I pretty much do whatever Oprah tells me to do...

This week we're talking about Daisy Jones, Oprah, and Virginia Woolf (yes, I know one of them is fictional).

Eight great things worth sharing this week:

1. I’m building a Little Free Library for my kid’s school (because they’ve figured out that I can’t resist volunteering for a book-related project). It’s going to be awesome. I hope.

2. Daisy Jones & The Six is being turned into a 13-part Amazon series, produced by Reece Witherspoon. Apparently it was announced last year but I only JUST heard about it, and I loved the book, so I’m sharing it here in case you also missed the memo. If you haven’t read it yet, get it as an audiobook. It has a fantastic full cast of narrators including Jennifer Beals and Benjamin Bratt (so dreamy).

3. I was frankly shocked to read this quote from Virgina Woolf: “Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.” I guess I always pictured her as a proper British lady. Image = shattered.

4. Oprah’s newest book club pick is Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, just released this Tuesday and since I pretty much do whatever Oprah tells me to do, this one’s definitely going on the TBR list.

5. The 2022 MacArthur Fellowships (aka Genius Grants) were announced last week. Kiese Laymon (author of Heavy) and Robin Wall Kimmerer (of Braiding Sweetgrass fame) were both on the list and will be receiving the $800,000 no-strings-attached award. Sending out a big congrats to them both.

6. Nerd Word of the Week: Jillick ~ (verb) to skip or skim a rock across water. Filed under: words that sound dirty but aren’t.

7. Lion’s Roar just released a list of 10 books for mindfulness students. It was compiled by a woman who is a formal student of mindfulness (working towards her Masters degree), but I consider anyone who’s curious to be a student of mindfulness in the worldly, we’re-all-travelers-on-the-road-of-life kind of way and the list has some interesting titles on it. I can personally vouch for Buddha’s Brain, by Rick Hanson and Loving Kindness by Sharon Salzberg. Excellent books.

8. If, given that it’s the end of October and all, you’re feeling more like reading some spooky books, check out Book Riot’s list of Fun Halloween Books for Adults. I’m going to make a little room in the TBR pile for Kit Mayquist’s Tripping Arcadia.

Happy writing, my friends,

April