What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week: <\/strong><\/p> Reading Eve L. Ewing last week<\/a> propelled me to seek out more lyric essays. Luckily, my friendly neighborhood radical bookstore<\/a> had Citizen<\/em> in stock, which I\u2019ve been meaning to get to forever. That made me pull Don\u2019t Let Me Be Lonely<\/em> off the shelves, and motivated me to revisit A Small Place<\/em>, and then I wanted some fiction so I grabbed At The Bottom Of The River<\/em>. Talk about a lineup of all bangers. <\/p> Both writers are incredible at packing a ton of detail in a short amount of space, masters of putting the exact right words in the exact right order. There\u2019s such a feeling of command over language reading both of them, their thoughts so well-organized yet surprising. I talk about Rankine on next week\u2019s The Line Break episode<\/a>, so briefly on Kincaid: what magical stories. She is so good with a sentence, so great with details. If these stories were paintings, you\u2019d be standing in front of them for hours finding new and significant details with every brushstroke. My favorites are \u201cGirl\u201d (the best coming-of-age story I\u2019ve ever read), \u201cIn The Night\u201d (an atmospheric, postcolonial story of haunting and longing), \u201cWhat I Have Been Doing Lately\u201d (a very cool story that circles back on itself in interesting ways) and \u201cHolidays\u201d (a tapestry of holidays). But they\u2019re all good. Get this book. Get all of these books. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> I was on my honeymoon during the 2016 All-Star break. I remember exactly where I was when I saw that the dunk contest was happening. It was a great time: a cruise ship in the Caribbean, having after-dinner drinks I pre-paid for in a lounge bar with either a jazz quartet or classical guitarist playing with the love of my life. Paradise. I probably went snorkeling the next day. I don\u2019t even care that I\u2019m missing the dunk contest<\/em>, I thought to myself. The dunk contest that year: <\/p>![](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/375a5710-b341-44db-a268-88ccff503104_2686x4029.jpeg\"\/)
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