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Elle
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
Susan Choi Recommends a Book So Engrossing It Made Her (Almost) Lose Her Luggage
Welcome to Shelf Life, What began as a short story in The New Yorker is now Susan Choi's sixth and latest novel, The Indiana-born, Texas-raised, New York-based bestselling author studied literature at Yale University; was once The New Yorker and co-edited Likes: theater; Dislikes: Good at: rocking her Bad at: cleaning menorahs; coming up with Scroll through the reads she recommends below. The book that…: …made me miss a train stop: It's not exactly a missed-the-train moment, but I was re-reading …made me weep uncontrollably: Philip Roth's …I recommend over and over again: Jenny Erpenbeck's …I swear I'll finish one day: All of Proust. Or even just some decent amount of Proust. I love the prose but also find it so exquisite it's almost unbearable to continue reading for any length of time, at least for me, which makes me feel like a total failure as a reader. I might have to set aside a year of my life just to read Proust. ...I read in one sitting; it was that good: Sarah Moss's …currently sits on my nightstand: …made me laugh out loud: Paul Beatty's …has a sex scene that will make you blush: In Francisco Goldman's ...I've re-read the most: ...makes me feel seen: looking at me, like it knew exactly who I was. The protagonist has, like me, a real culture-clash background, and up to the point in my life when I read the book—the '90s—I'd never encountered that in fiction, so it was very emotional when I finally did. ...everyone should read: ...I could only have discovered at ...fills me with hope: Everything by elating observer of us humans and the strange things we do. Bonus questions: If I could live in any library or bookstore in the world, it would be: The literary organization/charity I support: Read Susan Choi's Book Recommendations Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Now 24% Off Credit: Vintage Everyman by Philip Roth Now 12% Off Credit: Vintage Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck Now 66% Off Credit: New Directions Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss Now 50% Off Credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Real Americans by Rachel Khong Now 32% Off Credit: Vintage The Sellout by Paul Beatty Credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux The Ordinary Seamen by Francisco Goldman Credit: Grove Press The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Now 30% Off Credit: Charles Scribner's Sons A Feather on the Breath of God by Sigrid Nunez Now 36% Off Credit: Picador Paper Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie Credit: Riverhead Books
Tatler Asia
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Tatler Asia
From Sylvia Plath to Donna Tartt: 5 trending books you'll find in every It girl's tote bag
'A Secret History' by Donna Tartt Above 'The Secret History' by Donna Tart (Photo: Ivy Books) Intellectually elite, morally ambiguous and cloaked in a mist of fatalism, A Secret History offers the kind of heady narrative that It girls are known to gravitate toward. Tartt's tale of a group of eccentric classics students who commit murder and try to rationalise it through philosophy reads like The Talented Mr. Ripley set in New England academia. The book, a trending fixture since TikTok revived it, explores the seduction of aesthetics and ideas taken to extremes. With its gothic sensibility, Greco-Roman references and quietly sinister tone, it's no surprise this novel has earned a spot on the bookshelves of fashion insiders, models and artists. Tartt's characters are cold and brilliant—qualities often projected onto the modern It girl, for better or worse. 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' by Joan Didion Above 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' by Joan Didion (Photo: Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Few writers have the cultural currency of the infinitely cool Joan Didion, and Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains her most iconic work. A master of restraint and razor-sharp observation, Didion captures the fragmentation of 1960s America with dispassionate clarity. Her essays blend memoir and reportage, revealing a mind endlessly attuned to chaos beneath surface order. For the It girl who prizes intellect and quiet detachment, Didion offers an ideal model: fiercely articulate, enigmatic and impossible to imitate. The book's understated black-and-white covers and clean typography make it a favourite among minimalist tastemakers. More than a trending book, it's a blueprint for cool-headed self-possession. 