Hi! Welcome, welcome, welcome!
I’ve been writing this first post for what feels like months. The notes app on my phone is a chockfull of ideas, essays, bullet points, and random sentences. Now, being quarantined, I finally feel like I have the time and energy to get this thing together and out in the world. Henceforth, I’m hoping to have a newsletter out monthly.
What you can expect: first and most importantly, BOOKS: recommendations, reviews, rants, lists. But also, culture, media, movies, art, inspiration, thoughts, ideas.
If you see something that resonates with you, if you need a book rec, if you have a question, if you disagree with something, feel free to email or DM me and let me know what’s up!
It’s likely you’ve happened upon this newsletter from following my Instagram account dedicated to what I’m reading and reviewing, but if not, you can follow me by clicking here.
Alright, that’s it for the housekeeping, here’s what I would like to share with you in the realm of books…
Quarantine Escapism Reading List
Books that are highly atmospheric, don’t take place in modern day, and have a transportive quality about them. Can’t promise they’ll all be uplifting, but I can promise they’ll keep you from turning the news back on.
Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore: West Texas is a character in and of itself in Valentine; the writing is so sublime and lovely, Wetmore manages to make West Texas sound just as callous as it is beautiful in its quiet ways. Buy it here.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: Not only is a quarantine the perfect time to finally undertake the Wolf Hall trilogy (the final and 3rd book just came out!) but I can’t think of a better world to get lost in than the Tudor dynasty of 16th century England, in the mind of Thomas Cromwell. Buy it here.
A Sand Book by Ariana Reines: The most recent poetry collection from one of my favorite contemporary poets is a healing balm to the news and drudgery of every day life. Essential reading, as far as I’m concerned! Buy it here.
Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucie McKnight Hardie: The suffocating swelter of the 1976 Welsh countryside heatwave almost steams off the pages, you can feel it so strongly. Each character is teetering on a balance beam of sanity, a beam slick with sweat, where they could edge off at any given moment. Kind of like all of us right now! Buy it here.
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson: All the flora and fauna one could wish for, Johnson writes of the American West in all its glory and brutality. Buy it here.
Milkman by Anna Burns: If you’re keen to immerse yourself in the Troubles of a different era. Buy it here.
Talk by Linda Rosenkrantz: Written solely in dialogue between three friends who spend their days languishing on beaches, gossiping about the 1960’s New York art scene, discussing their sexual and drug-induced exploits, and just generally existing in a world where deadly viruses are not top of mind. It’s a delight! Buy it here.
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn: If you’re looking for something to really run with all the weirdness you can possibly imagine, you can’t do better than the Binewski family; a traveling act of the utterly strange, genetically-modified, self-proclaimed freaks. A cult classic, you’ll either jive with it, or you won’t, but either way you’ll feel like you just resurfaced from a long scuba dive every time you read a couple chapters. Buy it here.
Transformations by Anne Sexton. Twisted and dark retellings of traditional fairytales? Only Anne Sexton could do it so well. Buy it here.
The Years by Annie Ernaux: Though this one does indeed dip into modern day (circa 2006), the bulk of it is spent ruminating on French society, culture, and history in decades past. It’s a necessary exercise in incorporating the personal and the universal into writing. Buy it here.
RILKING
Like many of you I’m sure, I’ve been searching for creative ways to ground myself during this time, and lessen the anxiety that is plaguing us all. Reading, movies, games, yoga, meditation, etc. are all great ways to do so, of course, but these things are also part of my normal, pre-quarantine life too. Thus, I’ve hunted for something a little different. Thankfully, Ariana Reines (the poet I mentioned on my reading list above) is hosting RILKING, a dive into Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies.
RILKING streams live everyday (minus the weekends) at 9:30AM EST via Zoom. Reines reads the day’s elegy and a discussion is iniated amongst participants. It’s been nothing short of absolutely lovely. Knowing that despite everything awful happening right now, there is a group of people all across the world who have come together to meditate and muse over poetry, language, and beauty is soothing to me. I haven’t been able to make the live stream most days, but that’s fine, because all sessions are uploaded to the Facebook group, where more wonderful discussions take place and other pieces of art, literature, and film are shared. Sessions and information are also emailed to you, shoot an email over to lazyeyehaver@gmail.com to be added. Don’t worry about finding a copy of the elegies short notice, you can access a free PDF version of the Leishman & Spender translation here.
Spain resident, Marcos Moreno Maldonado’s quarantine diary is much nicer than the chicken scratch notebook I’m trying to keep to document this time.
More, more, more!
More quarantine reading recs, this list is focused on the classics. I’ve had Possession by A.S. Byatt on my TBR table for quite some time…thinking of diving into that one soon.
Anne Boyer, poet and author of The Undying (which if you haven’t read you really should - she writes exquisitely about illness and healthcare) wrote about coronavirus and how fear can also be a part of love.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the French film directed by Céline Sciamma, is now available on Hulu. The hype is real. A stunning gothic romance. My heart was in my throat during the final minutes.
“Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost,” were the final words of famed German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. In 2011, another genius, Wim Wenders, released a tribute to Bausch’s work, called Pina, the film the pair were working on before the untimely death of Bausch. Tanztheater, German for “dance theatre”, is a style made popular by Bausch, that combines dance with theatrics, derived from German expressionist dance in the early 20th century. Available to rent/buy online wherever you choose, or from Youtube.
Must Reads
They Will Drown in Their Mothers’ Tears by Johannes Anyuru, translated by Saskia Vogel
A terrorist attack is taking place at a comic book store in Sweden, when suddenly a woman participating in the assault, experiences a dissociation of sorts...something is wrong, she is not herself. Years later, this same woman, now in a criminal psychiatric institution begins to tell a journalist her story - a story of an alternate future where those deigned anti-Swedish are kept in a terrifying slum called The Rabbit Yard. I want to keep the plot as vague as possible, so you can unravel the threads yourself as you read. I found it highly immersive and read quickly and in large chunks at a time.
This book caught me off guard in the best way; I didn’t think it was possible for a fiction novel to elegantly tackle subjects like terrorism, anti-immigrant hysteria, nationalism, dystopia, and religion. TWDITMT is nuanced and heartbreaking. Nuanced because it demonstrates all the complexities of today’s political landscape: one defined by anger and iron fists and fear. A reality that is not so black and white - one in which the answers to our troubles aren’t so apparent. Heartbreaking, because one answer does ring true - violence begets violence, fear sows more fear. The concept of The Rabbit Yard painfully shows how easily a society can slip into madness.
Witnessing some insight into the mindset and cultural inertia that leads people to engage in terror and violence was gripping and a departure from what we see on the news and in popular media. I wouldn’t necessarily call TWDITMT hopeful - it’s both a warning and a realization that makes it clear those who wish to harm, will engage in it no matter what, but ultimately there is peace and love to be had if we look for it, and it’s best we do, because we don’t know what strangeness the future holds. Extremely impressed with Anyuru’s work…I’ll always applaud authors making readers ask new and hard questions about our world. Buy it here.
*This book was gifted free to me by Two Lines Press.
Thanks again for subscribing to Musings! So glad you’re here.
XO,
Cassie