Hi friends —
For this week’s newsletter, I am excited to share an interview with Leonor Mamanna, who writes one of my favorite newsletters, Leave It to Leonor.
I have been reading Leonor’s newsletter for a long time, almost 200+ editions, I think. For me, this tells me two things: first, wow, time flies when you’re reading well, and second, Leonor has the consistency I aspire to.
Leonor started her newsletter in August 2016, ten years ago this year, and what began as a place to share what she was reading, watching, and loving has grown into one of the most reliably good things in my inbox week after week. By day, Leonor works as a visuals director and has been the person behind the Instagram account for the novel A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
Leonor has been reading all her life—devouring Babysitters Club, borrowing books from her aunt, and even reading VC Andrews at a young age. The House on Mango Street was the first book that truly reflected her and her family, shaping her reading journey.
We bonded over our love of Amy Poehler’s podcast, Good Hang. In our conversation, we covered a range of topics, including:
How did Leave It to Leonor evolve from a simple link roundup into the essay-and-recommendations format it is today?
The way her day job as a visuals director shapes how she curates and what she looks for when she’s putting the newsletter together
Our years of being chronically online: Livejournal, Myspace, Geocities
Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, her dream guest list, and why Tracee Ellis Ross needs to be on it immediately
Reading three books at a time without losing the thread, and her two current recommendations: The Safekeep (go in blind) and The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy.
The A Little Life Instagram, Book Face Fridays, and what eleven years of watching people rediscover a book looks like up close
Below you will find a few links to things mentioned in our conversation. You can listen to the interview on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts or Pocketcasts.
Subscribe it to Leave it to Leonor
Books mentioned in this episode:
Good Hang episodes we referenced:
A little bit more for this week:
🎵 Jessie Ware released her sixth album, Superbloom, on Friday, and I love it. To know me is to know that Jessie is my girl, and one of the things I appreciate most about her music is how she constantly evolves her sound. I’ll be writing more about this album for my Sunday newsletter, but please listen to it.
🔗 Imperfect Women is keeping me on my toes and here is an interview with the cast. If you’re watching it, let’s discuss, please.
🔗 My gal Andrea Brown wrote a great piece about why the Dallas Wings were right to shutdown the questions around Azzi Fudd’s relationship with Paige Bueckers.
🔗 If you have seen The Drama and/or having followed the career of Zendaya, I thought this was an interesting perspective from Doreen St. Felix for The New Yorker.
📺 Enjoyed watching this conversation with Jill Scott and Tyler the Creator so much.
📺 As someone on social media, and someone who works in social media, I really enjoyed KevOnStage’s interview on Cam Newton’s podcast. Cam asked good questions which… also has me flabbergasted.
📺 I know that Emma Grede has ruffled some feathers on her press tour for her new book, Start With Yourself, about WFH and motherhood, but I must admit I have been enjoying it. Here are a few of her tour stops that I enjoyed: Joe Budden podcast, She’s So Lucky Podcast, Baby it’s Keke Palmer Podcast and Monica Lewinsky’s podcast.
Well that’s it for this week. I’ll catch you on Sunday!
