In bad taste #9: April forecast

cruelest month blah blah blah

Hi, thanks for being here and happy Easter and Passover. As always, free subscribers get a taste of “In Bad Taste,” but to read the rest, you’ll have to upgrade your subscription. xoxo.

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A taste

1. The new boygenius album.

Duh. As you might have read, I wrote my last essay on the record. This album is already so deeply ingrained in my being that I’m scared I may never listen to anything else. Favorite tracks are “Revolution 0” and “Anti-curse.” Listen while you make your way home late at night under the full moon. And yearn and yearn and yearn.

2. After Claude by Iris Owens

I failed to write an essay on the break-up novel after reading this novel. The essay was probably unnecessary given how necessary this book is. Do yourself a favor and read it. Discovering a passive aggressive note from a former reader on a sticky note on the first page only delighted me more. If you have an affinity for rancid bitches (and I do, as I am one), this is the book for you. 

3. Sweet Enough by Alison Roman

Discussed more below. I am not the first to say it, but baking is so in. I’ve already baked three things from this cookbook. As a famous non-baker who once dropped eggshells into a pound cake batter and proceeded to bake it anyways, these recipes proofed for the exact type of fool I am. 

4. Some sweet Substacks

• Delaney’s Very Hot, Very Cool

I’m so charmed by Delaney’s writing. Her posts are both earnest and thoughtful, making me feel like I’m up late whispering with a friend at the sleepover after everyone else has gone to sleep. Deep and searching, funny and ecstatic, Delaney is it.

• Miri’s Ephemeras 

I’m still thinking about this post on apartment hunting (thanks Ava for the rec). Miri’s writing is searingly succinct. Hauntingly on point. It doesn’t get much better than this. 

5. Either/or by Elif Batuman 

Is this necessary to recommend? I’m so behind. Leah mailed me a copy after I returned her copy of The Idiot four years after she lent it to me. Batuman just gets it. And by it, I mean being eternally clueless when it comes to deciphering the code of crushes and yourself simultaneously. And how humiliating that process tends to be.

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What’s in (abridged)