sunday roundup 6/14

this will be a v short one

I’ve started the behemoth novel The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, so there’s not much else to report, and I’ll probably hold off writing here until I finish it. But a few things:

Book- I read Iris Murdoch’s The Unicorn, a few weeks after seeing the unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters and a week after reading the unicorn essay in Lucy Ives’ An Image of My Name Enters America. I loved this compulsively-readable psychodrama about weird isolated people on cliffsides, featuring some evil gays. Great for fans of the Brontë sisters. I loved Murdoch’s writing style and want to read more from her.

Short story- Sarah’s fantastic “The Last Cow” for Cake Zine.

misc- these letters from Delaney Hall by strikers.

Music:

• Arya took me to see underscores last night and she was amazing, such fantastic stage presence. I linked her album U here previously and want to link to this song from a previous album because my internal monologue for the last week has been arms body legs flesh skin bone sinew good luck!

• Olivia Rodrigo’s new album is out and it’s really good! I especially like stupid song and the song she did with Robert Smith. I like that she’s a The Cure superfan on this album— dropping Just Like Heaven in the first song, having a lead single literally called the cure, and then having the singer from The Cure on what’s wrong with me.

<3 ALF