(Pssst, you can get them in the PrimeCrush Bookshop)
Here is my Spring reading list, which I am unusually excited about. (We earn a nominal fee for purchases from the PrimeCrush Bookshop, which we are very grateful to you for, as it is currently our only source of income.) Thank you.
Up Next: Dish's Spring Reading List Part 1
I Regret Almost Everything. A Memoir by Keith McNally
I’ve written multiple times about what a big fan I am of McNally’s sometimes offensive, very often pugilistic and always interesting instagram feed. He went from the working class East End of London to the height of cool as a Manhattan restaurateur in the 80’s. Along the way there were stints acting and writing, escapades, sexual and otherwise. From his instagram feed alone it is clear that he is superb at telling raucous stories, including all the details and gory bits, and excellent at getting his opinions across. He has pushed the publication date out multiple times but the latest (according to Amazon, where I pre-ordered it) is that it is “Now arriving Tuesday (May 6th), previously expected May 1.” I am putting aside the evening of May 6th and all of May 7th to bite into it lasciviously, like I do my favorite dish at his best restaurant, the Balthazar Burger.
And if you prefer listening to your books, there’s last week‘s exciting news that British actor Richard Grant will be reading the audiobook version, which is just perfect. McNally let us know, fittingly, through his Instagram account.
Broken Country (fiction) by Claire Lesley Hall
“A straight up BANGER,” is how one friend described this book. It seems as if all my friends either just finished it, are reading it or about to. It is a love story, but has elements of a thriller in it and it is set in a small farming village in the English countryside. Can’t wait.
Jesus Wept (non-fiction) by Philip Shenon
I can’t think of a more relevant book to read in this moment. Controversial and acclaimed, it is a detailed, critical examination by a journalist of each of the popes since World War II and their leadership, assessed against the Church’s stated values and role in society. There are many who believe that the Catholic church is the most powerful and influential institution historically, and remains so today. I read recently that no U.S. President has ever been elected who did not get the ‘Catholic vote.’
When the Going Was Good. A Memoir by Graydon Carter
As a fan of the snarky, highly entertaining (now defunct) Spy magazine, I can’t pass on the memoir by its founder. I love the sweep in the life stories of those who come from nowhere (in Carter’s case, rural Canada) and nothing to attain grandeur and success in the epicenter of their craft (be that magazines, as with Carter, or restaurants for McNally or sports (too many to name, but Venus and Serena leap to mind). Graydon Carter reads it on Audible himself, so I’ll probably listen to it rather than read it.
Up Next: Dish's Spring Reading List Part 2
Faithfull: An Autobiography by Marianne Faithfull
She wasn’t just Mick Jagger’s girlfriend. Her life was huge and fascinating and exciting and yeah, tragic too. She was brought up in a commune, her father was an M16 spy, she was an actress and a musician and a heroin addict and the ‘it girl’ of a very swinging London in the 60’s. Her life was a wild ride, and I’d like to sit in on it for a while.
Notes to John. A Memoir by Joan Didion
I wish I thought I had a choice about whether or not to read this, but if you’ve read all of Joan Didion and then all of Eve Babitz precisely because of her frenemyship with Didion, as I have, how could you stay away? I can’t. These are the notes from Didion’s journal while she was seeing a psychiatrist during a period when she was troubled by her daughter Quintana’s troubles. Quintana later committed suicide. Reading this feels like I would be taking on something very difficult and also become more intimate than I actually want to be with Didion. But I can’t not. So I’ll brace myself and go in with a flashlight.
Stone Yard Devotional. Fiction by Charlotte Wood
In addition to Covid in 2021, parts of Australia were dealing at the same time with a mice infestation that ravaged crops. This novel — which nearly every review calls “exquisite” — is about a small group of people living in a tiny town in such a part of Australia. In addition to the mice, other strange things are happening, and the main character has left her husband to live in a convent and contemplate her life, and ‘it all.’ Short listed for a Booker in 2023.
Fair Play. Fiction by Louise Hegarty
It’s a cleverly written ‘locked room’ murder mystery that takes place in an Irish country house on New Year’s Eve. That’s enough for me.
The Road To Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
It’s a dark comedy (my favorite kind) with a quirky family (my favorite kind — the only kind?) on a road trip (my favorite set-up for a journey). The family is driving cross country because its patriarch wants to reunite with his recently-single high school sweetheart, a million years later. What could go right? Also, John Irving called it “miraculous.”
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