Open Thread: What Are You Reading & Listening To?

New music from Molly Lewis & IDLES, interviews with Kelly Link & Laura Jane Grace, an excerpt from Lucy Sante's new memoir, new music from Waxahatchee & ethel cain, and more

I have off this week, so am catching up on my reading and music listening.

So far I have read Greg Kearney’s tenderly told and ambitious novel An Evening with Birdy O’Day, Anne Carson’s stunning collection Wrong Norma, and Adelle Waldman’s forthcoming second novel Help Wanted.

With the new Waxahatchee album, Tigers Blood, dropping Friday, I have been listening to Katie Crutchfield’s discography nonstop. This immersion into Crutchfield’s music solidifies my suspicion that she is one of the best songwriters writing music today.

What are you reading? What are you listening to?

A Playlist of the Week’s Best New Music (17 albums, 166 songs, 9 hours and 0 minutes)

This week’s new music releases include a new albums by the Molly Lewis, Omni, Grandaddy, Laura Jane Grace, IDLES, Larissa Kim, Friko, serpentwithfeet, Caroline Polachek (an expanded edition of Desire, I Want to Turn Into You), Royel Otis, Middle Kids, Joe Wong, Prize Horse, Les Amazones d'Afrique, Nathalie Joachim, Shadow Show, and Kevin Holliday..

Largehearted Likes:

1. Other Half Forever Ever

   This double dry-hopped, hazy IPA has quickly become one of my favorite session beers, and definitely the best low alcohol IPA I have ever tasted.

   largeheartedboy

   

   A post shared by @largeheartedboy

2. The brunch chicken sandwich at Wen Wen
   My new favorite NYC sandwich, served with the world’s best tater tots.

3. Winter break
   I return to teaching in a week, and get to sleep, read, and recharge.
   

Largehearted Book & Music Links:

1. Kelly Link on reading, writing, and her new novel
   I never really imagined I had what it took to be a writer until I managed to write one story, and then another and another. Even then, I suspected I might not stick it. What I wanted to be (and still am, mostly) was a reader.

2. New music from Waxahatchee

3. Why are we all so obsessed with book clubs now?
   Book clubs are currently having a revival, with young people driving their renaissance. Gen-Z-friendly book clubs are popping up all over the world, while celebs like Kaia Gerber and Dua Lipa have jumped on the bandwagon and formed book clubs of their own too.

4. New music from ethel cain

5. The Best Food Books to Read This Spring

6. New music from Jessica Pratt

   

7. An excerpt from Lucy Sante’s memoir I Heard Her Call My Name

8. Laura Jane Grace on her new album
   Sometimes punk is sh*tty, because there are sh*tty punks. But at its best, punk is rad people doing radical things.

9. Remembering author Ellen Gilchrist

10. Theresa Wayman and Jenny Lee Lindberg on Warpaint’s 20 year history

11. New short fiction by Brandon Taylor
    

Last Week’s LHB Feature Posts:

Diego Báez’s playlist for his poetry collection Yaguareté White

Dimitri Reyes’s playlist for his poetry collection Papi Pichón

GennaRose Nethercott’s playlist for her story collection Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart

Julia Ridley Smith’s playlist for her story collection Sex Romp Gone Wrong

Mariah Stovall’s playlist for her novel I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both

Matthew Thomas Meade’s playlist for his story collection Strip Mall

Steven Dunn & Katie Jean Shinkle’s playlist for their novel Tannery Bay