I take notes to understand things, and that shows up in both my reading and my listening life.

When I read, I take notes on themes, dialogue, settings, quotes, and lately, with historical fiction, things I want to learn more about. If you saw my notebook while I was reading With Love From Harlem by ReShonda Tate or Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray, you’d think I was writing a term paper with all the notes, quotes, and questions I wrote down.

When I listen to new albums, or albums I haven’t listened to in a while, I take notes too. I write down what I like and don’t like, themes running throughout the album, lyrics that catch my ear, production notes and samples, and anything the song reminds me of. Recently, I filled two pages with notes on Rapsody’s new album, God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops, and went down a rabbit hole on the production, themes, lyrics, and even her recent interviews, which helped me understand the songs and absorb the album more completely.

With books and music, the notes I take do different jobs.

With a book, I’m responding to it. With an album, I’m trying to understand it. And more often than not, one sends me looking for the other.

For instance, reading Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola over the summer took me back to Lupe Fiasco’s debut album, Food & Liquor, which led me back to Lawrence Burney’s collection of essays, No Sense in Wishing (read my newsletter about both here).

Taking notes while reading Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje sent me to a whole list of albums that made me feel the same things, like Corinne Bailey Rae’s self-titled debut, Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving, and Lianne La Havas’ Is Your Love Big Enough? which also sent me back to the book and to an interview with Lidija.

What my process looks like

Growing up, my mom would make me do cute little book reports based on what I was reading. I loved this because it helped me understand what I was reading better and allowed me to write and share it with someone else. This was probably my entry point to annotating, and technically, to this newsletter you’re reading now.

With print books, I always read with a highlighter. At the end of each chapter or reading session, I jot down notes: either the full quotes I highlighted or the theme and a page number. I also write down anything else I find interesting, whether it’s a character map, timeline notes, or a random detail like a song or a meal mentioned in the book or something I thought of while reading.

When I read Natalie Baszile’s upcoming novel, Friends and Family, a few weeks ago, I kept writing down street names. The book is set in the Bay Area, and it mentions so many places I know well: Lake Merritt, the Fillmore, Divisadero, and Pacific Heights. Being able to picture the setting helped me understand the characters and the story better.

When I take notes on albums, I always start on paper. I title a page with the album and start writing. With Rapsody’s album, there was so much to take note of: the metaphors, the bars, the stories, the production, and the collaborations. I wrote little notes like “phew” and “my girl is spitting,” because both notes are true. When I used to do music reviews for places like Okayplayer, this was my exact process for putting together album reviews.

I have been doing some version of these things for decades now, and I am confident that you can learn a lot about yourself and where you are in your life from what you choose to take note of.

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Here are a few of the things I’ve learned about myself over the years:

I’m a Type-A girly

I’m not sure why this still surprises me, but here we are. At first glance, my system looks a little chaotic with notes duplicated across notebooks, my Kindle App, and my Notes app. Whatever stays with me from a book or an album, no matter where I first wrote it down, eventually lands in my Notes app, cleaned up, organized, and tagged so I can find it later.

My curiosity outlasts the book or album.

Finishing a book is rarely the end for me. It’s usually just the beginning and where my questions start. My historical fiction notes turn into undated tasks, a running list of things to look into once I’ve closed the book. As mentioned, when I read With Love From Harlem and Harlem Rhapsody, I found myself immersed in the lives of two women: pianist Hazel Scott and writer/author Jessie Redmon Fauset. I started reading more about them, watching interviews, and finding ways to stay immersed in their worlds.

This works similarly with albums. Often, when I make notes while listening, I go back to them later. For instance, if I note a sample, I typically go to the source and go down a rabbit hole through that artist’s discography. If I make note of a theme, or a book it made me think of, I then explore whatever it was. If I have questions about specific lyrics or themes from the album, I also start researching them.

My notes grow up with me.

What I find noteworthy says a lot about my age and stage. When I was younger, most of my notes, from what I was listening to and what I was reading, centered on love, curiosity, or professional development in some way. As I’ve gotten older, and specifically, post-COVID, a lot of my notes have centered around friendship: how I show up in them, how I sustain them, or how to maintain them through different life phases. Earlier this year, I read Jessica George’s Love by The Book, which I loved, and I took a lot of notes on romanticizing your friendships:

How can you be romantic with someone you aren’t attracted to?” “Well, think about it—what does it mean to be romantic? To buy flowers; to take someone out to dinner; to commit thoughtful actions and to give thoughtful gifts; to have long, meaningful conversations; to be loyal and devoted? I’ve done all of the above with my friends. In essence, platonic love can be incredibly romantic.

The way one heart might yearn deeply for a partner, yours does for a friend.

In Alex Elle’s latest book, The Company We Keep, I also took lots of notes about friendship and showing up in relationships:

Choose reciprocity over resentment, prioritizing relationships rooted in honest communication, care, and intention.

Friendship is a practice. Connection requires accountability, compassion, and self-awareness.

If you read my notes in order, you could probably guess how old I was when I wrote each one, or what season of my life I was in.

I remember through connection.ion

Some of the notes I take aren’t really about the book or the album. They’re about what it connects to. If a sentence reminds me of something, I write it down and come back to whatever it stirred up. Sometimes that becomes a little nugget I hold onto, and sometimes it becomes an issue of this newsletter.

With that, decades of notes later, I’ve realized I'm not just keeping track of what I consume, but in a way, I was also keeping track of myself.

​Curious to know: Do you take notes while you read or listen to music? If you do, what do you take note of?

To me, certain albums are formative in shaping who you become. I have written about a few of those albums in the past, and Food & Liquor is another one that belongs on that list.

I can vividly remember when I first discovered Lupe, so I’m going to walk you around the world to share the memory.

So boom: I first heard Lupe in high school, during my Kanye West-stan era.

That was also the era when I decided I wanted to be a rapper, so I started a rap group with one of my girlfriends called D. Inc., but the plot twist was that neither of us could rap. I could technically put some bars together, but my breath control mixed with my proper/valley-girl-adjacent diction; it just didn’t sound right.

So I nixed that and went to the next logical place: AOL chatrooms to become a “battle rapper.” I would “freestyle” in the rooms by typing out song lyrics from my favorite rappers, pretending I did, in fact, write them (yes, terrible, I know).

But anyway, this was around the time Kanye West released his sophomore album, Late Registration, which instantly became the soundtrack to my senior year, and one of my favorite songs from that album was “Touch the Sky” featuring Lupe Fiasco—told you I would get to the point.

I remember thinking, who is this guy? So I went into research mode on Limewire1 to find his music and discovered his Fahrenheit 1/15 mixtape series, and when “Kick, Push” came out, I was sold.

When the video came out, I put it on my iPod Video (remember those?) that I got for my graduation and shared it with my parents on the airplane on my graduation trip to New York. My stepmom was baffled to find that the song was about skateboarding, freedom, and growth, and not about childbirth like the title made her think of.

When the Food & Liquor album came out, it instantly became one of my favorites.

As a reader, I would say one of the things that instantly drew me into this album is the storytelling Lupe displayed. Beginning with the album intro, a poem by Ayesha Jaco, which visualizes the title behind the album, and the setting of Lupe’s version of Chicago with the food and liquor stores on every corner, the winos stumbling around, and even the clothes that people were wearing. This continues throughout the album with songs that tell other stories so visual that they could be a book. One of my favorite songs on the album is “He Say She Say,” which tells the same story from two different POVs, which I always found to be very clever.

As you move through the album, one thing is clear: Lupe shows blackness isn't monolithic and gives a voice to the black nerds, or the “blerds.” What has always stayed with me is how much this album holds up without sounding dated. The album touches on themes like faith, politics, freedom, growth, community, and identity, among others, and feels cohesive, which is not easy for a debut album. I have so many favorite songs on the album, but my favorites are, again, “He Say She Say,” “The Cool,” and Pressure,” because who gets Jay-Z on their first album?

I talked to two different friends about the album, and I resonated with both of their thoughts:

“As a fan of the FNF mixtapes, Lupe was one of the first real next-best things in hip-hop, pre-blog era. From that Fader-sponsored "Failure” video to his feature on Kanye’s “Touch the Sky,” to those heavy Jay-Z cosigns — everybody wanted to see what he had in store. A textbook rollout for a new progressive artist dropped right into the 50 Cent/Dipset era of hyper-masculine rap. As a kid who grew up skateboarding and wearing streetwear, it felt like he was speaking directly to me.” -

“Lupe doesn’t get the credit or respect earned for the millennial generation of black women and men who were raised in conditions that some never made it out of but were protected because of how “different” we were. The neighborhood protected our “weirdness,” and we actually had a soundtrack that spoke for us instead of against us.” -

No Sense in Wishing by Lawrence Burney

Both Trey's and Mike’s points made me think of a book that I read last year, No Sense in Wishing by Lawrence Burney.

