Our January book club selection is Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook by Sohla El-Waylyy. We will be in conversation and cooking with Sohla on January 16h, and registration is open.
On January 17th, I am doing a live event with J. Vanessa Lyon at the Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn. Get your tickets and come on through!
Do you have any professional conundrums? If you do, send your burning questions to workfriend@nytimes.com. And here is this week’s column!
Some statistics on how dire the situation in Gaza is. Frankly, dire is too mild a word.
More on Bluestockings facing eviction for their humanity.
Fyre Fest: Cruise Edition. I feel so badly for these people that have put all of their life savings into a dream denied.
Kate Manne on misogyny, fatness and desire.
A piece in the Washington Post about Substack, Nazis, and how writers on the platform are responding. I don’t know what I am going to do yet but I will let you all know and if I move the newsletter to another platform, your subscription and payments will move with you. You won’t have to do anything but continue reading.
The Fast and Furious, bringing people together!
Patricia Lockwood on Molly Brodak.
A profile of Jason Isbell. RIP Glynis Johns. A profile of Isabelle Huppert. A conversation with Justine Triet. A profile of Jodie Foster.
Charlie Kirk and friends are trying to undermine the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. I guess they have no hobbies, friends, or love in their lives.
An ultrarunner tried T. Swift’s treadmill workout that she used to prepare for the Eras tour.
Can anything be done about racism in the world of romance novels?
Here is a phrase to contemplate: Greenland ice startup.
A guy filed a lawsuit because some women shared that he was a terrible date.
Kristen Stewart is not making another movie until she is able to make the adaptation of The Chronology of Water. I support this.
There are some tunnels beneath the Chabad building in Brooklyn and there is a lot of intrigue about it.
Wealthy man continues embarrassing his wife when he realizes that men in glass mansions shouldn’t throw stones.
Aaron Rodgers keeps embarrassing himself. What is his deal? Why does he look unwashed? Has he ever won a Super Bowl?
Seriously, though… get vaccinated.
In Hinds, Mississippi, the bodies of people with families who would have buried them were found in a potter’s field. So many things are broken right now.
This is… horrifying in the realm of non-crisis problems.
Another day, another problem with the Boeing 737-MAX.
The Golden Globes happened. Jo Koy, who I generally find amusing, was an utter disaster as host. I felt bad for him but then I felt less bad when he threw his writers under the bus. There were many winners. Also at the Globes, learning who is secretly British.
Some lessons on how to report and write about climate change.
A clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples has to pay a big ole fine.
Josh Gondelman on feeling good tired.
A man tried to create the greatest stereo ever. I guess this is a hobby.
That adorable TikTok librarian started receiving hate because people are often terrible but then many others came to his defense because people are often wonderful.
Drake’s music… great for shopping at Target?
They still have words for Simone Biles’s husband.
In 1939, a racist mob drove a Black woman off her land and now, too many years later, she has gotten her land back.
An excerpt from Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino.
Vivek Ramaswamy and his wife are learning the hard way that racist voters don’t actually see them as any different from other Black and brown people. LOL. Bless their hearts.
Weathermen are so quirky.
Some truth about framing. Listen… the costs are shocking. I will never get used to it.
The Ohio woman who was facing criminal charges for having a miscarriage won’t be charged. Prepare for many more such cases and less fortunate outcomes depending on the whims of people who want to control women’s bodies.
A look at the new season of True Detective.
Shaquira statue!
Viet Thanh Nguyen on having a mid-life crisis.
There is a little publishing mystery about a book where the movie is coming out before the book. I don’t know.
A Black man spent 44 years in prison for a crime he did not commit and he has now been awarded $25 million which is not nearly enough.
Singles are not loving the apps anymore.
Jonathan Majors had a TV interview and… the man is obsessed with Coretta Scott King but not in a useful way.
A man in court being sentenced attacked the judge which… did not improve his sentence.
More on Portland’s romance bookstore, now open online and later this year in brick and mortar.
Sounds like things were… kinda rough on the set of The Color Purple insofar as how the cast was treated.
There are, finally, suicide nets off the Golden Gate Bridge. And it’s sad that these nets are needed.
Katt Williams went on a podcast and whew, he had a lot to say. David Dennis on why Katt Williams is the kind of fearless Dave Chappelle should try to be.
I watched Chappelle’s new special. It was boring and so weird because like, he has made the same boring trans joke for the last three specials and thinks he is offending people; he takes pride in thinking he is offending people. Bro! I am not at all offended by your obsessive nonsense .I’m offended that you’re bad at jokes when once you were excellent. If I cared a tiny bit more I would write a whole piece about that bland ass hour that only had like 2.7 jokes. Alas.
Inside Bethann Hardison’s home and art collection.
Rewriting the rules of historical fiction.
Some anticipated 2024 books.
What kind of writer do you want to be?
Yes…. YES CHEF!
I should be reading this book because I need more enthusiasm in the kitchen...I'm downright bored to tears with daily cooking, so speaking of tears, i had eye surgery last week and reading is very challenging for me, so I'm not reading much or spending time on screens. I'm restless, but I go for long walk and try to catch up with friends by phone. Imagine that! LOL!!!
The toothbrush story... 😱 My uncle's family shared a tube of ChapStick that my aunt carried in her pocket, and that became a cherished horror story among my relatives, but open season on toothbrushes is a whole other situation.