The Week In Recommendations 4.10.24
Scorching lit reviews, a poly dating show, Olivia Rodrigo IRL, classic Hill House and our Sephora sale picks. Plus, one great thing from Jo Piazza!
This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest podcast was about The Cut’s viral essay on “marrying an older man.” Rich Text is a completely reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!
Claire has been reading… 📖
The latest issue of Bookforum, which has been causing quite the stir on lit Twitter thanks to a pan of Lauren Oyler’s “No Judgment” so brutal that screenshots of the print edition were circulating days before the review hit the Internet. Being a subscriber, I was able to read at my leisure; such are the perks of supporting print media. I also have a copy of “No Judgment,” but I have not made time to read it, so I can’t say if this review is fair or accurate. I do, however, enjoy a lively takedown (one reason I have always enjoyed Oyler’s criticism), so I obviously read every word of this shellacking. This is exactly the kind of shallow engagement with literary culture — too consumed with petty score-settling and gawking at the discourse to actually engage deeply with literature — that the review skewers, so I consider myself duly criticized as well.
I loved Moira Donegan’s review, in the same issue, of Lisa Selin Davis’s “Housewife: Why Women Still Do It All And What To Do Instead,” an almost equally scorching pan. Donegan picks apart Davis’s highly selective history of housewifery and offers a stirring counter to Davis’s idealization of the trad wife lifestyle. “Her admiration for the housewife is like the nostalgia one might feel for a difficult dead relative: she wants the housewife back in her idealized form, even as she knows that’s not quite the form the housewife took,” Donegan writes. It’s a sharp take not just on this book, but on the trad movement as a whole — and makes a great companion piece to last week’s pod on The Cut’s “just marry rich” essay. Donegan’s kicker, in particular, is familiar and devastating.
Emma has been reading… 📖
I think I’ve mentioned in this newsletter that I have a soft spot for TLC reality shows about fundamentalists like “Welcome To Plathville,” which I have stuck with only because of Olivia Plath. Olivia was married to the Plath family’s eldest son, and after four years of clashing with the family and seeing her begin to question her own Christian fundamentalist upbringing, she finally decided to leave her marriage. Teen Vogue profiled Olivia for their Believers series, and the interview is fascinating. She talks about the cult-like aspects of the fundie world, what it is like to go through the painful process of deconstruction, and the freedom that awaits on the other side.
Also, our friend
’s new book, “The Age Of Magical Overthinking: Notes On Modern Irrationality” came out yesterday! It’s so smart and so good and I am currently re-reading it. If you loved “Cultish,” you’ll definitely love “Magical Overthinking.”Claire has been watching… 📺
This week I ripped straight through Peacock’s poly dating show, “Couple to Throuple,” and a few episodes of “Farmer Wants a Wife” season 2. (We discussed both on this week’s Love to See It.) I can confirm that the former, especially, is very weird to watch while letting your sick baby nap on your chest for hours at a time, but we love to multitask.
I’m also belatedly getting into this season of “Buying Beverly Hills” and the discourse around the Mauricio Umansky/Kyle Richards split which is playing out slowly onscreen.
Emma has been watching… 📺
Some very wonderful in-person things!
Cole Escola’s off-Broadway show “Oh Mary!,” which is a weird, bawdy and riotous take on Mary Todd Lincoln’s relationship with her husband, President Abraham Lincoln. (Honestly to say much more would ruin it, though I do recommend this profile of Escola in Rolling Stone, which explores how they are “revolutionizing queer comedy.”)
The Olivia Rodrigo concert at Madison Square Garden. I’ve written in this very newsletter about how much I love Olivia Rodrigo, unapologetically, and her concert did NOT disappoint. She’s a fabulous performer, with a deeply sweet relationship to her young girl fanbase. Plus her band is all women and non-binary people, which was very cool to see!
The solar eclipse! Nothing brings New Yorkers together like something that one needs to gather in a wide open space to see. The parks were filled with people on blankets, eclipse glasses in hand, and I went up to my building’s roof with some neighbor friends. I met so many people who live in my building of various generations that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and everyone was so friendly and excited to be engaging with this natural wonder together! 89% coverage felt as good as 100%.
