What We're Reading* Now
Dan Kois (“Not Lost in a Book” - Slate) on the decline in reading for fun in middle-grade-aged kids. This piece about kids, books, and interest in reading has a lot to dig into. I kept thinking he wasn’t addressing some aspect of the issue, but then he got to it! Nice to have something other than moral panic!. I am always a Kois stan (his novel Vintage Contemporaries and his world-tour memoir, How to Raise a Family, are both stellar).
Daughter by Claudia Dey I read it in one frantic week. It’s like Rachel Cusk meets Sheila Heti meets all of my daddy issues. A total delight!
The Virginia Sole-Smith NYT profile that stirred up a buttload of drama. Personally, I’m happy VSS is getting her day in the papes and also *love* it when the NYT breaks a big story that lots of people have been tracking for years, like when they discovered boba. I am one of the supposedly 2000 people who bought Virginia’s first book, The Eating Instinct, and it did so much to help heal some of my disordered eating mentality. I get where the real tensions lie, but people stoking controversy around, like, having cookies in your open-season snack bin is BANANAS. We have universal childcare to fund, folks!
Miranda feels compelled to tell everyone that she has a masters degree in food studies (which is the multidisciplinary study of food, but it includes nutrition as well as stuff like food systems and cultures) and then to also tell them her opinion BUT SHE’S NOT GOING TO. Interiority efforts!
Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir by Dolly Alderton. Miranda likes this cause it’s old enough it’s available at the library! I like her hair (google it) and just also put in on my library bookshelf too.
For upcoming episodes, we’ve been fervently underlining Avidly Reads Screen Time by and Boymom by . If you want to read along with us and then be even more stoked about their guest-spots, please do! Screen Time is out now and a cool 146-or so pages, and Boymom is available for pre-order! I would describe the former as “the book about screens we DID know we needed.” It’s sweet, smart, meandering, and refuses simple answers. Ruth’s book, thank goddess, isn’t a parenting book — it’s an expansive, investigative look into modern boyhood — it’s both personal and cultural, just the combo that gets me going!
In honor of our upcoming guest,
, some boob tube recs that we will treat with as much respect as we treat the written word:Sasquatch Sunset (Sarah’s review: “I can’t believe they let them make this movie and now we get to see it. The film industry is NOT dead.”)
Palm Royale (Miranda’s review: “not really about parent stuff but therefore a solid escape”)
Wellmania (Miranda’s review: “just a lovely show. Celeste Barber rules”)
Is it Cake Season 3 (My review: “Best family reality show ever. Mikey Day might be greatest reality show host of all time. Also my kids think I can make this shit and keep requesting realistic cakes for their birthdays. Help!”)
+1 for “papes”
aw thanks so much for these wonderful recs and the shoutout for Boymom! Can't wait to talk to you both about it.