Books Read in 2020

Flowers in the Attic - VC Andrews

Petals on the Wind - VC Andrews

And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou

Proof - David Auburn

I'm Still Here - Austin Channing Brown

Piece of Cake - Cupcake Brown

When No One Is Watching - Alyssa Cole

In at the Deep End - Kate Davies

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

Dear Evan Hanson - Val Emmich

The Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler

This Is How It Always Is - Laurie Frankel

Freedom - Jonathan Franzen

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

There Are Things I Want You to Know (About Stieg Larrson and Me) - Eva Gabrielsson

American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Cold Cold Heart - Tami Hoag

Wow, No Thank You - Samantha Irby

Daisy Jones and the Six - Tara Jenkins Reid

The Sun and Her Flowers - Rupi Kaur

Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane

The Outsider - Stephen King

Revival - Stephen King

Orphan Train - Christina Baker Kline

The Blue Shoe - Anne Lamott

The Preservationist - David Maine

Carry On, Warrior - Glennon Doyle Melton

The Last House Guest - Megan Miranda

What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty

My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh

Sweat - Lynn Nottage

The Book with No Pictures - BJ Novak

Yours 'Till Niagra Falls, Abby - Jane O'Connor

Topics of Conversation - Miranda Popkey

Grief Is the Thing with Feathers - Max Porter

High School - Tegan & Sara Quin

Dog Sees God - Bert V. Royal

Look Again - Lisa Scottoline

Calypso - David Sedaris

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver 

More Happy Than Not - Adam Silvera 

Never Let You Go - Chevy Stevens

Sing, Unburied, Sing - Jessamyn Ward

The Death of Mrs. Westaway - Ruth Ware

Nothing to See Here - Kevin Wilson

Red at the Bone - Jacqueline Woodson

You Can't Touch My Hair (And Other Things I Still Have to Explain) by Phoebe Robinson

To say that I am a fan of Phoebe Robinson is a gi-nor-mous understatement. Listening to 2 Dope Queens is one of my very facorite things to do. And redo. And I wish I still had a bus commute so I could do it morrreee. Ditto Soooo Many White Guys. (If these are things you don't know, GO FIND THEM NOW. Like, why are you still reading this? Go listen to some podcasts, yo!)

There are way too many highlights to capture them all, so I'll just generically slap some quotes up. But I'll also say that the first 30 pages of this book made me laugh out loud (something I rarely do), made me cry (another thing I seldom do), and made me think about things I've thought about before in a whole new way.

"Blackness is not a monolith. ...But some people don't want to believe that, because if varying degrees of blackness become normalized, then that means society has to rethink how they treat black people. In other words, if you allow black people to be as complicated and multidimensional as white people, then it's hard to view them as the Other with all the messy pejorative, stereotypical, and shallow ideas that have been assigned to that Otherness."

"i got into comedy partially because I was not hot. The other part was that I realized I could make people laugh with slick ans narky comments, but honestly, the not-hot factor played a huge role. I was always the girl that made all the boys laugh, and while that never got me any boyfriends, it got me male attention, which I was happy-ish to settle for while they all traipsed off with the better-looking, cool girls...It made me a better, more interesting person because I developed other skills to attract people, and one of those skills is my sense of humor and personality."

Perhaps the part that made me laugh the most most most is when Robinson makes a list of demands for Future Female President.

"3. OK, this is probably the most import request on this list, so if you can only do one thing, I beg of you that it's this: When you get sworn into office, yell, 'I'm a feminist,' and then throw your fist in the air like you're Judd Nelson at the end of The Breakfast Club.
   ...3A. I get that this may seem super aggressive and that politicians are not supposed to ruffle feather, but this would be the ultimate gesture to let women know you have their backs. Now, FFP, if you're Hilary Clinton, you're probably like, 'Can't people tell I'm a feminist because I wear Talbots pantsuits on the regs?' 1. Please don't say 'regs.' So not your stulye, and 2. No, because, your wardrobe screams 'very fancy judge at a chili cook-off in Minnesota' more than it does 'feminist,'so we need you to actually drop the F-bomb into the microphone. And when you do , so many crazy old white dudes are going to freak out that it'll seem like someone just told them there are only seven tickets remaining on StubHub for a Steely Dan concert."

on being one of two black girls in a predominantly white school: "There was always a tinge of loneliness that colored my high school experience. I didn't have a mirror, a soundboard, someone who knew the same things I did because we were from the same cultural tribe."

