shelf care #8

Recommendations on reading and consuming, i.e. lots of links

Mar 18, 2025

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Normally, I have a preamble ready to go for the shelf care series, and this introduction is no different, except it is short. I have been busy at work on chlorophyll, our online literary magazine, which launches at the end of this month, as well as pitching, writing, and creating recipes for this newsletter and elsewhere. A great time to be alive, really, when you’re constantly creating, especially for yourself.

Here’s what I’ve been consuming since the previous shelf care newsletter.

Books

I’m still saddled with Butter, simply because I have stopped reading it. Something about it is rubbing me the wrong way and I find that I have no patience in finishing it and more importantly, no desire to. Someone else I spoke to told me the same thing and just about everyone else who talk about this book, talk about how the middle part is tedious and seems to stretch endlessly but you come out on the other side feeling good for sticking to it. I don’t have a sense of righteousness about finishing books – I abandon ones that no longer work for me and move on to the next thing – but I’m intrigued about sticking with it. From the last shelf care newsletter, I have now started reading The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam and I’m also thumbing through a copy of Ways to Walk in London: Hidden Places and New Perspectives by Alice Stevenson, which is beautiful. I’m a sucker for London and for writing about urban walking, two things that have come together to make this book, along with gorgeous illustrations by the author themself.

Words wide web

I’m embedded currently in reading about (and looking at) banquets and dinners and food in still life art for a piece I’m working on for this newsletter (supposed to go out today but this pivot happened). Apart from this, I’ve read some truly stunning pieces, like Marla Cruz on how Sean Baker’s Anora is vehemently not a love story. An emotional essay on storage units, our attachment to physical things, and how the writer’s mother found it to be an extension of her home. A really astonishing poem – I don’t want to explain more, you should read for yourself. My partner and I often discuss morality when we find ourselves at a conversation standstill and one of the questions that routinely comes up is: ‘what is more wrong, killing a chicken or a fly’. Conversational blackholes aside, “insect sentience seems like a possibility we shouldn’t ignore”. On grappling with the paradox of truth as a writer. This fascinating but sad story on a craze for tiny plants driving a poaching crisis in South Africa.

Other newsletters

Alicia Kennedy on against relatability, which I could relate to (sorry). Rebecca Thimmesch on the absurdity of With Love, Megan. Devan Grimsrud’s black bean chilli. Clare Michaud on knowledge and control seen through the laminations of sourdough croissants. Karmela Padavic Callaghan’s really hot essay! Dr Sarah Duignan on cooking in ugly kitchens. Yemisí Aríbisálà on knowledge transmission, on who gets to write what and how it is received. Jenny G Zhang on writing requiring labour and discipline. I also touched upon this last week. Devin Kate Pope on the newsletters that shape her. The full list is too long to fit here.

Cooking and eating

I think I’ve perfected the recipe for a fragrant sambar, a bit intensive but worth it. Gorgeous snack plates featuring roasted vegetables, hummus, olives, and cornichons. Braised tofu in a sweet-spicy sauce. I have been relying a lot on banchan to carry a solitary bowl of rice through dinner (would highly recommend). Solid burritos, soft pongal and khichdi, vadais and dosais carry me throughout many moths. Early hot cross buns toasted till crisp and slathered on with salted butter. Gözleme and parathas, two cousins separated by countries but united by comfort and greens. Bags of potato chips, shaved thinly and fried to perfection. Lentil stewp1 topped with a delicate saffron yoghurt. A vibrant green sauce that I’ve added onto everything, from sandwiches to soups. Mint and peas pulao! Successive visits to Toad equals I can now be weighed in pastries. Sharp and sweet Moldovan wines, absolutely divine. Upma, potatoes, and grilled cheese. Brownies to round everything off.

Work

Busy! Which is a blessing and a pleasure. If you’re an editor looking to commission, I’m open to more work from mid-April as an editor/writer – I can do both.

I’ve added two more recipes to my archive at Something Curated for upma and for arisi paruppu sadham.
A recipe for potato toastie (noting that toasties are lawless!) and a small recommendation for where to eat dosai in London, both for Vittles.
An interview with Tunde Wey about a seasonal recipe published in Kinfolk. The writeup is small but the discussion was significant.
Ongoing (and hopefully everlasting) work for chlorophyll – the illustrations themselves have taken up so much of my time, which I love. We2 launch at the end of this month and would love any kind of support towards it, whether it’s reading the beautiful essays and poetry and sharing them as well as any small donations, which we will divvy up and give to the contributors!
Always writing and drawing for my own self!
I’m planning on slowly introducing small changes to the newsletter to make it more worthwhile for me to keep doing it, besides the genuine love for writing – aka I need the money! So I will paywall more of my work here, start writing more wonderful things such as gardening, walking, drawing etc and it would be great to count on your support towards it.

upgrade 💌

Watching/Listening to

When a person is tired of Ilaiyaraaja, they are tired of life – myself and Samuel Johnson briefly alluded to this. With this in mind, I have gone back to listening to Ilaiyaraaja but unfortunately all my playlists are stuck in my Spotify Indian account3. I can’t believe they don’t integrate accounts in 2025. A shame, but here is a decent playlist for those interested.

Rewatched Taxi Driver over the weekend and there are plans being made to watch Mickey 17.

Would love to know what you’ve been reading, browsing, thinking, and listening to!