Things are weird. As I write this, it seems like we are definitely in WWIII and simultaneously, a civil war of sorts. My aforementioned obsession with the Epstein files and Kathy Ruemmler continues. And last month, Eric Dane, James Van Der Beek and Catherine O’Hara—all important cultural figures in my Gen X life—tragically passed away. Frankly, everything seems dark and pointless.

But life must persist. Joy must be sought. When I read a beautiful novel or see an adorable raccoon video on Instagram, I’m reminded of the critical need to counter my ingestion of war and death and murder and incompetent orange buffoons with art and love and animals and fashion. Additionally, I tell myself: I must especially keep working on Draft 4 of my second novel to prevent myself from endlessly refreshing gmail to see if an agent will ever, ever get back to me on my first.

And thus, in February, I indulged in many great books, watched some excellent TV and listened to A+ podcasts.

Here is my quick review:

Everything I Read in February

• Audition by Katie Kitamura: Criminally short (200 pages). I still don't "get" it and may never . . but I liked it! In two parts, it’s about an actress, her husband and a young man who works with her on a play and claims to be her son. Her writing style is very unique.

• Heart the Lover by Lily King: Slightly longer than Audition at 256 pages but still a good 100 pages short of my novel-length expectations. Very propulsive, and made me cry (which doesn’t happen often). I didn’t realize the characters were connected to those in Writers & Lovers so would like to re-read. Euphoria will always be my favorite, though.

• Playworld by Adam Ross: A nice thick juicy coming-of-age in NYC novel (500 pages +). Set in the late 1970s following a teenage child actor navigating home, school and work (and an illicit affair with a family friend his mother’s age), it was really troubling and beautifully written (though the ending seemed a little abrupt?)

• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman: I am such a sucker for productivity books, especially those with Zen undertones. I heard him on a podcast years ago and picked up this book - it gave me a lot to think about (I also enjoy his Substack).

• The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand: I’ve listened to every excellent episode of her Books, Beach and Beyond podcast, and admire her uber-discipline and work ethic and boss vibes, but realized I haven’t read one of her books in years. I picked up this new one, written with her daughter Shelby - it’s juicy, fast, boarding school vibes, easy read, and taught me about Snapchat and GenZ behaviors like a pulpy sociology book. I will definitely read the sequel when it comes out this fall.

• A Separation by Katie Kitamura: I so rarely read two books by the same author in a month but because Audition was too short (see above) and I didn’t completely understand the point of it, I needed more of this author, so picked up this one about a woman looking for her husband in Greece and I am pleased to say I understood it. Yay!

Everything I Watched (Or Attempted To Watch) in February

• I so rarely watch movies and couldn’t summon the motivation to continue watching One Battle After Another or Sinners after the first 30 minutes of each. One Battle confused me (was Sean Penn’s character supposed to be funny??), and in Sinners, there is a gnarly snake scene and that is just something that will never, ever appeal to me. I almost stopped Yellowstone for this very reason. If you’ve finished them, please tell me if it’s worth the commitment and if there are any other snakes in Sinners!

  

• Instead, I rewatched Homeland and made it through Season 6 mid-way before it turned into reality with the Iran situation and I had to stop. I would really feel much better about the current war if I knew Carrie and Saul were in charge of everything.

• Famous Last Words: Eric Dane (on Netflix) made me bawl and bawl! I’ve been a fan since McSteamy, admired his work in Euphoria (which is coming back soon-yay!), and I am very sad about his passing, especially how it will impact his daughters. This show was as excellent as the Famous Last Words: Jane Goodall episode. God bless Brad Falchuk for doing these.

• To counter the terrorism of Homeland and the grief of watching people’s last words, I started my THIRD rewatch of Schitts Creek in honor of the magnificent Catherine O’Hara. Every single uniquely-inflected word she says as Moira still makes me laugh out loud. She was such a treasure. I still wish I had her and David’s wardrobe.

February’s Favorite Podcasts

• I’m sure you all already listen to Good Hang which is, in tenor, as sweet and funny at Schitts Creek. I have loved every single episode and consider Amy Poehler one of my closest (parasocial) friends.

  

• My go-to get-ready-in-the morning podcast is Aspire with Emma Grede. I feel like Emma and her guests would really “get” the novel I’m currently querying about a balls-out female founder who wants nothing more than to turn the wellness jewelry company she started with her best friend into a billion-dollar brand. I especially loved the Issa Rae episode and how Issa explained “I just want to create people’s favorite shit.” I now have a post-it reminding me of my same purpose.

