Books, NonFiction

I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum

Worth A Read Absolutely
Length 384
Quick Review Emily Nussbaum is a Pulitzer Prize winning critic. I’ve heard of her in passing, but I fell in love with her in I Like to Watch, a collection of new and published essays. 

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Reading I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum on Top Sail in North Carolina. | Bikini Bottoms | Bikini Top | Beach Towel |

I don’t read a lot of critiques because I don’t like to be influenced one way or the other, but maybe I should start reading Emily Nussbaum’s critiques because, damn, she’s spot on. After reading I Like to Watch, I am officially an Emily Nussbaum fan. 

TV is seen, by many, as a waste of time. As the work-from-home, freelancer, hermit, stay-at-home dog mom type, I’m a huge fan of TV. Other than Beau, television is my constant companion. I don’t always broadcast my love of TV, but I have always defended shows I find smart and compelling, which others tend to throw away as “girly.” Idiots. I might like Nussbaum because she bolstered my opinions, but she’s very smart and has been published in a lot of the best publications. I have watched to completion almost every show reviewed and mentioned in I Like to Watch, so maybe I need to be more productive, or maybe I should go into TV criticism… But she has a Pulitzer, and I have a blog.

Nussbaum was on her way to a doctorate when her future changed during an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer turned her into a TV critic.

Nussbaum is an amazing writer with deep insights, a sense of humor, and a complete lack of herd mentality. Her opening and closing sentences to her essays are amazing. I aspire to those kinds of clinchers. Though I Like to Watch focuses on TV, Nussbaum dives into more like the Me Too movement, Weinstein, and the fall out. Television is more than just mindless entertainment. It is a way to show people other ways of life, open minds, sway opinions, and dive into the nitty gritty. There has been a decent amount of uproar about rape depictions on TV, but representing dark and gruesome is not a bad thing, “Well drawn characters …. may be rape survivors, but that’s not where their stories stop. They’re more than their worst days.” 

I live in this world as a woman. There are some great parts about being a lady, but there are a ton of downsides. I am not represented in the media to my fullest complexity, and it is far worse for people and women of color. I have known this for awhile, but there are shows I couldn’t totally pinpoint why I didn’t like them until I read I Like to Watch. In several highly underrated shows, Nussbaum agreed with the things I’ve been saying for, well, since I saw the shows. Shows like True Detective and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel were fun but lacking in my opinion because, as Nussbaum explains, they completely lack female characters of any depth or humor or qualities making women complex entities. I liked them, but they weren’t great. I guess I like my shows to have men and women with personalities. Shows poo-pooed by friends, critics, and randos like Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend are great. They are smart and funny but belittled because they’re shows for women. Fuck the patriarchy. I binged Sex and the City last year because I’d never had access to HBO, and all I’d ever heard was how girly it was. I was hooked because it showed flawed, complex women working at friendship, relationships, and their goals with really great clothes and shoes, “High-feminine instead of fetishistically masculine, glittery rather than gritty, and daring in its conception of character, Sex and the City was a brilliant, and, in certain ways, radical show.”

By the way, I fucking loved Nanette. I watched it the day it came out. Hannah Gadsby is a delight. It is a special I keep thinking about and recommending to anyone who has an interest in comedy, art history, feminism, LGBTQIA rights, or existing on this planet. 

This is not a collection of glowing critiques, but it is an honest collection. There are good, pans, and some in between. I Like to Watch is an array of previously published and new essays from Nussbaum’s career as a critic. I seriously enjoyed this one, and I keep recommending it to people. 

Memorable Quotes
“It was elitist screed, nostalgic for an America that never really existed…”
“Criticism isn’t memoir, but it’s certainly personal, so you dan consider these essays to be a portrait of me struggling to change my mind.”
“Jokes were a superior way to tell the truth – and that meant freedom for everyone.”
“…there’s a risk to Schumer’s rise: When you’re put on a pedestal, the whole world gets to upskirt you.”
“Bigotry is resilient, because rejecting it often means rejecting your own family.” 

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Man interrupting my photo shoot on a public beach. How dare he!!!

Title: I Like to Watch; Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution
Author: Emily Nussbaum
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780525508960

Books

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

Read Yes
Length 323
Quick Review Amy Schumer is a household name as a bold and open comic, movie star, TV star, writer, and more, but do we really know her?

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I live under a rock, so I had never heard of Amy Schumer until her 2016 movie Trainwreck. In the two years following, I have become a big fan. I love her honesty. She’s not perfect, but she is real. In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, she ramps up her candor and imperfections even more. She becomes an even more relatable star as she humorously tells some of the ups and downs and face plants of her life.

I am drawn to people who deal with struggle through humor; probably because I do the same damn thing. Schumer’s stand up is hilarious and powerful and sometimes in your face. Her book is a subdued version of all of those things. She looks comfortable on stage for comedy shows. During interviews, she seems nervous and uncomfortable like she’d rather be any where else preferably not in the spotlight. Instead of entertaining on a stage or sitting on a couch for an interview, her introversion shines through. She is just that: an introvert. In her book, it feels like she gets to tell her story on her own terms without having the pressure of being funny.

I have always appreciated her unapologetic honesty. Her book is even more so. She talks about her family, her struggles, her relationships, losing her virginity, abuse, the road to success, having money, and so much more. She lets her fans and readers in and see what is behind her on stage persona.

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She has a very self-deprecating sense of humor. I appreciate this because I too spend most of my time pointing out my flaws. Although, I hope she could see herself the way so many people see her: as a smart, talented, beautiful woman. It is obvious she deals with self-esteem issues sometimes bordering on ‘does she have any self-confidence at all?’ But I would love to meet a woman on this earth who doesn’t. This book was written two years ago, and it’s evident the themes in her latest movie I Feel Pretty have been long lasting themes in her own life.

Candor is one of the most notable points in her memoir. She talks about her parents honestly. She has no qualm about critiquing or slamming present and past self. Her inclusion of diary entries is hilarious and wonderful. She includes footnotes, which are equally funny. It takes a lot of lady balls to let the world see the ridiculousness that is teenage diaries.

Schumer is a born storyteller. She has a tendency to meander through her stories and chapters by adding one or three tales on her way to making her main point. They may or may not have something to do with her point, but they are all entertaining.
I highly suggest The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo to anyone who enjoys a good laugh and a multidimensional memoir. I know I do!

Memorable Quotes
“If you’re a true introvert, other people are basically energy vampires.”
“I don’t know what a hedge fund is. I want a hedgehog fund.”
“…nobody can be innocent and wise at the same time.”
“This is how we were raised: we were always oppressively OKAY.”

Title: The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
Author: Amy Schumer
Publisher: Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster)
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9781501139888