The Week In Recommendations 1.17.24

A must-read essay, a forthcoming comedy special, buttery soft jeans, and elevated sweats.

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 egg donor-assisted IVF. Rich Text is a completely reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!

Claire has been reading… 📖

Leslie Jamison’s riveting New Yorker essay on motherhood and divorce, “The Birth of My Daughter, the Death of My Marriage,” which is excerpted from her upcoming book “Splinters.” It is, like much of Jamison’s work, a deep dive into her own psyche and her own painful experience, as well as a detailed recounting of what she ate, what she drank, how her body felt as things happened. In the essay, she looks back on the birth of her daughter several years ago — a traumatic birth, followed by months of caring for a particularly difficult and needy baby — and how her marriage fell apart in the aftermath. It feels like deja vu to read it now, a few months after my own child’s birth, because I remember sitting on her couch in Brooklyn interviewing her about her book “The Recovering” while she stood swaying with her baby daughter in a carrier. Now she’s writing about that experience in the rearview, while I’m living it again. The literature of new motherhood circles around these details: the instinctive swaying, the relentless night wakeups, the leaking breasts, the psychic and physical link to the baby (which feels both rapturous and stifling), the sweaty pockets of time carved out for work or play, the fear of an end to art-making, the pressure placed on the relationship with the new father. Jamison hits them all, with unbearable specificity and poignancy. She also writes beautifully about her mother coming to care for her for two months after her baby is born — three generations of mothers and daughters, bound together in a caretaking triad.

Emma has been reading… 📖

Now that work has started up in earnest again, my reading pace has slowed to a crawl. This means that I am still finishing up the last hundred pages of “Iron Flame.” However, I did find time to dive into New York Magazine’s wide-ranging package on polyamory, specifically this overview, and this reported feature on one specific polycule by Alison P. Davis. I have a few close friends who are members of the poly community, but I’m fascinated by the fact that poly/open relationships feel increasingly mainstream — or at least increasingly in the discourse. (It’s definitely something I’ve heard from friends of mine who are on the apps and seeking a more monogamous relationship.)

Claire has been watching… 📺

I’m still working my way through this season of “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” on my personal time, but during our couple time we’ve been working even more slowly through the final season of “The Crown.” My relationship with the show has changed so much over the years. Initially I loved it in the sort of uncomplicated way that you love a great new prestige drama. Then I began to find the casting a bit distracting, even irritating, as actors I loved were replaced by older counterparts who played the royal family as if they were different people completely. Now, in the final season, I’m a bit over the show. I found Elizabeth Debicki inexplicably annoying to watch as Princess Diana, despite the almost uncanny resemblance in look, voice, and mannerism. It almost feels as if they were so determined to replicate Diana’s tics and tones that they didn’t notice that her natural charm didn’t survive the process. I simply can’t buy the irrepressibly handsome and winning Dominic West as Prince Charles, of all people. And then there’s a whole episode that seems to imply that Queen Elizabeth once almost gave it all up to continue dancing the jitterbug with American soldiers she met at the Ritz on VE Day. Over time, I’ve also come to recognize more and more how protective the show is of the royal family, at heart — how it strains to humanize them and show (or imagine) a side of them that contemporary Americans, especially, can sympathize with and admire. So why do we keep watching? We can’t help ourselves, I suppose; we want to see it through.

Emma has been watching… 📺

Back in June, just as the worst of the Canadian fire smog was lifting from New York City, I went to Town Hall to watch Jacqueline Novak’s Get On Your Knees — a show I had already seen twice at the Cherry Lane Theatre in the West Village. A high-brow, one-woman show about… blowjobs. But this time it was being recorded, for a forthcoming Netflix special. (And attendees — the ones that I spotted — included Drew Barrymore, Katie Couric and Patricia Arquette, along with director Natasha Lyonne.) That comedy special comes out on 1/23, and I cannot recommend this enough, whether or not you ever got a chance to see GOYK in a theater. I laughed so much, and will absolutely watch it more than once. Jacqueline Novak is truly brilliant.

Claire has been listening to… 🎧

“Search Engine,” the new podcast from P.J. Vogt (of “Reply All,” before his ignominious exit and the collapse of the show). I will cop to missing “Reply All,” and I couldn’t resist listening to his episode on how sad the monkeys at the zoo are. He interviews Dr. Laurel Braitman, who has written the book on animal emotions, and she has some really moving insights: for example, that animals at the zoo are typically very bored and appreciate it when the humans visiting look interesting (perhaps by wearing costumes), and that animals have personalities and differ from each other more than humans tend to think. She argues that animals can feel all kinds of emotions we typically reserve for ourselves — gratitude, amusement, mischievousness, anxiety. The episode did not make me less worried about the monkeys at the zoo, but it did reframe my worry about it. For example, maybe it would be more helpful to wear a funny hat to the zoo, as Braitman does, than to simply feel bad about going to the zoo.

Emma has been listening to… 🎧

The theme song of “The Buccaneers,” which is a cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “North American Scum” by Emily Kokal, featuring Miya Folick. The perfect song to play when you need to dance around and release stress or anger — on repeat! (Can you tell I’ve been feeling the amorphous anxiety of January deep in my chest lately?)

Claire has been buying… 🛍️

The cozy Retrack barrel sweatpants from Everlane, which are not cheap but are super soft, 100% cotton, and so flattering. I am so sick of wearing leggings after a pregnancy winter, and all I want are an endless stream of high-waisted sweats in natural fibers to wear while I’m alternating between nursing, making peanut butter sandwiches and apple slices, and actually doing work. I’m still loving classic elastic-cuffed sweats, but for something a little different, I prefer this wider uncuffed style over a tapered leg like I used to wear. My calves demand comfort!

Emma has been buying… 🛍️

I got a deeply on-sale pair of Good American’s soft-tech jeans. They feel like butter, and look like more structured denim. Soft pants that look like hard pants??? THE FREAKING DREAM. I went for the Icon Straight Jeans, so that I can wear taller boots with them without having to deal with tucking anything in. I’m also very into the Petite Straight Jeans (desperately looking for a straight-leg, classic cut jean that actually looks good on me), and the Classic Slim Bootcut Jeans.

Claire has been making… 🧶

Duncan Hines chewy fudge brownies, which manage to be decadent and luscious without using any dairy — you can even make them egg-free by subbing applesauce for eggs, which I did last week when I realized we were out. If anything they were MORE delicious. I have been making them at least once a week. Sorry to be so momfluencer-with-a-brand-deal, but this is my life right now (and sadly Duncan Hines has not offered me a brand deal).

Emma has been making… 🧶

I’m still on my soup kick! This time, I tried out Ali Slagle’s Thai-Inspired Chicken Meatball Soup — another recipe I discovered on NYT Cooking. (Original, I know!) If you decide to try this one out, I recommend listening to the hordes of commenters who recommend that you triple the broth recommended in order to truly make it soup. But overall, this is a pretty great winter meal! (Especially served with heaps of rice so that it’s extra filling.)

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