The book was a collection of essays that Lawrence wrote about his home of Baltimore, the traditions that raised and shaped him, and music throughout the Global Diaspora. I loved reading the essays because they made me think about growing up in the Bay Area, the traditions that raised and shaped me, and the impact music has had on my life (you can read my review of the book here).

In that book, one chapter stuck out to me so much, and that was the chapter on how he first discovered Lupe Fiasco at his cousin’s graduation party, and while our initial introduction to Lupe was somewhat different, the sentiments felt familiar. In that chapter, Lawrence says Lupe was the counter to Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, and other acts, but he was the mainstream version of the college-friendly backpack rap bubbling in the underground.

Lupe was a key force in adding another, much-needed layer to the caricature-level, larger-than-life 2000s rap canon. Acts like him, Kid Cudi, the Cool Kids, the Pack, and Wale started to kick the door down after Kanye cleared the way with raps that embraced more vulnerability than most were used to. They projected images that were more indicative of school kids who hung out at malls than on the streets. Their truth was paramount in contextualizing the straight Black American male experience from a more three-dimensional view.

Reading that chapter, I thought about me on that airplane with the iPod Video, trying to explain to my stepmom why a song called “Kick, Push” was the most important thing I’d heard in months, but I didn’t necessarily have the language to fully articulate my point. With this chapter, Burney puts words to some of those initial feelings. The three-dimensional Black experience. The permission to be fully and completely yourself.

And I will say, twenty years later, Food & Liquor still ups up.

Described as Sinners meets The Witcher, the novel follows the legendary Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau, and her daughter, Marie Laveau II (Ree), in 19th-century New Orleans. The book explores many different topics through the lens of the mother/daughter relationship.

Here’s how Kayla describes the book:

It’s been pitched as Sinners meets The Witcher, or Sinners meets Game of Thrones. It’s an epic Southern Gothic fantasy set in New Orleans, where Marie Laveau is cursed by her ex-lover and teacher, John the Conjurer, leaving only her daughter to step up. Ree is a bit of a brat with a heart of gold who’d rather be doing anything else. Still, she has to save her mother, maybe herself, and possibly the soul of the city, while navigating the politics of a nineteenth-century, magically divided New Orleans, and maybe become the next Quarter Queen herself.

​At its core, it’s a tender mother-daughter story wrapped inside a politically fraught Witcher-style world. I grew up on those fantasies, and to me, historical fiction should say something about today. We clearly didn’t learn the lesson the first time around. You can talk about race, colorism, and futurism through a fantasy lens. New Orleans already has all of these tensions built in; I’m just heightening them slightly. I didn’t have to invent much.

Before reading the book, I knew very little about Marie Laveau, and even less about Voodoo, since my only exposure had been through movies like Eve’s Bayou, but honey, this book was so good and kept me intrigued all the way to the very end.

I had so many notes, thoughts, and questions after reading this book. Two of the questions that I kept coming back to are, first, what are some of the ways Hollywood has negatively shaped how we think of Voodoo, and secondly, what happens when we reclaim the stories we’ve been taught to misunderstand, which I think Kayla was able to do with this book.

I had a chance to speak with her about the novel, and I asked her those two questions, to which she said:

I think the media gets it wrong by painting it as satanic, all chicken bones and skulls and voodoo dolls, when the spiritual practice itself lines up closely with Catholicism. A lot of practitioners are both, and Marie Laveau was both, and saw no conflict there. In voodoo we have the Loa, which some people call gods, and Quarter Queen does for cinematic purposes, but they’re really intermediaries, spirits who communicate with the Supreme. None of it has anything to do with Satan. That’s a Catholic invention layered on top.

Even the idea of the zombie comes from the Creole word “Zonbi,” and Hollywood twisted it into what we have now. It actually comes from the mythology around Vodou and the reality of enslaved people being worked past exhaustion, and the fear of becoming a zombie, a spiritual slave with no control over your own mind, forever. So much of Quarter Queen is about reclaiming those narratives, taking things that were footnotes in history and bringing them to the forefront.

With that, I am excited to share my new interview with Kayla about the novel.

During the conversation, we talked about so much, including:

• Her family roots in Louisiana voodoo and Catholicism as the seed for the book

• What voodoo actually is vs. what Hollywood gets wrong about it

• Writing Marie Laveau and her daughter Ree as mirror images of each other, one generation apart

• How a TV pilot became a novel and sold on Good Friday

You can watch/listen to the conversation here on Substack, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In the meantime, however, please buy The Quarter Queen, and connect with Kayla via Instagram.

Listen/Watch Podcast on Spotify

Listen to Podcast on Apple

If this conversation sat with you, here are a few other things you should explore:

Read Beloved and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
During our conversation, Kayla mentioned that two of the Toni Morrison books she revisits are Beloved and The Bluest Eye.

With Mama Morrison, all of her work is necessary, but some of it stomps on you and leaves you changed and heartbroken. Beloved. I saw the movie way too young; Thandiwe Newton was in it, and when I picture Marie Laveau on TV, I still think we should get Thandiwe to play her. But The Bluest Eye is actually the first Morrison book I read, and it breaks your heart. It’s psychological, and we still see those same themes playing out today. Colorism, futurism, all these things that weren’t built by us but were imposed on us as a culture still take an insidious route now. I see it in Hollywood, where only light-skinned people get cast. I think every Black person should read The Bluest Eye.

Listen to Lemonade by Beyoncé
While writing the book, Kayla built a whole playlist around it, spanning artists from Beyoncé and Big Freedia to Sleep Token and Sabrina Carpenter. When I think of the book, though, I could NOT get the “Formation” video out of my head. The styling and setting instantly make me think of Marie Laveau, Black maternal lineage, and how power is passed down through generations.

That’s it for this week; I’ll catch you next week!

I wrote a whole newsletter about how one of the themes in Tolani Akinola’s debut novel, Leave Your Mess at Home, made me think of a theme in Rapsody’s new album, God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops, which I love, by the way, and also some of the other books that live within the album. It was a good newsletter, but I overthought it and never sent it (but please read the book and listen to the album).

I say all this to say: if you suffer from overthinking or being a perfectionist like me, take a chill pill and just do the things. While this sounds like a public service announcement or something, I’m serious; just be like Nike and do it (this was corny, but it’s always my go-to).

Anyway, for this week’s newsletter, I wanted to share a few of the things from the month of August that I loved, and a few things I’m looking forward to in the month of September.

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Let’s start with August loves:

📚 Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola
I loved this book so much. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know that as of June, I was attempting to not buy any new books and instead make my way through my library of owned books. Well, I say it in the past tense because I kind of failed, but in the words of my dad, “If that’s your only vice, you’re doing good,” so there’s that. However, among the books I own, one I purchased was Leave Your Mess at Home. Inspired by my friends who were reading, and by Bosola Olabisi’s review, I read the book and loved it.

The book follows four siblings: Ola, Sola, Anjola, and Karen, and the messiness of both their family life and their individual relationships. Sola comes home to Chicago for the first time in ten years to rebuild her life after a public breakup (she’s an influencer). Her return pulls her three siblings into orbit, too. Anjola is in love with her best friend who just got engaged. Karen, the youngest, is figuring out her sexuality and learning who she is. Ola, the older brother, looks to have everything together but with a baby on the way, he’s questioning everything from his marriage to how to raise a Black son in this country.

The family comes together on Thanksgiving and all the secrets the family have been hiding, comes to the surface. This is when the real story happens, and what comes next is a story of grief, forgiveness, resentment, and the slow work of finding your way back to the people you love.

📚 Dèy by Edwidge Danticat
This was such a good book, and at this point, anything Edwidge writes I will read. The book follows Magnolia, who is a Haitian American real estate agent based in Miami who survives a mall shooting by hiding in a restaurant with strangers. When she goes home, she doesn’t tell anyone about what happened but she can’t unsee what she witnessed that day. The book explores her relationship with her daughter, the relationship with her partner, and asks the question is home where you’re born or where you die? And does love actually protect us or just make the stakes higher.

🎧 Rapsody’s new album God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops

Rapsody is one of my favorite artists, and this album speaks to exactly why. She never, ever, ever lets me down. In an interview with The Breakfast Club, Rapsody shared that she wrote the album like a book that got banned and was found again generations later by someone who needed it.

There are many songs I love on the album, including the title track, of course, “Free Yo’ Mind,” “No Way Never Break,” “OMG! (Love to Sun Ra),” Black Love,” featuring Malice, “Black is Beautiful,”“You! (DJ Whoo Kid Joint) and “Pretty Bird/Way U R.” I must say, listening to this album, I like the way it makes me feel. Powerful. Black and proud. Please listen to it and let me know your thoughts.

