After a brief hiatus to make space for my book launch and tour, I am officially resuming Magpie Book Club! Our June book will be Kin by Tayari Jones, “a novel about mothers and daughters, about friendship and sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South.” This has been on my radar for some time; several well-read friends rave about Jones, and I’ve only ever heard effusive praise elsewhere. I’m a quarter of the way in and the writing is exceptional — rich imagery, rich narrative, rich story-telling. I will be sharing my review, book club questions, and more the middle of next month.
In the meantime, a couple of other Magpie book club things:
01 // Happy Carley Fortune summer release day to those who celebrate! I’ve written about this in the past, but one of my favorite micro-rituals to celebrate the arrival of summer: to tear into the latest Fortune book on release day with a glass of rose and, last year, cupcakes. Why not? You can order the book here. If you’re not familiar with Fortune, she writes these summer lakeside romances with a strong, evocative sense of place and nostalgia. Think bare feet on a dock, the handsome boy next door, coming of age, peach ice cream, berries from a farm stand, midnight swims. These are luscious vacation reads.
02 // I tore through Belle Burden’s Strangers in a couple nights. What did we think? Consider the comments section a landing place for your observations. My take: Burden is an excellent, careful writer — there is not a maverick word in the memoir, which follows the shocking, wounding dissolution of her marriage. (Her husband more or less divorced her overnight with no insight into why, and it comes out that Burden, an heiress, signed a pre-nup that compromised her extreme inherited wealth.) The entire book felt like a held breath. Burden is precise and vigilant, almost always acknowledging or pre-empting objections. I couldn’t tell whether this was born of her trade as a lawyer or of being brought up as a girl held to high expectations and taught to be seen but not heard (“be careful!”) or perhaps the acute tenderness of writing candidly about one’s family, one’s marriage. It is brave writing for that reason. I feel she risked a lot with it — relationships, privacy, her ex-husband’s probably rancor and possible litigiousness, even maybe elements of her relationships with her children (in the sense that it might not be easy for them to read everything she wrote).
One of my best guy friends and I read it together and texted one another insights and provocations alongside our progress. We both kept coming back to two threads: first, how to make sense of the role her incredible wealth plays in the book, in her marriage, and especially in the book’s reception (we both felt slightly voyeuristic but admitted we were gobsmacked by the casual drop-in of comments like “my step-mother gifted us an 2,000 acre plot of land next to our second home in Martha’s Vineyard”), and second, “Why did she write this?” Burden insists it’s not revenge, not catharsis, not for the money or fame, and instead maintains that she is writing this in the hopes that it might help someone else in her shoes. Burden does establish herself as a generous woman given her pro bono legal work and the wide latitude of wondering and “but maybe…” type thinking she offers her ex-husband (there are chapters where she examines the hardships of his youth and younger life — losing a best friend to suicide, his family’s financial duress — and finds empathy for him), and so her given reason is plausible, but we kept picking at this thread. It felt like an enormous open and unanswered question. She doesn’t owe us an answer; she can publish for whatever public or private reasons. But there is something unsettled in my mind about the book’s raison d’etre, or her presentation of it. I have a hunch it has something to do with needing to be reassured she did nothing wrong, needing to be exculpated from whatever false or unkind narratives may be circling her (of her own invention and at the hands of others). I feel for her in this.
Much of the discourse around this book grapples with the tension between her extreme wealth and the notion that pain is pain is pain, no matter your circumstances. One friend summarized: “I think this book gives women permission in some way. Like you can have everything going for you, or nothing going for you, and still you’re allowed to feel the same kind of pain, loss, fury.”
BTW, did you see that Gwyneth Paltrow will be playing Belle in the Netflix adaptation of the movie?! Wow! A smart friend of mine said: “I don’t know, it all feels a little too on the nose,” which stirred up different thoughts for me.
What did you think?
03 // A Laufey Book Club partners with Politics and Prose! I absolutely love Laufey and actually dragged Landon to her show last year (we were probably the oldest concert goers by a margin of 20 years). Her voice is incredible and hearkens back to the crooners of the 50s — with a decidedly Gen Z twist. The working title for my fictional manuscript is “Where or When,” and she sings a fabulous version of this 1937 ballad (originally from the Broadway musical “Babes in Arms,” since famously reprised by Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, and Carly Simon). Anyhow, suffice to say, I am a Laufey fan girl and will absolutely be checking out her limited edition merch at P&P, the bookstore I grew up visiting on Connecticut Avenue!
Related: it is a major dream come true to have been invited to speak at Politics and Prose (Union Market location) as the final stop on my Small Wonders book tour on May 21st. If you are local, would you consider joining me? It will be a last hurrah and I have had special prints of “10 I Love Yous” made to give away at the occasion. Landon will be pouring wine and my effervescent friend Chesley McCarty will be on the dais with me. And you can eat somewhere fabulous in Union Market after! Bring a girlfriend and make a fun night of it!
I have to say, when this opportunity came my way, I told Landon it rivaled my excitement at having signed the book deal in the first place. Is that absurd? But Politics and Prose is the premiere independent bookseller in DC, and I have such a strong childhood connection to it. Insanely honored and would love to have you there. Please consider joining me!
