curledup roundup: Mar
Events, adaptations, recs, and more: 10 things I loved from March
Welcome to Q2! Even through the cold and rainy days, I feel spring creeping in and I’m giddy about it. Below are some things I loved and adored over the past month, and here is a quote that encapsulates my feelings about the impending seasonal shift.
Nostalgia in reverse, the longing for yet another strange land, grew especially strong in spring.
Vladimir Nabokov
I went to so many book events this month! Have I mentioned that I love New York? I kicked the month off with a Reading Rhythms night, which I found out about from an NYT article by one of my favorite book reviewers, Molly Young. There, I made some headway on A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Next, I saw
, writer behind and her new memoir Here After, at her launch event hosted by Books Are Magic (more on this in the next point). After that, I happened to pop into Greenlight Bookstore for the release of Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham. He was interviewed by Doreen St. Felix who asked incredibly thoughtful questions, to which he had gorgeously elaborate and astute answers. And last week, my husband and I went to an event for the release of There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib at The Bell House. Hanif was interviewed by Wesley Morris, which was an amazing surprise. The poetry literally oozes out of Hanif—a question about ice cream turned into a lyrical answer around the inextricable link between a person and their hometown, a question about his niece’s basketball tournament turned into a sermon on heaven and the brevity of our time here on Earth. It was a thought-provoking, electric, hilarious conversation that we both thoroughly enjoyed. Martin’s reading the book now and absolutely loving it…am I sensing another guest review?! 😗
This book, you guys… Here After is Amy Lin’s account of losing her beloved husband, Kurtis, and the all-consuming grief that followed. Proceed with caution, guard your heart, but if you are in a place where you can take this journey with Amy, I highly recommend you do. The experience of this book is visceral, moving, heartbreaking, all of which are understatements; it it so deeply, tragically human. It is phenomenally written. Try as I might, I genuinely don’t think I can gather up the words to do this book justice. Tears were streaming down my face during the event hearing Amy speak about Kurtis and the act of getting these words down, and again for a long while after finishing it. It absolutely demolished me in imagining what the experience of losing your person must feel like, while simultaneously making me so immensely grateful that that kind of love exists, and that we get to experience it, if we’re so lucky. I’m in complete awe of Amy and this book.
I have not—and quite honestly probably will never—read the Dune books. BUT, I saw Dune 2 on the largest IMAX screen in the US (Lincoln Center AMC) and had a truly amazing time. In my opinion, there was just enough of a love story, but not too much; the plot was just complex enough, but not alienating to the average viewer (me). The scene in the Harkonnen world was the most insane visual movie-going experience I’ve ever had. And if anything…you can’t miss out on the 2024 Hot Boy battle between Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler.
My brand new Brooklyn Public Library card 💪 Libraries just make my heart explode 🥹 They are safe spaces that anyone of any age from the community can come to, spend time in, for however long they need, to learn or access information about quite literally anything through books or computers. Like come on…that is utopian. Libraries are SO IMPORTANT!!!
When I went to get my card, I borrowed Pew, which was sooooo interesting. It’s about a person—genderless, race-less, mute—who is found sleeping on the pew at a church in the Deep South right before the town’s elusive “Forgiveness Festival”. I also grabbed Let Us Descend, which I haven’t cracked into yet, but have heard incredible things about. I just picked up The Glutton as well, which seems fascinatingly spooky.
Also, how cute is this Where The Wild Things Are themed card? How was I to pass it up?
This post that lists things women in literature have died from. “Shawl insufficiency” and “too many pillows” followed by “not enough pillows” are a couple personal faves.
The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control has shook me to my core, and I’m only halfway through it. I have always resonated with the self-proclaimed title of perfectionist, but have had my qualms about the negative context it consistently seems to hold. This book makes the case that perfectionism is not always a bad thing! It can, in fact, be a positive force in your life. She argues that at the core of perfectionism is ambition and desire to succeed, whatever the means to each individual, which can be, but doesn’t have to be, considered toxic or unhealthy. The book is so validating in the way it expresses how when “maladaptive” behaviors are shifted to “adaptive” behaviors, we’re able to use our perfectionism for good, as fuel to accomplish our goals and fulfill our wildest dreams. It outlines five different “types” of perfectionists—I’m a procrastinating perfectionist, with a lil touch of Parisian perfectionism on the side. The examples the author uses to illustrate her points made me feel like she set up a hidden camera on me. This book is already so enlightening, comforting, and motivating. Will report back on the rest.
This gorgeous painting in Variety coffee shop in Park Slope. Google is failing me on the reverse image search to find the artist, but how gorgeous is she?
I’ve been working my way through Sofia Coppola’s movies over the past several months. For Virgin Suicides, I decided to read the book first. I’m typically always biased towards the book version, but in this case, the movie worked better for me. Both the book and movie are told through the lens of a group of neighborhood boys that watch the Lisbon girls, a group of five tortured teenaged sisters, from afar. They are gorgeous and sad and mysterious and extremely alluring to the boys. Because of the structure of the ~male gaze~ in both versions, the actual character development of the sisters is minimal—it’s much more about the aura and mystique of them, which is why I liked the movie better. When you’re able to see and experience some of that distant magnetism and charm, the dynamic can really take shape. It’s dark and twisted and nobody captures the misunderstood teenage girl and her world quite like Sofia. It’s soooo year 2000.
Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a teenage girl.
I’m abysmally late to the train here, but as of this month, I’ve been loving iced matcha lattes. I had an atrocious matcha beverage once eight years ago and haven’t given them the time of day since, and boy, was I missing out. I’m still pounding cappuccinos on the daily, don’t get me wrong, but they’re such a fun little afternoon treat.
The feeling of being really excited for a book to come out! Exhilarating! I mentioned being stoked to read Worry a while back, and I waltzed my butt over to Greenlight to purchase it the day it was published! I’m only about 50 pages in, and I’m already enthralled by the picture she’s painting of sisterhood: they know each other inside and out, yet aren’t seeing the other accurately at moments; they are fiercely protective while also immediately throwing the other under the bus; they psychoanalyze and project upon and need and admire each other. Loving it so far.
While I have you here—is there anything you’d like to see as a part of this newsletter moving forward?! More traditional book reviews? Book lists? More on the business or industry of books? Anything outside of books? I am so unbelievably open to any and all feedback and ideas from you lovely, smart, thoughtful readers. Slide into those DMs!
Until next time!
Love, Shelby
ICYMI