Hi y’all,
ICYMI: I reviewed Allie Rowbottom’s Aesthetica on Wednesday. It’s a fun one!
Before publishing this newsletter, I removed six instances of the word “anyway” beginning a sentence. That’s gotta be a record.
Spotted: In McCarren Park, a very handsome trio, lounging on a picnic blanket with two golden-red shaggy dogs, silently reading books that are so different, I’m surprised this crew is friends: A Gentleman in Moscow, She Who Became the Sun, and Family Lexicon.
The only woman wearing a mask on a packed L train at 10pm on a Tuesday reading Literally show me a healthy person by Darcie Wilder.
On the G train to Greenpoint, a yuppie who looked kinda like Frodo Baggins meets Dan Humphries reading Listen, Little Man! by Wilhelm Reich. And standing next to him: a totally unrelated guy, who looked and dressed identically, just lankier. I’m totally shaken by this.
This week I recommend that you only read one book at a time.
I know you may think reading multiple books is efficient, or impressive, or helps you focus, or whatever. You think that you need different books for different moods. That some days you “need” hardboiled non-fiction and other days you “need” a steamy romance for the beach. These are all lies I tell myself too.
The truth is that reading multiple books is a distraction. I have too many books on my shelf that I’ve only read half of, or even two-thirds of, just to abandon for some new, shiny, buzzy debut. The worst part? I was enjoying those books that I never finished. I liked them.
Basically, if I write another review before The Custom of the Country, you should take me out back, okay?
The antitrust trail against Penguin Random House has begun!!!!
In November 2020, PRH announced plans to buy Simon & Schuster. Would that make it PRHSS? Do publishers treat their names like law firms and just keep adding on infinitely?
We may never find out, because the DOJ sued to stop the deal, saying it would hurt authors and consumers. Read this Publisher’s Weekly article for more about the case and to learn what a “monopsony” is.
And y’all thought that Johnny Depp trial was gonna be the most talked about court case of 2022!
Anyway, I’m really enjoying John Maher’s live tweeting from the overflow room. It might be a lil jargon-y for those who haven’t worked in publishing, but overall it’s pretty fascinating. Publisher’s Weekly has more official coverage, of course.
idk maybe don’t read this one…
This essay by Mike Crumplar about the Dimes-Square-Red-Scare-Microceleb-Downtown-Art-Scene whatever-adjacent crowd reads like a fucking fever dream. It will prolly be boring if you don’t recognize some of the bigger names and projects to come out of the scene.
But y’all know me: I love gossip, art scene feuds, and narcissists. This essay delivers on all. It’s told as a bona fide hero’s journey, complete with noble speeches, “elite trolls,” and sinister producer parents. But mostly it sounds like a nightmare I would’ve had as a teenager—all the cool kids and their cronies calling me a stupid, talentless bitch.
This is the type of essay that makes me glad I got all the social-climbing out of my system in college. IX forever, or something.
Jenn Baik of The B-Side has graced me with her reading this week:
Thanks to the influence of BookTok, I’m currently reading A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers. While I’m only halfway through, the prose is as gluttonous as the plot (a food-writer turned cannibal) and flows from a charismatic narrator you can’t help but ogle at. If you’re a fan of Nabokov, I would recommend this book.
Book Post just published a nice essay about BookTok today, if you’re unfamiliar.
Thanks to Seven Stories Press and James of Book Brat, I now have A Girl’s Story and The Years by Annie Ernaux (translated by Alison L. Strayer) in time for August, which is Women in Translation month. I usually don’t pay much attention the monthly-reading, but this seems like a good exception!
ok that’s it, see ya next week!!!!!!!!
BYE,
Book Notes
PS. lmk what you think PRHSS’s new name should be, should the sale go through.
Even from faraway San Diego, the strivings and machinations of downtown NYC scenesters and counter-scenesters are captivating, in an alien-anthropological kind of way. Could someone please say how Catholicism got cool though?
felt personally attacked by "read one book at a time" lol