Books For TV Lovers: 'Girls'

January 21, 2015 Natalie Morath

Only two weeks in to Season 4 of HBO's 'Girls' and you already can't get enough right? JK. Sometimes (often) it feels like I'm the only person rooting for this show anymore, but if you, like me, still care and think 'Girls' is great, then enjoy the following reading list:

Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham -- Perhaps a bit on the nose, but if this is what you like, then you will like it.

How Should a Person Be by Sheila Heti -- A really great novel about friendship between creative women in Toronto. Also some truly unfortunate sex scenes that share a sensibility with 'Girls.'

Anything by the lovely Jane Smiley, director of the Iowa Writers Workshop, where our intrepid heroine is enrolling this season. A Thousand Acres is terrific and I've heard great things about her latest novel as well.

Little Women by Louis May Alcott -- Everyone cites 'Sex and the City' as the natural predecessor but any group of four women coming-of-age and having mostly shitty stuff happen to them owes everything to Little Women. This viewpoint is clearly shared by Lena Dunham who included a really funny and sweet allusion to the novel in Season 2. FYI - Hanna is Jo, Marnie is Meg, Shoshanna is Amy, Ray/Adam are very likely Marmee, and Jessa is no one because the March sisters don't have a really useless, annoying, selfish sister....maybe Beth?

Books For TV Lovers is a recurring post that rounds up a reading list of titles inspired by my favorite TV shows.

Literary Ludite: Audible

November 12, 2014 Natalie Morath

When it comes to books, I am very much a traditionalist; being a librarian helps. As does studying art history, because I've taken no fewer than four classes in which I had to study the history of books and printing. I own far more books than is necessary, and I always have a stack of at least two or three library books at a time (that doesn't count cookbooks). That said, I am not one of those people who complains about technology moving too fast and whatnot. As much as librarians tends to love books, they have to love computers even more, because that is what the job requires these days. I have an iPhone, it is with me always, and I use it for almost everything, so it seemed time to embrace the audio book, especially since I have a job that is conducive to headphones.

This Week in Books Lena Dunham talks to Roxane Gay

October 3, 2014 Natalie Morath

It's been a huge week for Lena Dunham, whose book Not That Kind of Girl was published on Tuesday (I already finished it and enjoyed it). She also had a mild scandal regarding her book tour which is a much larger and more extraordinary event than most authors get to participate in, but I'd prefer to focus on the positive. She got a pretty overwhelmingly positive review in Time Magazine by Roxane Gay, and then Gay and Dunham had a convo for Vulture.

Speaking of Roxane Gay (when am I not?), The Toast announced this week a new vertical called The Butter that will be edited by Gay and include cultural criticism and personal essays, with a distinct focus on writers of color. If you haven't spent any time with The Toast before, I highly recommend it. They do some of the best writing for women on the Internet, and they are decidedly bookish.

I normally try to keep things light around here, but some weeks I just can't deal, and admittedly, this is one of the biggest news stories in the publishing world this week. Ed Champion is a misogynistic jerk in the publishing industry who last gained notoriety by attacking writer (and delight) Emily Gould on Twitter. When she responded in kind, he made some vaguely suicidal threats, so everyone left him alone. He resurfaced last weekend, this time attacking a new female author, Porochista Khakpour. Don't go fight with him on Twitter (his account has been suspended anyway). Instead show your support by purchasing books by Gould and Khakpour and keep in mind that dumb garbage like this is why #readwomen2014 is so important.