curledup roundup: Feb
10 things I loved during the month of love xoxo
Hi—happy March! With only a couple weeks until spring, I’m looking back on a few things that intrigued me, brought me joy, and got me thinking during the chilly month of February. Enjoy!
Ladies and gents, it seems as though we have entered a new era of celebrity book clubs, and I, quite frankly, am thrilled. Operating almost more as content houses and focusing on less “mainstream” books, they appeal to a different audience than the #ReadwithJenna’s and Reese’s of the world. Kaia Gerber, model, actress, and daughter of Cindy Crawford, started interviewing authors on Instagram Live during the pandemic in 2020, and she recently established this series as more of a brand called Library Science. According to this WSJ piece about her, she has big hopes for the future of the brand and has even met with the team at Knopf to discuss book choices—the Knopf publicist was quoted saying ”younger people read a lot too, and having a peer with great literary taste making recommendations is unique and fills a real niche—and need.” On Friday, the iconic lime-lover Dakota Johnson launched Tea Time Book Club as an offshoot of Tea Time Pictures, her production company. Their first book is Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino. It’s been interesting to see the formats in which these are coming to life. Library Science has a website that houses all the recordings of the conversations with Kaia and the authors. Tea Time is using the new “broadcast channel” function on Instagram to facilitate a more direct conversation with the community. Excited to watch this space 👀
@ez.bookdesign on TikTok. Book cover design absolutely lights me up, and Elisha makes videos showing the process behind it: from the initial brief, to addressing author and publisher feedback, to the final outcome. He also shares both approved and rejected covers on his website. Eye candy!
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Brutes by Dizz Tate. What a read!!! I absolutely loved this book. It follows a group of friends living in Florida as they collectively grapple with the disappearance of a an older girl they idolized. Part of the book is written from the perspective of the entire group, using “we” as the pronoun, and I found it FASCINATING. Not only is the writing absolutely stunning, surprising, immersive, stirring, but the implication of groupthink and having your identity be so inextricably linked with your friends at that age, that you can’t even see where they end and you begin, was so well done. You get glimpses of the girls later in life and while there is a lot left unsaid, you’re able to connect the dots between childhood and current circumstances. Set in Florida, the plot felt as humid and sticky as the state itself. It’s violent and innocent, thriller and coming-of-age—highly recommend.
I like one sports team, and it is the Phoenix Suns. Devin Booker just released a shoe with Nike Basketball called the ‘Book 1’ and the campaign, with its moody library vibe, is so 👏 good 👏 Book x books—the most random combination that I am somehow, someway the perfect target audience for.
I found myself in Yours Truly, the stationary companion of Greenlight Bookstore, the other day and picked up a lavender Leuchtturm 1917 notebook and a brown Zebra Sarasa clip pen. They are a match made in heaven. The lavender is perfectly on brand for me, and there’s something about writing with brown, gray, navy—not black—ink that I’ve been loving recently.
Have been obsessed with Flexmami (Lillian Ahenkan) on TikTok as of late. She is so verbose and philosophical, and simultaneously so funny and real, in the way she explores, debunks, and elaborates upon ideas, trends, concepts. I especially love this one about how self-help content can actually be harmful to your sense of self, and this one about how she unlocked the power of journaling when she gave herself the permission to be “deranged” on the page. She has a Substack
and launched a new podcast that I’m excited to tune into.One Day, consumed in one day. In my personal opinion, the only feasible way to watch this type of show is to rip all the way through with little to no breaks. I started at 7 pm and had finished the entire series by 1 am. I never read the book, but now I may have to. I know they did a movie adaptation with Anne Hathaway, but the series approach feels smart considering the structure of the book: one day, the same day, every year for twenty years. It was devastating and heartwarming. Ambika Mod’s Emma was so refreshing. No notes.
This 100 Small Acts Of Love piece the New York Times put together for Valentine’s Day. The small things are the big things! Some faves…
My fella and I kiss each other every time we get in and out of the car. It’s our love toll.
I do my best to listen without interrupting or offering unsolicited advice.
I have an Alexa reminder set at 6:30 p.m. every day that says: “Time to hug your wife.” When we’re both home, we give each other a good hug. When we’re not together, I text: “I’m hugging you.”
Married 52 years. We always kiss when we’re alone in elevators.
Every morning when we wake up, I look at my fiancée and ask her: “Do you know what today is?” She smiles as I respond to my own question: “Today is the best day of my life!” It’s a shtick, but it’s also true. Both of us are late-in-life gays. Every day of living my truth is the best day of my life.
I began writing my wife a daily poem, starting the first time I kissed her a decade and an half ago. I’ve never missed a day, and she’s kept all 5,000-plus of them. Some are silly, others serious. Mostly, they keep us connected day after day, word after word.
The Best, Weirdest, Wildest Performances of the Year by Wesley Morris in the NYT Magazine. Why talk Best Picture when we can talk Best Flash of Mania (Bradley Copper in “Maestro”) or Best Drunk (Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers")? Why talk Best Actor when we can talk “Best Acting on a Landline” (Matt Damon, Viola Davis and Chris Messina in “Air”) or “Best Sniveling Bastard” (Mark Ruffalo in “Poor Things”)?
This glorious description of reading a freshly-borrowed book from the library on a fire escape on a warm day in Brooklyn, complete with a bowl of candy and an ice cold bevvy in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Taking this energy right on into spring!
See you next time!
loooooove this roundup. i, too, have been FASCINATED by elisha's cover designs - they are brilliant! i am endlessly inspired by his mind and talent.
thank you for sharing!