Recommended Reading: Amy Poehler’s New Yorker essay, “Take Your Licks,” on her summer job at an ice cream parlor. “If the style of the restaurant was old-fashioned, the parenting that went on there was distinctly modern. Moms and dads would patiently recite every item on the menu to their squirming five-year-olds, as if the many flavors of ice cream represented all the unique ways they were loved.” If this essay is any indication, her upcoming memoir is going to be great.
The Scoop on Amy Poehler
The Boy Who Mattered
Not sure why Harry Potter shares the fruits of his heroism? Upset that Hermione doesn’t end up with tons of cash? Well, then you should sit down with Ayn Rand’s version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, helpfully published at The Toast by Mallory Ortberg.
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Spit Spat
“I can tell you that, as of today, I don’t feel any different about Mr Whitehead, or his review, or my response.” Richard Ford doubles down on his reaction to a negative 2001 review by fellow novelist Colson Whitehead. (Said response, in case you missed it, was to tell Whitehead ‘you’re a kid, you should grow up,’ and spit in his face.) We hope Whitehead is laughing at home with his Pulitzer Prize, recently awarded for last year’s literary juggernaut The Underground Railroad. And as our own Emily St. John Mandel reminds us, there are far more gracious ways to respond to criticism.
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Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies Coming in May
Big news for fans of Hilary Mantel and her Booker-winning (and Millions Hall of Famer) Wolf Hall. The U.S. release date for the much anticipated Wolf Hall sequel Bring Up the Bodies has been moved up from the fall to May 22nd to coincide with the U.K. release date.
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The Common’s first year in print!
The Common will be celebrating its first year of publication later this month at NYU’s Carter Journalism institute. The celebrations will include a reading from Stephen O’Connor and a performance by the Dog House Band, aka that literary rock group consisting of Sven Birkerts, James Wood, and other writerly musicians.
Reflecting on Time During Quaratine Reading
Parul Sehgal examines time through the writing being produced during the pandemic, as well as the books she reads (and re-reads).
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Tuesday New Release Day: Boyd, Swift, Fifty Shades
New this week are William Boyd’s Waiting for Sunrise and Graham Swift’s Wish You Were Here. Readers can also now get their hands on the second two volumes in the racy, headline-making Fifty Shades trilogy.
I like Amy Poehler’s work and I think she is funny and intelligent. This essay, however, is mediocre at best. It’s neither funny nor insightful, and honestly it doesn’t seem to be trying very hard to be either. The best I can say for it, is that it’s informative. We do learn that the author had a not-particularly difficult summer job with customers who were mildly irritating and co-workers who were not very colorful. We also learn that nurses and teachers are somehow “blue collar.” (And really, I’m still trying to figure out how a town can be “filled” with teachers. Demographically speaking, Teacher Town doesn’t make much sense unless there’s a 1:1 student faculty ratio.)