Stories of girlhood, womanhood, and motherhood
Plus which big fall book you should read and why authors are suing Meta
The back half of this week has been extremely hectic but I have managed to fit in some really interesting books. I’ve been gravitating towards less buzzy books at the moment and it’s been serving me well. This week all of my books, including the one I’m currently in the middle of, are preoccupied with questions of girlhood and what it means to be a woman and how much a mother can impact the life of a daughter. I love it when my reading coalesces into an unplanned theme—even better when the books approach similar questions in drastically different ways.
This week in books.
This week I read…
Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward. I purchased this during an bookstore browsing session after Sophie Ward was on some (now forgotten) list of exciting young authors. Love and Other Thought Experiments was longlisted for the Booker so I decided to start here in exploring her work and I’m so glad I did. This book blew my mind—I mean that both in terms of impressive writing and in terms of themes beyond my comprehension. The story begins when two women, Rachel and Eliza, are deciding whether to have a child—Rachel desperately wants to have a baby, but Eliza is ambivalent. One night, Rachel wakes screaming and says that an ant has entered her brain through her eye. She asks practical scientist Eliza to believe her and Eliza’s response will impact everything. This novel is told in ten interconnected short stories that is each inspired by a philosophical thought experiment. While this setup occasionally felt like a writing exercise, I was mostly impressed by the subtlety and heart throughout the entire collection. Simply put, this is unlike anything I’ve read recently and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for something a little strange and different. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown by Amy Gary. Louise has been very into The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon lately and that sparked a memory of hearing about this Margaret Wise Brown (she’s the author of the aforementioned children’s books) biography somewhere recently. I listened to it on audio and found it pretty enjoyable. Brown’s life was certainly fascinating, as was learning about her inspiration for the books I read over and over and the changes in the children’s literary landscape through the first half of the 20th century. There were a few things that bothered me here—I think Amy Gary diminishes some hateful and hurtful things Brown did and said—but I’m still glad to know more about this complicated and wildly successful woman. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt. Oh this book! This book completely broke my heart but in such a beautiful way. The story is about Ruth, whose grown daughter Eleanor is addicted to drugs. When Eleanor gets pregnant, Ruth does everything she can to help Eleanor keep baby Lily while struggling to know if that’s truly what’s best. I loved Ruth as a narrator because she is forthright and honest about her motivations—she loves Eleanor deeply, but she’s not sure how to help both Eleanor and Lily equally or through the same actions. She also acknowledges the selfishness in her choices, and I appreciated how complex of a picture Boyt paints of this heartbreaking situation. While this book is, as you might guess, quite sad, I appreciated Boyt’s startling sense of humor and the way she wrote about the pleasures of having a little kid in your life. This is a truly beautiful work of fiction, and I hope more readers will give it a try! Amazon | Bookshop
Now I’m reading…
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker. I started this on audio recently and couldn’t get into it—just because my audio brain isn’t working, the narration is actually fantastic. I decided to switch to the print version because it is so perfectly atmospheric for fall I didn’t want to put it aside completely.
How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber and Julie King. I think this goes without explanation.
If you are an international reader or just prefer UK covers, you can also order books through my Blackwell’s affiliate page!
Links I love.
You’ve probably seen this going around, but authors are suing because their work is being used to train AI to write fiction.
Emily Wilson and Madeline Miller in conversation.
15 new small press books coming this fall.
20 works of philosophical sci-fi.
Use this flowchart to find out which big fall book is right for you.
8 books with dinner parties gone wrong.
End notes.
This week in views, listens, eats, and moments of joy.
My mom got home from a lengthy vacation and it was so sweet to see how excited Louise was to welcome her home.
I put together a photo album fo Lou’s second birthday and going back through a year’s worth of pictures was a wonderful practice. I can’t believe how much she’s grown and changed!
We’re traveling to NYC this weekend and I’m looking forward to visiting family and seeing the wonder in my toddler’s eyes at such a big bustling place.
I had the best time discussing Rebecca with Chelsey. You can listen to our deep dive here and find out what six contemporary books we paired with this classic of domestic suspense.
I’m loving my slow-paced Gilmore Girls rewatch (I’m 7 episodes in) and listening to this podcast as a companion to it.
I really loved this newsletter from
’s Eclectic Reader Substack.
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Happy reading!
Sara
I love Gilmore Guys! I was able to see them do a live show when they stopped in Minneapolis awhile back.