E.B.'s Notes & News: December 2025! ✨🎄📚☃️🐢
You know what makes a great last minute holiday gift? A book about pets dying!
It’s been 5+ weeks now since Good Grief came out in paperback, and damn you all know how to make this author feel loved! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all of you loyal Good Grief fans who turned up at my events, preordered and purchased copies of the paperback, and who have been talking up my little old dead pets book this past month. I’m so grateful for every single one of you. Every time someone texts me a photo of the Good Grief paperback on display at a local bookstore — my heart sings. And when Luca sees a copy of Good Grief and yells “Mama’s book!” — my heart explodes.
Below you’ll find all my usual newsletter sections, plus a list of books I suggest you preorder for 2026! These make great last minute holiday gifts! You are giving your loved ones the gift of *~*~*something to look forward to*~*~* which lord knows we all need right now. It’s dark out there literally (happy almost-solstice!) and metaphorically (where to even start).
xoxo,
E.B.
Hope Notes & News:
Rosie’s Place is one of the greatest Boston-area organizations, in my opinion. From their website, “Rosie’s Place is a multi-service community center that offers women emergency shelter and meals, and so much more: a food pantry, ESOL classes, legal assistance, wellness care, one-on-one support, housing and job search services, and community outreach. Here women will find support, opportunity and the tools they need to make a new start. Because we accept no government funding, we rely on our many friends to make all we do possible. Thanks to their generosity, we can remain a safety net for women struggling to survive during these difficult days. Please join us in our life-changing work!”
This is an A+ organization to support year-round, but in December there are two particularly fun ways you can support Rosie’s Place: 1) you can buy wintry holiday cards featuring a gorgeous painting by local artist Sam Vokey, and 2) you can participate in the WERS Food and Friends Drive, where for every donation to the radio station between now and December 31, WERS will donate a bag of groceries to Rosie’s Place. (And if you donate $15/month, you get a WERS knit hat AND they’ll send a hat to a guest at Rosie’s Place.)
Writing Notes & News:
Oh man where to even begin? Well, obviously, the big news is that Good Grief is officially now available in paperback wherever books are sold! I’ve gotten so many photos of Good Grief on display at indie bookstores, both in the Boston area and as far away as California! It’s so cool knowing my book is out there again, living its best paperback life.
In terms of shorter writing, I published an essay on Cognoscenti on 11/13, called “Three seasons at Dog Mountain.” Thank you so much to editor Sara Shukla who took such care with this essay, which was not easy to write. I hope you give it a read.
And for Wellesley, I got to write a sweet story for the website about my friend and Africana studies professor Chipo Dendere’s class “The Politics of Chocolates and Other Foods” and her Wellesley Week of Chocolate events on campus. Plus the fall 2025 issue of Wellesley magazine is out, and that has a really fun feature (“150 Things You Should Know About Wellesley”) with 150 fun facts about the College that I helped write. (Mary Cate Zipprich has been texting me which facts she thinks I am responsible for. So far she has been 100% correct.) I also wrote the Endnote essay at the back of the issue (“Only to Be Here”), and I’m really proud of that one. I even had a Wellesley alum from 1981 hand-write and mail me a note saying how much she enjoyed reading it!
Events Notes & News:
Thank you so much to everyone who has come out to my events celebrating the paperback release of Good Grief. In particular, my launch party at the West Newton Cinema, sponsored by Newtonville Books, was an enormous success — we raised over $1,000 for the Turtle Survival Alliance! THANK YOU! Sy Montgomery was delighted by this fact, and also by the chance to meet Terrence and Twyla! (More on that below.)
I have one more event coming up in December (TOMORROW!!!), and then save the dates for some fun things in the works for early 2026:
• Saturday 12/20/25, 1:00pm-2:30pm EST: An author meet-and-greet and book signing with yours truly at Rozzie Bound Co-op in Roslindale! Come by and say hello and get a signed copy of Good Grief to give as a last minute Christmas gift!
• Wednesday 2/4/26, 7:00pm-8:00pm EST: ***VIRTUAL*** The Tewksbury Public Library, part of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium and in collaboration with the Minuteman Library Network, will be hosting a conversation between yours truly and Melanie D.G. Kaplan, author of Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research, which was published in October by Seal Press! Thanks to Tewksbury’s Community Outreach Librarian Robert L. Hayes for setting this up. More info soon!
• Friday 2/13/26, 7:00pm EST: I will be making my triumphant return to performing in Mortified, now at WBUR CitySpace (RIP Oberon)! It’s the perfect way to celebrate Galentine’s Day! More information on the Mortified Live: Valentine’s Day Edition event page.
Reading + Friend Notes & News:
Looking for a last minute holiday gift? Consider preordering a book by one of my friends and/or an author I love! It’s something nice to look forward to in 2026 which hopefully is less of a dumpster fire than 2025 but who knows at this point!!!!
Out on 1/6: Your Truck (A Board Book with Minimalist Illustrations That Explores Ownership, Imagination, and Perspective), written and illustrated by Jon Klassen. The publisher website says for ages 2-5 but Jon Klassen books are for everyone. (Your Truck is also available in Spanish!)
Out 4/7: The Now I See series by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen are four board books about the seasons that look amazing. Ages 2-5!
Out 4/21: You know how Richie and I are obsessed with Rick McIntyre? The third book in his Chronicles of the Yellowstone Wolves young reader series is coming out this spring: Queen of the Wolves: The Legendary 06 Female.
Out on 4/28: Are you on Zoloft? Then you’ll love Anxietyland by Gemma Correll.
Out 5/6: Death of a Racehorse: An American Story by Katie Bo Lillis looks super interesting just don’t get a copy for my grandfather. I already ordered one for him for Father’s Day.
Out on 5/19: The Dog Lover’s Bucket List: The Ultimate Field Guide to a Full Life with Your Pup by Haley Young! Perfect gift for quite literally anyone with a dog.
Out on 5/26: Ann Zhao contributed a short story to Being Aro: A Collection of Aromantic Fiction about Love, Connection, and Empowerment, edited by Madeline Dyer and Rosiee Thor!
Out on 6/14: The House with Nobody in It, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen. (Also available in Spanish!) Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to turn into a Jon Klassen preorder list but his books are just that good, okay???
Did I forget any books you are excited about that are getting published in 2026? Comment on this post about them and I’ll be sure to include them in my January newsletter!
Menagerie Notes & News:
Just had to share that Terrence and Twyla absolutely crushed it at my turtle-y awesome paperback launch party at the West Newton Cinema on 11/15! We used some of Luca’s “baby jail” gate pieces to make “tortoise jail” in the lobby of the movie theatre, and set them up with heat lamps and water and snacks, and all the kids who came to the event went absolutely nuts watching them just hang out. Thank you to my incredible niece Agnes Broderick for working as the event’s “reptile handler” and helping the little kids experience the tortoises, and shout out to Tommy Ramsey who might run away with Twyla next time he sees her! I promise to share more photos of Mr. and Mrs. T at the event on @theofficialmrt.
COngrats on the launch of Good Grief! Pet loss grief is real. Thank you for elevating the conservation. What an accomplishment to write and publish. I wish you well in your book marketing journey.