First Quarter--No, Trimester--of 2025
A recap of what I read and wrote in January, February, March, and April.
I’d like to say that I decided to do a thrice-annual recap to stand out from the crowd of quarterly reports. But the real reason for today’s post is simply that I didn’t get to it in April and here we are. The school year is done, the summer beckons, and I have some time to comb through links and put everything in one handy place.
(Substack is being rude and saying this post is too long for email, so you might need to click the title to read in the app or web browser.)
What I Wrote
My biggest and most exciting accomplishment of this period was definitely being named the runner-up for the Academy of American Poets prize at Penn State Harrisburg! I’m delighted by this honor and I’m excited to branch further out into the world of poetry (thanks to a class I took this semester, I think I have finally found the personal connection to poetry that I had lacked for many years).
Meditations on “Good” Parenting in the iPhone Age (also appeared in From the Fallout Shelter’s print edition)
I also wrote several essays for
, a parenting newsletter which I co-edit with four other writers who also happen to be moms.“Even when he’s sick, when your average child is supposed to recline in bed and lick weakly at a Pedialyte popsicle, Ben prefers to trek through the house to flush the toilet a dozen times. He wants to “help” with laundry, to “sweep” the floor, but when I interfere with his machinations, he howls. Wrathfully, he pulls clean silverware out of the dishwasher and crashes it into a drawer. I suggest a board book and he shrieks, “noooooooo!”
An Open Letter to the Mom I Envied at CVS
“Being the Worst Girl at Yoga is not inherently a bad thing, nor is it precisely quantifiable, but it’s the concept of being perceived as the worst at… whatever it is. The slowest eater at a dinner party when everyone else is ready for dessert. The last person to laugh at the joke. The woman who brings a pack of silicone spoons in a crinkled gift bag to the baby shower when everybody else has a tenderly wrapped Pottery Barn toy crafted with natural beige materials. All of these are, in spirit, the Worst Girl at Yoga.”
A Mandatory Carrot Will Not Give My Kids an Eating Disorder
“Sugar, of course, was its own fraught topic. The crunchier moms advocated none whatsoever. Raw honey, raw maple syrup, monkfruit, agave nectar and probably organic extract of opossum breast milk were the only approved sweeteners if you wanted to raise a nature-communing, Waldorfian child who ran barefoot across grass that had never been sprayed with pesticides. Unfortunately, I was too keen on phonics and shoes (and, let’s be real, vaccines) to qualify for this. Bummer.”
Car Seats and the Illusion of Control
“As a baby in the 90s, I had been strapped into a simple bucket seat with head cushions and, I think, a single buckle. (This was a step up from how my parents came home from the hospital–handheld, in the front seat of a station wagon. Perhaps in a blanket-lined basket on the floor of the car? Unclear.) But the modern convertible car seat is much more complex, and much more terrifying, than its predecessors. As I read about five-point harnesses, CPSTs, and the dangers of unsecured objects in the back of a car, the pit of dread in my stomach grew along with the unborn baby.”
And on this Substack, here’s what I’ve written so far this year:
What I Read (Books)
I read 18 books in the first four months of 2025! Some of these were audiobooks, and I'll talk more about that in a future post. For now, some standout titles:
The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery
A reread, but such a fresh experience nonetheless— I don't think I had read this since I was a teen. I might prefer it to its predecessor The Story Girl! If you loved the TV series Road to Avonlea, you need to read both of these novels. They're slice-of-life, episodic adventures of the King cousins living in turn-of-the-century Prince Edward Island. The magic of the Anne books is present but with far more sibling rivalry, bickering, and general hoodlum hilarity.
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
My first Kingsolver novel, and by no means my last. I've never really been drawn to the “found family” trope in literature but the “accidental motherhood” themes of this book drew me in and didn't let me go. Taylor, the protagonist, left her hillbilly town behind to seek her fortune in Arizona. Somehow along the way she adopts an orphaned Native American toddler, becomes roommates and fast friends with a young woman navigating the dissolution of her marriage, and gets tangled up in the intricacies and injustices of the 1980s immigration system. It's a hard read in places due to some of the themes, not because of graphic content, but one I wouldn't hesitate to revisit again and again.
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
What a mind trip this story was—but just plausible enough to completely immerse me in its world! Lauren, the main character (whose story is narrated in the third person, an odd choice for a contemporary comedy but one I really enjoyed) is surprised one day to find a strange man in the house where she used to live alone. She quickly discovers he is her husband, and not only that, but he was somehow spawned by her attic. When he returns upstairs, a fresh new spouse emerges. I won’t spoil the ending but I will say it was so cleverly done, satisfying and hopeful, even through some very sad twists of the plot.
