What I’m Writing

**“Women in Colonial America Were More Powerful Than We Give Them Credit For”** | TIME | March 16, 2022

**“Creating a New Literary Ancestry: On Women Writers and Their Dads”** | The Chicago Review of Books | March 28, 2022

What I’m Reading

Book Reviews

*Sunshine Warm Sober: Unexpected Sober Joy That Lasts* by Catherine Gray

*Austen Years: A Memoir in 5 Novels* by Rachel Cohen: Click **here** to read my review

*Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy* by Jamie Raskin

*The Emperor’s Children: A Novel* by Claire Messud

Other

**“Interrupted, Again: Suleika Jaouad on Cancer and Healing the Second Time Around”** by **Tara Parker-Pope** and **Suleika Jaouad** | The New York Times | March 17, 2022

**“The Most Haunting Truth of Parenthood”** by **Mary Laura Philpott** | The Atlantic | March 16, 2022

**“We Aren’t Just Watching the Decline of the Oscars. We’re Watching the End of Movies.”** by **Ross Douthat** | The New York Times | March 25, 2022

**“The Rewriting of Emily St. John Mandel”** by **Katy Waldman** | The New Yorker | April 1, 2022

**“The Things I’m Afraid to Write About”** by **Sarah Hepola** | The Atlantic | March 12, 2022

**“‘In Moderation and Without Worry.’ On Jane Austen’s Use of Food as Character”** by **Robert Tuesday Anderson** | LitHub | March 31, 2022

What I’m Listening To

**“Two Memoirs About Affliction”** | **New York Times Book Review Podcast**

**“How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole”** | **Unlocking Us**

**“Middlemarch by George Eliot”** | **Novel Pairings Pod**

**“Pet Love: Are Animals the Closest We Come to Unconditional Love‪?‬”** | **We Can Do Hard Things**

The Book

Over the course of my research, I’ve been able to meet so many wonderful people and visit so many wonderful places. These pictures are from my first trip to Bessie’s hometown of Chicago, when I paid a visit to the Chicago History Museum (an absolute must see!). I encountered tons of interesting exhibitions and artifacts, but I think my favorite was the silver medal belonging to Bertha Honoré Palmer, president of the “Board of Lady Managers” of the Chicago World’s Fair. “Having had a taste of independence,” Bertha stated in her opening address at the fair in 1893,

“Women of today…will never willingly relinquish it. They have no desire to be helpless or dependent. Having the full use of their faculties, they rejoice in exercising them.”

At age 13, Bessie attended the fair and very well may have heard Bertha speak. It is so much fun to think about how these words may have affected her, shaping the woman she would become.