10 Things I Read and Loved in November
Featuring some very very very good books.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I have a reading round-up just in time for your holiday weekend.
But first, a reminder: my discount on paid subscriptions ends at the end of the month! Join the Book Club for Writers and get 10% off writing workshops by becoming a paid subscriber today. This subscription is excellent for writers seeking accountability and community in 2023.
(If you already became a paying subscriber, thank you for supporting my little corner of the Internet. It means the world.)
Now onto the main event: 10 Things I Read and Loved in November!
1. a new essay by Kalee Rushing
One of the best things about teaching writing is seeing your students’ work enter the world. Kalee Rushing worked on this piece with me in one of my workshops, and I’m so excited to see it in the world.
This essay is a gift to anyone who’s wading through grief. Read the whole piece below via Kalee’s Substack.
2. Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason by Gina Frangello
Gina Frangello quickly proves this book to be so much more than a juicy memoir about her affair. She conducts powerful experiments on the page, taking big risks in terms of craft and structure.
3. Ray Bradbury’s advice for being more creative
If the one-a-day approach isn’t realistic—it certainly isn’t for me!—then one short story + essay + poem a week will surely lead to similar benefits.
4. a new flash essay by Lexi Kent-Monning
I love everything Lexi writes, and this essay inspired me to try writing my own instructions for how people must behave after I die.
“I’ve listened to men talking for so many hours in my life, and must insist none speak about me posthumously.
I will haunt the shit out of you if you serve cream cheese pinwheels at the reception.”
Read the whole essay here.
5. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Here’s a book that’s worthy of every bit of the hype it’s been getting. I appreciated the way Jennette McCurdy conveyed the process of changing and growing through the complexities of grief and recovering from disordered eating.
6. Kara Cutruzzula’s poem about Joan Didion’s notebooks
If you’re as nerdy as I am, you’ve likely been watching the Joan Didion estate sale with wide, fascinated eyes.
Kara Cutruzzula—one of my favorite people on the Internet—wrote a poem about a pile of blank notebooks in Didion’s estate. When I gushed over the poem, she generously gave me permission to reprint it here to share with all of you!
Buying Joan Didion's Notebooks
If you buy Joan Didion's notebooks,
will they contain the key? They are
blank, unmarked, covered in plastic,
like they just bounced off the store shelf,
but maybe those empty pages
hold a coded message.If only you look closely,
beyond the leather-like cover,
beyond the fine ivory stock,
beyond the thin black lines,
a directive from her awaits.If you buy Joan Didion's notebooks,
will your writing selves merge?
Incisive, precise, crystalline
prose. Oh, who knows.
Why didn't she fill them?
She ran out of words. No.
She ran out of ideas. Surely not.
Maybe she bought too many or
maybe she thought she'd live
long enough to crack their spines.Maybe there's a lesson then.
Do not extinguish your savings
to buy Joan Didion's notebooks,
but write with fire in the ones
you already call your own.
If you liked this poem, you’ll love Kara’s journals for creative types as well as her Substack.
7. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
I wasn’t sure that I’d like this book because it’s about video games, which I never play. But wow, the writing is stunning! I fell hard for these characters. If you live in a place where winter actually happens, curl up with this book on a snow day.
Or, if you’re here in Florida, do what I did: crank the A/C, start a fire in the fireplace you have for some reason but never use, and curl up with this book.
8. The New York Times’ sports gambling investigation
If I only had a dime for every time this year I have thought, “What the fuck is up with all these sports betting ads?” Grateful to have learned a bit about what’s behind this machine through the Times.
9. a new poem by Catherine Spino
“I want to be your skin, climb inside you and hold you up like your bones, make you tick make you work”
Damn, this poem made me turn eleven shades of pink (in the best way).
10. This Is What It Sounds Like by Susan Rogers
Why I started reading this book: it’s written by Susan Rogers, who engineered Prince’s Purple Rain. Need I say more?
Actually, yes, I do need to say more because this book is really something. Rogers made my music-listening experience much more mindful and taught me a lot about what happens in our brains and bodies when we hear music.
One more thing: I have a new essay in the world!
While Hurricane Ian was slamming Florida, I wrote a microessay, which was accepted for publication by Rejection Letters! You can read my essay here.
I’ve been working on longer projects for the past three years, which means I haven’t been submitting shorter pieces much at all. Writing something short and sending it out into the world gave me some of my fire back. 🔥
I’ll be back next month with my favorite books of 2022! Join me?
💛 Hurley
Your recommendations are always fantastic! Thanks for this list!
Glad to hear you enjoyed the Zavin book; I've been curious-but-resistant due to my everpresent fear of being exposed to another Ready Player One situation. Like you, I'm not a video game person, but I recognize that they hold powerful sway over our culture, and I think we need more critical takes on them than we tend to get from anyone aside from William Gibson.