“They’ll ruin my trips to Disney” is sending me 😭😭

Ooh, say more! Why were you surprised? Did you see the first two and not like them? (Based on how much I loved KNIVES OUT and GLASS ONION, I expected to really love it but actually rank it third of the three!)

No!! Sounds good though

When people ask me how I wrote a book while working a day job when my kids were very little, I try to always start with “Well, my house is pretty messy.” This is not just me being humble. My kids are extremely healthy, happy, and well cared for, but they are no stranger to a Towering Laundry Pile.

I started teaching a new workshop tonight and I got to lead them through a close reading of this old favorite, which was a pleasure as always:

granta.com/maid-marian/

From what I can tell, the Marry Me formula is basically alliums, sun-dried tomatoes, and heavy cream, which is a very elite combination

I can vouch extremely strongly for Marry Me Chickpeas (and, really, anything in the Marry Me family)

The dead are relentless gossips, or at least these dead are. An impulsive and heartbroken woman inherits her father’s share of a Tennessee farm that is rich in family secrets and occupied with busybody ghosts in this sweeping family portrait. At thirty-two, Aubrey Lamb is stumbling through adulthood. An underpaid gig worker in Washington, DC, she’s grieving the end of a serious relationship and the recent loss of her father. When Aubrey learns she has inherited his stake in a sizable Tennessee farm she sees an opportunity to get out of the city―and to erase a mounting pile of debt. Watching her arrival with great interest are four ghosts―Aubrey’s ancestors, who’ve staked their own claims to the farm and who never hesitate to pass judgment on the mistakes made by the living, whether romantic, financial, or sartorial. As Aubrey reconnects with her living family, another story unfolds in parallel: the history of the land, beginning with its purchase by Thomas, Aubrey’s great-grandfather and one of the first Black landowners in his community. Though Thomas hopes to give his children a homestead on which they could flourish, the land proves to be a burdensome inheritance. Over the years, it turns the Lambs against one another, culminating in a catastrophic tragedy that splinters the family and echoes through the decades. Now, as the clock ticks on a potential sale of the farm, the ghosts fear expulsion from the home they’ve made, and Aubrey must weigh the hopes and burdens of her forebears with the very real needs of her future. An expansive family saga told with a wry and distinctly modern voice, The Great Wherever is at once grand and intimate; it explores the ways we learn to define ourselves through and against our families, how we carry on after loss, and how the past lives on in all of us.

Who says ghosts are bad luck?

Our LFL has been lucky enough to get a copy of "The Great Wherever" by @shanders.bsky.social, a novel of family secrets and busybody ghosts, three months before its official release!

Thanks, @henryholtbooks.bsky.social!

@littlefreelibrary.bsky.social
#booksky
#lfl

I love this so much

Reproduction – New England Review 1.

I’m going to start periodically dropping stories I enjoyed but don’t have anything coherent to say about. Here’s Martin Monahan’s “Reproduction” in @newenglandreview.bsky.social:

nereview.com/article/repr...

I’m sorry but it’s true

Carrot

And lol re: RTS

They don’t even specify a date for the event itself (I think Saturday is supposedly just when they’re “finalizing” their choices), so it is very hard to imagine they’ve committed to paying for an international flight for me

To be clear, I live in the US and Saturday is four days away, lol.

Just said the same thing over on Threads—before genAI, this would have made my day. Now it’s such an insulting pain in the ass.

Email that reads: Hi Shannon, My name is XXXX and I am the Lead Organizer of the Düsseldorf Book Club in Germany, a community of over 2,400 passionate readers who meet every month to discover and discuss books they love. I came across Company and I have not stopped thinking about it since. The way you examine what it means to keep company with others, the obligations, the performances, and the quiet longing underneath social life, is something our readers find both uncomfortably familiar and deeply illuminating. The social precision in your writing is the kind that makes people put the book down and look at the people around them differently. We are finalizing our April event this Saturday and we are selecting only five authors, each featured in their own dedicated section of the event hall. Company is one of the titles we are seriously considering for this month. That said, if there is another book of yours you feel better represents your work right now, we are completely open to featuring that instead. Featuring Company this April – Düsseldorf Book Club, would you be open to it?

Got this today. What do you think the grift is here? I’m fascinated.

I think you did great!

Also making everyone nervous so they panic and their hands shake when they try to shepherd their stuff through the endless processing tunnels. That can’t possibly slow things down

Boy I think!

I love that if I ever forget which of my colleagues has a book publishing soon, all I have to do is log into Instagram during the week of the BN preorder sale

This is your reminder that if you are a class member and have NOT yet filed a claim in Anthropic v. Bartz, the AI copyright lawsuit, you have 9 days to do so.

There are so many amazing ones! The end of Toni Morrison’s TAR BABY is up there for me.

For a more contemporary one, the final scene of Andrew Sean Greer’s LESS really stuck with me.

Geeked about this!!

I know the county has a really tough time making these calls. I am thrilled to have gotten the kids home and have everyone safe under one roof. And also ARGUEHEHEHDJWJDJHE&5@4873

Thank you!! 😭😭 You’re a very discerning and smart reader and I really hope you enjoy it

Thank you!! 😍😍

And thank YOU to anyone who’d like to preorder: us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

(County goes into code blue due to severe weather expected this afternoon)

School 1 dropoff: 8:30
School 2 drop off: 9:15
[Everything else I needed to get done today, including work]
School 1 pickup: 12:30
School 2 pickup: 1:30

You didn’t say I should be here more, only that you hadn’t seen me as much! I drew my own conclusions

I ran into @mordecaimartin.net at AWP and he commented that he hasn’t seen me on Bluesky as much and that reminded me to be on Bluesky more. AWP gave so many gifts