• I also loved Margot Robbie on Smartless. Those boys rarely know how to interview a woman and I stopped my regular listening months ago because Jason and Will are too mean to Sean, but I had to push play on this one. She is so cool and talented. I will def watch Wuthering Heights when it is available to stream.

Thank you for reading!

What have you read, watched or listened to recently that you enjoyed and recommend? Please share!

First, some housekeeping:

As part of my continuing quest to try new technology, I will be now be sending out my monthly author newsletter from my “Biglaw to Books” Substack (for those who don’t know, Substack is a website and app for sharing long-form writing, kinda like a blog meets newsletter meets social media).

It doesn’t change anything for those of you who subscribed to my monthly newsletter over on my website — you’ll still receive my updates in your inbox exactly as before! I’m now also offering weekly-ish essays and book reviews here on Substack (formerly on my website), but these are completely optional. If you prefer to stick with just the monthly updates, you can easily choose that when you manage your subscription.

Anyway, I’m grateful you’re here!

Now, for my monthly writing updates, books I read last month, and three happy things.

Writing Updates

I am going to count setting up this Substack as my big writing win for this month!!

And I finished Draft 3 of my paper mill novel on January 31—yay! While working on Draft 3, I focused on the structure and making sure all the subplots went in the right direction. As always, when I’m typing, something or someone else takes over my fingers and my characters do crazy things I never predicted! Or new characters show up and insist on being part of the novel! Writing is so mystical. I just let the muse do what she wants in these earlier drafts.

But now I’m rolling right into Draft 4 to discipline all these new characters and subplots and make the story say what I want it to say. And finalize the structure—I’m writing alternating POVs from the two sisters battling over their paper mill inheritance, and I’m trying to design the book in an interesting way. We will see what happens this month!

Books I Read in January

I read eight novels in January. There were so many excellent books!

• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans - longlisted for the 2026 PEN/Hemingway Award, this was all over my social feed. I wasn’t sure about the epistolary format at first (as I tend not to connect with books made entirely of letters) but WOW. It features a cranky 70-something, complicated lady lawyer protagonist (lady lawyers are always my fave kind), multiple voices, uplit vibe, funny and sad and sweet, utterly absorbing. I’m not ashamed to say I cried. I see why it’s all the rage!

• The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller - Shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, this is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. That’s it. That’s the review. This is how literary fiction is done. Elegant. Interiority galore. The most perfect read for the coldest days of the year here in Chicago!

  

• The True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine - Very much not cold and wintry, but hot like Lebanon! The 2025 National Book Award winner is a dark comedy. It’s funny, tender, aching, and crass, a love story between son and mother set against Beirut’s history. Even though I’ve visited Beirut before and thought I knew a bit about its history, this novel schooled me. For example, did you know the largest non-nuclear explosion in history happened there in 2020??

• The 2025 Booker Prize winner Flesh was... not for me though I can’t stop thinking about it. It follows the life of a Hungarian man and contains a lot of sex, trauma, and the sparsest dialogue in the history. If you haven’t read it and are curious, I bet the audiobook format would be the best bet.

• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger was sweet and pace-y, a tale of Depression era kids on the run from the law after breaking out of a terrible boys’ home. It reminded me of The Lincoln Highway. Shout-out to my friend Jaime G. for the rec!

  

• The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits, another 2025 Booker Prize short-listed novel, follows a middle-aged guy spinning out when his daughter goes to college and he can finally decide whether to leave the wife who cheated on him while he takes a road trip across the country. If this doesn’t become a great movie or TV show, I will pay you $1.00.

• The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo - I re-read it for my work-in-progress, and wow are her sentences and dialogue the OPPOSITE of Flesh! They go and go and the Chicago-suburbs-based family saga is so deliciously long and juicy.

• Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe, also a read for my work-in-progress. It’s a multigenerational novel about a South Carolina OG girlboss matriarch who loves nature and has to battle her son to protect her legacy. It’s the first in a series so we have to wait at least a year to see how the story ends (I hate waiting!)

Three Happy Things

Despite the news and world being quite heavy and overwhelming lately, here are some of the things that brought me joy last month:

1. Perhaps too on-the-nose given current events, but I watched and loved the first two seasons of Tehran on Apple TV (the third season is out now but I’m waiting to binge when all episodes are available). Because I watched it while reading Raja the Gullible, I imagined Raja as Shaun Toub, the actor who plays Faraz Kamali, head of investigations of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Then I started rewatching Homeland and what do you know: Mr. Toub is in Season 3 playing Majid Javadi! I’m a big fan of his.

