Today’s Morning Buzz is brought to you by Dr. Sarah Story, Executive Director of the Jefferson County (Colorado) Public Health Department. Find her on LinkedIn, Medium, or Instagram.
What I’m watching: Sometimes when life is crazy, all you can do is re-binge an old favorite and settle in. Currently in our Brooklyn 99 era. I’ve got no patience or attention span these days for anything I haven’t already seen and laughed at.
What I’m listening to: I’ve especially enjoyed Las Cultaristas more than usual lately, because they’ve been recapping the latest season of The Morning Show (which yes, I know, breaks the rules I’ve laid out above about not watching anything new but I can NOT resist this show).
What I’m eating: I invented girl dinner. Pizza flavored Sardinian snack puffs from Trader Joes. Everything bagel dip. Smoked trout out of a tin. Very fat green olives.
There is something quite cringey about looking back on things you’ve written. Such was the case when I googled my Morning Buzz from one year ago. It’s like opening a time capsule to another version of myself – a woman who was still reeling a bit from life transitions coming at breakneck speed. 2022 was all about giving over my plans, resigned to the fact that there was no such thing as a dream job, perfectly content to take a background role and cultivate a vibrant life that had nothing to do with my paycheck. I could never have predicted how suddenly things would change for me.
As some of you know, I’m a big New Year’s person. Vision boards and whatnot. Solitude and contemplation in the longest dark days. For the last few years I’ve even chosen a “word of the year” as my north star. 2022 was “surrender” and 2023 was “wonder.” I wanted the year to be one of awe and curiosity. I wanted to wonder what would happen. I wanted beauty and joy. The small-mindedness of my dreams meant I was content to finally be an art museum docent and maybe slow down a bit on my dog walks.
But there were other (much bigger, more wondrous) things laying in wait for me. The Rocky Mountains in my backyard were waiting. A job that’s actually a calling was waiting. If you had sat me down on January 1st, 2023 and said, “by this time next year you will be leading a health department right outside of Denver, Colorado, and you will spend Thanksgiving morning hiking through the Red Rocks with your kids,” I would have lol’d right in your face. Colorado? No way. We always knew we would leave KCMO, but I assumed we would be back to California. New York, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago… heck, even Seattle would have been more believable. But that’s the funny thing about a legitimate sense of wonder – you really don’t know how the next chapter is going to end.
Even throughout this year of moving boxes, bubble wrap and altitude adjustment, I’ve managed to stay on track for my Goodreads Book Challenge. I’m currently mid-book on a couple titles and I’m positive I’ll hit my KPI of 50 books by New Year’s Eve. And as I mentioned last year, I’ve committed to using the library as much as possible, so my choices might be a bit outdated due to the waitlists for the good stuff. I think of all 50 books I’ll read this year, I bought one outright (Poverty, by America) and that was because I adore the author and want to pad his pockets.
And now, drum roll please… the Sarah Story 2023 Best in Books Awards! (Hmm, should I incorporate my last name more? The 2023 Sarah’s Stories Awards?)
RIP, Andre Braugher
Best Nonfiction Book that Made Me Look Very Smart While Reading in Public
Winner: Rough Sleepers, by Tracy Kidder
Honorable Mentions: Poverty, By America; Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty; Picasso’s War; How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
I’ll admit, this one is a bit of a biased choice because of my long history with Tracy Kidder. His book Mountains Beyond Mountains is the literary reason I’m even in public health. It was a chance encounter with the book in my Public Policy program, along with some very tough love from a professor (“if you don’t also study public health you would be an idiot”) that led me to rearrange all of my hopes and dreams to study how economic inequities get under our skin and make us sick. So a new Tracy Kidder book would have to be literal lorem ipsum to not win this coveted award. Lucky for me, though, this book was peak Kidder. Any nonfiction book (much like last year’s ultimate prize winner Invisible Child) that reads like a character-driven novel is my own personal catnip. I didn’t know when I read this book earlier in the year how important it would be for my work and how it would inspire me to shake up the way we do public health going into 2024. So funny that two Kidder books have had such a heavy impression on my career, and I’ve never even gotten to shake the man’s hand. Hmu if you have any Kidder connections.
Cotton Candy Covered in Glitter Award for Best Light Reading
Winner: Romantic Comedy, by Curtis Sittenfeld
Honorable Mentions: The One; Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice; Community Board; One of Us is Dead; You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty
I hate to admit that this might have been the hardest award to choose. I have a real weakness for easy books with easy problems. I don’t see these books as “less than” any other book. I see these books as a necessary component of a well-rounded life. That being said, I did read a lot of stupid books in this category that most definitely sounded like they were written by a beta version of ChatGPT. One book was so bad, I hate-finished it just so I could rate it on Goodreads. That’s what makes authors like Curtis Sittenfeld so refreshing – she’s a stellar writer who seems to love her characters and resists the urge to create one-dimensional heroes or villains. Sittenfeld is lucky, though, that I didn’t actually finish Book Lovers by Emily Henry due to a mishap at the pool lending library this summer, where the copy I had checked out got dropped into the water and was never replaced. That book was so delicious that I was purposefully only reading it when I was at my gym pool so it would last me all summer. I’m currently on a 20-week wait list (still) at the library, so keep an eye out for Ms. Henry in December of 2024.
(Bonus points to Sittenfeld for setting her book in an SNL-type writers room. I can’t get enough of the behind the scenes of sketch comedy and vicarious living in New York City.)
