Happy Friday and Happy Valentine’s Day if you’re celebrating this lovey dovey holiday. My wife and I have a tradition of pizza and beer, which started as a way to avoid over-priced, over-packed fancy restaurants. It’s pretty great. Wherever and however you’re celebrating, may you enjoy some time with your loved one(s)!
On tap this week:
A review of a surprisingly good early Pulitzer winner
Background reading for SNL’s 50th anniversary
An update on my long-term Pulitzer Project
5 Things: Links and Opinions
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Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story by Oliver La Farge
The early years of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction featured a lot of books that have zero name recognition in American culture. Take a look at my ranking of the first 11 winning titles:
Though there were a lot of great books published in the 1920s, they generally weren’t winning Pulitzers. Suffice it to say, I had pretty low expectations of Oliver La Farge’s Laughing Boy, which won 1930’s prize. I figured I’d be bored and/or offended throughout the story.
Instead, I was thrilled to discover that Laughing Boy actually turned out to be a very good book.
Set in the remote reaches of Southern Utah and Monument Valley — one of my favorite areas of the country — this story follows Laughing Boy and Slim Girl, an unexpected Navajo pair who fall in love and set out to make a life in an increasingly Americanized culture. As the subtitle declares, it really is a love story — with all the emotion and complexity that come with that label.
La Farge, an anthropologist by trade, did a number of things really well. He wrote beautifully about the landscape and about the messiness of a man’s relationship with an indigenous woman who’d been forced into an American school for her formative years. Most importantly, La Farge probed the interiority of these Navajo people with nuance, compassion, and deep honesty. Somewhat surprisingly, the book didn’t feel dated or rife with stereotypes — it was always readable and enjoyable.
Laughing Boy will especially interest folks who enjoy the likes of Edward Abbey and Louis L’Amour. So if you’re looking for a bit of an off-the-wall recommendation, this one fits the bill, and clocks in at just around 200 pages.
In the News: SNL’s 50th
This section offers a book recommendation based on recent headlines, to help you make sense of the world with a bit more depth and context rather than just clickbait.
Live from New York by James Andrew Miller
I’ve been a big fan of SNL for more than 20 years (and I turn 37 in a couple of weeks). Back when DVDs were still a thing, my high school friends and I would binge “Best Of” compilations of Will Ferrell, Ana Gasteyer, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, and more. These days, most of my SNL consumption happens on YouTube rather than at its original time slot, but I still really enjoy the combination of smart and stupid humor that riffs on and skewers everything under the sun.
To celebrate the show’s 50th anniversary special coming up on Sunday night, give Live from New York a read. It’s packed with history, humor, and a lot of heart.
A Pulitzer Project Update
I first introduced my Pulitzer Project about a year and a half ago and have been slowly but surely chugging along since then, going through periods of bingeing prize-winning titles and then taking some time off. On average, though, I’ve finished about two per month since August 2023. You’re welcome to peruse my spreadsheet, which has two tabs:
The complete list of winners by category. Titles in bold are those I’ve read and there are review links for those I’ve featured here in the newsletter.
Progress. This tab shows what I’m currently reading as well as a list of what I’ve finished and when (going back over a decade to well before this project officially started).
For the most part, I’m going through fiction titles chronologically, but allowing myself to jump around the other categories as my interests dictate. Next up on the non-fiction side, I plan on tackling Taylor Branch’s epic three-volume series, America in the King Years. Only the first title won a Pulitzer, but I have all three on my shelf, so why not take the excuse to finally read ‘em. I figure those’ll take me a good couple of months at least.
Have you read many Pulitzer winners? If so, I’d love to hear about your favorites!
5 Things: Links and Opinions
👦 The kids these days are reading graphic novels at a record clip. Even titles in popular series like Percy Jackson quickly get adapted into graphic form. Cranks say it’s not “real” reading, but that’s rubbish. As the article linked above shows, it can instill very positive reading habits. Plus, they’re just fun and look cool! Let’s embrace all reading formats, especially for kids.
🐦⬛ Last week I told you about Crossy Road, one of the two games I enjoy on my phone when I have time to kill. The other: Wingspan. It started as a hit board game (which is really fun) but is also available on Nintendo and smartphone devices. It’s the perfect game for bird nerds: “You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves.” I love it.
🍽️ One Substacker is embracing weekly dinners with friends to combat the widespread loneliness in our society right now: “I don’t know a single person who says they have enough friends or a vibrant enough social life. And yet, when you invite people to do things, it seems like no one can hang out.” Amanda Litman set out to change that. It’s a good read.
🧦 I’m still a Darn Tough fan, but I’ve come to really like my couple pairs of Fox River socks for cold weather adventures. They’ve held up really well and prices are generally a touch lower than Darn Tough. Definitely give them a shot if you’re in the market.
🦅 Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention how glad I was to see the Eagles utterly destroy the Chiefs last Sunday. Living in Broncos country for the last 12 years has given me a strong dislike for Mr. Mahomes and company. Plus, it’s just fun to root for the underdog when you don’t actually have stakes in the game. Go Birds. There’s always next year for my Vikings. lol.
Thanks so much for reading. Be good to each other.
-Jeremy
I'm not sure if you were talking about titles or authors, but I recognized 5 titles and 6 authors on your Pulitzer list.
On a separate note, while I'm fine with children reading graphic novels, I am seriously irritated by how much those titles outweigh regular adult fiction in my local library's e-book collection. Each Tuesday, when I check the new additions to the collection, there are pages and pages of graphic novels before I see a single "regular" title, and inevitably, the graphic novels are all available for checkout while the other titles have long waiting lists.