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Rachel Vorona Cote

@rvoronacote.bsky.social
3.6K followers 835 following 2.8K posts

Author of Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today. Freelance book critic all over the place. Get in touch: rachelvorona@gmail.com. @RVoronaCote on Instagram. She / Her.

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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 18h
This week, I put down a deposit for an enormous Yoshi-themed birthday cake and then, a night or two after that, had a nightmare where my preschooler decided that he was done with his ardent, long-enduring Yoshi phase mere days before his birthday party. Parenthood is psychosis.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Today is my mom’s birthday; she would be 71. She died from ovarian cancer in 2017, a fact that sucks abominably and always will. But this year is proving more of a struggle than previous years. As my son becomes ever more himself, I am struck with the vastness of what she, he, and I have missed.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
motherfucker is truly the thief of joy
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is gruesome beyond words. And imagine being one of the nurses or doctors caring for this woman, bearing witness to the violence imposed upon her body in the name of justice.
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Annie Berke @sayanniething.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
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:
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Nikki is a true groundbreaker, and we are so lucky that she is here, writing books.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
“Let’s go with the one who eats bugs.”
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Having a preschooler is nuts because suddenly, the reason you’re late in the morning is that they asked you whether there are “real bad people,” what said bad people do, and why they do those things. (This happened to me yesterday. Thank you, son.)
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Achtung Baby! Bono has hopped about the Ed Sheeran hate train.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I've really struggled to absorb this brutal news from Cornell. It was hard to be a girl coming of age in the early aughts; I carry some vile memories I'd sooner forget. It's fucking shameful that the conditions for college sexual assault remain as pungently auspicious as ever.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
So dismally disembodied.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This sick, sad man is a gender studies course in and of himself.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I'd have to say that my favorite thing about Zoom meetings is being confronted, relentlessly, with my unintentional facial grotesqueries.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Hate to imagine what that couple is serving at their wedding dinner
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laura olin @lauraolin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In addition to the names of the Cornell 7 we should also make famous the administrators and law enforcement officers who originally thought an apology letter would be sufficient.
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Chris Scott @iamchrisscott.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hey now!
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It bums me out how rarely people gather in homes these days. On the one hand, I recognize my extroversion — I will generally choose socializing over solitude. But the trend is surely affected by more varied circumstances. For instance, I love hosting, but rarely do, because my place is so small.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
From the jump, this writer is shadowboxing. I don't think anyone who opposes the use of AI in writing-intense courses is arguing that writing is the ONLY way a person learns to think. But that does not diminish how critical it is to the development of one's point of view.
Opening of September 29 New York Times opinion piece by Joe Cruz entitled, "What If Writing Isn't Central to Thinking?"

Most college professors I know believe that students learn to think — critically, creatively, reflectively, tenaciously — only by writing. At Williams College, where I am a professor, writing skills are among the very few general education requirements.

It’s no surprise, then, that universities see artificial intelligence as an existential threat, and have launched an arms race of countermeasures: more proctored essay exams; test-taking rooms shielded from the internet; requirements that essays be composed on platforms that track all edits, so the word-for-word genealogy can be verified. I’ve heard professors rejoicing when they see typos or grammatical errors in an essay, as if they proved that a student wrote it without any help from A.I.