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith Above 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith (Photo: Ecco) Patti Smith's Just Kids is a memoir of bohemian life in 1970s New York, chronicling her artistic partnership with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It's romantic but not naïve, poetic without being precious. Smith details their rise from poverty to art-world prominence with an earnestness that's oddly radical in the age of irony. The It girl reader finds resonance in Smith's early hunger—for beauty, for expression, for significance—and in her resilience amid chaos. Unlike the curated intimacy of influencers, Smith's vulnerability feels unfiltered. It's a book that doesn't ask for admiration, only attention, and that's precisely what makes it an enduring favourite. 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation' by Ottessa Moshfegh Above 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation' by Ottessa Moshfegh (Photo: Penguin Press) On the surface, Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation might look like satire for the hyper-privileged. A beautiful young woman, numb with grief and aimlessness, attempts to medicate herself into oblivion by sleeping through a year in Manhattan. But beneath its absurd premise is a biting critique of self-optimisation, consumer culture and the fetishisation of wellness. The protagonist is unlikeable, opaque and often hilariously cruel—yet her disillusionment feels cuttingly relevant. With its minimalist cover and sardonic voice, this trending book has become a kind of anti-self-help bible for the It girl who is sceptical of overexposure and allergic to performative healing. These titles share more than just shelf appeal. Each explores identity, alienation or the tension between public persona and private self—territory that It girls know intimately. Whether it's Plath's portrayal of suffocating expectations, Tartt's intoxicating intellectualism or Moshfegh's elegant nihilism, these trending books offer a mirror to women living under constant observation. They are aesthetically spare yet emotionally intense, rich with complexity but never overwrought. In a world obsessed with content, women for literature that asks more of her and gives something back.
New York Post
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
The wild story of America's pioneering ‘mega'-preacher
She was a blend of P.T. Barnum, the colorful showman credited with declaring, 'There's a sucker born every minute,' and the infamous flamboyant televangelist couple Tammy Faye and Jim Baker who built a scandal-riddled evangelical empire — all rolled into one. Back in the early years of the Roaring Twenties it was a charismatic lady evangelist by the name of Aimee Semple McPherson who ruled a circus-like path to heaven that enthralled audiences and worshippers alike. 8 Early 20th Century-preacher Aimee Semple McPherson during a worship service featuring her exuberant, ecclesiastic-meets-entertainment style. Getty Images Operating out of what was America's very first megachurch — the Angelus Temple, in Los Angeles, with more than 7,000 daily visitors — McPherson, by age 33, was a star who found her calling by dazzling followers with flamboyant sermons that described a rapturous state of love with God. A faith healer, too, McPherson's dramatic sermons included adult baptisms by immersion in water — with stage scenery borrowed from nearby Hollywood studios, and all of it backed by her brass band or 14-piece orchestra and a hundred-voice choir outfitted in heavenly white. And it all guaranteed that the collection plates would be spilling over at the conclusion of her services. To the devout, Aimee Semple McPherson was a modern-day saint, more recognizable than the pope. 8 McPherson's wild ways were compared to P.T. Barnum, the iconic showman of the same era. Getty Images 'Aimee sold herself as 'the just right option' — more comfortable than the thumpers who yelled about sin and hell, but also someone who embraced the pure fundamentals of Christian faith. She was 'Everybody's Sister,' ' writes journalist Claire Hoffman in her wild ride of a biography, 'Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). As Hoffman details, McPherson's 'critics called her the P.T. Barnum of Christianity. She used live camels, tigers, lambs and stately palm trees — whatever it took to bring the ancient world alive on her stage.' She was 'the Goldilocks alternative — not too hot, not too cold. The just-right message on Jesus,' Hoffman writes, as well as a queen of her realm, decked out in a white nurse's uniform topped with a blue cape emblazoned with a cross — appearing virtuous and godly. 8 The Angelus Temple, which could hold thousands and was a precursor to the massive 'mega'- temples seen across the nation today. Corbis via Getty Images Thousands gathered for the greatest show in town, proclaims the author, who observes that McPherson had repackaged Pentecostalism for a mainstream, white audience that depicted a loving personal relation with God. But the dark side of fame was about to beset McPherson. Writes the author, 'As her congregation and fortunes had grown, so too had ominous incidents: obsessed fans showing up in the middle of the night, a madwoman arrested for trying to murder her, and even a botched kidnapping plot.' On the sunny afternoon of May 18, 1926, 35-year-old Aimee decided to work on her sermons at the Ocean View Hotel, in the beach town of Venice. She changed into an emerald green bathing suit and headed down to the shore 'to take a little dip.' She began to swim further out and then disappeared in the waves of the blue Pacific. 