Robinson also tackles the history of black hair throughout pop culture, schooling me on Angela Davis, Res, and Erika Badu. She also hits many high notes of women on film that didn't lead with the pretty, but with their strength (see CJ Cregg, Felicity Porter, Denise Huxtable, Maxine Shaw...).

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby

I Was a Child by Bruce Eric Kaplan

"this book is for my parents, who tried"

"although i wasn't able to put it into words then, i think what i found so compelling about that moment each week was the expression of a truth--we are all just little dolls of ourselves who occasionally pull back the curtains to reveal the real us."

"the wizard of oz was on tv once a year. it was like halloween or christmas. you waited for it. and then a week or two before , you knew it was coming on and thought about it a lot. our first television was black-and-white, so i never knew oz was in color, and had no idea the horse of many colors was changing colors. it didn't make a difference. once someone called during the wizard of oz and we all looked at one another, thinking, Who would call during The Wizard of Oz?"


hansel and gretl story..."i was driven mad by fright. cried and cried at how scary she was."=doug + gremlins (this is a random note from 1.5+ years ago. i don't quite remember the hansel and gretl story, but i do remember the gremlins one. in 1984, when Gremlins was released, i was 8 years old. my brother, doug, was 5. my parents took us to see it in the theater. doug was terrified and cried throughout much of this film. i thought this was HILARIOUS. this is perhaps the first time i remember being a touch evil. i went on to own everything Gremlins...velcro shoes, nightgowns, backpacks, and a pink babydoll t with a glitter Gizmo decal that i bought for myself when i was 26 years old. yep. all true. no shame.)

thrift store commercial of a woman transformed by a fur coat..."every time it came on, I was mesmerized by it. it was a very powerful message-this idea that you could change your situation, you didn't have to settle for what you had, you could become more than what you were."

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

When Less Is More
I should love Orange is the New Black for the same reason I should (but do not) love Red Tails or The Butler or 42. Here is po;ular culture about people who look like me. Thats all I should need, right? Why are we still talking about Orange Is the New Black? The conversation is a measure of how much we are forced to settle, or, perhaps, how much we're willing to settle.

How to Be Friends with Another Woman
3. If you are the kind of woman who says, "I'm mostly friends with guys," and act like you're proud of that, like that makes you closer to being a man or something and less of a woman as if being a woman is a bad thin, see ITem 1B. It's okay if most of your friends are guys, but if you champion this as a commentary on the nature of female friendships, well, soul-search a little.
3A. If you feel like it's hard to be friends with women, consider that maybe women aren't the problem. Maybe it's just you.
3B. I used to be this kind of woman. I'm sorry to judge.
5B. If you and your friend(s) are in the same field and you can collaborate or help each other, do this without shame. It's not your fault your friends are awesome. Men invented nepotism and practically live by it. It's okay for women to do it too.
9. Don't let your friends buy ugly outfits or accessories you don't want to look at when you hang out. This is just common sense.

Places I Never Meant to Be edited by Judy Blume

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

IV (A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas) by Chuck Klosterman

I recently engaged in an online debate concerning the writings of Nick Hornby, Rob Sheffield and Chuck Klostermann. This led me to again pick up and reread IV. And, as before, I loved every minute. Klostermann has written for Esquire, Rolling Stone, The Believer and The New York Times Magazine. This is a collection of his writings from all of the above, dating back to the mid-90s.

Here he covers everything: Ratt, Johnny Carson, bowling, Radiohead and pants. His interview with Jeff Tweedy is one of the best I've read. I love that he spans from Morrissey to My Bloody Valentine, but also shamelessly profiles U2 and Britney Spears just as effortlessly. He contemplates monogamy and the afterlife, then addresses Barry Bonds and the Olympics.

He acknowledges his own writing with humility, saying "(there) are the two primary criticisms of my writing: that it's not especially funny, and that it's not particularly insightful." Though I disagree. Take for, instance, his questioning of the "alternative" music scene: "It remains unclear what this movement was the 'alternative' to...I suppose going to the mall, although I recall seeing a lot of these same rock kids at JCPenney."

And then there is his take on Ton Loc. "The last verse of 'Bust a Move' states, 'Your best friend Harry/ Has a brother Larry/ In five days from now he's gonna marry/ He's hopin' you can make it there if you can/ Cuz in the ceremony you'll be the best man.' Now, why would anybody possibly be the best man in a wedding where the groom is your best friend's brother? Why isn't your best friend the best man in this ceremony? And who asks someone to be their best man a scant five days before they get married?" Important questions. Answered with genius.