Stress Relief Tips for December

Plus an art tour of my bathroom!

Hi friends.

December is a hard one. Especially if you happen to work in retail during a pandemic. Shout out to everyone who is just trying to make it to the New Year! Also, what a great time to wonder if everyone is mad at you! And new variants! And the right to safe abortions! And climate change! And to worry about buying people presents, and the supply chain for said presents! December is truly unparalleled in terms of stress production. Thank god for therapy. Here’s what else I’ve been doing this week to distract myself from anxiety and dread.

I watched Get Back, The Beatles documentary.

I think this is sort of a personality test, the way those word jumbles tell your fortune for the next year as determined by the first three words you see. Ooh, travel and money and fame! Are you hypnotized by Paul’s beauty? Can you not take your eyes off Yoko, sitting six inches away from John’s leg, reading the newspaper? Do you despise the guy with the cigar? Are you intrigued by George’s Hare Krishna friends? Are you triggered by how often the producer mentions filming in Tripoli? Do you love George’s furry jackets as much as I do? It’s transfixing, watching their creative process unfold over cigarettes and sandwiches and cups of tea. Collaboration is so beautiful! Watch it even if you’re not a Beatles fanatic. They are all angel-faced babies with incredible hair and outfits. Inspiring.

I read Julie Otsuka’s The Swimmers, out in February.

Julie Otsuka is absolutely beloved by readers and booksellers far and wide, but I hadn’t read her before. When this one landed at the bookstore the other day, I knew it was my time to dive in, pardon the pun. Boy oh boy, am I glad I did. Slim and absolutely devastating, the first half of The Swimmers is about a group of people who swim at the same pool, and the second half about one of those people as she descends into dementia, as told by her daughter. It is a goddamn heartbreaker, and clocking in at about 150 pages, does it in a third as many pages as some of your doorstopper faves. Now I’m going to read everything else she’s ever written—that’s just the best feeling, isn’t it, when you discover someone new and they have other brilliant books, just waiting for you?

I ate some chocolate. This is my favorite kind.

I wrote about four of my favorite backlist books to recommend, by Steven Millhauser and Megan Mayhew Bergman, for the store’s blog.

I donated money to the Brooklyn Book Bodega and The Bronx Is Reading. Join me if you’re able.

I shared Channing Tatum’s post about the third Magic Mike movie. Did you know that I have a framed photo of Channing Tatum in my bathroom? Now you do. Here is a link to read about Magic Mike 3 in CNN, because this is serious fucking news.

Yes, it’s signed, and yes, there are googly eyes on the frame, because it was a birthday present for my husband. What’s that? You want to know if Channing has any friends in the bathroom? Of course he does! Haven’t you seen the first Magic Mikes? Channing loves his bros!

This one makes me sad because Ralph Macchio felt he had to write “Daniel LaRusso,” as if we didn’t know. Another present for my husband.

The crown jewel. (Check Ebay for signed photos, there are one million, you too can have a picture of Keanu Reeves in your bathroom, or in any other room of your house.) (This has been my 2021 Gift Guide.) (Now you know what my husband is likely to get for any and all holidays for the rest of his life.)

What did you do this week? Would love to hear any and all mood-lifters! I already know about alcohol, friends, and beauty products, all three of which I believe in heartily.

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As ever, pre-orders gratefully appreciated.

And one last thing! Today LitHub is running a pair of essays I wrote about bookstores. The first, from 2014, is a love letter to BookCourt that appeared in a Wildsam Brooklyn travel guide, and is by far the dishiest thing I’ve ever written. I cannot believe I wrote it—it is so personal and revealing that it makes me want to hide under a rock, but mostly I am shocked at how much I felt BookCourt was mine to write about. It’s true, of course, that anyone can write about anything, but when Wildsam was publishing a second edition of the Brooklyn guide, I knew I wanted to write an update. So I did. Honestly, I could write about how hard it is to open and run a bookstore a thousand times, and probably will, but for now, you can read my thoughts here. TLDR: it’s hard, it’s meaningful, sometimes there are movie stars, bookstores forever.