Politics and Prose Presents

As a Black child adopted out of the New York foster care system as a toddler and raised by white Evangelical parents, Rhonda Roorda had to learn how to walk in two different worlds. She often questioned “whether my skin was too dark” and if she “acted too white.” She recalls being haunted by feelings of shame and not “being enough.” Torn from the Root is her illuminating story of identity, belonging, and purpose, and lays bare the deep pain she felt navigating life as a vulnerable Black girl and how she healed herself.

Roorda suffered trauma and abuse in her youth, but she also developed resilience. Eventually, she resolves to find her birth family and takes readers on her exciting and agonizing journey.

Torn from the Root thinks critically about the child welfare system and the long-term impacts of transracial adoption. Roorda helps readers understand her experience, posing necessary questions about the challenges of transracial adoption. Her emotional story, full of wisdom and reflection, recounts how she “accepted the truth” of her adoption and found balance, not discomfort, in her own skin.

Rhonda M. Roorda, M.A., is a nationally recognized speaker, author, and consultant on transracial adoption whose insights have been featured on Good Morning America and ABC News, in People magazine, and in the Emmy Award–winning television series This Is Us. A transracial adoptee, she is the author of the acclaimed In Their Voices: Black Americans on Transracial Adoption, recognized as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title, and the coauthor of a groundbreaking trilogy on transracial adoption. Through her writing, research, and speaking, Roorda has become a leading voice exploring identity, belonging, and the lifelong impact of adoption across racial and cultural boundaries. She lives in Michigan with her family.

Roorda is in conversation with Jelani Freeman, a community leader, attorney and advocate for children and families. Jelani’s commitment to children & families grew from his lived experience of being placed in the foster care system at the age of 8. Jelani spent time in multiple foster homes, shelters, group homes and juvenile facilities,  but later in life was sworn into the New York State Bar by the very same court system that emancipated him from the foster care system at 18 years old, leaving him on his own. Pursuing his passion to serve the underserved, Jelani began his career in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, working legislatively to improve the lives of children in the foster care system. Subsequently, he provided direct services to young people at the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. His dedication to transforming the foster care system he endured and give back to young people navigating those all-too-familiar circumstances is the reason that Hillary Clinton in her book, It Takes a Village, wrote that when she needs inspiration, she looks to people like Jelani who “now works to bring opportunity to another generation of kids at risk." Jelani has served for years as a Board Member for non-profits such as the Center for Adoption Support & Education, Barker Adoption Foundation, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and currently serves as a Board Member for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Jelani relished being a mentor and an advocate for the rights of children in the DC foster care system in his role as a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and also regularly volunteered at Martha’s Table since 2011.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781439927939?ic_referral=UE5qwtDk96xgdMBhYlQ5GxZ5bFT0rzYeLrJcZXQoOGowMzoBIzSk4BlmuXYccz3nldUY2dYiJcJTAyxhNPJhZIUCCGtPxlWkchV4tb69MJSbNiYh9AWGfjlFxxOetsCvMVMSUYQ

When the Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School gymnastics team competes in the Ohio High School Athletic Association state gymnastics meet, they're expected to win. That's because they've won each year-since 2004. And as the streak builds, there's more pressure each year on the public school's team to continue that tradition. No year was more tense than the year that they were hoping to take home their 20th straight title.

A Fraction of a Point follows the Bees throughout the intense 2022-2023 season as the team works toward the state meet. During one of their most competitive seasons in recent years, sports journalist Nina Mandell explores the gymnasts' backstories and traces the legacy of the Ganim family, the team's longtime coaches.

But this isn't just a story about one historic season. At its heart, it's also about the teenagers balancing athletics with high school life, the larger community that supported the team, what it means to compete for the joy of the sport, and the athletes' and coaches' dedication even while facing immense pressure.

Ultimately, the state title comes down to the final event. As the Bees line up to compete, the gym falls silent. Hundreds of gymnasts and their supporters from around the state watch and wonder: Will the Bees maintain their streak? Or will this be the year it all ends?

Nina Mandell is a journalist living in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, who has written for Bustle, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, The New York Daily News, and NBC Regional Sports Networks. She is the former managing editor of USA Today's "For The Win" site and the former digital director/managing editor of NBC Sports Washington, and currently works in sports marketing.

