Well, shit.

What the hell are we going to do now?

I don’t think I’ve made my politics a secret in the contents of this newsletter, but if they somehow seem clandestine to you, allow me to clarify. I didn’t want Donald Trump to be president once, never mind twice, and now I’m very scared about what the results of this election mean for me, my loved ones, and our country.

I don’t have any helpful advice or platitudes. I’m just kind of freaking out, and this is not how I like to identify to be honest. (I’m a Capricorn rising.) I’m barely putting thoughts together in any cogent manner, and I don’t see any relief on this front in the foreseeable future. So, I’m just going to bullet-point a bunch of feelings and then hopefully give you some books with which you can distract yourself. So here’s my brain dump. (I’m a Gemini moon.) Ok, go:

• The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything is worth saving.

• Just because I am more clear-eyed, stoic, and unsurprised about his win this time does not mean it’s less painful.

• Queer people, you are not crazy for cutting the people who voted against your interests out of your life, and don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for that difficult decision.

• Speaking of which, I do feel lucky to be queer at this moment. We’ve got the ancestors on our side. This is not the first time that we will have faced a government who doesn’t support our community. That never stopped our progress, and it won’t stop it now. We are not going anywhere.

• Seek people whose lives are hard, and make it easier for them. Make uncomfortable those who make others’ lives uncomfortable.

• I’m sad that my mom had to ask me to consider taking self defense classes since my job is in very public LGBTQ+ leadership.

• Seeing one more person posting some iteration of "don't let politics ruin your friendships because you're adults" on social media might actually be what turns me into the Joker. (I’m a Sagittarius sun)

• We’ve got to find ways to be here for one another - even through communications like this one.

There’s more, lots more. But we’ll be hearing stuff like this for the next couple of years at a minimum, so let’s talk books. By some coincidence, each of these excellent books is rather timely for this particular historical moment.

THE LIBRARY IS OPEN

Rejection: A Novel

by Tony Tulathimutte (2024)

Where do I even begin with this one? This is not a book for those who like to avoid discomfort. As the kids say, this is an odyssey of “cringe.” Rejection is a collection of lightly connected short stories about ordinary people who experience rejection in some way (of course), but more than that these stories are about people in our modern age who just absolutely cannot get social interaction right. We are not talking about minor faux pas; we’re talking shocking, pathetic behavior that will make you gasp and look away. You’ll clutch your proverbial pearls, but with the author’s sleight of hand, you never totally lose sympathy for this cadre of losers.

On the menu is: a self-proclaimed feminist man who can’t understand why nice guys never get the girl, a young woman who could use a little more self-awareness, a self-loathing Asian guy who sabotages his own happiness, and a man whose goal to optimize every aspect of his life ends up in some minor kidnapping. Everyone seems terrifyingly real. You may even recognize some aspects of yourself in these folks; you’ll certainly recognize others. Every story feels like an indictment. The book is wrapped up in a clever way that I’m not sure was necessary, but I appreciated the big swing.

We just had an election that showed us how far right Gen Z has moved, mostly because of awful folks on youtube and tiktok that are telling young men that if they disrespect women and minorities, they can grow up to be as famous online as they are. It’s so bleak. But this story collection humanizes the plight of the young person chargd with self-actualizing in the digital age. It’s a fascinating encapsulation of this moment, and one of the very best books of the year. I don’t think you need to be terminally online to fully get this book, but unfortunately I can tell you from experience that it does make the experience all the more rich.

Read it if you like: No One Is Talking About This, cringing, examining race and sexuality, narrow shoulders, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

The Safekeep

by Yael Van Der Wouden (2024)

I was just breezing through this book on vacation, and my husband, seeing that I was riveted, asked me what I was reading. Rather than just telling him the title which I’d only have to explain, I just told him it was Gaslight for Dutch Lesbians. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but isn’t that enough to make you want to pick this one up?

Picture it. Outside Amsterdam 1961. Isabel lives alone in her palatial family home after the death of her mother and the departure of her older and younger brother to live their lives elsewhere. Isabel spends her days taking care of the many items in the house. China, trinkets, silverware, foodstuffs, etc. There’s no item she cannot dust, no garden she cannot tend. One day, her older brother invites his siblings to dinner to meet his latest conquest, Eva, a bleach blonde charmer who somehow seems to have staying power. Isabel immediately can’t stand her. Pity for her then when her brother goes out of town and asks if Isabel would watch over Eva at the family home as a favor to him.

Isabel reluctantly agrees, and her suspicions that Eva would be a horrible houseguest are quickly confirmed. She’s as breezy and carefree as Isabel is uptight and accountable. Suddenly, strange things begin to happen at home, and household items go missing. Is Isabel imagining it all? And what are these new feelings she’s experiencing every time she looks at Eva? She tolerates her younger brother’s overt homosexuality, but surely she can’t — (so many sentences in this book end mid-thought.)

Anyway, that’s not all that’s happening. Turns out the whole time we’re with the family, this book is a sneaky examination of the legacy of WW2 and the things we collectively choose to remember. There’s a fun reveal or two. No wonder this great book is on the Booker shortlist. And thanks to Phyllis in the comment section for encouraging me to pick this up. Allow me now to encourage you to do the same.

Read it if you like: sapphic tales, Dutch culture, lonely country estates, prickly siblings, potential award winners.

Mÿ Documents

by Kevin Nguyen (2025)

Full disclosure time! I was sent an ARC of this book, which will come out in April of 2025, by a lovely literary PR person because the author was kind enough to put me on his media list. I’m friendly with Kevin online, especially from back in the halcyon days of pre-Elon twitter, and once we were in the same fantasy football league. He beat me. Most people did. I also dug his first book, though that doesn’t seem like something I’d feel the need to disclose, but I’m glad you know. So, you can see why it was such a huge relief that I thought this book was so great.

Ursula, Alvin, Jen, and Duncan are cousins (but also half siblings, which is explained in the book) in the Nguyen family, children of children sent to the United States from Vietnam in the aftermath of the way by their enterprising family matriarch. Ursula’s a journalist plugging away at a beauty blog, and her brother Alvin has just landed the internship of a lifetime at Google. Jen just started at NYU while her linebacker-shaped brother Duncan takes care of his mom at home while he finishes high school. An unfortunately not so far fetched series of events occurs in this alternate recent history that result in the United States reestablishing internment camps, but this time for Vietnamese folks, and Jen and Duncan are swept up in the groups that are assigned to a dry, dusty camp in the ironically named Independence, California.

The thrust of the book is how Jen is able to take advantage of a leak in a communications system to sneak info about the highly secretive camps to her cousin Ursula. Ursula’s career takes off as she’s the only person in the country with the scoop, thanks to her family who’s suffering without her. But what I truly loved about the book is the world building - all the details of the camp, the plausible circumstances that bring about the internment, the ways we can just miss what our family is trying to tell us, the ways our culture lifts and anchors us for better or worse. The book is about how we treat our family, how we capitalize on our identity to get ahead, and how we come together with our community to make the best of bad circumstances. I told it was timely. Alas, you’re going to have to wait until April of next year to get ahold of it, unless you were also in a fantasy football league with Kevin. But jump at it when you get the chance.

Read it if you like: family sagas, alternate histories, plausible American racism, appearances by John McCain, learning about El Paquete.

LIGHTNING ROUND

It doesn’t feel right that it’s the time of the year for Best Books Lists, but here’s Barnes and Noble’s.

Publisher’s Weekly too!

Finally, I found it useful to pull up a classic: Zadie Smith on optimism and despair.

Take care of yourself and others, and until next time…happy reading!