Hi all,
As we get ready to leave summer behind and make the transition into autumn, I thought it would be fun to do a little roundup of all the things I’ve been working on, enjoying, and engaging with lately.
Essays I’m writing
I spent a few weeks this summer on revisions for an essay I wrote in my spring semester, and I spent the week before the fall semester writing a new one. I’m definitely more a writer than a reviser. I’m very jealous of people who genuinely enjoy the revision phase!
Books I’m reading
In my summer literature class, we read William Faulkner’s Absalom! Absalom! and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more than I expected. I read it in a week that I’d taken off of work while in Montreal, and I think that’s the best way to read this book—a chapter a day on consecutive days until the book is done, when you don’t require any more brain power for the entire rest of the day. Reading Absalom! Absalom! also inspired me to create the below:
I also read Lauren Markham’s The Far Away Brothers, which was another surprising love. I’m not much of a fan of book-length journalism, but this book was so engaging and all-consuming. I think I read the entire thing in three days. I just wanted those boys to be ok!
And I just recently starting reading Jo Ann Beard’s The Boys of My Youth. Beard’s writing has been high up on my to-read list for quite a while, but I thought I’d bump it all the way to the top because one of the girls in my cohort is always praising her work. I’m only a few essays in but I love it already.
I read a few other books this summer, too, but I didn’t like them, so we won’t talk about those…
Writing that I’m excited for
If you’ve been around awhile, you know I’m obsessed with the writing of Jean Garnett. I love everything she puts out! It was announced on 8/19 that she’s going to be coming out with a book (finally!) with Scribner titled The Tantrum. I’ve been twiddling my thumbs ever since, impatiently awaiting its release.
Art I’m looking at
In Sweden, I went to several museums, all of which were incredible: the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, and the Carl Eldhs Ateljémuseum. The variety between the three (and even the variety within the Gothenburg museum and Moderna Museet) was amazing. We saw Gothenburg modernist paintings, Ilon Wikland’s children’s book illustrations, the films of Vaginal Davis, Anders Petersen’s photography, Maurizio Cattelan’s dead pope…it was incredible.
I also recently went to see Jenny Holzer’s Light Line at the Guggenheim. I like her work, and I thought the structure of the Guggenheim building was a great pairing for her one-liners.
Food I’m eating
I’ve been very into cookbooks lately, specifically Michelle McKenzie’s The Modern Larder and Alison Roman’s Dining In. McKenzie’s blistered tomatoes with preserved lemon is so delicious and easy, and braising fish in the resulting product is amazing and completely unfuckupable. Roman’s blistered green beans with creamy tahini and fresh hot sauce is very quick and easy and great over farro. I also made her crispy chickpeas and lamb with greens and garlicky yogurt for lunch, sans lamb, and it was so tasty.
I bought a huge bag of summer heirloom tomatoes in August and turned them into a beautiful tomato puree, which I then vacuum-sealed in little baggies to freeze and take out in the dead of winter. I love getting a real taste of summer in the coldest, worst months of the year.
I haven’t been baking very much lately, as I don’t really love to bake in the summer, but I’ve been making a lot of ice cream with the ice cream maker my mom bought me for my birthday two years ago. Once you nail your base, which really isn’t as hard or scary as it seems, the options are endless. I’ve started making my own flavors now that I’ve found a base I love. I’ve made a rosemary and olive oil gelato, a lemon balm gelato, and I just finished a sweet summer corn gelato, inspired by one I had at Place des Fêtes in Clinton Hill this August—it was so good that my friend and I ordered one to share and then asked them to bring us a second! Next up—roasted fig and mascarpone. It’s fig szn baby!
Ok, that’s all for now. Thanks, as always, for reading.
Much love,
Arielle