I used to be a travel editor and when I was helping run Yahoo Travel I went more than 32 countries in three years and met my husband in the Galapagos Islands (suck it Bachelors and Bachelorettes...my meet-cute slays yours). So I still want to travel, but planning is harder than ever now that I have three kids under the age of six. My friend Regan Stephens, also a travel writer and editor has created a travel guide platform that I am totally obsessed with called Saltete.
It is location-based and curated by experts in a place (for instance I wrote one about traveling with kids in the Catskills because I am constantly with my feral children in the Catskills). She has Katie Parla's guide to Rome, a killer Disney guide and a Lisbon guide that saved my life. Good travel writing is getting harder and harder to come by these days and I now swear by these.
is the bestselling author of the book of the summer “The Sicilian Inheritance,” and the creator and host of the podcast Under the Influence.
Claire has been listening to… 🎧
I haven’t had much podcast time this week, but I did find time to finish Bachelor in Retrospect’s whole run of Ben Flajnik recaps — which, like almost all of their recaps, makes me want to watch the season to see if men really can be that repellent.
Emma has been listening to… 🎧
Been catching up on new episodes of podcasts that I love, including Maintenance Phase’s deep dive on Jamie Oliver and his crusade to improve (?) school lunches in the U.K. and U.S., and the latest Dear Felicity episode, featuring JENNIFER FREAKING GARNER talking about her run playing Hannah during season one of “Felicity.” Honestly, a perfect podcast episode. And I continue to be so tickled by how close all of the “Felicity” cast remains today.
Claire has been buying… 🛍️
This week is the Sephora Sale, which was perfect timing for me to restock on some of my Merit daily essentials: the tubing mascara, Clean Lash; the brow gel, Brow 1980, and the Flush Balm in Beverly Hills, which I have almost hit pan on.
I also could not resist Hill House’s heritage capsule, which features some of their most beloved past prints in new silhouettes. They finally released midnight garden, a navy-based vegetable print, as an Ellie, which I was terribly disappointed they didn’t do in the original collection. I wear this silhouette almost daily in warm weather, thanks to its nursing-friendly bodice and midi length, and a dark pattern is the most practical for daily wear as a mom who is constantly getting crushed berries and snot wiped on me. (Listen to me justify!) But after this splurge, I am determined to go back to my frugal ways next week.
Emma has been buying… 🛍️
I also dipped into the Sephora Sale to restock some of my favorite makeup products. (They only do these sales twice a year, so I always use them as an opportunity to get refills of products that I know I use frequently and am going to repurchase regardless of whether it’s on sale.) I got Ilia’s True Skin Serum Concealer, Makeup Forever HD Longwear Foundation, Charlotte Tilbury lip liner in Pillow Talk, Benefit Brow Wax, and after hearing Claire rave about it, I decided to try Merit’s Flush Balm in Cheeky.
Claire has been making… 🧶
Quick rotisserie chicken dinners have been the weeknight dinner hack du jour in our household. We get a juicy chicken, pull all the meat off, and turn it into a stirfry, or burrito bowls, or a salad, or just serve it with roasted veggies and potatoes. This is hardly a new tip, but I had forgotten that rotisserie chickens can be a pretty good bang for your buck: It’s no more expensive than our usual uncooked chicken thighs, but it somehow produces enough meat for twice as many meals. You do have to remember that it’s already salted – sometimes we slip up and over-season it. My favorite rotisserie chicken dinner this week was burritos made with black beans, Mexican rice, sautéed bell pepper and onion, mashed avocado, and pulled chicken simmered with taco seasoning. (Thanks Greg!)
Emma has been making… 🧶
I went back to one of my all-time fave NYT Cooking recipes, which I have already recommended on here: Yewande Komolafe’s Crispy Tofu with Cashews and Blistered Snap Peas. I let the snap peas blister a little bit longer this time than I had previously, and let them soak in the vinegar for longer, and it was *chef’s kiss* good. Also had forgotten to get fresh mint the first few times I cooked this dish, and it turns out that garnish makes a big difference in flavor!
Next on my list is attempting to make a version of the salmon crispy rice I’ve seen floating around in different forms on my IG Reels for you page.
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