Looks Like You Can Drink While Pregnant

There are a lot of rules when it comes to pregnancy. But why does it differ doctor to doctor, region by region? Emily Oster, a data-obsessed economist, wanted to know where these rules came from so, naturally, she dug into the studies that led to the fuzzy conclusions we all know today. This book isn’t intended to be chapters of advice, but rather an awareness of potential risk according to the numbers. So pour yourself a glass of wine (you’re fine as long as you don’t do cocaine while you’re at it) and get into the numbers.

Seduced and reduced by startup culture

There’s a lot of money in Silicon Valley so it’s easy to understand why Anna Wiener wanted out of book publishing and in on big data. In her memoir Uncanny Valley [2020], Anna Wiener reflects on her experience working, hustling and sometimes thriving in the seductive world of startups. As a woman and a (non-essential) non-programmer, Wiener sees plenty of the bad we expect from young bros with too much money and no formal HR. Disillusionment is inevitable.

Making friends as an adult is hard, keeping them is harder

There’s plenty of literature around how to make romantic relationships work. AND if you still end up breaking up, people understand and will give you space, wine, pasta or chocolate. You might even get some days off from work. But there’s not much on how to keep friendships alive or discussion on why we feel ashamed when friendships die. Big Friendship [2020] is part memoir, part sociology, part self help. How do we save important friendships? Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman reflect on their own Big Friendship - the natural connection, the unsaid bond, then unsaid frustration, and the will to make it work. Why do we accept that friends “grow apart” and move on? How can we be better friends for each other?

READ and then give to a friend you love.

An emotional look at buildings

The Architecture of Happiness [2006] is a touching look into the history of architecture, why a building or space or lighting has the power to change how we feel, why certain architecture succeeds while others fail…but mostly it’s a roast of the architect Le Corbusier. If you’re a fan of Alain de Botton, you’ll enjoy this one. He has a delicate knack for making the mundane beautiful and moving.

READ if you want to impress your friends.

Thank you to Josh Hill for recommending this book to me!

Ah, to be a rich, older white lady in New York City

If I could have another life, would I choose Nora Ephron’s? Probably. I Feel Bad About My Neck: Other Thoughts on Being a Woman could use some qualifiers to “woman”, like rich, white, successful, older…but despite not being any of those (my litmus test being I don’t have a cherished doorman, or a doorman at all) this book of essays is entertaining and (don’t let the title fool you) aspirational. Who knew menopause, aging, divorce, and New York City living could make it onto my vision board?

Making a Murderer meets fanciful Savannah, Georgia, in the 80s

Savannah, Georgia - the city that asks you what you’d like to drink - is filled with wild characters and no reason to change. This is all according to the Yankee journalist who is documenting his stay in town in the 1980s. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994) is true story. It says a lot when the eccentricities of the characters, including an antique seller who throws the best Christmas parties, an inventor rumored to have a poison that can wipe out the entire town, a widowed socialite who loves the color green, and a scene-stealing drag queen, to name a few, are more interesting than the main plot (the murder) itself. Did the antique seller murder his much younger assistant who also happens to be a very good male prostitute? Does it matter?

Thank you to Josh Hill for recommending this book to me after watching Tiger King!