8 The crowded Venice Beach location of McPherson's 'mega-congregation.' Corbis via Getty Images 'A squadron of police and U.S. Coast Guard searched the water from Venice to Topanga Canyon,' writes Hoffman, but the evangelist had vanished. That is until a month later when — miracle of miracles, and all hope lost — she suddenly resurfaced, not in the ocean, but walking 22 miles out of the desert in Mexico, claiming she had been kidnapped, drugged, tortured and threatened with sexual slavery. But Asa Keyes, then-the anti-corruption district attorney of Los Angeles, had a different account. He asserted that the famed evangelist had, in reality, stepped out of a car and walked a short distance over the Texas border. How she disappeared from the ocean was never known. Meanwhile, an eyewitness came forward claiming the godly McPherson had been shacked up with her lover, the married Kenneth Ormiston, the radio operator from her church, who quit his job shortly before she disappeared. 'Aimee defended every aspect of her life. She had battled for the world to believe her, selling herself as virtue made flesh,' writes Hoffman. 'She had to cast herself as a victim, blinking and wide-eyed, held hostage and at the mercy of dark forces.' 8 McPherson in the hospital accompanied by her husband, David. McPherpson underwent a bllod tranfusion amid an illness, but still remained committed to performing her services. Bettmann Archive The once fawning press called her 'a weaver of fantastic tales,' the 'Houdini of the Pulpit,' and described her followers as 'ill-educated bumpkins, the morons of LA.' As the author observed, 'Aimee was a wolf in sanctimonious sheep's clothing, adept at duping the masses with an artful smile and a great show.' She was investigated for criminal conspiracy to pervert, or obstruct justice. The investigation was later dropped, but the famed evangelist couldn't escape the continued harsh criticism by the press. One night after an appearance in Oakland, she returned to her hotel and overdosed on hypnotic sedatives. 8 McPherson celebrating her 25th year as an evangelist with a pageant called 'Cavalcade of Christianity,' in which 1,000 players participated. Bettmann Archive She was pronounced dead the following morning on Sept. 27, 1944 at age 53 and buried in Forest Lawn cemetery. Born in 1890, McPherson was first exposed to preaching and prayer when her mother joined the Salvation Army and took her young daughter to Salvationist meetings. Aimee loved playing church, sermonizing and singing hymns to her dolls. A Holy Ghost revival drew her into the Holy Rollers circle, shouting hallelujah while swaying in adoration of the Holy Spirit. She quit high school after falling in love with Robert James Semple, a department store clerk who left his job to preach and pray at revival meetings, and in 1908, the two married. Blissfully, they headed off to Europe and then Hong Kong to spread God's word, with Aimee pregnant. But malaria caught up with both, killing Robert and sending Aimee back to the US where she joined her mother ringing a bell up and down Broadway in New York for the Salvation Army. Down at the heels, Aimee agreed to marry Harold McPherson, an accountant who was hoping she'd be a happy homemaker. At age 23 in 1913, Aimee suffered multiple nervous breakdowns and a hysterectomy leaving her near death. It was then she would claim that she heard a voice telling her, 'Go! Do the work of an evangelist. Preach the Word.' She believed God was calling her and with her two children, Rolf and Roberta, she caught the midnight train for Canada where she began standing on a chair on the sidewalk with her hands raised toward Heaven calling for passersby to hear her preach. Now calling herself 'Sister' and wearing virginal white nursing uniforms, she began touring the East Coast preaching in revival tents and arenas. Aimee's mother, Minnie Kennedy, promoted her daughter's ministry with advertising and megaphones announcing her appearances, even dropping leaflets from aircraft — bringing in thousands into arenas that became littered with castoff canes, crutches and wheelchairs of those thought to have been healed by the laying on of Aimee's hands — and overflowing the collection plates. 8 Author Claire Hoffman. Davis Guggenheim According to the author, a vision had beckoned McPherson to Los Angeles in 1918 — and within five years, she had built her 'Million Dollar Temple' built with 'love offerings' received during years of itinerant tent revivals. So, what really happened to McPherson when she supposedly vanished into the ocean and was thought to have drowned but later turned up alive and well in a desert in Mexico? That mystery was never solved when she was alive and remains unsolved a century later today.
