Traci Thomas
Appearances
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
I feel like the trend that I have seen the most this year is books that are concerned with money. And I'm not talking about like books about class. I'm talking about books that are expressly talking about how much things cost, obsessions with salaries, making money. For example, the first one that came to mind for me was Colored Television by Dan Z. Senna.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
All right, Tracy, tell me the story of the book without spoilers. I mean, the protagonist, Jane, she is a novelist who is also a professor. She's taking a break from teaching to finish her second novel. It's a flop. She decides, you know what? There's actually not that much money in books anyway. I'm going to get into Hollywood. And she decides to write a TV show with a Hollywood exec big wig.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Jane is what Dancy calls mulatto, which is black and white American mixed. And she's going to write the great mulatto television show. And it's a total farce, but Jane is obsessed with money. How much this costs, how much her rent is, how much she could make, how much the green juice costs that the producer is drinking at their first meeting. And I love it.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Yeah, he likes to play with form.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
You're like, uh, is everything, anything you want to remind me?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Like, you good?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
This trend, I think you're right. I think this is like the millennial moment of also like the way that we talk about divorce is different. People are like posting videos of themselves crying, being like, I'm finally free. And like, it's just a different attitude towards it.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
And so I think these memoirs feel really different because the way that especially women feel like they are getting out of something that they were lied to about what it might be. Sold a bad bill of goods. That's exactly right.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
So I think there is something to this trend that I think is going to stick around, like you said, into next year and probably for a little bit longer as our generation figures out how we want to tell these stories.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Okay, this book is fantastic, okay? I just want to throw that out and blink it. The energy is infectious. I'm ready. I just love this book so much. Okay, the book is called Challenger. It's by Adam Higginbotham. He is the fellow who wrote the Chernobyl book, Midnight at Chernobyl, that turned into the HBO show. Right. This is all about the Challenger disaster in 1986. Oh my gosh.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
I just got chills. I got chills from your reactions. I mean... Okay, so here's the thing that Adam Higginbotham maybe does better than anyone I've ever read, which is we all know what happens. We know the ending, okay? But he starts the book at the end as most of these kind of nonfiction books do. Then he goes back. He starts in like the 1960s with NASA.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
He goes into all of the astronauts who are on the flight and he takes you all the way through the science of how they built the shuttles, everything. And you finally get... to January 1986. And by the time you get there, I was literally saying, there's no way they launch this shuttle. It's not possible. It is not possible that this will happen.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
There's one scene where they talk about if they should or shouldn't. And... I thought that that scene was going to end in a totally different way. Like he writes it in a way where you, knowing the ending, cannot believe that it possibly could have happened. And you know all the astronauts' names and you know their wives' names and you know what happened to them. It's just like...
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
It is so unputdownable. And I will say one small disclaimer. Some people who don't love science, you are going to think the book is slow for the first 60 to 70 pages. Keep going.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Yo, that was actually a tactic that I feel like she had to develop professionally, that she unpacks many times in the book.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
I'm like, wow, dude. I love this. Okay. I need to read it. I'm sold.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
So Tracy, your next pick, what is it?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Okay. My next pick is also a memoir. It's called Another Word for Love by Carvel Wallace.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
This is a memoir that starts with their childhood and the trauma that they experienced with homelessness, with their mother who had some addiction issues. And that's like the first section. And it sort of feels like a regular everyday trauma memoir, I think, when you start it. Then there's a second section that is very small, which I won't talk too much about.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
But then there's this third section that is all about healing trauma. rewriting these stories. Again, Andrew, I think you're onto something. And some of the most beautiful essays about apology and that I think about still daily. There's some, just about like...
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
basil or like parsley like there's all of these little anecdotes about you know what is possible what does love mean is there another word for love is there another way that we can love ourselves love each other and sort of exploring this but the writing is so good the writing is take your breath away there are sentences where you just have to stop and be like carvel wallace american genius
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
I know people say this a lot of like, you never know what someone else is going through. But this was one of those books that really made me stop and think about that as well as like, you really don't know what other people are working through in their lives.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
And like that we should probably maybe have more compassion for each other and not in the sort of trite, put it on a sticker way, but in a real way of like, right, there's a lot going on under the surface for all of us. Andrew, what about you?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Oh, that's so cool.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
We're cooking. We're cooking. We're getting there. Oh, I love that.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
I did not want to read this book. I thought this book is not for me. But now I'm like, immediately adds to library holds.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
I remember, I remember.