Marge Piercy’s “To Be of Use.” Work emails. The Book of Delights, Ross Gay. Twitter. Want, Lynn Steger Strong. “How to Open Up Your Shoulders So You Can Run Tall.” The Longing for Less, Kyle Chayka. More Twitter. COVID-19, DTA Benefits, and Food Security: Massachusetts Information. Seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, with subtitles turned on. The End of the Story, Lydia Davis. Work emails. Reviews of my novel on Goodreads. David Tanis’s recipe for vegan Mapo Tofu. Look, Zan Romanoff. Still more Twitter. Massachusetts Workers Emergency Funds Covid-19. The OK End of Funny Town, Mark Polanzak. Ellen Bass’s “The Thing Is.” “The Year in Heteropessimism.” Days of Distraction, Alexandra Chang. Late night notes-app jottings, re-read the morning after: “If the Borg are the USSR, then Hugh is democracy but more importantly capitalism, and what happens to the Borg after Hugh is returned is the ‘shock therapy’ the Russian economy underwent in the ’90s, which makes Lore Putin, the strongman/nationalist who is able to use the confusion & unrest to consolidate power.” The Ten Loves of Nishino, Hiromi Kawakami. Personal emails. Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls, Nina Renata Aron. Tejal Rao’s recipe for Fried Chicken Biscuits with Hot Honey Butter. “I wish in the past I had tried more things ’cause now I know that being in trouble is a fake idea.” Little Scratch, Rebecca Watson. The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care’s Financial Assistance and Procedures Manual for Subsidy Administrators. Power Makes Us Sick. Late night notes-app jottings, pt. II: “Thought yesterday about the fact that I’m always angry.” If Beale Street Could Talk, James Baldwin. Meera Sodha’s recipe for Sri Lankan Dal With Coconut and Lime Kale, adapted by Tejal Rao. Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward. Work emails. Friday Black, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Ben Lerner’s “The Rose.” Reviews of my novel on Goodreads. Twitter, still. The Equivalents, Maggie Doherty. Work emails. Hot Comb, Ebony Flowers. Care Options for Hybrid and Remote Learning Models: Joint Guidance from EEC and DESE. Heavy, Kiese Laymon. David Tanis’s recipe for Winter Squash and Wild Mushroom Curry. The Unreality of Memory, Elisa Gabbert. Late night notes-app jottings, pt. III: “That Facebook group / The second body / The masturbation thing from girls / My essay about beauty / Wearing pleasure out.” Work emails, Twitter, personal emails, Twitter, personal emails, Instagram, Twitter, Twitter, work emails. Marge Piercy’s “To Be of Use.”
More from A Year in Reading 2020
Don’t miss: A Year in Reading 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005
