Ashleigh Young is one of New Zealand's most esteemed poets and essayists.
She caught the attention of readers both locally and abroad with her collection of essays "Can you tolerate this?" which won her the prestigious Windham-Campbell award from Yale University.
Ashleigh joins jesse to talk about her favourite books, songs, advice columns and her new collection of poetry How I get ready.
Ashleigh Young's new collection of poetry "How I Get Ready." Photo: Supplied
Ashleigh's Bookmark's picks:
SONGS:
Elena & Lia by Max Richter from the My Brilliant Friend Soundtrack
Chateau Rouge by My Sister Klaus
BOOKS:
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez - this novel is written as an address to the narrator's lifelong friend who has taken his own life. The narrator ends up taking in the friend's dog (a Great Dane), even though she has a tiny apartment. I was afraid for the sad Great Dane throughout this novel, because it seems to me that whenever a dog is in a novel, something terrible befalls the dog. This book helped me recover from all the novels I have read where something terrible happens to the dog.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - this is a sprawling novel across four generations of a Korean family. It starts in a little fishing village Korea in the early 20th century, moves to pre and postwar Osaka, then Tokyo and Yokohama. It's about the struggles the Korean community face in Japan, where they face vicious discrimination. I loved the compassion of this novel, and how simply it's told, and how incredibly detailed it is but how it takes in such a sweep of history.
The Stack of Owls is Getting Higher by UK poet Dawn Watson - this actually has not been published quite yet. It's out in June with Emma Press. I got a sneak peek, as the author asked if I would write a little blurb for it. It is a hilarious and wonderful book.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb - this memoir is by a psychotherapist who finds herself in a crisis and decides she needs to get therapy herself. I am really interested in how psychotherapy works, how therapists work, and all the potential awkwardnesses surrounding that relationship. It's not a self-help book - it's more a book about how another person can help you see yourself more clearly (and why that's so difficult). Gottlieb's story is intertwined with the stories of her own clients, so her roles as therapist/patient keep being reversed interestingly.
PODCASTS
The Waves: Gender, Relationships, Feminism. This is one of Slate's network of podcasts. It's an incredibly smart bunch of women talking about everything from Beto O'Rourke to the college admissions scandals to the latest Netflix rom-com to gender reveal parties to whether 'millennial burnout' is a thing, etc etc. It's hosted by Hanna Rosin, who is one of the hosts of the popular podcast Invisibilia. I'm kind of obsessed with these women - they're so smart and hyper-articulate.
Adam Buxton: A warm and funny and lovely dude who talks to comedians, actors, documentary-makers, writers, musicians. They're all stars of course but people just come off as pretty normal and often a bit neurotic. I love listening to a good meandering conversation. A lot of US podcasts are quite rigidly structured, and this isn't.
Better Life Lab: this is a slightly nerdy one. It's about work-life balance. But i am really curious about how busy people make these things work and stay sane, and what happens when they can't. The podcast talks about things like the concept of 'inbox zero', schedule chaos, karoshi (in Japan), and 'work-work conflict'.
Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness. I love Queer Eye and I love JVN.
