I've read forty books so far this year and have bookmarks in a good dozen others. Depending on your mileage, that's either a little or a lot. Reading isn't a race, but I do feel a certain amount of pressure to read more books and to read them more quickly. For one thing, I want to stay up to date on the current publishing landscape, which benefits my clients as we discuss the shape of their work and potential comp titles. For another thing, my physical TBR numbers well over a hundred. Yes, I have a bookcase for these books, and I haven't had the nerve to count them!

Last month, my favorite book was The Girls, by John Bowen. It's a cozy, kind-of murder mystery set in an English village, but it's less about who is murdered and who does the murdering and more about whether or not the murderer gets away with it. I admired the humor of the story and the utter confidence in the telling. Each sentence crackles.

I just finished listening to Cue the Sun!, Emily Nussbaum's history of the American reality TV show craze. I'm not particularly into reality TV (I think I've watched part of one episode of Survivor), but I still appreciated this well-researched look at the good, bad, and ugly sides of reality TV. If you're at all interested in a close look at not just American psyche but human psyche--and as a writer I suspect you are!--you may be interested in (and, fair warning, depressed by) this book.

💎 What have you read and enjoyed lately? Reply and let me know. I'm always looking for good recommendations, despite my full bookshelves!

Listen.

This week I listened to a wonderful conversation with Jeannine Ouellette, author of the memoir The Part That Burns and creator of the Substack community, Writing in the Dark.

​I highly recommend listening in. This short conversation is packed with wisdom you can apply to you own project--even if you aren't writing memoir.

• How to anchor your writing if you discover you are relying too much on abstractions.
• Why leaning into what you don't know enriches your writing (and makes you a better human).
• How to recognize overtelling in your work.
• An exercise to bring more attention into your writing.
• The importance of playfulness and surprise.

Read.

1. We often hear about the importance of tension and dramatic arcs in storytelling, but what if you're writing a quieter novel or even memoir? How do you keep the reader interested in your story? Career editor Tiffany Yates Martin explains how to create that tension and curiosity needed to pull your reader forward.
2. Every year I look forward to A Year in Reading over at The Millions, now in its 20th year. (The archives are worth sifting through!) At a time of year when we see the same books mentioned over and over again in all those best-of book lists, this project is a breath of fresh air. Each weekday, you'll discover what writers read over the year and, if you're like me, you'll add dozens of books to your to-read list. Enjoy!

Write.

Writing good, believable, interesting dialogue challenges most writers. If you struggle with this, too, check out author Matt Bell's discussion of dialogue and his prompt.

And thank you to those who sent me your results from the prompt a couple of weeks ago! I was entertained and impressed.

📆 A note for your calendar: You won't receive anything from me in your inbox next Sunday, but I'll be back on the 22nd.

Keep writing, keep pursuing the narrative ✨

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