Bury the White House in Books?
Readers have come together to organize a massive mailing of books to the White House for Valentine’s Day, specifically a mailing of books readers think POTUS 45 should read. It’s a nice statement about the power of reading, and the encouragement to get the books from local independent bookstores is great. But as he’s said in interviews, 45 doesn’t read books and certainly won’t read these. The best we can hope is that the White House staff will gather these up and send them to a school that needs them. Maybe buy a book to send to the White House, but also buy one to donate to a literacy charity while you’re at it?
Kim Kardashian And Chrissy Teigen Are Starting A Book Club
Kim Kardashian announced on Twitter that her and her best friend Chrissy Tiegen are starting a book club, and the first pick is Embraced by the Light by Betty J. Eadie. They haven’t seemed to announce any other details other than that the book club is happening and what the title is and that you should join them, but this trend of celebrities starting book clubs (hello, Emma Watson) is pretty neat. Not sure about that first title, but to each their own (book club).
Langston Hughes’ Home Saved
You might remember hearing last year about Langston Hughes’ brownstone being for sale and about the art collective that was trying to save it–they’ve succeeded! Through online fundraising, mostly, the I, Too, Arts Collective will be turning the space into a community center for open mic nights and author events in Harlem. Renee Watson, founder of the collective, says that saving the brownstone was about preserving a part of Harlem: “It’s a testament to wanting to hold onto Harlem,” she said. “And just make sure that we also take care of the history here and that we guard it [fiercely].”
Thanks to A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom for sponsoring this week’s newsletter.
For Mel Hannigan, bipolar disorder makes life unpredictable. Her latest struggle is balancing her growing feelings in a new relationship with her instinct to conceal her diagnosis by keeping everyone at arm’s length. But when a former friend confronts Mel with the truth about the way their relationship ended, deeply buried secrets threaten to upend her shaky equilibrium.
As the walls of Mel’s compartmentalized world crumble, she fears that no one will accept her if they discover what she’s been hiding. But would her friends really abandon her if they learned the truth? More importantly, can Mel risk everything to find out?