Mandell is joined in conversation with Robert Samuels, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and national enterprise reporter at The Washington Post. For close to a decade, Robert has traveled across the country to chronicle politics, policy and the changing American identity. He is the co-author of His Name is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Robert has also worked as a staff writer at The Miami Herald and the New Yorker. He grew up in The Bronx and resides in Washington, DC.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781606355077?ic_referral=d7z4Za7e6EaaRoTGKW7syfDgReIJ3lT4O5Jk_Fk_GW0wM6pNowqbREzMKB3Xe8TIgf3m_1IkK27dALQXet2zQB2HYWYXJdWUGVDX4CShcY5zvBojOFv5HL0Yl0q7Lf7Bn-G2zuY

The highly anticipated biography of one of the world’s most treasured literary voices, showcasing a life as triumphant and inspiring as the stories she crafted.
To know the name Judy Blume is to know and love literature. Her influential novels turned classics—including Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; Deenie; and Summer Sisters—touched the lives of tens of millions of readers. For more than fifty-five years her work has done something revolutionary: it rewired the world’s expectations of what literature for young people can be—frank, candid, earthy, and unafraid to show the messier sides of humanity. But little is known about the real woman behind the iconic persona, and the unlikely journey of her literary ascension, until now.
In Judy Blume, journalist, historian, and longtime Blume aficionado Mark Oppenheimer pens a beautiful, multidimensional portrait of the acclaimed author through extensive interviews with Blume herself, invaluable access to her papers and correspondence, and thoughtful analysis of Blume’s beloved novels, including early, unpublished works that shed light on the pathbreaking writer she would become. Oppenheimer goes deep, exploring Blume’s middle-class 1950s upbringing, complicated childhood, varied relationships and marriages, unabashed sexual experiences, bouts of heartache and loss, and enduring legacy as a champion of free speech and contemporary literature. Oppenheimer peels back the curtain to reveal the woman behind the literary empire in all her complex, multifaceted glory—a true gift for anyone who grew up reading and loving these extraordinary books.

Mark Oppenheimer is the author of four critically acclaimed books, including Squirrel Hill, Wisenheimer, and Thirteen and a Day. He has taught at NYU, Stanford, Yale, and Washington University in St. Louis, where he is Professor of Practice. Mark lives with his family in New Haven, Connecticut.

Oppenheimer is in conversation with Katherine Marsh, an award-winning author of novels for middle-grade readers including The Lost Year; Nowhere Boy; The Night Tourist; and The Myth of Monsters series. Among her honors are National Book Award finalist, winner of the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery, winner of the New York Historical Society Book Award, and winner of the Middle East Book Award. Her books have also been Junior Library Guild Selections, American Library Association Notables, and have been translated into eighteen languages. A former magazine journalist, Katherine lives in Washington, DC with her husband, two children and an astonishing array of pets.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593714447?ic_referral=zJV4wnKfGGAwxuSDLBpgvT1QTxDYBw6dL4uOI1O67qIwM7WBXbPKxr-tn33N8Dis9M6xHimb85tjc51-byVnhAf9y2GOsMlwmpRaVyobNPnsMzYZu_BXGad2q_fq7gZYALlBJhE

Why do some fights for justice hit a wall while others succeed? What does it take to win social change, especially now? It comes down to understanding one thing: the difference between presence and power.
Failing to do so is one way we got into this mess, but understanding how power really works is a big part of how we get out of it. 
Rashad Robinson would know. A social change strategist, he’s spent more than twenty years at the highest levels of leadership in two of the most significant social movements of our time: the fight for LGBTQ rights and the fight for racial justice. He’s taken on tech giants and the criminal justice system, politicians in Washington and corporate executives in Hollywood. He’s been on the front lines of protest and in the back rooms of negotiation. 
Robinson argues that achieving presence—the visibility of marches, media fads, and making issues popular—is not the same as gaining the leverage required to change the rules for how society works or change the decisions that politicians, corporate executives, and other people in authority make. 
This book offers a set of essential lessons about power for anyone who wants to understand it, gain it, and use it to win the progress we all deserve—and to defeat the forces trying to take our freedoms away. Robinson provides the tools needed to help everyday people build real leverage in systems designed to prevent them from doing so.
As someone who helped shape the resistance after the 2016 election, and continues to help leaders at every level find innovative ways to fight back and win progress today, Robinson offers a hopeful, practical guide to achieving positive impact in the most challenging times.

