Monday Miscellany: Just green leaves, fresh air
Notes from April 13 - 19
It’s the start of a new week. Again!1 How’s everyone doing? And please shout your responses into my good ear, because I had a cold two weeks ago and though I’ve otherwise fully recovered I’m still very stopped up on my left side!
Mild ear infection and sense of disorientation aside, it’s been a pretty solid week for me. Jordan and I took a quick trip to Richmond for my birthday, I finished a couple of good books, and RiverRun International Film Festival kicked off here in Winston, which is always an exciting time.
Read this week
I’m not a Lauren Groff completist quite yet,2 but she is absolutely one of my auto-read authors and I’ve been eagerly anticipating Brawler, her newest story collection that came out in February. Let me tell you: it did not disappoint, and in fact might have exceeded my expectations??
Each of these stories is distinct in its characters and plot details, but they all share a tinge of darkness that I found really tasty. There’s violence, generational trauma, bad choices regarding substances, and a lot of packing up and running away. As a collection it’s just so deliciously scrappy. Every piece pulled me in immediately and made me feel like part of the world Groff was creating; there were truly no skips and no misses.
In other 2026 release news, Patrick Cottrell’s sophomore novel, Afternoon Hours of a Hermit, comes out tomorrow and I was lucky enough to read an early copy.3 This one caught me by surprise a month or two ago—I remember enjoying his 2017 debut, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, back in 2019, but had been blissfully unaware that another one was coming.
Afternoon Hours has autobiographical elements but is fiction, existing in the same world as Cottrell’s previous book. Protagonist Dan Moran is a trans, Korean teacher and writer and amateur detective whose adoptive brother died by suicide five years earlier (which is the central subject of Sorry). Here we find him returning to his childhood home for the anniversary of this sad event, hoping to uncover more information about exactly what happened to cause the death. His family, most of whom he hasn’t seen in the intervening years, don’t know how to act around him. Many of them misgender him, and some don’t even realize who he is at first. The interactions are uncomfortable, Dan’s loneliness and grief still very palpable. And yet there’s a dry humor underneath it all that I really appreciated, a certain quality to Dan’s voice that compelled me to keep reading. As soon as I finished this one I picked up a copy of its predecessor to revisit; I’ll tell you about it next time.
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Currently watching
This week featured a nice balance of comfort rewatches and brand new films! First, the familiar stuff:
If you’re a fan of The Lonely Island, or such classic SNL digital shorts as Lazy Sunday, Natalie Raps, Threw it on the Ground, etc and you somehow missed Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016), fling whatever device you’re reading this on aside and go watch. It’s a mockumentary about Conner 4 Real, a former member of pop group The Style Boyz who has gone solo and been insanely successful—until his newest record flops and his life falls apart and he has to reckon with and repair the bridges he has burned. The humor is deeply stupid but right up my alley, the songs are hilariously problematic and catchy as hell, the cast is insane, and at one point Seal gets attacked by wolves. What else could one want in these trying times?
Perhaps a bit of tenderness, you might respond? Okay, sure. In that case, get thee to Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020) posthaste. This is maybe THE funniest and most heartwarming show I’ve ever seen. If you’re unfamiliar, it follows the Rose family, formerly rich but brought low by the devious misdeeds of their onetime business manager, forced to make a new home in the small town of Schitt’s Creek. Though initially resistant, they eventually come to befriend their neighbors, the type of people they used to make fun of and look down on, all the while strengthening their bond as a family and figuring out a way forward.
Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy are masters of endearing comedy and their group dynamic with Annie Murphy and Dan Levy is spot on. Just thinking about certain scenes from this show can make me laugh and/or well up. Seriously, if you somehow haven’t seen it yet, GET ON THAT.
And now for a few RiverRun delights!
If I Go Will They Miss Me (2026) was one of the festival’s opening films on Friday night. It’s largely focused on Lil Ant, a young Black boy living in Los Angeles whose father, Big Ant, has just returned home from prison. The two have a complicated relationship: Lil Ant idolizes his dad and only wants his approval and love, but Big Ant doesn’t know how to fill this role and ends up withdrawing in response to the attention. I found the airplane imagery to be a little heavy-handed, but the cinematography is gorgeous and I loved the soundtrack and the tenderness of the story.
Of the very strong short film program I saw Saturday night, Scissors (2026) was a stand-out favorite. It’s a horror comedy about a male would-be slasher who makes the mistake of invading a house full of lesbians. The legitimately tense moments are balanced by perfectly-delivered lines, self-aware gestures to queer archetypes, and visual humor. RiverRun is screening this whole late-night lineup virtually through May 3 and you can buy tickets here.
If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re probably at least somewhat plugged into the book world and have heard about all the bans and attempted bans happening in school libraries over the past few years. That’s what the documentary The Librarians (2025) is about, with a particular focus on the origins of this upsetting wave of activity in Texas circa 2021. To those of us who value acceptance, safety, and intellectual freedom, it is discouraging and heavy. But the heroic librarians being highlighted here also serve as a hopeful reminder that even during dark times, even in hate-filled spaces where logic and reason seem to have completely vanished, there are people speaking up and fighting for what is right. This is such an important film.
Haiku round-up
This poetic form, containing seventeen syllables in a five-seven-five pattern, originated in Japan and traditionally includes thematic reference to the seasons. Mine vary in topic, but I’ve been writing one each day since the beginning of 2024 as an exercise in structured creativity. Here are this week’s poems:
Monday, April 13
Office for the day doesn’t have walls or ceiling, just green leaves, fresh air
Tuesday, April 14
Hurry, pack a bag We’re off on an aventure, to see what unfolds
Wednesday, April 15
All I ever want for my birthday is freedom to follow my whims
Thursday, April 16
Thin, crisp layers of buttery, golden pastry filled with chocolat
Friday, April 17
Theater abuzz with the hum of audience eager to begin
Saturday, April 18
Might I recommend a glass of vinho verde and a bookstore browse
Sunday, April 19
Imagine your life being threatened for helping children find good books
Until next time
One of the best parts of our brief stay in Richmond was wandering down a hill at Maymont and discovering a Japanese garden, nestled around a small lake and tucked away like a secret. With so much to look at and take in, I nearly missed the enormous bullfrog hidden amongst the cypress knees. But once I spotted it, I noticed another one, and another, then three more a few feet farther down the path, and I don’t know why, but these little guys absolutely made my day. Oh, to be belly-deep in cool water on a ninety-degree afternoon.
See you next week, and until then, please enjoy this pygmy slow loris moment of zen.
♥︎ Emily
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Is time speeding up or is it just me?
□ The Monsters of Templeton □ Delicate Edible Birds (stories) □ Arcadia ⌧ Fates and Furies ⌧ Florida (stories) ⌧ Matrix ⌧ The Vaster Wilds ⌧ Brawler (stories)
Thank you, Ecco / HarperCollins!