The pleasure of community
5 things I'm mad about, including pandering to gun owners, menopause disinformation and apps that claim to fix the ick
Whew friends, what a week. I attended a pretty wonderful book club meeting Thursday night for Time to Lean’s Time to Read series. The group read my book, Touched Out, which comes out in paperback on Tuesday (you can preorder the paperback now, advance orders really help!). I joined for a little Q&A. We had such a warm and funny and nourishing conversation, and we talked about— and experienced— the decadent pleasure of community.
Earlier that day, I also cried on a Zoom with a writer I began working with about a year ago who recently published an essay on her experience as a woman without kids— she received a huge response and so much support from readers and we were both feeling so grateful for what we get to do together.
In other words, I’m thinking this week about writing that connects— not just the kind that reflects one’s own worldview or life experiences, but the kind that opens up a space for thinking and feeling and talking and being. Writing that rips into the otherwise flat understanding we have of reality and what’s possible— even a little. It’s hard not to get bogged down in a space like this with the social media tech company platform of it all— but this week, I’m thinking about how grateful I am for all of you and what we’ve made.
As always, the roundup below is a little treat for paid subscribers, who keep this newsletter afloat. Join us now, and you can also attend our first-ever virtual salon tomorrow— Monday Sept 23 at 11am PT on Zoom— with Glynnis MacNicol, author of I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself. We’ll talk about writing pleasure & midlife. The salon will be recorded and sent out to paid subscribers who can’t attend live.