This month’s books newsletter is all about things. As in stuff, objects. Because, as Heike Geissler says, “It’s because of all the things that are here… that you’re here in the first place.”
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When the Climate Change Story Becomes Your Life Story
Moving from bustling, expensive Seattle to tiny Ashland, Oregon seemed like an improvement, until the forest fire season began.
How the Self-Publishing Industry Changed, Between My First and Second Novels
In the last few years, self-publishing and marketing your own books has become increasingly more difficult.
‘We All Live in the Great Database in the Sky’: On Silicon Valley and UFO Culture
“The idea seems to be that we all live in the great database in the sky, occasionally summoning aliens with our minds.” Emily Harnett explores Silicon Valley’s appropriation of UFO culture.
In Praise of Del Amitri’s Album Waking Hours
Some albums make it hard to separate the music from the experience of listening to it.
This Month in Books: ‘The Minor Figure Yields to the Chorus’
I’m reading this book right now called “The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.” It’s a recursive story-within-a-story sort of thing, and it’s giving me nightmares.
“The Anger of Women is an Earth-shattering Thing”: Lidia Yuknavitch on Resisting the Hero Narrative and the Body as a Generator of Stories.
“I’m going to say a blasphemous thing, which is we are so fucking done with the hero’s journey. It has been to our peril.”
How to Tell Your Husband You’re a Witch
Witches we need you. Now more than ever. In the time of COVID-19 we can find respite in place-based reverence, plant magic and the divine feminine. So writes Lisa Richardson, who came to witchiness with nothing but white hetero straight-lacedness and a crush on a yoga teacher.
‘I Was Trapped Forever In This Present Tense’: Carmen Maria Machado on Surviving Abuse
“She was always afraid of my voice. That was the defining factor of our relationship — fear of what I would say and write and do. She’s afraid of … the narrative that I possess.”
Are You Sitting Down?
In this excerpt from her forthcoming memoir, She Wants It: Desire, Power and Toppling the Patriarchy, “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway recalls the incident that led to the Amazon Prime series: her father coming out to her as transgender.
