51 Comments

Your upcoming book looks fantastic; it’s going on my list! 📚

I recently finished Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith and loved it because it blew open the door for me to acknowledge and examine the diet culture messaging in my childhood and adult life. Now that my eyes are wide open I can’t help but see and hear these messages everywhere! Mentioning the book has been a helpful way to start conversations about anti-fat bias and diet culture with people close to me.

Also, happy birthday weekend! Living in Philly, if I were to choose a book to receive, it would definitely be Housemates. 🏠

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Housemates is yours! Email or message me your address, and I'll pop it in the mail!

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What a lovely surprise, thank you Nancy!

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phew yes Fat Talk is such a good book! Virginia's work has done so much to change how I think about bodies and food. and Housemates is such a great Philly book!

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Happy Birthday 🎉

I recently read All Fours by Miranda July, and I doubt the story will leave me. Being a mother, middle-aged-ish, and deeply weird— I found this narrative exquisite.

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thank you! and I love how you describe yourself--I so often feel the same way!

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I recently read a new novel titled Practice, by Rosalind Brown. It follows an Oxford undergraduate over the course of a day as she studies Shakespeare’s sonnets—but it’s not a dry, academic book at all! It’s so sensory (and sensual), and it burrows so deeply into a single and singular mind. I would love to receive the Howsare book or the Plath book if possible!

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Age of Deer is yours! Email or message me your address, and I'll pop it in the mail!

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Just emailed, thank you so much!!

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oh that sounds fascinating!

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Right now I'm reading Familia. I like how each chapter is from the perspective of a different character, so the reader can understand different viewpoints. I also love the culture it infuses through language and imagery.

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I really love a multi-perspective novel that's done well--when you feel like you're really seeing multiple different ways of experiencing the world!

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Inconsolable Objects by Nancy Miller Gomez. My favorite poem is “The Game.” “I love you so much I hate you.” Whoosh. Mic drop. Loose of Earth sounds fantastic. Happy birthday weekend!

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Loose of Earth is yours! Email or message me your address, and I'll pop it in the mail!

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Inconsolable Objects is such a great title!

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Happy Birthday Weekend Nancy! Amor Towles did an author talk in my neighborhood last month (I live in Boston) and I realized that I didn't know of him or of his work. So I read, "A Gentleman in Moscow" and really enjoyed it. In addition to the story, I particularly loved the fullness and richness of his prose.

If I'm lucky enough to get one of your give away books - surprise me!

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thank you! so cool that you discovered a new-to-you writer by getting to actually hear him in person! he's a writer whose name I know, but I don't think I've read any of his books, either!

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Just finished the book Prequel by Rachel Maddow. OMG. Kept having two thoughts the entire time: how did we not learn about this in school/life and good lord, we've done all this BS before. I definitely recommend the audiobook because Maddow herself reads it.

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ooh I haven't read that, thanks for the recommendation

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HI there! Think I'm too late for the giveaway but commenting nonetheless, in part to let you know I sent you a message on Facebook (Messenger) that I think you might want to see. I just finished Simone Gorrindo's book The Wives, which is a fascinating exploration of what it means to join the tribe of Army wives, even when you aren't aligned with all the values within this world. Interested in Rabbit & Juliet or Loving Sylvia Plath, but I'll guess these are already spoken for! Happy wishes.

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ah, I am almost never on facebook anymore, so thanks for alerting me! and thanks for sharing that book--it sounds so interesting!

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Happy birthday! Congratulations on the new book, Nancy! And how perfect to host a virtual talk with Maggie Smith. I just finished and really enjoyed Rebeca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost, a beautiful collection of essays that explores issues of uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire and place. So fun with the book giveaway! Loving Sylvia Plath sounds like my kind of book.

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Thanks, Amy! That Solnit sounds great!

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A Living Remedy, Nicole Chung. Still thinking about it! Surprise me!

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Shiner is yours! Email or message me your address, and I'll pop it in the mail!

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Ooh such a good book!

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Happy birthday! I'm a newer subscriber & a mom of two young kids; I love the premise of your newsletter.

I just finished "Ambition Monster" by Jennifer Romolini. She writes about her reckoning in the girl-boss/hustle culture machine of the 2010s, but also about complicated family dynamics. I renewed this book from the library and brought it with me on my (first-ever!) writing residency this week to revisit while I'm here. I particularly admire the way Jennifer writes about her parents: both their shortcomings and everything they've provided for her. She writes with compassion even when describing people who have, on many occasions, wounded her. That's a skill I'm always working to sharpen in my own writing. "Ambition Monster" was a timely example of how it's possible to write about tough situations with people you love while remaining clear-eyed and compassionate.

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Mercury is yours! Email or message me your address, and I'll pop it in the mail!

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Apologies for the delay, thank you Nancy! Just messaged you on substack.

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ooh I've read about that book, but your description of it here makes me think I need to bump it up on my list--those are craft issues and ideas that are especially important to me now.

congratulations on the residency--I hope you're having a restful time with lots of space for deep thinking. and welcome to Write More!

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The four Lucy Barton novels from Elizabeth Strout. Not as perfect as the Olive Kitteridge duo but still wonderful.

As I live around the huge deer of Bucks County I would 😍 the deer book. Sorry I can’t click back for the correct title.

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Cinderland is yours! Email or message me your address, and I'll pop it in the mail!

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Thanks again!

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I hope you got it. I’m a bit klutzy here.

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ooh yes I am excited for her new one!

it's The Age of Deer, and it's so good! (I came across three deer on my run the other morning, which is actually pretty remarkable in suburban south Jersey!)

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First of all: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 🥳

I just finished "The Turnglass". I was interested in that book because of its format : two stories set in different times, read one, then flip the book and read the other. It doesn’t matter which story you read first. But as one story is set in 1881 and the other in 1939, I read them in chronological order and as both stories are linked together it was a real pleasure to read them...

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Rabbit & Juliet is yours! Email or message me your address, and I'll pop it in the mail!

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Hi Nancy, I just received your... postcard...

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yay! I’m sorry I didn’t send the book—you were right about international shipping being $$$!

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Thank you so much! 🤩

I sent you an email with my address. I hope it's still ok for you even if I live in France…

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that sounds so interesting! I'm always allergic to anything that feels gimmicky--but that sounds like it could really do cool things with the concept.

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Happy birthday!

I recently read Such A Fun Age. It touches on a nanny-mother relationship, class, and race. Really enjoyed it!

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oh that was a good book! I didn't like her second book nearly as much, so it's good to be reminded about the first.

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Wishing you a Happy, Happy Birthday! I just finished reading a very powerful memoir, The Taste of Anger, by Diane Vonglis Parnell. Diane wrote of her abusive childhood. Diane wrote with such strong sensory details and images, which means it's not always an easy read, but it's a necessary read, to act as a way to start some of the difficult conversations that need to be had so we can also start discussing solutions.

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oh wow, another knockout title!

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I read Malas by Marcela Fuentes--debut novel about a family in the Texas/Mexican border--loved it. And if I were to get a giveaway: surprise me!

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so interesting--and such a fascinating part of the country.

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