Rashad Robinson is a social justice leader, strategist and organization builder. He has designed campaigns to change public policies, corporate practices, electoral outcomes, and media representations. He speaks widely on corporate accountability, narrative change, infrastructure for organizing, and strategies for creating a more equitable world. Through Rashad Robinson Advisors (RRA), he advises and collaborates on developing high-impact strategies to bring about progress with foundations, nonprofits and leaders across media, politics, government and business. He previously led Color Of Change for nearly fourteen years, transforming it from a start-up into a national force for racial justice, and also led programs at GLAAD, reshaping media representations of LGBTQ people during the fights to win marriage equality and end discrimination. More information about Rashad, including his weekly How We Win newsletter, can be found at www.rashadrobinson.com.

Robinson is in conversation with Joy Ann Reid, a New York Times bestselling author, a former Emmy nominated, two time NAACP Image Award winning primetime host at the artist formerly known as MSNBC and the current host of The Joy Reid Show streaming podcast which you can find on YouTube at thejoyreidshow.com, on audio podcast platforms, and at joyannreid.com on Substack.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593243565?ic_referral=IKxCP2H8EHc963yofaM8vneG3kF0tRYv9hweGA5Ynf4wM_OWtl8iINx9GIacZtJBnFPlygOlPQu7mqvKOrRKN2aHwlv2OpT1MSN_0-VoyLJhXO8LV4g00YU4A9-Q6He3wgzekdU

Bronia Feldman never imagined she would become the backbone of an underground medical lifeline, least of all inside the brutal forced-labor system of the HASAG munitions factory in occupied Poland. Torn from her family in September 1942, she arrives there shattered by grief. The only force strong enough to keep her alive is the chance to save others.
Left behind in the ghetto of Skarzysko-Kamienna are her husband and two young daughters. Her 13-year-old daughter, Hajuta, has been sent to a nearby labor site. Bronia seizes a rare opportunity to escape and manages to reach her daughter. After their brief reunion, she faces an impossible choice: flee into the forest to join the partisans, or slip back to the place she has just escaped.
When they are reunited months later, the moment is both miraculous and heartbreaking. Hajuta is no longer the girl Bronia remembers. Together they endure still darker days when they are deported to Bergen-Belsen in January 1945.
This true story of a Jewish mother and daughter is a testament to courage, devotion, and the fragile thread of hope that sustained them. Amid cruelty and terror, they also encounter moments of humanity.
Throughout it all, both cling to memories of the River Kamienna, where they once danced, played music, and believed in a future. For Bronia and Hajuta, the river is more than a memory. It is a promise that one day they might return home.

Pauline Steinhorn is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Her essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Moment magazine. She is a Board Member of Generation After DC, a nonprofit network of Jewish Holocaust survivors and their children. When she's not writing or directing, Pauline shares her family’s Holocaust experiences at synagogues, Yom HaShoah commemorations, and in middle and high school classrooms. She and her husband, Bill Creed, live in Chevy Chase, MD.

Steinhorn is in conversation with Deborah Kalb, a freelance writer and editor. She spent about two decades working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., for news organizations including Gannett News Service, Congressional Quarterly, U.S. News & World Report, and The Hill, mostly covering Congress and politics. Her book blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, which she started in 2012, features hundreds of interviews she has conducted with a wide variety of authors.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9789493418844?ic_referral=YitakzOaC8XYOQCK0aXCDeMU5HtcnRxfiFyfzPkFGqQwMxBOAz8zgRLd7gdaQad8Cceeb7dVVte_EBeNrINE1UsFIxXFUb5xK0yeRbztUvloIYXSMF1qIswGfXHrJyAtwc5LVBg

