Airports should all have rooms showing Christian Marclay’s The Clock.

Eve Babitz knows how to end male loneliness.

The town I spent most of my time in in Texas (Leakey) doesn’t have a bookstore (though it does have a library), but I did buy some books I’m looking forward to at Alienated Majesty in Austin. Also, I had the new @alvinlu.bsky.social waiting for me when I got back.

My wife and I went with our 7yo to visit family in Texas and we’ve come back with a puppy (more family). Meet Scuti. (Named, btw, after UY Scuti, the second largest known star, as suggested by our 7yo, who is very much into all things outer-space.)

This is heartbreaking. My condolences to her family and friends.

Some knockout images from the Jenny Saville exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, easily one of my favourite shows this year. #Art #London #ArtSky

This was so great. Sara is delightful and kind for not making fun of my sunscreen-doused eye watering all the time we were together. Would like to meet all of my social-media friends in person as we can make that happen.

Daydreamers is out in the world now. "A story of immigration, brilliantly inflected with undercurrents both noir and comic.” —Susan Daitch "Daydreamers kind of sinks in slowly. Then it becomes absorbing in a way that doesn't let up." —Stacey Levine Cover concept by @illepitaph.bsky.social

I've found the perfect Instagram account. Seattle's Twice Sold Tales owner Jamie recommends books and shows her cats. That's it. IG twicesoldtales

I’ve been rereading Williams’s The Quick and the Dead, and I think I’m holding together now in some way the parts of what had struck me as a very funny and enjoyably strange series of vignettes.

Feels like a good time to start a new to me Babitz. The other two NYRB Babitz’s are terrific, btw, if you’re also needing effervescence in your life.

Psst! I designed the cover for the new Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff book forthcoming from Dalkey Archive Press! I had such a blast working on this because it's unlike any other cover I've designed. And the book itself is FUCKING WILD.

I picked this graphic novel up a few years ago after Dustin Illingworth and @bibliopaul.bsky.social said nice things about it. Now I’ve read it and want to recommend it to you all if you haven’t. Its story feels hopeful but hinges on some dark realities of the US media.

Post an unusual sign if you feel like it.

it's Cool Women Born in Interwar Europe Fall, get in on the ground floor

"We do not want our streets militarized ... California will never stop fighting ... Do not give in to him." www.youtube.com/live/0n77NFj...

Hell of a photo

Yesterday, mid-morning outside the dance studio. Sun on autumn leaves, unfiltered

“Bring on the Lucie” came up on a playlist I’ve made for my 6yo, and strikes the right chord for how I’m feeling lately. Free the people now. Do it do it do it now.

Meeting irl the authors and long-time book twitter friends who read at this event would’ve been enough alone to make the trip to LA worth it. So glad to have gone.

In Los Angeles for the big writer shindig. But first chilaquiles at La Noche Buena on Olvera Street. Turns out it’s near my hotel.

Adolescence is tremendous. Worth toggling over to Netflix again if you’ve unsubscribed. (We do this a lot from channels we’re not using at my place.)

Most everything else is terrible. But it looks like there’ll be a new Joy Williams in November. So, one more good thing. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612221...

I had a great time with the Not a River novels - a thematic trilogy dealing often with toxic masculinity and inter-generational violence. Some lovey humor despite these themes. And such a wonderfully relaxed prose style Almada has. See this bit from Not a River (tr. Annie McDermott).

Pretty sure I’d hold it against my parents if their pseudoscientific beliefs led to me getting measles.

Are you bored tonight? Send your five accomplishments, maybe your shopping list, or your five thoughts on Elon from the past week to OPM at [email protected].

Agents/editors: My great agent is hanging it up. I have: - a novel ms. some of the most discerning editors in the biz have been excited about - a groundbreaking Asian American novel, Daydreamers, pubbing next summer from FC2 - a first novel rave-reviewed in NYTBR, etc. Happy to chat. alvinlu.co

I finished Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall a few days ago, and really loved it.

Today is the day! Publication of Red House Alley, the first complete English translation of Else Jerusalem's landmark 1909 novel about the sex trade in 19th century Vienna. Now available from the Recovered Books series from @bhousepress.bsky.social.

My ~5yo ginkgo showing off its fall color.

Dear humans, Just wanted to share something I've been quiet about, in the year of my loud self-doubt, with gratitude to @sarabandebooks.bsky.social and to many others whom I look forward to thanking in the coming months, MY HERESIES, forthcoming in April 2025.🖤 www.sarabandebooks.org/all-titles/p...

Weekend plans. My first McCarthy. Also rereading a bit of the Williams and starting The Wall.

Hey @twolinespress.bsky.social is here!

The folks at @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social are having a big sale so I’m posting my love letter to them: open.substack.com/pub/formajou...

Excited about these new arrivals.

Wednesday's Child, Yiyun Li's new collection of stories, is threaded with grief yet radiant with some of the best writing I've read in ages. Don't miss it.

New review. A spare dystopic novel out soon in Canada, in September in the US. https://roughghosts.com/2023/08/12/days-and-hours-light-and-darkness-south-by-babak-lakghomi/

What I’m reading atm.