play it as it lays – ashley bethard

11 books I read and loved in 2019

on December 19, 2019December 19, 2019 By Ashley Bethard

I love sharing what I love. It should come as no surprise that I relish the thought of books-as-medicine, and if you've got an ill of the heart, I've got a reading recommendation to treat you. To clarify, that is less about appropriating a metaphor and more toward speaking about the power of books in [...]

Everything goes.

on December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 By Ashley Bethard 1 Comment

Right now I am re-reading Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays," a novel she wrote in 1970, and one I return to every year or every other year. One thing that fascinates me this time around is how masterful she is at structure. I think it's something I missed before, how deliberate she was. [...]