It’s winter break. Our treasured time for rotting, reunion, and fervor. And, more importantly, hedonistic consumption. These are the books essays films albums and snacks that filled The Advocate with flames in 2023. May they warm us well into the new year.
READING
Blackbird Spyplane (Jonah Weiner and Erin Wylie)
If you are an annoying Carhartt-Pinterest-balaclava-in-the-winter MFer like me, then you’ll love Blackbird Spyplane. It’s the jawniest newsletter on Substack and brilliantly lowbrow in a way that Laura Reilly’s Magasin (bless her Khaite heart) could never approach. It’s such crunchy writing and the clothing recs are unbeatable and acce$$ible. Any one of their articles will send you down an Internet rabbit hole of underrated brands, cool designers, and aspirational moodboards. Enjoy and, as always, consume ethically! —Caroline Choi
The Idiot (Elif Batuman, 2017)
I know all of you literati have probably already read The Idiot by Elif Batuman, but I just got to it, and let me tell you, it will make you cry. Not because it’s touching or phenomenally good or something like that. If you have ever had a situationship in the walls of this university, you must read it. Ivan is the ultimate Harvard man, and he made me so angry - I am now allergic to him. Every page where he speaks has tear stains on it – he’s so annoying, I fucking hate him, read the book. —Varya Lyapneva
Journaling (you, 2024!)
Other than holding the obvious sentimental value of reliving your memories, a journal acts as a sort of insurance policy for the dissociating type. I for one find the holiday season— and every other season— to be a particularly forgetfulness inducing moment for such a type. So, when your father asks you about that one random friend from middle school that he remembers only by nickname, or your neighbor asks if you’re “still planning on that whole acting thing” and you find yourself in another realm just nodding… write about it immediately. All of the moments you try to forget… write about them immediately. Maybe they can actually help in the future. —Kyra Siegel
“Merchandising the Void” (Kelly Pendergrast, 2023)
why are influencers turning their pantries into miniature supermarkets? it could be regular tiktok brain rot, but pendergrast argues that it reveals something deeper in our current moment: the "fetishization of logistics itself," where our culture's "fascination with capital's abstraction" is reaching a critical point. she also explains the history of gendered domestic technology, the work of critical theorist alberto toscano, and the color "kardashian greige" along the way. —Conan Lu
Piranesi (Susanna Clarke, 2020)
Look. I should not have liked this book. I am not a fantasy person by any stretch of the imagination. But this semi-fantasy semi-mystery semi-literary novel had me regularly gasping in my common room to the extent that my suitemates were laughing at me. A page-turning treat that I can truly not tell you anything more about without spoiling the fun. —Eve Jones
“Story of Your Life,” “Exhalation,” “Tower of Babylon” (Ted Chiang)
Take any classic science fiction trope - time travel, alternate universes, first contact - and you'll find that Ted Chiang has already written about it. What makes Chiang's short stories stand out is his ability to write about digital pets, infinite towers and alien linguistics in a way that is surprisingly close to the soul, with stories lingering in your head for weeks, months, or even years after you put them down. He is, for me, the ultimate "what if" writer. You can't go wrong with Ted Chiang, so just pick any short story of his and get busy reading. I think your only complaint, after a day or two of binging his stories, will be that there aren't any more for you to read.—Andreas Lordos
Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era (Paul B. Preciado, 2008)
The book that brought autotheory to the world, Testo Junkie is a sprawling, majestic experience. Testo Junkie is about getting high, it’s about birth control, it’s about grief, it’s about drag. Testo Junkie is history and Testo Junkie is praxis. Changed the way I think about every aspect of my life. —Una Roven
Women at Work: Interviews from the Paris Review (2022)
“I hate almost all rich people, but I think I’d be darling at it.” The 2022 Women at Work: Interviews from the Paris Review is an insightful collection of interviews with women who are–well, at work. The collection features twelve interviews with prolific female writers, including one with the electric Dorothy Parker, quoted above, and a preface by Ottessa Moshfegh. The interviews themselves are refreshing; one is structured like a four-scene play, another asks Parker what the evil in Hollywood is. Definitely recommend. —Roxy Hreb
WATCHING
La città delle donne (1980)
