The Best of January

What I read and enjoyed, what made me laugh, and what I think you'll like, too.

(I apologize to everyone who may have seen this twice. Trying to work out the kinks of a new section!)

Welcome to a new feature of Something Funny, Something True! Everyone on my subscriber list is getting a copy of this email today, but I don’t want to annoy anyone who doesn’t want to get this type of email regularly. If you’d prefer to only receive my once-or-twice-a-month essays, you’ll need to visit your Substack settings, scroll all the way down to your Subscriptions list, click “Something Funny, Something True,” and uncheck the option for “The Best of the Month.” I tried to set this up so you would have to opt IN to get this but I couldn’t figure it out so I think you will have to just opt OUT. Sorry. :/

Okay, let’s get to it.

Tweets

I used Karen Cherry’s method of linking tweet screenshots to share the images below. If you click on any of them, you will be taken to the original tweet. And no, I’m not savvy or organized enough to do them in chronological order. Scroll, laugh, and be thankful.

Articles, Newsletters, and Essays

On Failing as a Parent by

Shawn Smucker

inThe Courage to Live it. I really enjoy Shawn’s posts on writing and on raising kids, and this one was a lovely tribute to the power of mercy and grace.

I’m Edgar Allan Poe’s Landlord, and He Will Not Be Getting His Security Deposit Back by Amanda Lehr in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Literary humor is my jam. But you knew that.

Housing in Classic Novels Vs. Your Life by Amy Greenlee in Jane Austen’s Wastebasket. More book humor!

Introducing the Escher Premium Diaper by S.M. Strand in Frazzled. This is the perfect send-up of products marketed to exhausted new parents.

Dear Hildegaard by

Rachel Joy Welcher

inDear Hildegaard. I’m very much looking forward to following Rachel’s chronicles of toddler parenting as I’m in the throes of it myself!

Page and Screen

I don’t have any videos to share this month, but maybe I will in the future. I’m not much of a video-watching girl, mostly because I never have my earbuds handy when I feel like watching something, and if I turn on YouTube without earbuds, my three-year-old’s spidey sense goes off.

I’ve been very much enjoying Terry Pratchett’s sci-fi/fantasy novels lately; odd that a blend of two genres I normally don’t prefer would be so very much my cup of tea, but here we are. I’m nearly done with Interesting Times and about to pick up Going Postal.

I listened to an audiobook of Persuasion by Jane Austen this month and really reveled in the experience. It’s true that the older you get, the more you appreciate Austen’s most reflective novel. (I’m older than Anne Elliot now! And have now left all Austen heroines behind in the bloom of youth. Hmmm. Much to think about.) I also watched the Netflix film adaptation of Persuasion, and I Have Thoughts. (They are not amiable.) Coming soon to an inbox near you.

I didn’t read nearly as much in January as I would have liked to, and I aim to fix that in February. Well, I won’t be able to go back and do January over again—but I can use more of my time for reading in the shortest month of the year.

Although if we’re counting the number of times I read aloud Where the Wild Things Are and The Book With No Pictures and How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? then I’m already clearing the top 1% of Goodreads challenges for the year.

Until February,

Amy

P.S. Remember, if you’d prefer to only receive my once-or-twice-a-month essays, you’ll need to visit your Substack settings, scroll all the way down to your Subscriptions list, click “Something Funny, Something True,” and uncheck the option for “The Best of the Month.” I tried to set this up so you would have to opt IN to get this but I couldn’t figure it out so I think you will have to just opt OUT. Sorry. :/