This Week In My Library 7.12.23

Thirst-trap photos, Jane Fonda, that one dedication page

Life of A Bookman

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi thats me!!

What I'm reading rn: If you step foot in my house, the first thing you'll notice (besides the monochromatic peach vibe) is that there are books sorta everywhere. And not in the organized on bookshelves way. They're mainly in piles here and piles there because I desperately need to build in bookshelves. Basically, if there's a flat surface, I've probably put a book on it.

The one book I cannot, repeat, cannot stop talking about is A Life of One's Own: 9 Women Writers Begin Again. It's stirring. And sorta big spinster energy. From Virginia Woolf to Elena Ferrante, it explores the messy and wondrous lives behind some of our most iconic feminist writers as they try and figure out what intellectual freedom means, and costs them. And honestly, it just makes me feel better that the friction between independence and partnership, love and freedom, something I think about a lot in my own life and relationships is...well...not new at all. Run don't walk at this very readable, very enlightening exploration of renewal.

My nightly turndown read is Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I default to resisting books that everyoneeee talks about. And I did that with this one for the last 6 or so months. But sometimes there's a reason a book is everywhere, and that's because it's good. I'm only about 40% of the way in and yes, big fan of the story. But I always love the story around a book, too. So when I realized that many people have accidentally called Zevin a debut author even though she's already written many books AND written a bestseller before...it made me even happier to celebrate the road that got her here. An “overnight success” many books in the making ;) I'll report back on this delightful coming-of-age story when I finish!

What I'm reading soon-ish: Elena Ferrante's second Neolpolitan novel The Story of a New Name...IF I CAN FIND IT. I can't remember the last time I've lost a book. But I think I lost this book? Maybe on my trip to Mexico with all the McCoy women? Which is especially sad because I hadn't even cracked her open! Mom, if you're reading this do you see it in your stuff? BTW, I'm embarrassingly new to Ferrante's mystique. If you're not familiar with the author's lore, apparently no one knows who this bestselling-gotta-be-a-majillionaire writer is. Some people say they know, and that they've unmasked her. But not everyone agrees. Her writing is as brilliant as her ghosting game.

Also high on my TBR list is I am More Than My Body by Bethany Meyers. If you've ever felt the whiplash between loving your body and shaming your body, and feel desperate for a new, more reasonable anchor point... Bethany's work is for you. I've had the GIFT of knowing Bethany since I was 21-years old and working at a Lululemon (a time when I was ANYTHING but neutral about my figure). With age and maturity and some work, my relationship with my body has taken a much, much healthier form. But I'm super excited to dive into this read and uncover places that I can get into the peaceful, neutral groove with this lovely, living house of mine. Stay tuned! And if you want to listen to Bethany and me talk all things Body Neutrality, give this podcast episode a listen.

What I'm writing: So we mostly all know by now that I've been working the last two years on a historical novel about a woman of very major global consequence. Like, the thing she created 1-in-3 of you were a part of and all 3-in-3 of you have heard of. I'm not being cagey...but OK I'm sorta being cagey because I want and need to reveal this in its right timing. That doesn't mean I can't share completely insane things I find out during my research, or completely mind-blowing things I learn in the process of writing this book. For this week, I'll let you in on one of the WILD kismet #universe moments that happened a couple years ago when I was just beginning the process. I've always used my main character's name as a working title. When I started working with my book coach, she wanted me to start by reading a book about story crafting. So I immediately bought the book and was excited to dive in. When I cracked open the copy, and read the dedication page, I about joined the vom-squad (my made up word for freaked TF out). The dedication page just so happened to be dedicated to MY CHARACTER'S NAME, along with the note: “whose story is just beginning”. Now look, I know the dedication was about someone else. But that someone else had MY CHARACTER'S UNIQUE-ASS NAME. And MY CHARACTER'S STORY WAS ALSO JUST BEGINNING (again). Can you even? It was the very first sign, of many, that have kept pushing me forward in this wild, wild (and maddening) novel writing ride.

Women’s Studies

What gets passed down becomes our history. A few for the canon: I'm low-key obsessed with elder women. I love their wisdom. I love their wit. And I sorta can't wait to be called grandma one day (but hi, we'll def need to give that name a re-brand. I'm thinking about just going by “GRAND”, feels pretty appropriate.) Which leads right into my love of Jane Fonda. If you haven't already watched Jane in Five Acts, I need you to set aside some weekend time to do that. Then, Jane's interview on Wiser Than Me pod with Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a lovely follow-on. She has one quote in this episode that absolutely destroyed me, which was something along the lines of “I don't know if I can be married and stay myself”. (not an exact quote but I haven't been able to stop thinking about that sentiment, damn).

OK, small swerve here. I know I'm super basic by loving me some scam-influencer content, but SCAMANDA has been riveting. I devoured the entire show. Now normally I'm not much into pod bonus episodes. They always feel like a low-rent attempt to keep the gravy train going, but not SCAMANDA's bonus episodes. No ma'am. People are coming out of the dang woodworks to spill the tea on this B! It's good. And it's important to remember our villains, too ;)

Pass It On

Stories are heirlooms. Here's one of mine: I spent last weekend in Austin with 4 of my 6 college teammate girlfriends (two were missing. Oh the trials of BFFs living out of the country!) It's been a whole lot of years since we were all in the same place, much less a room with two queen bunk beds. I think we were last together at someone's wedding like seven years ago? I don't know, but it's been way too long for a bunch of best friends who text daily. When I say that literally nothing had changed about our dynamic, I mean it. Other than getting more mature. It was the truth behind “to know them is to love them.” We ate good food, took thirst-trap photos of each other (ok mostly, mainly of me), did Texas's version of wine country, and tried desperately to determine who “the missed connections” from our college days were even though obvi none of us would trade our current bae's of today. (However, we don't believe any of those said “missed connections” men would say the same about us, ha! Boys if you're reading this HMU if the vball girls were on your missed connects list. We're dying to know.). On our group text post wkd, one of us wrote, “You know how everyone says no matter how old you are you always need your mom? Well I feel that way about all of you.” Holy MASCARA ALERT. Anyways, go see your friends, take their thirsty photos, make fun of them, make fun of yourself, reminisce on the ghost-ship of love you missed but don't miss. Life can be pretty light – even when it's heavy – if we have the right people around. Xx

Maxie