Born to Run meets Why We Swim and Breath in a globe-spanning work of immersive narrative nonfiction that dives into the hidden world of cold water plunging and swimming—and what it reveals about the human body, mind, and need for connection.
"Mesmerizing...I loved this book.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author
When award-winning Sports Illustrated writer Chris Ballard receives a cryptic text promising to extend his athletic life, he has no idea it will lead him into a parallel athletic universe—one populated by record-breaking grandmothers, obsessive scientists, rogue visionaries chasing Olympic legitimacy, and everyday people willingly plunging into freezing water together, a realm that subverts the idea of what “elite” athletes are supposed to look like. What begins as curiosity becomes a three-year reporting journey across continents, from the saunas of Finland and seas of Ireland to Norway, England, and Boston.
Blending adventure journalism with rigorous research, The Plunge traces humanity’s long relationship with cold water—from the ancient Greeks and Victorian sea bathers to polar plungers and modern laboratories studying stress, resilience, and mental health, a lifeline for those “drowning on dry land.” Reporting from the front lines of emerging science, Ballard explores how brief, voluntary cold exposure can sharpen focus, elevate mood, reduce inflammation, stunt cortisol, and retrain the body’s stress response, creating a rare state of being both calm and alert.
Along the way, Ballard introduces pioneers like legendary distance swimmer Lynne Cox, follows Ram Barkai’s improbable quest to bring ice swimming to the Olympics, and charts a global movement that’s surged from fringe ritual to mainstream phenomenon. As his reporting deepens, so does his participation: Ballard graduates from cold plunges to competing alongside Olympians at the Ice Swimming World Championships. Along the way, his body and outlook change in surprising and measurable ways.
Unfolding through vivid scenes and unforgettable characters, The Plunge is a story of endurance, science, and human connection, an exploration of why, in a climate-controlled, screen-saturated world, so many people are choosing to seek out discomfort—and what becomes possible when we do hard things together.

Chris Ballard, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated for two decades, is the award-winning author of four books, including One Shot at Forever, and has contributed to National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine. Reporting Plunge took him from cold plunges to competing alongside Olympians at the Ice Swimming World Championships. 

Ballard is in conversation with S.L. Price, a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated from 1994-2019, who has written five books—his most recent, The American Game: History and Hope in the Country of Lacrosse, a wide-ranging examination of the continent’s oldest and most representative sport. Of Price’s work, the New York Times said, “The seasoned reporter … is a master of the new journalism developed by Hunter Thompson, Gay Talese and Price’s personal paragon, Pete Hamill. Whenever he writes about sports–or about the craft of writing–he hits it over the fence.”

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668055861?ic_referral=sGucsvDXSE-rI2w96hfVgyB2x68iScpgPhQTonsZgHIwM0_tpKqXIYtCUQP9F6QAYF9_Lz0xHbIle4Ye4TU29VeoeLsQ_kgeXqPfZy8fqCb0U4p6-g2fdbJ1l4gaaocbiO3iojY

When the Pickford siblings arrive at The Grand Hotel—a nostalgic tourist paradise of horse-drawn carriages, muddled cocktails, and white sweaters on the tennis court—they have every intention of spending the long weekend making nice. Pete, the nation’s foremost expert on gastropods (mollusks), is keen to wade around the lake in search of a rare and exciting Carthusian snail. Viv, reeling from the secret revelation that her husband is gay, is determined to put on a brave face for her daughter. And Corey, a charming, handsome grifter, has lucked into five pounds of cocaine he plans to sell to the first dumb rich guy he can find.
But when Pete falls for the alluring mother of a local kid, when Viv’s daughter gets up to teenage trouble, and when Corey finds the wealthy guests less interested in party drugs than golf clubs and waffle cones, the long weekend of family bonding veers into disaster. Why did their father bring them to this cushy island resort in the first place? And why does Corey, the biggest screw-up of them all, seem to be the only one who knows the truth? As secrets spill, old flames are fanned, and an innocent snail is crushed beneath the unrelenting heel of a hiking boot. In a story that is as sneakily wise as it is absurdly funny, Ryan Effgen’s debut shows how sometimes the people who bring out your worst—your family—can also be the ones to bring you out of your shell.

Ryan Effgen’s fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices, Fiction Magazine, Painted Bride Quarterly, and elsewhere. He has earned creative writing fellowships from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and George Mason University. He works as an instructional designer and lives in Virginia with his wife and children.

