What if...algorithm-free reco list, no. 14?

Romping, crying, crunching, etc.

Hello!

Greetings from my COVID cave. After four years, she finally got me. It turns out I am not a scientific anomaly and am just a regular human who is able to get the same infectious disease seemingly everyone has already had.

Anyway, here is a collection of things and ideas I’ve enjoyed recently!

My nurse, on a temporary reprieve from his duties.

Quinn’s Maple Almond Butter Filled Pretzel Nuggets

My sense of taste right now would be considered paltry at absolute best. The salt and texture experience on these delivers, though, and the maple does some heavy lifting without being cloying. They are horrendously overpriced, but manage to look like a bargain next to all the other crunchy snacks at Erewhon.

Girls5Eva (Netflix)

After launching on Peacock, Girls5Eva is now on Netflix. I was admittedly tardy to this party, but it’s basically about four regular-life-living women who attempt to reboot their ‘90s girl group after one of their old songs is sampled by a rapper. The ensemble cast is strong, the songs are catchy as hell, and the joke-per-minute ratio is unlike anything I’ve seen on TV since 30 Rock. Sara Bareilles encouraged “everyone to do their community service of recommending Girls5eva to as many people as possible,” so this is me being of service.

“Crying on the internet.” by Olivia Muenter

This essay is about being one of those people who has an impulse to post a video of themselves crying to the internet, but it’s also about the impossibility of true authenticity online. Muenter asks “What’s closer to honesty: To never share your hardest moments at all, or to do it with the knowledge that when it comes to the internet, nothing is entirely pure anymore at all, anyway?” Really forced me to probe further into what exactly I’m judging when I roll my eyes at the type of person who would share a crying photo/video (or even have the urge to capture said content in the first place). 

Margot’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

I read an ARC of this a few months back and now that its release is imminent (June 11!), I'm here to big-time endorse. The titular Margot does indeed have money troubles and works to solve them (while raising an infant) by experimenting on OnlyFans with lots of kayfabe advice from her ex-pro wrestler father. It’s strange and sharp and oddly tender, and somehow manages to switch back and forth between first- and third-person POV from the same character in a way that does not feel like a gimmick.   

Google, disenshittified

Love a website that does exactly what it says. In the case of udm14.com, it’s letting you search Google without the AI Overview nonsense flooding the top of your search results.

#1000wordsofsummer

Jami Attenberg has been running this project since 2018. The goal is simple: for two weeks, you write 1000 words each day. There are thousands of other writers who do it as well, and you can join the Slack, find meetups in your city, subscribe to the daily newsletter, and now even buy the 1000 Words book (which is great). Last year was my first time doing it, and I didn’t even manage to really do it. I hadn’t even started drafting that first novel at that point and I was yet to fully grasp the idea that writing 1000 words just to prove you could was still a worthwhile venture. This year, I am in a similar book-planning vs. book-drafting mode, so will likely not be putting those words toward a draft-shaped entity. But I now understand the value in getting back into the swing of writing 1000 words even if I don’t want to. This skill—which is barely a skill, more masochism channeled into routine—remains the only reason I was able to draft a novel in three months. A separate bonus to #1000wordsofsummer is that you might make some writing friends if you stick your neck out a bit! Last year, I did and it was such an unexpected delight.

The Duke Gets Desperate by Diana Quincy

If you are starved for more Bridgerton-esque romping about and are also trying to read more Palestinian authors, Diana Quincy is your girl.

My own cold brew reporting

I saw that Bon Appetit recently reviewed a bunch of cold brews, and while I do not have the kind of egomania to claim that they scooped this newsletter, I will say that I was right when I first reported on this eleven months ago. The best grocery cold brew is in fact Stumptown if you’re willing to throw down the cash and La Colombe in the Yellow bottle if you’re not. You heard it here first (if you were one of like ten people listening at that time)!

Claire Dederer in “Ask a Sober Oldster”

This recurring collab between two of my fave newsletters, Oldster and The Small Bow, is consistently great, but this one with author Claire Dederer ruled. There’s this bit where she talks about how “one of the hardest things in recovery (besides NOT DRINKING) is being told pretty often that, back in my drinking days, people didn’t see me as having a problem.” I deeply relate to this and should write (probably privately) more about it, but Dederer did a stellar job articulating how exhausting it is to live with the shame of all that hiding. Separately, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is now out in paperback, and remains one of my favorite nonfic/cultural criticism/etc. books of the past few years. 

D.E.B.S. 

I will let my Letterboxd review speak for itself. Happy Pride! 

This newsletter brought to you by:

• Writing a thousand words kind of on purpose, and kind of by accident.

• Neon Gods by Katee Robert, followed by So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole to ease my post-COVID brain back into reading. The former was so ridiculous and smutty (but kind of vanilla considering there’s a playroom filled with toys that’s never put to use?) and the latter was a very solid Jamaican-inspired sapphic YA fantasy debut. 

• Taking at least one nap a day even though I hate that groggy, fuzzy mouth feeling you get when you wake up. Or maybe you don’t get it? Whether permanently or not, I have begrudgingly embraced afternoon nap lifestyle.