Five Fine Things...
*in which I inflict my taste on you, dear reader
Photo: taken by me @ Tate Modern, artist Jenny Holzer.
Dear Reader,
Ahoy! Welcome to the newsletter new readers, thank you for being here all. This is my semi-regular ‘things’ worth sharing post (as inspired by Kleon). A verb, an ‘ing’ word, followed by whatever is ‘floating my boat’ that week or month, more can be found here.
For other literary flotsam and jetsam including this essay on fair-weather friends and this video clip on things I’ve heard during yoga class take an explore of the archives.
Please do help this newsletter grow by sharing it. Thank you so much.
Love,
Emma
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p.s. My biography of my grandparents and CiWF founders, Anna and Peter Roberts, Roaming Wild, the Founding of Compassion in World Farming, can be purchased here (U.K) .and here (North America).
Listening! To Brazilian Soul from SOFI TUKKER on KEXP. In addition to the smooth lounge groves I love the dancer in this video and the magic of the light-bulb filled studio!
Absorbing! Elizabeth Strout on the Other PPL with Brad Listi podcast - I love the way she talks about her characters talking to her, Olive (Kitteridge) in her ear as she loads the dishwasher. (Not you again Olive! ) Character-driven prose - as opposed to plot-driven, rising action stuff - tends to be my favourite kind of writing and Strout is a master of it.
Watching! Dinner in America (2020). At first this film felt bleak and a little gross, it's a coming of age tale with a derelict mid-western suburban setting, but somehow it twisted and developed into a very punk-rock and surprisingly sweet (not saccarine) love story. (Viewed on evil Amazon for £3.50.)
Teaching! The Hero's Journey (the abridged version) for an imaginative writing GCSE coursework piece. Having just stated I don't love plot-driven work (see point 2) here I am recommending the ultimate formula! However, I believe it's useful to consider and really know what you are rejecting and indeed if you do really want to reject it all.
Learning! From Anu Garg's Word a Day e-newsletter. I've been signed up for years and it's very enjoyable everyday, (more likely I read once a week), to learn these new words. I like too that Garg themes the words under groupings such as: magic words, hybrid words, sound words and so on. This week I learned the very useful word ideophone (especially useful if you teach English Literature, which I do).