last/current/next: reads and listens edition
I love a list, so here's my take on what I'm enjoying these days.
Hi friends —
This week’s newsletter is coming in on the mellow side, and honestly, mellow has been my mood as a whole lately. We celebrated my mom over the weekend, and somewhere in the middle of all of it I also deleted TikTok from my phone. As someone who works in social media and has genuinely found a healthy balance with it, I still somehow found myself deep in dash cam videos and body cam arrest footage at midnight. The tipping point was watching a woman get arrested at Ross because she wanted a discount. That was my cue to delete.
So this week, instead of a deep dive, I’m doing something I’ve been seeing all over and wanted to try for myself: last, current, and next for both reading and listening. Consider it a check-in. A look at what’s on the nightstand and in the headphones right now.
THE BOOKS
Last: Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel
I have not stopped talking about this book since I finished it, and I’ll keep going. Enormous Wings follows Pepper Mills, a seventy-seven-year-old woman who, after a car accident, ends up living in a senior community where her ex-husband also happens to reside. She settles in, makes friends, falls for a new man, and then finds herself PREGNANT. Pepper lives in Austin, Texas, which adds a layer to the story that is very much of this moment, and Frankel doesn’t look away from it.
For me, what made this book work, is the quirkiness mixed with the weight of what was happening. It’s about female agency, about what happens when choices get made for you instead of by you, and about how love and friendship and family can still rearrange everything even late in the day.
Current: Good People by Patmeena Sabit
I’m about 40% in, and this book has not let me put it down. The story is told through interviews, assembling a portrait of the Sharaf family: wealthy, happy, a picture of immigrant success in an affluent Arlington, Virginia neighborhood. They arrived in this country with nothing and built what looks like everything. But something has happened to Zorah, the eldest daughter, the apple of her father’s eye, and the book asks you to sit with the question of what that something was.
I have a theory (I think I know what happened to Zorah, and it involves her father), but I’m not fully sure yet. What I love most is the structure: learning about this family through the eyes of neighbors, family friends, a department store owner. It’s intimate and unsettling in equal measure. I’ll report back when I finish.
I’m also doing a version of immersive reading with this one: listening to the audiobook and following along in print when I want to slow down. Highly recommend trying it if you haven’t. The audiobook has lots of different voices which as a somewhat green audiobook reader, I’m enjoying.
Next: Score by Kennedy Ryan
I must say, one of the books I’ve been most anxiously waiting for is Score by Kennedy Ryan. After completely falling in love with her writing through the Skyland series, I knew I needed more. This one is a second-chance romance, and if Ryan’s past work is any indication, I’m expecting all the tension, chemistry, and emotional dialogues — plus a fine man with a deep voice (which is exactly how I imagined Maverick and Judah in my head).
The book follows Verity and Monk, former college lovers whose breakup clearly left a lasting mark on both of them. More than a decade later, they’re reunited while working on a Harlem Renaissance biopic. She’s writing the script, and he’s creating the score. It’s very much about the aftermath of first love, old wounds, unresolved chemistry, and whether two people can really move past what happened between them.
THE MUSIC
Last: Spring Playlist
Lately, I’ve been listening to a little bit of everything through my Spring playlist. It’s become a home for all the music I’ve been enjoying recently, from Little Brother and Durand Bernarr to Hayley Williams, Kehlani, and Larry June. It’s a solid mix, though I’ve admittedly put some of it on pause because of my current listens, which I’ll get into below.
Current: Mack Keane — Wide Eyed
I’m not sure how long I had been waiting for this album, but it was definitely a long time, and thankfully, it lives up to the anticipation. Wide Eyed is groovy from the very beginning, starting with the intro track, which immediately settles you into the album’s warm, late-night atmosphere. It’s not exactly a breakup album. It feels more like an album about living in the aftermath of your own bad decisions and figuring out what to do with them. There’s a level of self-awareness running through the project that keeps it grounded, while the production stays smooth and textured without ever feeling empty. It’s the kind of album that reveals something new with every listen.
Also in heavy rotation since Friday: Dedicated to Cadalee Biarritz (Deluxe) by Big K.R.I.T and CEREMONIAL by Black Milk.
Next: Giveon — Beloved Act II
If you’ve been here a while, you know how I feel about Beloved. It was my most played album last year. Giveon was my most played artist. Three songs from that album were in my top five of the year. So when I say I’m ready for Act II, I mean I’ve been ready.
Out Friday, the deluxe edition adds five new songs featuring Leon Thomas, Kehlani, Sasha Keable, and Teddy Swims, a lineup that should not work as well as I suspect it will. Giveon’s already previewed “JEZEBEL” and it is funky. It’s giving playa from the Himalayas, and he has on a mink. I don’t know why that’s exactly what I thought, but it is, and I stand by it.
A little bit more for this week:
So far, as of one day, I think Pop Culture Jeopardy is already better on Netflix.
If you missed last week’s newsletter, I had a great conversation with author Imani Thompson, who just released her debut novel Honey. You can read the conversation here.
I also had a fun interview with author Randee Dawn about her new book, We Interrupt this Program, which you can listen to here.
Let know what’s currently on your last/current/next list!
I also loved enormous wings!!!
All three books sound so good!! Wings! I must read it!!