À la Carte: Recommended Reading, February
Writing on fried rice, gender in the kitchen and on the football field, and more.
Grateful for a lighter post, given that weeks of writing and research went into the last one.
Thank you for reading! If you appreciate my work, please share; it helps me and the people I write about. -JRS
Articles
Talia Lavin, Situation Normal, All Trucked Up
A thoughtful, beautifully written take on that thing that dominated headlines in this country – and around the world – for weeks.
Tara Westover, I Am Not Proof of the American Dream
The narrative of neoliberal capitalism exploits stories of those who escape poverty to justify the status quo; here, Westover writes against that.
P. E. Moskovitz, Kris Wilka Just Wants to Play Football
Transgender rights come to a head in sports, a fundamentally conservative world; an account of a “quintessentially American teenager” in that most quintessential of American activities, school football.
Lan Lam, A Love Letter to Simple Fried Rice
A delightful reflection on food.
Molly Wilcox, Ignored, Disrespected, and Forced to Toe an Outdated Line
The more things change: On being a woman in a professional kitchen.
Books
Edvard Radzinsky, Stalin
Thrilling, terrifying. Radzinky had access to archives that had previously been kept secret.
Michelle MacKinnon, Pandemic Portraits
Early in the pandemic, MacKinnon began painting daily portraits of creatives in Newfoundland and Labrador. (You’ll find yours truly in there, included for my work as a photographer.)
Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby
Compared to many creative-writing-ish, meek and mild novels, this feels like a big, zeitgeist-y work of art that maximizes on the potential of the medium.
Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All
Refreshing, relevatory – and relevant to life in this province: You couldn’t create a better premier for Giridharadas’ extended “MarketWorld” analogy than our current one.
Video Essays
I’ve been a fan of YouTube for years now, and video essays on that platform have become a potent medium in their own right – and have considerable reach and influence, with viewers numbering in the millions.
Dan Olson, Line Goes Up
If you’re a photographer like me, you can’t escape NFTs. Olsen explains the phenomenon along with cryptocurrency. (If you’ve only got twenty minutes, here’s a shorter overview.)
Abigail Thorn, Vaccines and Freedom
A thoughtful and welcome consideration of the vaccine-hesitant and the concept of “freedom” as it relates public health.
Natalie Wynn, J. K. Rowling
Wynn breaks down the Rowling’s repeated and consistent public transphobia.