quelques choses no. 19

vibes went crazy this month

Dec 02, 2024

I find myself apologizing that these lists are shorter / less thorough than I’d like them to be, but I’m not sorry that life felt so full and left little time to myself!! hope you enjoy.

(half-read) books—

The Lying Life of Adults, Elena Ferrante — a thrill to read, I’m intentionally slowing my pace for this one because I’d like to savor it. So far, I’ve loved the deeply relatable depiction of what it’s like to be 12/13 years old. Everything is awkward and deep.
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera — I have tried to read this one several times. I’ve had a bit of captive time on flights so I’m trying again. Only 1 chappie in.

& some thoughts on books I’ve finished in the past month—

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, Rashid Khalidi (re-read) — this book has been in the zeitgeist since its publication, but especially since last Oct and rightly so. I’ve never been great at committing facts from non-fiction books to memory, so I often need to revisit these books. I’m not offering much of a take / review, because I assume most people have read it by now, but one important note I was reminded of was Khalidi’s ability to, as humanly possible, share an objective view of his country’s history. It strengthens his primary argument about the settler colonial nature of the Israel’s history.
The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates — just whelming. Not actually as radical a piece as I expected. An important voice nonetheless. One small quote I liked,
The goal is to haunt—to have them think about your words before bed, see them manifest in their dreams, tell their partner about them the next morning...

Kind of separately, I am excited and overwhelmed that Spotify premium now has almost every audiobook one could ever want to listen to. In classic gemini fashion, I have downloaded 7 books and have negative time to listen to them.

articles—

Public health vs. politics, Harvard Public Health
People are not just closely aligned with their group; they’re strongly against the other. This entrenched polarization isn’t about liking one’s own group; it’s about wanting the other group to fail, almost like sports team rivalries, but in health care.
Periwinkle, the Color of Poison, Modernism, and Dusk, Paris Review