Today is the last day to take advantage of I’m the Girl’s ebook sale.
So we’re halfway through the year, the fact of which leaves me feeling deeply unsettled. This month, I’ve nothing particularly interesting to say by way of the writing or publishing processes, except I’m in a place with both that will make better future newsletters.
In the meantime, I’m sharing some mid-year favorites because we love a good Best of List and the potential of being directed to new and exciting things, don’t we? I hope you’ll make use of the comments section to share what’s captured you so far this year, and earned a spot amongst your favs.
Reading
(While I’ve challenged myself to recommend a single title from five categories, if you’d like to hear more on what books I’m enjoying and am excited about, you can usually find that on my Instagram.)
Novel
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li. About the obsessive friendship between two girls and the razor’s edge they walk together, then apart, when a book they write catapults their lives in different directions. There’s much more to it than that—and yet, little else. Nothing’s especially feel good about its narrative, but that’s why it’s so special. The command it has over its most intimate and cruelest truths, and its honest sense of ending is striking.
Non-fiction
A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney. Shortly after turning one, Delaney’s son, Henry, was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died at two. Delaney lays this devastation bare, and, in doing so, highlights our cultural inadequacies in dealing with grief. It’s important to remember that expressions of grief are often born of a place of great love and we need to hold space for them, no matter how confronting or hard to hear, because it’s such a generous and precious thing for someone to be willing to share. A Heart That Works is exactly that: a generous and precious book.
Novella
This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill was recommended to me in my subscriber chat. Thank you! It’s a discomfiting examination of how complicated conversations about the #MeToo movement can become, least of all with others, and most of all with ourselves. I’ve seen suggestions this undermines the larger conversation because it inhabits the perspectives of a man who cannot square the world’s shift away from attitudes that made his abuses possible in the first place, and that of one of his women friends, who isn’t wholly comfortable with the idea said behavior was wrong based on her own experiences with and reactions to it. To think Gaitskill is absolving anyone, or making a grotesque attempt at devil’s advocacy is so reductive, I could cry, and assuming a position of moral righteousness over the text from a place that believes it’s in urgent need of it is—interesting. This is a glimpse into a psychology that makes up a significant part of the social landscape we occupy and felt very familiar in terms of what I’ve researched to support choices I’ve made in my own work. Waves in an ocean.
Short story collection
Dead-End Memories by Banana Yoshimoto. There’s a real sincerity in Yoshimoto’s work that few writers can capture or sustain. She explores loneliness without giving into hopelessness, loss and hardship without giving into despair, and about those difficult, in between times where you feel more and less like a body in the world than you ever have before—unique in your feelings, yet not at all. This collection is so very lovely.
Short story
Treasure by Oyinkan Braithwaite. My Sister, the Serial Killer, was one of my favorites the year I read it, and Treasure reminded me of everything I like about Braithwaite’s prose, which is sharp, purposeful, and unsparing. This is a send-up of influencer culture and at 31 pages, I won’t say much more except publishers, is this along the lines of what you want authors to become? People will die!
Bonus: some upcoming releases I’ll be speaking more on later, but for now know I loved them and think you should add them to your tbrs: Songs of Irie by Asha Ashanti Bromfield (October 2023), The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert (February 2024), and Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (April 2024).
Watching
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song
What can I say about it that I didn’t already in this newsletter?
Tár
Wow, did I love Tár, the experience of watching Tár, reading reviews of Tár, and absorbing the discourse surrounding Tár. I appreciate it similarly to how I appreciate Gaitskill’s This is Pleasure. This film was so meticulous and careful in its provocations, which is exactly why it’s so viscerally felt. My favorite analysis comes from Zadie Smith for The New York Review.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
This very sweet movie made me Feel Things in the same way Banana Yoshimoto’s writing does, and if you chased one right after the other, I imagine it would be extremely life-affirming.
M3GAN
A movie that strove to be the best of what it is, reached for more than what it needed to be, and resulted in: a masterpiece. Beyond its popcorn premise is a surprisingly touching narrative about loss that never leans into the same delightful corniness of Megan’s kills, making for a viewing experience that left me truly invested in its characters while also enjoying its wild ride.
Mulholland Drive
I’m currently reading about David Lynch’s process and it’s been really interesting and fun because I like some, but not all, of his work. While this hasn’t changed my mind on everything, expanding my understanding of his intent and approach has made exploring and revisiting those films creatively invigorating. Mulholland Drive plays to all of Lynch’s usual fascinations— violence, sex, hyperrealism, surrealism, the spiritual, the absurd—and coheres into something that makes a perfect kind of sense.