Effgen is in conversation with Lina Patton. Patton is a writer, illustrator, and teacher. Originally from Maine, she moved to Minnesota at thirteen, trading the ocean for 10,000 lakes. Her work has appeared in ELLE, The Cut, Narrative, and Driftwood Press, among others. After seven years living abroad, she and her husband currently reside in Washington, DC, where she teaches Creative Writing at The George Washington University and co-produces the storytelling series Generation Women DC. The Lake Club is her first novel.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9798217208128?ic_referral=1ktDbeexnggMtPSoRlgmjwsLc3wMLR3KNpOs3gNCocYwMwaw_Rd7YKhjSvOj9wHpln8dsKdQX78InHhtKeT_YiTTbk9oPjW06cviNnPigg_YDfym2k_MfpSLqQuGHjRmAWesRuc

Around the world, antidemocratic forces are taking aim at women leaders. Misogynistic authoritarianism has entered the mainstream, seeking to reverse decades of progress. Weaponized digital technologies have unleashed sexualized smears and violent threats. There is a deep connection between attacks on women and attacks on democracy—and female leaders can show us how to fight back.
Linda Robinson—an award-winning journalist and foreign policy expert—tells the powerful stories of the women on the frontlines of the battle between democracy and authoritarianism. Despite age-old obstacles and virulent new dangers, these remarkable leaders have strengthened their countries, expanded gender equality, and promoted policies that benefit all. Tsai Ing-wen crafted a strategy to defend Taiwan from Chinese aggression while advancing social reforms. Estonia’s Kaja Kallas and Moldova’s Maia Sandu fought Russian hybrid warfare by pursuing European integration. Balkan leaders Vjosa Osmani and Nataša Pirc Musar bolstered their democracies against Serbian and Russian destabilization. Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados became a global champion for climate justice, rising above sexist attacks to achieve international financial reforms. Robinson distills the hard-won lessons of these and other recent leaders—including New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Finland’s Sanna Marin, and Sigrid Kaag of the Netherlands—providing a roadmap for countries facing existential threats. Timely and vivid, this book spotlights women’s leadership amid the global crisis of democracy.

Linda Robinson is senior fellow for women and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. She was previously director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at the RAND Corporation. A former foreign correspondent, Robinson is the author of three acclaimed and best-selling books about America's "long wars.

Robinson is in conversation with Tamara Cofman Wittes, who became the fourth president of NDI in 2024. Before joining the Institute, she served as Director of Foreign Assistance in the U.S Department of State. Previously, she led the Russia sanctions effort for the State Department's sanctions coordination office. Dr. Wittes also served in the State Department from 2009 - 2012 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, coordinating U.S. policy on democracy and human rights in the Middle East during the Arab uprisings. Dr. Wittes spent nearly twenty years as a foreign policy scholar at the Brookings Institution, including as director of its Center for Middle East Policy. She is a founder of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security, and served on the board of the National Democratic Institute from 2014 - 2022. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Women in International Security. A native of Michigan, Dr. Wittes lives in Washington, D.C., where she tends a robust pollinator garden..

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780231221740?ic_referral=t1YDNC6QCU4H-6y_TTjoKLASwPJVwot9897PpNwyYmcwM3WxnyDfmUJvsW4Y2L21NTuF7QnM1E3s-1hhNhJg6n53o3xTXIRDmkp6JGh2roRd4GUcB_mf7Yqv-Ot84p3fxfvnmgA

Living, Together features 21 writers and organizers on chosen family, hacking adulthood, and other lessons communal living can teach us about the future of housing in America.
At age 29, when Samantha Paige Rosen made an unexpected move back home, she was surprised to find how much she loved living with her parents again. Inspired and curious, she began searching for others who had redefined home and community. The essays and Q&As in Living, Together are about carving out spaces of communal connection and joy in our 3-bed, 2-bath starter home culture. Although they recount life at different stages and in different regions, these stories showcase the delights and tradeoffs of more dynamic shapes of “home.” 
Across sections on family, intentional community, and what lies beyond housing, readers will hear from voices like:

Samantha Paige Rosen's writing on identity, the arts, and culture has appeared in the Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Slate, Them, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and lives outside of Philadelphia, where she is a freelance writer and editor, a writing tutor and coach, and an amateur potter. Living, Together: Reimagining Community in the Age of Disconnection is her first book.

