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Notes From Inbetween Girl

What to do when you can't do much

It feels almost ridiculous to send this right now. I have nothing wise or hopeful to say - because what the hell do I know? I'm not an epidemiologist or a public health expert - so frankly even trying to put this together felt a bit self-indulgent. But I promised myself I'd send something out every month, and one pandemic won't stop the show.

What can you do, when it feels like you can do nothing? You can champion the people around you, the work done by those you are lucky enough to call friends - or at least dearly beloved Twitter buds. So, here goes. I'm sure I've mentioned some of these folks before, but they're all worth hyping on a regular basis, to be perfectly honest with you.

Love Terry Pratchett? I've told you before to pre-order Marc's book; I'm telling you again.

Mic's poetry gets more skewering by the day. And I'm pretty fucking picky when it comes to poetry. Support him here.

Hire Stephen for your word needs; he's really funny and has great cats.

Like weird, dark comedy that's fortunately not quite as dark and weird as our current reality? Check out Casual Violence, who make me honk with laughter like a goose in distress.

Justin makes truly beautiful, unique cards that really have to be seen to be appreciated. Have a look here then order one for someone you're devoted to.

Writers' HQ are doing sterling work keeping our spirits up at the moment, so if you're staring out the window thinking, "how the fuck do I write in these God-awful times? I mean, really?!" they should be your first port of call. They're on Twitter too.

And something delightfully silly to end with: having laughed at this 147 times already, I'm still finding it hilarious.

Non-fiction: The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath, Leslie Jamison

I couldn't put this down, and when I had to, I was counting the hours until I could pick it up again. Part memoir, part exploration of the nature of addiction, part critique of how addiction has been dealt with in the USA, there is a lot to take in here, but it never feels self-pitying, or even particularly heavy to read.

Jamison has an exquisite turn of phrase, evoking freezing winters spent in Iowa City so well you feel the cold in your own bones. And when she deploys that skill to tell her own story, it's devastating. She explores how feeling too needy, too shy - too much - contributed to her drinking. "I didn't just need Daniel to want me; I needed him to want everything with me", she writes about one relationship. "Anything less seemed like rejection". But she's also aware of the need to dismantle the idea that there's something romantic about the alcoholic writer figure: "My ability to find drunken dysfunction appealing - to fetishize its relationship to genius - was a privilege of having never really suffered."

The Recovering has a lot in common with Olivia Laing's The Trip To Echo Spring (and indeed references three of the writers Laing discusses - Raymond Carver, John Cheever and John Berryman), and the two books complement each other beautifully. Jamison's is the meatier one, however, so if you're looking for something to get stuck into, I can't recommend it enough.

More non-fiction: She Said: Breaking The Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite A Movement, Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey

Neither of the books I've chosen this month are particularly light, and for that I apologise, but they're both really fucking good. She Said, if you haven't got around to reading it already, is the story of the New York Times investigation into Harvey Weinstein, and then of how Christine Blasey Ford came to testify against Brett Kavanaugh.

For a book you could file under 'journalism procedural', this reads almost like a thriller. The dedication shown by Kantor, Twohey and their editor Rebecca Corbett - to getting the facts right, to the women Weinstein abused, to painting an accurate picture of what women the world over have had inflicted on them by men in positions of power - is inspiring. And every woman who comes forward to tell her story in these pages is a hero. The last chapter had me in tears, but there is hope here. The movement rolls on.

The awful self-promotion bit

I tried to write about, you know *gestures vaguely at everything*

You may have heard a rumour that I am THIRTY and WISE now; I can confirm it is true.

The thing that's keeping me from dissolving into a puddle of anxiety and tears right now is, unsurprisingly, my dog.

Other stuff you should read

As you know, I've come late to poetry, but I loved this essay from the NYRB archive.

This piece on the mustang crisis in the US is fascinating. And crucially, although it's bad news, it has nothing to do with anyone's lungs.

A friend sent me this yesterday and while I haven't finished reading it yet, I'm sure it's relevant to a lot of you.

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