Toronto Star
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
In new sci-fi novels, artificial intelligence causes problems and the moon somehow turns into cheese
Cold Eternity S.A. Barnes Tor Nightfire, 304 pages, $38.99 S.A. Barnes has become the go-to name for creepy SF-horror, and 'Cold Eternity' follows previous books like 'Dead Silence' and 'Ghost Station' in going off-planet to tell a techno-ghost story. The main character is a young woman named Halley who is on the run from the political powers-that-be, who are also her former employers. Desperate, she takes a job as a sort of security guard on board the Elysian Fields, an ancient spaceship filled with cryo-chambers. It's a lousy gig, but the ship makes a good place to hide from the authorities — at least until things start taking a turn for the weird and Halley finds herself facing off against a next-generation evil. Barnes does this kind of thing very well, and there are parts of 'Cold Eternity' that are genuinely suspenseful and scary. Halley's backstory is complicated, though, and there are too many pages devoted to a romance angle with an AI. It's a chillingly effective read, but one that also makes you wish there was a little less of it. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'Rose/House,' by Arkady Martine, Tordotcom, $27.99. Rose/House Arkady Martine Tordotcom, 128 pages, $27.99 Rose House is the name of a structure built out in the Mojave Desert by a famous architect who designed it as both his masterpiece and the final repository of his crystallized remains. As things kick off, the resident AI that runs Rose House, and that 'is' Rose House in a deeper sense, calls the local police to let them know that there's a dead body inside, which is something that should be impossible since there's only one person who has been given access to the building and she's out of the country. What follows is a spin on the classic 'locked room' murder mystery. It's also a ghost story, as the AI (which is 'not sane' in the best Hill House tradition) haunts Rose House in complicated ways. Multiple layers of what happened are revealed to the pair of women allowed inside: the detective investigating and the building's legal heir. This all makes for a great buildup, and if the payoff isn't quite on the same level, it's at least something different and unexpected. 'Where the Axe Is Buried,' by Ray Nayler, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $37. Where the Axe Is Buried Ray Nayler Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 336 pages, $37 Though this is only his third novel, Ray Nayler has already established himself as a must-read for intelligent, near-future speculative fiction. 'Where the Axe Is Buried' is a political thriller set in a New Cold War version of Europe where Russia is ruled by a president who can live forever in a series of new bodies into which his consciousness can be ported, and artificial intelligence programs called prime ministers run a 'rationalized' Western Europe. Unfortunately, technology has not set us free, and both sides are post-ideological authoritarian surveillance states — places where insect-sized drones carry messages of hope or death, and when you look out into the streets, the street is always looking back at you. There are underground resistance movements, though, and scientists, spies and politicians trying to tear down the system and build something better. It's a complicated story that hops around a lot among many characters in many places, but Nayler's world-building is top notch, creating a plausible and deeply realized vision of the future that also feels scarily close to home. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'When the Moon Hits Your Eye,' by John Scalzi, Tor, $39.99. When the Moon Hits Your Eye John Scalzi Tor, 336 pages, $39.99 The premise is everything: suddenly, and all at once, the moon turns into cheese. Indeed, not only the moon itself, but all the moon rocks on display in museums and in private collections here on Earth. Of course, Luna's transformation into Caseus (Latin for 'cheese') is ridiculous. At first, none of the characters in John Scalzi's latest can believe it's happened. But the novel works by taking the great cheesification event literally, though not seriously. If the moon were to turn into cheese, we're led to ask, what would happen next? Each chapter tells the story of a different character, progressing daily until the book has covered a full lunar cycle. The question each section asks is how politicians, scientists, business leaders, the media and the broader public are affected, and how they might respond to such a bizarre event. This is just an entertainment, with little hard science and not a lot of deep thinking behind it, but it's all good fun in Scalzi's typically playful hands.
