Open Tabs #43

02.08.26 -- reading, watching, listening, googling

Welcome to this week’s edition of Open Tabs, where I share my recent reads, current curiosities, and media consumptions every(ish) Sunday!

A Prophet of the Weather: Lantern Slides by Clement Lindley Wragge (ca. 1900–22)

So far this year: I’ve been reading quietly and slowly; mostly staying off social media; and writing more (though certainly not enough).

Since we last spoke, I have sent out 2 book-ish letters, so please take a minute to read those if you missed them. Everything I’ve been reading, watching, etc. below!

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Reading [Books]

• The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

Gothic, drama, romance, adventure, intrigue, ghosts?, gossip!

This is what’s taken up most of my reading time since the start of the year (it’s over 280,000 words), and I enjoyed every minute of it. I will have to share my Notes, Quotes, and Reflections at some point, because there’s a lot to say. Now that I’ve read my first Radcliffe, I can see her influence in so many of the books I love. I will forever think of her work when I read other Gothic novels!

• Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash

Wild. Funny. Charming. Internet brain family dramedy.

I got a copy of this from BOTM and I read it as soon as it arrived. It was a quick read (total opposite of Udolpho) and so much fun. If I had been in a different mood, the voice might have irked me. But it made me LOL in a way that few books do. It’s dark humor, but I needed the bit of levity it offered.

• The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

Mysterious elite language school with (shock) secrets.

I listened to this on audio. I was drawn in by the premise and enjoyed it overall, but didn’t love it. I like the way it approaches ideas around translation, appropriation, colonialism, power (and proximity to power), and I like the audiobook narrator. But the main plot felt disjointed and fizzled out by the end.

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Reading [Online]

• A Vintage Crime (Vanity Fair)

If you like wine, scams, and long-form narrative journalism, this article from 2012 is for you! I would watch a fictionalized limited series about this. Send me more wine scam stories.

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Reading [Short Stories]

One of my “reading goals” for the year is to read more short fiction. I love short stories, but I don’t always make time for them between my other reading endeavors. So now, every Saturday at 10 am, an iPhone reminder tells me to “read short story”. So far, it’s helping.

• A-Z by Gwendoline Riley (Paris Review)

• The Case of George Dedlow by Silas Weir Mitchell (The Atlantic)

A ghost story written by the guy who brought us the rest cure. You can read the PDF without signing in.

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A Prophet of the Weather: Lantern Slides by Clement Lindley Wragge (ca. 1900–22)

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Reading [Substack]

• the most harmful spiritual myth: gendered energy (Alex - Left Brain Mystic)

• the death of the author’s decency (Zona Motel)

• the role of storytelling in systemic change (Care-Full Futures)

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Watching [Movies]

• The Boy Downstairs (2017) — this is one of those subdued, girl-can’t-figure-her-life-out, lets-not-be-too-earnest type of rom-coms…and I like it.

• How it Ends (2021) — A woman wanders around Los Angeles with her Younger Self while waiting for the world to end. A quirky heartfelt end-of-the-world meandering.

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Watching [YouTube]

• Cormac McCarthy’s secret (teenage) muse (Siobahn Brier Aguilar)

• who’s afraid of Carrie Bradshaw? (Broey Deschanel)

• the architectural fantasy of The Notebook (Kendra Gaylord)

• what happened to the manic pixie dream girl? (Shanspeare)

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Listening [Music]

• No Love Lost to Kindness (Yumi Zouma)

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Listening [Podcast]

• the 2nd season of The White Vault, a found footage audio drama

• this 3 part series about The Last Man by Mary Shelley from Didn’t Read It (I did read it)

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Googling

• anhedonia

• woodpecker symbolism

• elements of editing

• parabiosis

• gothic revival

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Books on my TBR

• Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown

• The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe

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Shuffle

NYC Matches (IG)

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previously…

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