You’ve Got the Back-to-School Blues, Part 4
Plus! Bingo cards are due Friday
Hi friends,
I hope those of you in the U.S. had a great Labor Day weekend.
Important announcement: Summer Reading Bingo cards are due on Friday. My guess is that if you’re a subscriber to this newsletter, you’ll be able to get Bingo even if you didn’t plan on it. Everyone who submits a card will be entered in a raffle for a $75 gift card to either Bookshop.org or Libro.FM. Get your card here and submit it here.
This week, it’s time for my fourth annual back-to-school edition. Check out previous editions here, here and here.
And, now, what to read if…
You Think Going Back to School is Murder
It’s Elementary by Elise Bryant
Mavis Miller, a single mom working a low-paying job at a nonprofit, has enough on her plate before the long-reigning and somewhat scary PTA president Trish Holbrook corners her in the school parking lot during drop-off one day. When Trish asks Mavis, one of the few Black parents at Knoll Elementary, to serve as the chair of the school’s new DEI committee, she begrudgingly agrees.
Late after their first PTA meeting of the school year, Mavis sees Trish in yellow rubber gloves and booties dragging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags into the PTA president’s idling van. The next morning, the school’s new principal, last seen in a screaming match with Trish, is nowhere to be found. Knowing Trish would do anything to protect her kids, Mavis grows suspicious the Queen of the elementary school killed their principal. After she confesses her qualms to the attractive school psychologist, they team up to discover just what’s going on at Knoll.
Superstar romance author Emily Henry said It’s Elementary combines “the intrigue and drama of ‘Big Little Lies’ and the warmth and humor of ‘Abbott Elementary’” and I agree. I often guess the end of a cozy mystery, but this one surprised me. I’m hoping it’s the start of a series.
You Always felt a Bit out of Place in Art Class
Get the Picture by Bianca Bosker
I consider myself more crafty than artsy. Give me a glue gun and some sequins and I’m good. Ask me to draw something, and I start to panic. And, when it comes to visiting a museum with modern art, I feel completely out of my depth, or I did until I read Bianca Bosker’s Get the Picture, a deep dive into the contemporary art world.
Bosker first grew interested in the art scene after feeling like she was missing something when she heard acquaintances rave over paintings or sculptures, she “didn’t get.” Her interest grew more piqued when every art insider she tried to interview implied they’d be blacklisted if they chatted. Bosker, fortunately for us, didn’t give up and ultimately ended up interning with two galleries, serving as an artist’s assistant and working as a security guard in the Guggenheim. She recounts these experiences — and her interactions with billionaire collectors and a nearly naked performance artist — in Get the Picture.
The writing is snappy and includes some laugh-out-loud lines. Bosker describes herself as “obsessed with obsession” — a designation I love — and her curiosity shines through. It’s not often that I read a book that genuinely changes how I see things, but Get the Picture has transformed how I look at art.
You Spent a lot of Time in the Physics Lab
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Physics was one of my worst classes in high school. The concepts, combined with the math, never quite clicked. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying Ali Hazelwood’s charming Love, Theoretically, a romance starring rival academics on opposite sides of the biggest feud in physics, theoretical vs. experimental.
Elsie Hannaway is an adjunct professor in theoretical physics who’d be struggling to make ends meet if it weren’t for her job as a “fake girlfriend.” She’s able to keep her two lives separate until she learns the brother of her favorite client is on the hiring committee for her dream job at MIT. On top of that, Jack Smith, an experimental physicist, also ruined Elsie’s mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theoretical physicists everywhere through an academic article. Elsie is prepared to fight for the job but she’s not ready for the smoldering looks she keeps catching Jack giving her.
Hazelwood is a TikTok sensation, and this book shows why. It’s quirky, funny and heartfelt, while depicting the very real issues adjunct professors deal with. It almost made me care about physics as much as I did Elsie and Jack. I think it’s Hazelwood’s best yet.
Do you have any back-to-school traditions or fave reads for this time of the year? Let me know!
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Bosker’s Get the Picture was an eye opener for me. And hilarious. Her descriptions of stacked appliances heralded as deep art b/c someone left Eastern Europe, blah, blah, blah, and her participation in performance art were one-of-a-kind. I tried reaching out to her with questions, but came up empty.