What Caught My Eye Online #47

Florida bans 700+ books, influential cookbooks, AI poetry, and more

Photo by Amie Johnson on Unsplash

Welcome to this week’s roundup!

Here’s what I’ve been loving over the last few days:

• Costco. At 37, I finally became an adult because I got a Costco card. I wanted one for the holidays and went in last week to see what all they had. My favorite finds include sous vide egg bites and mini-tiramisus in glass jars. Where else can you buy a toilet, tires, flowers, and croissants all in one place? God bless America.

• Laughter. November has been a difficult month so far, and laughter has been one of the things that’s keeping me going. I’m grateful for moments of levity and good friends to share them with.

• Storytelling. A couple of friends are on the board of a local storytelling organization, and they had their latest show last week. The theme was “roots,” so most of the evening’s stories were about family. Stories typically vary from funny to sentimental to heartwarming, but last week’s stories were pretty heavy (yet beautiful). Experiencing that kind of gut-wrenching vulnerability in a room full of people felt holy. Telling and listening to stories are two of life’s most important acts. I’m glad I got the reminder.

And now for this week’s links!

• Year-end best book lists are starting to come out. I always enjoy looking through these. Time offers the must-read books of 2024, and Kirkus and Amazon share their best.

• Florida’s education department released a list of over 700 books removed from K-12 schools, including work by revered authors such as Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, Flannery O’Connor, Maya Angelou, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Toni Morrison. Other authors whose books had to go include the wildly popular Sarah J. Maas, Nic Stone, Elizabeth Avedeo, Stephen King, and John Green. What a massive loss for the students in these schools.

• A doctor writes that book bans aren’t just morally wrong but also unhealthy. She says:

  • “If there's any time in history that our young people have been in critical need of radical imagination, it's now. If humans are to deal, as a collective, with everything from religious bigotry to racial injustice to environmental disaster, our future leaders, teachers, artists, and politicians need to imagine radical possibilities for the world. They will need to enact a radical empathy, a radical love toward those both like and unlike themselves. It is partially for this reason that children's and YA fiction is under such intense assault from book banners. They recognize the power of literature to shape not just individual minds and hearts, but also the architecture of the future.”

• Check out the 25 most influential cookbooks from the last 100 years. This article was such a delight to read.

• Book Riot recommends eight of the best debut mystery novels ever written. The only one I’ve read is In the Woods by Tana French, an all-time favorite.

• Goodreads put together a 72-book gift guide for young readers.

• They also highlight 99 beloved backlist books.

• Barnes and Noble chose James by Percival Everett as their book of the year. I loved James, so I’m happy to see it getting so much love and respect.

• My beloved Prue Leith from The Great British Baking Show shares some cooking tips from her new cookbook with NPR.

• The Guardian reports that AI poetry was rated better than poetry written by humans.

• Lit Hub gives readers an excerpt from a fascinating new book called Picturing Black History: Photographs and Stories that Changed the World.

• The nonprofit We Need Diverse Books is celebrating 10 years. One of the school libraries I support received a grant from them several years back, so I’m grateful for their support and work.

• The X-Files was the first adult show I fell in love with as a kid, so its stars, Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, still hold special places in my heart. They recently shared a conversation on Duchovny’s podcast, and I was surprised by the depth and vulnerability they reached.

• I’m very into creating a cozy home, so why shouldn’t my digital environment be cozy, too? I don’t remember how I came across this article about digital coziness, but I’m glad I did.

• I made this creamy beef and tomato noodle soup for dinner last night, and it was delicious, as always. It’s been a family favorite for a while.

• Jon Batiste has a new album that I’m excited to hear.

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Thanks for being here! Did any of these links resonate with you?