#1: Three Things I Enjoyed This Week
including a riveting audiobook, an essay about infertility, and a way to make writing easier
Thank you for the excitement about Othertongue this week. It’s good to be back! We’ve arrived on Hydra today with our friends from Athens to celebrate Greek Orthodox Easter. (Pictures of the hanging effigy of Judas being burned over the water to come.)
If you missed Monday’s announcement about the newsletter’s new incarnation, read it here. On Wednesday, I wrote about the fantasy of community as evangelized in the AppleTV+ show, Shrinking. Today is the first Friday dispatch of three short recommendations.
I’d love to hear from you: Leave your own recommendations in the comments, and if you want to send me a direct note, just reply to this email. Thanks for reading!
Writers’ Hour from London Writers’ Salon
For the past two weeks, I’ve been joining the daily Writers’ Hour sessions hosted by London Writers’ Salon. It’s a one-hour accountability group, during which you can do whatever you like. Of course, the idea is to write, but you can stare out the window or pay your bills, I suppose. There’s no need to turn your camera on—I’ve kept mine off the entire time. People begin with a note in the chat to saying hello from wherever they’re writing and share what they’ll be working on. Then, those on camera lift their mug in cheers before beginning the writing block. At the end, the hosts read from the chat, where people have shared what they accomplished.
Attending these daily sessions made it feel possible for me to write again. I didn’t know what would come out when I began, but over the course of five sessions of free writing, what emerged became Wednesday’s essay about the fantasy of community. I didn’t realize how much I needed to “just show up” (something people say about yoga which has made me annoyed in the past—but, they’re right!).
You don’t have to be in London to participate in Writer's’ Hour. Here are the four daily sessions:
🇬🇧 London 8am GMT
🗽 New York 8am ET (1pm GMT)
🌴 Los Angeles 8am PT (4pm GMT)
🦘 Melbourne, Australia 8am AEDT (Sun-Thu 9pm GMT)
Register here, and if you join the London session, send me a chat if you see me there!
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
I’ve thought of starting a newsletter called “Late to the Party,” which is just recommendations of things that are long-past the media cycle. I don’t read based on what’s new for many reasons, especially because I want to avoid over-hyped books that are coasting on press and a big publishing house budget. Anyway. I have been extremely anxious recently and wanting to keep my mind distracted. After hearing this book about the Troubles recommended so many times, I gave it a try as my first-ever audiobook. The narrator has a charming Northern Irish accent, and the story is riveting. When I started listening, I didn’t realize that this week marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, so the timely pairing means there are plenty of exciting articles to read (like this one about the recent death of the highest-placed British mole in the IRA).
Sub-recommendation! I rented the audiobook via Libby, using my library account. It’s especially a life-saver for living on-the-go, since I can rent new books no matter where I am in the world.
“Supporting Friends Through Infertility” by Rae Katz
This essay by Rae Katz in her newsletter Inner Workings is pretty much a must-read if you know anyone of child-bearing age who might be trying to get pregnant. The thing you learn as you enter your mid-thirties is that “having a baby” is beyond fraught for so many people. Miscarriages and assisted fertility treatments like IUI and IVF are much more common than many people think. Blurting out “I got pregnant on the first try” or giving advice on child-rearing to someone beginning IVF is not helpful. Thankfully, Katz’s suggestions are.
Her essay also includes a piece of advice that I think everyone could use when talking to a friend going through a hard time, fertility-related or not:
Instead of giving advice, try to reflect the person’s tone. Are they trying to stay upbeat? Maybe it’s good to say “sounds like you are doing all the right things!” Are they dejected? Then it’s probably not a good time to say that. For me, the best thing friends have done is simply acknowledge and validate how hard the situation is.