Sep 21, 2020
What I’m Reading Right Now
What I’m reading right now:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Fearing the Black Body: The Racist Origins of Fat Phobia, by Sabrina Strings. This book is about exactly what it sounds like it’s about, but the first few chapters start with art in 16th Century Europe. It should have been companion reading to all those whitewashed art history tomes I read in college. I’m obsessed.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. Modern-day fantasy about cities that come alive, and an amazing love letter to New York. Pretty sure this book has a lot of Lovecraft influence? But nerd confession, I don’t really know shit about Lovecraft, except that he was a raging racist (which I learned while reading this book + watching Lovecraft Country at the same time). Reminds me a bit of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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On deck:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Compare a book to Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca, and I will drop everything I’m doing to run out and buy it. So, yeah. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy. 😬 File under “classics I never read,” and/or “Russian writers I’ve been ignoring since high school” and/or “using 2020 as an excuse to read all the books I already own.” This has been on my shelf for a long time; I flipped through it last night and it is very intimidating with a million pages and very small print. Saving it for winter.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. He has a new novel out now so he’s been on my radar more; the reviews are super interesting but I decided to start with this one first because it’s so weird.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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What are y’all reading right now?

About Sam
Samantha Pollack is a Copywriter & Creative Director who works with ethically minded, mission driven businesses who are actively trying to reshape our culture (and possibly tear down the patriarchy). She’s also the founder of The Highly Sensitive Business Owner, a 12-week online program that helps HSPs & neurodivergent business owners create healthier, more sustainable systems in their work.
Sam also writes about feminism, privilege, pop culture, entrepreneurship, the creative process, and whatever else is on her mind. She currently lives in Asheville, NC.
Emails for cult thought leaders.
(Personality included.)
Want to learn how to craft emails that inspire action and engagement WITHOUT the “tried and true” (cough: patriarchal) norms we’ve all been taught?
I’m doing it, and I can show you how to do it, too.
(But sometimes, I also like to write about the books I’m reading, or the creative process, or the entrepreneurial experience, or why I hate Steve Jobs, or how I met my BFF. I’ll send you emails like that, too.)
*Just kidding. It’s only an email list.
Books. Cats. Rants. Drawrings.
(and every couple months or so, an unexplained absence 🤷🏻)