Keep Up, Kids #2

A noir sci-fi novel, a podcast about ISIS, a stylish ladies-breaking-rules TV show

Thank you so much for the warm reception you guys have given this e-newsletter! I genuinely wasn’t sure if anyone who didn’t know me would subscribe, but you all have blown me away. I hope you continue to enjoy, and do please forward this to anyone else you think might like it.

A few pieces of housekeeping:

While this will always be a collection of whatever I’m enjoying, do submit requests if you’re looking for something in particular (i.e. a friend recently asked me for a TV show that’s “a lighter touch but that I can get lost in”) and I’ll try to work them in as we go.

I feel like I should clarify that the Perry Mason rec was a bit of an anomaly, in that I recced it before the end of the season. Not only was I super excited about it, but I was really confident in it – partly because it was a second season. Normally, though, I won’t rec something until I’ve finished it. We’ve all been burned by a story that falls apart by the end.

Which is all to say, I’m really struggling not to rec a few shows I’m watching right now. But it’s gonna be all the sweeter when I finally get to gush about them. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

On to this week’s recs!

---

Rec 1
The Shamshine Blind (book)

Full disclosure: I had another book rec already written for this issue. And then I stayed up until 3am this morning so I could finish this book. Thus: a last-minute swap.

A literary take on a Raymond Chandler-style noir detective story set in an alternative 2009 where Argentina won the Falklands/Malvinas War and became a superpower thanks to the development of so-called “psychopigments,” which control human emotions. I guess that technically makes it relatively high-concept sci-fi, but the thing is that it doesn’t feel like sci-fi. Or maybe it just doesn’t feel like what I expect from sci-fi. The protagonist is sardonic and delightful, while the world is so clever and lived-in that I admired the subtle commentary on our world without ever getting bogged down in it. Plus, it’s set in a post-war San Francisco Bay Area where Daly City is the big urban hub, which will never not amuse me.

Full full disclosure: As much as I’m a sucker for a literary noir, the real reason I picked up this book was because it was written by a friend from high school. Paz was always one of the cleverest and most imaginative people I knew, but I had no idea what to expect from her debut novel. Guys, it fucking kills. I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

Where: Reserve it at your library or order from your non-Amazon bookseller of choice (like Bookshop US). It comes out in the UK in November, so pre-order if you can!

(In the name of full transparency, I’ve included affiliate links to Bookshop.org – if you’re going to order from them anyway, please use my link so I can make a little extra cash! If you want to see/order any/all of my book recs, I’ve made lists on Bookshop, too: US version, UK version.)

Rec 2
I Am Not a Monster: The Shamima Begum Story (pod)

If you know me, you probably know that my screenplay that “broke through” was a spec TV pilot that had to do with British teenage girls joining ISIS. Which means that I have pretty much read everything there is to read about Shamima Begum and her two friends who became infamous as the three East London schoolgirls who ran away to Syria to join ISIS in 2015.

So when this 10-episode BBC Sounds pod came out earlier this year, I obviously smashed that subscribe button. I would have been interested no matter what, but, fortunately, journalist Josh Baker and his team also did a good job telling this fascinating, contemporary story. He’s been on the case since 2015, and, as far as I know, is the only journalist to actually build a relationship with Begum in the years that she’s been stuck, stateless, in a camp in Syria. He does his best to fact-check her – a notoriously difficult task since the Islamic State no longer holds territory, and many of the people who could provide answers are either dead or still hostile ISIS members.

Perhaps most importantly, Baker admirably wades into the murky waters around responsibility and victimhood, and how society judges girls’ behavior.

Where: Wherever you listen to podcasts

Rec 3
Good Girls Revolt (TV)

You know what I said earlier about usually not recommending things until I’ve finished them? That means that I don’t have any new shows to rec you this week. Watch this space in the coming issues for all the shows I’m watching at the moment that I’m psyched about, but for now we’re doing a legacy rec, inspired by a few friends who’ve been looking for fun, smart series starring cool ladies:

Don’t judge this 2015 Amazon show by it's slightly silly title. It’s a sharp, clever, and thoroughly enjoyable series about young women working at a fictional version of Newsweek magazine in the late 1960s. They want to be journalists, breaking stories amid the era’s dramatic sociopolitical upheaval, but of course those jobs are supposed to be reserved for men – even the men who are their friends and boyfriends. Yes, it’s obviously based on true stories, but that doesn’t bog it down. It’s sexy, it’s funny, it’s political, and Nora Ephron (played by Grace Gummer!) is a character. What’s not to love? Literally everyone I’ve recommended it to has come back gushing about it.

Annoyingly, there is only one season, since (apparently) the Amazon commissioner at the time wasn’t interested in shows about women. But I promise the one season is still worth the watch.

Where: Amazon Prime

---

That’s all for issue 2! What are you reading/watching/listening to that I should be aware of? Let me know if you check out any of my recs and what you think, and I’ll see you in a couple weeks!

xo
Kate

---

Want to spread the word?