There’s something dizzying about this movie. It’s like being led through a maze when you know you’re making the wrong turns but can’t turn around because everything is disappearing behind you. But the maze is also incredibly sexy. This is not a feminist movie. It’s a womanizing movie. But it’s hot. I kept wanting Snàporaz (the beautiful Marcello Mastroianni) to go back to safety, to even acknowledge that he was doing something insane. But this is Fellini’s world… you have to follow the gorgeous terrifying girls no matter what. —Una Roven
The Gilded Age (2022)
The Gilded Age is Gossip Girl meets Bridgerton meets Downton Abbey but without the gossip columns. It takes place (you guessed it) during the Gilded Age in New York City and follows the lives of both the elite and working class. I think it is so interesting because it offers real historical insight into the period while being facetiously dramatic about the social problems of the time. 10/10 —Sadie Kargman
Saltburn (2023)
Saltburn is a display of one's wildest, most fantastical, yet deeply perverse dreams. It follows the gorgeous Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan in what I deem as Silence of The Lambs meets Parasite meets Downton Abbey. The whole theater was gagging, screaming, and crying in unison the entire time, but alas, it is the best thing I have ever seen and perhaps my new favorite movie. 10/10 —Sadie Kargman
Shoshanna on internet dating (Girls Season 1, Episode 9, 2012)
“his name is bryce, which like, um hello! good name. he works in product development which is like perfect for me because i love products” —Conan Lu
You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Why don’t we write romantic emails anymore? — Annika Inampudi
LISTENING
“Alphabet City,” “Moose Crossing” (Margot Fox)
If you like Indigo Girls but wish the lyrics were about things like a moose crossing or recycling, try listening to my actual kindergarten teacher who tested these songs out in my class back in 2008. Genuinely, I still listen to these today. My favorites are “Alphabet City” and “Moose Crossing,” but they’re all excellent. “Recycle in Boston, recycle in France, recycle in New York, do the recycle dance.” God, I wish she’d perform live again. —Eve Jones
“Come on a Cone” (Nicki Minaj)
I recently took inspiration from my friend Jacob and listened to the entire Nicki discography in one go. This is her best song. Not taking questions. Dick in your face. —Una Roven
Heaven or Las Vegas (Cocteau Twins)
Written after vocalist Elizabeth Fraser gave birth to Lucy Belle, Heaven or Las Vegas is the dream. Listen to it while walking in wide open spaces, thinking about Nietzsche, or eating a savory soup. – Annika Inampudi
Messy (Olivia Dean)
This is simply a wonderful album. The vocals hold emotion in every breath, the tone is exquisite, the production is five stars. I am both heartbroken and thrilled to share that I heard “The Hardest Part” playing at a Lush while buying a dreidel bath bomb for my roommate. But Dean deserves to be heard by the mainstream bath product chain store demographic, she‘s just that good. My favorites are Dive, Ladies Room, and The Hardest Part… but all of the songs are special. —Kyra Siegel
“Oral” (Björk, Rosalía)
sega bodega’s production revives homogenic-era björk from permafrost. strings and reggaeton beats create an incredibly lush and eclectic soundscape, much like a tundra in the wake of climate change. 1 stream = 1 icelandic fish saved from the pen farming industry. —Conan Lu
EATING
Blueberry gin fizz
The awesome cocktail you drank at fall dinner? A generous spoon of blueberry jam (but any will be delicious), shot of gin, dash of lemon juice, stirred with ice, topped with seltzer. Outside of 21SS I would add muddled fruit and mint. —Una Roven
Cadbury Mini Snowballs
No longer are the best chocolates on the market relegated to Easter. You can now have them during the Christmas season, too. My method is to pop one in my mouth, bite off the coating, and then let the chocolate melt. Chewing is for the weak. —Eve Jones
Kern’s Mango Nectar
in preschool i built an unsuccessful bird feeder with a mango juice carton. “built” in the sense that i stuffed it full of seeds and put it outside. “unsuccessful” in the sense that i fed no birds. now i’ve been looking for this mango juice at school, but they’re all minute maid mango punches, dole orange peach mangos. just imagine a dole orange peach mango bird feeder. it’s demented. way too many nouns in a row. but so i'm at the grocery store in my 3.79-square-mile non-city of a hometown, buying cabbage, finding kern's mango nectar, drinking kern’s mango nectar, eating cabbage, buying more cabbage. this was not supposed to be about cabbage. —Jessica Zhang
Medjool dates and almond butter
Just try it. Yummm —Una Roven
2025