🎧 Jungle’s new album Sunshine

When I wrote about my anticipation for this album, I knew in my heart it would be good, and I’m happy to say it delivered. This album is a fun listen and will make you dance from the very beginning. My favorite songs on the album are “Natural,” “Reflection,” “Come Back To Me,” and “Romeo II (ft. Bas).” Please listen to it and let me know your thoughts. I’m also very excited to go see them on our tour.

🎧 Alabama Shakes’ new album is I Must Be Dreaming

One of my most anticipated albums of the summer, along with Rapsody’s, was also Alabama Shakes album. It’s been 11 years since they released an album together, and while I love Brittany Howard’s solo music, I enjoy hearing her with bandmates Heath Fogg and Zac Cockrell. I will say, this is a good listen, but I will say I agree with some of the commentary I’ve seen online about the album. Feedback has been that the album is good and pleasant, but somewhat lackluster after such a long hiatus, so I’d give it a 7.5/10, which is still pretty high, I think. With that, my favorite songs on the album are “I Feel Hope Coming,” which I LOVE, “Friends,” “Easy,” “How Love’s Supposed To Go,” and “Another Time.”

Looking forward to September:

Here’s a list of a few of the things I’m looking forward to. Two have already been released since I’m sending this once the month has already started.

📚 The Disappearers by Marlon James (Out now)

I really wanted to read this book, and I must say I was dedicated to reading it. I went to three bookstores to find this book, and ended up finding it at a cute and quaint indie bookstore near me. Critics are saying that this is the book of the decade. I started reading the book on Friday and know that it will take me a little bit of time to get through it, but so far, I’m enjoying the writing. I’m both listening and reading in print doing Spotify’s Page Match. Here’s a quick synopsis of the book:

In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play. Though strangers to one another, they share an inescapable truth: All of them are gay. And they live in a world that refuses to accept them. One night the men are savagely beaten, and one of them is killed. As their bodies heal, the survivors begin to face the hatred and contempt that the violence laid bare. Some try to ignore what happened. Others double down on retribution. Some disappear completely. In this spellbinding novel, Marlon James has written a propulsive crime story that is also a deeply human account of connection and acceptance. Full of fascinating characters, biting humor, and unapologetic sex, The Disappearers is both a thrilling page-turner and a finely etched portrait of queer life.

📚 Desperate Bodies by Lydia Mathis (Out 9/15)

Well, I have read this book already, and it gave me so many emotions, including pissing me off, making me laugh, and making me want to cry. This book is a collection of short stories that explore the everyday lives of Black women and girls. Here is a synopsis of the book:

Desperate Bodies depicts the fragility, strength, and unruliness of Black women and girls’ bodies and the power in being honest about their desires. In unflinching prose, Mathis takes a frank and determined look at what it means to be subjected to imbalances of power through the perspectives of young girls and adult women. With surprising turns and a touch of the supernatural, these stories refuse to look away from the most honest, raw moments of womanhood.

The book is said to be for readers of Deesha Philyaw, which leads into the next book….

📚 The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw (Out 9/29)

I just finished this book, and honey, let me tell you, you definitely have to read this book. If you’ve read her previous short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, you’re going to want to read this. This book is both funny and heartbreaking at the same time. Here’s the synopsis:

From the moment Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble roots and married a megachurch pastor fifteen years her senior, she’s been labeled too brash and too “of the world” by church folks who grudgingly accepted her into their fold, and too holy by her estranged childhood bestie Petra. Schar doesn’t have many allies, but that hasn’t stopped her from building an enviable business empire spanning books to clothing to branded products, and living the comfortable life her husband’s power affords her.

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Schar gets the final bit of validation she’s always dreamt of: a coveted invitation to participate in the First Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pastors’ wives—First Ladies—who are “like Jesus’ disciples if they had been a group of mean girls.” Finally, blissfully, the ice between Schar and the other First Ladies begins to thaw. But as the pageant nears, a sensational scandal breaks with Schar at its center, and her carefully curated life implodes. Schar faces down shame and terrible secrets from her childhood and is reminded that in the eyes of the church, optics can matter more than the truth.

Very, very good read.

These are the things I am looking forward to this month, and I think you should add them to your list.

I’ll be back next week with a very good fun conversation.

Hopefully, you will read and enjoy the recommendations.

I have officially hit that point in life where I keep talking about my vacation.

I told the random barista at Starbucks.

I told the two women who work at Paper Source when I went to buy a new journal.

I told the man at work who needed help getting a video added to YouTube.

I told my neighbor who asked if I had been sick because he hadn’t seen me in a few days.

I told my doctor during my telemedicine appointment.

I told my favorite cashier at UPS when I went to return my Nuuly package.

And since I am writing this newsletter currently, I am also telling you, but yolo, or whatever we say these days.

I just got back from Portugal, specifically Lisbon and Porto. And as someone who always travels with a laptop and a sea of work emails to sort through, it was both beautiful and necessary to be unplugged for an entire week. I went with my parents who have both recently retired so it was nice to spend quality time with them, and also see how they enjoyed themselves without having to think about going back to work.

Portugal is just as beautiful as people say with beautiful people, great food, vibrant colors, and so much to do. I enjoyed drinking lattes and espresso shots after dinner, eating an excessive amount of octopus and olives, people watching, exploring, and observing the street style from all the cool girls: lots of linens, and relaxed fit pants in vibrant designs with cool tanks, see below:

On my trip, I finished two books, A Very Special Episode by Camille Acker and Dèy by Edwidge Danticat and start a new book Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan.

I also fully enjoyed Larry June’s new album Who Coppin and Somi’s new album What Does it Take to Bloom? both of which became the soundtrack to my trip.

With that, I wanted to share a few of my recommendations from the trip as it relates to music and books. I also have a few other recommendations for places to eat, travel, and stay at, which are below.

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Book spaces and anecdotes

When I was in Porto, we went on a Tuk Tuk tour, and our tour guide told us about J.K. Rowling living there for several years teaching English, and how the city inspired Harry Potter. I will admit, I have never seen nor read Harry Potter, but from the imagery and things I know about the world that lives in the books, I can see the influence. Our guide said some of the places that inspired Rowling were the Livarira Lello bookstore, the University of Coimbra and the Maria Pia Bridge.

Lisbon: Good Company Books

I saw this as a recommendation on TikTok I believe so I added it to my list. It’s a super cute and quaint bookstore that has a cafe with both coffee and wine. They have a selective and curated assortment of books and I found a few that I have read and enjoyed including Widow Basquiat by Jennifer Clement, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo and Heart the Lover by Lily King. They also had other books that I have been wanting to read like John of John by Douglas Stuart. This is a great bookstore to visit if you want to be off the beaten path.

Lisbon: Livraria Ler Devagar at LX Factory

Let me start by saying, LX Factory is such a cute area. We went here and started with breakfast burritos and coffee at Selllva LX Factory, then did some walking around and ended here. I really enjoyed the layout of the store – they had a table full of music books for one thing and I had no idea Questlove had a new book. This is an aesthetic bookstore and I got two books, which the bookseller told me was an interesting pairing. The books I got were Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan and Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams.

The only note is since this is an aesthetic store, there are tons of people all over the place. I would suggest going early just so you can move around freely.

Music discoveries

When I went on a food walking tour, our tour guide taught us about the musical genre, Fado. The genre got its origin in Lisbon in the 1800’s and is essentially the soundtrack for longing and mourning. Our guide mentioned that the style tends to be heavily emotive, dramatic, and sad, and was started by prostitutes, dock workers, sailors and other working class people. While I have some digging and exploring to do with the genre, what I have heard thus far has been beautiful. I watched these videos to help me learn more:

I discovered lots of music in coffee shops, on surround sound systems, in Uber rides and just around so here are some of the things that I discovered.

Jitram - “Temptations”
I discovered this song at the coffee shop next door to my Airbnb and I loved it. It then made me go through a rabbit hole listening to the full album, Honeycomb, and some of his recent music.

Berlioz - “Miro” featuring Ted Jasper
While I was already familiar with him, I never heard this song so it took me down a spiral which had me ending up at “hot house,” which is jamming. I also discovered the jazz is for ordinary people EP which is pretty good as well.

Sajmoonn - “From the Music Within You”
I loved this because it made me both want to dance in a circle, but also dance offbeat with coffee in my hand. Yes, I’m aware that’s oddly specific.

CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso & Anderson Paak - “Ay Ay Ay”
I heard this song when we were at LX Factory and it was playing on some speakers outside. I was like this sounds like Anderson Paak, and in fact it was. Such a quirky song once I listened to the full song.

Winta - “I Still Believe in Love”
Last year, I think from TikTok, I discovered Winta. I stopped listening to Winta because I am 76% sure that Winta is AI, but I must admit this song, and album is jamming.