But what if we are mistaken in treating writing as the highest cultivation of thought?
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum plays as I flee with my bindle to Union Station.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I believe in rehabilitative justice, and I also believe that certain violences are so horrific that the process of rehabilitation ought to be a long, stridently intense fucking road. This is all so sickening, and sickeningly familiar.
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
COVER REVEAL for my new book, TOUGH LOVE. It's a memoir about my habit of falling into intense, complicated relationships with domineering mentors (maybe you can relate?). Now available for preorder! US: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tough-... Canada: www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/763573...
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Who is going to send me on assignment to Los Angeles at the end of November so that I can witness Paul F. Tompkins’ triumphant return to standup?
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Okay, here’s my Top Shows ballot, based on little beyond my gut conviction. Obviously it remains to be seen whether Widow’s Bay and Severance stick the landing, but I love what I’ve seen of both so much that it feels important to include them.
My NYTimes top shows ballot: Fleabag, Mad Men, Better Call Saul, What We Do in the Shadows, The Righteous Gemstones, The Americans, Derry Girls, Widow’s Bay, Severance, Succession
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m an avid fan of many creatures, but otters are the best species, and it’s simply not close.
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Joyce Carol (p)Oa(s)tes 😱 @basicchunnel.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
(celebrity walking through the Fitcarraldo Closet) Oh my god I love this one, I’m taking it *flashes a solid blue rectangle at the camera*
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I love Criterion very much, but what we REALLY need is a Fitzcarraldo Closet. www.ft.com/content/fad8...
ft.com
Fitzcarraldo – inside the chicest publisher on earth
Jacques Testard is transforming our reading habits, one blue book at a time
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Began frothing at the mouth because I didn’t see Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the list, but then @kvanaren.bsky.social reminded me that these are the best shows of the *21st* Century. 💀
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The thing about Gavin Newsom is that you simply cannot trust a man whose hairline looks like that. It is so scrupulously maintained that it appears almost wig-like. It is a deceiver’s hairline.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Can you imagine if peak-of-her-career Joan Didion had written about this community? The disdain would waft from the page, thick as smoke.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Robert thinks Shakespeare was at the pub with the poet of Beowulf.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This man (Stephens) is a superb example of the way racism pickles the brain, making one intellectually incapable of anything resembling a cogent argument.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Yesterday my preschooler was stung by a yellow jacket in two different places while he was at the playground (it sucked, but he’s fine). Later I told him he could watch tv while I folded laundry in his room. He turned on a National Geographic documentary about bees. 🤔
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I will be there, and hope you will be too! Spousal bias notwithstanding, Paul is brilliant and such a great speaker.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
In theory, I’m glad that Ed Sheeran’s wet, mopey face is making the rounds because he has earned that humiliation. But after years of seeing footage of families brutally losing their lives, and hearing from friends in Gaza about their precarious reality, it frankly makes me too angry to behold.
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Chris Scott @iamchrisscott.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A new little computer nightmare from me at Plague Circus Press
plaguecircuspress.com
I Am Still in the Computer Lab by Chris Scott
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Free DC @freedcproject.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
His name is Wilber Rafael Garces Perez and ICE shot him and then took him into custody while he worked for DoorDash. DoorDash continues to be silent as ICE attacks its workers and complicit in attacks on our communities.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I cannot express the extent to which DJT has absolutely trashed downtown, between all the authoritarian flourishes (banners with his glowering face, etc) and gilt gold paint. Ravaging Kennedy Center is kind of too much to bear.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This is wrenching. I’m a white mother parenting a white child, so my positionality and privileges are different. But what I keep thinking lately is that we in America have built such a hostile, individualistic, and systematically unequal society. Facing it head on can feel like pressing a bruise.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
First, a few that I love and didn’t review: Happy People Don’t Live Here, by @ambersparks.bsky.social If Only and Repetition, both by Vigdis Hjorth The Church of Divine Electricity, by Emily Mitchell Medium Rare, by @joukovsky.bsky.social A Very Cold Winter, by Fausta Cialente
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
🏆
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
But CAN he perform the choreography for the “Weapon of Choice” music video? That is the pressing question.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“Why’d you give me this fuckin thing, man?”
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Gutting in every sense. And chilling, particularly in a nation with such abundantly rich literary tradition. What on earth are we doing??
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Humanities parents at our most flagrantly stereotypical: our preschooler learned the verb “to foil” (as in, to foil a plot), and we basically went nuts commending him on his use of SUCH a good verb.
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
In the context of his disgrace, there’s something uniquely appropriate about Ed Sheeran being a mid musician who adorns himself with the most absurd, try-hard tapestry of tattoos—extreme “pretty fly for a white guy” behavior. A ridiculous person can be a good soul, but this guy just screams farce.
A photo of Ed Sheeran, shirtless, his colorfully dumb tattoo tapestry on display
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I would let this adorable little menace ruin my life
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Righteous (and savvy).
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Annie Berke @sayanniething.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
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)
substack.com
Annie Berke (@sayanniething)
“Well, I’m not gonna cross-examine you. Say what you wanna say” On Coyote vs. Acme, May December, and laughing at others’ pain — If chatty, personal, occasionally associative criticism, together wit...
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
💔
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Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
What makes this so especially bleak is that Netflix is counting on the public not only being depraved enough to want to see this infamously unethical experiment turned into voyeuristic entertainment, but also ignorant enough to not know what its very well-documented results were.
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