What's got my attention this week #88
Links and recs to get you through the weekend
SCROLLING
• I knew I wouldn’t be the only one who noticed the way the best actress Oscar race was turned into an instant face-off. “Demi lost to Mikey!” screamed one headline. “Sue won!” screamed another, referencing Demi Moore’s hot, youthful alter-ego in The Substance, if you haven’t seen it. Can we not just let women sit in their own success? asked
• The earth is flat. Men don’t read fiction. on our new era.
• Thought-provoking piece on the cost of not outing your abusive (and famous) ex.
• Why does every generation think it’s the first to go through menopause? (Guilty as charged!)
• Andrew Tate and his brother seem to have found safe harbour in the states. I’m sure Jessica Grose isn’t the only one worrying about how to protect her daughters. (And, I can’t help thinking, what about our sons?) (Gift link)
• Why keeps laughing.
• Things we learnt in the fire: the destruction and rebirth of a bookstore.
• ”I feel like I’m on holiday!” Great piece on a couple who swapped mental loads for a week. (No prizes for guessing who the quote is from…)
• Loved
formula for getting more people in your life.• Up and not crying? ICYMI here’s this week’s newsletter on what to read when you’re up to here with the news.
• also wrote about tuning out, and whether it amounts to self-care.
• Don’t build your house on sand. ❤️
• on the changing nature of friendship in midlife.
• Why more women should give 60%.
• Is it time Bridget Jones grew up?
• Really enjoyed this by on ditching the moralising around big-little “treats”.
• on hosting and ghosting.
• Why do men (and women) think it’s OK to be rude about my looks? asks former Glamour Editor Jo Elvin. £
• The unfunny uncomfortableness of “hahaha”.
• Bye bye lipstick index, hello lipbalm economy.
(A note about the links: some are behind a paywall, but almost all (eg The New York Times, New Yorker, The Cut, and many, but not all, Substacks…) allow a few free articles if you register. Those that definitely don't are marked £.)
READING
The Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist
I’m a big fan of the Women’s Prize. The brainchild of the powerhouse Kate Mosse, the fiction prize is now in its 30th year (the non-fiction prize is a mere two) and this year’s 16-strong longlist is a real conversation starter. For the first time in a long time I’ve only read two of the titles on the list so far –
• You can buy all the books on the longlist from bookshop.org.
WATCHING
The Leopard, Netflix
It’s always a risky business to dabble with a classic so I guess it’s hardly surprising that fans of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s seminal 1860s-set novel (and Luchino Viconti’s 1963 Palme D’Or winning adaptation) were up in arms long before any footage of this Italian six-parter had gone public. It’s like remaking Pride & Prejudice or Dr Zhivago. You do it at your peril. Anyway. While the die-hards froth, the critics are tentatively welcoming this apparently “sumptuous and steamy” adaptation. The eponymous leopard is Sicilian prince, Don Fabrizio, struggling to survive as Garibaldi’s red shirt army takes control of Sicily as part of its mission to unify Italy. The new guard is coming for the nobility and there is change afoot. Think class struggle, social and political upheaval, glorious scenery, sensuous food and a love triangle, of course.
LISTENING
• to the excellently researched The Pitcairn Trials. Pitcairn is a tiny island somewhere between South America and New Zealand made famous by the mutiny on the Bounty. But ever since that happened in the 18th century it’s been home to somewhere between 30 and 50 inhabitants – a good many of them descended from mutineer-in-chief Fletcher Christian – and an epidemic of historic sexual abuse. This true crime documentary series by journalist Luke Johnson is forensically investigated and includes some extremely compelling (and upsetting) testimonies. But the thing that really shook me was that, in the wake of the Pélicot trial, it’s really not such an outlier as it ought to be.
AND ON THE SHIFT PODCAST THIS WEEK…
…Dr Liz O’Riordan a breast cancer surgeon who’s been diagnosed with breast cancer three times in the last decade, joined me for a full and frank conversation about the impact of getting diagnosed with breast cancer at 40, crossing the doctor-patient divide, infertility, menopause, how to continue enjoying sex without oestrogen, losing her hair and her identity and how she’s adjusted to living life with cancer.
• What are you reading, watching and listening to this month? I’d love to know.
* A note: this post contains affiliate links, which means that a very small percentage of any sale goes to help fund The Shift. If it’s orange, it links! (But not all orange links are affiliates…)
thanks for including my piece and a shout out to the women's prize Sam!
Bless you for highlighting that E. Jean post, which I hadn’t seen. Loving the roundup, per usual!