curledup roundup: Apr
Wandering museums, consuming collections, getting outside: 10 things from April
Let’s take a tour through some items that captured my attention throughout the month of April, shall we…
The literary gods have blessed me by placing me in an apartment in the same neighborhood as a book reviewer from The New Yorker. One of the first weekends we were here, I spotted an IKEA sized bag full of books for free, a lot of which were advanced reader copies. I thought… could I be so lucky?! Indeed. We have since learned the origin of all those ARCs and now wait with bated breath for her next drop. The other day, I came back from the park with my dog, Ham, to an abundance! Very excited about the haul.
I’ve been chugging along through A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. It is very verbose, and such a joy to read. It’s amazing how much of Francie’s life, the 11-year old main character living in Williamsburg in the 1910s, feels relevant and relatable today. This passage stopped me in my tracks and has stuck with me like glue since:
And the child, Francie Nolan, was of all the Rommelys and all the Nolans. She had the violent weaknesses and passion for beauty of the shanty Nolans. She was a mosaic of her grandmother Rommely’s mysticism, her tale-telling, her great belief in everything and her compassion for the weak ones. She had a lot of her grandfather Rommely’s cruel will. She had some of her Aunt Evy’s talent for mimicking, some of Ruthie Nolan’s possessiveness. She had Aunt Sissy’s love for life and her love for children. She had Johnny’s sentimentality without his good looks. She had all of Katie’s soft ways and only half of the invisible steel of Katie. She was made up of all these good things and all these bad things.
She was made up of more, too. She was the books she read in the library. She was the flower in the brown bowl. Part of her life was made from the tree growing rankly in the yard. She was the bitter quarrels she had with her brother whom she loved dearly. She was Katie’s secret, despairing weeping. She was the shame of her father staggering home drunk.
She was all of these things and of something more that did not come from the Rommelys nor the Nolans, the reading, the observing, the living from day to day. It was something that had been born into her and her only—the something different from anyone else in the two families. It was what God or whatever is His equivalent puts into each soul that is given life—the one different thing such as that which makes no two fingerprints on the face of the earth alike.
Enjoy this collection of people in the 17th-19th century enjoying a good book from the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC 😌
I spent a full week during this month (between jobs) exploring different parts of New York City, and it was glorious. One of my first stops was the main branch of the New York Public Library—a place I’ve had on my list for a long while. It’s stunning… like truly breathtaking. My visit took me down a big library rabbit hole that I plan to write more about soon! Hot tip that I should have looked into prior to my visit: you’re only able to enter the Rose Reading Room as a visitor from 10-11 am Monday through Saturday.
Another stop during my funemployment week was Bibliotheque in SoHo: part bookstore, part coffee shop, part bar. A great space to get comfy and spend an hour, or five in my case, any time of day.
Intrigued by this Miu Miu Literary Club! It appears to be a two-day book club-style event in Italy hosted by the brand to “further enhance Miu Miu’s commitment to contemporary thought.” It’s cool to see high fashion brands celebrating reading and aligning themselves with the literary world in this way. Valentino’s Love Stories campaign was another cool example of this.
If you’re looking for a great book of stories, might I recommend Wednesday's Child by Yiyun Li? A book made of many little universes, Li took a variety of different angles on the meaning of motherhood, loss, and connection to one’s own life. And read The Book of Goose while you’re at it—an all-time fave.
I’m about halfway through Sweat: A Brief History of Exercise per a colleague’s recommendation, and am really enjoying it. The book is the author’s exploration of his relationship with working out, told through the history of exercise, dating back to ancient times. The collection of teachings he’s gathered, a lot of which are from Italian physician, Mercuriali, is very comprehensive and impressive. I’m learning a lot about the origins of movement as a tool for health, longevity, wellness. Let this be your sign to get up and take a walk, like this book was for me!
9. This video of someone reading the end of A Little Life on the plane and hysterically sobbing made me giggle. That book should be illegal.
It’s spring and you know what that means: time to curl up with a good book in the park!!!
See you next time!