E.B.'s Notes & News: National Ice Cream Month Edition š¦š¢
Every month is National Ice Cream Month if you believe.
Well, I had been hoping to send this out on Tuesday in honor of Bastille Day, which is Richieās favorite holiday (āIt celebrates what the American Revolution purports to be,ā he says. āAnd also cigarettes and croissants and bicycles!ā) but, alas, I dropped the ball.
So we are celebrating National Ice Cream Month instead, which is the entire month of July! Plus this Sunday, July 19 is National Ice Cream Day, so thatās pretty sweet. (Get it?? Get the pun??) Oh, and today is Nick Lehrās birthday, which is worth celebrating as well! Happy birthday, Nick!
Anyway, go get yourself a scoop of your favorite flavor and then scroll down to see the latest on what Iāve been reading, writing, the cool things my friends and pets have been up to, and some good causes to support.
xoxo,
E.B.
Hope Notes & News:
If you are feeling hopeless right now, just look at Ms. Rachel. The work she is doing to fight for all children is inspirational. She went to Washington, D.C. to bring letters from children at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center to every member of Congress. She has spoken up for children impacted by violence and war in Gaza, Sudan, and Iran. Her post in support of the Muslim kindergarteners in Minnesota made me cry. She truly is the Mr. Rogers of the 2020s.
Some causes that Ms. Rachel supports, that you can support too: Palestine Childrenās Relief Fund, Sudanese American Physicians Association (SAPA), and Save the Children.
Writing Notes & News:
The summer has been fairly quiet publishing-wise. For Wellesley, there was my piece about the special 150th anniversary panel featuring former and current college presidents Paula Johnson, Alecia A. DeCoudreaux ā76, Diana Chapman Walsh ā66, and Nannerl āNanā Overholser Keohane ā61, plus I helped our student writer Sanya Afsar ā27 finish up her story about American Studies professor Petra Rivera-Rideauās research assistants. It was fun to talk to the students who helped with Petraās book P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance, which she co-wrote with Vanessa DĆaz of Loyola Marymount University.
Otherwise Iāve just been researching/preparing for other stories that will be out later this summer and early this fall. Oh, and I also have a feature in the summer issue of Wellesley magazine! Itās all about Katharine Lee Bates, Wellesley class of 1880, and how she was so much more than just the poet who wrote āAmerica the Beautiful.ā That issue drops next week!
For Good Grief-related stuff, I recorded an episode for the Senior To Seniors Podcast hosted by Jim Mazziotti about the ways that pet death specifically impacts older people. That will be live August 17!
And for other writing, most of it has been in my journal or in a Word Document Iām not ready to share with anyone yet. Weāll see how the rest of the summer goes.
Meanwhile, read this poem by Shawn Smucker which I feel like accurately sums up why I continue to refuse to use AI for anything, writing or otherwise.
Events Notes & News:
ā¢ Saturday 8/1/26, 12:00pm to 4:00pm EDT: Along with fellow dog authors Ellen Finnie and Karen Fine, Iāll be selling and signing paperback copies of Good Grief at the Dog Mountain Summer Dog Party! Come say hi!! Plus, youāll have a chance to win a FREE copy of Good Grief, The Other Family Doctor, and/or The Ten Perfections if you enter the Dog Mountain fundraiser raffle!
ā¢ Tuesday 8/11/26, 6:30pm EDT: Once again reading two pages of new material (!!!) in the Two Page Tuesday reading series, this time at The Banshee in Dorchester.
ā¢ Thursday 8/27/26, 7:00pm EDT: My college BFF Ali Barthwell has written a book, Reality TV for Snobs: Everything You Need to Know About the Shows Youāre Too Intellectual to Watch, which is coming out on August 25, and Ali has asked me to be her conversation partner for her August 27 event at the Harvard Book Store! Even if you arenāt into reality TV, you should comeāactually, isnāt that kind of the point of the whole book??? But I promise no matter how you feel about Love Island the event will be a blast. (It will be just like the running commentary Ali and I had when we sat next to each other at our 2010 Wellesley College commencement.) Iāll share the event link as soon as itās live, or you can check the Harvard Book Store website.
Plus, stay tuned for more info on my appearance at the Pet Rock Festival and a virtual event with Perfect Paws Pet Ministry, both happening in October!
Reading Notes & News:
I am dedicating this section of my newsletter to the great Annie Hartnett. I first met Annie when I was working at Newtonville Books and she was a famous Newtonville Books alumna bookseller. Her novel Rabbit Cake had just come out, and we were all talking it up to every customer who came in. I remember thinking then, āWow, if I ever publish a book, it would be so cool to have a bunch of Newtonville Books booksellers talking up my book like this.ā (Reader, they did.) I got to know Annie better as we both taught at GrubStreet, and I even interviewed her about the death of her dog Harvey for Good Grief. I loved Rabbit Cake and also Annieās second novel Unlikely Animals and I couldnāt wait to read The Road to Tender Hearts when it came out last spring. I even bought it the week it was published!! Butā¦ life happened.
