Ask the Right Questions
A list of recommendations on everything from 'Night Country' to a breakout TikTok star named ReesaTeesa
Greetings from my living room floor where I unsuccessfully tried to do a yoga class with both of my cats out. Cat World War III broke out and I had to pause my class to put one of them back into his room. Turns out, the light in one cat does not see and honor the light in the other.
Thank you for the response to last week’s post. Even though I’ve been writing on the internet for a long time, I am still surprised when something I write resonates with a lot of people.
Here’s the problem, I finished reading a book on Siskel & Ebert the same week the finale of Night Country dropped, which means I wanted everyone who didn’t like the finale to debate me. I am not a film or tv critic, but I am a taurus and I like to be right. In a shocking twist, I have actually listened to the critiques and I do get what people are saying. But I am still enjoying all of the Nic Pizzolatto take-downs, especially this one by Britt Hayes in The Mary Sue and this one by Lyz in her Dingus of the week offering.
Longtime readers will know that Commotion is one of my favorite podcasts. This week they discussed Night Country and film/tv critic Sarah-Tai Black said my favorite thing about Nic Pizzolatto. Talking about his ridiculous social media behavior during the finale, they said, “It’s giving wah-wah baby.”
The latest ‘stack by Sam Irby is the best thing I read this week. OBVIOUSLY she is talking about Night Country, which she calls Night Country: Cold Lesbians, but she is also talking about navigating a new OCD diagnosis. A lot of my friends have OCD and I think they feel alone in their diagnosis, so I’m grateful to Sam for writing about such a personal topic for such a large audience. I sent it to my pals and they were like, ‘yes, this is exactly it.’
On episode 298 of The Stacks, Traci had MJ Franklin and Adam Vitcavage on to talk about their favorite books of 2023. If you don’t know, MJ is an editor at The New York Times Book Review. He’s also a fun follow on TikTok. It’s a great episode with a ton of book recommendations, including The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland, which I keep hearing people talk about. Adding it to my TBR.
ICYMI: Nashville authors Ann Patchett and Margaret Renkl won Southern Book Prizes and I wrote about it for the Nashville Scene.
There are two new Substacks that I am enjoying. One is Good Decisions by Glynnis MacNicol. In 2018, Glynnis published her memoir No One Tells You This, which is one of my favorite memoirs. She came to Parnassus on that book tour and I was enamored with her. She has a new memoir coming out this summer called I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself about spending a summer in Paris and, as she puts it, “In the larger sense, it’s also a meditation on female pleasure, age, and the narratives we have, and lack, around both.” Already pre-ordered.
The other new Substack I’m enjoying is Reading, Writing, Ranting, Recommending by Amy Estes. Amy and I both write for Joy the Baker and she is one of my favorite internet friends. Her latest ‘stack is about boredom vs. fear and what it’s like to be a public school teacher in our current political climate as an out, queer woman.
On Valentine’s Day a woman in Atlanta who goes by ReesaTeesa on TikTok released a FIFTY-TWO part series called “Who TF Did I Marry?!?” about a man she met and married during the pandemic who turned out to be a pathological liar and she ultimately divorced. Saying this is a wild ride is the understatement of the year. I daresay it is better than anything Bravo has produced. This has swept through the TikTok community like wildfire. There are videos of people at work with “Who TF Did I Marry?!?” on in the conference room. There are videos of slumber parties where women are watching it together on tv. It is everything I love about TikTok and pop culture.
I tried to watch all 52 episodes, but I do not have that much spare time. I watched one hour of it and then switched to recap videos. Here’s one that does a legit job of summarizing the entire EIGHT HOUR series.
And now for my advice section: Just the Tip!
If you left Twitter and you’re trying to decide between Threads and Bluesky, don’t sweat it. No one knows where to show up online right now. I’m on both and I still don’t have the answer. Personally, I enjoy Bluesky more because it reminds me of old Twitter, but I have more friends on Threads.
So where should you be? Experiment and see what you like. In all honestly, Threads is probably the answer. It seems to be where most people are. I will warn you, there is some truly bizarre comment behavior on Threads though. Very early Facebook vibes.