Other recommendations:

I have a few more recommendations in terms of places to eat, and things to do, which I am putting below. I have also put them into this Google Map. The list also includes a few recommendations from my tour guides as well. The only thing I wish I would’ve done that I did not do was go to Livraria Lello in Porto.

Sintra is definitely worth the day trip. As a Bay Area gal, it reminded me of Sausalito or Tiburon with more hills. Also, if you get the chance to get close to the water there, it was absolutely beautiful. We went to see the castle, which gave good views, but was a little rough on my knee. I will say, I enjoyed the views from the castle more than I enjoyed the actual castle.

Douro Valley is absolutely beautiful. Even if you’re a little meh on wine like I am, it was so beautiful. We took a boat ride, did wine tasting, and had lunch and I enjoyed it so much. I feel like truthfully, greenery and water is where I thrive — maybe I’m meant to be a land mermaid since I can’t swim in the sea.

Amarante which is in Porto and on the way to Douro Valley is such a beautiful and quaint place. If you get the chance to visit there, you should. When I go back to Porto, I plan to stay here for a night or so at a bed and breakfast.

If you go to Porto, we stayed at the cutest hotel: Village Aparthotel by BOA. My aunt who recommended it to us stayed here for a month, and it’s the perfect place for that. It’s cozy, cute, and relaxing. If you want the Airbnb’s I stayed at in Lisbon, let me know.

Last recommendation is to eat all the seafood, Octopus and olives that you can. Here are a few pictures from my favorite meals.

That’s it for this week. I’ll catch you next week.

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Google Maps Recommendations

Reading List:

Dèy by Edwidge Danticat (out August 25)
This is Edwidge Danticat’s first novel in over a decade. The book is being described as the following: “From the bestselling author of Everything Inside comes a vivid, timely story, moving from Haiti to Brooklyn to Miami, of a woman whose sense of self and family are called into question when she gets caught in a random act of violence one sunny Florida day.” Given Danticat’s writing, I expect this to be a good and moving book.

A Very Special Episode by Camille Acker (out August 18)
I just started reading this book, and so far, I’m enjoying it. This is Camille’s debut novel and here’s the description of the book: “In Washington, D.C.’s powerful Black elite, legacy is everything. When a young heir to one of the city’s most influential institutions seeks funding to cement her future, a shadowy organization offers to help—but it could cost her far more than she’s willing to give.”

Listening List:

Flo - Therapy at the Club (out Friday)
Flo is back with their sophomore album, following their Grammy-nominated debut album, Access All Areas. Flo described this album as a complete night out from getting ready, to the morning after, and the club is where the actual healing happens. From the album, they have released four singles and while none of them have necessarily tickled my fancy, I still have high hopes. They were also just on Keke Palmer’s podcast, and it was a cute conversation.

Rapsody - God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops (out August 21st)
Rapsody is one of my favorites, and she’s back with her fifth studio album. Truthfully, this is one of my most anticipated albums of the year and I feel confident that it was deliver because she never lets me down. Rapsody created this album in a period where she was drawn towards Africa, and she went, and this album was inspired by that trip. From the album, so far, she’s released two singles: “God Gotta Afro,” which I could not stop playing, and on Friday, she released “Apple Juice,” which she sings on. I’m so excited.

Alabama Shakes - I Must Be Dreaming (out August 28th)
When I read that Alabama Shakes was releasing their first album in 11 years, I think I clapped, literally. I love Alabama Shakes and can’t wait to hear what they sound like with so many years in between releases.

Also, I realized that I didn’t share this last weekend, so I’m sharing it today. If you read Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, you may have a few thoughts about her as a protagonist because she was… exhausting. I read Candice’s upcoming book, Queenie is Working on It, and I must say, Queenie actually didn’t get on my nerves. Read my review, and some other things it made me think of, including friendship and redemption.

Just a heads up, I’ll be taking a baby break for some traveling that I am excited to share in the coming weeks. In the meantime, follow me on Substack Notes, Threads or Instagram so we can stay connected.

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Have you ever read a book where you could not stand the protagonist but the author released a second book and you felt like you had to read it to see if your feelings changed?

While that was a very specific question, that’s how I felt with the book Queenie and now the follow-up book, Queenie is Working On it by Candice Carty-Williams.

Seven years ago, Candice introduced readers to Queenie, a twenty-something woman living in London who was trying to figure her life out. After breaking up with her boyfriend, Tom, she spiraled into a stretch of drinking, and way too many bad decisions. Reading the book, and later watching the series, I found Queenie to be exhausting. I get being in your twenties, and not having things figured out, but she was spiraling way too much for me.

However in the new book, out September 8th, the title was accurate. We are seeing Queenie ten years older, and as the title alludes, she is working on and through many things. She’s more self-aware, she takes accountability for her wrong doing in her relationships (even if it takes some time), she’s in therapy and she’s figuring out what her next chapter looks like, e.g., whether she wants kids or not and what that looks like in partnership. Dare I say, not only did I enjoy this book, I also found Queenie to be very relatable.

While reading, there are different themes that Candice explores in the book, but one of my favorite themes is friendship. We see Queenie still interacting with her same friend group, “The Corgis” and working through the shifts that happen as your friends get partners, move and start having kids. Queenie is not where her friends are currently, and has to reckon with how her previous decisions impacted her life stage and also, how some of the chaos she created impacted her friendships, specifically with her best friend Kyazike.

Friendship by the page

The theme of friendship has shown up a lot recently in books, perhaps because we all crave connection, and life milestones at times shift how our friendships look. Here are a few recent books that I enjoyed where friendship is either at the center of the book or a theme that exists within the book.

The Books

Kin by Tayari Jones

This is probably my favorite book of the year, and for so many reasons, one being the friendship and relationship that exists between Vernice and Annie. The pairing, two motherless girls, grew up as “cradle sisters” in a small Louisiana town. Throughout the book, we see them live different lives but their friendship and sisterhood are a constant.

Love by the Book by Jessica George
This is such a beautiful book about friendship, and how your friendships should be treated as intimately and cared for as your romantic relationships. The intimacy and friendship that exists between Remy and Simone was beautiful to read.

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

While it took me some time and multiple attempts to get through this book because of the time hopping, at the center, what I enjoyed were the friendships. In the book, we meet five girlfriends who have been friends for twenty years. Throughout this time, they experience many life events including having kids, and getting married, and they are working their way through the metaphorical wilderness and their friendships.

The Revelation of Dionne Daphne by Mara Brock Akil

While this is a heavy book, and friendship isn’t the core focus of the book, it’s one of the themes that I enjoyed the most. In this book, Dionne gets life-threatening news that she has to navigate, and one of those ways is through her friendship with her best friend Farrah. Farrah serves as one of Dionne’s safe spaces on her journey and based on interviews I’ve listened to with Mara, that relationship was one of the themes she wanted to highlight the most. She says your friends act as your surrogate parents which I think is such a beautiful concept.

Take What You Can by Naima Coster

This book, out August 4th, explores how your friendships can evolve and again shift overtime. We meet best friends, Val and Milly who met on a study abroad program, and who are now both married, pregnant and living in New York. With this book Naima maps out the complexities that come when your friendship dynamic changes, and how you can create bonds without examples.

The Music

Aside from the friendship theme, another thing I couldn’t stop thinking about while reading this book is that it served somewhat as Queenie’s redemption arc. With the book, we see Queenie have to essentially reintroduce herself to her friends, colleagues, family and technically… even us the readers. With that lens, for some reason I kept thinking of Common’s album Be.

Perhaps because I was reading this book at an appointment where Jennifer Hudson’s talk show was playing, my mind kept going to that album and how that was Common’s redemption arc or reintroduction following what many would call his flop of an album, Electric Circus. While there were many factors that made that what it was e.g., record label shifts, that album was the one that critics and fans often cite as his questionable release. The album was an experimental album that was created at a time where Common said he wasn’t in a hip-hop mood. While that album gave birth to one of his biggest singles, “Come Close,” there were no other singles from the album and as a whole, it left fans and critics feeling mixed.

When Be came around, it was a reintroduction to him and his craft and a welcome back for fans and critics who began following him based on his initial hip-hop roots. I would say that Be sits in a similar world of Queenie is Working On It because neither asks people to see where they were before the fall, instead they ask people to meet them where they are now because of that fall.

Last week was an interesting one for me, a mix of a lot of thinking, geeking out, and moving a little more slowly. Some weeks are like that, and I embrace them and even appreciate them when they happen.

This week is my final week of physical therapy, and it’s tripping me out for a few reasons.

I do feel stronger. I found new ways to strengthen and show g…

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“I like sad love songs. They inspire me. You can pull the sadness into a happily-ever-after. They evoke emotions that translate to the page. You just have to write the story as a writer and figure out what the journey and obstacles in the romance will be. For me, love songs translate to the page.”

