Bookmark No. 13
Bunny books, romantic outlaws, Gerald Barry’s Salomé, Rosamund Pike, and more
Hello bookish friends! In this letter, I share what I’m reading and watching and savoring, and things and thoughts and bits and bobs I’ve explored.
Thank you for reading this dispatch of my weekly bookmarks. If time and disposition allow, please subscribe and/or leave me a note below!
Savoring the small greats
“The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things . . . the trivial pleasure like cooking, one’s home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard.” ― Less Than Angels, Barbara Pym
My small greats were discovering books within books (hello Mary Shelley in Frankenstein mentioning Sorrows of Young Werther), seeing day turn to dusk on an evening stroll, and burrowing underneath fresh bedsheets.
Watching
The Count of Monte Cristo played by Sam Claflin
Reading The Lost Soul by Olga Tokarczuk and Joanna Concejo
Lucy Fuggle described it as “This feels like… Pausing busy life with a permission slip to slow down, breathe, and listen to your body, mind, and soul.” Count me in.
ICYMI: My book(ish) notes on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I’m yearning to beaver and meander down a Mary Shelley rabbit-hole, so if you have any recs for me, send along! (Thank you, Fernanda, for the rec Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon. It was an immediate purchase for me :))
How Reading Made us — making my way through the first of a three-part BBC podcast series on how reading made us (our brains, part one; our feelings, part two, and our politics, part three). It’s common knowledge that reading is integral, and yet the figures for reading books reflect a downward trend (and in my mind, a downward spiral); I know that reading is integral, and yet I don’t know how unnatural the process is and what it is our brains stand to gain when reading.
Another minus for social media: Really felt for Barry Keoghan and the online hate toward his physical appearance, having listened to this against the backdrop of watching Love Story and how viciously and easily the paparazzi machine can gobble up one’s mental health (also really felt for Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and the intrusion she suffered), and hoped Jacob Elordi’s approach—“I have no relationship with social media”—can work for others.
A night at the opera with Gerald Barry’s Salomé, and being thoroughly befuddled in its fever dream, which due to my lack of experience in this world verged on incomprehensibility.
Some Easter/Spring/Bunny themed books for little ones that I have added to Gigi’s rotation of her seasonal bookshelf: Richard Scarry’s Bunnies; I am a Bunny; and Gerda Muller’s seasonal books.
Rosamund Pike has been on my mind ever since I watched Saltburn, and I was eager to explore her thoughts via her interview on How to Fail.
Making myself a nice cup of matcha and attempting a buckwheat-millet-mulberry granola recipe; will report back.
Publishing this letter is a labor of love! It would be heartwarming to receive your support in whichever ways your time and disposition allow. Some ways to help include:
Like, comment, and/or share this post! Each post-related notification makes my heart sing.
Connect with me via Instagram or YouTube. My ears are open and attentive.
Consider subscribing/upgrading your subscription, or letting me know what you’d like to read more of!
Talk soon!
—A