Interests 43 through 47

Hello! Time has flown since my last newsletter, and so have I. I’m back from a restorative jaunt to California, a wonderful place to engage with one’s interests. For me that included:

43. Being best friends

44. The exchanging of oral histories

45. That feeling when you are under a really good tree canopy

46. Mountains in the near distance

47. Eating tacos out of doors

(You might consider following me on Instagram as it is where I am doing my best work.)

For book-related content—and in honor of Our Lady of Lyrical Emotion’s tour kick-off this week—we’ll be revisiting My Interest #13 Taylor Swift, along with Interests #23 ALL THE BEST NIGHTS, #24 END OF THE DAY, and #25 QUEEN OF DUST.

You’ve probably been wondering: Which of Hanna’s books fits which Taylor Swift era? Let me tell you.

ALL THE BEST NIGHTS is very obviously Reputation. Lust and bright lights. What will people say? “Let’s have a secret relationship and also write songs about it!” I mean.

Red (TV) is the best fit for END OF THE DAY. Think lingering hurt and the drama of unfinished business—although my evidence can be boiled down to Dylan O’Brien’s presence (beanie! beard!) in the “All Too Well Ten-Minute Version (TV)” short film.

Admittedly harder is choosing between Folklore and Evermore for QUEEN OF DUST. Both have important themes of infidelity, ocean imagery, and identity-shifting heartache. But I’m going with Evermore (“ivy,” “long story short,” and the title track doing some heavy lifting) with the bottom line being: Evermore fucks more than Folklore. (Arguably, Midnights also fucks, and if you think it’s a better album to pair with an erotic space masterpiece about a sex priestess and the enemy soldier she hates to love on an ocean planet with two moons, I see your point.)

Please feel free to share comments or concerns; discussion of these matters is quite officially Interesting to me. I am, as my man Walt says, “regardless of others, ever regardful of others.”

I enjoyed this,

Hanna