Since our conversation, I’ve been thinking about the stories hiding inside some of my favorite songs. They introduce characters, build conflict, complicate love, and leave someone changed. They are stories with plots, emotional arcs, and endings that linger after the song fades.

That led me to wonder: if my favorite heartbreak songs were books, what stories would they tell? I made a list of the five I think would make perfect novels.

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Heather Headley - “In My Mind”

When I think of my favorite heartbreak song, this is it. Although it gives me an annoying memory of an old suitor, the song is beautiful and sad.

Here’s the novel I hear: A woman, Ashley, meets a man, Robert, in college (I made these names up). They form the kind of relationship where you meet his mother, and she already loves you, and where you start filling in your future together without being asked. Then one day, he ends it. He gets a new girlfriend. He moves on, or tries to.

Months later, Robert’s mother runs into Ashley and quietly tells her Robert isn’t doing well. The new relationship has fallen apart. He’s been through some things. Then she says, “I think it’d do some good if you called him every now and then.”

The universe, through the voice of a mother who still considers Ashley family, opens a door. What Ashley chooses to do with that door is the novel, and the question is whether she walks through it.

The chorus is where the literary device lives. She toggles between two versions of herself: “In my mind, I’ll always be his lady” and “only time will tell if I’m his lady.” Those are not the same statement. On the bridge, she tells herself, “If you love something, let it go.” It sounds like a resolution. Then she follows it with “always feel this way about you, always be your lady.” She is narrating the story of letting go while holding on completely. That is an unreliable narrator. That is a woman who knows exactly what she is doing and cannot stop herself. She isn’t lying to us. She’s negotiating with herself, and we overhear it.

“In My Mind” is not just a phrase. It is the setting. The story takes place inside her head, in the space between what happened and what she wishes had happened. If this were a book, the ending would not need to tell you whether she called him. The silence would say enough.

India.Arie - “Good Man”

I used to sing “Good Man” in my bedroom in high school before I fully understood why it affected me so deeply.

The story of this song is that a woman falls in love young, the kind of love that feels like forever from the start. They get married, have kids, and build a beautiful life together. He’s in the military, and before he deploys, he leaves her with a promise: if something happens, be strong, carry on, and tell the kids about me when they’re old enough to understand. But he doesn’t come home.

What makes this song a novel is the chorus. He sings it to her first, as a promise before he leaves. Then she sings it back, as a vow after he’s gone. By the end, she is singing it to their children, passing the promise to the next generation. The same words, carried by three different people. That’s structure. That is storytelling.

The detail that breaks you open is the kids pointing at his picture. “Where is he?” They don’t yet have the language for what happened. They just know something is missing. And she has to find the words in real time, for children who are too young and a grief that is too big.

On their first anniversary, they chose a star together. “First anniversary, remember we chose a star. And as I stand under it, I can’t help but wonder if you see it where you are.” Authors spend entire chapters crafting symbols like that. This song gives us one in four minutes.

If this were a book, it would be the story of a woman learning how to hold a family together with one hand while carrying an absence with the other. End it in memories, in small moments, in what she says to her children at night, and in what she cannot say.

Jay-Z - “Song Cry”

When I listen to this song, it feels visual to me. Here’s the story I hear.

A man and woman build a life together, coming up through the trenches. Their relationship is forged in hard times, and they navigate it side by side. Then success changes him. He gets distracted, chases the wrong things, cheats, and leaves her carrying the relationship alone. Eventually, she does what he never believes she’ll do: she leaves, builds a new house, and falls in love with someone else.

That gap between knowing and changing is the whole novel. What makes this song feel literary isn’t the breakup. It’s the narrator. He understands exactly what he did wrong. He can name every mistake, every missed opportunity, every way he took her for granted. What he can’t do is go back and become the man she needed when it still mattered. The story isn’t about a man learning a lesson. It’s about a man learning the lesson too late.

He cannot cry not because he doesn’t feel grief, but because he’s built an identity around never letting himself feel it out loud. So the song cries for him. It becomes his emotional proxy, saying everything he’s incapable of saying himself. That’s not just a hook. It’s a character study.

The turn comes late, and it lands with my favorite line in the song: “Once a good girl’s gone bad, she’s gone forever.”

That isn’t the moment she leaves him. That isn’t even the moment he learns she’s moved on. It’s the moment he finally understands what he’s lost. The tragedy isn’t that he loved her too little. It’s that he understood her value only after she stopped waiting for him to.

If this were a book, it would follow a man who spends three hundred pages trying to explain himself, only to realize the explanation changes nothing. The confession is the story. The regret is the ending.

Emeli Sande - “Maybe”

This song starts where most love songs end. The relationship is already over, or almost. Two people who could not keep their hands off each other are now lying back-to-back in the dark, not speaking. The love did not leave in a dramatic moment. It just went quiet. That silence is the first sentence of the novel.

The story moves fast once it starts. They break up on a Sunday night. He takes his bags and leaves. She replays the fight, rests her head against the wall, and sits with the empty space he left behind. Then his key turns in the lock. He is back. He sees her on the stairs and stops.

That moment on the stairs is the whole book. Everything before it is exposition. Everything after it is a consequence.

The chorus holds both possibilities at once and refuses to choose between them. “Maybe you could stay a bit longer; I could try a little harder. We could make this work, but maybe we should stop pretending. We both know we’re hurting; maybe it’s time to go.”

She is not deciding. She is holding two truths in the same breath and letting them live there together. The song ends without resolving. The door is open, and neither of them has moved.

If this were a book, it would be a quiet, devastating novel told over the course of one weekend. Two people in an apartment, a fight, a departure, a return, and the question that neither of them can answer out loud.

Lianne La Havas - “Elusive”

This will forever be my favorite Lianne La Havas song. A woman is in love with a man she cannot quite reach. He is cold, a gambler, a mystery even to himself. She describes his hands as the coldest she has ever held. She sees him clearly, and that is the heartbreak.

She is the opposite of everything he is. He is elusive. She is awake, definitely real, nothing fake. She is fully present for someone who is somewhere else. The more herself she is, the less he can see her.

The detail that breaks you open is small and specific. After everything, after all the reaching and holding on, what she has of him is a strand of hair. One physical trace. That is what love leaves behind when it cannot fully land. That’s what makes the song feel so literary to me. It isn’t really about unrequited love. It’s about asymmetry. Two people can be in the same relationship while living in entirely different emotional worlds.

Then he tells her, almost gently, that his destiny lies in the hands that set him free. He is not looking to be held. He is waiting to be released. She is trying to love someone who experiences love as a kind of captivity. They are in the same relationship, wanting entirely opposite things from it.

If this were a book, it would be quiet and atmospheric, told from her perspective, the story of a woman who is so fully present that she becomes invisible to the one person she is trying to reach. That disappearance is the heartbreak.

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When Tiffany L. Warren told me sad love songs make great novels, a lightbulb went off. The best sad love songs already know how to be novels. They have characters, conflict, tension, unreliable narrators, and endings that refuse easy resolution. They understand that relationships end long before love stories do. They end when the people inside them finally become someone else.

Maybe that’s why we replay them, cry to them, or journal to them. Not because we’re hoping the song changes, but because some part of us is still wondering whether this time the story will.

In typical Erin fashion, I couldn’t stop at five, so I made a list of fourteen more songs that already feel like novels to me, along with a playlist to go with them.

Alicia Keys ft. John Mayer - “Lesson Learned”

Heartbreak becomes the beginning instead of the ending. A novel where survival slowly becomes wisdom.

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Well let’s get into this week’s edition.

Today, I’m sharing a new interview with author Haili Blassingame whose debut novel, They All Fall in Love at the End, was released last month via Simon & Schuster.

The novel follows Kat, a writer living in DC who is in an open relationship with her college sweetheart Jay. When she falls for the two people most off limits, Jay’s best friend Tristan and his girlfriend Nia, she has to reckon with how much she’s allowed to want, in love, in art, and in life. Set against the backdrop of a politically charged DC, it’s a literary love story, a family drama, and one of the most honest books about desire I’ve read in a long time.

Haili felt like exactly the right person to open On the Record, a series where I sit down with authors and musicians to talk about the relationship between books and music in their creative lives. Every conversation goes both directions, and Hailli’s did not disappoint.

In this conversation we get into:

• How she used the Challengers soundtrack to write one of the most electric scenes in the book, and what that says about how music shapes her process even when she’s not listening to it

• Why the parts of the book are named after songs

• What revision actually means, and the moment she felt like she became a real writer

• What drew her to a character who refuses to want less in any area of her life

• Writing the current moment as it was happening, unprocessed, and why she would never do it again

• The F. Scott Fitzgerald connection and what it means to her that they share a publisher

You can listen to the interview wherever you listen to podcasts, or watch it here on Substack. Also, be sure to follow Haili’s Substack or on Instagram at @hailiwroteabook. Lastly, read the New York Times’ review of Haili’s novel here.

