This is Show & Tell where I tell you some things I loved from the week and the one thing I hated, plus round up everything else going on around these parts. The first half of Show & Tell is free to all. The adoration and hateration are for paid subscribers only.

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America is America-ing. This broad had a birthday and still has her team in the World Cup. Her highest court is taking away people’s rights. Her biggest white pop star had a wedding at her most famous sports arena. And, her evil president had a party no one came to. You go girl, you’re as raggedy at 250 as you’ve ever been. We see you, consistent queen.

This Week in The Stacks

Soccer is really my only personality these days.

If you’ve ever wondered what an agent does and how a book goes from idea to something you hold in your hand, this week’s episode with Julianna Haubner, editor at Flatiron Books, is for you.

This month for book club we’re reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Book. This book has been on my TBR for so long, and I can’t wait to read it with Julianna, a nonfiction editor.

Everything I read in June and everything I’m looking forward to in July.

Books I Read This Week

Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast by Pamela Colloff
Paul Skalnik was a con man who fabricated confessions from the men in jail with him in order to earn a lesser sentence, including snitching on men charged in capital crimes. This book is the work of a real journalist. Colloff is giving tons of research and snappy prose that bring the story to life. The book transform from a con man caper into an emotional story about injustice. The pacing is near perfection and the dexterity used to thread the needle on this one is impressive. She gives you plenty to hate while also giving the reader someone to root for.
Fave of the Week

The One and Only Ivan by Kathering Applegate
A middle grade novel about Ivan, a Gorilla who lives in a glass cage in a mall. I appreciated so much of this book and how it engages with young readers. The way Ivan comes to understand his own captivity is smartly done. The book engages with shifting perspectives on right and wrong with a lot of nuance. There are some very lovable side characters, but Ivan was less dynamic than I would’ve liked given his first person ape narration.

The Odyssey by Homer translated by Emily Wilson
An ancient Greek classic about a warrior who tries to come home for twenty years and it’s a real, you know, odyssey. I mean, yeah, I get it. I was entertained. The domestic drama around Odysseus’ wife and kid were more my speed than the lost at sea stuff. What I loved most about the book was thinking about the ways these same storylines, conflicts, and themes are present in stories folks are writing today. There really are only a few ideas that we are all just grappling with over and over.

Housekeeping

I wrote another piece for Marie Claire, this time it is books for you to read instead of celebrating America.

For The Sam Sanders Show first ever live show I got to debate Eliot Glazer over the most iconic ‘90s nostalgia and it was so much fun. You have to listen. Also, you’re a youtube person it is also all on tape. Its a long one, but it is so much fun. And no, I’m not competitive at all, why do you ask?

Things I Love…

Sports

Balogun is back, baby!

And you might be asking “Traci, they say Trump made the call to FIFA. How can you celebrate that?”

I do not like that Trump is in the middle of this. But, I do not think that FIFA needed Trump’s call to be the corrupt organization it has been for decades. They hosted the last World Cup in a country using slave labor. They have reversed suspensions for stars in the past. There are at least two players playing in this very World Cup who are involved in active rape/sexual assault cases. FIFA will do whatever is best for FIFA even if Little baby Jesus called Gianni Infantino directly, if it wasn’t good for FIFA he would send that child of the Lord directly to voicemail.

I think it is unequivocally troubling that Trump is involved in this1—he doesn’t even care about soccer, he just wants the credit2. I also think FIFA can do bad all by themselves. With that being said, I’d like to reserve the right to change this opinion based on whatever else we learn in the next few days and weeks about that phone call and what was said.

This is all a very long way of saying, this reversal is a huge moment in the story of the USMNT. If FIFA is making fishy, inexplicable calls on our behalf, we have arrived.

Balogun, Pochettino, and the rest of the lads have shown that they’re a real squad and FIFA is better off having them fully loaded on the pitch than they are enforcing their own rules.

I still cannot bring myself to chanting “USA USA USA” even though, I do feel like I am buying into whatever American dream this team is selling3.

Books

I love LitHub’s bi-annual most anticipated books of the year list. LitHub does an amazing job of putting books I’m not familiar with on my radar, and that’s saying a lot because the majority of my job is putting books on other people’s radars. The fall is already so stacked and this list has me even more hype. Its a big list so get a cup of tea, find a cozy spot, and start planning your library hold/preorder strategy in comfort.

Food

This week we celebrated my favorite food holiday, no offense to Thanksgiving, but America’s little birthday party is a culinary delight. Hot dogs. BBQ. Berry related desserts. Corn on the cob. Chips and so much dip. Thanksgiving isn’t even close with all those baby food ass sides. This weekend also marked another Cake Party. Here is what I made4 this weekend for those who want to be baking their lives away and also eating an actually good pasta salad.

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