End of the Month: January
The month of the bluest vibes
JESS
Favourite things you watched: Big month for sleepover movies: Smiley Face dir. Greg Araki (2007), Ladybird dir. Greta Gerwig (2017), Real Women Have Curves dir. Patricia Cardoso (2002)
What you were listening to: Calm Roots with Alex Rita (NTS Radio)
What did you read?:The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison was my big read this month.
And on the last Saturday of the month, I was finally able to attend Tender Possibilities: A Poetry Reading Group organized and led by Farhia Tato. The theme of this session was inheritance which feels especially potent and relevant these days. I had a nice time listening to the soundscape performance that opened the session and catching bits of wisdom shared during the conversation part of the afternoon. We read Robert Hayden, Lorna Goodison, Mosab Abu Toha, prose from Gwendolyn Brooks, and more. I was particularly delighted by the mention of dandelions in Brooks’s Maud Martha, which brought me back to Pecola of The Bluest Eye: “These and other inanimate things she saw and experienced. They were real to her. She knew them. They were the codes and touchstones of the world, capable of translation and possession. She owned the crack that made her stumble; she owned the clumps of dandelions whose white heads, last fall, she had blown away; whose yellow heads, this fall, she peered into. And owning them made her part of the world, and the world a part of her.”
JOSH
Favourite things you watched: Poor Things. In the moment I didn’t love how it was coming off like male fantasy, but in the end (spoiler alert) it’s more of a revenge fantasy a la Meghan Thee Stallion, and that I can get into. But let’s be real, after the initial honeymoon sequence, could we not have done away with 95% of the sex scenes?! My favourite thing about the movie is the language. There’s something fantastic about how Emma Stone’s speech develops throughout – the Victorian period in confluence with her father being a mad scientist. By the end of the movie every sentence she speaks is like magic.
What you were listening to: I’ve been compulsively listening to the new single by Waxahatchee called “Right Back To It” featuring MJ Lenderman. By listening to it 6-10 times a day I’m making myself physically ill. I’ll move on someday soon, I know, so for now I need to lean into the feeling.
What did you read?: A good month for me. It started with Gwendoline Riley’s First Love (NYRB 2022), a perfect anti-Valentine’s Day read. Previously I’d read its companion piece My Phantoms (also NYRB 2022), which I lo-o-o-ved, and this book is just as good. Both are short, 150-ish pages, and they deal with family trauma and how children outgrow their parents. Riley moves quick and packs a lot into very little space on the page. She can eviscerate her father’s character in only a paragraph, and is incredibly funny while doing so. 10/10.
And some books of short stories including Dragon Palace by Hiromi Kawakami, Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country by Chavisa Woods, and an upcoming release from & Other Stories, Ghost Pains by Jessi Jezewska Stevens. More on that one next month.
To get in a Sheila Heti state-of-mind ahead of the drop of Alphabet Diaries, I read her novel Motherhood. Do societal pressures have you questioning whether childbearing is right for you? To answer this question Sheila starts flipping coins. The coins make for an even-handed, godly presence throughout.
MAX
Favourite things you watched: I read this New Yorker profile of Ridley Scott, which described some of the ways he works, the way he and his brother Tony came up through the UK advertising world, and how they both came to rule Hollywood, and it got me amped for Napoleon. But when it came time to actually watch the thing, all I could think was, “Why is this even being made? Is this all just battle reenactments and cosplay? Why, Sir Ridley, did you spend some of your last years on this?”
And then I watched Michael Mann’s Ferrari, and all the same questions popped up but even more loudly! Two movies of sound and fury that signify nothing by white Hollywood elder statesmen. And I do get some of the takes I've been reading like, “Okay, Michael Mann as the craftsman Ferrari or Napoleon the conqueror as Ridley Scott” but that’s just not enough.
Still, two stupid pop culture artifacts that I very much do not regret watching.
What you were listening to: I listened to an episode of On Being with adrienne marie brown. Just preparing for when I finally get through Attached (see below) and get started on Emergent Strategy. Here’s a quote that I love from adrienne from the interview: “I always tell people that you’re always practicing things. So it’s not like you go from not practicing to practicing, but it’s: are you practicing things on purpose? Are you practicing things you would want to practice, or are you practicing what someone else has told you is the right way to do stuff?”
What did you read?: I’m reading Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find - and Keep - Love, and I've gotten stuck. I’m reading it partly because some of my clients have come in and used attachment theory language to describe themselves. The book is chock full of useful self-reflection activities but my bookmark has lingered for months on this particular one that will, supposedly, help me figure out my own attachment style. All I gots to do is (deep breath) list every single one of my relationships, how I felt and acted in them, and etc., etc. Not a pleasant exercise but I feel too guilty skipping it.
