August's Spilled Milk
What I've been reading, doing, loving in August
Spilled Milk is my monthly wrap up where I talk about some of my favourite things from the last month. Things I’m reading, enjoying, looking forward to—sort of anything floating my boat.
August came and went at whiplash speed. I was just getting used to the heat, and suddenly it’s all squall warning this and temperatures are dropping that. It’s weird to feel like your grasp on summer is slipping, but also be excited about fall’s arrival.
Most people use this time to take stock of the last few months, what they’ve accomplished and what they’ve dreamed up, but I mostly want to turn the page on it. The cookie sometimes crumbles that way.
Here is an overview of how my month went:
Went away to a cottage for a weekend, treated it as a “writing retreat”, but didn’t write a damn word
I got a piece published in MicroZine!
It’s a micro micro, but I really love it
I moderated a talk with Haley Jakobson on her Old Enough paperback tour. I love to gab about books I love, so this was a real treat
Scored the best slouchy suede vintage bag on eBay
Does anyone watch Emily in Paris and retain the plot? This is not a dig, I’m genuinely curious
Randomly wrote a few short stories I really like and have been submitting them to lit mags. Hopefully, I’ll get to share soon!!
I’ve been saying LFG near-constantly (full sentence, not acronym)
The following is a list of some more things I couldn’t get enough of.
What I Read
In the grand tradition of
and her monthly recaps, I will attempt to write about all the books I read this month. I’ve stopped myself from doing this in the past and I’m not sure why (maybe I’ll remember next month, and never do this again—who knows). Some of these will be shorter thoughts and others will be long ramblings, but the amount I have to say isn’t necessarily indicative of how much or how little I liked the book.I’ll also be adding a star next to my standouts, like a starred review where a star isn’t a 1 to 5 scale, it just means good!
Boulder by Eva Baltasar ★
This is a little slice of a novel translated from Catalan that I absolutely loved. At just over 150 pages, it makes for the perfect read-in-one-weekend kind of book.
Boulder follows a woman who works as a cook on a merchant ship. Much like the boat she lives on, she follows the ebbs and flows of her life without much intervention. That is, until she meets Samsa. The two quickly fall into an obsessive relationship.
It tracks the balancing act of being in love with someone and losing yourself in that relationship. It’s also about people shifting and changing and revealing themselves over time… So interesting! Much to reflect on!
The narration is cold and detached in a way that really worked for me. Baltasar is also an exceptional metaphorist, which is basically my love language.
Old Enough by Haley Jakobson ★
I reread Old Enough because, as mentioned above, I moderated a talk with Haley for her paperback tour.
This is a campus novel that centres a young queer woman finding her people, healing from trauma and losing sight of the life she once felt she had to lead. Queer joy really jumps out as the driving force of this novel for me.
The second time around, I also found so much more nuance in the experience of survivorhood for the narrator (and other characters). This is a beautiful book that holds the reader throughout.
When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà
The premise of this novel is so enticing: A man is struck by lightning, and then the event is lyrically recounted through the eyes of a bunch of other beings—members of his family, mushrooms, the spirits of the witches haunting the valley.
On a technical level, I love what this book is doing. On an execution level, it slightly missed the mark for me. The book felt like it meandered a bit. Like a lightning strike, its tendrils jutted out in tons of directions that made it hard to feel grounded.
I think a more successful read of this would be to consider it as a collection of stories. Me conceptualizing this as a novel made me love it less than I wanted to.
Another Country by James Baldwin ★
This book took me months to get through, but, ultimately, I did enjoy it. To be fair, it took Baldwin 10 years to write it, and he said it almost killed him—interesting to note that I felt this pain, anger, anguish in the pages.
Set in the 1950s, in Harlem, we follow Rufus, a jazz musician, going through the motions of his life. Then the novel switches off POVs to follow a few people around him like his sister, an old lover, his best friend.
The novel is essentially split into sections through these POV shifts, which made setting it down to let things marinate and then picking it back up easy to do.
It tackles race, masculinity, sexuality, class, and dives so deeply into these topics. On this first read, the most poignant part for me was the exploration of masculinity and how it intersects with race in the book. The privilege afforded to the white men to deviate from “traditional masculinity” are not afforded to the black men and the way it comes through in the story via sexuality is really affecting.
I am very interested in reading this book again in a year or two to get more out of my read!
The Houseguest & Other Stories by Amparo Dávila
This collection is touted as one of the best works of short-form literary horror, so my expectations were HIGH. It didn’t exactly meet them, but this is an issue I have with most short story collections—I’m obsessed with a few and the rest fall flat for me.
My favourites from this were Moses & Gaspar, Oscar and The Funeral.
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee ★
This essay collection contains multitudes!!! It touches on being Korean American, being queer, being a writer, being an activist during the AIDS crisis, and also family and grief in a way I’d never seen discussed before.
