The Week In Recommendations 1.22.25

It may be the first week of fascism, but at least "Severance" is back.

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 subscriber post was about S2 of “XOKitty.” An episode about how to stay sane during Trump 2.0 is coming soon. Rich Text is a reader-supported project.

Claire has been reading… 📖

“Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner, a Christmas gift from Greg. Years ago I read her novel “The Flamethrowers,” which I could never quite figure out; I remember it as seeming precise and well-researched and meticulous, but oddly distant, like I was observing even the most central characters through a telescope. “Creation Lake” follows a honeypot American spy into a leftist agrarian commune in rural France, where her deep-pocketed employers have charged her with baiting the activist types there into a terrorist plot against a planned megabasin. Her experience there, which she recounts with cool detachment, is interspersed with chapters detailing the theories of Bruno Lacombe, a reclusive figure who believes in dismantling civilization and returning to the noble ways of the Neanderthal. Much like her earlier novel, I found it to be full of very interesting information, meticulous and almost cold. Her protagonist is almost entirely void of human sympathy and impulses, and those that she does have are recounted so blandly that it’s hard to even register them. I felt held at arm’s length the whole time. The chapters about the Neanderthal were the most vivid and engaging portions, and perhaps that’s appropriate for a book about a political frustration so profound that it reaches back toward an imagined utopian past not just pre-capitalism, but pre-humanity. Honestly, I get the appeal.

Craving a light distraction this week, I also whipped through “Say You’ll Be Mine” by Naina Kumar. While it commits some of the sins that often irk me in commercial fiction, like describing mundane actions in detail for no reason (if another character blew across the surface of a hot beverage to cool it, I was going to turn it into a drinking game), I was quickly drawn into lively playwright Meghna’s unexpected romance with a handsome but grumpy engineer. It’s a fake relationship story, which is an implausible trope but a favorite of mine, and overall it easily beat out the other romcom I’d grabbed at the library.

I also read, in a state of near-panic, “The Army of God Comes Out of the Shadows,” a deep dive on Christian nationalism by Stephanie McCrummen in The Atlantic, which gave me a far more thorough and disturbing understanding of the movement than I’d previously had. The movement, she details, encompasses a startlingly large percentage of American Christians — about 40% — and is committed to advancing Christian dominion over every facet of government and society. “I came to understand how the movement amounts to a sprawling political machine,” she writes. “The apostles and prophets, speaking for God, decide which candidates and policies advance the Kingdom. The movement’s prayer networks and newsletters amount to voter lists and voter guides…. As November’s election neared, I watched the whole juggernaut crank into action to return Trump to the White House.”

Emma has been reading… 📖

I was both gripped and horrified by

Taylor Lorenz

’s dispatch from the TikTok/MAGA party during Trump’s inauguration weekend. Given that we now live in an oligarchy pseudo-run by the tech bros who own social media platforms, I guess it tracks that conservative social media influencers would be thriving. But it still makes my skin crawl to see just how mainstream and unabashed the MAGA movement has become over the last eight years.

I’ve also been re-reading Rebecca Solnit’s 2016 essay, “‘Hope is a​n embrace of the unknown​’: Rebecca Solnit on living in dark times.” I’m feeling a bit scooped out and lost as we head into this next chapter of American history. Everything feels so dark and terrifying and exhausting. I am grateful for writers like Solnit in these moments. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) her words from nearly a decade ago still resonate. “Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists,” Solnit writes. “It is the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterwards either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone.”

And, blessedly, the third book in the Fourth Wing series, “Onyx Storm,” came out on Tuesday, so I’ll be throwing myself into Rebecca Yarros’ fake, violence-filled world, instead of our real one later this week. Will let you all know my thoughts after I finish it!

Claire has been watching… 📺

Like everyone else, I’d been waiting for “Severance” to return for three years, so we used our movie night to watch the first episode. And we immediately realized we’re lost and should have rewatched last season to prepare. (If only we’d had the time!) Greg was a little skeptical of the premiere, but I’m intrigued by all the groundwork they’re laying. The scenes where Mr. Milchick tries to convince them that they’ve become heroes in the outside world and symbols of severance reform are particularly chilling and seen to point toward some fascinating developments this season.

