No.180
(I could have sworn there were useful things to say until I got distracted by the chlorine smell left on my arms, by the afternoon weather forecast, by the stretch of wild meadow at the edge of a neighbour’s garden visible from the window.)
July has been an interesting and shapely beast, one that’s nearly over, and it seems to have gathered an existential pace as it’s progressed. I’m concerned, today at least, that existential tones will not help anyone and so instead of my usual month-ending-list, I’m sharing a excerpt from near the beginning of Everything, Beautiful, which is out in the world in a matter of 24 days:
“We currently live in a beauty drought. This isn’t because the beauty isn’t there, but rather because our current definitions of the word are not spacious or welcoming or inclusive, and because beauty has been pressed into strange, stale shapes by people and systems that do not have our best interests at their hearts—they don’t have hearts, in a way. The word beauty has left most of us feeling confused, less than, and undeserving. Feeling that beauty has left us behind. Beauty has become something to buy, something to own, something to flaunt, but as I read just this morning while eating a piece of distinctly average cheesecake:
“That’s the thing about beauty, isn’t it? In the end it belongs to everyone. In the end it belongs to no one but itself.””
WORK-RELATED NEWS:
Thanks to a suggestion from the UK assistant editor I now have an infinitely sensible and very belated Linktree, primarily so that different book editions can be found by people with ease. I was in denial about this solution for a long time, mainly because it felt untidy and because I didn’t want to overwhelm people with countless options and locations, but sense seems to have won out.
Everything, Beautiful will, I’m now officially announcing in an announcement voice, also be available in the UK from September 1st with Vintage imprint Square Peg—a really lovely happening because way-back-when they published my first two books for the UK market.
While the US edition arrives a little earlier (as per image above) and to a larger audience, there is something squirming in a different way with the knowledge that I’ll be able to walk into a bookshop not far from home and silently turn the pages of my own book—no no, this has little to do with me.
(This time around I’m resolved to de-introvert on occasion, mainly so that I can ensure there are some signed copies in the independent bookshops.)
P.s. I rarely have need to mention Pinterest, but it has its time and place, and I was encouraged to create a collection based on the new book, gathering small previews from the book’s pages, along with personal images that have both inspired it and speak to its themes. If the platform is something you use, this collection can be found here.
THIS WEEK I FELL IN LOVE WITH:
Paintings by underappreciated—she had only one solo exhibition during her lifetime—American artist (and many other things) Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944).
I could not resist a list in the end, and this is the end. So, a handful of beautiful things:
Dovetail joints
Lingering, innocent eye contact between strangers
Dusk when it’s a sort of phthalo blue
Sea glass you can no longer see through
3 a.m. noises
Pianos
The process of growing feathers