Might cry a little

Might be excited for spring

Hello, Friday greetings! How is your March going? Here in Austin, the redbud trees are blooming and it’s feeling like spring.

Ah, yes, I’ve added a hat news section to this newsletter! Initially I was planning to put a pic that popped up on my instagram of Keira Knightley traipsing through London with an overstuffed tote bag and wearing a baseball hat, looking very, very Weekend Mom. But then I felt bad about sharing a pap pic, so here’s the link to the hat (sold out, so it’s not a temptation). An art hat! Which I would consider literary hat adjacent. I had to look up Anni Albers, who is a textile artist and wife of Josef Albers. I’m not sure I would wear a hat with a human’s name on it. I think I prefer an irreverent expression or vacation locale. What are your thoughts on hats? Hat thoughts?

This week I read two books that came out last Tuesday (they were both so good I stayed up til past midnight! Past. Midnight.). Both started as library books, but I ended up purchasing them because they are so good. Deep Cuts is a bildungsroman and/or a Künstlerroman (you know I love to trot out these terms!) about a woman named Percy. We meet her in college in Berkeley in Y2K and follow her until 2008. She loves pop music, and I am definitely not a music connoisseur, but the “tracks” she references brought back so many fun Y2K memories. I cried a little bit toward the end, even though it wasn’t sad at all! Just emotional, the way a true Pisces-season literary release should be.

I also read Fundamentally, which I got from the library as an audiobook. I have a hard time paying attention to audiobooks, so I quickly bought the text version, but if you enjoy audiobooks, this one has a wide range of accents that feels very immersive. Fundamentally is a comic novel (and also a bildungsroman?) that takes place mostly in a UN mission in Iraq in 2019. Funny, edgy, poignant—all the things. The author takes a sensitive topic and makes it accessible, and makes it look easy! Both of these books have beautiful redemption arcs that remind you of why it’s so rewarding to read fiction.

Speaking of libraries, I’m excited to be speaking and signing books at the Books and Bees Festival here in Austin in April. I’ll be in conversation with my friend (and librarian) Maureen Turner Carey from high school. Please come! It will be fun! (Also, yes, this is me hard-launching my new headshot taken by Sarah Natsumi Moore. My, my, my, how the Texas sun has lightened my hair! Winky face emoji.)

Okay, I’m signing off for now. Hope you have a nice weekend.