November MB Musts
Deep inside the literary rivalry between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz? Yes, please. Journalist Lili Anolik uses Babitz’s diary-like letters to shine light on their complicated friendship and understanding Didion, a writer who remained quite elusive despite the soul bearing she did on the page. It’s moving, a bit gossipy (in a good way) and shows how these two iconic California writers orbited around each other in the same 1970s Hollywood scene in very different ways.
By Begona Gomez Urzaiz
After watching the ending of the 2015 film Carol, where Cate Blanchett’s character gives up her child to live her authentic life alongside her female partner, Gómez, a mother herself, was shocked by her instinctual reaction of disgust.
Told through an insightful collection of essays, Gómez explores why our culture insists women who leave their children are monsters including real women like Ingrid Bergman and Joni Mitchell to fictional absent mothers like Meryl Streep’s Joanna Kramer from Kramer vs Kramer.
It’s not exactly a defense of these “abandoners” but a call to look closer into the complicated nature of motherhood, the paradoxes of modern feminism and the double standards facing women in parenthood.
Mama Needs A Minute: A Candid, Funny, All-Too-Relatable Comic Memoir about Surviving Motherhood
Speaking of double standards, Mary Catherine Starr, the artist behind the beloved momlife_comics Instagram account, is gearing up to release her first book, which tackles the disproportionate invisible labor and double standards moms regularly face.
Mama Needs a Minute!, a comic memoir, explores the (often invisible) labor of modern motherhood that leaves so many moms feeling like they are losing themselves—and their minds! You can pre-order the book here.
We’re Watching
We thought the Netflix documentary, Martha, would be a fluffy romp with fun Snoop Dog footage, but weren’t prepared for how compelling this definitive documentary on Martha Stewart would be.
Drawing from intimate interviews with Stewart and those in her inner circle, along with Stewart's private archives of diaries, letters, and never-seen-before footage, the film takes us from her days as teenage model with a hyper critical father to a Wallstreet broker and onto becoming the original influencer of entertaining and living as well as the scandal that sent her to prison and ultimately prompted an incredible re-invention.
We found the examination of and interviews regarding her insider trading scandal and five-month stint in prison to be particularly illuminating — certainly making you reconsider what you may have read or thought about it in the past. You can’t help but feel sympathy for Stewart and wonder if she was merely an easy target — an example they were hungry to make— a take down of America’s first self-made female billionaire who also happened to be known as a bitch. If this wasn’t the case, would it have been as easy? But that sympathy can quickly wane as Stewart fires off icy responses and often seems annoyed to be having to sit for an interview. Oh, Martha. You’re complicated. And we are here for it.