5 things for friday
my go-to 'better than takeout' recipe, a slew of shopping recs, the movie i'm still thinking about + a podcast ep you MUST listen to
happy friday, friends!
if you, like me, are currently freezing on the east coast and wishing desperately that it would be real, true, 60-degree spring, i salute you. march is a tough month, isn’t it? in like a lion, out like a lamb, or so they say. but having been back in new york since march 1st, i feel confident in saying we’ve had way more lion than lamb lately. it feels like our sunny days have been few and far between; instead, we’ve had either frigid temps or blustery rain. i’ve been making the most of the sunshine we do have—and brightening up the rainy days with fresh flowers, like these perfect ranunculus, which i found at trader joe’s.
i spent much of this week doing a bit of what i call life admin. i went through my taxes with my accountant. i returned my too big chandelier, ordered the correct size, and had it installed by a lovely task rabbit named clive. i (finally!) got penny’s medications in order, and did multiple loads of laundry. i applied to multiple jobs, and wrote multiple newsletters (ICYMI, they’re linked at the end of this one!). i worked out, and stretched, and took hot baths in hopes of remedying my will it ever quit hip pain (the answer, it seems, is no).
and perhaps most importantly, i wrote (!!). as of the time of this writing (it’s thursday afternoon), i have 28 pages and 7,450 words of book two, which is…a lot harder to write than book one was. maybe it’s because book one is semi-autobiographical in parts, maybe it’s because i’ve been writing it in my head for nearly a decade, maybe it’s just because i was writing it under more of a self-imposed deadline. but for whatever reason, book one just flowed. it poured out of me each morning when i sat down at my little breakfast bar turned desk, poured out of me to the point where it almost felt like the characters were coming through me, like i was just a pair of hands through which they could find their way to the page.
book two is not semi-autobiographical (though all fiction is, of course, based on and in reality, in some way). it is an idea that is broader and bolder in scope, and it requires way more research than book one did. it is a concept i’m half-convinced i’m neither smart enough nor talented enough to pull off, and yet, here i am, attempting to pull it off. things i googled this week include:
greek female names
the president’s daily schedule (did you know that there’s something called the daily diary that tracks nearly every minute of the president’s day, and that is viewable online?! obviously all the important things are blacked out, but…still!)
can men be reformed? (yes, this is an actual thing i googled, in hopes of remembering scott galloway’s name, which was on the tip of my tongue but unfindable in the moment)
hinduism beliefs + LGBTW+ (for a character’s mother)
deputy director of CIA training
first husband of the US
elon musk moon mission
car industry carbon neutral
private airport LA
i mean….what a list, right? absurd. who do i think i am?! and yet, i’ve had a handful of moments over the past week where i’ve been writing (and/or channeling, depending on how in the zone i am) where things have just worked. a character’s name perfectly rhymes with an insult slung at her when she was a kid, an insult she’s never forgotten, an insult she’s reminded of when she’s talking to another character.
my therapist kindly reminded me this week that this is how creativity works. it’s a circular process. you think your work is great, then you think it’s terrible, and therefore YOU are terrible, then you think maybe it’s not actually terrible after all, and then the cycle starts again. yesterday, i was in the “this is GARBAGE, i am ALSO GARBAGE” phase. today i’m in the “wait, this is sort of ok” phase. and it feels good to stretch in this way. to feel my brain working as character arcs and plot points roll around like glass marbles. i haven’t felt this creatively challenged in a really long time, and i suppose that’s a good thing?
one of you kind readers commented on wednesday night’s post about my fear that i’ll never find another job again, which has—especially when i’m in a “THIS IS GARBAGE I AM GARBAGE” zone—contributed to my fear that the 330 pages i have written for book one are essentially for naught, that they’ll never be published, that i will never be published. her lovely comment (thank you, lindsay!) is below, but the crux of it is this: even when i had a hardcore corporate job, i still found time to write. to dedicate time to this thing that i love to do.
i credit my ability to write that first 330 pages, and this second 28, to this newsletter. to all of you, who have showed me, both in your subscriptions and via your commetns and DMs and emails, that this practice i keep—it means something to you. i imagine not nearly as much as it means to me, but still. that’s something!
speaking of: if you genuinely enjoy this newsletter, will you a) tap the little heart at the bottom and b) consider sharing it on your IG stories or forwarding along to a friend?
i continue to be so humbled and grateful that you’re here. that you read, and comment, and every so often, send me a thoughtful email or leave an encouraging comment. i am a writer because i write, but a lot of what i write is this. and while i’d love to think i’d keep writing it week after week if not a single person read it, i know deep down that is patently false. i keep going because you keep showing up. so thank you, thank you!
now, shall we get to our 5 fun things?
rarely do i say things like you must listen to this episode. but friends, i implore you: please listen to this episode. it’s a conversation with two activists from standing together, a grassroots movement that organizes jews and arabs around campaigns for peace. it is the first thing that i, as an american jew, have felt really spoke my values and opinions into existence—whilst challenging some of the things i learned as a child.
the episode talks openly and powerfully about why palestinian liberation and jewish safety are completely intertwined, who’s really benefitting from the US sending billions of dollars to the israeli government (war! what is it good for?! the military industrial complex, of course), the myths many americans have been taught about the palestinian-israeli crisis, the history behind the formation of israeli in 1948 and what that moment meant for the palestinian people living on the land at the time, and what WE can do about it all.
