An All-Recs Edition to Kick Off 2018
Hi there! Long time, no Inbox Variations. Every year, the holidays seem to go on forever and then the recovery from all that disruption feels barely over and then I wake up one day and it's the second half of January!
I have a lot of ideas in my drafts folder for meaty, thoughtful, self-revelatory newsletters, but mere drafts they remain. You know what my favorite part of doing a newsletter is? Making recommendations. I've got some! Who wants to wait until I polish up a Meaningful Topic Newsletter? Not me! And so:
Literally just watched this last night and am so affected by it: Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, the opener of a new season of PBS American Masters. Hansberry was the playwright of the award-winning A Raisin in the Sun, which she wrote when she was in her twenties. There is so much more to her than that, though, and her work and her person and her activism are both inspiring and convicting. This documentary is written, produced, and directed by Tracy Heather Strain. Yes! Women telling women's stories! Black women telling black women's stories! Really a must-watch.
I have sort of fallen off the This American Life bandwagon over the years, but I do check in now and again. The recent episode "Chip in My Brain" falls right into my sweet spot of personal interest and experience. It's about a kid who was indoctrinated by a mentor with some scary end-times semi-Christian ideas that were verrrrrry similar to some ideas I grew up with. Only, where the family of the kid in the podcast were horrified by him getting a warped worldview, in my world stuff about the rapture, spiritual warfare, and various other details about the end-times were just part of generally accepted reality. (At least, lacking more context, that is how I saw it as a kid.) The TAL episode is a great look at what it means to recover from bad religion, if you ever fully can.
Over the holidays, I re-read Stewart O'Nan's Last Night at the Lobster. It's closer to novella length than novel, and maybe is the modern Christmas Carol for people who aren't interested in ghosts, Tiny Tim, or happy endings. If you have not read any O'Nan, I strenuously recommend adding him to 2018 reading goals, especially if you are: a writer, a writer of realism, a lover of stories about regular people in everyday life, a lover of sentences, of family drama, of great characterization, of stories about work, about marriage, or even historical fiction! as some of his books are. Among my favorites of his are Emily, Alone; West of Sunset; Wish You Were Here; The Odds. For you writers, you may enjoy, as I did, this conversation with Nancy Pearl in which he gets into his writing process. Catnip for process nerds!
Yes, Last Night at the Lobster is set at a Red Lobster
Speaking of West of Sunset--which is a fictionalized take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's final years--Amazon Prime made a series version of Fitgzerald's The Last Tycoon. It's a bit of a sleeper--not the obvious hit that some other Amazon, Hulu, Netflix etc shows are--but it's very well done. I think it would appeal to any fans of old Hollywood, You Must Remember This, or Kelsey Grammer--who is so good as fictional studio boss Pat Brady. It's only a 9-episode investment and I can't see how there would be a season 2, so you will not be married to this for all of eternity. The story arcs vary in quality and screen time, but the core story of Brady, his daughter, and his protege makes it worth watching.
Meanwhile, in other news:
Kyra Sedgwick has been nominated for a Director's Guild Award, in the TV movie and miniseries category, for Story of a Girl. I'm so proud of this! And also that the movie has been nominated for a Women's Image Award. Reminder that you can buy a digital copy of the movie for $4.99 from your favorite provider (iTunes, Amazon, the like)
Gem & Dixie was named to Publisher's Weekly best books of 2017, which makes me happy! Also, it won't be too long now before it's available in paperback. Meanwhile, you can still get the hardcover, ebook, or audio from your favorite bookseller or library
My appearance schedule for 2018 as it currently stands is up on my web site. Coming up this spring: SE-YA near Nashville, and the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, and the NE-SCBWI annual conference. Maybe I will see you there!