Connecting
Nadine recommends the 23andMe DNA test kit. She took the test a year ago and has since discovered over 1,000 third to distant cousins living across the world. Twenty-six were born in Ireland and just this week Nadine found three fifth cousins living in Cork, Galway and Northern Ireland. She has messaged them all. Check your DMs.
Reflecting
i have been thinking about the universe
even distant fireworks
[restrict]make me think of the people who lit them
i can’t help it
Poetry is perfect for 2020’s hectic, time poor, phone clogged lifestyle – reading just one poem is a quick, simple way to refresh your head and feels way more virtuous than watching another insta story. This month, Fiona recommends the funny, touching and quietly wise English poet Crispin Best and his beautiful debut book Hello, available here.
Listening
For fans of the BBC podcast formerly known as Brexitcast (now renamed Newscast, because of course Brexit is over, Boris Johnson says so), Americast will fill the gap. Also from the BBC, Americast is hosted by Emily Maitlis (the Prince Andrew interview) amongst others, and is covering the upcoming American elections In the same informal, behind the scene, insider’s gossip style.
Reading
Actress, writer and product Brit Marling’s essay I Don’t want to be the Female Lead Marling writes about the fact that when women are not being offered the part of the helpless victim, they are often offered a part which is essentially a woman, demonstrating “masculine modalities of power.”
“What we really mean when we say we want strong female leads is: ‘Give me a man but in the body of a woman I still want to see naked.”
More Reading
Sarah has picked up (and yet to put down) Doireann Ni Ghriofa’s forthcoming book, Ghost in the Throat. Ni Ghriofa is already the award-winning author of multiple books of poetry and has published some stirring essays – notably, The Dissection Room and Milk in the Dublin Review – but this is her first longform foray into nonfiction. It is inventive and strange and a pleasure – so far it feels like dropping out of this world and into another world, one made of Ni Ghriofa’s unmistakable, gorgeous voice. ‘When we first met, I was a child, and she had been dead for centuries.’ she tells us, early on, of another woman, to whom Ni Ghriofa feels tethered through time and history.
For those readers who loved Emilie Pine’s Notes To Self or Sinead Gleeson’s Constellations – or those who are stepping into the essay – or even poetry – for the first time, this book about what it is to be a woman connected intrinsically to other women is seriously worth the preorder. For a small taste of Doireann’s voice, here is a link to her poem, While Bleeding.
Ghost in The Throat is published by Tramp Press and available for preorder here: https://www.kennys.ie/shop/a-ghost-in-the-throat.htm
Deep Diving
Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel is Fleishman is in Trouble is the study of a couple whose marriage has recently come to an end. Toby Fleishman’s ex-wife disappears just as he is beginning to relish his newly single status. It establishes him as a man more sinned against, but all is not as it seems.
It’s a fascinating examination of gender roles within marriage, as well as a beautiful study of New York reminiscent of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities. If you want more of Brodesser-Akner’s brilliant writing (according to her Twitter feed, @taffyakner, she is currently engaged in writing the screen playoff the book) see the author’s back catalogue of celebrity profiles for the New York Times Magazine.
Her interview with Bradley Cooper Bradley Cooper is Not Really Into this Profile is a masterclass in how to interview a person at odds with the basic fact of being interviewed. Also excellent are her interviews with Gwyneth Paltrow and Tom Hanks, and her exploration of the world of wellness for Outside Online is one of the best
Dancing
No More Hotels – the club night helmed by culture mavens/sesh aficionados Andrea Horan and Dave Byrne – is here to remind you that clubbing is culture.
Bringing together the best in food, cabaret and deadly tunes, enjoy a full sit-down dinner and a show á la Lio in Ibiza – in the comfort of Wigwam on Middle Abbey Street. Or, pop in later that evening for Dublin Island Discs, where you can witness people like Senator Lynn Ruane play the tunes that define her.
Find out more at wigwamdublin.com/no-more-hotels/ or at @NoMoreHotels on Instagram.
[/restrict]
