BETRAYAL, NO FRIENDS, AND MISSING THE POINT

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that's me!!

Woah: In January, I read a wild essay by Belle Burden in Vanity Fair about the moment her husband showed up to search for their prenup, after walking out on her and the kids, only to ask her to make a sandwich. And she obliged. I loved it, and was happy to find out that it was actually an excerpt of her forthcoming memoir, Strangers. But then I was in Rio, and busy, and forgot about it until my friend Libbie brought it up. Well, over the weekend I stayed up into the wee hours of the night reading and finishing Strangers: a memoir of marriage. This quote in the final pages of the book, a message from Belle's mother to her, made me cry, and also sums up why this book is worth reading: “You have spoken for so many women, including me, who have suffered the consequences of ruthless male prerogative and behavior. No more shutting up women about what men have always gotten away with.” It hit home, in the big ways and the tiny ones. And that note especially reminded me of a moment last year when I came across the fresh dating profile of a guy that had dated me for three months and then disappeared. When I saw the profile, with photos I'd taken, I wanted to scream – because of the predicament I knew I was in the moment I saw it. Text something to address it and “I'm unhinged and care too much”. Call and give him a piece of my mind, and “I'm a crazy bitch”. The universal wisdom, form myself included, was: “Don't send screenshots to call him out because if he ghosted you that's your answer.” Which is so fucked up because we tell women to put their energy elsewhere and just move forward, but that means men get away with SO MUCH and all of this poor behavior goes unchecked!!!!! Omg I'm pissed about it all over again so much that I might send that text now lolol. Anyways, Belle didn't stay quiet, in the form of a searing and lovely book. And I fully understand why it has struck a nerve with readers everywhere.

What I've been writing: Ok, the final act of Evangeline is OUTLINED baby, down to the beats/stakes/openers. All the details! All the threads coming together! With a Blue Bottle coffee and a liege waffle on a Saturday morning, which turned into a Saturday afternoon, and outlined my way to the final moments. So now, I need to actually write lololol wish me luck!!!!

WOMEN’S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history.

My Best Friend's Murder Was a Tabloid Circus. Now, I'm looking for the truth. This feature article in Rolling Stones is gut-wrenching. And also, a beautiful portrayal of friendship that lives on even after grueling loss. Many interesting threads coalesce in this piece: media narratives of women, the shattering that happens on all sides of violence, and one woman's pursuit through the belly of grief, so that she can eventually write about death, and most importantly, write about how brightly her best friend lived.

Does anyone care the young women are just as lonely as men are? This young writer in New York City ponders, and we all answer YES!! We care!! And I thought this essay was beautiful and important, because while everyone is talking about the male loneliness epidemic, women are assumed to “just be great at friendship”...so it doesn't leave much space for when women feel like they have no friends. It's shame inducing, according to this writer. And ya, def appreciated Cosmo putting this piece in their Spring 2026 issue.

Sinners’ Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw Makes History as First Woman to Win Well, what a speech!! What an award!!! And what a way to make an award about the people watching you. Class act, and definitely worth replaying. Also, we love women making history!!

Grammarly turned me into an AI editor and I hate it. Casey Newton is one of my fave tech reporters. And this essay about what Grammarly (the “ai” glorified spell check) was doing by using famous writers' name and likeness to “sell” a “better” product, was just wild. The internet feels like the wild, wild west (not to mention the whole world). Also, tech companies, please don't do this??

Other stray ones: I've been finally getting my scalp products in order (because of this great walkthrough from my friend Anne-Marie). I just ordered a new pair of my favorite favorite favorite favorite earbuds, the Bose Ultra Open in driftwood sand (they don't go in your ear, which makes walking and scooting and life just way more aware and safe compared to noise cancelling.) Also I SO loved this NYT The Daily Sunday edition pod, about what happens when a food critic tries to get healthy.

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here's one of mine:

I don't normally take quizzes from news sites, but when there's one titled: Who's a better writer? Humans or A.I. ... You KNOW I'm clicking and testing. Because obviously, NEED TO KNOW. And when I took the test, I obviously preferred human writing, across the board. It was so unbelievably obvious to me what the good writing was. It was imperfect. And a little weird. And unpredictable. And honestly, didn't always make sense but it made me feel something. And the other choice was just...nice? pretty? readable writing? But flat. Kinda like a hot guy with no personality!!! You know the type. But according to the polling results, it was basically a coin flip whether people like AI writing or they liked human writing. And to that I say... F*ck me?? lololol jk I'm actually not that worried about about survey results on 5 paragraphs. Because that's not how we read, when we fall in love with something. We fall in love with story, with themes woven together by choices that would be hard to make when you're not actively making them. By the tension and friction and imperfectness of long arcs. And that, that resonance, the machines are quite behind us human writers (for now!!)

Did anyone else take this test?? Good luck.

Woman on xx