Happy New Year, friends. As we head into 2024, I wanted to start with the most requested topic of 2023 and then ease into my 2023 Book List next week. So enjoy this throwback picture to warm weather and when my son was so into The Stand that he forgot to take his mask off after a doctor’s appointment. Also, in case you wanted to know, my younger son was playing in a baseball game at the moment my husband took the photo, an important game as I remember, but I tend to watch when he is playing and not so much when he’s not. And definitely not in between innings when the goofing off is at its peak.

Here are links to some of the books and things I mention in this episode:

• Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being
• The Hate You Give, Angie Thomas
• The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
• Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
• The Nix, Nathan Hill
• The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
• Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
• A great article on Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet
• Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
• Letters to a Young Athlete, Chris Bosh
• Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA Champion
• Neil Gaiman’s Instagram
• Stephen King’s Instagram

By the way, the younger one won his game, and my older son loved The Stand and is now reading Billy Summers. He told me yesterday that I would love it too.

x A