Reading is a lifesaver, especially in the winter, and especially in these often dark and very strange times. We need light where we can find it. 

And I found it in a book a friend suggested: This Is Happiness, by Niall Williams. I felt like I’d discovered a long-forgotten classic. Afterward, not wanting to leave the small Irish town of Faha, I went on to read the sequel by the same author, Time of the Child. I still didn’t want to leave Faha but had to. 

Luckily I soon found Morley—The Very Best Basset Hound by Laury A. Egan, and joy bounded into my life again.

Some other great recent reads: The Art of Memoir, by Mary Karr; The Magician’s Assistant, by Ann Patchett; The Fraud, by Zadie Smith; Heft, by Liz Moore; The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken; Ragtime (a re-read), by E.L. Doctorow; The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante; and the remarkable Stoner, by John Williams, another near classic. 

I so enjoyed The Miniature Painter Revealed: Amalia Kussner’s Gilded Age Pursuit of Fame and Fortune, by my friend Kathleen Langone. And I love reading every story my friend Gail Therrien writes about her life and sends to me.

Thank you to all these writers.

My little essay “My Hurliest Memories” was published today in The Summerset Review. (You can read it here.) Thank you to my writing teachers and readers past and present: Charles Simic, Marvin Cohen, Laury A. Egan, Blayr Austin, Estelle Erasmus, and Liz Hanellin, Editor Extraordinaire.

More books I’ve read that you all might like: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (I loved this book); The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride; Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See; Making a Literary Life and There Will Never Be Another You, by Carolyn See; Trust, by Hernan Diaz; How to Pronounce Knife, by Souvankham Thammavongsa; Party of One, by Dave Holmes; Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver; The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love; Other People’s Houses, by Lore Segal; The Last List of Mabel Beaumont, by Laura Pearson; The Firefly, by Laury A. Egan (Great job, Laury!); An Immense World, by Ed Jong; Künstlers in Paradise, by Cathleen Schine; Joan Is Okay, by Weike Wang; Mercury Pictures Presents, by Anthony Marra; Straight Man, by Richard Russo; Dave Barry Does Japan, by Dave Barry; The Latecomer, by Jean Hanff Korelitz; and Anita de Monte Laughs Last, by Xochitl Gonzalez.

Here are some good books I’ve read recently: Lucy by the Sea and Oh William!, by Elizabeth Strout; Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders; Kindred, by Octavia Butler; Songs for the Missing and Ocean State, by Stewart O’Nan; Marrying the Ketchups, by Jennifer Close; Detransition, Baby, by Torrey Peters; How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, by Angie Cruz; Gravel, by Abdulrazak Gurnah; and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, by Erika L. Sanchez.

I took a couple of great online (real-time, not recorded) courses during the pandemic last year: last spring, The Way of Writing, taught by Natalie Goldberg, through Shambhala Publications, and this past fall, Writing Sadness Through Humor, taught by Blayr Austin, through the Second City. After Natalie’s course, I began writing in a journal every day, something I hadn’t done in years. Blayr’s course helped me find, for the first time, an excitement about writing short, authentic, true accounts of memorable moments in my life, and I felt the joy of writing in a new way. And right now, I’m taking another real-time online course on the short story, Story Club with George Saunders, taught by George Saunders himself (and based on the kind of close reading of Russian stories that he taught in his book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain), and I’m having a blast with it. We’re reading Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain.” So much complexity in three short pages.

Some good books I’ve read lately: The Book of Form and Emptiness, by Ruth Ozeki; Beautiful World, Where Are You, by Sally Rooney; Wave in D Minor, by Laury A. Egan; The Wrong End of the Telescope, by Rabih Alameddine; Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman; The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris; Breathing Lessons, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, and Saint Maybe, by Anne Tyler; The Family Fang, by Kevin Wilson; The Plot, by Jean Hanff Korelitz; Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh; The Fault Is in Our Stars, by John Green; The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett; The Rules of Magic, by Alice Hoffman; The Sun Collective, by Charles Baxter; Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell; Normal People, by Sally Rooney; Heaven and Earth, by Paolo Giordano; and Olive Again, by Elizabeth Strout. And soon I plan to read two new books written by Marvin Cohen: Conversations and Versifications and Plays on Words.

During the pandemic, I wasn’t going to the dentist, so I bought a water flosser to help me keep my teeth clean. Today I finally took it out of the box.

I thought books were important before the pandemic, but now they’re a lifeline. Some books I’ve read recently: The Burgess Boys and My Name Is Lucy Barton, by Elizabeth Strout, All These Little Worlds (stories from The Fiction Desk), Real Life, by Brandon Taylor, Truth and Beauty and This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett, A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles, and A Good Hard Look, by Ann Napolitano.

So what have all of you read lately? I’ve read quite a few good books, including these: The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett; Like Family, by Paolo Giordano; Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman; Pachinko; by Min Jin Lee; Nothing to See Here, by Kevin Wilson; A Bittersweet Tale, by Laury A. Egan; and Henry, Himself, by Stewart O’Nan. In between books I’ll pick up a Flannery O’Connor story. Right now I’m reading Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, by David Abram.

I’ve recently read a string of good books: Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett, The Dependents, by Katharine Dion, and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, by Alexander Chee. Now I’m reading The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, and afterwards I plan to read David Sedaris’s Calypso.