Jason,
I’m scrambling to finish this ahead of traveling again this weekend, so please forgive the brevity. It’s no secret that I think winter should kick rocks, so it’s a lucky thing to be headed to a warm beach away from the snow-strewn streets of Brooklyn. My goals are pretty minimal — thaw out, swim a little, read exactly one book by the water.
On the plane I’m planning to read through a few articles recommended in a newsletter I look forward to every week — The Ann Friedman Weekly — which arrives my inbox every Friday in the early afternoon. The articles that Friedman compiles are a clever distillation of the state of things, as she often recommends deeply-researched journalism on urgent topics, typically from outlets that are outside of my news diet. But there is plenty of levity to balance the weight of the important stuff. Be sure to click on the surprise me link — you will be surprised! And occasionally, she’ll recommend articles that are just plain fascinating. One of my recent favorites comes from Claire Evans by way of The Verge. Searching for Susy Thunder details Claire’s quest to find a pioneering phone hacker who disappeared in the mid 90s. She covers Susy’s life, the phreaker scene, and upends what we have learned from pop culture about hacking along the way. It’s written like a spy novel, and hopefully someone will option it for the movies (alá Hustlers).
And for my one book, I’ll be reading People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry, her follow up to Beach Read, which I read, enjoyed, and mentioned in a letter last summer. The story follows college friends who vacation together again after a two-year rift. Like all romance novels, we know where the story is headed — the characters will definitely fall in love by the end of the second act. But it will be fun to read about vacation while on vacation.
And now it’s time to go, so we’ll talk next week.
In leisure,
Erica