Quote of the week:
“Talking to yourself can be useful. And writing means being overheard.” — Zadie Smith in her new essay collection, Intimations (which is fantastic)
What I’m reading:
- The Highly Sensitive Parent by Elaine N. Aron (finished this week)
- A Burning by Megha Majumdar (finished this week)
- Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith (halfway through)
What I’m listening to:
- On Being podcast — Pauline Boss on ambiguous loss
- The Nix by Nathan Hill (still loving it)
What I’m watching:
- “Love on the Spectrum” (Netflix) — finished season 1 and really want a season 2
- “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” (HBO) — finale is on Sunday. Can’t wait
- “Down to Earth with Zac Efron (Netflix) — didn’t know I needed Zac Efron in my life, but I guess I do
Writing news:
- About 6 weeks (but who’s counting) until All the Acorns on the Forest Floor is OUT
- People Who Knew Me will be re-released (with a new, awesome cover!) in October
- All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23, 2021–follow us @allthelovetalk on Twitter and Instagram
What I’m talking about:
- The federal occupation in Portland (and other cities). My friend lives there and has sent me photos that you would swear were taken in a war torn country (maybe that’s what we are now?)
- Trump changing the reporting structure for COVID statistics so we no longer know if we’re getting accurate data. In my county, we were averaging about 1000 cases per day; now it’s more like 100-400. Seems fishy. Personally I think Trump wants the numbers to look better so people go on with their lives and the economy improves
- Trump’s ridiculous idea to delay the election. People, we are getting much too close to a dictatorship
- How COVID-19 has put a spotlight on America’s childcare crisis (Refinery 29 article here)
- The ridiculousness of work ending at 5pm (or later) when schools let out at 3pm (or earlier) (article in the Atlantic here)
- The possibility of a 4-day work week, something proposed in New Zealand by their progressive Prime Minister (yes, I am still pondering moving there) (Washington Post article here)
- The “should my kids go back to school?” debate and the prevalence of mom shame during this pandemic (article in The Lily here)
- Mom bias in the workplace (article in The Lily here)
What I’m grateful for:
Masks! Because they protect us from deadly viruses. Seems like the least controversial thing to be grateful for, but we live in strange times.