2. EMKFit Workouts: I’ve been searching for a workout routine to integrate into my writing WFH life, as it’s shocking how out of shape I’ve become from just sitting and typing and reading all day. I signed up for a Haus of Phoenix with Kathryn Budig yoga pass and while the offerings were witchy and delightful and mostly featured dogs, anytime I put weight on my left wrist, it became angry and red.

   

   But thanks to (one of my most favorite writers-Substackers), I found EMKFit workouts and I LOVE them. They’re high-intensity but low-impact, no weight on the wrist and so much fun! I can do them in my dressing room when I need to move my body and then get right back to it. Highly recommend!

3. MyMind: I am constantly searching for the perfect way to organize all the things I want to read later, or read and want to save. Systems I have tried include, but are not limited to, Evernote, OneNote, Apple Notes, Notion, Instapaper, Feedly, Pinterest, a dedicated email folder, a three-ring-binder and probably several others I’ve repressed.

   Then I came across MyMind and felt like it might be the one? First, the branding is so on point (the colors are almost identical to my website!) and second, the app is so easy to use. I am using the free version (I’m sure the paid version has more features, etc.). It brings me great joy to see all the things I save in a visually pleasing way.

   

Thank you, as always, for reading! I’d love to hear what you read and what things brought you joy this month—and if you have any organization tips and tricks (especially for saving blog posts and magazine articles)!

xo,

Sara

I hope everyone had pleasant holidays! I spent the week of Christmas/New Year’s watching several documentaries and stand-up specials. It was glorious and I learned a lot about the craft of stand-up, something I’d never really focused on until I realized (like any other art form), I could apply what I learn to my novels. My biggest takeaway is some people are simply GOATs and you can feel it as you’re watching it. I even re-watched a couple of them to take notes specifically on how this set-up led to this punch line and the call-back in the closer, etc. Studying other art forms (especially design elements) will only make my work more interesting and thus, watching Netflix is now counted as “billable time” for my writing career.

Writing News!

In December, I reflected on the top 10 things I learned in my second-year as a writer. I learned a LOT as you can read ​here​!

I also finished Draft 2 of my paper mill family saga, took a week off over the holidays to give the draft some time to marinate and now I’m back at it to start Draft 3. Draft 2 was pretty much a total rewrite of Draft 1 to make it contemporary and I wrote a whole new character’s POV which made me realize she is actually the protagonist, and one of the other POVs is a totally different book. And thus I now have two works-in-progress: my paper mill novel and my musician novel!

To celebrate starting Draft 3, I printed out Draft 2, put it in a sparkly binder and as I read through, I used these cute kitty post-its. If you love Japanese stationery, ​Paper & Pencil​ in Andersonville/Chicago is heaven (they are in-person shopping only, fyi). My draft 2 paper version is covered in cats and also rainbow post-it notes to highlight all my major revisions. . . of which there are hundreds. I’ll definitely need more stationery!

Books!

In December, I read and enjoyed these four novels:

My favorite was The Secret History. I now understand why it has a cult following: very dark academia, literary, and propulsive with a very specific atmosphere. Highly recommend.

I also loved and can’t stop thinking about Flashlight. The structure alone is awe-inspiring and the story is extremely haunting. Excellent novel.

Here is my ​best books of the year list​, in case you missed it!

Three Happy Things

In addition to my comedic Netflixing and reading, here are some of my happy things from December:

1. Silicon Valley (on HBO Max): I didn’t watch this show when it came out, but after writing a whole novel about two female founders who build a unicorn company, I’d say my novel is like Silicon Valley but with tons more women and lots of Birkins. :) But even if I hadn’t just written a whole novel about building companies, I would have enjoyed this series very much: it’s really funny. Shout-out to my little brother for this recommendation.

   

1. Ouai St. Barts: Shout-out to my niece Lindsey with whom I watched the first couple episodes of the Taylor Swift doc on Disney. In the scene where she is pouring a bath, we zoomed in on her bath products and I was immediately influenced to purchase this body wash, despite not self-identifying as a Swiftie. Ouai St Barts bath wash is very tropical but not terribly strong (I am allergic to everything and have no reaction to this one!). Also, the iridescent packaging is on point.

1. Learning Piano! I wanted to challenge myself to re-learn how to play the piano in lieu of reading or writing more words (there are so. many. words.) The app ​Simply Piano ​makes learning incredibly fun and everything is coming back to me despite not having played piano for over thirty years. Shout-out to my mom for buying me a subscription to the app as a Christmas present!

