There’s quite a few new readers around here, so welcome! This is an extremely quarterly newsletter of my favorite reads. I’m a slow reader and I really love a good theme, so I will not be clogging your inbox by any stretch of the imagination. By day, I’m a food writer (+ former bookseller/recovering book publicist). I’m really glad you’re here!
Growing up as a sensitive, artsy kid, I often sensed that intangible things like mailbox numbers and phone numbers had a whole smorgasbord of personalities, scents, and flavors. Certain words have always had certain colored auras for me — maybe it was true synesthesia or maybe it was just being a generally sweet dweeb. Thursday and the number 9 are always going to be a 70’s shag carpet brown, a slight musk of spilled Coca Cola hidden in a forest of deep rug pile.
When I read books, they absolutely have a flavor; a revolving bookcase into a whole other sense. The same is true of when I drink wine. Something brooding and taking place on the windy moors of England? Begging for something that hits me over the head with a cedar plank and an unsubtle sting of alcohol on the tongue.
It has come to my attention that a lot of books I’ve read lately have their own flavor, and especially a wine varietal, that I think they’d pair well with. For this ~special name-sake post~, I’ll be pairing my favorite recent reads with their ideal wine. Even if you don’t drink wine I’ll break down each book to explain the hows and whys.
So grab some “porch wine” (i.e. vinho verde) and get your library card ready for glory.
REDS
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder = ZINFANDEL / GARNACHA
For a book as meaty as this, you’ll need what I call a “BBQ wine”, one that begs for burnt ends of barbecue brisket you shoulder-check your family for at the reunion. Woodsy, toasty Zinfandel or spicy Spanish Garnacha will guide you along this truly wild azz book that centers on a mother of a toddler who gradually begins to believe she is, well, turning into a dog. It’s deeply hilarious and surprising (so hard to be surprised in a good way these days) meditation on motherhood, women in art, and hunger. This is the ideal book for when your heart feels a bit crooked and you don’t plan turning it upright anytime soon.
Trust by Domenico Starnone = SUSUMANIELLO
A tasty tale of almost-betrayal between Italian lovers begs for an equally sultry Italian wine. Susumaniello is like the smoke-and-mirrors of wine. On one hand, it can be laced with a tinge of cigar smoke, and then reveals a sneaky concentrated sweetness upon second sip. Just like an old lover who has wronged you!!! This book about two former lovers keeping each other’s one life-destroying secret reads like a quiet thriller, yet purrs along like a kitten.
Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados = BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU
When Beaujolais (the first grape of the harvest season) is ripe and ready, it also means the excitement of new growth. So what better book to pair with it than this delightful romp of a coming-of-age story between two women stumbling into a boiled-trash-infused-summertime New York City of both my dreams and nightmares. Beaujolais is also a super light red wine that doesn’t take itself too seriously, much like our heroines, who tumble headfirst into a life of shared beds, scraped pennies, trying on of personas amongst bodega meals and borrowed nights out.
The Arc by Taylor Henwood Hoen = CANNED PINOT NOIR
Much like when I sneak a canned pinot to a movie theater/beach/a dry wedding, I gulped this book down way too fast. It should be no surprise that one of my favorite literary sub-genres is what I call “techno-dystopian rom-coms” (See also: Touch by Courtney Maum, Made for Love by Alissa Nutting, The Answers by Catherine Lacey), and this book really scratched the itch. Ursula and Rafael meet thanks to The Arc, a hyper-curated matchmaking service that architects the most “ideal” partnerships after a period of intense mental and physiological assessments. This book begs the question: How much can you optimize love? Much like canned pinot noir, this story feels like you stumbled through a city park to find (what could be very suspicious) mulberry trees but end up being a sweet find.
