Issue 18
Library hacking, David Parks, Catfish, and Celebrity Books Clubs
I have really just wanted to show all of you that this newsletter lives up to its name. Been a bit uninspired recently. I have been so bummed out because the Seattle Public Library was hacked - known as a ransomware attack over Memorial Day weekend and it is taking months to get back up and running. The same thing happened to the Toronto Public Library and the British Library were attacked last year- each of which took 3-6 months to recover.
I am preparing for my first trip in 2.5 years to Scotland - I am so excited. This is also the first time I am traveling with a significant time difference after getting very sick - jet lag with MCAS will be an entirely new adventure. Fingers crossed it doesn’t cause a status migraine. I will also be bringing a long a wheelchair - which is also a new travel experience. I plan on finally reading Dorothy Dunnett’s The Game of Kings. We are going to the Highlands (West of Inverness) to an Edwardian Hunting Lodge with an 8 mile driveway and then to Edinburgh for a week. I have a significant list of bookstores to visit. I am very much looking forward to some QT with some family.
This edition is not as “meaty” as I would like - but I figured I would feel better about myself if I got it out since it has been 100 YEARS since my last one.
currently reading
Spies in Canaan by David Parks. I apologize, this has not been published in the US, I must have ordered it from the UK when it came out. I don’t really know why this has not been published in the US - it is really fantastic. The book starts with the narrator’s recollection of the Sunday school song “12 spies of Canaan” -
Twelve spies went to spy in Canaan
Ten were bad, two were good
Some saw the giants big and tall
Some saw the grapes in clusters fall
Some saw that God was in it all
Ten were bad, two were good
This kind of sets the stage for Michael Miller, the narrator, to recall the early days of his employment with the American foreign service right before and during the Fall of Saigon. Park’s story is heavily influenced by Flaubert’s Sentimental Education1 and Graham Greene’s The Quiet American - both of which are mentioned in the book.
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. I have been meaning to read this 2013 novel for a while- but I watched the BBC miniseries on Kanopy and cried through the entire thing and I couldn’t even wait a day to start the book. This is an example of when you read the perfect book at the exact time in your life when you need it most. The miniseries is arguably as good as the book.
There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish by Anna Akbari. If you want a thorough read on how 3 highly intelligent women got catfished - this is a great master class. I listened to it - and the audiobook is very accessible. It gets to be very in the weeds so I did skip a lot of parts. But I do consider myself something of an amateur scholar of catfishing and online relationships after my years of online dating and having watched every episode of MTV’s show Catfish.
something short to read/watch/listen to
I no longer have mixed feelings about celebrity books clubs, I am 100% on board. Anything that gets people reading and book sales up. Reese Witherspoon’s bookclub is probably one of the most popular ones - I enjoyed the NYT piece on her. Some other interesting celebrity bookclubs I follow are Natalie Portman, Dua Lipa , randomly Jenna Bush Hager, and Emma Robert’s Belletrist (which is the only one I actually have mixed feelings about - I find it a bit elitist- especially because of their collaboration with Valentino - which I find reeks of gatekeeping). Some more book clubs discovered and forgot about in my brief research: Florence + the Machine, Emma Watson, Dakota Johnson, and Kaia Gerber.
More damage done because of the ignorant crusade of banning books. Public Libraries are the cornerstones of our democracy.
I recommended the first episode of the Reflector in my last post - episodes two and three are also very good. These two episodes are part 1 and part 2 of the evolution around the moral panic of popular music, which is currently playing out around Young Thug - there is a lot of nuance in both the case and the industry, with RICO charges brought against him by District Attorney Fani T. Willis (yes- that Fani Willis and yes - the very same RICO charges) and the use of his own music lyrics against him. I should note that I have pretty minimal knowledge of this particular part of the music industry and I found the Reflector’s in depth reporting fascinating.
If you are curious of a Gen X’s playlist of what the kids are listening to this summer, Nick Hornby put together a very fun playlist. I have to say that I am really enjoying Chappell Roan, Shaboozey, and Brittney Spencer songs. I haven’t gotten past the first 5 songs because I have been listening to them on repeat.
My mother and me have become absolutely obsessed with the second season of “Happy to be Home with the Benkos” on Max. I think it is by far the best home renovation show.
some visual enrichment
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I think this is Flaubert’s best work - better than Madam Bovary
Hi, Naomi,
Lovely to see the rose bush in the photo and earlier this summer IRL… I continue to be so impressed by the range and depth of your interests and reading /watching/listening choices.
Enjoy Scotland and hope the travel pains & jet lag challenges are minimal, at worst, and non-existent, at best!!!
Nancy