Look, it’s a bookstore.
Hope everyone’s week went as smoothly as possible. I am in fact switching back to the other format here because this shouldn’t feel like an assignment.
Links
Can’t recommend enough this story about one AP class in San Francisco trying to make it to the test this spring. It’s great.
On the subject of holding class outdoors, apparently a small group of schools did this a century ago vis-à-vis tuberculosis; this features a lot of old timey photos of children in wool hats and giant blankets.
Guessing there will be many more great pieces on John Lewis in the next few days, but this obit (and the accompanying piece by Brent Staples about what was then his radical vision) lay out the way people tried to kill him and others repeatedly, while he worked for basic rights. There’s an oral history from SNCC women, and memorably the first mention of Lewis (from Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons) is: “And of course, there was dear Rev. John Lewis, so pious, so committed, and really very shy,” the latter of which is sort of striking, alongside all the violence he took and the big speech at the March on Washington when he was so young.
This piece about Ted McCarrick’s abuse of one family’s sons and cousins, and how they’ve tried to reconcile that with their faith, is horrifying but thoughtful.
Something to be said for the as-told-to format during this year! The individual really comes through — like in these great, short interviews that Darian Harvin and Jessica Cruel did with black hairstylists. Like this bit: “Every time I wear color, I just feel vibrant. And I know when people see color on me they get the same feeling.”
This Eater piece is also interesting with a few people who work in restaurants in New York, with a real range of opinions about what it’s like to work again.
Saeed Jones has a sad, striking poem about his late mother in the New Yorker.
Unlike most “embarrassing” celebrity stories the two that Natalie Maines and Emily Strayer tell at the end of this interview actually are embarrassing. (Also, funny.) (Though sad to learn Maines doesn’t like “There’s Your Trouble” — objectively one of their best songs.)
I’ve already recommended this album to approximately 30% of the people currently subscribed to this newsletter, but lest I haven’t, if you like synthy indie in the New Wave direction, check out this Nation of Language album. The vibe is of two teens having a laughing conversation in a parking lot at twilight after love and loss in a teen movie from 1986.
As you may have seen, Tommy Tuberville won the Alabama Senate runoff the other night, prompting the state Democrats to insult him by saying he lost to Vanderbilt, which Auburn did in the year of our lord 2008 (on ESPN, in the Gameday slot, too; how embarrassing for Auburn and, really, the entire state of Alabama). There have been great tweets on Tuberville, Texas Tech, and Auburn, particularly this thread which involves the phrase, “during the Tide’s dark night of the soul.”
Light book commentary
Extremely light in that there is none at the moment.
A note on all this
Thanks for subscribing. Hope you enjoy. The goal here is just to offer up some links you may have missed, and maybe the occasional commentary on something in politics or a book I may have read that you, the reader, might enjoy. If you have thoughts on any of this, hit me up at katherinemillernyc@gmail.com or just tweet at me.