WHITES
I Came All This Way to Meet You by Jami Attenberg = TORRONTÉS
I stumbled upon Torrontes, an amazingly floral, yet juicy Argentinian white varietal, much like I stumbled onto Jami Attenberg. In both cases, I drifted through a store and spotted something that, well, looked pretty cute. In this case, it was her novel All Grown Up at the Strand, and an adorable wine bottle at my corner store that had a label so great I debated getting it tattooed on my body. Both very sound moments of decision making. Attenberg’s memoir details her meandering into becoming a writer that really satisfies my voyeurism and scratches my “how do writers do this whole shit?” itch. I want to drink both Torrontes and Attenberg’s words on a vacation somewhere it’s very warm and humid where I keep getting pollen on my nose and sweat under my knees.
Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny = BOXED SAUVIGNON BLANC IN A MASON JAR (+ ONE ICE CUBE)
The way you serve wine makes a difference how it tastes, and the same can be true for how a book delivers prose. This book reads like a bright, straightforward, melon-slice-that-fell-into-grass New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc straight from the box to swill around in your most prime thrift store mason jar on a magic hour porch. Because really, what else do you do when you fall in love with a man who has, well, loved…everyone else in your small Michigan town? Surrounded by her love’s ex-lovers, our heroine grapples with how we choose to share our partners with the outside world, and how much room there is in a relationship for others. Don’t forget the ice cube.
The Odyssey by Lara Williams = ALBARINHO
I never really minded getting a mouthful of seawater as a kid. I think that’s why I love Albarinho, a Portuguese white wine that really makes you wonder if they laced the bottle with pure salt spray. So it goes without saying that Lara Williams’ surreal romp at sea begs for something briny, cleansing, and a little cutting. A woman avoids her life on dry land by working on a cruise ship and is gradually tested by her employer’s mentorship program. Think of this book as My Year of Rest and Relaxation-meets-Bravo’s-Below-Deck and you won’t be too far off.
BUBBLY
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason = PÉT-NAT / SPARKLING ORANGE WINE
This is a book you chew on. It’s the equivalent of that funky, wild wine your cooler LA friend makes you buy that’s way over your $7 grocery store wine budget and honestly has a flavor note you can only describe as “twigs”. In this case, this book definitely exceeded my emotional budget, committing to words the exact feelings of a young woman with a chronic fight with depression in such a heartbreakingly wry way. I’m so glad this book exists. It’s left an aftertaste I won’t soon forget, much like the orange wine I tried once in Baltimore that truly tasted like cured meat(?).
Happy For You by Claire Stanford = CANNED PROSECCO
You know that first sip of Prosecco, the one that makes your heart lift into your throat like the beginning of a laugh or a good idea? That is this book. Evelyn takes a leave from her faltering philosophy dissertation to take a job as a researcher for the Third Largest Internet Company, where she helps to develop an app that tracks a user’s happiness. In a whitewashed Silicon Valley that only values the happiness markers that do not encapsulate Evelyn’s experience as an Asian American woman, Evelyn grapples with her own complicated womanhood. Equal parts touching and clever, this book has a truly human-shaped ambivalence at its core that made me both laugh and feel a little more hopeful.
One Night on the Island by Josie Silver = VINHO VERDE
Vinho verde has that citrus-y zip and ever-so-subtle kombucha-adjacent-bubbliness that makes me immediately want to talk shit. This is why I call it my “porch wine”; I immediately want to sit on my porch and unleash some normal, low-stakes gossip. But not in a callous way, more so in a “Did you hear what Shirley said about Connie” way. Which is why I love this British rom-com that takes place on the tiny island of Jersey, where everyone’s business is everyone else’s, and there's nowhere to hide. Not even from, yes, ~love~.
CURRENTLY CONSUMING:
1.To balance all this reading out, I’m watching the new Kardashians series as well as the classic series in tandem (and of course, getting too far deep into Kardashian scholars on TikTok). 2. Vladimir by Julia May Jonas had me at “light chest hair on the cover.” 3. I am still trying to unsee the movie, The Worst Person In the World (impossible) Can I just smoke cigarettes and be mysterious for a summer? 4. Which brings me to: Fire Island: I laughed, I cried, I am planning on watching it a second time tonight. 5. I also am excited one of my favorite college writing professors started an amazing newsletter, Page Fright, because 100% confirmed: writing is truly terrifying.