i cannot recommend it enough.
ps: other podcasts/episodes i enjoyed this week: three, which takes a new look at this horrific true crime case featuring three best friends. this episode with abby jimenez, who started nadia cakes, and is now a successful romance author (!). SO inspiring and incredibly interesting. this “three things” episode of bad on paper, in which becca and olivia discussed two pop culture things i am VERY invested in right now: kate middleton + the idea of you trailer.
ugh, you guys. goodreads just informed me that i am two books behind schedule on my 2024 reading challenge. and i think it’s because i’ve been attempting to read this for the last week or so, and i just can’t get into it. i am a HUGE tana french fan, but this one just isn’t doing it for me. it’s an editor’s pick on amazon, and has a 4.3 rating on goodreads, so i’ve been telling myself i need to give it more time. but also, i’m 20% in, and still not hooked. i loved her last novel, the searcher, which finds former chicago PD detective cal hooper moving to a tiny irish town and stumbling upon some seriously bad people—and thought that the hunter, which is also about cal—would be a slam dunk. but so far, no dice. if you’re reading this, or have finished it already, tell me: should i keep going?
speaking of: this atlantic piece is behind a paywall, but leads me to believe i’m not the only one struggling with french’s latest book.
ps: if you’re a big reader, follow me on goodreads! i try and rank/save every book i read (and i read about 50-60 a year!)
|| trigger warning : holocaust + WWII ||
as i mentioned last week, i’ve been slowly working my way through the oscar films. this one has been high on my list for months now, but i waited to watch it, because i was certain it would be a tough watch. i was right. the zone of interest—a phrase that referred to the area around the auschwitz concentration camp, where nearly one million jews were gassed to death during the holocaust—takes a different tact than most WWII films. it is haunting and powerful and i will be thinking about it for a very, very long time. having watched it, i’m not even remotely surprised it won the grand prix at cannes. every single scene is a gut punch.
the film, which is loosely based on a 2014 novel, tells the story of auschwitz commandant rudolph höss and his wife hedwig, who strive to build a dream home and a dream life for their family directly beside the camp. yes, i said directly beside the camp. as in, their garden overlooks the crematoriums; the screams of prisoners being gassed to death can be heard while mrs. höss prunes her garden. at one point, she gleefully gifts her girlfriends clothing from “canada.” kanada was the name given in auschwitz to the vast storehouse of goods confiscated from the prisoners. during this scene, i paused the film and said aloud, oh my god.
to acknowledge the couple as human beings was a big part of the awfulness of this entire journey of the film, but i kept thinking that, if we could do so, we would maybe see ourselves in them. for me, this is not a film about the past. it’s trying to be about now, and about us and our similarity to the perpetrators, not our similarity to the victims.
i highly recommend both the movie itself and the interview above. it is the most uncomfortable to watch film i’ve seen in a long time, and i can’t stop thinking about it.
you know how lots of recipes tout ‘better than takeout’ but are not, actually, better than takeout? well, this one, which comes together in under 20 minutes, IS. it’s from the 2017 cookbook for night + market, by kris yenbamroong and garrett snyder, and it’s kris’ recipe, edited ever so slightly for the NYT cooking audience. i have made it probably 20 or 30 times, and every time, it just SLAPS. sorry to use that youthful terminology as an elder millennial, but…it does. i add a bit of diced ginger (i buy the frozen cubes at tj’s, highly recommend!), and use chili garlic sauce (about 1 tbsp, give or take) in addition to a cube or two of garlic (same dilio, i get the frozen cubes from tj’s), and because i never have thai seasoning sauce, i use soy in its place.
for such a small amount of ingredients, the flavor profile in this recipe is just…unreal good. trust me, make this. you will not regret it! i make mine with brown rice, which adds 20 minutes, but if you’re crunched for time or prefer white, you do you!
also, this is not a recipe, but i went to corner bistro for the very first time (i know, sacrilege as a new yorker, but i honestly never go to the west side) and my goodness, is their burger good. if you find yourself in the WV and you want an unpretentious (though still not cheap), unfussy burger + fries (or tots, if you’re a tots person), this is the place. it’s cash only, but they have an atm. you’re welcome!
according to my intel*, i can see that lots of you have purchased THE anthro jeans. friends, i am full on obsessed. i wore them for three straight days after they arrived, and am heavily contemplating the lighter wash. that’s the only thing i’ve purchased recently, BUT! i feel like there’s a good chance a lot of you missed this giant roundup of all of my desert island products, so i’m relinking that post below. go forth and shop ALL THE THINGS (literally, there are lots of categories full of my favorites), and then leave YOUR choices in the comments.
*intel = my LTK stats
and that, friends, is where i leave you. if you like this post, it would mean the world to me if you’d hit the little heart icon, as well as consider sharing it with your network—so that the grand weekly can be seen by more people.
Any chance Tom White, slender and short older guy with white hair and unruly eyebrows was still tending bar at the Bistro? Haven't been there in years, but it was once a regular.
Re: Tana French - I LOVED the Dublin Murder Squad and The Witch Elm, but disliked the first book about Cal so much that I don’t plan on trying this second one. She writes such great and complex female protagonists and characters, I just didn’t feel the same connection with Cal. (Vastly different type of writing, but I felt similarly about Dolly Alderton’s latest, with a blah male protagonist.) It must feel really good for an author to stretch their imagination that way, but it doesn’t always translate as enjoyable to the reader, I think…