04 // I’d bought but somehow never read this piece of (very short) fiction by Sally Rooney. I read it in a big gulp over the weekend. I cannot and will never get over her sparse yet specific prose. It’s like wellwater writing: seems simple, almost basic, and yet runs deep, echoes, returns unusual sound and reflection. The line “I’m so happy to see you I’m having trouble talking in my normal accent” left me weak in the knees.
More of what’s in my current reading stack below — I like to read some of these in small sips (the poetry, The Pillow Book) and they will take me a long while to get through, but I’m tearing through fiction right now. I think I’ll read Yesteryear after I finish Kin and the Carley Fortune, and then I’m kind of wanting to try The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion series, which is getting a lot of buzz and which several of you have raved about, too. There are eight of them and I believe a ninth coming out, and the prose has been likened to Jane Austen and L. M. Montgomery (!). Count me in. I think the first one at least is on Kindle Unlimited! That should take us straight into the release of the new Patchett and O’Farrell books in early June. A busy and wonderful period for great writing. More ideas on what to read right now here, and a cute TBR notepad here to keep track of them all (would be a great gift for book club members)!
Post-Scripts.
+Two best-selling dresses from the past few days: this gorgeous patterned Boden (15% off) and this breezy white dress (currently 40% off). Interestingly, a lot of Magpies search for “white dresses” on my blog — this is a really good one to consider. Infinite styling options. I see it and imagine a leather sandal and striped cardigan.
+Other fab LWDs to consider: La Ligne’s Andie (t-shirt style — use code MAGPIE10) and Jenni Kayne’s Peninsula dress.
+BTW, found a small but insanely good cache of La Ligne on sale for 40% off: their iconic Colby pant and mini Marin sweater in the color of the season. I’ve written a whole post rhapsodizing about this sweater! The fit, the quality, the softness are next level.
+These fancy French hairbrushes (they have a cult following) are 15% off right now and people are losing their minds — apparently they rarely go on sale. I have yet to try, but I’m definitely intrigued. Based on Reddit research, it seems imperative you take the quiz on their site to figure out which brush you should use, fyi! People that got “the right brush for their hair” (fine, wavy, etc) are thrilled but if you get the wrong one, there is dissatisfaction!
+Another great striped cardigan find, this one under $50.
+While you’re there, I recently snagged this swimsuit in the sardine / fish print for my daughter. Their kids swim is great — my daughter almost exclusively wears it! — and I love the patterns! $20 but feel like they might be from Hanna Andersson, Boden, Minnow, etc.
+Goop just released a new version of their incredible vitamin C — I feel like we were all talking about Vitamin C a few years ago and now we’ve all gone silent on it, but I still LOVE and swear by it. It’s like turning the lights on in my skin. I notice an immediate difference after application. Skin is noticeably brighter. Goop makes one of my favorite Vit C products (also love Biossance and YSE), and it’s garnered a lot of intention because it has one of the highest concentrations (the highest concentration?) of the vitamin on the market. They send it to you in a specific format so you need to mix the activator and serum at home (just once, when you first open it) — this means it’s at its most potent. Use code SHOOP15 off of this and all my other Goop favorites!
+Also: these white eyelet Marea shorts you’ve been loving and the matching shirt are 40% off and 30% off, respectively. Two other good sale finds: this striped dress (I’m always on the lookout for dresses with sleeves per Magpie reader popular request) and this Lizzie Fortunato-esque necklace.
+Another RARE sale happening at Fellow: up to 20% off. Landon and I are crazy about their precision coffee maker and would rec in a heartbeat. Great father’s day gift or summer upgrade for lazy weekends, brewing delicious coffee at home! We also recently got their Matcha set and LOVE.
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I read Burden’s column in Modern Love when it came out and thought it was really well written and compelling. I read Strangers avidly, and again felt that it was well written, and that she came across (hard to tell, of course!) as an author who was trying to be scrupulously honest, about herself, and those around her. I thought some of her reflections, and the discussion about how in some ways she was more open to others and more relaxed *after* her marriage, were really interesting. That said at times I did have a slight feeling that (even though the book was not overly long) it might have done just as well as a long New Yorker article, rather than a whole book/memoir.
Hi Cait! Thanks for chiming in here. It’s so interesting you note she is “an author trying to be scrupulously honest” — that was my take, too. I felt like it was written with such care, precision, thoughtfulness. I’ve read a few reviews now that posit the opposite! That say she doesn’t ask the hard questions about herself, about how she might have contributed to or missed out on the red flags about the marriage, whether or not there was ever true intimacy, etc! I was so startled by that perspective, as I think she really does probe those subjects.
Thanks for writing in!!
xx
I couldn’t put Strangers down and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. I found myself wanting to talk about it with anyone who knew anything about the book. I was surprised to hear several friends describe Belle as whiny and hard to relate to; one friend who listened to the audiobook even called it a bit pathetic. I countered that it likely works much better read than listened to. Another acquaintance couldn’t get past Belle’s privilege—taking a “so what if she loses everything, she’ll still be rich” view (interestingly, this acquaintance is quite privileged herself).