Listen to Podcast on Apple

Listen/Watch Podcast on Spotify

The novel follows the life of Yolande Du Bois, daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois, as she navigates love, family expectations, ambition, and one of the most high-profile and talked-about weddings of the Harlem Renaissance.

While I was reading the book, I took so many notes and when I finished, I was so curious about Yolande and the different relationships in her life, that I knew I had to talk to the author, Tiffany L. Warren about the book — so I’m excited to share our interview today.

One line I can’t stop thinking about:

“Fiction is a window, and it allows you to have empathy for other people in the world.”

Tiffany shared that reading was an escape for her as a child. Books showed her lives beyond her own experiences and helped her understand people whose circumstances looked nothing like hers.

That idea sits at the center of A Harlem Wedding. While the novel introduces readers to well-known historical figures, it also asks us to see them as people navigating love, family expectations, friendship, ambition, and identity. By the end of the book, the history felt less distant because the people at its center felt real.

In this conversation, we discussed so much including:

• How Octavia Butler helped Tiffany realize that she could become a writer herself

• Why Yolande Du Bois because the perfect heroine for a Harlem Renaissance novel and what made her the “it girl” of her era

• The complicated relationship between Yolande and W.E.B. Du Bois, and how his vision for her future shaped her choices

• What years of letters, diaries, photographs, and newspaper clippings revealed about the people behind the history

• Why sad love songs often inspire Tiffany’s stories and the song that became the emotional soundtrack for A Harlem Wedding

• How historical fiction allows writers to explore not just what happened, but the deeper question underneath it all: why it happened

If you enjoy historical fiction, the Harlem Renaissance, complicated family relationships or hearing writers talk about their creative process, I think you’ll enjoy conversation.

As always, you can watch or listen to the interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, or Pocket Casts.

Listen and/or Watch on Spotify

Listen to Podcast on Apple

Connect with Tiffany L. Warren

📚 A Harlem Wedding is available wherever books are sold.

🌐 Visit Tiffany at tiffanylwarren.com

📱 Follow Tiffany on Instagram and Threads:

A few more notes for the week:

📺 If you watched the video interview above, you would’ve seen my face when Tiffany mentioned the one song that kept coming to her mind while she was writing was A Harlem Wedding was Vesta Williams “Congratulations.” If you have never heard this song, or watched the video… prepare to clutch your pearls. Also if you can find it, I recommend watching Vesta’s episode of Unsung.

🎧 Speaking with Tiffany about the Harlem Renaissance made me think of my conversation with ReShonda Tate who wrote one of my favorite books of the year, With Love From Harlem. You can listen/watch to that conversation here.

📚 I just finished reading Take What You Can by Naima Coster and I have many thoughts and questions after reading the book. If you like complex stories about friendship, relationship dynamics, and like hearing about good food, I think you’ll enjoy this book.

📚 I also just finished reading Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl by Amena Brown, which is a collection of short essays and I both nodded my head and laughed while reading this book. I saw myself, and so many of my girlfriends reflected in this book. Amena talks about different things like learning how to cook, Waiting to Exhale, how to survive the hair shop, and different pop culture references, including one of my favorite RHOA references: “A white refrigerator? Please put your shoes up. Let’s find you a home.”

🔗 Inside the first official portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama together. I LOVE, LOVE this portrait and all the details that artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby included.

*Quick note: I will be taking a little tiny break from your inbox and will be returning on July 6th with some updates I’m pretty excited about. In the meantime, you can catch me on Substack Notes, Instagram or Threads.

I cannot believe we are just days away from summer, and truthfully, I can wait.

I am not a hot-weather gal at all, so while everyone is making plans to be outside roaming around, my plans consist of early morning farmers market runs, long days reading on my couch under the air conditioner, and dancing around my living room, again in an air-conditioned space.

A few weeks ago, during one of my recurring organizational spirals, I went through my bookshelves and discovered I own 114 books that I either purchased or were gifted and have yet to read. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m still a little flabbergasted by the number.

The discovery reminded me of how I used to convince my mom to take me to Sam Goody or Target every week so I could buy a new CD. It’s probably the same reason I still make playlists today: part of it is supporting artists I love, and part of it is leaving breadcrumbs for a future version of myself. And technically, poetically, the version of me who bought all those books isn’t exactly the version of me who will read them.

As I started putting together a list of the books and albums I’m most excited to spend time with this summer, I noticed a pattern. Nearly everything that I’m truly excited about right now is centered around people taking inventory of their lives in some capacity. Some are trying to find their way back to themselves. Others are trying to figure out what comes after the thing they thought they wanted. Most are looking at the complexities of relationships with others, and a few are standing in the middle of their lives, looking around, and asking a question I’ve been thinking about myself lately: Where do I go from here?

Summer has never felt like a season of reinvention to me (as mentioned your girl is toooooo hot in the summer). It feels more like a season of reflection. The days are longer, the pace slows down just enough, and there is more room to notice what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what still needs attention.

With that in mind, here are the books and albums I’m most excited to spend time with this summer.

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Four books I can’t wait to read

Queenie Is Working on It by Candice Carty-Williams (Out September 8)

I’ll admit it: Queenie worked my nerves the first time around.

It took watching the Hulu adaptation and talking with about the character for me to approach her with a little more empathy. Now Queenie is back, ten years older and theoretically wiser. The fact that she’s still figuring things out is exactly what interests me. So much of adulthood is realizing growth isn’t linear. We don’t become finished versions of ourselves at thirty. We just get different questions to answer.

The Revelation of Dionne Daphne by Mara Brock Akil (Out June 30)

Mara Brock Akil is responsible for some of my favorite television shows. Girlfriends and Being Mary Jane alone are enough reason for me to show up for anything she creates.

What interests me most about this novel, aside from it being her debut, is the premise. It’s described as a deeply moving story that shows when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life, light can be revealed. It’s a novel of broken lovers, a fractured family, and distant friendships all finding their way back to one another. And one thing about Mara: she knows how to write relationships. Romantic, platonic, familial. I expect this one to be very good.

Skin Contact by Elisa Faison (Out June 23)

After reading They All Fall in Love in the End by Haili Blassingame, I’ve found myself wanting stories that are a little messier and a little more willing to sit in uncertainty.

Skin Contact follows a married couple navigating an open relationship over several years. What draws me to it isn’t necessarily the relationship structure itself, but the larger question underneath it: What happens when the life you’ve built no longer fits the version of yourself you’ve become? That’s a question far bigger than romance.

Take What You Can by Naima Coster (Out July 7)

Friendship. Motherhood. Class. Independence. Family.

Every description I’ve read suggests this novel is interested in the complicated relationships that shape a life. Lately, I’ve found myself gravitating toward stories that ask what happens after the milestones. After adulthood arrives. After you’ve built a life. After you’ve become the person you thought you were supposed to be.

I’m currently reading this book, and I can say so far that it feels like a book that will leave readers with many thoughts about their lives and relationships with others. It’s described as a novel exploring what it means to be a mother when you have none, a sister without blood ties, and a woman in pursuit of the life she wants.

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Three Albums I’m excited to work through

Therapy at the Club by FLO (July 24)

As a gal raised with Destiny’s Child (not literally), I love a girl group, and FLO just does it for me. With their debut album, Access All Areas, they showed that they could harmonize while balancing love songs with songs that have a little attitude, which is the exact combination I tend to love.

Even the title, Therapy at the Club, feels like a perfect encapsulation of where many of us are these days: processing, healing, reflecting, but still wanting to enjoy ourselves in the process. That’s a balance I’m always trying to strike, which probably explains why I’m looking forward to this album so much.

I will admit that I’m a little indifferent to the lead single, but my hopes for the album itself remain very high.

God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops by Rapsody (August 21)

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, seeing this on my list should not be a surprise. Rapsody is my girl and one of my favorite artists. I’ve already played “God Gotta Afro” more times than I’d like to admit. And as a longtime fan, even from her Kooley High days, what I appreciate most about her work is that she never sounds interested in chasing trends. Every project feels like a continuation of a conversation she’s been having with herself for years.

There’s something reassuring about artists who trust their own voice enough to keep evolving it.

Sunshine by Jungle (August 14)

I have been so excited for Jungle’s new album.

Jungle makes the kind of music that makes me want to clean my apartment, open every window in the house, and pretend I’m in a much cooler city than the one I’m currently in. I’ve loved both singles they’ve released so far, “Carry On” and “The Wave,” and if the rest of the album sounds anything like those songs, it’s going to dominate my August. Also, I always LOVE the dancing in the Jungle videos.

Also consuming these things:

I’m also hoping to spend time with Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead, Soft Spots by Leila Renee, and Desperate Bodies by Lydia Mathis. On the music side, I’m looking forward to Oh Yeah? by Steve Lacy, Beard by Syd, and Yearnalism by Baby Rose, and seeing what surprises me between now and September.

