Readings for August 27, 2023

I just finished reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver this morning, and it is a lot. I’m still processing my thoughts on it, but the novel uses the beats and structure of Dickens’s David Copperfield to explore rural Appalachia instead of London, and the opioid epidemic instead of child labor. Both deal with the shitty treatment of children who end up in foster care or orphaned. La plus ça change. It’s the kind of novel that probably contains as much truth as two decades’ worth of reporting on Oxycontin.

Other than that, I haven’t been reading much. I was on a road trip to see family, so I listened to a lot of music and podcasts. I’ll take a little break from the usual readings links this week to share what I’ve been listening to. All of these albums and podcasts should be easily findable on your streaming services of choice.

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Music

I think the single “Brass Bell” by Screaming Females showed up in a playlist of new music the Tidal algorithm thought I might like, and I did like the song, but somehow I never got around to listening to the album. Then I heard someone from Boygenius mention that they liked what Screaming Females was doing right now, and I believe everything they say, so I listened to the entire album “Desire Pathway,” which came out this year. It is incredibly good, so I bought the vinyl.

That, by the way, is my new-in-the-last-few-years way of consuming music. I pay for a Tidal subscription because it pays artists more per play and isn’t too terribly intrusive, data-wise. Then when an album surfaces that I like, I head to the artist’s website or Bandcamp and order the vinyl. There’s almost always cool colored vinyl, or stickers or posters or something that come with it.

I used the same process of listening online then buying the new double album by Jon Batiste, World Music Radio. That one I got signed, with special edition bright green vinyl. It’s excellent motivational music for an afternoon, and the refrain of “Drink Water” will keep you cool and hydrated. An album to solve all your problems.

I’ve also been listening to a curated playlist of Mary J. Blige through the decades because you absolutely cannot go wrong with Mary. Try “Amazing” for a boost of confidence.

Oh! And Noname just dropped a new album too, Sundial. This one is jazzier than her last album, with a kind of nineties feel, like Digable Planets. But her style is sharp and incisive no matter how cool the backing tracks are.

I’ve been doing layout for new material in the second edition of Beat the Boss (out October 17, and it’s twice as long now!) and cleaning up old errors from the first edition. While I work on deep tasks like this, I like to put on an album or playlist and hit the repeat button, so it plays over and over without stopping and without my needing to pay attention. But I do like a themed soundtrack. (Led Zeppelin III and “Immigrant Song” still put me in a mind to translate Old English.) So for this book, I’ve had Party Music by the Coup on a loop. I hadn’t heard this album in years; it holds up. 💯

Podcasts

Are you, like me, a woman (in the broadest sense of the term) in her middle age? Did you also obsess over Sassy magazine? Then you may enjoy Listen to Sassy, a podcast where the three hosts go deep into each issue, beginning with the very first. You will learn that we were all, magazine writers and readers alike, both very cool and incredibly embarrassing. They’re a couple of years in at this point, so plenty to listen to.

For more literary listening, Backlisted is my favorite bookish podcast. Every couple of weeks, the hosts and guests read a semi-forgotten work that one of them loves, and then they discuss it for an hour or so. There is almost always someone who is obsessed with the book, someone who hasn’t read it since they were nineteen, and someone who read it for the first time for the podcast. It makes for really great conversation.

Oregon Public Broadcasting and She Shreds Media produced a short-run podcast on the strides, shortcomings, and legacy of the riot grrrl movement, Starting a Riot. It ran over the summer, so it’s complete now, with a few bonus interview episodes. If you don’t want to commit to a podcast that goes on forever, this is a good one with a definite ending, and episodes are only about 30 minutes long.

The Hotel Gave Her a Ball