curledup roundup: Nov
All kinds of media for ya this month
Another month has passed on the zooming speed train that is the year 2024. Got to take a vacation and reconnect with reading—and TV, movies, theater—a bit more this month. Enjoy these recommendations across all of the above. 💋
The long-awaited (by me) story of the tumultuous, interwoven story of Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. Both lauded as “the voice of California”, these two writers couldn’t be more different in their sensibilities and therefore, literary output. I enjoyed this book so much and found it massively entertaining, DESPITE the fact that the author is clearly a Didion hater, very much Team Babitz, shameless in her obsession. This page below with quotes from both on the same topic—the Santa Ana winds—is the perfect encapsulation of the whole thesis of this book to me. It displays Joan as observer and connector with the wider world and the human experience, and Eve as a person living, feeling, experiencing life. Through this, the book presents two valid approaches to work and life: Didion’s—hard work and discipline and sheer will, finding and communicating the gold in the material around you; and Babitz’s: feeling and intuition and adventure, creating the material yourself.
OnlyFans, professional wrestling, and teen pregnancy are not a combination of topics I imagined I would enjoy reading about. And yet, Margo’s Got Money Troubles absolutely enchanted me. I read the whole thing on a plane ride, and time flew. Margo gets pregnant at 19 from an affair with her professor, keeps the baby as an act of spite for those who think she can’t handle it, and then, of course, has a baby at 19 with no help. She turns to OnlyFans as a source of income, but truly finds herself through the process. The progress and evolution of this character was a joy to watch—from apathetic teen to powerful, confident, creative business boss.
I haven’t seen a show that has grabbed, and subsequently ripped out, my heart like Fellow Travelers with Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer did. Based on the book of the same name and set over the span of several decades, it’s the most beautiful yet tragic love story. I oscillated back and forth between depression that these two lived in a society that wouldn’t allow for their love, and joy that they had the opportunity to experience a love like that. A great, consuming love.
Speaking of Jonathan Bailey, Wicked! Absolutely no notes. It was perfect. I have also been eating up all the press surrounding the release, ~holding space~ some would say. A lot of it is silly and has made for some great memes, but I do sincerely love seeing artists be so passionate about what they’ve created, people doing what they’re so clearly meant to do, like they can’t possibly keep these gifts to themselves. It’s magical. Working and creating with others is such a vulnerable act, and I’d probably be crying if I made that movie too! This interview was a favorite, specifically the part where she talks about Galinda’s insecurities and how no one will ever be as brave as Elphaba.
I think I felt every single possible emotion one can feel while reading After You’d Gone by Maggie O'Farrell. The description leaves you with an alluring, if not confusing, premise: the main character boards a train from London home to Scotland, sees something at the station, turns right back around to London and ends up in a coma after an accident. A lot to know going in, and the answers to the questions left from that premise are so artfully laid throughout the novel. Love, loss, humor, hope, despair, generational baggage, unlived lives, rejection, acceptance—it has it all. Also! I went to log it into Goodreads and was shocked to find it was written in 2000! It felt as resonant and relevant and vivid almost 25 years later. Maggie is timeless.
I visited Mexico City for the first time this month, and adored it. So lush, fantastic art and obviously, great food. One place we visited was the Biblioteca Vasconcelos. It felt like a brutalist jail met a magnificent midcentury art gallery met a Harry Potter-esque floating library. Sat in this beautiful space and read The House on Fripp Island for a good while. (I categorically recommend all of Rebecca Kauffman’s books, for the record.)
More Mexico City for you—the Tetetlán gave me deep bookshelf envy. CDMX is a book-loving city!
If you’re looking for a quick book to reach those end-of-year reading goals, I’ve got a good one for ya. The Most is a story of a woman questioning if the life she’s chosen in the right one. She’s an ex-professional tennis player, current housewife with an insurance salesman husband and their two boys. They appear to be a pretty normal family, but as with any family, there are secret desires, regrets, fateful decisions all bubbling under the surface of what any 1950s family is willing to show the world. All taking place within the time frame of a swim in the apartment pool, it unfurls and makes for a very enjoyable few-hour read.
Sunset Boulevard was a feat of production, and I enjoyed it so much. Utilizing technology in a way I’d never seen on the stage, this old-timey classic took on a whole new life. The performers were amazing and I was enthralled the whole time. I’ve been loving going to see Broadway shows—it just feels so good to support that art form and it makes me feel connected with the city.
Will leave you with this James Baldwin quote that stopped me in my tracks and encapsulates what life is really all about.
Only one more roundup this year! See you soon.