Dorothy and Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C.S. Lewis by
I am slightly biased in favor of this nonfiction biography-memoir-literary-critique, because I count its author a personal Internet friend, but I would have enjoyed it just as much if I didn’t know and like Gina so much! I haven’t read nearly as much Lewis as many of my bookish friends have, and exactly zero of Sayers’ novels (though I have read some of her essays) and this lovely work left me very eager to read more of both writers. It is not saccharine or sycophantic, but clearly presents the talents, flaws and foibles of these complex friends and their literary correspondence.
Maskerade by Terry Pratchett
CHEF'S KISS, I probably need to devote an entire post to Pratchett and why I think he and Jane Austen are so similar and why I like them both so much! For now I’ll just say if you like fairy tales, Phantom of the Opera, absurdist humor, mysteries, old witch shenanigans, and shapeshifting cats, then this may be the book for you.
I'm planning some more book reviews in 2025 so look out for some deep dives coming soon.
What I Read (Articles)
I try to restack pieces I enjoy on Substack Notes whenever I can, but not all of you are using Substack Notes. (Honestly? I commend you. No one needs another social-media-esque app.) So here are some highlights.
Isn't it worth the time spent, deepening your understanding of whatever holds meaning for you? I think it has to be. I think we both deserve it and owe it to ourselves.
10,000 Times by
forOn something like the 218th time we showed up for therapy, seemingly out of the clear blue sky, he said three new words.
But really, it wasn’t out of the blue at all. It was standing on the 217 days before it.
My popcorn analogy for handling creative imperfections by
Writing is like that bag of popcorn. As is art. As is music. As is film. Is every single brushstroke on the Sistine Chapel ceiling perfect? Highly doubtful. We take it in as a whole. Is every sentence in your novel your best? No. But if you made every one your best, the beautiful lines you do have wouldn’t have room to breathe.
The AI Conversation Not Enough People Are Having by
Lawsuits are not going to save us from AI. Rules, internet guidelines, or even lengthy op-eds are not going to turn the machines off now that they’ve been turned on. But we can refuse to engage with them. And the only way that’s going to last is if we are so fulfilled by our work that we don’t needto do it quickly or cheaply.”
Will I one day be the bad guy in my own little one’s story? How will she handle the heartache and hurt of this world? How will I even handle her as a teenager? Will she hate me? Maybe all teenagers are just destined to hate their mothers, no matter how hard we try to shield them from pain.
Love Makes One a Better Person by
Creative types often feel a sense of loneliness, and I’m no stranger to that. But I have yet to find “an ache and longing” that has gone unmirrored in literature, art, music, film, history, Scripture, friendship. The longings in our life that are temporarily sated, but grow deeper with each passing year, are the image of God in us craving eternal life. We are not made for death. We know there is something more. This is the longing.
On SNL, and the Christian Retreat From Culture by
Movies aren’t supposed to be real, or even realistic, necessarily. It’s okay to turn your brain off and watch spaceships shoot lasers. It just feels like too much Christian entertainment requires you to leave your brain turned off.
Two years postpartum came and went, and I gave up on the promise of January 1, 2024. I kept forgetting to sign up for parent-teacher conferences. I planned two birthday parties in a haze. I would schedule time for grief, then reschedule it.
But young kids give structure to sadness. They push you to get out of bed. You face it for them, and sometimes you face it with more bravery because of them.
On Giving My Whole Life Away by
Within hospitality, giving isn’t a loss. It’s an open-handed sharing of life’s good gifts that brings others in—that widens the circle.
Hospitality invites all, both strangers and friends alike, directly into our communal spaces, homes, and lives, as we give of our own resources to meet both material and immaterial needs.
Is this not what public writing does?
What have you been reading and writing in January, February, March, and April?
Thank you for the kind words about Dorothy and Jack! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! 😃
I reread Watchmen — it’s a graphic novel with a brilliant story and incredible storytelling, though I can’t necessarily recommend it because it’s very violent and very dark. It’s an unflinching portrayal of total depravity in a world devoid of grace.
On the flip side, I read Tim Keller’s book on prayer, and that was an excellent read I can wholeheartedly recommend! :)
The Husbands sounds really interesting. I’ll have to add it to my list!