Please tell me the things you enjoyed this month! Especially in need of TV recommendations.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is ready for the holidays! In lieu of an official holiday card, please enjoy this photo which perfectly sums up the joy of being an Aunt! I can’t believe it’s been exactly ten years since I moved from DC to Chicago to be closer to my family. Best decision I ever made.

Writing News

I had fun in November working on the second draft of my next novel! I am pleased to share I finished the ProWriting Aid Novel November challenge by adding 68,138 words to my draft. My Scrivener document is a beast but I made significant progress on two of the POV characters and thoroughly enjoyed logging my daily word count to earn a fun little badge.

This was a fantastic distraction from checking my email obsessively to see if any agents responded to my query letters for my girlboss book.

I did receive my first official rejection last month! It was very exciting and made me feel like a real writer!

Then the excitement faded away and I felt sad, so I took a bubble bath and went right back to my manuscript. I expect I will be taking a LOT of baths the next few months!

Three Happy Things

1. Fairy Lights!

It is hard to be a human in the northern hemisphere right now when darkness falls WAY too early. I have been going to bed at 7:30 to read until nine, then lights out (a delightful routine and about three hours earlier than my lawyer bedtime).

Anyway, to counteract the daytime gloom, last year I redid one of my home offices with iridescent curtains, sunset decals, prisms and an Alexa-operated, Tik Tok-inspired fairy lights set-up. It is making me very happy. I wrote a blog post about it in case you’re curious.

2. Books, Books, Books!

I read a ton of great books this month! Highlights: Booker-Prize shortlisted The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny kept me company for a long time (I love big books!); North Woods, which was a fantastic trip; and the highly entertaining audiobooks of Reese Witherspoon’s book and Daisy Jones and the Six. I also read Bridge of Sighs (review here), Lucky, Banyan Moon and The Husband’s Secret for inspiration on my manuscript.

3. Loot (Season 3)

I continued to enjoy this wonderful Maya Randolph show on Apple TV which feeds many of my obsessions: female billionaires (my debut novel features one!), amazing caftans, and 90s hip hop. I only want to watch comedies right now given the state of the world. God bless Maya Randolph for making such a fabulous one!

Recommendations Corner

Thank you to all who replied to prior newsletters with recommendations for joyful things! I love hearing what makes you happy.

In the spirit of holiday gift guides, here are three recommended products from our reader community guaranteed to spark joy:

• This 1000-piece Great American Novels puzzle is terrific for book lovers. Also recommended to gift a corresponding audiobook for double the pleasure. (PSA: did you know Spotify has audiobooks free with subscription? I just discovered this when searching for the Daisy Jones audiobook!)

• This over-the-shoulder reading light for gloomy winter days or middle-of-the-night reading.

• For a hands-free reading experience, the Book Seat. (I ordered it and can attest to its utility! I use it for hardcovers, paperbacks and my iPad and it counteracts my neck pain).

Please comment below to tell me the things you enjoyed this month!

That’s all from me! I hope you have very happy holidays!

xo,

Sara

I am fired up and have wrist-ice on tap because National Novel Writing Month is here!!

In November, anyone can take part in an annual writing challenge to write a 50,000-word novel between November 1 and November 30. NaNoWriMo was the OG organization until it closed up shop last year, so this year I signed up for ProWritingAid’s ​Novel November​ (it’s totally free, btw).

You “win” by completing 50,000 words (self-reported), and the “prize” is: you wrote a novel!

This is my third year participating. The first year, I “won” by writing a terrifically horrible novel about legal witches that will likely never see the light of day. The second year, I “lost” but outlined most of my next novel. This year, I really want to work on Draft 2 of my next novel but be smarter about my wrist pain so if I hit 50K, awesome. If not, awesome.

If you have already signed up or want to join ProWritingAid’s ​Novel November​, please respond to this message and let me know - we can follow each other’s word counts and cheer for each other. :)

In Other Writing News

I met my hero last month! As you may know, David Wroblewski’s book (and Oprah pick) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle ​changed my life​. This book—a tearjerker if I ever read one—led me to adopt my first dog, Charlie, and stayed in my heart and mind for years.

His second book, Familiaris, came out last summer and once again, Queen Oprah picked it. I had the privilege of reading it after ingesting tons of writing classes and ​WOW.​ Now that I better understand his craft choices, I am even more in awe of him as a writer! I’ve read both books about three times at this point. The books make my heart sing and cry and love simultaneously. They make me feel smarter and like I’m a better human being for reading.