OLIVIA
Favourite things you watched: The Iron Claw on New Year’s Day healed me. I needed to uncontrollably sob in a theatre. For another intense watch: The Zone of Interest thoroughly chilled and at times overwhelmed me aesthetically. This is a monthly favourites roundup, so I am not going to speak on Ferrari at this time, though the watch was worth it for me in order to understand why Max has been doing this little “Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari!” chant.
Despite all the focus on movies, and the hints I’m dropping that I’m a TIFF member (a screening of Nope with only Nope fans made me appreciate it in a new light, and I loved Matt Damon’s sweaters in Rounders) I am a TV-lad at my core. It’s not my fault there’s nothing worth watching! Marcie, my beloved Forest Hill colleague, and I thought the fourth season finale of For All Mankind almost made the season worthwhile – save your time anyway and just watch the first three seasons again.
What you were listening to: Music is still OUT for 2024 until I get my hands on bone-conducting headphones. I’ve finally listened to the audiodrama Ars Paradoxica after having it on my radar for years – and this is my Oppenheimer. O, fictional stories about the consequences of your own actions, no matter how well-intentioned, I love you. I also love to lie, and discovered a silly new cover of “The Waters of March”. With peace and love, I’m never changing.
What did you read?: Despite slash because of my inability to meet my intended reading goal of 2023 (75 books), I have upped my 2024 goal to 90 titles. Happy to report I’m already behind! There is joy in failure! I went feral over a forthcoming young adult romantic drama, In the Orbit of You by Ashley Schumacher, and then had to take some time to Get Over That. I am still reading Victoria Kielland’s My Men (which needs its own space in February's wrap-up to break down properly) and, most crucially, TYPE Junction Legend Akosua’s Consumption Report. Everything Akosua writes is poignant, and hilarious, and correct, even if my version of her hot chocolate ritual is a microwaved mug of hot water and the cheapest hot chocolate mix my corner grocer carries.
THOM
Favourite things you watched: I rewatched a favourite discovery from last year: Girlfriends, directed by Claudia Weill, from 1978. It depicts the fraying dynamic between our titular girlfriends, Susan and Anne, after Anne gets engaged. Hilarious, heartfelt, and with an oddly haunting ending. So many of my contemporary favourites (Frances Ha being the obvious one, another black-and-white comedy about a world built between women intruded on by a man) owe it a huge debt. I also loved The Boy and the Heron and Poor Things (aka Anatomically-Correct Barbie). I will say that I disagree heartily (heartily!) with my esteemed (esteemed!!) colleague Josh’s above take on its sex scenes. And while I’m at it, I will recommend Jacqueline Novak’s comedy special, Get On Your Knees, streaming on Netflix. It is surprisingly literary for stand-up about… what it’s about!
What you were listening to: I have grown fond of the New Yorker’s Critics at Large podcast: three staff-writers (Naomi Fry, Vinson Cunningham, and Alexandra Schwartz) discuss cultural events (Taylor Swift, George Santos, The Bachelor, John Le Carre, Slowness Culture, etc.) with such care, consideration and giddy, collegial respect. I recommend starting with their excellent year-end roundup episode, The Year of the Doll.
What did you read?: Writing this, broken-brained, having finally finished The Bee Sting in the early hours of the morning. Also got a little too existential reading Stoner by John Williams (a Steph Staff pick!), which I loved. It’s a 1968 novel that is suddenly everywhere, and for good reason; a bildungsroman of many educations, the tragedy of lessons belatedly-learned, and the encroaching, corroding force of nationalism on academic institutions. If that sounds a little dry, this campus-as-career-novel also functions as Trojan Horse to a very twisted marriage story, interluded by one of the tenderest love affairs put to page.
BULLETIN BOARD
Go over and read and then re-read Jess’s interview with Caleb Azumah Nelson, the author of Small Worlds: “At the centre of Small Worlds is this real notion of love and expression. So much of it was me trying to figure out how to express love, both towards my community and towards the things that I love. Again, and again.”
Check out Max’s new website for his psychotherapy practice, in particular the “Recommended Reading” section at https://centrelinepsychotherapy.com/recommended-reading. And listen to him talk books on CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter.
We love books, we love reading, and we love listening to books when we’re engages in one of those liminal activities (walking, commuting, cleaning, knitting) that leaves just enough brain power to be able to focus on an audiobook. For the new year, we’re rounding up our favourite audiobooks at TYPE (including Thom’s pick North Water by Ian McGuire, Josh’s pick My Body by Emily Ratajkowski, and Max’s pick The Time of My Life by Lisa Niemi and Patrick Swayze) in a Libro.fm playlist for you to peruse. And, as a fun treat, if you sign up for a free account with Libro.fm with our bookstore here, you get two free audio credits to listen to one of our picks (or any book on their site, if you’re not impressed with our favourites) at your leisure.