Hamilton Spectator
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
In new sci-fi novels, artificial intelligence causes problems and the moon somehow turns into cheese
Cold Eternity S.A. Barnes Tor Nightfire, 304 pages, $38.99 S.A. Barnes has become the go-to name for creepy SF-horror, and 'Cold Eternity' follows previous books like 'Dead Silence' and 'Ghost Station' in going off-planet to tell a techno-ghost story. The main character is a young woman named Halley who is on the run from the political powers-that-be, who are also her former employers. Desperate, she takes a job as a sort of security guard on board the Elysian Fields, an ancient spaceship filled with cryo-chambers. It's a lousy gig, but the ship makes a good place to hide from the authorities — at least until things start taking a turn for the weird and Halley finds herself facing off against a next-generation evil. Barnes does this kind of thing very well, and there are parts of 'Cold Eternity' that are genuinely suspenseful and scary. Halley's backstory is complicated, though, and there are too many pages devoted to a romance angle with an AI. It's a chillingly effective read, but one that also makes you wish there was a little less of it. 'Rose/House,' by Arkady Martine, Tordotcom, $27.99. Rose/House Arkady Martine Tordotcom, 128 pages, $27.99 Rose House is the name of a structure built out in the Mojave Desert by a famous architect who designed it as both his masterpiece and the final repository of his crystallized remains. As things kick off, the resident AI that runs Rose House, and that 'is' Rose House in a deeper sense, calls the local police to let them know that there's a dead body inside, which is something that should be impossible since there's only one person who has been given access to the building and she's out of the country. What follows is a spin on the classic 'locked room' murder mystery. It's also a ghost story, as the AI (which is 'not sane' in the best Hill House tradition) haunts Rose House in complicated ways. Multiple layers of what happened are revealed to the pair of women allowed inside: the detective investigating and the building's legal heir. This all makes for a great buildup, and if the payoff isn't quite on the same level, it's at least something different and unexpected. 'Where the Axe Is Buried,' by Ray Nayler, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $37. Where the Axe Is Buried Ray Nayler Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 336 pages, $37 Though this is only his third novel, Ray Nayler has already established himself as a must-read for intelligent, near-future speculative fiction. 'Where the Axe Is Buried' is a political thriller set in a New Cold War version of Europe where Russia is ruled by a president who can live forever in a series of new bodies into which his consciousness can be ported, and artificial intelligence programs called prime ministers run a 'rationalized' Western Europe. Unfortunately, technology has not set us free, and both sides are post-ideological authoritarian surveillance states — places where insect-sized drones carry messages of hope or death, and when you look out into the streets, the street is always looking back at you. There are underground resistance movements, though, and scientists, spies and politicians trying to tear down the system and build something better. It's a complicated story that hops around a lot among many characters in many places, but Nayler's world-building is top notch, creating a plausible and deeply realized vision of the future that also feels scarily close to home. 'When the Moon Hits Your Eye,' by John Scalzi, Tor, $39.99. When the Moon Hits Your Eye John Scalzi Tor, 336 pages, $39.99 The premise is everything: suddenly, and all at once, the moon turns into cheese. Indeed, not only the moon itself, but all the moon rocks on display in museums and in private collections here on Earth. Of course, Luna's transformation into Caseus (Latin for 'cheese') is ridiculous. At first, none of the characters in John Scalzi's latest can believe it's happened. But the novel works by taking the great cheesification event literally, though not seriously. If the moon were to turn into cheese, we're led to ask, what would happen next? Each chapter tells the story of a different character, progressing daily until the book has covered a full lunar cycle. The question each section asks is how politicians, scientists, business leaders, the media and the broader public are affected, and how they might respond to such a bizarre event. This is just an entertainment, with little hard science and not a lot of deep thinking behind it, but it's all good fun in Scalzi's typically playful hands.