All that said, I loved the lore and history of American society woven throughout, and found it even more fascinating knowing that she and her husband came from that pedigree. I was also especially invested because a close friend of mine has found herself in a remarkably similar situation over the past three months: her husband had an affair, told her they would work through it, and then abruptly decided to leave their life entirely—including their two school-aged children—with no reason given. That made me read even more intently, hoping to glean some kind of answer for her in Belle’s writing.
Hi Kendra! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You know, it’s interesting — I have a friend who also read this very carefully because she has a friend going through a similar situation, grasping at what happened. It’s so astonishing — I really can’t wrap my head around it. I think that’s why the book was so compelling on a story level: like, how could someone just abandon ship?! xx
On Belle Burden’s motivation: I believe her that she wanted to be a writer. As you always say (to paraphrase), a clear sentence is no accident – can you imagine writing a book this compelling, and this precise, and this readable, if you did not love writing?! And what better topic to write about than what one knows? Further – I believe she was grappling for her identify after her husband’s departure. She had (mostly) given up law and was no longer the loving wife. One kid was off to college, another following soon thereafter. So – writer makes sense to me.
I thought the book was incredible and inhaled it in 36 hours, which is not something I’ve made the time to do in ages.
Agree, the writing is incredible, airtight, careful. My mom is always telling me “no one edits books anymore” — she always thinks books are too long or sag in parts. This was not that. I did not feel there was a stray detail or sentence in the entire thing. Incredible. And, you are right, no accident! This took tremendous effort on so many levels — craft, courage, a painful revisiting of details!
xx
Would you say that A Small Porch is good “starter” poetry? I have not read poetry besides what was required in high school (and, more recently, your poetry) but was inspired to try it recently. I need to try something new! Both for my own growth and as a model to my children. Anyway – if this isn’t a good place to start, what do you recommend?
Hi! I love this!! I would actually start with one of the anthologies of his work, maybe “New Collected Poetry of Wendell Berry.” It basically organizes his best, or best-known, poems in one place and I think you’ll find a lot of good stuff there. I’m also forever a proponent of Mary Oliver, as you know. I find her poetry accessible and moving. I would recommend “Owls and Other Fantasies.” My other suggestion — get the Penguin anthology of 20th century American poetry. It’s a compendium of poems from the best-known poets, a few by each. I love to just open it up and see what the poetry gods want me to read on a given day. It also means you’re not locked into one poet in case you discover you dramatically prefer certain voices, approaches, etc.
xx
I like the idea of starting with the anthology! Thanks for the tips.
I have also recently been looking at the “Poetry for Young People” series to add to our collection, and will note that reading classic poems paired with non-childish artwork has been a real pleasure (we own the Robert Frost volume, so that’s the one I have in mind). Reading to my children has added a new level of enjoyment, and I like that these books aren’t “kids’ poems.”
Also! Sorry I forgot this 🙂 The substack “Poems Ancient and Modern” is the best poem-of-the-day type of resource I’ve ever seen – poems with really excellent commentary. Personally, I find reading poetry in digital format challenging, but sometimes I print these off to read. Sally Thomas is not a well-known poet, but she should be – everything of hers I’ve read has blown me away. You can find a lot of her work linked on her website on un-paywalled sites: https://www.sally-thomas.com/ (Jen, I think you would like her work too! I loved her short story collection “The Blackbird and Other Stories.”)
Oo thank you — will definitely read up on her!
xx
Thank you, Venia!!
As I mentioned before, I do have a personal connection to this book which of course colors my impression of it, but I thought it was beautifully done, and I understand the impulse behind it. I think that the negative reactions have been quite telling- why are we as a society so averse to women simply telling the truth about their lives?
So well-put, and such agood point — thanks for sharing that. You’re completely right. She doesn’t need to have a reason; she can simply tell the truth and people will find it interesting or they won’t. Obviously most of us find her voice, writing, story compelling!
xx
To be perfectly honest, I haven’t understood the hype around this book. Yes, like so many, I read it in a day. It is eminently readable. But, as you’ve noted, I kept coming back to the wealth and the rationale for the book. It felt to me like this years’ The Tell, which has aroused such drama in its orbit. I don’t mean that they are alike in that respect, but the memoir of an extremely privileged woman with a massive network of connections to promote her story felt similar to me. I do think pain is pain (and I’ve always thought it was said most perfectly in Zadie Smith’s essay “Suffering like Mel Gibson”) AND the pain of someone with all the resources and advantages at their disposal still has a whiff of something about it that makes it off putting to me at a time when the suffering of so many people in the world is so absolute and incomprehensible. But, I read it anyway, so I am not sure what that means! I guess it’s the voyeurism of it all! I was intrigued by people’s strong reactions to the book, and I always want to read these reviews to help make sense of my own reaction.
Hi! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on this, and for the “Suffering like Mel Gibson” mention — hadn’t heard of it! I think we had adjacent questions while reading this, while also appreciating the craftsmanship — multiple reactions! It’s so interesting to see what a lightning rod it’s been, too.
xx