What I’m Writing

**“We Need to Talk About Miranda’s Drinking”** | The Cut | December 29, 2021

What I’m Reading

Book Reviews

*Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation* by Anne Helen Petersen: Click **here** to read my review

*Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal* by George Packer: Click **here** to read my review

*Midnight Library* by Matt Haig: Click **here** to read my review

*How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America* by Clint Smith: Click **here** to read my review

*The Wife* by Meg Wolitzer: Click **here** to read my review

Other

**“Even Kenneth Branagh Doesn’t Quite Know How He Got From Belfast to Here”** by **Nate Jones** | Vulture | January 7, 2022

**“How to Keep Going”** by **Crystal Hana Kim** | Poets & Writers | January/February 2022

**“Why Are Toni Morrison’s Books So Often the Target of Book Bans”** by **Olivia Waxman** | TIME | January 31, 2022

**“Routine Maintenance: Embracing Habit in an Automated World”** by **Meghan O’Gieblyn** | Harper’s | January 2022

**“The Radical Woman Behind Goodnight Moon”** by **Anna Holmes** | The New Yorker | January 31, 2022

**“The Redemption of the Bad Mother”** by **Sophie Gilbert** | The Atlantic | January 25, 2022

What I’m Listening To

**“Remembering Joan Didion and Betty White”** | **NPR’s Fresh Air**

**“Bookish Superlatives for an Unprecedented Reading Year”** | **Novel Pairings Pod**

**“Robert Gottlieb on ‘Garbo’ and ‘Babbit’”** | **New York Times Book Review Podcast**

**“Remembering André Leon Talley”** | **It’s Been a Minute**

The Book

In December, I introduced you all to Susan, my grandmother’s cousin and Bessie’s granddaughter (and one of the very best and kindest people you’ll ever meet). Growing up, I was really lucky to spend a lot of time with Susan, being her house was just a five-minute walk from my grandparents’. I have the fondest memories of us lounging in bed, talking about the spirituality of music while watching everything from An American in Paris and To Kill a Mockingbird to The Secret Life of an American Teenager (sorry about that last one, Susan!).

In the summer of 2017, about a year after my grandmother passed away, I reached out to Susan to ask if she could tell me anything about Bessie. Little did I then know that her home would turn out to be an absolute treasure trove. Before long, we were together and hard at work, uncovering mounds of letters, scrapbooks, albums, and books — some of which had not been touched for over 100 years.

These pictures are from our first “research adventure” together in August 2017. You’ll notice the Dunkin Donuts coffee and Susan’s cat, Mirror, who always kept me company, lying right next to (or often on top of) Bessie’s books. A part of me still wonders if it was Bessie’s way of saying hello.