The Good Stuff

my summer reading list & more

Hi, Friend.

I know it’s not technically summer until the solstice, but school’s out here today, and the pools are opening, and my neighbor’s strawberry patch is coming up beautifully, and I’m just ready. I’m ready—and anyway, I’ve never been one who cares about technicalities.

One sign of summer is the House Sparrow that won’t let us sleep in. He cheeps incessantly on our roof, beginning very early in the morning, hoping to find a date here instead of going on the apps. If he did have a dating profile, it would read:

CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP

Summer also means watching the clock and the inbox a little less, and reading a little more. These books, among many others, are stacked in my office and waiting for me:

The Possibilities by Yale Goldstein-Love
With My Back to the World by Victoria Chang
Bleaker House by Nell Stevens
All Fours by Miranda July
Saving Time by Jenny Odell
The Critic’s Daughter by Priscilla Gilman
The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes
The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Allan

Some of these I’m late to, but there’s no such thing as “too late” when it comes to discovering good books.

My favorite recent online reads: Claire Messud’s piece in The Guardian about writing her family into her fiction; poetry by Danielle Vogel; this terrific New Yorker profile of Bill Hader; this interview about my friend Nancy Kangas’s underground zine from the 1980s and 90s, Nancy’s Magazine; this piece in the New York Times about recharging by attending conferences (no doubt because I was just home a trip to a conference myself); and this stunner of a poem by Laura Gilpin, which made the rounds on the Internet this week thanks to the University of Arizona Poetry Center sharing it.

Whew. Let’s sit with that ending for a moment.

On June 4, my memoir is available in its snazzy new paperback form, complete with some new goodies inside: a special section of questions for book clubs. I’ll be in Columbus, New York, Boston, Austin, Portland, and Seattle June 3-8 for the paperback tour, having conversations with folks I admire, and I hope to see you if I’m coming to your neck of the woods. We’ll have a good time.

I’ll be packing for book tour the night before (okay, fine, the morning of). I’m a last-minute packer, and a light packer, too—I never check luggage no matter how long the trip is. A couple of daytime necessities: Supergoop travel sunblock and Iris & Romeo Weekend Skin tinted moisturizer with SPF 50. A few nighttime necessities: FOCL sleep gummies, magnesium, and a face mask my sister gave me for my birthday this year. Decent sleep while traveling is a must.

Music rec: One of my favorite bands, Nada Surf, announced a new record, Moon Mirror, coming out in September. I got to listen early so that I could write something for the band, but you can pre-order the record and listen to the first single here. It’s gorgeous and infectious, like all of their songs have been for the past 30 years.

This week I watched my son graduate from fifth grade, and took some long walks with my daughter (the talks we have on walks are always the best). And this week—this beautiful, terrible week—I’ve been thinking so much about Toi Derricotte’s words: “Joy is an act of resistance.” Joy is essential.

Wishing you more of it—
Maggie