‘The Art of Showing Up’ arrives in 16 days!

We’re rounding the corner on May (!!), which means my new book,The Art of Showing Up, will be available soon. The original publication date was May 26, but back in February, my publisher informed me that the production schedule was changing due to coronavirus; it’s now coming out on May 12, 2020. (If you pre-ordered it, you might have gotten an email that said something to this effect over the weekend.)

You can pre-order The Art of Showing Up via the following retailers:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble
Bookshop

Books-a-Million

Indigo

IndieBound

Powell’s

Workman
Books Are Magic
McNally Jackson

(If you’re a bookseller, librarian, or reviewer, you can request an e-galley on NetGalley. And if you have other questions about getting an advance or want to set up an interview, you can email Jennifer Hergenroeder.)

If you want a sense of what the book is going to be like, here are some things that I think sum up the vibe pretty well (a handful of which actually appear in the book):

• During Bad Times, 'Don't Look Down' Is the Advice I Turn To Most

• What to Do When Everyone Needs Support but You're Only One Person

• How to Be OK With Being Alone Right Now

• The best $16 I ever spent: Old Navy pajamas after my husband left

• On deep-shallow companions

• Two tips to keep in mind if you want to be a better conversationalist

• A modest proposal: Take notes when you’re hanging out with friends

• Not Great, Bob! The Case for Actually Being Honest When People Ask How You Are

As far as I know, the UK edition is coming out on June 25 as originally planned. There’s also an audiobook, which I was scheduled to read at the end of March; I wasn’t comfortable traveling to or recording in studio at that point, so they went with a different narrator, which was totally fine. (The production company assured me that most professional narrators have their own at-home recording set-up, meaning they would be able to record remotely in a way that I simply couldn’t.)

Events are sort of up in the air at this point; I was originally supposed to do some in NYC and Chicago and maybe D.C., but that’s not happening now, and I’m waiting to hear whether they’ll be moved online. I’d also love to figure out a way to join in any book clubs that read The Art of Showing Up/meet virtually in June or July. Right now, I’d say that, schedule permitting, I’m totally down to call in for the last 20 or so minutes of any gathering of four people or more, and I’ll just kind of handle this on a first-come, first-serve basis for as long as I can manage it. (Email me if you’re interested!)

Promoting a new book right now is uhhhhh….pretty weird, and I don’t know exactly what the market is going to be like in May and beyond. I really appreciate pre-orders (a great way to support authors you like!), reviews on Goodreads (or wherever you bought it), and, if you enjoy the book, just sharing that information with your social network, friends, etc. The main thing I want is for this book to reach the people who would enjoy it/connect with it. ✨

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The best things I read and wrote in 2019

Image: Sincerely Media / Unsplash

Happy New Year’s Eve! As we head into 2020, here are some of my favorite things from 2019…

Writing

The best $16 I ever spent: Old Navy pajamas after my husband left, Vox.

How to Say No During Wedding Season, The New York Times.

The Art of Saying No to Invites When You Really Don't Want to Do Something, SELF.

Not Great, Bob! The Case for Actually Being Honest When People Ask How You Are, SELF.

19 Practical Ways To Get Through Your Bad Season, BuzzFeed.

Reading

This year, I read 30 not-for-work books. The best book was Know My Name by Chanel Miller. Other books I loved/recommend: Bad Blood, Educated, Destiny of the Republic, Red, White, & Royal Blue, In the Dream House, and Nothing to See Here.

Also:

The Trauma Floor — The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America, The Verge.

A 4-Year-Old Trapped in a Teenager’s Body, The Cut.

The Night The Lights Went Out, Deadspin.

The Crane Wife, The Paris Review.

The “Cancel Culture” Con, The New Republic.

Fifty shades of white: the long fight against racism in romance novels, The Guardian.

'These kids are ticking time bombs': The threat of youth basketball, ESPN.

Suzy Batiz’s Empire of Odor, The New Yorker.

I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb, VICE.

Athleisure, barre and kale: the tyranny of the ideal woman, The Guardian.

‘For five years we dreaded every meal’: my infant son’s struggle with food, The Guardian.

My Cousin Was My Hero. Until the Day He Tried to Kill Me., The New York Times.

The Catastrophist, or: On coming out as trans at 37, Vox.

The Pink, n+1.

Dear Internet: The Little Mermaid Also Happens to Be Queer Allegory, LitHub.

The End of Straight, GQ.

No distractions: An NFL veteran opens up on his sexuality, ESPN.

