6 books that got me out of my reading slump

Plus my new method for determining if a book is great.

Hi!

I meant to write another Substack post — *checks calendar* — four months ago. Instead, I drafted 40,000 words of my next book, and ate approximately the same number of empanadas in Patagonia. I think these are good reasons? But I’ve been itching to get back here.

I have a real hodge-podge for you today: Maine Characters news, my new method for determining if a book is great, six titles that got me out of my reading slump, the bleakly funny writing tip I got from Candace Bushnell, and two Q&As about dating. Shall we?

Want a signed copy?

You can preorder one from the Strand, my favorite bookstore in New York!

Note: I am not able to add personalizations. These will be signed with just my signature, with love and gratitude in every loopy cursive letter. Promise.

The books that got me out of my reading slump

I was deep in writing mode this past summer and fall, so I was reading less, but I finally got back into it this winter. Here are the books that sucked me in:

North Woods by Daniel Mason: I’ve joked that Maine Characters would’ve been just 400 pages of descriptions of trees if I did not have an editor to rein me in. (Cassidy Sachs, thank you.) Well, North Woods is basically that, except it actually works. It’s about all the inhabitants of a house in a forest over the course of four centuries. It’s weird and poetic and stunningly beautiful. I want to push this book into everyone’s hands for the rest of my life.

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen: A semi-tattered copy of this was lying around my parents’ house for ages, but I never picked it up because I incorrectly assumed that anything by the Literary Jonathans would be unbearably pretentious. I finally read it while on a cruise — an accidentally brilliant choice; it’s partly set on a cruise — and flew through this enormous tome in three days. It’s about mediocrity and the Midwest and affairs and neuroscience and illness and Eastern European fraud and complicated family dynamics and chefs and lists and and and… I love how the extensive cast of characters twists together in unexpected ways.

You Between the Lines by Katie Naymon: It’s only February, but I’m calling it: This will be one of the best romances of the year. Set at a prestigious MFA program in poetry, a Swiftie sorority girl comes face to face with the pretentious writer who crushed her confidence a decade earlier. It’s a middle finger to people who exclusively worship the Literary Jonathans and don’t give talented romance writers the respect they deserve.

P.S.! Tonight, I’m moderating a conversation with Katie at McNally Jackson’s Seaport location. The event is currently sold out, but you can join the waitlist.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore: A literary thriller set at a summer camp. A girl goes missing, reopening the case of her brother’s disappearance years earlier. I savored the first half over the course of a few nights, but I wasn’t dying to race through it. Once I hit the 50% mark, though, I literally could not put it down. I was reading it in my bathtub and had to refill it twice with hot water because I needed to devour the whole thing. My new standard of reading: Is it a refill-the-tub kind of book?

Girls with Long Shadows by Tennessee Hill: What a strange book! That’s a compliment, by the way. It follows 19-year-old triplets whose mother died before she could name them, so they literally go by Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C. At first, I thought it was simply the narrator’s (B’s) way of thinking about her sisters, and surely they must go by Ashley, Bridget, and Chloe (or something), but nope — everyone in town calls them that. A kiss on the wrong sister leads to deadly consequences. This was also refillable, and I’d recommend it mostly if you’re into literary fiction. Out in June.

Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza: I would literally read Jo’s grocery’s list, so I’ve been very eager to get my hands on this. Jo is the internet’s foremost trad wife expert, and this thriller follows a trad wife who disappears after her husband is brutally killed. Her estranged best friend is the journalist covering the case. Immersive, twisted (seriously, the murder is unique), and a really fun peek into this niche. Also refillable! I read it in one sitting. Out in July.

A hot writing tip

Like every other aspiring writer born between 1965 and 1997¹, I was once obsessed with Carrie Bradshaw.

So, I moved to New York, bought some shoes, went to brunch, started writing about dating and relationships at Elite Daily, and lo and behold, eventually had the opportunity to interview Sex and the City’s creator, Candace Bushnell. A couple years later, she set me up on a few dates. And earlier this month, I chatted with her again for a story Bustle did about crushes.

I could help but wonder… how does she craft her male characters? (She also writes fiction.) She said:

As a writer, if you want the reader to fall in love with a man, then make them up in your imagination — because that man does not exist in real life. That’s the reality. I am always going to try to write about men the way they really are. But if you want to write that romantic hero, you just have to make it up.

Then she took it further:

Women have a lot of fantasies about what men are really like, and from writing Sex and the City, I don’t have those fantasies. I’ve been trying to say to women for years: A relationship for you is number one. For a man, if you’re lucky, it’s four or five on his list.

Well. Sigh.

While that may not be uplifting, some other parts of the interview (that didn’t get published on Bustle) make me giggle:

Back when Sex and the City was on, did you have a crush on any of the men, either as the actors themselves or as their characters?

No.

None?

No. But one time, I went on a yacht and I did end up having a crush on the captain. It’s easy to have a crush. You think, oh, this person’s real. And I’m with the rich guy who’s [whispers] kind of an asshole. Maybe I should be with someone real. Well, somebody who works on a yacht is the worst person to date! Which we’ve all learned from Below Deck.

Are rich people more boring to date?

No, because you get to do better things.

A few years ago, you told Us Weekly that you went out with a 21-year-old and a 91-year-old in the same week.

I just went to his 95th birthday and he has a new girlfriend.

Good for him. And good for her. How old is his new girlfriend?

She’s probably in her sixties. It might be 70.

I love her dearly.

Ask Me Anything

I did an AMA on Instagram yesterday and today. Most of my responses are on my Story — restaurant suggestions, my favorite place to shop lately, a peek into my process for Maine Characters — but I saved two dating-themed questions for here.

What are your feelings about using astrology to predict love/marriage?

From a scientific perspective, do I believe in astrology? No. But I do think it’s often eerily accurate. My best relationship was with another Taurus, which is supposedly one of my strongest matches, though I would NOT suggest ruling out people based on their signs.

However! I sometimes take it into account when writing. There’s a Scorpio/Capricorn couple in Maine Characters, and true to form, they’re a mega-passionate, ambitious mess.

Would you ever go out with a follower?

Maybe? If we haven’t met in real life, I’d be a liiittle wary of the one-sidedness.

Years ago, I slid into an influencer’s DMs and was thrilled when he wanted to get drinks. I showed up super nervous, feeling like a psycho because I’d already seen months’ worth of his daily life on Instagram and listened to him on several podcasts, whereas I was a total stranger to him.

We went on three dates, which felt like A Really Big Deal to me at the time and probably not very much to him. I was disproportionately sad when he wasn’t interested in going out again, which is silly considering that I didn’t even like his IRL personality very much. I assumed he’d be the same online and off, which is never true.

That said… I don’t think I’m nearly as anxiety-inducing. Never say never, right?

Until next time!

xoxo

1. This date range has been calculated using Girl Math. Sarah Jessica Parker was born in ‘65, and my sister, a ‘98 baby, has never seen the show.