A memoir that leaves you shaken. A nonfiction book that leaves you clear-eyed. A novel that leaves you wistful. What more could you ask for, particularly in the long, slow month of March that has stayed cold even as things have begun to bloom?
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
And then the nights came on and the frosts took hold again, and blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees off those who still knelt to say the rosary.
This novel has been showered with awards and praise. Look at the cover - New York Times, Oprah, Booker Prize. This novel is also just 128 pages long - maybe 20,000 words. Think about that. Think about what Keegan can do with so few words.
Look at the line I highlighted above. Take out the word “still” and see how it changes.
And then the nights came on and the frosts took hold again, and blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees off those who knelt to say the rosary.
Keegan is a masterclass, and this book is her at her most adept and awe-inspiring. The sentence I’ve selected is important because this novel is about grappling with the Catholic Church’s place in Ireland - specifically the Magdalene Laundries - through the story of one man, Bill Furlong. It is heartbreaking, heartwarming, and so much more - all in 128 pages.
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Their values are the company’s values. Their priorities are the company’s. Those boys in the office who wanted to know what we stand for? This is what we stand for. Growth. More.
If I have your cell phone number, then you have most likely gotten a text from me that contains a link to this memoir and the words, “READ THIS.” Sarah Wynn-Williams spent years as the Director of Global Public Policy at Facebook. She worked closely with Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg as the social media platform rose to prominence and began impacting both domestic and global politics.
I got this book because I wanted to hear the dishy stories about what terrible people Sandberg and Zuckerberg. It didn’t disappoint. There are so many moments where their cluelessness and selfishness left me gobsmacked. What I did not expect was the bigger global picture on how they heedlessly destroyed both our politics and global stability. This is something I have lived for the past decade at Pantsuit Politics and as a political candidate myself who used Facebook to get elected in 2016. And still, there was so much I didn’t know. The breadth of their feckless pursuit of growth at all costs is horrifying. It made Wynn-Williams life worse. It made my life worse. It made everything worse and realizing that is so, so painful. It is no wonder that Meta pursued an injunction to prevent Wynn-Williams from promoting the book. It is proof that we all know how bad Facebook has made things that the book shot to the top of the charts anyway.
If your life has been made worse by Facebook (and if you’re over the age of 16 it has), READ THIS BOOK.
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating.
This year’s Well-Read Mom theme is The Year of the Father, and this classic about two fathers tragically linked in pre-apartheid South Africa was the most affecting reflection yet. I read this novel in college but did not have the life experience necessary to connect with Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis. Now, decades later, their heartbreak as parents and citizens as they see a preventable tragedy roll across their beloved country felt as real and true as if it had been written today instead of eighty years ago.
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Litvinoff’s life was defined by a delight in the weight of the real; his friend’s by a rejection of reality, with its army of flat-footed facts.
My beloved Vanessa Zoltan recommended this book and I immediately added it to my holds list. I always feel like Vanessa wants the same thing from literature that I do. Make it hard but make it beautiful.
This novel which spans decades and involves three different main narrators is a reflection not just on love but also on what happens to love in the face of tragedy and failure and loneliness. Krauss keeps impressive control over an expansive timeline and unruly characters without letting the machinations becomes too obvious. Vanessa was right. I highly recommend it.
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke, MD
Seventy percent of world global deaths are attributable to modifiable behavioral risk factors like smoking, physical inactivity, and diet.
I heard Anna Lembke describe the pain/pleasure balance in our brains on a podcast and couldn’t add her book to my hold list fast enough. I’m worried about all the addictive behaviors from marijuana use to online gambling (much less the screens) that continue to proliferate unchecked in so many of our lives. The way Lembke walks through what all these behaviors do to our brains and gives actionable ways to find balance I found enormously helpful.
How To End A Love Story by Yulin Kuang
The modern accompaniment to our reading of Danielle Steele in The First Books Book Club, this book was raunchy (but also oddly touching?) and made for a great discussion in our first book meeting, which you can check out here.
What did you read in March?
I can't stop thinking about Careless People in the context of the Ratliffs on White Lotus. It is clear that extreme wealth is fundamentally bad for the human soul - the richer the FB execs got, the less they care about principles or doing anything to address the harms their product causes. You can see Piper wrestling with the immense privilege she experiences (but her idea of wrestling with that includes a stay at a 5 star resort), but Saxon and Victoria are fully self-aware that all that matters to them is wealth/success. FB (and Victoria) claim to have values, but it is all a lie. Their wealth has curdled them beyond caring.
The best book I read in March was The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck. One of my biggest types of bookish catnip is a collection of interconnected short stories. Not only are these stories connected, they are structured in couplets like an old folk song, with the first and last stories echoing each other. Exquisitely written, all the stories take place in New England and span centuries. I highly recommend this collection for anyone who loves OLIVE KITTERIDGE or Daniel Mason’s NORTH WOODS. This will be in my top five of the year.