But I’ve also been watching “How to Die Alone,” a Hulu comedy I completely missed last fall. Natasha Rothwell (of “Insecure” and “White Lotus”) stars as a downtrodden 35-year-old transport worker at JFK International Airport. Melissa is single and in debt; her career is going nowhere; she’s the family fuckup; and her gorgeous ex, who happens to be her boss, is getting married to someone else. She finds solace in her friendship with JFK nepo baby and trust funder Rory (Conrad Ricamora), but he’s increasingly flaky as he begins falling for a hot frequent flyer. Then she has a near-death experience and decides to start taking chances for a change. As a sitcom fan, I was drawn in by the sitcom elements of the show – Rothwell and her supporting cast are very fun to watch – though there’s a strong dramedy bent to it that can lean toward triteness. (Overall, think “Scrubs,” not “Arrested Development.”) But Melissa is likable, and I find that I want to see her getting her life together, so I’m embracing all the sentimentality.

Emma has been watching… 📺

Now that it’s available on streaming, Adam and I watched “A Real Pain,” the movie that Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed and starred in about two cousins (played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin) who go on a Holocaust tour after their grandmother dies. The movie is darkly comic, which feels right. (Isn’t generational trauma always coupled with humor as a coping mechanism?) As a Jew who has been on a Holocaust tour that included staying in Lublin and visiting Majdanek, the concentration camp they visit in the film, I found myself thinking about the often insufficient ways that we try to connect to our cultural pasts, and the lessons we take from them. (Did it feel especially odd to be watching this as our country debates whether Elon Musk did a Nazi salute? Yes! Indeed it did!)

Photo Credit: Apple / Searchlight Pictures

I’m also watching “Severance” season 2 (duh), which fans have been ravenous for for nearly three years. I watched the premiere and a few episodes ahead — press screeners! — and I can say with confidence that it was worth every minute of the wait. (The way I will be watching each of these episodes several times over just to catch all the details…)

Bonus watch: All of self-described “Regina George Liberal” Suzanne Lambert’s videos. I need this energy to get me through the next four years.

Claire has been listening to… 🎧

This week, I’ve mostly been overhearing. Monday was a holiday, so both the kids were home; Greg had to have inauguration coverage on for work, so as I changed diapers and washed sippy cups I’d hear fragments of commentary and speeches drifting from the living room. “Amazon” and then “oligarchy” repeated several times. “Only two genders,” in Donald Trump’s unmistakeable blare. They were almost comically obvious, the kind of fragments the protagonist would hear drifting from the TV in a novel about life amid the descent of fascism.

My preschooler, on the other hand, has become obsessed with his Yoto. He sets it up wherever he’s playing, and he usually listens to the most annoying audio books in his collection: Junie B. Jones. (Imagine an adult making a little-kid voice while recounting how she “runned speedy quick” and other associated little-kid-isms for the length of an entire book.) I love that he loves listening to books. I love it. Truly. And if I know all of Junie B. by heart by spring, it’s worth it.

Emma has been listening to… 🎧

The official “Severance” podcast, hosted by Adam Scott and Ben Stiller. Now that I am solidly back into “Severance” lore — and in *deep,* I’ve been having Lumon-related dreams — I was thrilled to learn that Scott and Stiller had started a podcast in the lead-up to season 2! I didn’t realize that I needed to hear Jon Stewart discuss his feelings about the OTC in the season 1 finale, but I really really really did! I also needed his dark jokes about how we’d probably all be re-educated at the Bell Labs building (the Lumon office building in “Severance”) during the upcoming administration.

Claire has been buying… 🛍️

A piece of winter headgear that I think of as a puffy headscarf, or a hood with chin ties. I saw a (beautiful) woman wearing this in an X post, and I immediately needed one. It took a fair amount of Googling, because “puffy headscarf” didn’t produce many results, but eventually I found a few options – there’s an Etsy one that looks really nice, though I was too impatient for it and went for an Amazon version, which is great. (Ayo Edebiri wore one while she was filming “The Bear,” and she reportedly got hers, which features button snaps to turn it into a balaclava, from Etsy.)

