Links, almost #5
Sad girl lit, bathroom envy, and tomato risotto
Well, hello.
Welcome to this month’s run-down of what I’ve been enjoying and thinking about. Books, articles, podcasts, recipes - and one impossibly chic bathroom.
Reading/watching/listening…
The Mothers, by Brit Bennett. I enjoyed Bennett’s second novel, The Vanishing Half, which came out in 2020. This is her debut, and, actually, I think I like it even more. It starts with Tania, a high school student in a close-knit California community. Her mother has recently died and we learn on the first page that she has had an abortion, paid for by the son of the pastor at her church. It’s a book about secrets and the slow unfurling of their consequences. It’s also a meditation on mothering in all its forms – what it means to have a child; what it means to not have one.Â
Things I Don’t Want To Know, by Deborah Levy. This is the first instalment of Levy’s ‘living autobiography’. It’s short, sharp, and powerful, interspersing a trip she makes to Mallorca, after a depression that leaves her perpetually ‘crying on escalators’, with memories of her childhood in apartheid South Africa, as well as snippets from her time in London as a young mother. I listened to the audiobook, which is performed by Juliet Stevenson.
I’ve also almost finished Takeaway, by Angela Hui – her evocative and frank memoir of growing up in a Chinese takeaway in a village in the Welsh valleys, squeezing in revision before evening service and dealing with racist prank calls. It has thoughtful things to say about food, family, and cultural assimilation. It’s also peppered with recipes for things like claypot rice and steamed seabass with ginger and spring onion. (If you’d like a taste, I came across the book after reading this, which Hui wrote in defence of British Chinese food and its unique cultural significance.)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Wes Anderson, Roald Dahl, and Benedict Cumberbatch, all in one neat 39-minute package. (Netflix)
I really enjoyed this conversation on the trope of ‘sad girl’ lit (spoiler: labelling women’s writing this way is kinda sexist?)
And, in a similar vein, Gillian Flynn’s Cool Girl, ten years on. (In case you’d forgotten the original monologue, here it is).
‘Some days I still feel that motherhood is a coat I saved up for only to find it doesn’t fit.’
In the face of everything we still don’t know about fertility, IVF is woefully inadequate.
Why do we love to make lists? (By an academic who’s written a book on the subject).
Our reproductive identities are so much more complex than parent or non-parent.
How did vanilla become a byword for blandness?
We’re not paying enough attention to heavy periods. (Round of applause to the professor in this piece who says: ‘If the lining of the scrotum was shed once a month and there were these kinds of associated problems, it would be considered a global health emergency.’) Â
A list of all the books currently banned in America.
What do we want? Pockets! When Do we want them? Now!
In last month’s news round-up, I included the chilling report of how Poland is using a blood test devised by state-funded researchers to detect whether someone has taken the medications mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly used as abortion medications (but which are also used to treat miscarriages). On the same subject, this is a hard read - but an important one - on academic publishers and their role in pushing fatuous anti-abortion ‘science’ (i.e. not really science).Â
How the wellness world jumped to Russell Brand’s defence.
‘Why didn’t you say you were in so much pain?’ (I love these illustrated stories by Aubrey Hirsch).
‘Without question my son has ruined my life…but he has also enriched it beyond compare.’
Wise words here from Laura Thomas on comfort eating.
This forthcoming exhibition on beauty ideals sounds very good.
…as does this one on couture.
Bathroom envy, courtesy of Adwoa Aboah.
P.S…English men are great. (And other literary post-scripts of note). Â
Other joys…
Watching Sort Your Life Out in the bath. Meeting Instagram friends IRL. Having a Vinted selling spree (and plotting what I’m going to buy with the proceeds). Planning next year’s garden. Planning next year’s holiday. A proper Bruce Bogtrotter birthday cake, made by my husband. A really good, box-fresh running top. Bake Off returns! This recipe for tomato risotto. Crunchy leaves, crisp air, misty mornings, and all those other autumn cliches. The millionaire shortbread I’m going to eat once I’ve scheduled this newsletter.
And just in case you missed it…
37 things I’ve learnt about life/bodies/grief/dry shampoo