One thing I’ve noticed about the books and albums I’m choosing these days is that I’m less interested in stories about becoming and more interested in stories about what happens after. After the dream job. After the relationship. After the move. After the version of yourself you spent years trying to become.

Maybe that’s what this summer is about for me: not reinvention, but reflection.

I’d love to know what’s on your reading and listening list this summer. Hit reply or leave a comment and tell me what you’re most excited to spend time reading/listening to over the next few months.

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A little bit more for this week:

🎧 The New York Times Book Review podcast released its annual summer reading episode, and there were so many recommendations.

🎧 I loved last week’s episode of Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast with Coleman Domingo. Truthfully, I would love to be Coleman’s niece or something.

🎧 Blxst’s new album Labor of Love came out on Friday, and I love it. As a California woman, whenever I listen to Blxst’s music, I immediately picture people dancing outside at a barbecue somewhere.

📺 Eve’s Tiny Desk came out this morning for Black Music Month and she was jamming + looked SOOO good.

📸 I was happy for the Knicks and their fans after they won their first NBA championship in 53 years. I’m especially excited to see the parade because I know New York is going to show out. ESPN’s social team also did a great job covering the win, so that’s what I’m ending with today.

That’s it for this week. I’ll catch you next week!

Hi friends,

On Sunday, I shared a conversation with author about her travel memoir Happy Iceland, releasing June 27th. We talked about her writing process, what inspired her trip to Iceland, what she learned about community and happiness, and the song she can’t stop listening to. What stayed with me afterward was her habit of noticing what she calls “simple delights” throughout her day.

What stayed with me was how simple and accessible the practice felt. I’ve dabbled in gratitude journaling over the years, but this felt slightly different. It wasn’t about documenting what I was thankful for; it was about paying attention. It asks you to be present enough to notice moments of joy, no matter how big or small they might be.

When I started thinking about the delights in my own life, they almost always centered on books or music. Sometimes it’s hearing the opening notes of a song I haven’t listened to in years. Sometimes it’s a sentence so good I stop reading and immediately reread it before writing it down in my journal, my Notes app, or the nearest notebook I can find. Sometimes I find myself so immersed in a story that an hour passes without me noticing. Other times, it’s dancing too hard in my living room after pressing shuffle on Spotify.

Lately I’ve been trying to pay closer attention to those moments. In the spirit of Anne Marie’s question, I put together a list of the book and music moments that have delighted me recently. I felt like this list could be excessive because, naturally, I tend to follow joy daily, so I stopped myself at under twenty things.

• The weather shifting just enough to let me read in my favorite location: in front of the window on my couch or on the floor.

• Running out of Spotify audiobook hours for the first time ever, after finally stopping waiting for perfect listening conditions.

• Finding 114 unread books on my bookshelf after reorganizing it for the first time in years. While excessive, I now have 114 new-to-me books I can read.

• Reading Good People by Patmeena Sabit and getting to talk about it with my friend for her podcast Bookwild.

• Falling deeper in love with Destin Conrad’s album wHIMSY!

• They All Fall in Love in the End by Halli Blessingame, a debut I didn’t want to put down.

• Watching the Earth, Wind & Fire documentary after reading Maurice White’s memoir. The memoir gave me the story, the documentary gave me the feeling. The story behind the song “Reason” surprised me.

• Revisiting this list of music focused books to read for Black Music Month (and this one as well).

• This passage from Kennedy Ryan’s new novel Score that I had to read twice:

  “Something we’re captive to, at the mercy of; our bodies so entangled it feels like our very souls are joined. The careful separations of commas and dashes and periods dissolve, and we are a run-on sentence. So caught up in right now untilwecannotdistinguishwhereoneendsandtheotherbegins.”

• Nick Young and Brandon Jennings dancing to Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat.” I really enjoy the joy people get from this song. Song of the summer contender for sure.

• Seeing Corinne Bailey Rae live last Tuesday performing songs from her debut album 20 years later. When I tell you my heart smiled, it would be an understatement. (I wrote about this album a few months ago, here)

What’s delighted you recently? Hit reply or leave a comment below. I’d love to know.

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A little bit more for this week

• If Sunday’s conversation is still with you: Anne Marie Wells’s debut travel memoir, Happy Iceland, is available for pre-order now and releases June 27th.

• The album that still holds up: Corinne Bailey Rae’s self-titled debut turns 20 this year and holds up completely.

• For when you want to go deeper on EWF: Maurice White’s memoir, My Life With Earth, Wind & Fire, is the context that makes everything else land differently.

• Finding happiness in simple moments: The full conversation with Anne Marie Wells is on the podcast now.

Those quiet moments and pockets of joy are exactly what author Anne Marie Wells set out to find when she boarded a plane to Iceland at 29, unemployed, and searching for something she couldn’t quite name yet. Instead of booking tours or following a guidebook, she walked up to a stranger in the airport and asked one simple question: what are your happiest memories here?

For five weeks she hitchhiked and backpacked across Iceland chasing the answers, from childhood sports fields and family farms to hidden waterfalls and the remote Highlands. Part adventure, part meditation on connection and joy, Happy Iceland, out June 27th from Star Belt Press, is a reminder that some of the best journeys begin when we slow down, actually listen, and find joy.

It took her ten years to write this book. And as she told me:

“You don’t know what you don’t know. You can’t really skip over it and then suddenly be a good writer. You have to just learn all of it slowly as you learn it and then apply it to your writing.”

In this conversation we talked about:

• What happiness actually looks like when strangers describe it out loud

• Why asking what delighted you lands differently than keeping a gratitude journal

• Learning to write a book from scratch, with no formal training, over ten years

• The confidence it takes to travel solo and trust strangers with your story

• The one song she’s had on repeat for months

You can listen to the interview on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts or Pocketcasts.

Listen/Watch Podcast on Spotify

Listen to Podcast on Apple

You can find Anne Marie on Instagram and order Happy Iceland now ahead of the June 27th release.

The question I asked Anne Marie at the end of our conversation was: what’s the one lesson about happiness from your trip that you’ve actually kept? Her answer was that happiness lives in other people, that connection is the through line no matter the setting. It’s not a new idea, but hearing it from someone who hitchhiked across Iceland asking strangers about joy for five weeks gives it a different kind of weight.

If this conversation sat with you, here are a few other things to explore:

If our conversation inspired you to read more, start with Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, a book about a woman who left without a plan and found something she wasn’t looking for.

Anne Marie quoted Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer in our conversation, the other side of the same journey: what happens when the search for meaning pulls you away from people instead of toward them.

Anne Marie has had RAYE’s “Suzanne” on repeat for months, and I had never heard the song before our conversation. Consider this your introduction.

The NYT interviewed Laurie Santos, the Yale professor behind the most popular college course ever taught on happiness, and separately published a piece on how to actually feel loved. Both are worth your time this week.

And if today’s conversation stayed with you, Anne Marie writes about the writing life, upcoming events, and submission tips over at her Substack.

Hi friends —

I must admit: I spent my writing time preoccupied with watching Jay Z’s performance at The Roots Picnic, and Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV and also making a summer playlist. I lost track of time, and feel comfort in knowing it happens to the best of us at times so this week I’m sha…

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Hi friends —

The holiday weekend was perfect. I spent the weekend napping, reading, and playing around with coffee since I got a new Nespresso machine. While quite an impulsive purchase, it was fun playing around with flavors to get the perfect cup.

On the reading front, I finally got to Kennedy Ryan's new novel, Score, and I loved it. It’s a second-chance romance between Verity Hill and Wright “Monk” Bellamy, two people who dated in college and never quite got over each other. More than a decade later, they’re commissioned to work together on a Harlem Renaissance biopic, the kind of project that could change everything for both of them. The question is whether they can put the past behind them for the sake of the film... and maybe for something more.

When I say I was kicking my feet and smiling while reading, that could be an understatement because I know I was doing the most. Kennedy has a way with words and crafts stories with complex themes woven within. Not only did I enjoy the characters and the story, but I also felt like I learned something about people and mental health.

Nonetheless, it was a great read, which made me think of a newsletter edition I wrote a few months ago about love deserving its soundtrack. In that piece, I wrote about the evolution of how Black people show up in romance novels, as well as the evolution of soul music, which was a beautiful element of Kennedy’s new book.

So instead of rewriting something with similar sentiments, I wanted to reshare that piece this week:

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In addition, here are a few things I thought were worth sharing this week:

🎧 Kennedy Ryan curated a playlist for Score, which you can find the songs here.

🔗 Also, if you have not, be sure to read her interview in The New York Times.

🔗 One of the people I miss the most, Barack Obama, on honoring the music that made us for Rolling Stone.

