Annie Berke

I'd been reading EAST OF EDEN for so many weeks, it kind of became my personality, and now that I finished it, I don't know who I am anymore. Timshel, folks.

I’m on the last five minutes of this podcast, talking about horror movies. It was fun — and fast! I don’t intend on listening to it (cringe), but would love if you do (supportive!), but never tell me (embarrassing!!). Deal? 👻 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

Okay okay maybe I do need to watch YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING…

A Midlife Pitch! [new @Substack post on #freelancewriting and #perimenopitching] Read, like, follow, subscribe 🎩🎩 substack.com/@sayanniethi...

a double review of DIGGER and THE SOCIAL RECKONING, two flawed films about whether it's ever too late to tell the story that needs telling thanks as always to @newrepublic.com and @lauramarsh.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2163...

Bad news: I am the same age that Delta Dawn is when her daddy still calls her baby 🥀

My review of PRIMETIME is live! Thank you so much to @simontorracinta.bsky.social rracinta for commissioning and to the editors at @dissentmag.bsky.social ag for their keen insights every step of the way:

"In an age of highly predictive text, improbability has the virtue of assuring viewers: this was made by human hands." @elizabethalsop.bsky.social reviews HBO's "DTF St. Louis": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/dtf-st-louis-hbo-steven-conrad-auteur-emmys

Alison Laurence on "The End of Oak Street": "All dinosaur stories, from scholarly articles to science fiction, contain elements of fact and fantasy working together." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/end-oak-street-social-dinosaur-popular-imagination-prehistoric/

"The oeuvre of every great poet is a canon unto itself, and Bloom’s ideal required an authoritative canon of canons." Alex Lanz on Harold Bloom and the context of "The Man Who Read Everything": http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/harold-bloom-letters-man-who-read-everything-influence

"the HEAD, by way of the EAR, to the SYLLABLE/ the HEART, by way of the BREATH, to the LINE"

"In 'Late Fame,' playing pool in a bar with friends and singing for an appreciative audience are acts given dignity equal to that of our most vaunted verse." Frank Falisi reviews Kent Jones's film, "Late Fame": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/late-fame-kent-jones-willem-dafoe-poetry-manhattan

❤️ 🦕 ❤️

I enjoy THE PAPER more than I ever liked THE OFFICE.

Emmys on tonight so of course my mind goes here... www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNRz...

The holiday weekend is over, time to go back to avoiding work at work by reading my newest Substack post ;)

My new post on Coyote vs. Acme, May December, and laughing at others' pain went live this AM on Substack -- please check it out and, if you like it, please follow and subscribe (it's free)

"Taking a permission slip from her book of animal sex, I decided to run with the messy lot of it." Emma Wood reflects on watching and reading the work of Perrin Ireland: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/perrin-roosevelt-ireland-thirsty-science-poking-the-squid/

"The arts and humanities are a small piece of the AI pie, but they are our piece of the pie." Tom Comitta talks to @aarthivadde.bsky.social about "We the Platform": http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-the-platform-artificial-intelligence-aarthi-vadde-internet

Such a thrill to dive into We the Platform and the many modes of literary Web 2.0 with @aarthivadde.bsky.social : from fan fic to icon novels to punk anti-fiction to fiction as institutional critique!

Thanks to everyone reading my review at @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social & feeling proud of Lori, Melanie, and Tim, whose essays I commissioned and whose work is, unsurprisingly, catching 🔥

“In his biggest misstep, Thomson brings up Hitler.” Tim Riley reviews the arguments of David Thomson's "A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of Movies": http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/david-thomson-sudden-flicker-light-film-history-revisionist

"Fiction gives you empathy in a way that nothing else does, and I think empathy is a much more valuable education than reading facts.” Comedian Anthony Jeselnik about what he wanted from a book club: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/anthony-jeselnik-comedy-celebrity-book-clubs-classics-canon/

"The thing about time and art is that in the unending march of years, art can get lost, sometimes so lost that it takes a real sleuth to find it." Mesha Maren on the power of the reissue: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/mesha-maren-reissues-women-publishing-conglomerates-independent-presses

My latest piece is a reported essay in the pages of New York Magazine and now, online. www.vulture.com/article/miss...

If you haven’t looked at my Substack, please do, and consider subscribing while you’re at it! Your support and eyeballs motivate me to write… but not too much… The posts I have planned will be informative, full of humor, and, in the words of Cher Horowitz, *sporadic*

Lori Marso explores the ideas behind Sophie Lewis’ "Femmephilia" and Eileen G’Sell’s "Lipstick": "To be femme is to embody a distinctly artificial, alluring, and potentially radical performance of 'womanhood.'" http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/femme-feminism-lori-marso-sophie-lewis-eileen-gsell

"'One Night Only' thinks we should fall in love with compliance, or, at least, it gives in to bothsidesism to make this point." @sayanniething.bsky.social reviews "One Night Only": http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/one-night-only-fascist-sex-dystopia-rom-com

"'Flicker' resembles box office gold: bold ideas colliding with sex, violence, and toupees—and it doesn’t come near what he’s done before." Tim Riley reviews David Thomson's "A Sudden Flicker of Light": http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/david-thomson-sudden-flicker-light-film-history-revisionist

Let’s get into it

Happy Monday, everyone... Gird your loins, I started a Substack: it's called TWO HATS! It's about the culture of writing / writing about culture, and it's totally free. Please check it out, subscribe, and share <3 annieberke.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

My first review for Dirt, in which I try to figure out what kind of feminist OW is, what kind of feminist that makes me, and what any of this has to do with Woody Allen. dirt.fyi/article/2026...

Always a pleasure to contribute to @defector.com, where the readers are not idiots but do know a lot about sports! Anyway, this is the closest I’ve come to writing about sports: a pickleball comedy starring Jake Johnson 🎾 🎥

Check out my latest in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, on a recent boomlet in "biographies" of fictional characters!! Thanks to @sayanniething.bsky.social for the fabulous edits!!

If I ever start a small business in discount pool service and repair, I'm definitely going to call it "Still Waters Run Cheap."

PSA if you were born earlier, when your mom was younger, you wouldn't be you. science.

Tense but not scary! So entertaining, no regrets