Listening
The gap between Kesha’s Gag Order and other albums I’ve loved and listened to is pronounced enough that hers is the only one I want to feature here. It’s so powerful. There’s a weary vulnerability in these songs; it feels like a bleak, sometimes grimly teasing culmination of what she’s gone through. This record feels like it’s operating within a level of anger, hurt, and depression that is viciously functional. We often praise women for their fortitude after we’ve put them through hell. Gag Order reminds me of the cost, of how insulting that can be.
Beauty products
Save me from the beauty industrial complex. New discoveries and holy grails: Vanicream’s Gentle Facial Cleanser for Sensitive Skin leaves mine feeling notably clean. I’ve hyped La Roche Posay’s Ultra-Fluid Sunscreen before, but it’s so good—very protective, wears beautifully under makeup. Stila One Step Correct is fantastic. I’m tired of foundation, but wanted something to even out my complexion. This does that, gives my skin a glow, and plays nicely with my never-creases Lancome Teint Idole Ultra Wear Concealer. Makeup By Mario’s SoftSculpt Shaping Stick filled a gap Kevyn Aucoin’s sculpting powder left behind; the shades aren’t muddy on fair skin and blend well. I’ve been pairing e.l.f.’s Clear Brow Mascara with Huda Beauty’s Microshade Brow Pencil forever. The pencil is waxy, pigmented, and lasts. L’Oreal’s Telescopic Lift Mascara more than delivers on its promises. And, finally, I got a great haircut that demands a certain amount of maintenance, but I don’t like doing any amount of work in the name of my hair. Finding a product that tackles frizz, fights humidity, and keeps everything in place while asking nothing from me in return seemed impossible. Enter JVN’s Complete Hydrating Air Dry Hair Styling Cream. I’m. Obsessed. I’ve need this all my life. I’ll never let it go.
Around the internet, things of interest and/or delight:
Bookmarks.reviews - who’s saying what about books.
ContraPoints: The Witch Trials of JK Rowling [YouTube] [If you’re a terf, unsubscribe! Bye!]
D’Angelo Wallace’s fun recaps of The Idol [YouTube]
Mando’s—who you might recognize from the B&N TikTok account—contagiously enthusiastic book recs [TikTok]
Author Margot Harrison’s fun and informative TikTok—check out her clever thrillers, too.
Meg with Books - a fav BookTuber, reasons here. [YouTube]
My Name is Marines: Book Reviews + Media Criticism - thoughtful, engaging book analyses. [YouTube]
Pasta Grammar - endearing husband and wife team on ‘the real food of Italy.’ [YouTube]
Beryl Shereshewsky - recipes from around the world, and their histories, submitted to Beryl by her global audience. [YouTube]
Zando - a publisher whose list/imprints are wildly interesting, and whose innovative approach to hyping their books feels thoughtful and tailored enough to hit different. I really enjoyed their Instagram posts for Pride.
Your turn.
And let’s close out this letter with a little news: for the New York Times, I recommended a (brilliant) queer YA book I think everyone should read and if you’re interested having me come and speak, virtually or in-person, you can explore my speaker’s profile on Authors Out Loud.
That’s all for now. I hope your summer is off to a beautiful start.
Preorder the paperback edition of The Project.
Purchase I’m the Girl.
courtneysummers.ca
instagram.com/summerscourtney
tiktok.com/@notcourtneysummers
It means a lot to me that you love Leonard Cohen. I can’t explain why, but it is so. I am working my way through his poetry books, and have I’m Your Man, his biography, on my delicious stack. I think I am inspired today to listen to him while working on this final stretch on my novel. It is always a certain mood to do so; I think today is that mood.
Thank you for your sensitive and thoughtful take on the #metoo movement. That was both important and painful for me, because back in 1991, as a 19-year-old kid, I was neither seen nor heard because “sexual assault” was not on the books in North Carolina, and there were no physical marks to show. If you would like to read my poem about it, I would be honored: https://theremightbecupcakes.substack.com/p/hounds-of-love
Bought your latest back on June 3. ❤️
I need to make my list now. Thanks for reminding and inspiring me!
Hey! Glad you ended up reading This is Pleasure!!! It reminded me a lot of I'm The Girl in its complications and refusal to simplify.
I'm looking forward to checking out your other recs--especially the Yoshimoto collection. Have you read Sayaka Murata's Earthlings? Proceed with caution!
Lynch is so fascinating, as is his work. You should give Twin Peaks a try if you haven't already--if nothing else, the third season is a visual masterpiece. Wallace makes up a bunch of facts in here (as per usual with his nonfiction), but this is still a pretty good read: http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html
Unexpected, but my favorite book so far this year was probably Mrs. Caliban, a very strange little novella: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/04/the-hallucinatory-realism-of-rachel-ingalls
Looking forward to your new work!