What's got my attention this week
Want some ideas for things to read, watch and listen to this weekend? Look no further...
Olivia Newton-John died, aged 73, and a part of our childhood died with her.
Hello and welcome to this free culture round-up from The Shift. If you're already a paying member, thank you. If not, and you'd like to get this newsletter in your inbox every week, plus access to the archive, community and more, why not join?
SCROLLING
• Love this piece on the two Sandys (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (aka the two sides of Olivia NJ) from the New Yorker.
• "If I were a guy, I wouldn't be writing this," Serena Williams wrote on announcing her retirement from tennis in an essay in Vogue (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). "But I'm turning 41 next month and something's got to give." The day a guy does indeed write that is the day things really have changed.
• Are you stuck in the perfectionist trap? (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)
• Menopause awareness is great (obv) but is your workplace using it as a smokescreen for ageism (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)?
• The subersive power of the romance novel (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).
• Meet second gentleman, Doug Emhoff. (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)
• We need to give space to older women who aren't thin and white and look extremely young. Well said, Poorna Bell. (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)
• Are Biden, Putin and, erm, Jared Leto obsessed with cosmetic surgery (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)?
• The secrets of Stanley Tucci's zucchini spaghetti (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).
• What are we really supposed to do with old clothes (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)?
• Are the boy bosses of Silicon Valley (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) finally on the way out? We can but hope.
• Foundation is dead, (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)long live foundation.
• Jane Fonda loves her strong thighs but she's not so keen on that face lift (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).
• Life advice from an end-of-life doulla (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).
• The librarian who collects all the things we leave in books (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).
• Hello, it's the perimenopause hotline (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)...
READING
TBH, when I first picked up The Cliff House by Christopher Brookmyre (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) I did wonder whether the world needed yet another locked-island mystery. And, indeed, whether he was the person to be writing one. However. I should have known better. I was wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Brookmyre constantly fooled and wrong-footed me and twisted this burgeoning genre into the kind of dark, sarcastic, urban thriller he's rightly applauded for. (An extra bonus for 80s goths: look out for Balhaam and the Angel!) In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I promptly downloaded his previous book, The Cut on my kindle and inhaled that too.
BOOKCLUB MEMBERS! There are still a couple of copies of this month's title The Change going free. Ping me your address pronto if you want one.
WATCHING
Better Things, all five seasons on BBC iplayer
TBH I hadn't even heard of Better Things until last week when a friend on Twitter tipped me off to it. "OMG it's genius!" she said. "It's full of stuff about menopause and hormones and all the midlife stuff, and it's clever and funny and creatively wonderful." Well that's my kind of review. Topline, it's the story of a middle-aged actress and single mother trying to juggle Hollywood, family and ageing parents. It's early days, but I'm all in.
LISTENING
• To the full-cast dramatisation of Katherine May's memoir, The Electricity of Every Living Thing (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), on audible. If you're a member, it's currently free to download.
• I was treated to two of my favourite women in one podcast last week when Cheryl Strayed guested on Glennon Doyle's We Can Do Hard Things (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). They had so much to talk about they had to make two episodes out of it.
And on The Shift podcast this week...
...the award-winning author of My Name Is Leon, Kit de Waal, came on to talk about her new memoir, Without Warning And Only Sometimes (it's brilliant, preorder it now here (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)!). We talked about everything from the BS around the word resilience (Kit compared it to emotional scar tissue) to being single at 60 by way of hairdressers in Sparkhill (a place we both have history), being a Tuesday Friend, getting a second wind at 55 and being expected to have an opinion on everything just because you have an opinion on something. Kit is my new hero.
AND FINALLY... IT'S THE SHIFT LIVE!
If you're a big fan of The Shift podcast (and since you're here, I'm guessing you are) and will be in or around Birmingham on Sunday 9th October, I'll be taking the stage with the excellent actress and bestselling novelist Ruth Jones and author and activist (not to mention Women's Prize- and Booker Prize-shortlisted) Elif Shafak to record my first ever live episodes. I'll be talking to Elif at 12.30pm and Ruth at 6.30pm. Tickets are £10 each (£8 concessions) and you can find out more and get tickets here. (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) I've interviewed both women before and I guarantee you wisdom, wit and plenty more besides. Do come, I'd love to meet you.
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