First, a quick note: I have a new piece of flash fiction up at hex this week, titled “Care and Keeping.” It’s a little odd so skip if you’re squeamish but I’m so delighted to share this & grateful to hex for giving it a home. <3
What does “beach read” mean to you?
I subscribe to the general belief that if you’re reading it on a beach, it’s a beach read, though there are some books that complement the environment especially nicely & vice versa. Since it is a holiday and I hope you’re reading this somewhere sunny with a frosty drink & maybe a nice peach nearby, I thought I’d share a few beach (or pool, or cabin porch, or— if you’re like me— backyard patio) recommendations.
Dramatic (preferably literary) Biographies
A beach is not the place for very thoughtful, political, or historical biographies (including autobiographies) that might =be really interesting or good in other, less relaxed settings. A beach is a good place for juicy, dynamic biographies. I’m partial to the ones with old literary beefs in them, but the genre is certainly expansive.
20th Century New York Society-ish Novels
Is this maybe a little specific? Yes. Are these also very fun and perfect for sinking into on a warm summer day? Also yes.
Modern Summer Gothic Family Stories
Often overlapping with Southern Gothic, I love gothic novels and/or eerie, uncanny family novels whose darkness is hidden in bright, sticky days instead of dark and stormy nights.
Cold and Snowy Novels
Boycotting summer? Staying in the AC? Traveling to the Southern hemisphere and need something to read at the ski lodge? Love it. If not, some frosty books to take you back to better, less humid times.
Summer Romance…adjacent
Books for the piners & yearners & lusters. Books for going to the pool every day because your crush comes to do laps at 2 PM. Books for losing sleep. Books for when your summer crush has seen your story but didn’t <3 react. Books for being in love with an idea instead of a person. Books for love as form of madness.
Literally About the Sea
Figuratively about some other things.
I made a Bookshop list here of the above picks, in case that’s helpful. (Because it’s my list it may come through as an affiliate link for me, but you can switch easily to support your local indie in the upper right.)
Please tell me your summery reads (or just what you’re reading now)!
With love,
Court
What I’ve been reading, watching, and consuming lately:
Dries Van Noten’s last show before retirement, with this review/sendoff in Harper’s Bazaar by Steff Yotka.
Also fashion-related: I love these behind-the-scenes videos of Daniel Roseberry doing his drawings for Schiaparelli by hand.
This interview with Janet Goodspeed in The Creative Independent on astrology, creativity, and ritual. I also think that there are few things better for creativity/mental health than a little walk around your neighborhood running a few errands or buying a little treat. I don’t do it often enough but it’s invaluable!
Andrea Long Chu on Rachel Cusk. 👀
“Cusk, I’m afraid, is one of those rare writers whose genius exceeds the depth of her own experience. She has taken some fine observations about bourgeois motherhood under late capitalism and annealed them, through sheer intensity of talent, into empty aphorisms about the second sex. In so doing, she has wasted an enormous amount of energy on making the idea of female freedom unthinkable — an ironic choice for a writer who has achieved something like canonicity within her own lifetime. If Parade is women’s writing, let us hope it is the last of it. Another kind of novel is possible.”
It’s funny; I read that review while I was still on the library list for Parade, and was particularly impressed by Chu’s ability to pull out that thematic thread from Cusk’s work, kind of thinking to myself that she did a really good job picking super clear examples from the book to illustrate her point. And then my hold came in and I started reading the book for myself and— not to diminish Chu’s analysis, because she’s extremely brilliant— I almost laughed aloud at how weirdly preoccupied with gender essentialism the book is, discussed on nearly every page. I don’t think you could have truthfully written about the book and NOT discussed it. I don’t like it!!!
We’ve been watching the new Star Wars show The Acolyte, as well as getting into The Bear, season 3. Of the first, I’m not sure how long my love for Manny Jacinto will keep me engaged1 (especially while Nathan’s #1 selling point, Carrie-Anne Moss, has had about eight minutes of screen time). Of the latter… mixed feelings so far but we haven’t finished it yet, so jury’s still out.
This write-up of the exhibit We Will Be What We Want to Be: From Baltimore to Palestine, by Rebekah Kirkman, in Baltimore Beat.
“At the Tone, Please Record Your Message,” by Emma Li, in HAD.
This nice profile of Fitzcarraldo Editions in The New Yorker, by Rebecca Mead. I love indie presses and Fitzcarraldo specifically (those blue paperbacks speak to me), and it’s (nicely) bizarre to read about how countries outside the US do things like spend money on arts? And translations? Crazy.
A fun new remix by R&R of Tendrills’s song “Zoning”. (Full song is up on bandcamp but linking the IG reel for the Poe easter egg. :) )
A conversation while cooking dinner:
Me: Well, so far I like Manny Jacinto’s—
Nathan: Arms?
Me: I was going to say character, but yeah, pretty much that.
I love The Snow Child and absolutely agree that it is a perfect beach read. Very pro escape-from-the-heat reading in the summer.