The Reading List: September 27, 2020
Elizabeth
Honestly, time is moving so fast but also so slowly (it’s the end of September but also still March?) and this last week has felt incredibly rough. I know that everyone is hurting right now (what with RBG, Breonna Taylor, that man threatening a coup), and I wanted to only provide happy links this week because it’s all my cold dead heart can handle right now:
Some belated Emmys-adjacent coverage: looking at the nominated costumers (you guys know I love logistics), stars celebrating their favorite shows, what went right and what didn’t at the show.
Who knew that a neighbor asking for a tomato could go so awry?
One of the things I’ve consistently been doing for myself the past few months is buying flowers to brighten up my apartment — and I’m glad, since it’s scientifically proven to make you happier.
The Night of a Thousand Wines. Or, Thursday during a pandemic?
Speaking of happy apartments, I loved this look at 5 authors showing their reading and writing nooks.
Like Momo, my back and neck have been hurting a lot recently (I think it’s because I move less without a commute/office to walk around in), and these stretches have really helped.
oh, and please, if you haven’t, confirm your voter registration and make a plan to vote in November. and fill out the census! help your local community! it took me about 10 minutes, FYI.
Shannon
The health insurance plot (vs “the marriage plot” is the new American happy ending. I didn’t even realize until I read this piece how many books I’ve read recently that have lack of health insurance as a motivational plot point. …I hate it here!
A great profile on ESPN’s Mina Kimes and her obsessive love of football.
I haven’t watched “The Home Edit” on Netflix, but I’m very familiar with their aesthetic thanks to Instagram. And I gotta say, I’m a little over the obsessive consumption of…things…right now. This NYT piece explores the business’ origins, and takes a somewhat critical look at them + Marie Kondo.
An interesting profile of Reed Hastings. I remember being so excited to subscribe to to Netflix when I moved into my first post-college apartment, and their foray into streaming created an entirely new business model
Maureen Dowd is hit or miss for me, but Jane Fonda is always a hit, and this piece is great. I admire anyone who uses their fame for actual good, i.e. Colin Kaepernick, and Jane Fonda has put her body on the line multiple times, and is always learning new things—like pronouns!
A nostalgic look back on how people’s musical taste is developed. Mine has a heavy influence from my parents (classic rock, my introduction to Madonna), with a lot of influence from my college years.
How the pandemic broke online shopping.
It’s a shame Goodreads sucks, because a social networking app that revolves around books has a lot of potential. I use it solely to track my books and assign ratings to them—which we also do here!
Moira
Does anyone else’s back hurt like hell during COVID? I’ve been slouching like it’s my job.
On COVID-denial in the alt-health movement.
What’s the nicest thing someone’s ever said to you?
Have you subscribed to Cat Cohen’s weekly email? Because you should.
I love Pen15 deeply even though it is horrifyingly triggering for anyone who has made it, by the skin of their teeth, through the emotional gauntlet that is middle school. If you fall into the same band of late-eighties millennial that I do, the costumes are frighteningly accurate, so I was excited to hear from their costumer.
For Yom Kippur, on fasting holidays when you have a history of eating disorders.
I love everything Leslie Jamison writes, but I especially love this essay about the closeness of strangers and bodily pleasure, and how those two things are so radically different during COVID.
