Show & Tell: Buckets and the Bard
Unstacked Digest for the week of August 18-24
This is Show & Tell where I tell you some things I loved from the week and the one thing I hated, plus round up everything else going on around these parts. The first half of Show & Tell is free to all. The adoration and hateration are for paid subscribers only.
The big news this week is that I launched my first ever online course. I’ll be teaching a class called “Understanding Shakespeare”. It will be a five-week class that unlocks the Bard using three key elements — verse, antithesis, and argument.
For those wondering, what make me qualified to teach a class like this? Well, I have years of classical training as an actress. I studied Shakespeare and performed in his plays. I have worked with some of the best directors and thinkers around Shakespeare not to mention alongside some fantastic fellow performers. All of whom brought the language to life. The class will couple that experience with my current life as a professional reader.
If you read Shakespeare in English class and found it lackluster and nonsensical, this class is for you! I promise we’re going to have a good time and you’ll get the tools you need to tackle Shakespeare’s language on your own.
This Week in The Stacks
Spice Theory and the flat boot “showgirl” got some attention this week.
I’m teaching my first ever class and it is all about understanding Shakespeare. Sign ups are open and spaces are limited.
I spoke with Addie E. Citchens author of one of my favorite books of the year Dominion. She did not disappoint.
The nerdiest of deep dives into oral histories with
, the author of The Devil Reached Toward the Sky and two other spectacular oral histories.Books I Read This Week
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
A collection of beautifully rendered essays on nature and what it can teach humans. There is no doubt that Kimmerer is a gifted writer with much to offer her reader. There were so many essays in this book that shifted my thinking and allowed me the space to pause and reflect. The book is slow going and way too long. The essays start to feel redundant about 30% in. If I wasn’t reading the book in anticipation of The Stacks Book Club episode this month, I would have read a few essays and then paused for a week or two before revisiting. This is more of a referential text than a book I could read through quickly.
The Grand Paloma Resort by Cleyvis Natera
A novel about two sisters who work at a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic when the child of guests is hurt in one of their care. This book grabbed me early and I couldn’t stop reading. Natera built suspense and allowed her characters to make some supremely horrible choices, which you know I love. I would call it a slow burn literary mystery1. The commentary on tourism is A+, and she pushes back against the idea that the most interesting people on a resort would be the guests (look at you The White Lotus). While the ending of the book meandered a bit, I was gripped throughout and needed to finish. There are elements that fall outside the main plot some that worked really well (the history of the DR), others that felt unnecessary (“the secret”), and then a few moments throughout the book that felt a little heavy handed. None of that took away from the smart commentary and incredible pacing.
The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990 by Jonathan Mahler
A high octane history of New York City in the late 80’s and the people who shaped the era and our political climate today. I loved this book. No, it is not the best book ever written, but it is the most fun I’ve had reading history in long time. The tone is gossipy and salacious, which is the exact right tone to strike with a book about the ways tabloids shaped a city and nation. I loved seeing so many public figures’ (Trump, Ed Koch, Larry Kramer, Spike Lee, Al Sharpton, Anthony Fauci) origin stories and seeing how they built their personas. I loved the political debates and scandalous stories. And Mahler did a great job of covering the tragic crimes of the time that stoked racial tensions. It is near impossible to read this book and not see endless connections to today — homelessness, pandemics, wealth run amok, anti-Black violence. An impressive work of history that feels like a juicy summer read. Loved.
Fave of the week!
Housekeeping
True story, when I found out I was pregnant with the Minis, my first follow was Twiniversity on IG. So this is also a full circle moment for me, guesting on their podcast. Just know, this episode is not only for twin parents, all are welcome here.
My pal Chelsea Devantez, host of
podcast, is out of town filming a feature film she wrote and is directing2, and she asked me to fill in as guest host for her “Viral Article” series. So I roped in my girl to help me discuss this article about being a bad friend. We had a lot of fun.
My event at Reparations Club with
is finally here! This Thursday we are finally sitting down to talk about tourism, redemption, and her novel The Grand Paloma Resort that had me gagged the whole way! August 28th, LA people you better be there. Everyone else, just go read the book so we can talk about it.
The Mississippi Book Festival announced their panels and programming this week and I can finally tell you all I’ll be on stage with Jason Reynolds and
. This is a conversation the three of us have been talking about doing since summer 2020. So The fact this is happening is so exciting. If you can be in Jackson, MS on Saturday September 13, I think you should be!Things I Love…
Sports
Imagine needing Caitlin Clark to be your great white hope when Paige Bueckers is right there, scoring 44 points in a game, as a rookie. If you don’t love Paige, you don’t love yourself.
Pop Culture
The fact that debating the badness of American chattel slavery is a thing we’re doing, let alone a thing we are doing in “pop culture” is my actual hell. Like, we are caring about Jillian Michaels’ thoughts on slavery? Why? However, Clint Smith graciously wrote about it this week in The Atlantic. Which, to me feels so beneath him and that publication. But we are now at the place where we are just doing the most banal shit because the racists and bigots are forcing the issue. But, I will take any chance to read Smith, so I guess thanks racists?