The Audacious Roundup
For the week of August 10th
AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our August bookclub selection is The Simp by Roshan Sethi. We will be in conversation with Roshan on August 26th at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Registration is open.
For newcomers, there is a bookclub FAQ if you have questions about how it all works. And this is what we will be reading for the rest of the year. We’re partnering with the lovely people at Allstora for the Audacious Book Club. Now, you can sign up to have the monthly selections delivered to your doorstep each month! Otherwise, I’ve put together an Audacious Book Club storefront if you want to buy current or forthcoming book club titles.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEK IN REVIEW
PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL NEWS
For Elle, I wrote about Rihanna, who I very much enjoy.
Debbie Millman is wondering if the world is getting uglier?
On September 15th, I will be in conversation with the immensely talented debut author Lydia Mathis at the Center for Fiction. We’ll be talking about her short story collection Desperate Bodies, which I am publishing under Roxane Gay Books.
Audition by Katie Kitamura will be the August selection for The Rumpus Book Club. Debbie Millman will be in conversation with the author on 8/25 at 2 pm EST/11 am PST.
Book and project links: Books I’ve Written, RGB Imprint Titles, Rebind: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; The Forgotten Occupation.
READING MATERIAL
One of the most damaging things the Trump administration has done is erode faith in science and public health. What do you mean more parents are seeking to not vaccinate their children? Do they not love them? W T F?
The president continues to give not one fuck about the actual people serving in the military. Meanwhile, conditions aboard the USS Lincoln continue to detiorrate.
Karoline Leavitt is ending her tenure as White House spokesperson. Who knows why! But the rumors are juicy gross.
The drought Puerto Rico is facing is really taking a toll on residents.
This was a chilling story about a man who died by suicide with a gun but left his estate to the NRA.
The Los Angeles Lakers were sold to a Kushner and Bob Iger but maybe not!
Learning another language is good for the brain!
The Bumble dating app is changing its policy of only allowing women to make first contact which is… a choice because what will differentiate the app, now?
When posting and interacting with neighbors on Nextdoor goes… awry.
Surrogacy can be fraught (though I’m all for it if its done ethically) but my goodness, sometimes, the stories are wild. This guy hired a surrogate and then didn’t come to collect his babies and the story is actually quite complex and my goodness. Chaos!
Rachel Aviv writes about the man whose life was fictionalized in Hanna Yanagihara’s The People in the Trees.
Another day, another scammer couple.
Food is getting freaky at weddings! Experiential eating!
How do research and earned expertise survive the influence age?
Publishing is doing better than the discourse would have you believe.
Speaking of… why is President Obama becoming a book podcaster? Fascinating! (I’m available, Mr. President.)
AOC is freezing her eggs. Having it all, etc etc.
On Madonna and dance.
RIP Hayden Panettiere. I really enjoyed her work. RIP Jason Arday who was hounded to death by the British press. RIP Tasia Fortune. RIP Mary Heilmann.
Marilyn Monroe has been rendered unto Barbie.
A conversation with Caro Claire Burke who has sold a million copies of Yesteryear. When a book is a hit, it really hits. A profile of Gugu Mbatha-Raw. A profile of Jen Hamilton. A profile of Heather Cox Richardson. A profile of Countess Luann.
A charming story about some charming senior nuns.
This WNBA season is pretty messy and little of it has to do with actual basketball.
When your friend “steals” your husband and then posts about it… Yikes.
Here is a gorgeous essay from Saeed Jones about an encounter with a ride share driver and all the lives we never get to live and much more.
Is Rachel Cusk’s new novel about Natalie Portman? Writers sure do love her as a muse!
There is drama behind the scenes of Children of Blood and Bone but literally nothing being written or talked about is clear or specific. (I co-wrote a movie with GPB; she’s amazing.)
In case you were wondering, Furious on Hulu is excellent.
The New York Times is hiring a books editor. (I feel I would do this job so well but I have too many jobs already.)
Guggenheim fellowship applications are open until September 15th!
THE RUMPUS WEEK IN REVIEW
Essays:
What Forced My Father to Buy Our First TV? by Ghulam Mohammad Khan
Vanlife At The End of the World by Kevin M. Kearney
Comics:
Laying or Lying? by Rae Whitlock
Fiction:
Annapurna by Dahlia Michaels
Wolf Spiders by Molly Olguín
Two Pink Lines by Danielle Bradley
Sorry For My Loss by Anson Tong
Poetry:
If You Love That Lady by Maya C. Popa
Three Poems by D.A. Powell
To the First-Born Daughter on the Fourteenth Floor of the Marlboro Housing Project, 1958 by Mara Lee Grayson
some roads I don’t care to travel anymore by Amy M. Alvarez
Interviews:
A Conversation with Paul Yoon by Sergio Mura
A Conversation with Mary Helen Sprecht by Arlene Opio
A Conversation with Jason Prokowiew by Linda Button
A Conversation with Paige Lewis by Allison Wyss
Culture:
In Praise of Rewatching by Robert Edelstein
El Alboroto:
Una conversación con Valeria Luiselli by Sergio Mura
News:
The August Rumpus Book Club Selection: “Audition” by Katie Kitamura by Debbie Millman and Roxane Gay
Other:
Reflections on “What Is Freedom?” by The Editors
A podcast with you and President Obama?? Pure gold!
There's a lot of good stuff here (of course), but wow that essay by Saeed Jones IS gorgeous. Sometimes I am knocked over by the way a good writer describes what could be an otherwise mundane experience.