Hello from the Mexico City airport where I am at the tail end of an extremely long layover and a few Aperol Spritzes deep. I just spent a week on the beach in Troncones, Mexico with my best friend and her mom and her mom’s friend and it was an incredibly beautiful week where we floated and swam and read and ate seafood. It’s a trip I think I will cherish forever and maybe I will write an essay about it one day! This trip really deepened my love of intergenerational friendships and I’m feeling very grateful! Sorry to be sincere on here!!!
Anyway, I thought I’d send you some beach/vacation/travel reads that I’ve enjoyed while I’m stuck in the liminal hell of an airport (it’s not that bad I’m being dramatic). If you bring these on a trip, send me a picture of where you take them!
This was a perfect travel companion. It’s a novel about a transcriber for a sex therapist who falls in love with a patient by her sessions and voice. When they finally meet, they have an intense love affair. It’s set in Hudson and Jen Beagin’s description of Hudson / The Hudson Valley is spot on and made me laugh out loud multiple times. This book is sexy and funny and dark and a quick, propulsive read. I gave it to my friend when I was done with it and she was immediately in it (hi Izzy). It’s also being made into a show with Jodie Comer (Jodie if you ever see this, I’d love to buy you a drink) so read this before!
The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone - Olivia Laing
This is an essay collection that’s so good I almost missed my stop on the subway. It’s on art, artists and loneliness - specifically loneliness in a city - and it’s brilliant and textured and original. I’ve been reading a lot of blended memoir and criticism (hint hint) and she balances this vast topic incredibly well. An essay collection hasn’t gripped me like this in some time, and my copy is extremely underlined and populated with exclamation points and hearts. Have recommended this to many people and when I posted about this on Instagram, a ton (lol - more than 3 and less than 7) responded that they loved this book too.
I brought this for my friend’s mom (hi Nancy! Miss you!) and she was immediately in it. It’s a novel with lush, beautiful writing that centers on a performing arts high school in Houston and what really happened between the students and a creepy teacher. There’s a twist in this that shocked me so much I went back to re-read multiple times, sure that I missed something. An extremely unique, smart and ambitious book that won the National Book Award!
My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante
I was going to write Elena Ferrante can do no wrong but we don’t know who she is which honestly makes me love her more? My Brilliant Friend is the first of the Neapolitan novels which follows an intense, complicated, lifelong friendship between two women in Naples. Honestly, I slept on Ferrante for a long time and that was a mistake so do as I say not as I do! I am in the middle of this book and will go back to reading it once I send this but I’m really loving it and completely get the hype.
Fate and Furies - Lauren Groff
Another one I slept on for a long time! A novel about the two people that make up a marriage, ambition, art, gender and the performativity of the self. The first half narrates the husband’s perspective and the second shifts to his incredibly captivating wife’s. This is a complicated, beautiful book that I want to read again because it’s one of those that I think you could read multiple times and get something new from it. Lauren Groff’s writing is beautiful and vivid and strange - I really loved it.
In the Dream House: A Memoir - Carmen Maria Machado
Okay this is a weird vacation book because it’s about a queer abusive relationship BUT I read it on a plane straight through and exited the plane in a daze, changed. It’s a portrait of a terrible relationship told in differently structured essays (vignettes?) ie. Dream House as Choose Your Own Adventure, Dream House as Romance, Dream House as Thriller, etc. It’s brilliant and deserves all of its hype!
I’m also reading and enjoying Thirst For Salt by Madelaine Lucas which is incredibly textured and erotic and not out yet - I’ll write more once it’s out. I asked some friends if they had any vacation recs and my friend Claire Salinda (read her amazing essay The Marble) recommends Marian Keyes for books about women that are complicated and funny and smart and Kaycie Hall recommends Piranesi by Susanne Clarke.
Okay, that’s it as I am quite literally about to board my flight to LA!!! I guess that all of the books I’ve recommended could be beach / vacation reads in that I only recommend things I get really immersed in but these are books I’ve been thinking about lately. hope that your Pisces season is filled with day dreaming, beautiful cloud formations, spicy margaritas and a good sense of your intuition. If you want to see more of my beach pics check my Instagram @arielmtnz and if you ever want to invite me to Mexico, I’ll come.
Til next time
Xo,
Ariél
PS - because of the book sale I was able to donate $125 each to abortion funds and bail funds!!! $250 total! If you ordered a book from me and have not received it, please respond to this email to let me know! I hope you’re loving your new books!
Such a great roundup. I did the same thing with Ferrante!
love all these picks and need big swiss!!!