you heard it here first

Really tired of containing multitudes. Ready to contain 1-2 things, max

Romaine Brooks’s women

happy pub day to @somers.bsky.social ! cc @thankyoubooks.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/kristeni...

On this week's Selected Shorts episode, Lauren Ambrose performs @kristeniskandrian.bsky.social’s “Quantum Voicemail." Enjoy an excerpt of her reading here, and then listen to the full story wherever you get your podcasts! bit.ly/4mGUqQw

some events are events & some events are sensual….this was right before I said “I love you” @tricialockwood.bsky.social #smirnoff

quite a few homages to Thomas Bernhard these days….some may say…*too* many

On this week's Selected Shorts episode, Better With You?, actors Julie Benko and Lauren Ambrose perform stories by Kim Fu and @kristeniskandrian.bsky.social. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts. bit.ly/4mGUqQw

it's time for us as a nation to force Billy Joel to write another verse of We Didn't Start the Fire

"insane in retrospect but we're doing it" sums up @thankyoubooks.bsky.social very nicely 🧚

“Lily Allen” literature….does this have legs

every book is like, she was a young damaged pupil…..he was a man of letters, if not principles…..

can’t explain it but this book is like Ace Ventura, a movie I’ve never seen

@thankyoubooks.bsky.social all the way tf locked in for @tricialockwood.bsky.social !!!! Preorder here: thankyoubookshop.com/item/ZoOPMvN...

panning for new TYB tee ideas, & just landed on this one, courtesy Nathanael West: “She works in a bookstore, but wait’ll you see her behind.”

had a dream movies came out in paperback

one minute you’re rippin cigs in your boyfriend’s Pathfinder, amped on Fugazi, the next you’re in a minivan and it’s

my only hesitation re autofiction is reserved for how it has trained readers to wonder if every novel is “true”

CHEERS to @tricialockwood.bsky.social (in convo w/ @kristeniskandrian.bsky.social) at @thankyoubooks.bsky.social, 3 months from today!!!! 🥂

the Lester Bangs of the cereal aisle.....does this have legs

every book of historical fiction is like, deep on a boat, inside of a map, inscribed by an apothecarist, abandoned by a silent film star, lies the secret of the original Tome

the universal name for someone who's being insane is Crazy McNutts, I think we can all agree

market terms for when a book’s so good you know it’ll do numbers but also when a book’s so bad you know it’ll do numbers…same term with a different prefix maybe…

a short essay about being 1st gen & the nebulae of "voice"

why is every online writing class like "Dog-Eared: Writing Dogs (and Their Ears) To Get an Agent"

sometimes you have to let the ppl know that Stoner is not about a stoner and Sister Carrie is not about a nun

ah I see this year we get not one but two teen girl bathing suit categories: OnlyFans and Big Ruche

The 1000 Words of Summerification of the Contemporary American Novel: in this essay I will

“I have a deep suspicion of women who claim to be able to remove stains. Either they’re lying or there’s something not quite right at home.”—Marlen Haushofer, Killing Stella (tr. Shaun Whiteside)

Yiyun Li is a national treasure, here are some inadequate thoughts on her latest kristeniskandrian.substack.com/p/things-in-...

I’m a crier, it’s true, but I cried at an Alice Notley reading, b/c I knew I was in the presence of genius, & b/c her work seemed to come from some harrowing beyond that she was showing us the lit corners of, the lighted exits

I love how ppl who “hate musical theater” see their kid in a play for the first time & go full Pippin

hastening to complete my little tasks so that I can dive back into a chair with The Ten Year Affair by @somers.bsky.social

Last night, Kevin Wilson filled @thankyoubooks.bsky.social with love & laughter. My two favorite things!

it’s Saturday, you know what to do: be stressed languorously

an “organizing principle”…many books lack this, to their detriment, I feel

it’ll be tempting, but don’t give the ppl u love artisanal hot chocolate, no matter how handsome the package….its home is the trash

enjoying Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier for similes like “her irony was as faintly acrid as a caraway seed” and zingers such as “she bolted with a bookie from Bray”

When I tell you to read a book that ripped my heart out? That’s a wreckommendation

unfortunately all day & for no reason I have been saying to myself 'the goss is hot but the tea is milky'

a partial reading list of books that brilliantly personify & create new idioms for notoriously languageless states of being--Michael Clune's PAN, William Brewer's THE RED ARROW, Elaine Kraf's THE PRINCESS OF 72ND STREET

rereading Stoner over the next 2 weeks, you are invited to join me, we don't have to talk about it, it's Silent Stoner Book Club in advance of TYB Book Club on 4/27

every memoir is like, what if I were tell you that I, a human woman, have PROBLEMS

People are really weird about reading. Obsessing abt numbers, “rating” books, feeling “guilt,” getting parasocial…like guys. Calm down this is supposed to be fun

"The secret life of" flora/fauna? None of my business. That's why it's secret

when I read a popular book & love it too…trust that I love it differently

every book for young teens is like what if a QUEER MURDERER went to PROM

every book is like, what if the CLIMATE could HAVE SEX