Reading List: Per Usual, Some Anxiety-Inducing Dystopian Longreads And Then A Story About Flamingoes. You’re Welcome. 😘
My darlings! It’s Friday, my coffee is delicious, I’m glaring at a pile of laundry I have to do this weekend to attempt to will it to clean itself, and I’m getting super excited to pick the speakers for Odd Salon HERO in November (have you submitted? You should pitch something…) My weekend is looking restful and nerdy and that’s definitely how I prefer it.
TO THE LONGREADS!
George T. Conway III, Unfit for Office (The Atlantic) - Do you need a cozy 11,000-word treatise on how the narcissism of our current president has led us into the current dystopian hellscape we inhabit? And do you need that epic tome to be penned by the husband of one of said president’s key advisors? OF COURSE YOU DO / grab your favorite hyperventilating paper bag, cuz this one’s gonna destroy your brain. I’ve just started it, and I’m already yodeling BUT HER EMAILS at the crows chilling on the power line outside my apartment.
Tim Miller, Being Donald Trump: Inside the World Where Conspiracies Are Reality (The Bulwark) - Haven’t read this yet because it was published an hour ago, but Tim Miller is an amazing writer and former GOP consultant who just gets it, so it shall be read shortly.
Chanel Miller, On What Happened After Her Victim Statement Went Viral (BuzzFeed News) - TW for sexual assault, but if you can, give this a read. The Brock Turner trial and subsequent lax sentencing that led to the public recall of the presiding judge was a flashpoint for national discussions of campus sexual assault, with the victim statement by the woman identified as Emily Doe shared and celebrated across the country. Now, Emily Doe has identified herself as Chanel Miller, and has written a book on her experience. This excerpt which includes how her friends would text her the anonymous victim statement she penned is unsettling but triumphant.
Sarah Miller, Darkness on the Edge of Cougartown (The Cut) - I recently discovered that women in their 20s are getting “preventative botox” to help stave off aging from an even younger age. And as someone who re-entered the dating pool in her mid-30s as a divorced non-drinker, and was once effusively praised by a coffee date for “looking my age” in my online profile (um, thanks?), I am acutely aware of the pressure of romantic age dynamics, especially on women. Which is why I liked this raw and introspective look at one writer’s own romantic adventures, insecurities and personal projections in finding love with a younger man. And I just love this line towards the end of the piece: “You don’t have to love yourself before someone else can. That’s bullshit. But you do probably have to be able to admit what you really feel at your core, because otherwise, the person you’re with won’t really feel free to do the same.”
indirispeaks, Zookeeper Problems: The Great Flamingo Uprising (Tumblr) - One of you posted this work of absolute genius on one of the social media platforms and/or texted it to me, and I am so sorry that I didn’t write down who posted it, but HOLY HECK THIS IS AMAZING STORYTELLING about flamingos and geese and peacocks and swans and hopeful fish and West Side Story references and I am dying of laughter…
I truly appreciate this time we have together in the morning. Be kind to each other.
xoxo Amy