From My Margins: May 6
The 2023 film I'm so glad we watched this week
A week ago, I told you it would likely be a while until our new deck was done. Kevin tore it down in mid-March and it’s felt like an eternal wait to have the new one up. After a frustrating, but productive weekend, the last of the railing is going up as I write this. It looks incredible and I’m so excited to get our patio furniture back up there and get it styled and functional for spring. We love our backyard and this is a huge upgrade for that space right in time for the best months of the year.
I spent most of Sunday afternoon in the yard getting it ready for spring. I deadheaded the first round of blooms on our rose bushes (which get more full and productive every year). I thinned the peachlets on our trees again, still dreaming of sun-warmed peaches with every minute I spent on that. I chatted with Anthropic’s AI system, Claude, about what to do with the remains of our various spring flowers — what will come back, what needs culled, how to get seeds for replanting, etc. I also planted fresh basil since the animals got the seedlings I had started earlier in the year.
It’s cliché but true that time outdoors does wonders for the soul. It was so refreshing to work with my hands in the dirt for a while. It was particularly lovely because our 4yo spent the whole time playing happily on his own inside.
If You Only Have Time for One Thing:
American Fiction
For our movie date night this month, I picked the 2023 film American Fiction, in which Jeffrey Wright leads an all-star cast as author Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison. The movie got five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but I don’t remember hearing much about it at the time. That was a stacked year for movies and I imagine this would’ve gotten more attention in a different year.
I quite enjoyed the movie. Both the script and the actors were fabulous. It’s a smart and, at times, funny story about a Black author who writes a satirical novel to pander to publishers and progressive white readers and finds unexpected and unwanted success. Meanwhile, he is dealing with complex family dynamics and a new relationship.
If you, like I, missed this one back in 2023, it’s well worth taking the time for it now. I think it speaks to the complexity of American racial dynamics in a post-2020 world really well, while also delivering complicated characters and a compelling story.
Reading:
I hit the Yesteryear conversation just in time last week! You all clearly have polarizing thoughts about it and I’ve seen many, many pieces here on Substack this week about the book. I’ve thought a lot more about the book in the past week.
More than anything, I think what is making this book a hit is how its practically a blank slate for controversy. It tiptoes close to giving commentary on so many really interesting aspects of our current culture, but Burke stops short of actually saying much definitive about any of it. She leaves it to the reader to fill in the colors on her characters’ motivations and what she might have been saying about the world she put them in.
I don’t know how much of that was intentional1, but it happened nonetheless. She gave the world an entry point to argue about some of the hottest topics in our cultural conversations right now.2 I’m certain the dialogue about this book is only getting started and will get a lot hotter as we go. People are going to continue to find this one deeply polarizing with good reason.
How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny (4 stars)
As much as I’ve been loving this stretch of my Chief Inspector Gamache re-read, this one wavers a bit for me. Penny once again puts Gamache and crew at the center of a conspiratorial plot, the biggest yet. My favorite books in this series are the ones that stay more insular and character-focused, rather than the ones that veer toward reading like a thriller.
Watching:
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, season 1
We finished the first season of this NBC/Peacock show starring Tracey Jordan and Daniel Radcliffe. It was fun. It screams Tina Fey’s brand of comedy, but we generally like her work. If she’s not your flavor, definitely skip this one. I didn’t find it to be anything particularly glorious, but it was fun and easy. I’m interested to see if it is a comedy that gets stronger in a second season as it gets to know its characters better or if it stagnates and the conceit gets old quickly. It could go either way right now, but I’m hopeful.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles, episodes 4-5
I’m still really enjoying this adaptation. It’s striking the right balance of fun and heartful for me. I definitely was not expecting Nicole Kidman’s character to be introduced to us through the wrestling world, but I liked how they changed things a bit to get her into the story earlier. That is the first major story change I noticed; I hope they continue to stay pretty true to the novel.
Cooking:
Sunday night, I made Chicken Francese (America’s Test Kitchen) with mashed potatoes and Charred Snap Peas (What’s Gaby Cooking cookbook). It was so good and tasted like spring in the best way. I could drown in that lemon beurre blanc and die happy.
We also had a special empanada night on Friday. I’m working on a little project with Oliver to expose him to more cultures around the world.3 As part of that, we made chorizo empanadas4 and then ordered several more kinds from a local restaurant. It was so fun to have a variety of empanadas, listen to Spanish music, and talk about how different places around the world all make different types of food wrapped in dough. I plan to do something similar in the coming months with ravioli and dumplings.
On the Docket:
It’s Mother’s Day this weekend and I’m at a loss as to how I want to spend it. What I really want is to sleep in, but my aging body and 4yo are forever working together to keep that from happening. Hopefully, the weather is nice and we can go to the botanical garden. If we do that, Kevin and Oliver can enjoy the kids' activities there while I plant by a fountain and read. That sounds like a perfectly lovely way to spend the day.
We just got a First Watch this week and I’d love to go there for brunch, but it will be packed as everyone in town will also be wanting to enjoy the newest option in a county with few Sunday brunch choices.
How are you spending Mother’s Day? Whether you are the celebrated one or celebrating someone else, I’d love to know what the day looks like for your family.
My guess is it was not.
Not that we needed it.
I plan to write more extensively about that when we’ve finished our first few months and I have more to report about the experience.
A recipe I’ve made several times in the past few years ever since Kevin and I had a deferred trip to Spain during Covid and I made a bunch of Spanish recipes at home to compensate as best we could.
It is an interesting thought that Yesteryear was written with an eye to generating polarizing discourse, in which case it makes it quite meta. Your calling it a "blank slate" is probably my takeaway after finishing it this morning. The more I read, the more Natalie became flatter and less compelling. In the end, I wished I had read a different version of this book that was willing to go a little farther in any of the many directions this book goes.
My Mother's Day is a more rare treat for me at this stage - I'll be with both of my kids! My youngest is coming home for his brief semester break and I cannot wait for all of us to be together.