Shaky Roundup: April 18th

Everything I have found recently interesting

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my first Shaky Roundup - a collection of all the interesting things I’ve recently read, seen, eaten, or otherwise experienced. Much of today’s list is inspired by a recent visit to New York, and it also includes my new favourite snack, the best book I’ve read recently, and a call for recommendations from YOU!

Hope you enjoy and see you in the comments!

Freya

1. The writing desk belonging to Charles Dickens, where he wrote Great Expectations among other things, is now on display in the Treasures exhibition at the New York Public Library. The desk calendar - also his - was permanently left on June 9th, the day he died.

   

2. New favourite spring snack unlocked: Avocado-cilantro-lime triscuits dipped in garlic hummus. Will definitely be experimenting with other flavour combinations.

3. I recently tried square dancing for the first time with DC Square Dance Collective! Had such a blast. And so accessible for beginners. My tip: bring a ton of water, the $10 you need to get in, and nothing else.

4. So sad (although unsurprised) to hear the bad news about gum. I’ll have to find a replacement for my ‘gig gum’ ASAP.

5. Doctor’s Cave Cafe in Brooklyn is the sweetest, most unpretentious hole-in-the-wall cafe, owned by a fierce Jamaican woman with a wicked sense of humor and proud loyalty to her string of regulars. The jerk chicken sandwich slapped. Check the hours before you go.

6. I read five of Chekhov’s most famous plays, in anticipation of seeing a live production of Uncle Vanya in Washington (which was brilliant!). I loved all five - perhaps my favourite of the set was Three Sisters - but I’d like to share a passage from the introduction by Richard Gilman, which I think makes a difference to how you watch or read one of these plays, and will hopefully inspire you to go and see one should you have the opportunity!

   ”Many ways exist for getting Chekhov wrong, so herewith a short guide to avoiding them. Don’t look for ‘realism’ in these plays; don’t expect conventional endings, happy or otherwise; be aware of how Chekhov often has one character subvert another’s point of view, when it threatens to harden into ideology or melt into sentimentality; keep alert to the hints and nuances in speeches, along with the literal words; don’t look for answers, to your problems or life’s dilemnas; throw away any idea you might have that drama is always about ‘conflict’, or rather, remember that in these plays conflict is more often internal - within characters - than between them; keep in mind that no single character in any play speaks wholly for Chekhov, the most unbiased and democratic of authors; don’t ever regard, admiringly or not, a Chekhov play as an exercise in ‘mood’ or ‘atmosphere’ - they’re solid works of imagination, not emotional vapours… Don’t forget that Chekhov is often very funny, so feel free to laugh, aloud if the impulse strikes you.”

7. We’ve all just finished filing our taxes (haven’t we?), so now let’s go and get our money’s worth! In DC, this means swimming pools, certain medical tests and vaccines, museums, libraries, and many more resources, all FREE. I recently tried my hand at decoupage earrings - a free workshop provided at the library, which happens every month!

8. This.

   

9. A gem of a bookshop that I stumbled on in Bushwick called Human Relations. I found so many interesting books here that I wanted, which reminds me of how influential a bookshop’s curation can be. It’s no coincidence that we sometimes find 1000000s of things we want to read and sometimes nothing at all.

10. It was in this shop that I picked up Joan Didion’s “A Year of Magical Thinking”, which I read in one shot on the train back to Washington. Written after the death of her husband, writer John Dunne, at the same time as caring for her daughter throughout a life-threatening illness, Didion articulates feelings with heart-wrenching honesty yet down-to-earth clarity. She somehow manages to capture a tone that is sharply articulate, while also staying expressive and poetic all at once, and I loved it.

Reading Didion, I realized I have been feeling a gap in my reading lately, and I’m wondering if you could help me fill it; I’ve been struggling to find contemporary literary novels that I have enjoyed, books with modern ideas and concepts, from authors with a fresh, original voice. Something effervescent, un-heavy, clever. Can you recommend anything that would fit this description?