Well, my little bookletter and I have had an interesting week or two! In case you missed it, one of the three co-founders of HelloGiggles, a lifestyle website where I used to write a weekly column, wants to bring it back. Sophia Rivka Rossi casually and flippantly had the audacity to write a Substack post about how she misses it, and how fun it was, and if just 50 people said yes, we could do it all again.
It pissed me off, and a lot of people, off. I wrote about it (it’ll still be paywalled for another threeish weeks), and this incredible thing happened that used to happen from time to time during the good days of twitter.
It…resonated! People read it! People subscribed to read it. So many former HelloGiggles contributors, writers, and editors reached out. We started a small support group chat to share stories and to simply reconnect. We’ve learned a lot, mostly about how isolated we all felt from each other and from HelloGiggles as a whole. It’s hard to give so much and feel embarrassed about it, but the reality is, we all felt that way.
It’s very, very fun for me to write my little bookletter and talk about what I’ve read and delve into my old internet habits of shit-talking celebrities and sometimes just sharing my heart, even without attention. But it’s even more fun when something you spent time writing speaks to people, and this is the first time in a long time it feels like I got to do that.
And we’re going to build from there! I have long dreamt of having people guest-write on this here website, and now I feel competitive. If the people who built me and so many of my creative, smart, wonderful friends up just to tear us down, take the money, and run want to do it again, I’m going to do it first.
Anyway, if you haven’t read that piece about HelloGiggles yet, you gotta subscribe. (THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO IS NEWLY SUBSCRIBED!)
But if you want to read about what I read in June, let’s go!
Caveat: I don’t pay much attention to the time of year when I’m reading (or ever lol), even though I think it’d be cute to do so! So I read a ton of books that came out this year, and most were written by straight white people. One was even a man, which is rare for me. I know that’s a weird move in June, but again, this means nothing more than my library holds all came in at once. I read Black and gay all year, all life. But if I were a book influencer or something, I’d want to rake me over the coals, so that’s my little sidenote.
[books i read]
Famesick: A Memoir by Lena Dunham (2026) | Quick summary: The memoir of writer and actress Lena Dunham.
I’m not going to say anything about this here because I have a longer post about it that I’ve half-written! I actually purchased this book (rare for me!) rather than listening to the audiobook because the library was taking too long and it was due for a book club. So congratulations to whoever got my hold!
[nonfiction, memoir, written by a white, american writer, actress, and director, longer read]
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026) | Quick summary: A social media “tradwife” finds herself suddenly living in the life she’s been recreating.
Ain’t she the talk of the town? And by "she," I mean Yesteryear, not Caro Claire Burke, which is a really hard name to say and remember. And to trust! I should have done a deep dive into her before writing this, but it’s too late, and I’m too lazy. But like, is she a scientologist or does she give money to the Trumps or something? It seems like she might.
The easiest thing I can say is that I enjoyed reading Yesteryear. It worked for me unless I try too hard to dissect it. What I am left wondering is whether this book is pro the kind of life Natalie so desperately wanted it to seem she had. Lines like, “During service, our pastor talks about a God who is so very different from the God my parents taught me to know. I am starting to think that church might just be another word for people,” and “No one was grateful to be here. As far as I could see, no one was grateful for anything at all. They all planned to be wives and mothers, and yet they absolutely hated men and kids,” didn’t have enough follow-through to feel like Burke was writing a novel critiquing those sentiments. And maybe she wasn’t! But if she wasn’t, yikes. And if she was, I wish she’d gone harder. Overall, fun to read and understand The Discourse.
[fiction, suspense, thriller, written by a white, american novelist and cultural critic, medium-length read]
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989) | Quick summary: The story of four Chinese families living in San Francisco, told through their mahjong club.
What a beautiful book. I knew I would be astounded before I picked it up, since it has been out for most of my life. As a reader, you just know there are books you will one day read (Moby Dick, you are my everest), and The Joy Luck Club was one of those. Like most things in life, this is the story of moms and daughters, and the evergreen truth that it is impossible to see eye to eye with your mother. It is impossible to truly understand each other, and it’s just as impossible to separate the inherent, if not unconditional, love between a mother and her daughter. I loved the structure of the book, like a game of mahjong, and the tears in my eyes as we got to know every mother for who she was as a woman, and not just through her child’s eyes. I can’t wait to watch the movie.
[fiction, multigenerational, written by a chinese american author, longer read]
[books i heard]
La Lucci by Susan Lucci (2026) | Quick summary: The memoir of soap opera star Susan Lucci.
I was a Days of Our Lives kid, but I dabbled in All My Children, Lucci’s show, only because it was on ABC my entire childhood. It’s still upsetting that it was canceled and no longer airs, or that any soap was ever canceled and no longer airs!, but anyway. Susan Lucci defies soapdom. Most people know her name because she famously didn’t win the daytime emmy she was nominated for 18 years in a row. Until she did. Lucci has written at least one other memoir, but this one comes after losing the love of her life, her husband of 52 years, in 2022. This book is largely about grief, including a list of books Lucci recommends to help you manage, accept, and live with your grief. That was unexpected for me - I haven’t necessarily kept up with her life! - and I really appreciated it. Otherwise, this reads almost like part memoir, part workbook. While I loved hearing her voice (it’s a soothing, nostalgic one for me!), it is probably worth reading the physical book as well.
[nonfiction, memoir, grief, written by a white american actress, medium-length listen, narrated by the author]
Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer (2026) | Quick summary: A biography of children’s literature writer Judy Blume.
I love Judy Blume, I mean, of course I do. I’m a lifelong reader and lover of children, including their stories. I loved learning more about how Blume found herself writing children’s literature (something I secretly think about trying out some time) and even more about who she was as a person. She had abortions! She accidentally sided with JK Rowling, but she didn’t mean it! She is so pissed about this biography that she never talked to Mark Oppenheimer again! I want to read hella Blume after listening to this book, but as my intro note informed y’all, I’ve been reading a lot of white ladies lately and need to take a break. Good thing she’ll always be there.
Also, I listened to this entire book thinking Blume was dead. She is not dead. Beverly Cleary is dead, which I knew, but I also thought Blume was dead. I’m glad she’s not, obviously!
[nonfiction, biography, children’s literature, written by a white american, journalist and author, longer listen, narrated by actress molly ringwald]
Joyride by Susan Orlean (2026) | Quick summary: The memoir and works of writer Susan Orlean.
Susan Orlean has written a lot of things, which means you have almost certainly interacted with her work in one way or another. The movie Adaptation was based on Orlean’s book; she wrote for the show How To with John Wilson; she wrote the books Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, On Animals, and The Library Book. To me, she is everything cool and good about writing and being a writer. I adore The Library Book and think of it often, even though I read it in 2018 when it came out. This memoir was great, and I’m glad she wrote it (and read it!), and I’m glad she included so much of her writing in it. I’m inspired by her wit and curiosity and hope she writes more things for a long time.
[nonfiction, memoir, writing reference, written by a white american journalist, television writer, and author, longer listen, narrated by the author]
[what I recommend]
- If you enjoy a good memoir: Famesick and Joyride
- If you have recently lost a life partner: La Lucci
- If you love a good novel: The Joy Luck Club
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