know I already love. Listening to celebrity memoirs, or any memoir but celebrity tends to be a good balance of “light” (aka not relatable) and interesting (people are interesting!!!), and I can listen while I’m cleaning, working out, commuting, or playing Stardew Valley. (My new obsession. Miss you, Zelda.)
That all said, maybe I’ll try to be organized enough to drop a few links to what I’ve read in grad school that I find interesting enough to share. But otherwise, here are the books I read in October! It’s not many!
(Oh, and I’m late sending this, so it’s going out on United States’ election day. Thoughts and prayers, babes.)
[What I read]
User Not Found by Felicity Fenton (2021)| Quick summary: An evaluation and attempt to cease the endless distractions of a cellphone.
Y’all know I love a Little Free Library, and maybe y’all don’t know that I love a tiny book, but I love a tiny book. I love a tiny anything! Actually, I also love a large anything, so it’s confusing because I want a drink in a teeny glass, and I want a drink in a fishbowl. Regardless, this tiny book (an essay in tiny book form) packed a fishbowl’s worth of content into its teeny glass. Fenton is from Oregon, from what I’ve gathered, and I’m not sure why her essay book was in a Little Free Library in south Seattle, but I’m delighted it was. If you want to read it, find it here!
[nonfiction, essay, written by a white american multidisciplinary artist, short read]
Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People: A Disability Justice Primer by Sins Invalid (2019) Quick summary: A primer full of history and concrete suggestions for moving beyond the socialization of ableism.
An assignment for one of my classes, Skin, Tooth, and Bone, is exactly the kind of book I seek out and am surprised I hadn’t come across before. Though it was an assignment, I happily and healthily consumed this second edition of a wonderful resource. From their website, this work is “based in the work of Patty Berne and Sins Invalid” and “offers concrete suggestions for moving beyond the socialization of ableism, such as mobilizing against police violence, how to commit to mixed ability organizing, and access suggestions for events.” (Sins Invalid is the organization, and Berne is the Co-Founder, Executive, and Artistic Director.) This book is history, practical application, and humanity. I am so glad it was assigned to me and will highly recommend going forward. Find it here!
[nonfiction resource, compiled and written by a disability justice org that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and LGBTQ / gender-variant artists, shorter read]
[What I heard]
Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg (2024) | Quick summary: The story of Whoopi Goldberg’s life.
I love Whoopi Goldberg and have always loved her. I’m old now, so I don’t quite remember when it began, but I used to say “Whooooopi! ….Goldberg” when I was excited about something as a kid, and I had at least one Whoopi Goldberg movie poster on my wall at all times, strangest of all was Eddie, a movie I know I’ve seen, I know I claimed to love, but can’t remember a thing about it or why I would have enjoyed it as a child. Anyway, this memoir was great. I listened to it, as I almost always do with celebrity memoirs, and felt like she was talking to me. Of course, Goldberg has been conversing in public with a variety of people for nearly 20 years, so she’s very good at it, but at one point in the memoir, Goldberg says, “So I started doing drugs,” and I, in my car, by myself said out loud, “you did??” That’s my endorsement for this memoir. It was so engaging; I was talking back.
[nonfiction, celebrity memoir, written by a Black american actor, comedian, author, and television personality, medium-length listen, read by the author]
Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler (2024) | Quick summary: A memoir about mental health, men, and their impact on women's lives.
This memoir was fine. I’d heard only negative things about it, so I went with relatively low expectations, which lent itself to enjoying myself more than I anticipated. For those who don’t know, Anna Marie Tendler is the ex-wife of comedian and parasocial wonder John Mulaney. As someone who has never quite found Mulaney’s charm, I wasn’t crushed when he left her, publicly and suddenly, for a quickly-pregnant Olivia Munn, all wrapped up in his relapse, rehab, and a global pandemic. It’s pointed that Tendler doesn’t say Mulaney’s name even once and does a pretty thorough job of making him seem like one of the less significant aspects of her life. To me, it read as a woman who is only known at all because of who her ex-husband is writing a memoir trying to prove her ex-husband isn't really a part of her story. But, of course, he is. Tendler’s entire thesis is “Men are Deeply Destructive to Women,” which is true, but she doesn't make a strong argument by avoiding the conversation around Mulaney, who arguably made a career out of publicly loving Tendler. As a once-scorned ex (many once-scorned times), I feel her and there is a ton of power in not naming the guy or even spending any of your precious memoir on him. That said, I think it made this particular memoir a lot less impactful, as it’s impossible to pretend we’d know who Tendler was otherwise, and there’s likely an interesting analysis on a famous “wife guy” leaving you for a more famous woman that would add a lot to your thesis. If I gave grades, this would be a B.
[nonfiction, memoir, written by a white american multimedia artist, medium-ish listen, read by the author]
If you want to get a very tiny taste of what Tendler’s memoir is like on audio, please enjoy the accidental screen recording I took above. Very artsy.
[What I recommend]
- Because most of us are ableist as hell: Skin, Tooth, and Bone by Sins Invalid
- Belly breathing
- Learning about somatics
I look forward to November, when I hope to read a bit more, feel a bit more, and maybe experience some tears of joy.
Also, this bookletter doesn’t make me much money, but it does help me out with my weird little patched-together income as a grad student, so thank you for subscribing. If you can afford to upgrade, I promise I’ll make it worth your time!
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