I’m wearing a claw clip under mine in this picture!

Unfortunately, the puffy headscarf does not endow me with a perfect jawline and even features, nor does it make me as cool as Ayo, but, unlike a traditional winter hat, it does keep my head warm without squashing my hair and flattening my bangs. It can even go over a claw clip or space buns, with a little maneuvering. Greg laughs at me when I put it on and calls me a babushka, but I have no regrets. (OMG, CLAIRE! This is babushka chic in the best way! Obsessed. -Emma)

Emma has been buying… 🛍️

A faux fur scarf that tucks into itself from Apparis. It’s remained absolutely frigid in New York (actually, it’s gotten even *more* frigid). I only own one scarf, and it’s pink and green, so I decided it was time to secure a second, more neutral option. I absolutely love this Apparis Bambi Faux Fur scarf. It looks great with both casual and dressy outfits, and can be worn under or over a jacket. My neck has been filled with gratitude for the increased warmth this scarf has bestowed.

L: The Apparis scarf. R: My red face, post Clear + Brilliant

I also splurged a little this week.. I got my first-ever laser treatment. My wedding is in about a month, so it felt like a good time to address some of the acne scarring and hyperpigmentation that has seemed to settle permanently onto my face in my late-30s. After reading up on various lasers, I decided to do one Clear + Brilliant treatment, which is basically a baby laser that requires no downtime. I went to Ever/Body on Tuesday afternoon, got numbed up and then the actual treatment took less than 30 minutes. It was slightly uncomfortable — “snappy” as my aesthetician Zee described it — but not painful, and I left red, but in more of a slight sunburn way, not a Samantha-Jones-chemical-peel kind of way. So far so good! If you’ve been wanting to check Ever/Body out, you can use my referral code which gives you $50 off. (And for clarity: This is not sponsored. I spent my own money on the treatment and took advantage of the standard new client discount.)

Claire has been making… 🧶

An applesauce spice cake from Smitten Kitchen, for a cozy Sunday in. We love this recipe, so I’ve used it for everything from a birthday cake to a just-because snack. It tastes almost like a particularly luxuriant banana bread, but the addition of cinnamon cream cheese frosting puts it over the top.

After reading Derek Thompson’s recent Atlantic essay on our societal turn toward solitude, Greg and I felt galvanized to break out of our post-holiday social slump. I’ve always been a bit of an introvert, and have prioritized plenty of downtime in between gatherings. The essay was a total indictment of me, personally: I choose alone time when I can, but, as Thompson argues, I am generally much happier after spending time with other people. It’s just… kind of exhausting! Not just because socializing can be draining for me, but because hosting means cleaning your home and preparing refreshments, and visiting means lugging the kids to a new location and monitoring them closely so they don’t smash anyone’s objets d’art. Still, much like avoiding exercise means harming my long-term health in favor of immediate comfort, avoiding socializing saves my energy in the short-term but makes my life feel less sparkly.

All this is to say we invited a couple of people over for a snowy afternoon, and let the kids run riot while we watched football and chatted and, in my case, made a cake. It was hardly a party, but I want to make it more routine to invite people over and to get better at hosting in our tiny apartment.

Emma has been making… 🧶

On Sunday, when it was snowing a bunch in Brooklyn, Adam and I settled in to make some comfort dinner. We decided it would be our activity of the latter half of the day, so instead of our usual takes-under-30-minutes dishes, we decided to crack open one of our many cookbooks and take on something more challenging. We settled on Jake Cohen’s Cholent Bourguignon and green beans recipe from “I Could Nosh: Classic Jew-ish Recipes Revamped for Every Day.” The meat in the cholent (it calls for short ribs, but Whole Foods was out of those, so we used chuck roast) has to slow cook in the broth alongside the barley and beans for 2 full hours. The result is a rich, hearty stew, with enough leftovers to last you for a full week.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find the cholent recipe published anywhere online, but I highly recommend Cohen’s cookbook! It’s full of modernized Jewish classics, and the recipes are accessible without being basic.

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