FMG Newsletter: Books That Feel Like Books

+ An Ode to Glen Powell

May I be the first to say, happy Friday! I hope you had a great week filled with equal parts Amazon sale finds and successful avoidance of Amazon sale finds. I myself feel pleased with my relatively pared-down shopping cart of pajamas, leggings, and two skincare products. I tried my best.

On my mind this week:

• Interiors/Reality TV: What a combo! RHONY icon Brynn Whitfield’s apartment tour went live on Arch Digest this week, and to say it’s a pairing of my passions would be an understatement. After famously being shamed for not ~owning in NYC~, Brynn is now showing off her fabulous new bachelorette pad in the most beloved of all design publications. The home is as stunning as Brynn is delightful. Who else is counting down until the new season?

• Movies: I frankly thought the movies Hit Man and Fall Guy were the same thing until just last week, when I did indeed watch Netflix’s Hit Man with my cousin/soulmate Lauren. Hit Man stars Glen Powell, is so sexy, and has a genuinely unique plot and a legitimately surprising ending. It’s the perfect at-home jaunt!

  • This weekend I will also be partaking in an outside-of-the-home jaunt, during which my friends and I will be seeing Twisters (also starring Glen Powell????) in 4D. I’m VERY excited.

• Books: This week, The New York Times released a list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. While I have read very few of the books on the list (and actually prefer Stephen King’s list of the 10 best books of the century, one of which was his own, go off King), it got me thinking about the (specifically fiction) books that have most impacted me in recent years. While promoting the film Don’t Worry Darling, singer/actor/love of my life Harry Styles famously said that DWD is a particularly special film because “it’s a movie that feels like a movie.” While we all mercilessly mocked Harry for this statement, my friends and I now continually refer to things by this metric (“It’s a restaurant that feels like a restaurant;” “It’s an album that feels like an album”) — which leads me to share JUST A FEW of the books I’ve read in recent years, all of which feel like books. The below are in no particular order (and please note, this is far from exhaustive — some of my favorite books and writers are excluded from this limited list):

  • The Great Believers: Set in both 1980s Chicago and 2010s Paris, this book tells the stories of both Yale (in 1985, he’s the director of development at a Chicago art gallery and is tracking down priceless works of art while the AIDS epidemic rages around him) and Fiona (in the present day, she’s searching for her estranged daughter while remembering her brother who died of AIDS in 1985). Allow me to say that it is the most humbling experience to read a book that takes place on the same streets you walk every day, a book in which the characters are facing realities so dramatically different from your own. This book reinforced my passion for meaningful relationships, my love for my city, my desire to fight for equality, and my belief that there is more good in this world than there is bad. It is the most beautiful and most devastating novel I’ve ever read. (Note: This one is on the NYT list!)

  • Banyan Moon: I love when you can literally feel the setting of a book through its pages. Much of Banyan Moon takes place in a family home in Florida, and I could feel its sticky humidity and salty air throughout this book (the rest is set in 1960s and early-70s Vietnam, another setting portrayed in stunning detail). Telling the interwoven stories of the three women of the Tran family (grandmother Minh, mother Huơng, and daughter Ann), this book is a thoughtful (and romantic, and funny, and inspirational!) take on mother-daughter relationships, generational trauma, and the ways we all choose to be authentic to ourselves (it covers family dynamics, repercussions of war, unexpected pregnancy, second-chance romance, and so so much more). In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll share that this was written by my friend Thao Thai — but given the fact that it was selected as a Read With Jenna Pick, a Goodreads Historical Fiction Book of the Year and Best Debut Novel nominee, a Barnes & Noble Discover pick, and a Book of the Month pick, it’s safe to say that I am not biased but simply have incredible taste.

  • The Four Winds: I will begin by saying that The Grapes of Wrath is my least favorite thing I’ve ever (partially) read. It was assigned to me as high school summer reading, and I vividly remember pitching a legitimate fit in my family’s hotel room at The Great Wolf Lodge (iconic) when attempting to read it between trips down the Howlin’ Tornado. For this reason, I believed myself to be a hater of all novels about the Dust Bowl — but Kristin Hannah has (per usual) proven me wrong. Beginning in early-1930s Texas and ending years later in California, main character Elsa faces famine, abandonment, relocation, and poverty over the course of the several years of this book. I know I’m not making it sound cheerful, and it’s not — but it’s literally a perfect book and I can’t recommend it enough.

    • It’s obviously worth noting that I’m also obsessed with Kristin Hannah’s other historical fiction books. The Four Winds gets top billing as my favorite as I literally cannot even think about it without crying (there are tears on my face at this very moment), but I also loved The Nightingale (sisters in occupied France during WWII), The Women (nurses in the Vietnam War), and The Great Alone (mother and daughter in 1970s Alaska). I frankly did not like Winter Garden, but that one exists too.

  • Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: As someone whose gaming experience is limited to The Sims 2 (slay), it’s genuinely shocking that a novel about video games literally changed my life. I always tell people to read this book without reading a synopsis or teaser first — I promise it will move, entertain, and delight you… please just trust me. Bye, I’m crying again!!!!! (Note: This one is also on the ~official~ NYT list.)

May your weekend be filled with books that feel like books, movies that feel like movies, albums that feel like albums, restaurants that feel like restaurants, and friends that feel like family.

XO,

Gail

And as a reminder:

It’s an election year (and a very scary one at that), and it is my duty to remind you that while newsletters like this are crucial for maintaining sanity and levity, I am not a news source and am in no way a replacement for staying informed. For every newsletter you read that makes you smile, I hope you also read an informed take on politics, world events, and social issues (then fact check it!) — and for every heavy piece of news you take in, I hope you also consume and/or create a piece of art that promotes light, laughter, and joy.

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