The Library

THIS WEEK: SAYING NO • SKINCARE TEST • BOOK CLUB DRAMA • EXPLAINING OURSELVES THURSDAY • SEPTEMBER 3 • 2026 Good morning, A few weeks ago, my husband and I checked into a hotel in Midtown Manhattan around 11 at night. There was another couple behind us. The young woman checking us in looked at the four of us and asked if we were all together. “No,” I said. “Just the two of us.” She looked at the reservation. “But you have a room with two queen beds?” “Yes.” “But you're not together?” “No.”...

THIS WEEK: DOLLY • FEMALE CHEFS • ESTROGEN • FITNESS FADS • BEAUTY THURSDAY • AUGUST 27 • 2026 Good morning, I was 20 when 9 to 5 came out, still in college, studying to be an engineer at a maritime college where I spent my days in uniform surrounded mostly by men. I was blonde and buxom, preparing to enter a profession that looked nothing like me. I already knew people made assumptions about how smart I was. I thought my job was to prove them wrong. Or so I thought. Dolly Parton didn't...

THIS WEEK: NOSTALGIA • YOUR GUT • CAREGIVING • TAKING THE STAGE THURSDAY • AUGUST 20 • 2026 Good morning, Rewilding is an ecological term. You take land that's been managed, cultivated, and kept, then you stop managing it. You let it come back to what it was before anyone decided what it should be. Author Jane Green applied that word to herself at 55: a marriage that looked warm from the outside, a life gone airless, a suitcase, a one-way ticket to Marrakech. That's why we started with Jane...

THIS WEEK: FRIENDSHIP • YOUR FACE • DESIRE • SECURITY THURSDAY • AUGUST 13 • 2026 Good morning, On Tuesday, I hosted a lunch for 12 women who have run American media. Several of them built American women's magazines, including the editors who ran Good Housekeeping, Woman's Day, Ladies' Home Journal, and the women who gave us More. I put that table together on purpose—to introduce them to PROVOKED and to spend the afternoon with them. I wanted to know where we've been, what's breaking right...

THIS WEEK: THE ODYSSEY • BOOK CLUB DRAMA • REACHING THE FINISH LINE THURSDAY • AUGUST 6 • 2026 Good morning, My grandson, Hal, short for Harold, is one of those lucky kids whose mom takes him to the library several times a week. Last weekend, while I was babysitting, he wanted us to read one of his library picks over and over: Harold's Hungry Eyes by Kevin Waldron, about a black-and-white Boston terrier named Harold. Since our Hal has a black-and-white Frenchie named Poppy, close enough as...

THIS WEEK: NET CARBS • GIRL GANGS • CALLING OURSELVES OUT THURSDAY • JULY 30 • 2026 Good morning, Something has changed in the freelance economy. Over the past year, I've interviewed, talked with, or hired more than 50 freelancers: writers, editors, designers, marketing experts, engineers, and artists. Freelancing has become a much harder way to make a living, especially for writers and creatives. I've depended on freelancers for decades as I've built businesses, but lately the market has...