issue #62 - the slightly unsettled one

We returned home to New York this week.

Well, my husband and I did to clean and organize and get our home ready for the boys.

It was good to be back. But it took a little while for it to feel like home again.

Tuesday felt like we were in someone else’s home. Everything felt familiar, like you were in a place you’ve rented before. Wednesday felt a little more comfortable. Thursday more so, and I spent most of the day Friday rearranging and assembling furniture to create a home office for my husband and rearrange my father’s to accommodate mine.

Now it feels like home.

We’re bringing the boys home tomorrow, and I cannot wait to settle back into our home, our routine, and our new normal as we continue to live through a pandemic. 

Mask up, folks. 

Books, books, books!

• Homegoing - it might be a bold claim to make halfway through the year, but this is and will be the best book I read in 2020. It is SPECTACULAR. The book begins in Ghana in the late 1600’s and with two half sisters - who don’t know each other - and their descendants’ stories over 8 generations. It addresses the cruelty in our history - slavery, racism, Jim Crow, colorism, addiction, the general struggle to survive if you’re Black or mixed no matter where you are - with stunning prose and complex characters. I have not stopped talking about this book for the past week.

• The Voting Booth (c/o Libro.fm) - I’m a sucker for an audiobook with multiple narrators, and a bigger sucker for a book that cherishes our right to vote with a meet cute thrown in at the beginning. I see so much of my high school self in Marva (unapologetically smart and grounded in her convictions), and Duke is exactly the kind of guy 18-year old Hitha would have fallen for. Brandy Colbert masterfully wove in important social issues - the deep-seated fear of law enforcement, voter suppression, colorism - in an incredibly sweet novel that made me smile. 

• Too Much And Never Enough - I had every intention of skipping this book, but watching Mary Trump’s interview with George Stephanopolous changed my mind. I’m only a few chapters in, but I’m blown away by her writing, her psychological assessment of her family, and just the things she writes. Compared to all the other books - Fire & Fury, Fear, Born Trump - this one is feels truly revealing and I frankly can’t wait to finish it.

The Top 5

1. 'We went to therapy to save our friendship' (The Guardian)

2. Harry Styles Is Terrible At Putting Me To Sleep (Elle)

3. Schools: What's it Going to Take? (Emily Oster)

4. ‘How many women of color have to cry?’: Top feminist organizations are plagued by racism, 20 former staffers say (The Lily)

5. Is it time to build feminist cities? (Vox)

The Catch Up

Monday 

• Sorting Out The Nation’s Priorities (Medium)

• The Baby-Sitters Club Director Lucia Aniello on Reinventing the Series for a New Generation (Harper’s Bazaar)

• Biden's doctrine: Erase Trump, re-embrace the world (Axios)

• Caught Between Indian and Chinese Troops, at 15,000 Feet (New York Times)

Tuesday

• A race is on to make enough small glass vials to deliver coronavirus vaccine around the world (Washington Post)

• What We Lose When Retail Stores Disappear (Zora)

• How Europe’s green pandemic recovery will push the rest of the world (Axios)

• Naya Rivera Took a Basic ‘Glee’ Character and Made Her Unforgettable (Variety)

Wednesday

• A Teenager Didn’t Do Her Online Schoolwork. So a Judge Sent Her to Juvenile Detention. (ProPublica)

• Padma Lakshmi and the Art of South Indian Cooking (Marie Claire)

• ‘Our People Lead Lives of Poetry Too’: Connie Schultz’s New Novel Is an Ode to Working-Class Women (Glamour)

• U.S. students are at ‘higher risk’ from the coronavirus than kids in other countries, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says

Thursday

• The dire lessons of the first nuclear bomb test (Axios)

• White House Strips CDC Of Data Collection Role For COVID-19 Hospitalizations (NPR)

• Black Women Helped Build House Music. Their Credit Is Often Left off Records. (Zora)

• Ethiopia says GERD rising waters 'natural' part of construction (Al Jazeera)

Friday 

• An Open Letter About My Health (The Players’ Tribune)

• Conspiracy Theories Aside, Here’s What Contact Tracers Really Do (KHN)

• Yara Shahidi Has Been Preparing For This Moment Since Birth (Elle)

• Why the world map froze (Axios)

#proudinvestor moments this week!

• Girls’ Night In launched The Lounge, a private community to connect and make new friends. Alisha and her team have been hard at work on this for years, and I’m so thrilled that it’s finally live! I’m delighted to be joining as a Lounger-In-Residence, so please sign up and then come to my event :)

• Brightland (whose olive oil I rave about) just launched vinegars! I cannot wait to try them and drizzle Rapture all over the roma tomatoes and basil that are growing in my pots. 

• Small Packages was featured on Good Morning America! Their newest Give Back box is filled with all Black-owned businesses and 10% of profits are donated to the National Bail Fund Network. They are early committers of the @15percentpledge as well, and I expected nothing less.

Looking for my favorite things? You can find them here.

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xo, HPN