I know. By the time you receive this, December will be over, and we’ll all be cautiously dipping a toe into 2024, trying to determine what brand of terrifying hellscape we’ve entered this time around. But here I am, the day after after Christmas, at the tail end of a particularly rough year, and all I can think about is all the good that people still do.
I saw it this month in my local Buy Nothing Facebook group, where a woman asked for donations for a family who had recently lost everything in a fire. I saw it when I learned about the Transanta initiative, a mutual aid project that connects anonymous gift givers with trans youth who are unhoused, in foster care, or otherwise grappling with a lack of support. I saw it when I interviewed librarians and senators and city council members for an article about book sanctuaries, a movement that pushes back again the glut of attempted book bans we’ve been seeing over the past few years.
I spent a lot of time despairing over the state of humanity but, this month, I felt hope.
So yes. 2024 might be an even larger garbage fire than 2023. But in the midst of all that, I urge you to do good wherever and whenever you can.
😘 - Steph
Before we move on…
It’s the reason for the season… my annual favorite reads post! God forbid we forgot about that. I hope you’ll respond and/or comment with your own book recs after you read it.
On the Internets
I was positively charmed by this love story about two people who found romance in a care home.
Meanwhile, I cried ugly tears while listening to this powerful story from educator Justine Ang-Fonte about blurred boundaries, and what grooming actually is.
I found this piece about the accidentally permissive parent to be so interesting. It’s a slippery slope in a world that’s embraced gentle parenting without actually knowing how to gently parent.
I related SO HARD to this short-and-sweet newsletter from Tracy Clark-Flory about trying to be shameless.
NBC News reports that 75 anti-LGBTQ bills became laws in 2023. All the more reason to donate to projects like Transanta.
What if we didn’t shame teen moms? This article shows another way, one that destigmatizes teen pregnancy and provides systemic support.
This Instagram slideshow declares what it really means to dismantle diet culture.
The Bluestockings bookstore—which does phenomenal activist-driven work within its community—is facing eviction.
Everything I Accomplished Despite Life
I did up a post for Book Riot on the best books we read in 2023 that weren’t published in 2023.
A piece I wrote several years ago finally found a home at Romper. It’s about learning how to play the ukulele just for the hell of it.
For some reason, some folks are trusting me to sound intelligent in front of other folks in public. First, on January 21, I’ll be moderating a reading and discussion with the authors of Slow Noodles (Chantha Nguon and Kim Green, with Chantha’s daughter Clara Kim) as part of Hippocampus Magazine’s Stories on Sunday series. It’s virtual, which means you can watch me get all flustered and incoherent from anywhere! Register here.
Then, on February 1, I’ll be in Philly to chat with Emily Nagoski—sexuality educator, author, and personal hero—as part of her book tour for Come Together. You can buy tickets for that event here.
Necessary for My Sanity This Past Month
It may seem weird to mention work in this section, but the book sanctuary piece I worked on in December is the first piece of journalism I’ve done in a while and, my god, I’ve missed that work. I’ll be sharing it in the new year once it’s live.
A yoga friend hosted a full-day silent meditation retreat at her lake house, and while my brain is like a cramped space with a bunch of bouncy balls ricocheting off the walls, taking that time felt like a gift.
I joined a local choir this fall and we had our holiday concert and there was a great turnout and it was just fun.
Watching my child twirl around the aisles during the intermission for The Nutcracker was pretty damn fantastic.
I read an advance copy of Ali Terese’s Free Period, a middle grade novel about menstrual equity, and it was fabulous.
Christmas. The lights. The baking. The live holiday music at a friend’s coffee shop. It continues to be my favorite holiday.
I'm so psyched that you get to interview Emily Nagoski! How cool is that???