Friday Lunch Special: Brief Book Recs, Florida!!!, ShirleyJacksonTok, Olympics!

It's a little bit of everything!

Hello friends! This week’s Friday Lunch Special is a bit of light housekeeping. Lots of fun things are happening in my world so I wanted to give you some updates, plus some brief book recs and some other thoughts. I’m also finalizing new stickers and info cards that I’ll be sending out to all paid subscribers, so if you’re interested in becoming a paid subscriber and you love stickers, now might be a good time! I’m also scheming other goodies for all Founding Members, new and existing, but more on that soon when it’s set in stone. 

Enough of the fuss, here’s the Friday Lunch Special for this week!

Very Brief Book Reviews

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Eery, enchanting, romantic and complex. Reading this felt like I was dropped out of an airplane and fell into a suspended holding pattern before gently gliding to the ground.

The Italy Letters by Vi Khi Nao 

I received an advance copy of this from the publisher! This title comes out on August 13th, 2024. 

At its core The Italy Letters by Vi Khi Nao embodies the all consuming feeling of having a crush and of being full enamored. Beautifully written and exquisitely vulnerable, it puts into words the untidy and sometimes fleeting feelings of want and desire, and explores the depths in which we can crave one another.

The Future of The Self by Joanna Nadine

I received an advance copy of this from the publisher! 

It’s not every day you read something that makes you feel the need to write back. After reading The Future of The Self I felt I needed to respond. What I wrote will likely make its way to your inbox soon, but for now let me just say this: The words in this book feel like an answer to a question every part of my being has been asking. Joanna Nadine examines our sense of being and how ever changing and ever evolving the self is, from both a scientific and philosophical point of view.

Please Note: I’ve linked books using Bookshop.org affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these, I receive a small commission. To see shop of all the books or just see them in a visual collection, visit my 2024 Reads!

Florida!!! Is One Hell of a Drug!

Florida this time of year is nearly perfect for someone who used to live in Texas. It’s hot, the sun is brutal mid day and the pools feel like baths. To me it feels like home– not because Texas still feels like home (though it does) but because Florida feels like home now. My mom, aunt and uncle live in Florida and for the past 7 or 8 years I’ve been visiting as often as I can. The trips are mostly uneventful – going to thrift stores, reading on the porch, trading off cooking duty, swimming in pools that are almost too warm. It’s mundane in a way that feels deeply comforting. The comfort and temperature resembling soup.

It feels like downshifting from how I’m geared for everyday life. In Florida there’s no having to go and do anything, there’s eating when you’re hungry and staring at water. 

Left: My mom and I. Right: The soup pool.

ShirleyJacksonTok 

As you are probably aware I’ve been reading a lot this year and I’m sure I’ve mentioned the reason I’ve been indulging in it so freely is because I’ve been writing a great deal. After hitting my total yearly goal of 52 books in July, I began thinking about joining TikTok and making videos about the books I’ve read. It’s been a total joy making book recommendations here in this space, so I thought I could try replicating some of that energy on TikTok. If I could get even one or two high school girls to read Shirley Jackson, then it would have all been worth it. I joined the app under the name ChelsFran and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. Follow me if you want to hear me make hyper specific book recs and talk through what I read each week!

Olympics

I have been glued to my television for almost two weeks watching the Olympics, and maybe you have been too. As I type this the b-girls from all over the globe are competing with each other for medals in the first ever Olympic Breaking finals. It’s riveting. There’s a 41 year old competitor from Japan. Something I’ve observed about most of the finals is how many chances these athletes, at the peak of their form, are given to succeed. I think this feels important to me because a lot of my creative practice revolves around just creating opportunities for myself to get words out on the page. The more I show up to write my words each day, the more often I succeed in making something I’m proud of. The Olympics are a macro example of how practice directly affects performance, and success comes from opportunity.

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