A selection of must-reads by Kirsten Miller.

Books have this magical ability to transport us into worlds that are not our own. They have the power to move us from the mundane desk job to a spellbinding forest or a quaint village outside of a city we’ve never traversed. They allow us to feel seen, heard, and understood. They let us know that we are not alone—even in this.

Reading has always been a powerful form of escapism, but it feels even more relevant in the age of quarantine. As I sit alone in my apartment, yes, there are feelings of loneliness, but I’m also reminded that I can easily move into another world by merely flipping a page. So, during these unprecedented times, I’ve found myself turning page after page, escaping to worlds that are not my own, engaging in the principles and knowledge of writers who are thousands of miles away or hundreds of years apart, but whose words are no less poignant.

Maybe you too are hoping to find solace in a world that is not your own, or perhaps you’re hoping to be immersed in a conversation that makes you see the world in a different way, or maybe you’re longing to feel seen through the enigmatic words of a poem. I have felt each of these as I’ve waded through the hours, days, and weeks of quarantine, and this is what I’m reading to feed my soul.

Fiction

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
This book had me spellbound from the first sentence, “Nobody ever warned me about mirrors, so for many years I was fond of them, and believed them to be trustworthy.” From there, I became absorbed by Oyeyemi’s magical retelling of the fairytale “Snow White,” which hinges on the structure of race in America, the politics of passing, and the cultural idea of beauty. The story of Boy Novak gripped me until the very end—if you’re looking for a book to get lost in, this is it.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Through a series of letters addressed to an anonymous reader, I became intimately acquainted with the ups and downs of 15-year-old Charlie as he tries to navigate the throes of high school. Not only did the book leave me reminiscing about high school, but it also brought me into deep thought about mental health and how our bodies protect us at certain times and open us up to heal at others. Perks reminded me that we all struggle with painful or traumatic things, but we don’t have to go through them alone.

Non-Fiction

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
I picked up this book knowing that it would forever change me and the way I think—not unlike Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me (side note: if you haven’t read this one, you should!). Through her prose, Mikki Kendall exposes the egregious blind spots of the feminist movement and gave me a better understanding of how to fight for the rights of all women, not just the ones who look like me. To gain equality for all, some of us, myself included, will have to swallow some difficult truths—this may be inconvenient and uncomfortable, but this is precisely what it takes to stand in solidarity and to listen to the voices of the women who have been oppressed by a movement that should’ve been helping them all along.

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Banananana Bread 

This is a rich, rustic, melt in the mouth banana bread good for any time of day. Most important for a deep banana flavor is to use extremely ripe, black bananas. To further deepen the flavor and break down the banana starch, throw your ripe bananas in the freezer overnight, pull them out in the morning and let sit out for a couple more days.

Ingredients:
3 super ripe bananas
3 eggs
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup coconut oil 
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup almond flour
1 cup ap flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325°. Coat loaf pan with oil. Combine flours, baking soda, and salt. Add in a few pinches of cardamom, cinnamon, and/or nutmeg if you want a bit of that spice flavor. 

Roughly mash bananas in a separate bowl. Whisk in eggs followed by all sugar and vanilla paste. Add coconut and vegetable oil and whisk until smooth.

Add dry ingredients to banana mixture and stir until just combined. Do not over mix. Pour batter into pan and smooth the top. For unnecessary aesthetics, slice a sheet of banana lengthwise and lay on top of batter. 

Bake until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, 50-60 min. The top will be quite dark, but don’t fret. That gives it that caramelized banana flavor. Let it cool in the pan.   

For max enjoyment, toast a thick slice in a cast iron skillet with a little butter and top with almond butter and maldon salt.

Variations:
1. Easily make gluten-free by upping almond flour to 1 1/4 cup plus 1/2 cup coconut flour. 
2. To healthify and up the coconut flavor, reduce sugar and replace vegetable oil fully using coconut oil.

Images, words, and recipe by Caylon Hackwith.

Rachel Schultz is a New York City-based artist whose work spans various subject matters. Most often she explores the human psyche, capturing their essence and at the same moment constructing something all humans can relate to. Schultz is interested in juxtaposing color and subject matter; such as anxiety and mental health, which can be veiled, dark, and elusive with a lighter more buoyant palette.

Using the human figure to explore these psychological themes like anxiety, impulse, and relations between self and other Schultz walks the line between caution and impulse, resulting in poetic repetitive mark making and intuitive forms. In these select pieces, a series of related gestures unfold across subdued monochromatic paper. Drawn intuitively and in sequence, these forms can be read as the physical manifestations of human being's shifting emotional landscape and its effect on self and others. The result is a meditative blend of spare elegance and dynamic movement.