CLUBBING, DESIRE, AND JAPANESE NOVELS

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!!

Breast and Eggs: At the recommendation of a friend, I have started reading a bestselling book by Japanese feminist writer, Mieko Kawakami titled: Breast and Eggs. This story is so, so interesting. I'm not done yet!! But I'm highly relating to the difficulties (and the joys!!) of modern womanhood - our relationship to beauty - our relationship to expectations of us - and next week when I've finished this novel I'll give my full take!

What I'm writing: I didn't write much more last week than entries into my gratitude journal every night and a bunch of handwritten cards. Between a last-minute trip + a bachelorette weekend, my writing time was not guarded, whoopsies!

WOMEN’S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history.

Maxie McCoy's Page-Turner DAISY and Savannah’s Timeless Allure. I had SO much fun on the Made of Savannah Pod talking about all things ghostwriting, novel writing, and how I ended up in Savannah after a decade+ in San Francisco. Host Dee Daniels is one hell of a interviewer, taking me to places in my own story I hadn't previously gone. Here's Dee's recap of the convo, and I DO hope you'll give it a listen: “The conversation delves deep into the emotional and arduous process of writing fiction, facing rejection from major publishing houses, and how Maxie found resilience and purpose by following her passion. She reflects on her love for Savannah's vibrant creative community and her dedication to helping other writers bring their stories to life through ghostwriting.”

The Buccaneers. I thought I'd hate this show and I love this show. I'm noticing a trend in television: SISTERS (The Bad Sister! Sirens!) and The Buccaneers. I love the really special way that these shows are getting the dynamics of sisterhood on the screen – both in our bloodline, and in our best friends who become our sisters. This is a period drama on Apple that will fit the bill for any Bridgerton lovers.

The Trouble with Wanting Men. I totally wanted to love this long read, but I did not at all love this long read. It details the new (?) phenomenon of being fed up with dating the male kind that was even given a name: heterofatalism – and asks the question: what do we do with our desire? I was hoping for a deeper look at desire, what's expected of women or even “allowed”, where desire can flow when it's not being reciprocated by men (and why), but ultimately this didn't fulfill my desire for that look at desire. But that's OK, including it here because it's still an interesting read.

***Oh, and this was probably the thing on the internet that had me laughing the hardest last week: This is a message for Gen Z: You Could Never (understand what we meant by 'going out’)

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here's one of mine:

This weekend in Park City I got to celebrate one of my dearest friends, someone who has almost two decades under her belt of putting up with me ;) With 14 women together under one roof – some with shared DNA, some with DNA that's probably morphed into shared because of how much time they've spent together, and all with hearts as big as the friend we were celebrating...I was reminded of how potently blissful it is to put a lot of love around one table, and openly share stories, toasts, tears and gratitude for the women in our lives that make the easy times easier, and the hard times less hard. So, plan a dinner. Gather people around. And tell them you love them.

Woman on xx