Rosen will be in conversation with Washington, D.C. locals and Living, Together contributors Rhaina Cohen, Hannah Grieco, and Ayesha Rascoe.

Rhaina Cohen is an award-winning producer and editor for NPR’s documentary podcast, Embedded. Her work, often focused on social connection, has aired on numerous podcasts and radio shows, including Hidden Brain, Invisibilia, and All Things Considered, and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New Republic and elsewhere. The recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Cohen is a graduate of Northwestern University and Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, friends, and her friends’ children.

Hannah Grieco's debut short story collection First Kicking, Then Not is out now from Stanchion Books. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, Brevity, Craft, Poet Lore, Shenandoah, Fairy Tale Review, The Offing, and more. She writes a monthly literary column for the Washington City Paper and edits prose for a variety of independent presses and literary journals. Find her online at www.hgrieco.com and on most social media @writesloud.

Ayesha Rascoe will moderate the conversation with Rosen, Cohen, and Grieco. Rascoe, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday and the weekend host of the Up First podcast. In these roles, she interviews newsmakers, entertainers, and politicians, bringing her signature wit and sharp perspective to the stories shaping the national conversation. Beyond the airwaves, Rascoe is the editor of HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience, a collection of essays highlighting the profound impact of historically Black institutions. She is a proud alumna of Howard University. Rascoe joined NPR in 2018 and quickly became a mainstay of the network’s programming. Before stepping into her role as host, she served as a White House Correspondent, covering three presidential administrations. She earned a reputation for her incisive questioning in the briefing room and reported from major international events, including the 2019 Hanoi Summit with Kim Jong Un and President Obama’s final NATO summit in Warsaw. During this time, she was also a regular fixture on the NPR Politics Podcast. Her versatile career includes guest-hosting It’s Been a Minute and appearing as a frequent contributor to Pop Culture Happy Hour.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780807021293?ic_referral=rVNsOkZlv6mZLuchRgOjYZCHFRskLhDYahtprTiDrWcwM1VjrLskEc59kDCKn0evB6m3wL0tJ1tgdl6bGnGFttz2AvSuxMzPkCKIXqNOQBdlGhruRlwH7rkQuGW9RzFJfbras2s

From a New York Times bestselling author comes a gripping debut that defies all expectations—a story of feverish obsession, new motherhood, and a friendship pushed to the edge
Emily is unmoored as a new mother in Manhattan—exhausted, broke, and slipping away from her well-meaning husband. She becomes fixated on finding the one person who ever truly understood her: her college roommate Daisy who vanished years ago after dancing at a seedy strip club off campus.
In her desperate search for Daisy, Emily tumbles from new-mom message boards into a world of porn, secrets, and a high-end escort service for global billionaires, hitting one dead end after another—until the unthinkable happens: Daisy suddenly reappears.
Daisy infuses Emily’s life with newfound purpose and community as the two launch a new mothers’ group in a vacant luxury skyscraper (matcha on tap, vibrators on offer). But the joy of their reunion soon fades, revealing deep cracks in their friendship. Is Daisy the key to Emily’s happiness—or is she unraveling her world? And where has Daisy really been all these years?

Amy Chozick is a bestselling author, screenwriter and award-winning journalist who has covered the biggest stories in politics, business and media for The New York Times. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Chasing Hillary, which she adapted into the HBO Max series The Girls on the Bus. In addition to the Times, Amy’s writing has appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair, and other publications. Amy is currently adapting With Friends Like You into a major motion picture with Fifth Season and Academy Award-winning producer Brad Weston. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.

Chozick will be in conversation with Adrienne LaFrance, the executive editor of The Atlantic, where she was previously a staff writer. She still reports regularly and writes about a wide range of topics: political violence, technology, the Pacific region, American comedy, and culture. 

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9798217046546?ic_referral=IHcBgzlbOOQcDq8vzWkOABLQajEVmTrAwHH2Eo7Ra_gwMx1ryf0xmrb0G1ZcrDJeL0awqFRQ8qRgMaGgrKD3VnZ8WRVvce0FYiZjcULInT_CuJvPrdCfE5MDHc7oZZD4levJHPA