There’s so much emotional depth and excavation of the self that I think would be relatable to most, but this has the potential to be earth-shattering for any writer. In that regard, it was inspiring, validating, scary, honest, and I loved it.
The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
The book is set in the 1930s, in Southern Ontario, and follows a misshapen love triangle between a young girl from Montreal and two siblings—one of them being non-binary. It has a touch of magical realism and folklore retelling, which really worked for me.
Something I didn’t see coming (I should have given the dates) was that this book has a large chunk which takes place during WWII, and that is not something I gravitate towards in media. Luckily, the pacing in the book is really great and I didn’t feel bogged down by this section.
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
The book recounts the murder of a witch in a small town in Mexico. Through various townsfolk’s stories we find out what happened, how and why. I highly recommend checking trigger warnings on this before reading.
I wanted to love this so bad. I love books that have interesting construction and evoke a feeling by the way they’re written, but this book almost had too much of that for me. Every chapter is a single paragraph, the sentences are incredibly long, and the writing feels circular because it keeps going over itself and reexplaining things. All of that (not even the darkness of the story) made the actual reading experience very difficult.
Objectively, I can see why people thought this was great, but it didn’t work for me in the way I thought it should/would.
State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg
What a weird little book. I’m convinced that with a few minor changes, this book would’ve been a killer thriller/sci-fi mystery novel. The choice to tone that aspect down and keep it very much literary fiction feels deliberate, and I’m kind of obsessed with that decision.
The story is set in the state of Florida as it’s being ravaged by storms, while a big tech company is giving out VR headsets to residents through which they can explore different realities. We follow a woman searching for her sister, for answers, for a purpose.
It’s really vibe-heavy, a quick read, and I enjoyed it!
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
I’m not saying I’m going to try to read all of this year’s Booker Prize nominees, but I’m also not not saying that. So far, they haven’t disappointed.
This is about six astronauts from different countries working on a space station orbiting Earth. It follows 24 hours in their lives, and not much happens… in a way I really liked! It’s very science-forward, and essentially feels like the first 20 minutes of every space movie before any of the action takes place.
What we get is a rumination on humanity and mortality through their stories, a rumination on the state of the world and planet Earth. I found it very easy to get swept up into this slice of life.
What I Watched/Listened To
Movie: Strange Darling
No spoilers, because I think the viewing experience hinges on the viewer being a blank slate. I thought this was great. Really beautiful, and an inspired/inspiring construction.
I’ve BEEN in the Kyle Gallner hive for a minute, and I’m hoping this film brings in a lot of new members.
TV: The Challenge
Coming out as a Challenge-head is so so scary. Please be gentle.
I’ve been watching the Road Rules/Real World/Challenge universe since birth (approximate), and now I fear I can never stop. This season is the show’s 40th, and they’ve brought in so many heavy hitters from the past. It’s fun! Sue me!
I will also say that the vindication of having CT win The Traitors renewed my love for this show (I don’t claim Trishelle).
Album: Short n’ Sweet
I love this album. I find the writing fantastic because it’s smart and catchy without being overwritten. The whole thing is sexy, weird, sooooo silly, LFG.
Favourites include: Taste, Dumb & Poetic, Juno, Don’t Smile, Bed Chem, Sharpest Tool.
Movie: Call Me by Your Name
The cannibalism allegations have kept me from rewatching this for a long time… But it’s really such a good movie. Beautiful, dreamy, heart-wrenching.
It helped me rediscover some songs I forgot about, and also made me wear more pleated shorts!
Reading Goals Update
I read How to Write an Autobiographical Novel and, as mentioned above, I loved it so so much.
I didn’t get around to reading a poetry collection this month, but I have a bunch on the docket for future reads!
I finished Another Country in August, so my next instalment in the Year of Baldwin is Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone.
On My Bedside Table
A dispatch from my bedside table and the books that litter it, hoping to be read soon.
About Ed by Robert Glück, a memoir chronicling a relationship in San Francisco in the 1980s
The Rich People Have Gone Away by Regina Porter, a missing person thriller set during the 2020 lockdown
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill, a friendship between two opposite girls in the late 1800s in Montreal
Tauhou by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall, an exploration of womanhood in Indigenous families
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner, an American spy infiltrates an anarchist collective in France
Have you read any of these? Are any of these non-negotiables? Are any of them skippable?
Tell me what you think in the comments!
That’s been my month!
Until next time 🤠
1.) cottage pics are stunning 2.) i cant wait to chat when we lost our heads with you!!! 3.) you bringing up the challenge makes me want to rewatch the olsen twins challenge movie
us 🤝🏼 reading Boulder this month (loved it too!!) & glad to hear you mostly enjoyed The Cure for Drowning, I thought it was written so beautifully