73th Monday Morning: some blogging and links
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Venice, California
Back from L.A.!
I just spent a week of vacation at my friend Trish’s in Redondo Beach, in the South-West side of Los Angeles. The weather was ideal, warm and sunny; we enjoyed just a tiny bit of what LA has to offer: we hiked in the hills to see the Hollywood signs, we visited the Broad museum, ate at the Grand Market, walked along the beach and simply hung out. Trish is a good friend, I met her in my yoga teacher training when she was still living in Boston. It was good to spend some time with her.
I love Southern California: I feel in a complete different place when I’m there. Everything seems different, almost foreign to me: people look different, in the way they dress, or because they are obsessed with fitness. We are far away from the preppy style of Boston. Are you gonna move to LA then? Nah. I’m not ready for such a big change. I do enjoy going there, specially when it’s winter on the East Coast. It’s the third time I’m going there in February/March: it may start to be a new routine for the years to come.
▶ I wrote a city guide, What to do in Los Angeles
Chez un bouquiniste lors d’un week-end ski dans le Connecticut
Books
I am currently reading We were Eight years in power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and recently I’ve been reading essays and memoirs instead of my usual novels. I love fiction but I’m in a mood for realness I guess. I’ve started Middlesex by J. Eugenides, but for now, my most recent reads have been:
- This will be my undoing, Morgan Jerkins. I’ve heard her interview on a recent episode of Call your girlfriend and I bought her book right after. The interview was challenging, and I even listened to it twice. The book felt like a punch in the guts. We don’t think about race in the same way in the US, in France, we still have the universalist ideal, and Morgan Jerkins is challenging this idea. She writes about her, about being a woman, black, feminist, in today’s America. This is not my reality, and that’s probably why I was both interested and challenged. On a strictly writing point of view, I was impressed by her ability to talk about herself, it’s sometimes very personal, never rude or voyeur though.
- Hunger, A memoir of (my) body, Roxane Gay. Two people recommended me this memoir, I follow their advice and read very quickly this incredible story. Roxane Gay talks about her body, her fat black body. She also talks about the fact that she was raped, and what happened to her body next. It’s a very powerful story.
I found it in the lucky day collection!
It’s not an easy read, but I find it necessary
Coffee time
Paper version of the New Yorker
What I’ve read on the Internet
- Le Juste Prix: a blogger in New York talks in French about “the fair price” of things (in French)
- Miss Manners, smartphones
- Guide for freelances (in French)
- The White Darkness: I love everything about this incredible adventurous story of Henry Worsley who planned to cross Antarctica by foot.
- On the blog I posted an interview of Héloise, who is a guide in Miami
