Bad Mothers: February roundup

January drags on forever, but February really flies. Here’s what caught my eyes and ears this month.

I finished reading The First Bad Man by Miranda July, because why would I not want to read her backlist after reading All Fours? It did not disappoint. Maybe it’s better than All Fours (which will soon be a tv series). I took to Instagram to rave about it and read my favorite excerpts, which is something I don’t think I’ve ever done before.

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I was lucky enough to travel with two of my sisters and [step]mother to Paris this month. At the Rodin museum, there was an amazing Dior exhibit called The Flowers We Grew.

Originally from Mumbai, Rithika Merchant gathers stories of her ancestors – on her maternal side – from the Kerala region. “The seeds we plant in the past grow into the flowers of the present," she says, highlighting the continuous narratives passed on down the years through a powerful line of matriarchs.

(We also went skiing in France and my rented skis were stolen while I was in a cafe. Every person I told was utterly shocked, once they figured out what the hell I was trying to tell them, since I have zero French. It cost me 350 Euro, on top of the cost of the rental and lift ticket, and the whole thing was ridiculous because I was too much of a scaredy cat to ski anyway.)

I had the joy of reading Anne Tyler’s latest novel, Three Days in June. As usual, she hit it out of the park. Every Tyler novel is like a hug and a reset for my outlook on life. She is a gift.

We got fantastic news from the book world: Joan Didion’s journal to her husband, coming from 4th Estate Books; Han Kang’s We Do Not Part is out now in English; Kate Baer has a new poetry collection coming this year; and Margaret Atwood’s memoir is slated for publication in November.