But! I took The Road to Tender Hearts with me on vacation last week, and I finally got to sit down and read it, and MAN OH MAN let me tell you, what a fucking masterpiece!!! The book is like if Royal Tenenbaum took his kids on a Thelma & Louise style road trip, and I loved every minute of it. It was classic Annie: dark, funny, honest, deeply moving, and full of animal characters that steal the show. READ IT!
Friend Notes & News:
Look at these amazing people! They are so smart and so great!!!
Lea Vale has published the HOTTEST ROMANCE OF THE SUMMER, her debut Blue Sky Black (see above), which is available now on Amazon and Spotify!
Kathryn Sonnabend has launched her own architecture studio with Benzi Rodman called āBR-KSā (the combination of their initials, pronounced ābricksā)āhire them for all your architecture needs!
Lance Tukellās book In the Dark All Cats Are Gray officially has a cover and a pub date: January 5, 2027! You can preorder it now through Orison Books.
Jackās Journey: The Story of Jack the Cockatiel and His Human, Nadia, as Told to Editor Jude Goldman is available for purchase now on Amazon! Please support Nadia Prescott and buy a copyāall book sales go towards raising money for Foster Parrots and Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue!
I was so delighted when I got an email from the Henry L. Ferguson Museum on Fishers Island, NY that my former GrubStreet student Tina Morris was doing an event there about bald eagles and her book Return to the Sky, which she worked on in my class! What a small world!
Jordan Kisner wrote this great feature for the New York Times about the Los Angeles Museumās taxidermist Tim Bovard, the last full-time museum taxidermist in the United States.
I love, love, love this New York Times story about reptileās moods written by Brandom Keim! Itās even specifically about red-footed totoises!
Sabrina Imbler continues to write about incredible beings, both human and non-human, and the ways they make the world better.
Melanie DG Kaplan is getting an award for her book Lab Dog from an animal law conference this fall!
Jasmine Guillory has a new book out in October called Itās Only Dancing. Itās her first young adult novel!
Debbie Sosinās memoir Escape Velocity: How One 70-Year-Old Push-Pulled Her Way Out of Her Too-Much-Not-Enough Family (70 Micro-Memoirs, 70 Words Each) was honored as a finalist in Next Generation Indie Books Awards memoir category!
Madeline Felix sold a novel!! I love seeing members of my nonfiction MFA cohort pivot to fiction.
If youāre not getting Jessica Kentās Literary Boston newsletter and reading her posts, what are you even doing???
Sangamithra Iyer of The Literary Animal Project is still getting lots of wonderful press for her book Governing Bodies, including winning the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses Firecracker Award for Creative Nonfiction. Sanguās poem āInfrequently Asked Questions about the Spotted Lanternflyā was also aired on NPRās Morning Edition.
And, in case you missed it above in the Events Notes & News section, Ali Barthwellās book Reality TV for Snobs: Everything You Need to Know About the Shows Youāre Too Intellectual to Watch is coming out August 25 and Iām doing an event with her on August 27 at the Harvard Book Store!
Menagerie Notes & News:
Lucaās school loves to welcome fun visitors for the kids, especially family members who want to share something about their jobs or cultures or lives. While I couldnāt, say, talk about my experience working as a pediatrician or explain the significance of Diwali like other parents have done, I did have something else I could share:
Enter Terrence and Twyla. All the toddlers and preschoolers made these two red-footed tortoises feel like Hollywood celebrities, and they asked me some really great questions about them: How much do they weigh? How old are they? What are their favorite foods? Can I force them to go in their shells? How can I tell them apart? Do they like to go swimming? Why is Twyla giving Terrence a piggyback ride?
It was a great day, and Iām so happy that I could share my pets with the kids, but let me tell you, if you think getting yourself and a toddler ready to go to work/school in the morning is hard enough, getting yourself, a toddler, and two tortoises ready to go is actually insane.
We also had a brief panic while driving to campus when it seemed Twyla might escape from her box and Luca got VERY upset that she was going to fall out and get hurt. It was a lot.
Anyway, I hope to bring Terrence and Twyla back again next summer, but afterwards I am taking the rest of the day off.
That ās supposed to beāourā Wellesleyā¦ā¦I am class of 1959 by the way, hence a very old Wellesley broad. Tee heeā¦..
Love the pic of your little one and the tortoise taking a look at the world while traveling in (his?her?) boxin the car. I very much enjoy your writing. Would not have discovered you if not for pur Wellesley connection.