Covid Party Days 5-1000

Everything I've read, watched, and listened to in Isolation

You know what happens when your very cuddly child gets Covid? You win an isolation chamber of your very own! Luckily, my case is mild, and I’m mostly just spraying various things up my nose so that I can breathe. It feels like I've been on a very, very long airplane ride, and tomorrow I get to get off the plane and walk around the airport. I look forward to being able to see my roommates again, and after that, the rest of the world, but in the mean time, here is everything I’ve consumed and loved while in captivity.

Fingers crossed I’ll be back in the world soon!

What I Read:

Ocean Vuong, Time Is A Mother

I actually listened to this, Ocean’s new collection of poems (shout-out to Libro.fm, the only place anyone should go for audiobooks), and it is just as magnificent as I expected. Tender and tough. Also, we have signed copies at the store! So get one!

Jennifer Close, Marrying the Ketchups

You know what I love? Restaurants. I fucking love restaurants. You know what kind of restaurant is the best? A restaurant with booths, and good French fries. This book is about one of those restaurants, and the complicated family that runs it. A pleasure. Also, I should note, that when the actual ketchup marriage scene occurred (when waitstaff pour an almost-empty bottle of ketchup into another bottle, clean the tops, and put them back on a table), my covid brain almost exploded. What a time! I remember when ketchups were still married, I’m going to say to my great-great-grandchildren, when they come to visit me in the suspended animation pod.

Meg Mason, Sorrow and Bliss

This one is such a spicy little sleeper! Many people I trust (Ann Patchett, always Ann Patchett) told me that this was a delight, and it fucking is, it really fucking is. Funny and spiky. This should find a much bigger audience in paperback!

What I Watched:

Bridgerton Season Two

Jonathan Bailey is an absolutely scrumptious little satyr of a man. Edwina looks sixteen and I kept wanting to call the police. Simone Ashley! So nice to see a Sex Education alum! And Polly Walker, my favorite Jane Fairfax. Polly Walker is also one of the stars of Enchanted April, an adaptation of one of my favorites novels, and the chief inspiration for my novel The Vacationers.

Always Be My Maybe

Love a re-watchable movie! Nowadays, I feel like every movie I watch, I say, whelp, that was good, and I never want to see it again. Can there be more movies that I want to watch over and over again, please? Please give me some of your over and over again movies in the comments.

Schitt’s Creek

I forgot how much I love Moira Rose. Absolute perfection.

What I Listened to:

Decoder Ring on Jonathan Franzen

I could listen to smart people talk about Jonathan Franzen and selling out and Oprah all day, every day, for the rest of my life.

Who Weekly, my true love.

Other things:

Colin Meloy, one half of the greatest power couple the world has ever known, has a fantastic new substack, and this week, he wrote about one of my favorite songs, Big Star’s Kanga Roo.

Unrelated:

I have offered this counsel before, but allow to offer it again. When you find a mentor—that is to say, someone who is older than you are, or just farther along in their career—and you love them, get their phone number. That way you can end up having hours-long conversations with them at the drop of a hat. It’s nice.

Russ + Daughters delivers.

Any other covid hints n tips? Hit me! Stay well, all, and as ever, a preorder a day keeps the doctor away.