🧈 Sugar, Butter, Feelings
Tonight: Being Alive Book Club dines with Krys Malcolm Belc on Zoom
The biggest fight my daughter and I got into this summer (so far) was over a squishy stick of butter. We were at a street fair in Oakland, we were probably both hungry. And the vendors were tantalizing her with soft, gooey, squeezable younameits: dumplings, neon cubes, strawberries, and so many other indescribable beings. I made a momentary alliance with another grown-up refusing to add to her kid’s collection. I bought myself more time, “let’s see what else is here.” Which only set up an even larger meltdown 35 mins later in front of another vendor selling only small imported plastic things. Also known as trash.
I hate this entire genre of fidgets. Maybe I could let it go if I got any pleasure from them. I do not enjoying touching them, at all, ever. Instead, they feel like an ever present reminder of everything that is wrong with right now. To paraphrase another hot take I read on the internet: some people in the world are desperate for kitchen staples, while others are arguing about buying $6 plastic wrapped, foam-filled replicas.
A friend called in the middle of me writing this rant, she agreed (again, I’m paraphrasing) “They are terrible. Designed to kill our planet, faster. And we have a lot of them in our house.”
She also kindly suggested that I switch topics and write thoughtfully about my earlier post. My friend is wise. (You should read her.)
Note received, writing prompt queued.
In the mean time, you can join me and Krys Malcolm Belc discussing REAL butter, parenting tradeoffs, our favorite food recipes, and his memoir What I Made for Dinner. This is your official invite to join the Being Alive Book Club — No worries if you haven’t read the book, this is not a conversation that will spoil. (See what I did there?)
RSVP at the link below and we’ll see you tonight at 8p ET.
xx Kyle
📖 Follow the Reader
I saw The Odyssey. I bought Circe. IYKYK
▶️ Press Play
For those not yet in on the joke…
📚️🏳️⚧️✨ Being Alive Book Club
Can’t wait to dig in with Krys Monday July 27 8p ET / 5p PT on Zoom. (RSVP)
All are welcome at the BABC book club. While many people read cover-to-cover, many join for the community, craft, and conversation (even when they haven’t started/finished.)
“Belc’s writing is thought-provoking, expansive, and original. Delicious.” —Booklist
“Reading [Belc’s] clear-eyed and thoughtful exploration of being primarily responsible for feeding himself, his wife, and their four children is a beautiful reminder of how both elemental and sacred a homemade meal can be.” —VOGUE
Being Alive Book Club is a community effort to amplify trans voices by reading trans authors. Visit the home of Being Alive Book Club for links to all the upcoming books, FAQs, and previous recaps. All but one of this year’s books are available now:
July: What I Made for Dinner with Krys Malcolm Belc
August: The Lilac People with Milo Todd
September: Saint Consequence with Michael M. Weinstein
October: Mad Eden with Morgan Thomas
November: Love in a F*cked-Up World with Dean Spade
December: And If I Die Before I Wake with George M. Johnson
Have a trans author you want to recommend to Being Alive Book Club? Drop me message or comment on this post.
They are terrible. Designed to kill our planet, faster. And we have a lot of them in our house.