The “Crying in H Mart” Award for Best Non-Hollywood Memoir or Essay Collection
Winner: Stay True, by Hua Hsu
Honorable Mentions: The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening; The Man Who Could Move Clouds; Happy-Go-Lucky
There’s a quote I heard recently – potentially attributed to Fran Lebowitz – that goes something like, “if you’re thinking of writing a memoir…don’t.” How many people have you met who swear they lead an interesting enough life to be memoir-able? So many. Too many. This is the misconception about good memoirs, that your LIFE has to be interesting. It’s not about whether your life is or was compelling, it’s about whether YOU are compelling as a writer or storyteller. Hua Hsu mastered this. Sometimes his writing made me angry or cynical, other times I wept. I veered back and forth between eye-rolling at his centering himself in a tragedy, to identifying intimately with his need to matter in the story. My relationship with the book was complicated, as all good reader/writer dyads should be in memoir-land. The arc of the tragic story in this book is short, but the fuzzy edges around it are where Hsu shines most. His young self isn’t particularly likable or extraordinary, but he’s funny and honest, even when he lacks a bit of self-awareness. (The very Bay Area details from the time period are a bonus.)
The A24 Award for Best Fiction Book that Leaves You Unsettled
Winner: Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
Honorable Mentions: The Vaster Wilds; Trust; Nightbloom; Lone Women
The nominees in this category are the books I read about in the New York Times, as opposed to the books I read about in People Magazine. These are the books that I am likely to throw across the room because either I don’t understand them (see also: Hell of a Book from 2022’s list) or I’m frustrated I will never write a book this good. These are book throwers’ books. These are the books that make you shimmy when you realize that ACKKK PART ONE WAS A BOOK WITHIN A BOOK (I see you Trust)!
Demon Copperhead had me feeling everything, especially because this brand of poverty in this type of community can be hard to capture without caricature. This book made me feel achy in my bones, often whispering as I was reading, “oh honey, don’t do that.” This book was a visceral read.
(Also I’m the idiot who didn’t realize it’s a retelling of David Copperfield until THREE WEEKS AFTER I FINISHED THE BOOK.)
The Matthew McConaughey Award for Best Celebrity Memoir Audiobook Narrated by the Celebrity
Winner: Activate Your Greatness, by Alex Toussaint
Honorable Mention: Hello, Molly
You cannot convince me that Alex Toussaint the Peloton instructor is NOT a celebrity, and so my favorite fitness motivator takes home the coveted prize. Now, if “My Name is Barbra” wasn’t 48 hours and I had finished it in time, Alex would have had some stiff competition.
There is nothing groundbreaking about the writing of this book. It is an inspirational, enjoyable life story of someone I admire. It touches on some hard issues, and much like Mr. McConaughey’s Greenlights, it’s the perfect book to listen to if you’re on a hike or doing the dishes. I choose these types of books for the narrator, not necessarily the story. Case in point, I recently checked out a memoir by a member of congress whose life story I am super curious about, only to realize that their narration was so grating and whiny that I returned the book early and couldn’t keep going. I’ll choose a smooth voice and six hours of motivational phrases over an indignant-sounding narrator and 10 hours of American history any day.
And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…
The Sobbing in Costco Award for Book of the Year!
Winner: The Woman in Me, by Britney Spears
I must start by saying that I am not a Britney stan. I am about the same age as Ms. Spears, and so I feel more like we grew up together, rather than me looking up to her as a teen. I wasn’t heavily invested in the Free Britney movement, but if there’s anything I love more than a celebrity memoir, it’s a celebrity memoir that confirms my hunch that Justin Timberlake sucks.
It wasn’t until I realized Spotify had audiobooks that I decided to jump in and see what all the fuss was about. (If it weren’t for Spotify’s new audiobook push, I’d still be on the waitlist for this book at the library until mid-2024.) I’m so glad I opted for the audio version, narrated in an Oscar-worthy performance by Michelle Williams. There is no way that I would have experienced this book the way I did without the nuanced way she delivered the story. Truly the best I’ve ever heard.
But this award goes further than that. This book is sad. This book is also joyful. It’s hopeful, and yet tinged with more sadness because we know that a lot happened between publication and now. In one chapter we can experience the glee of a hangout sesh with Madonna, and in the next we feel the weight of Britney’s postpartum depression. We know that stories are often in the eye of the beholder, but there’s something so real and raw and honest in this book, we just can’t help but want to cry.
More than anything, this book hit a nerve of terror common to many women I know… that one day enough people would conspire to label us “crazy” and threaten to take away all of the things we hold dear. This is a real-life horror movie – doctors on abusers’ payrolls, kids being held as leverage, being forced into rehab even though you aren’t addicted, your husband Kevin Federline releasing a rap song. This book was more than sad or funny… it was SCARY.
So yes, I sobbed in Costco in a back corner near the eggs as I listened to Michelle Williams as Britney talk about the lengths to which a desperate mother will go to see her kids. I sobbed retelling parts of the books to friends and coworkers; it hit me that hard. But I also can’t stop thinking about Justin Timberlake running into Ginuwine on the street and the impression Michelle Williams did of the moment, and this makes me laugh. This gift of a buffet of feelings from Britney Spears – we do not deserve it. We did her wrong and we should all be ashamed.
***
On a lighter note, I hope you all have the happiest of winter holidays. How lucky are we to live in a world where we have access to Pulitzer Prize winners, beach reads, historical fiction, AND celebrity tell-alls?!? As I start to build my list for 2024, I welcome any and all suggestions – I’ll try any genre once, so give me your best and brightest!