Psycho Analysis, Bookforum.

What It’s Like to Grow Up With More Money Than You’ll Ever Spend, The Cut.

Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes, GQ.

How “soccer girl” became the indisputably coolest look, Vox.

We Have Always Lived In Presidential Primary Season: A Half-Assed Activist Post About Getting Through This Shitshow Without Perpetuating Or Tolerating Bad Behavior And Keeping Some Tiny Spark Of Hope Alive, Captain Awkward.

How to Date After a Divorce, Lifehacker.

America Has Never Been So Desperate for Tomato Season, The Atlantic.

Happy reading! ✨

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Just good summer reading

When I think about the best summer reading, I think of really entertaining books that you’ll enjoy enough to want to binge read (see also: this great NYT article). But I don’t think they have to be pure fluff! To me, a great summer read should feel less like eating a ton of candy, and more like eating a delicious meal made up of of assorted dips, juicy fruits, delicious crostini, a couple of amazing pasta salads, some great Trader Joe’s appetizers, and sparkling water. It’s satisfying and filling (even if/when it’s light), and consuming it brings real pleasure.

So with that in mind, here are some of my favorites!

Fiction

The Vacationers by Emma Straub

I haven’t read this book in a few years, but it’s one I think of as best in class when it comes to light summer reads. Reading it feels like watching a great Nancy Meyers movie; it’s entertaining and goes down smoothly and easily.

Buy it for $9.70+ from Amazon or find it at local bookstore on IndieBound.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

Every summer, I get what can only be described as a craving to read Valley of the Dolls. The book is pure camp and I love it. It also has one of the best elements of a great summer novel: rich people and their rich people problems. I might actually start reading it again tonight because it’s been a few years!

Buy it for $7.99+ from Amazon or find it at local bookstore on IndieBound.

The Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante

When I think about these four books — My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child — I just feel such genuine fondness and appreciation for them. (By the way, I actually didn’t really get into My Brilliant Friend until the last few chapters, but then I was all in.)

Buy My Brilliant Friend for $9.32+ from Amazon or find it at local bookstore on IndieBound.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginedes

The first time I finished Middlesex, I felt like I'd just read a memoir, not a work of fiction. It’s one of my all-time faves. Also, I had heard the audiobook was better than the book itself, which I found preposterous but…the audiobook is truly excellent.

Buy it for $9.99+ from Amazon or find it at local bookstore on IndieBound.

In the Country: Stories by Mia Alvar

This was one of my favorite books of 2015, and reminded me just how good short story collections can be. (Also, short story collections feel very summery to me and I don’t know why.)

Buy it from Amazon for $5.10+ or find it at a local bookstore on IndieBound.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Most of this book takes place in the summer and it has loads of “classic novel you read on summer break between junior and senior years” energy.

Buy it for $10.80+ from Amazon or find it at a local bookstore on IndieBound.

A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand

I went back and forth on including this one because I think it’s fluffier than most of my other picks…but I also really enjoyed it (and The Rumor and Beautiful Day, two other Elin Hilderbrand novels I’ve finished this week) and I think Hilderband is so good at what she does that it’s worth your consideration!

Buy it for $7.99+ from Amazon or find it at a local bookstore on IndieBound.

Non-fiction

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

I’ve read almost all of David Sedaris’s books, but Me Talk Pretty One Day is probably my all-time favorite; I think it has the highest concentration of David Sedaris lines/anecdotes that I think about a lot. Also: the audiobook version (which David Sedaris narrates) is fantastic — so good for road trips.

Buy it for $10.38+ from Amazon or find it at local bookstore on IndieBound.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

It took more than one recommendation from Terri for me to finally read this book, but once I did, I had to admit: it’s amazing. Like, couldn’t put it down amazing; I’m happy to report I’m now a James Garfield stan.

Buy it for $12.99+ from Amazon or find it at local bookstore on IndieBound.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyou

By now, you’ve surely watched or listened to or read something about Elizabeth Holmes, but this book is the OG for a reason. It’s gripping (and way better than the podcasts or documentaries have been) and totally worth it.

Buy it for $12.13+ from Amazon or find it at local bookstore on IndieBound.

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

This book reads like a novel and, despite being about the Civil War, is a bit lighter than you might expect (while still being very informative). If you’re the kind of person who’d prefer to spend their summer vacation taking trips to Gettysburg and the like, this one’s for you.

Buy it for $11.99+ from Amazon or find it at local bookstore on IndieBound. 📚

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