What a month, my friends! I’ve watched some ice hockey, officiated my first roller derby games, helped a friend move, spent slightly more time doing absolutely nothing, against every fiber of my being except the one that needs to stay alive.
Let’s do this.
(Also, I’ve renamed this monthly post from review to recommendations, which is more accurate. Feel free to give feedback on that.)
What I’ve read / Texte
📚 Books / Livres
In English
- Fiction
- Emma Pattee’s Tilt is about an extremely pregnant woman getting stuck in The Big One, the giant and very real earthquake that the US West Coast is not at all prepared for. It’s pretty good.
- Non-fiction
- The Siren’s call: how attention became the world’s most endangered resources by Chris Hayes is another step in my attempt at understanding why the entire world feels like it’s screaming at me all the time and very loudly. It was not groundbreaking, but generally good.
- Chasing the scream: the first and last days of the war on drugs by Johann Hari may be my top nonfiction read of 2025. I highly recommend reading it, as it spends less time than most books on how the war on drugs is failing, and more on why the war on drugs is dangerous bullshit in the first place.
En français
- Fiction
- Arab Jazz de Karim Miské est un polar sur les fondamentalismes religieux, étonnamment rafraîchissant surtout vu le thème (on n’y parle pas que d’islamistes !). C’était très bien dans la catégorie « polar où l’auteur oublie que les flics sont censés être moins détestables que les tueurs ». À lire.
📰 Web links / Liens web
In English
- On Eater, an investigation of how food makes you gay (and, more seriously, what gender stereotypes we associate with eating specific food)
- On Type-A burnout: when is it enough (Ashley Janssen), and a prescription for getting better (Allison NB)
- No surprise here: HBR explains that AI generated workslop is wasting our time, not saving it.
- Tracy Durnell dives into how æsthetics destroyed privacy and polarized us. It’s great (not the topic, that’s depressing; the article).
En français
- Sur L’Équipe, une étude de quand la musculation devient une porte d’entrée vers le masculinisme
- Sur Diacritik, une interview de Pierre Niedergang sur la normativité queer
- Bonne nouvelle : l’écoscore de la mode est entré en vigueur !
What I’ve watched / Vidéo
📺 TV Shows / Séries
Abbott Elementary is back!
What I’ve listened to / Audio
🎤 Podcasts
All episodes are available for free on your favourite podcast app / web reader.
In English
- On 60 songs that explain the 90s, « Sinéad O’Connor − Nothing Compare 2 U »
- On You’re wrong about: the Auralyn with Blair Braverman
En français
- J’ai découvert le podcast Le Book Club Lesbien (en cherchant sur Podcast Addict un autre truc qui commençait par « book club », que je n’ai pas trouvé. aucun regret.)
- Sur Minuit dans le siècle (Spectre), Comment le FN/RN cherche à s’ancrer localement
- Sur Et parfois, on gagne (Arte radio), comment inventer le meilleur système de santé au monde
- Sur Torchon, un épisode live (et pour que j’aime un live, il faut que ce soit vraiment bon !) sur les Quatre accords toltèques
🎹 Music
My obsession this month was italo disco, and I’m ok with that.
I’ve dusted off some of my favourite songs to belt under the shower:
And finally, some of my all-time faves:
chalalalalalala la
chalalalalalala la
chalalalalalala la
chalalalalalala smoke a joint.
What I’ve played / Jeux
In terms of video games, an inordinate amount of Hades (yes, the first – I will get the second when the first has no more surprises for me, so probably in 10 years).
As for board games, I still have a perfect 100% loss rate at Clank. This is who I am now.
Where I’ve been / Lieux
I officiated a game of roller derby in a Grenoble gymnasium and it was really really cool − at least as cool as playing, to be fully honest with you! I hope there will be many more of those!