The second one: 2 lies and a truth
week two of whatever this is
Greetings,
This week I have one recommendation (Milk Fed by Melissa Broder) and two un-recommendations (People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd and Siri, Who Am I? by Sam Tschida).
The only way I can get through three books in a week is by choosing two mindless ones (People Like Her and Siri, Who Am I?) and being under the pressure of library book return schedules. I started reading thrillers and contemporary romances last year after deciding that I did in fact have time for light-hearted, fun books because it’s a pandemic and very little in real life is light-hearted or fun. There are some really great rom-coms out there — last year I loved Beach Read and Red, White, & Royal Blue, plus Jasmine Guillory’s complete romantic oeuvre is worth giving a go — but wow, are there some truly ridiculous ones. Siri, Who Am I? fell into the latter category. And some people seem to think thrillers are higher on the literary intelligence scale than romances, but lol just try People Like Her and you’ll quickly be disproven.
Milk Fed
I think there are about a million reviews of Milk Fed out there, including one that goes on and on on my insta, so I don’t feel the need to repeat it here. But if you’re looking for an endearingly weird novel, this is the one for you. It carries a heavy trigger warning for eating disorders, but despite the main character’s disordered eating being a central theme, that’s not really what this book is about. It’s a self-discovery sort of book, but that’s not really doing it justice either. It wasn’t an absolutely wow-five-stars-amazing book for me, but it’s one I’ve been thinking about since I finished it earlier this week, and idk maybe that’s better than a perfect book.
People Like Her
This book is a thriller about that “mama bear” instagram influencer type, essentially (literally, her brand is called Mamabare). The influencers are predictably annoying, which is fine, but it’s also just kind of boring. I understood what this novel was trying to do, but the attempt at satire fell short for me. You’re hit over the head with the INFLUENCERS ARE BAD message and like, we get it. We’ve been doing this song and dance with influencers for awhile now. It read like the authors (plural — it’s a husband and wife duo, and I’m more interested in how tense that writing process must have been than the actual writing) googled “ways in which influencers are bad” and then found a way to present the search results to readers by thinly veiling them with the plot of a thriller, except it’s not all that thrilling. It’s as predictable and one-dimensional as the characters, and the protagonists are so obnoxious that I did not actually care when all the Bad Thriller Stuff was happening. Also some of that Bad Thriller Stuff involves children, which I did care about, so content warning for that one. I’d also add a CW for suicide and miscarriage, because why not make an annoying book a sad one too?
Siri, Who Am I?
Oh boy. The movie Overboard feat. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell is one of my problematic favs, so I basically just borrowed this book from the library because of the amnesia storyline. But I’m ashamed to even suggest that Goldie and Kurt are on this level! The protagonist in Siri, Who Am I? is insufferable, which explains why, when she ends up in the hospital with a head injury and amnesia, she is promptly released into the goddamn streets with nothing but her iPhone. We’re in a suspended reality here, so I overlooked the unethical medical practices only to be slapped in the face with 351 pages of one of the most terrible women to exist! As she pieces her life back together through social media and her relentless use of hashtags, she realizes she doesn’t actually like her old self. But instead of changing for the better, she just stays intolerable and stops apologizing for it. And sure, that’s fine — this is America, where being unapologetically terrible is a birthright — but why do we need it confirmed in a romantic comedy?
The drinking part
I made a fancy cocktail this week, and by made I mean asked my boyfriend to make and then drank it. It’s kind of odd — it involves yogurt?? — but worth recommending if you too miss going to bars and ordering cocktails you can’t really afford.
It’s unfortunately called “slippery when wet,” so maybe you should actually be glad you’re not ordering cocktails in public so you don’t have to say the words “I’ll have the slippery when wet” while making eye contact with the bartender.
Anyway, you need strawberries that you will have to muddle, unsweetened greek yogurt, and black pepper. You also need a strainer of some sort because there’s a lot of weird textures going on here. We used gin, as the recipe calls for, but since I know a certain someone reading this despises gin, you can apparently also use tequila.
More book things
What else I’ve read this week
I started Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which the same person who doesn’t like gin picked for our book club this month, but don’t worry, good book taste and good liquor taste aren’t mutually exclusive!
Some places you can donate to help folks in Texas, but it’s always a good idea to look at local organizations before national ones.
This important list of book recommendations based on what houseplants you like, which is about as close as I’ll get to owning plants because my cats suck.
Maybe you too wanted to read about John Steinbeck’s summer house in Sag Harbor, NY, which is currently for sale — for $17.9 million, which is good because my budget is exactly $17.9 million and not a dollar more.
The 2021 Time100 Next list, which features some really great writers: Brit Bennett, one of my favorites; Amanda Gorman, everyone’s new favorite poet; and Ijeoma Oluo. Also, Dua Lipa (or Dula Peep), who gets a shoutout because I have listened to the Dua Lipa Radio playlist on Spotify like 5,000 times since the pandemic began.
New book releases for Tuesday, Feb. 23
It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake by Claire Christian (it was published in Australia last year — this is the U.S. release)
The Smash-Up by Ali Benjamin
Relevant-ish for book people (and yes one is my dumb tweet, I know I’m not that funny so I’m sorry for this self-promotion):
Well, you made it to the end. See you next time and warmest regards!