OK so it’s Day 8,347 of this pandemic, or at least that’s what it feels like, and you know the drill. We’re all going nowhere. Not great for a travel blog, I’ve gotta say. What IS it great for? I’ll tell you.

READING.

Really, do not complain to me that you’ve exhausted Netflix. I mean honestly how is that even possible? Especially considering there isn’t just Netflix now. There’s Disney +, Apple TV, Hulu, ALL OF THE STREAMING. Granted, I’m fortunate enough to still be working right now, but I still feel regularly overwhelmed by all the things I should be binging right now and will never have time to…EVEN DURING A PANDEMIC.

But if you have somehow run out of shit to watch, crack open a goddamn book. Enjoy the weather — go sit on your driveway/fire escape/patio/deck and read. It’s one of those wonderful things you can do without a mask on and not feel guilty about. This post is what’s on my list for this spring/summer/whatever it is now.

But first a note: In the past, we’ve linked books to Amazon for you to quickly order them. This whole pandemic has made me acutely aware of how grateful I am for our small, local businesses, and while we’ve tried to highlight them in many of our gift guides, we haven’t done as well highlighting our independent book shops. I’ve been ordering books from my neighborhood shop, Greedy Reads, and you can do the same via Bookshop.org, by finding your favorite store on their site and making it easier to order books online in a time when many of our stores are not open. And if you don’t have a favorite indie bookstore, you can still support local bookshops by ordering your books through Bookshop because they distribute the profits among different stores. Sweet, right? So all the books featured on this post will be linked to Bookshop; you can order them by clicking on the image of each cover.

Now, for what I’m looking forward to reading:

Wow, No Thank You

I first listed Samantha Irby’s book of essays We Are Never Meeting in Real Life back in 2017, and once I read it, I gobbled up just about everything she’s written. If you’ve been around our reading lists for some time, you know I love a collection of humor essays, and GODDAMN Irby is hilarious. This isn’t quite TBR list because I am R’ing it right now, and it is giving me the laughs I need to get through this trash pit of a year.

Circe

So I’m part of this like pseudo book club, if that’s what you want to call it, since we never meet, we don’t all know each other, and we don’t read the same books. It’s basically a perfect book club for the ultra introvert. OK, it’s not a book club at all. It’s just a Google Drive spreadsheet where we all keep track of the books we read and mark off whether we’d recommend them to others or not. (I love it.) Last year was the first year I participated, and at the end of the year, Circe came up on the collective “Books We Loved in 2019” tab. And give me a feminist retelling of a patriarchal story any day of the week really. At least that’s how I interpret the NYT’s description of Circe as “a bold and subversive retelling of the goddess’s story.” HERE FOR IT.

Nickel Boys

Here is a list of things we could all use more of in our lives: reading Pulitzer Award-winning writing and reading writing done by people who are not like ourselves. For all of 2018 I read books only by female writers, and while I mostly continued that trend in 2019 and am mostly continuing it now, I recognize the value in not just supporting women writers but also other writers who come from backgrounds different than my own. I’ve heard only stellar praise for this story about black boys dealing with the reality of being unfairly put in a juvenile reform school in the 60s, and I’m so looking forward to giving this one a read.

So You Want to Talk about Race

Hey, you know what? In addition to reading books by people not like ourselves, now’s a pretty great fucking time to have tough conversations with ourselves and with our low-key racist coworkers/uncles/in-laws/fillintheblanks. I’ve enjoyed Oluo’s Instagram and heard her on podcasts, and now I’m looking forward to getting uncomfortable with her book.

The Likeness

The name Tana French kind of wedged itself into my brain at some point. I don’t know when. I heard her name mentioned on podcasts. Saw her books here and there on bookstagram. I looked her up and found out she is a highly praised crime writer. After OD’ing on romance novels to get me through the first couple months of 2020, I wanted something a little harder, so I gave French’s first novel, In the Woods, a psychological thriller set in Dublin a read. Sure enough, I couldn’t put it down. The Starz show “Dublin Murders” is based off French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, so I’m looking forward to diving into The Likeness, which is second in this group of books.

The Other Americans

OK so one of the BEST things I did for myself when quarantine started was order a curated mystery bag of books from Greedy Reads. I e-mailed them three books I loved and my current mood and got an EXPERTLY curated four books as a reward (and all by women authors ;)). I just love Greedy Reads you guys. Anyway, I was in the mood for something light, so I started with Anna K: A Love Story, which an oddly comedic YA version of Anna Karenina (if you can conceive of such a thing). It was darkly delightful, so I fully expect that my next read from my mystery bag, The Other Americans, will be another winner.

All Adults Here

Apparently this is the “most anticipated book of 2020.” Which might explain why I am seeing it all over bookstagram. And admittedly, I am a sucker for bookstagram. Truthfully, I have not read any Emma Straub though I’ve heard her on podcasts and now see that she is quite prolific. So on the list it goes!

Writers & Lovers

Yeah, this is another bookstagram find, but also LOOK AT THAT COVER. And it’s about a creative in her 30s. So you know. I’m eating that shit up. Plus LOOK AT THAT COVER.

Salt Fat Acid Heat

I received Salt Fat Acid Heat as a gift this past Hanukkah and it has been comfort food in book form to me, much like the Netflix miniseries was, just in TV form. Yes, this is a cookbook, but the first half of the book teaches you about the art and science of cooking in four sections — salt, fat, acid, and heat. I’ve been savoring reading it. Nosrat’s humor and tone is so light, approachable, and soothing, and I’ve had so many lightbulb moments of understanding suddenly why certain things I’ve cooked haven’t worked or why certain recipes call for different ingredients. This is a perfect quarantine book, especially for those of us who have embarked on cooking more at home.

What is on your reading list during this time?

-Staci

The Reading List: When Time Is a Flat Circle