Hi there,

Happy 2025 (!). I am slowly emerging from the holiday cocoon and coming back to Real Life. There are a few new subscribers here thanks to my friend Vic who just launched her newsletter, To Boot, which you should also subscribe to! She is an awesome fiber/ceramic/jack-of-all-trades artist.

For the new people, I send two emails each month, so I promise I won’t spam your inbox. The first is a monthly round-up of (most of) the things I consumed that month — what I read, watched, listened to, and ate. The second is either a personal essay or an interview with an artist and/or friend I admire. This month I’ll be releasing an interview with a dear friend and writer that I can’t wait to share.

I was on my winter break from my social work masters program in December, so I spent a lot of time on my couch reading and watching movies (dreamy, I know!). I also started and unraveled approximately four knitting projects, so…there’s that. Anyway, thanks for being here, and onto the roundup!

Reading

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, trans. Stephen Snyder

My book club’s November/December pick. Many reviews described this novel as a political allegory and the author directly cited Anne Frank as a reference, which makes sense given the narrator ends up hiding someone beneath her floorboards. The novel takes place on an unnamed island where everyday objects are disappearing. When something disappears, most citizens quickly lose all memory of it, but a small subset of the population remembers everything and they live in fear of being discovered by the authoritarian Memory Police. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, but I didn’t love it. There are some interesting themes about our collective willingness to forget and our vulnerability to authoritarianism, but I have a slight aversion to overtly allegorical fiction (it reminds me of high school English class). Still, I read the whole thing in one weekend, so I clearly didn’t hate it.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

Say Nothing was one of my favorite reads of 2024. It’s a deep dive into the Troubles, beginning with the abduction of mother-of-ten Jean Mcconville by the IRA in 1972 and ending with today’s tenuous peace as brokered by former IRA leader Gerry Adams. It is a gripping read, making me realize how little I knew about Northern Ireland and The Troubles. I listened to the audiobook, which is a treat if only to hear a northern Irish accent (and practice imitating it). The book was also recently adapted into a TV series on Hulu — it doesn’t provide quite as sweeping a portrait of the period, but it was still an interesting watch.

Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt

Another favorite of 2024. Loved and Missed follows Ruth, a British woman whose daughter Eleanor is addicted to drugs and largely estranged from her mother. While still in the throes of active addiction, Eleanor has a daughter herself (named Lily), and Ruth supports her as best she can. But when someone dies of an overdose in Eleanor’s apartment, Ruth takes Lily home and becomes her primary caregiver. This book is stunning and devastating. It made me think of all of the loved ones of those deemed “unfit” by society — how they too are often cut off from their communities and branded with shame and guilt. The novel is also (cliche warning) about the power of love and how one or two loving relationships might offer a powerful cure to all the painful ones. It’s also funny! I’ve been recommending it to everyone. I particularly loved this line about resilience:

“I think resilience as a word is morally bankrupt. It’s what people require of you when they don’t intend to treat you very well.”

Alice Munro’s Passive Voice by Rachel Aviv

This is an amazing (if upsetting) essay by Rachel Aviv about Alice Munro and the post-mortem revelation that her partner sexually abused her daughter Andrea as a child. Alice refused to confront this reality during her lifetime and stayed with her partner until he died, leaving her daughter to grapple with the abuse alone. Rachel Aviv spent months interviewing Andrea and other family members to share the story Alice refused to tell, bringing us a deeply complex portrait of a famous author and the harm she caused her family.

Talk by Linda Rosenkrantz

In 1965, Linda Rosenkrantz spent the summer recording her friends at the beach. She later condensed and edited these conversations into a book, Talk, written as a dialogue between three people (amalgamations of Rosenkrantz’s friends). I read this to better understand dialogue (how to write it etc.), but it was also a fun peek into how New York 30-year-olds lived in the 60s (they’re all in “analysis” and obsessed with analyzing each other). The book is not an all-around hit — I found myself bored at times with the character’s self-indulgence, but it also felt like an astute picture of the friendship of three late twenty-somethings.

Watching

Babygirl

The sex-pot movie of the holiday season in which the high-powered and married Nicole Kidman has a torrid affair with the much younger intern Harris Dickinson. I enjoyed

“Babygirl is not about sex, it’s about truths of being a woman, raised in a world where women’s sexuality isn’t considered at all…It’s not very fun, because it’s not supposed to be: it’s tragic and uncomfortable and mean. Mean because, with total disregard for the way sex “should” work for straight women, it takes for granted that these women settle for situations, men, and lives that aren’t fun. They waste away, until, feeling increasingly loathing of their bodies and desires, they learn that what they’ve always wanted—sexually or otherwise—was possible all along.”

Challengers

The content consumption machine moves so quickly that I feel behind just now watching this Zendaya + Luca Guadagnino tennis movie even though it was only released in April 2024. It was hot! It was sexy! It was fun! I know next to nothing about tennis, but I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Sabrina (1954)

The only downside of this otherwise completely charming movie is that Humphrey Bogart is SO much older than Audrey Hepburn (she was 25 and he was…55). It’s also hard to believe that anyone would ever be able to turn a blind eye to a young Audrey Hepburn, but it makes for a great rom-com set-up.

Rye Lane

A delightful rom-com about two-twenty-somethings reeling from bad breakups who connect over the course of a day in South London. A less than 90-minute (make all movies 90 minutes please) feel-good that will warm your spirits during this cold spell.

Pride and Prejudice (BBC miniseries)

The only Pride and Prejudice adaptation I recognize is the 1995 BBC miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. It is SO much better than the Keira Knightly movie. I watch the entire series about once a year, and though it has nothing to do with the holidays, there is something about Austen that feels vaguely festive.

So many holiday movies

Some classics, like Meet Me in St. Louis and Home Alone, the wacky but heartwarming The Family Stone, an okay Kristen Stewart Hulu original, a not-so-great Lindsay Lohan Netflix original, and an even worse Emma Roberts Netflix original.

Eating

South Philly Barbacoa

If you live in Philly and haven’t been here yet, I don’t know what is wrong with you. If you’re visiting Philly and don’t make it a priority to go here, I also don’t know what is wrong with you. Chef Cristina Martinez has a whole Chef’s Table episode about her on Netflix, that is how good her barbacoa is. They also recently moved into a larger space a few doors down so there is way more seating.

Machine Shop

Housed in the Bok Building, Machine Shop makes some of the best laminated pastries in Philly (I’ll say it!). I went here twice in December. First, after my friend Kyle Leigh tried on wedding dresses (and chose one!!) upstairs at Kinfolk and again after picking Gabby up from the airport. The jammy egg + feta + zhug pastry is a personal favorite.

Terakawa Ramen

Another one of my greatest hits of Philly spots. I had a miserable cold earlier in the month so we ordered big bowls of ramen and onigiri and couldn’t have been happier.

Claire Saffitz’s Meyer Lemon Tart

Gabby brought back a bag of Meyer lemons from her Uncle’s tree in Florida so we, of course, had to make something with them. I love this recipe from Claire Saffitz (it’s perfectly tart), so we made it for my immediate family’s delayed Christmas celebration.

Gabby’s NYE Pavlova

A New Year’s tradition three years running now — this year was her best yet I think!

On my radar

My friend Hannah and I have decided to tackle Crime & Punishment together this year. I really want to see the film adaptation of one of my favorite reads last year, Small Things Like These. My parents got us a gift card to Pietramala in Philly for Christmas, so I’m excited to try it.

That’s all for today! I’ll be back in two weeks with that interview :)