Thanks to the Wisconsin Book Festival, I got to meet my hero at his author event on October 24th.* He was as wonderful as I had hoped! Yes, I cried a little when I told him about Charlie the Dog and how much his work meant to me. He was incredibly patient as I asked him for a selfie followed by a million questions about the novels and whether he is writing a third (he could not say). As you can see here, he has that Oprah Book Club Pick-sparkle in his eyes.

Meeting him really made me re-commit to writing as my second career and inspired me to write a BEAUTIFUL book some day. If even one future reader told me one of my novels changed their life, this gamble of leaving BigLaw for books will be 100,000,000% worth it.

*My sister made this trip possible by assuaging my travel anxiety with her presence. She had a photographic slumber party with Miss Gracie at a Madison hotel while I was at the event. Thank you, little sister!

Happy Things

I watched, read, and listened to so many great things last month, it was quite difficult to only pick three and not sure the first one is entirely “happy” but I enjoyed it!

Books, Books, Books: I read a ton of great books this month! I re-read my David Wroblewski books (of course), then re-read/studied Fellowship Point and A Thousand Acres to help me outline my next novel. New-ish books were Buckeye, The Lincoln Highway, Katabasis and So Far Gone by Jess Walter.

The last one feels very now: the book begins in 2023 and it’s about a progressive environmental journalist who flees to the woods to leave the world behind after punching his conspiracy-loving son-in-law. Also, it’s about a right-wing sect, a father-daughter relationship, and the choices we make to engage or disengage when the world is on fire. And it’s funny! I realized I so rarely read books set NOW and I enjoy them and appreciate how difficult it is for authors to predict future relevancy since most traditionally published books take one to two years from acquisition to publication. Luckily for Jess Walter, the world is still a dumpster fire and the book resonates. :)

Nobody Wants This (Season 2): I’m not a rom-com kind of gal but I did foster a deep crush on Adam Brody for weeks after watching the first season. This season, it’s more about the sister relationship (in my humble opinion) and I very much enjoyed it. Also, loved the soundtrack, lots of bangers.

Victoria Beckham Documentary: I was so excited to watch this after devouring the David Beckham documentary (also on Netflix). This one is a portrait of a super ambitious woman and also an infomercial for her fashion and beauty brand, which worked beautifully on me as I ordered her lip pencil, eyeliner and lipstick. Also, she’s funny!

Please comment below and tell me things you enjoyed this month! Special thanks to those who responded with great recs last month - I will add a round-up to the next newsletter!

That’s all from me! I hope you all have a great month and Happy (Early) Thanksgiving!

I call that a win! For an English major/lawyerly lady, learning web design etc has been a challenge, but 1 million times better than taking statistics for my Psych masters, so there’s that.

Anyway, as I said in my newsletter, THANK YOU to those who subscribed and/or are supporting me as I launch a new career as a novelist!!!

The transition from environmental lawyer to first-time novelist has been. . . fun! Interesting! Challenging! A little lonely! (Thank goodness for my furry co-workers Gracie and Gemma, not to mention my six-year-old nephew Daniel, who often “works” with me--i.e., watches YouTube.)

Creative writing has unlocked something in my brain in a way I never imagined. It truly feels like the ideas and the words and the stories come from some magical place in the universe – it’s definitely different from law. And the best part of the job is: reading “counts” as writing! So, I read and read and read, to study stories I love, to stay on top of Book Club and literary fiction trends, to catch up on everything I missed during my 21 years of lawyering, and it has been heavenly.

Book Update

I am finishing up my final edits on my novel this summer and plan to start querying literary agents soon.

Three Happy Things

Here are three things that brought me joy this past month:

1. TV: Somebody, Somewhere on Max is a delight. So sweet and gentle (while also featuring delightful profanity)! So Midwestern! So heartwarming! All about friends and family and small town life. With a dose of singing and the best characters since Parks and Rec, in my humble opinion.

2. Podcasts: Staying Alive with Jon Gabrus and Adam Pally makes me laugh out loud with delight (warning: Rated R). Ever since I first saw Adam Pally in Happy Endings circa 2011, I have been a huge fan (he’s also in The Mindy Project and the hilarious Champaign ILL). If you enjoy juvenile humor and male besties who interview experts and celebs about wellness, and are endearingly vulnerable about their own bodies and wellness practices, please give it a listen.

3. Working in Hotels: My last BigLaw work trip was Houston in August 2022 (the loveliest time to visit Houston). Just this week, I started going to local hotel lobbies to work on this newsletter so I can feel like I’m “on the road” while staying close to home. How fun! I loved the Aroma Cafe at the Drake in Oakbrook. Great people watching, good (Starbucks) coffee and wi-fi, and a nice change of scenery.