🎧 I have a literary crush on Jason Reynolds, so naturally I enjoyed his interview on Nina Westbrook’s Do Tell Relationship podcast.

🔗 I did both giggle and make a note at Bow Wow getting a Tiny Desk during Black Music Month.

🎧 If you haven’t yet, listen to my conversation with Carlie of She’s Becoming Bookish.

Also, I was on my friend ’s podcast discussing Patmeena Sabit’s debut novel, Good People. If you haven’t read the book, please do. In addition, please watch/listen to our conversation.

For this week’s newsletter, I have a fun interview with Carlie of one of my favorite YouTube channels, She’s Becoming Bookish.

Lately, I've been deep in my historical fiction era — and one of my friends suggested I check out Carlie's channel because she shares a lot of great historical fiction recommendations, along with so much more. I started watching her videos and immediately felt like I was hanging out with a friend. Carlie's personality comes through in every video, and her recommendations have already landed on my TBR list.

So naturally, I had to speak with Carlie for my newsletter.

In our conversation, we discussed a range of topics, including:

• How we each consume books and whether audiobooks really count — they do FYI

• What draws Carlie to historical fiction, especially stories centered on real women in history

• Her thoughts on ReShonda Tate’s novel, With Love from Harlem which I loved (watch my interview here)

• How she builds confidence on camera and why she made the pivot from TikTok to YouTube

• What books she’d hand to three different types of readers

• What music she thinks would actually make a great book

You can listen to the interview on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts or Pocketcasts.

Listen/Watch Podcast on Spotify

Listen to Podcast on Apple

Books mentioned in our conversation:

• With Love from Harlem by ReShonda Tate

• Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate

• Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray

• Still Life by Sarah Winman

• Angels of the Resistance by Noelle Salazar

• Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

• A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

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A little bit more for this week:

🔗 The Atlantic’s 2026 Summer Reading Guide - I have thoughts on this list, and my main thought is I’m not 100% sold on it but there are a few books I had on my TBR that are mentioned.

🔗 Giveon released his deluxe album for one of my favorite albums, Beloved, so I wrote about it and made a list of some books you should read in the same vein.

📚 Kennedy Ryan's Score: Her new book is out today and just ahead of the release, she announced a deal with Universal Studio Group to develop projects for Peacock, starting with Before I Let Go. I'm diving in this long weekend with my whole heart. Also, please just read the full interview — I loved the conversation.

📚 Famesick by Lena Dunham: I am currently reading Lena Dunham’s new memoir, and I must say I’m enjoying it. I’m reading it on my Kindle as well as listening to it, and I must say, one thing that I do enjoy is how open Lena is with what she shares. I think she’s always been very honest which people either love, or hate. Additionally, if you have not yet, I thought The New York Times Interview with Lena was good (also their UX has been so cool as of late).

🎧 Minnie Riperton’s Secret Symphony: is one of my favorite writers, and I loved reading this piece on Minnie Riperton’s background and her album Come to My Garden.

🎧 Patmeena Sabit on Politics and Prose Presents Podcast: I just finished reading Good People by Patmeena Sabit, and I must say, this is a book that will stick with me for a long time. I will more on that soon, but I thought this was a great conversation with her on the book, the setting and the story behind the book. Please if you have not, read this book.

That’s it for this week - I’ll catch you next week.

Happy Sunday.

Here I go again writing about Giveon and his album BELOVED, but on Friday, he released the second act of this album in the form of a deluxe with five new songs.

Typically, I’m slightly indifferent about deluxe albums unless they introduce another dimension to the original, and dare I say this one actually did.

The new tracks feat…

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This week’s newsletter is coming in on the mellow side, and honestly, mellow has been my mood as a whole lately. We celebrated my mom over the weekend, and somewhere in the middle of all of it I also deleted TikTok from my phone. As someone who works in social media and has genuinely found a healthy balance with it, I still somehow found myself deep in dash cam videos and body cam arrest footage at midnight. The tipping point was watching a woman get arrested at Ross because she wanted a discount. That was my cue to delete.

So this week, instead of a deep dive, I’m doing something I’ve been seeing all over and wanted to try for myself: last, current, and next for both reading and listening. Consider it a check-in. A look at what’s on the nightstand and in the headphones right now.

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THE BOOKS

Last: Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel

I have not stopped talking about this book since I finished it, and I’ll keep going. Enormous Wings follows Pepper Mills, a seventy-seven-year-old woman who, after a car accident, ends up living in a senior community where her ex-husband also happens to reside. She settles in, makes friends, falls for a new man, and then finds herself PREGNANT. Pepper lives in Austin, Texas, which adds a layer to the story that is very much of this moment, and Frankel doesn’t look away from it.

For me, what made this book work, is the quirkiness mixed with the weight of what was happening. It’s about female agency, about what happens when choices get made for you instead of by you, and about how love and friendship and family can still rearrange everything even late in the day.

Current: Good People by Patmeena Sabit

I’m about 40% in, and this book has not let me put it down. The story is told through interviews, assembling a portrait of the Sharaf family: wealthy, happy, a picture of immigrant success in an affluent Arlington, Virginia neighborhood. They arrived in this country with nothing and built what looks like everything. But something has happened to Zorah, the eldest daughter, the apple of her father’s eye, and the book asks you to sit with the question of what that something was.

I have a theory (I think I know what happened to Zorah, and it involves her father), but I’m not fully sure yet. What I love most is the structure: learning about this family through the eyes of neighbors, family friends, a department store owner. It’s intimate and unsettling in equal measure. I’ll report back when I finish.

I’m also doing a version of immersive reading with this one: listening to the audiobook and following along in print when I want to slow down. Highly recommend trying it if you haven’t. The audiobook has lots of different voices which as a somewhat green audiobook reader, I’m enjoying.

Next: Score by Kennedy Ryan

I must say, one of the books I’ve been most anxiously waiting for is Score by Kennedy Ryan. After completely falling in love with her writing through the Skyland series, I knew I needed more. This one is a second-chance romance, and if Ryan’s past work is any indication, I’m expecting all the tension, chemistry, and emotional dialogues — plus a fine man with a deep voice (which is exactly how I imagined Maverick and Judah in my head).

The book follows Verity and Monk, former college lovers whose breakup clearly left a lasting mark on both of them. More than a decade later, they’re reunited while working on a Harlem Renaissance biopic. She’s writing the script, and he’s creating the score. It’s very much about the aftermath of first love, old wounds, unresolved chemistry, and whether two people can really move past what happened between them.

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THE MUSIC

Last: Spring Playlist

Lately, I’ve been listening to a little bit of everything through my Spring playlist. It’s become a home for all the music I’ve been enjoying recently, from Little Brother and Durand Bernarr to Hayley Williams, Kehlani, and Larry June. It’s a solid mix, though I’ve admittedly put some of it on pause because of my current listens, which I’ll get into below.

Current: Mack Keane — Wide Eyed

I’m not sure how long I had been waiting for this album, but it was definitely a long time, and thankfully, it lives up to the anticipation. Wide Eyed is groovy from the very beginning, starting with the intro track, which immediately settles you into the album’s warm, late-night atmosphere. It’s not exactly a breakup album. It feels more like an album about living in the aftermath of your own bad decisions and figuring out what to do with them. There’s a level of self-awareness running through the project that keeps it grounded, while the production stays smooth and textured without ever feeling empty. It’s the kind of album that reveals something new with every listen.

Also in heavy rotation since Friday: Dedicated to Cadalee Biarritz (Deluxe) by Big K.R.I.T and CEREMONIAL by Black Milk.

Next: Giveon — Beloved Act II

If you’ve been here a while, you know how I feel about Beloved. It was my most played album last year. Giveon was my most played artist. Three songs from that album were in my top five of the year. So when I say I’m ready for Act II, I mean I’ve been ready.

Out Friday, the deluxe edition adds five new songs featuring Leon Thomas, Kehlani, Sasha Keable, and Teddy Swims, a lineup that should not work as well as I suspect it will. Giveon’s already previewed “JEZEBEL” and it is funky. It’s giving playa from the Himalayas, and he has on a mink. I don’t know why that’s exactly what I thought, but it is, and I stand by it.

A little bit more for this week:

• So far, as of one day, I think Pop Culture Jeopardy is already better on Netflix.

• If you missed last week’s newsletter, I had a great conversation with author Imani Thompson, who just released her debut novel Honey. You can read the conversation here.

• I also had a fun interview with author Randee Dawn about her new book, We Interrupt this Program, which you can listen to here.

Let know what’s currently on your last/current/next list!

Hi friends,

Before we get into today’s newsletter, I wanted to say Happy Mother’s Day to every mom, bonus mom, grandmother, godmother, aunt, and mother figure — every person who helped make up someone’s village.

As an only child, I grew up surrounded by women who poured into me constantly. My mom, my grandmother, my aunts, my older cousins — so much of wh…

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