Reality competition set in the underground ballroom scene

There’s dancing and then there’s voguing. Legendary on HBO Max is a reality tv show competition that follows “Houses” (team members primarily from the LGBTQ+ community) as they compete in weekly themed challenges that include voguing, walking, posing, floor work, best face, best body, fashion, creativity, precision…all without blowing out your knees, or blowing out your knees and still competing. It’s a peek into the remarkable underground ballroom scene that, for decades, has birthed and influenced culture we see in the world today. Come for the performance, stay for the kinship.

Four friends wrestle with abuse, shame, and loyalty

Are you emotionally ready for 800 pages of heartache? A Little Life [2015] by Hanya Yanagihara is set in NY and follows four friends - Willem, J.B., Malcolm and Jude - with different aspirations, privilege, relationships, and temperaments. Before taking a quiz to see if you’re a Willem or a Malcolm, let me say that this is not a boys version of Sex In the City. Or any version of it. A Little Life is excruciatingly painful to read. We watch them grow up, grow apart, be there for one another, disappoint each other. We also learn about their pasts and the pains, physically and emotionally, that influence who they become. Beautiful and harrowing, this novel is one that might take you a while to read but is worth the journey.

Thank you to Will Simpson and Andy Whalen for recommending this book to me!

Life goes on for two wartime friends whether they like it or not

An Englishman and a Bangladeshi walk into a bar. Again and again. Old habits die hard, and these two friends, bound together by WWII, can’t seem to move on. While several years have past, they now have wives and children, neighbors and in-laws - all with opinions of their own. Everyone is on the brink of disaster, including the city of London. But at least they have the bar, their usual orders, and the “incident” that keeps them together. White Teeth [2000] by Zadie Smith is as funny as it is moving.

Making friends as an adult is hard, keeping them is harder

There’s plenty of literature around how to make romantic relationships work. AND if you still end up breaking up, people understand and will give you space, wine, pasta or chocolate. You might even get some days off from work. But there’s not much on how to keep friendships alive or discussion on why we feel ashamed when friendships die. Big Friendship [2020] is part memoir, part sociology, part self help. How do we save important friendships? Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman reflect on their own Big Friendship - the natural connection, the unsaid bond, then unsaid frustration, and the will to make it work. Why do we accept that friends “grow apart” and move on? How can we be better friends for each other?

READ and then give to a friend you love.

An emotional look at buildings

The Architecture of Happiness [2006] is a touching look into the history of architecture, why a building or space or lighting has the power to change how we feel, why certain architecture succeeds while others fail…but mostly it’s a roast of the architect Le Corbusier. If you’re a fan of Alain de Botton, you’ll enjoy this one. He has a delicate knack for making the mundane beautiful and moving.

READ if you want to impress your friends.

Thank you to Josh Hill for recommending this book to me!

Boyhood but with a reluctant art thief

Kid takes a painting from museum that was attacked by terrorists. He goes on this nuts adventure trying to protect this bird painting. He befriends a Russian kid in Las Vegas, an old antiques refurbisher, a former classmates’s mom, and a girl who also survived the museum attack. There’s alcohol, drugs, guns, car chases, international destinations…it’s as if Fast and the Furious was wearing tortoise shell glasses. I’m not really doing this book justice. I mean it is a Pulitzer Prize winner. Read The Goldfinch [2013] by Donna Tartt if you have a lot of time on your hands. It’s good and anxiety-inducing (just return the damn painting!!!!), but it’s long.