I'm too dumb for this microwave
Weekly Roundup #21
I’ve long considered the truest test of intelligence to be whether or not one can work a new shower. I have no way of proving this as I’ve never voiced this aloud, but any time I stay in a hotel, or a friend’s house, or anywhere new, I enter their shower and I remind myself: I have multiple degrees. In fact, this is what I remind myself when I can’t get any modern appliance to work.
I might have to add microwaves to this list. I’m petsitting at the moment, and when I tell you that the microwave in this house is too fancy for me, I mean that I had to take a picture of it and reverse Google image search so I could find the model, so I could then download the manual. Even still, I’m not sure I’m using it right, but I got it to heat up food so that’s a win.
As I plod towards the end of the semester, here’s what got me through the week.
Note: there’s some flashing gifs below; a heads up if you don’t want to look at that sort of thing.
What I’m reading:
Leila Slimani has long been one of my favorite French authors. I saw her speak back in 2018 when I still lived in Boston, and when a French teacher from Maine asked how they could encourage their students to learn French (over the implied Spanish), Slimani explained that you could use French on every continent. For better or worse, this is true. France’s imperial ambitions mean that you can speak French in Canada, Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe in North America, French Guiana in South America, a whole host of countries in Europe and Africa, Vietnam and Cambodia in Asia, and French Polynesia in Oceania.1 While Spanish might be more lingua franca in the States, French is a language that could be used globally and could be useful on a resume. I speak from experience: the French don’t like to speak English, and I got my first job post-college because I spoke French. Knowing multiple languages is never a bad thing.
I briefly spoke to Slimani in French after that reading, and she signed my book. As such, I have a perennial soft spot for her. In fact, Leila Slimani and Marguerite Duras are the only French authors whose entire oeuvres I will read.2 In the Country of Others / Le pays des autres is a fictionalized version of Slimani’s own family history and the first in a planned trilogy. Slimani is French-Moroccan, and this novel in particular focuses on the story of her grandmother, Mathilde, who moves from France to Morocco to be with her Moroccan husband in the immediate aftermath of World War II.3
I’m only 30 pages in, and there’s already culture shock and confusion. I can only imagine this will create tension in Mathilde’s marriage, and I’m interested to see what happens when Morocco starts to look for independence from France.
Great for: translated fiction fans, historical fiction lovers
Bad for: people who dislike unfinished series, historical fiction, or slow moving character studies.
What I’m writing:
I’m attending a writing conference in the beginning of May, and having a meeting with an agent to review the beginning of my novel. As such, my long suffering novel is getting the attention she deserves! For the record, she never not deserved attention, it’s just there’s only so many hours in the day and only so many things I can work on. Putting together my sample gave me the kick in the pants I needed to go back to editing my work. Who knew editing could be fun?! (Me. I did.)
Great for: my long suffering novel
Bad for: I don’t see any downsides here, actually.
What I’m listening to:
Martia’s Muses. I’ve mentioned before how I like a good ASMR/background noise video, and oh boy does Martia deliver. While I’m partial to the Arboria Glade video linked above, any will do. I particularly like that there’s a variety of background sounds, and that they’re only an hour long. Meaning I can put one on, and say, I’m going to work on x until the end of the video. It helps to break work into chunks and not make an endless task feel interminable. With options like Abandoned Garden, Magician’s Study and Cursed Lands, I can pretend I’m actually in a fantasy novel, rather than just reading one. Responding to emails has never been so epic.
Great for: folks who need background noise to work, ambient noise lovers
Bad for: people who need total silence to work, people who want videos longer than 1 hour while they work
No New Books™️ Challenge:
I am holding strong! My streak continues! Woo! Party Parrot for me.4
Who am I kidding, though? I will break my streak at the end of this month, because Illumicrate will have a sale on the other two special editions of The Winternight Trilogy. If you’re wondering to yourself why does this matter? I shall direct you here:
Streak to Beat: 50 days (January 1st - February 19th)
Last streak: 15 days (February 27th-March 12th)
Current streak: 28 days (March 16th-present)
Mug Moment of the Week:
This is a terrible picture, forgive me. I’m going to blame the fact that I had my reading glasses on when I took this this, even though that’s a ridiculous excuse. My reading glasses block out blue light and magnify, not make it completely impossible to frame a photo. Anyways, this is a mug from Starbucks, as you can probably tell from the embossing. It was made with recycled materials, and for the life of me, as you can also probably tell, I cannot get the silly sticker off. This mug has been through the dishwasher multiple times, and yet, it still sticks. As someone who is also stubborn, I appreciate the tenacity, and yet…if anyone has any tips for getting that fool thing off, please let me know.
Great for: the environment (yay recycling!), stubborn little things
Bad for: my sense of aesthetics
The Fine Print
Hello to everyone who’s just joined! Thanks for being here. In the coming weeks, I’m going to do some housekeeping to re-organize the home page to make it easier to find things. If you see new tabs appear and posts moving around, you’re not crazy.
All book links are through The Chaotic Reader affiliate shop on Bookshop. I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase through those links. Honestly, I don’t care *that* much if you buy through my bookshop, I just wanted to collect everything in one spot, and encourage you to not buy from Amazon. All books I have previously talked about will be there! I will also be going through past posts and updating them, too.
This newsletter is free, and all the work I do here is unpaid. While I may turn on subscriptions in the future, the best way you can support me now is by liking and sharing my work. Also if you want to buy me a coffee, I’m not opposed to that, either.
Among others. And probably Antarctica too, as I imagine there are some French scientists down there.
We will have to save Marguerite Duras for another day - I know I have friends reading this who are shaking their heads and asking to themselves, really Marissa? Still?
Major caveat: I’m not sure what Slimani has fully fictionalized here and what she hasn’t. So I have no idea if Mathilde is her grandmother’s actual name or if Amine was her grandfather’s. I do know her grandmother was French and her grandfather was Moroccan, but I can’t tell you where the line between reality and fiction blurs with this book.
If you don’t know Party Parrot, it is the best Slack gif and the only reason I would allow Slack to exist if I ruled the world.
I always just push the popcorn button. That’s guaranteed to get things going!