Need ballast, balm, and a bit of burrow?
When the world presses and the mood plummets, I turn to books. Here are some of my latest favorites:
FICTION
Leaving by Roxana Robinson
A beautifully nuanced and thoughtful novel on marriage and the price of compromise and loyalty. This is my favorite book of 2025 (so far).
Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld
A refreshing collection of short — but dense and satisfying — stories about everyday middle-age women leading smart, witty, wondering, wandering, complicated, ordinary lives.
Bel Canto: The Annotated Version by Ann Patchett
I didn't love this novel when it debuted in 2001, but this annotated version has deepened my appreciation of the book and its author. With chatty handwritten notes in the margins, Patchett returns more than 20 years later to review and revise her bestselling book and offers readers a master class on the art of precision and revision.
POETRY
The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace & Renewal
This jewel of a book is packed with my favorite poets: Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Alberto Ríos, January Gill O’Neil, Danusha Laméris, Naomi Shihab Nye, and dozens more. I consider this my daily dose of creative inspiration, aspiration, and awe.
An Important Note: On some of these photos, you'll notice a library barcode. I'm a frequent user and fervent lover of libraries. We need these safe, free, and powerful spaces and places. Please support your local library — by borrowing, visiting, and giving (time, money, heart).
Need convincing? On this topic, Bitches Get Riches is articulate and urgent:
“Our libraries have been under attack for years now. Book bans and outright censorship are one thing, but extremists are also attempting to restrict library access for marginalized people; fire highly trained and educated librarians and replace them with untrained ideologues; privatize libraries to turn them into for-profit businesses; and close some libraries altogether, effectively killing community access to all the great services I talked about above.
And with the killdozer that is Project 2025 rampaging through our federal government, things are likely only going to get worse. We know from history that the people trying to ban books and censor diverse viewpoints are never the good guys. So I will just call these most recent attacks on our library system exactly what they are: an attack on democracy itself.
Fortunately, the best way to defend your library is also the easiest:
Use the fucking library.
State and local governments apportion money to public services according to their use. So if lots of people are using the library, it’s pretty clear that it gets a lot of use and therefore needs a lot of funding.
Bring your friends! Sing your library’s praises! Explore all that your local library has to offer and spread the word.
You can also show up for your library when it is attacked. Attend town meetings and local government functions to express your support of the library. Protest any censorship or threats to your library’s funding. If someone in your community is coming for your library, let them know their book bans are gonna catch these hands!
It can feel useless and demoralizing to protest the giant, churning cog of the federal government in These Trying Times.™ It’s a lot easier—not to mention more effective—to use your voice to affect change on the small, local level. Your library and your community need you. Don’t be silent.”
To this I add: Yes! Read, Write, Rally!
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