Hello there, Wednesday! Not sure if it’s because there’s a holiday tomorrow, but my sense of days has been really off. In the States, tomorrow is the Fourth of July. If you’re like me, you’re going to want to stay inside, blast some A/C, and watch the new season of Stranger Things. However, if you’re more like my boyfriend, you already have a tank top and shorts on, and you’re guarding the grill.
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The RWA conference is at the end of this month and Sarah is running an event at The Strand bookstore during that time! There is an admission cost, but you get it back as a gift card to spend on books.
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As if we need more books in our life, I’ve been obsessed with the 2020Debuts Twitter account and hashtags. It’s a great way to see which debut books are coming out next year and to get to know the authors. Congrats to all the 2020s!
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One of my favorite people on the internet, Nicole Cliffe, profiled one of my favorite people in music, Alanis Morissette. Please be warned that the profile deals with childbirth and postpartum depression:
There’s also the added layer of being a parent after having experienced some amount of trauma in your life. Trauma, handled or unhandled, or in the process of being handled, is a thread you can trace through my entire conversation with Alanis, and we touched on how it informs her parenting when she casually mentioned her “four boundaries,” which I needed to know more about immediately.
“I talk about this with my kids a lot, the four boundaries being: You can’t tell me what I’m thinking, you can’t tell me what I’m feeling, you can’t fucking touch my body/you can’t do anything with my body, and don’t touch my stuff,” Alanis told me.
Did this profile make me love Alanis even more? Yes, yes it did. Oh and if you ever have the opportunity to see her production of Jagged Little Pill, I highly recommend it.
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Check out this pinup artwork of the Avengers superheroes by David Talaski. Currently, the prints in his Etsy shop are sold out, but you can check out more of his work on his Instagram. Which one is your favorite? Mine is Thor.
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Tan France of Queer Eye has a Netflix web series where he dresses comedians. I love it.
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Lately I’ve been loving Tig Notaro’s new web series on Funny or Die, “Under a Rock”. The premise is that Tig doesn’t watch much TV or many movies and doesn’t recognize many famous people. Guests come on her show and she has to figure out who they are and what they do.
Ordinarily this would seem like cringe comedy, where the joke is how awkward and uncomfortable it is, but Tig is so delightful (and the guests so far have been good) that it somehow avoids that for me.
Here’s the first episode, where she interviews James Van Der Beek of Dawson’s Creek. (The way his voice squeaks as he gasps “This is amazing!” cracks me up every time.)
(Oops, seems the link didn’t make it. Trying again: first episode)
@Lexica: Yes! That’s in my queue to feature on Links. It’s so fantastic.
For all us Regency readers … Zack MacLeod Pinsent dresses in British Regency attire every day and is a tailor who sews historically accurate clothing for clients. A video from the BBC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b01S7EBQztk
I love this gentleman!
I’m really late to the party, but I just watched Fleabag on Amazon Prime, and I can’t remember the last time I was this into a show. The second season is so good, and now I’m hunting for equally good forbidden love stories (not taboo, just serious obstacles).
Fleabag is amazing! I can’t resist binge-watching, even in repeat viewings.
@Lexica
But she knows who Taylor Dayne is.
Continuing the discussion of Judith Krantz from the last week, this essay is pretty thought-provoking:
pictorial.jezebel.com/judith-krantz-was-the-most-important-writer-of-the-20th-1836012508
(I clearly need to reread I’LL TAKE MANHATTAN to see the context I missed. FWIW, I’m surprised the article doesn’t mention Maxi’s estranged husband Rocco…IIRC, he was a working-class guy and fairly idealized in comparison to the other men. Sad to hear about the offensive use of the gay character in SCRUPLES. I remember being tantalized by the Jon/Justin setup in ITM, and SO PISSED it faded to black. Signs of the future m/m devotee.)
Details on the Bookstores Against Borders benefit for RAICES and immigrant families at the border, with many indie stores and presses taking part. Check the Twitter hashtag #bookstoresagainstborders for updates and matching efforts:
http://www.classy.org/fundraiser/2174150
@SusanH: Try PRIEST by Sierra Simone for a forbidden relationship. The title tells you what the “forbidden” is!
Sue Bird wrote an amazing article about her girlfriend – Megan Rapinoe – from the US women’s soccer team.
I know nothing about soccer or basketball and probably won’t watch any of the game (games?). But, as a romance reader, it reads exactly like a real life version of that moment in the novel when the protagonists are in love and happy and going to get their HEA.