Happy Birthday To Very Breezy! (+ February Book Report)

time flies when you've got things to obsess over

Hi there! Very Breezy is turning exactly one year old this week (!!!), so you get 3 newsletters to celebrate - an Ann Patchett/Girls mash-up that went out mid-week (and is already the most read newsletter I ever sent), this to-be-expected February book report, and before Sunday night, you’ll get my (now annual!) Academy Awards rant (last year’s lives here - it is fun to revisit because a. these movies already feel SO long ago, and b. I am wrong about most things, but also VERY RIGHT about them on a very fundamental level, and that brings me comfort).

Also, now that I have proven to myself that I can actually write a newsletter regularly again (We’re 49 newsletters in! Still averaging a 70%+ open rate! Basically ready for content (Jr.) Olympics over here!), my medium-to-big dream is to be able to write MORE in 2025 which does mean ideally more hanging out here and less on zoom meetings, so if you have it in you to: spread the word about Very Breezy and/or subscribe in a non-free manner, I’d be eternally grateful (and will stop talking about this immediately, I’m already embarassed - but in the immortal words of SZA and Keke Palmer in 2025’s first actually good comedy - “People always act crazy on the 1st of the month”. Happy March!)

Now, back to regularly scheduled business!

Things I read in February 2025!

9 books!

The year of reading abundance continues! (also now known as the year of “avoiding reality through reading”, but either way!)

Disclaimer: this month wasn’t QUITE as filled with effusive recommendations as January, but if you persevere to the end of the book recap, three AMAZING books I’d recommend to literally anyone and everyone await.

The Ones About Love

The Light We Lost - Jill Santopolo - This was our neighborhood book club/Valentine’s day month pick, and I hate to say it - I didn’t care for it. It was a big hit when it came out, Reese picked it, people LOVED IT, and

Becca Freeman

(who is as close to someone I’m going to come to trusting on romances having steered my toward Katherine Center a while back) noted that there’s a very anticipated sequel coming - but I felt it was sort of an empty, non-decisive story of codependency and privilege. I am also very down for romance recommendations because I do want to get into the genre - so if you have any, please comment away?

An American Marriage - Tayari Jones - To balance out the “Light We Lost” raging, jarring privilege, and also to fulfill my 2025 monthly goal of reading at least one “NY Times Best Books Of The Century”, I picked up a 6+ year old hardcover of “An American Marriage” (#77 on the list) which has been sitting on my shelf alongside other critically acclaimed books I fear are too heartbreaking for me to deal with (see: “A Little Life”, “Shuggie Bain”, “Pachinko” “Prophets” etc). It is a story of Celestial and Roy - a young, gorgeous, successful couple, who are faced with a truly devastating turn of events not even two years into their marriage. Roy is accused of a crime he didn’t commit and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Celestial is left with a life that was just about to blossom and an uncertain future. Black love and the American dream, the nature of how this country works, and the way attraction and love and trust ebb and flow in our lives all feature prominently and so much has been written about this book already, (almost all extremely superlative), it feels almost superfluous to add to it but … I liked it but didn’t love it? Maybe it actually wasn’t heartbreaking enough? (is that even a thing?). The connection between Roy and Celestial never felt TRULY deep (unlike some of the other relationships in the book - of Roy’s parents, etc) and so this felt more like a sense-of-duty, endurance-of-character study than a true love-and-life-against-all-odds story, which is, I think, what I was expecting. But definitely worthy of time, and I do keep thinking about the ending. Have you read it? What did you think?

The Ones About The Game Of Life

You’re Embarrassing Yourself - Desiree Akhavan - I love an witty-but-heartfelt essay collection by strong women and it has been a minute since I read one. So, to scratch that itch, I picked this collection about growing up queer and sort-of-ungainly and Iranian, and the aftermath of it all as it translates to one’s art. I have not seen any of Akhavan’s movies or TV (though I now plan to) - but the book felt incredibly relatable even though it was extremely specific at the same time and made me want to be her friend, which is really the best outcome a book of witty-but-heartfelt essays can hope for.

The Husbands - Holly Gramazio - A woman comes home from a night out to find a husband walking down from the attic. The catch: she doesn’t have a husband. The catch to the catch: if a husband goes up to the attic, a different husband will come down every time. Now, this is a fun premise, and I liked the lead character Lauren, but at some point all the husband switcheroo-ing it got VERY exhausting (maybe the point?) and the soul searching felt very young (also maybe the point?). Fun, but not amazing (though, clearly people adore this book - it definitely featured on the “Books YOU Recommended The Most in 2024” list etc)

The Thrillers

Still See You Everywhere - Lisa Gardner - Lisa Gardner is as blue chip of a thriller writer as it comes - extremely capable, reliable, and not afraid to go places one ends up going when you’ve written dozens of thrillers and are looking for new ground. I love her Detective D.D. Warren series, and this is my first Frankie Elkin, rogue missing-person finder one, and again - it was ok? The premise involves a convicted (gorgeous, female, Native Hawaiian) serial killer known as “The Beautiful Butcher” asking Elkin to go to an abandoned island where her Elon Musk-y former boyfriend is maybe grooming / maybe already abusing her younger sister, because she hopes to be reunited before she is executed. Things get dark (both psychologically and nature-wise) and claustrophobic and triple-crossy, but the pay-off was not quite there in a way I’ve come to expect from Gardner.

When No One’s Watching - Alyssa Cole - Now, this one was a BANGER. It won an Edgar award for best paperback original, and rightfully so, and is terrifying on par with the best of Ira Levin (think: “Rosemary’s Baby”, “Stepford Wives” etc), plus hits so so so close to home in terms of gentrification, white entitlement, black flight, etc. Truly a perfect Black History Month book, even if it is set in a not-so-speculative parallel universe.

The Stone Cold Genius Ones

Beautyland - Mary-Helene Bartino - THIS BOOK! It is a miracle! I have been circling around it for a minute but finally reading this effusive recommendation:

Most Likely to be Read in 25 Years
Wept, laughed, spilled ocean water on it as I read this on the beach, then read aloud passages from it to whoever would listen. This book is about looking, witnessing, paying attention, being alive, and being human. It’s also weird and ambitious as hell and set (partially) in Philly.

in

Emma Copley Eisenberg

year end book superlatives, I went for it.

And I am so glad I did. Around the time Voyager 1 makes its way into outer space, a girl alien, Adina Giorno, is transported to Earth via her mother’s uterus and proceeds to witness and report on the world around her with charm, pizzazz, emotion and humor. You’ve never read anything like this before: it is so special and soul-fortifying, it should be required reading for anyone that cares about books and feelings.

The Rich People Have Gone Away - Regina Porter - I am doing this new thing where I just walk into the library and pick a book up that I’ve never heard of (in an attempt to escape my own personal bookstagram echo chamber hell). And so far it is working. In January, it led me to the miracle of “Strangers I Know” and now this. I’ve never heard of Porter, but both Brian Washington AND Gary Steyngart were all about her and her book in the blurbs in the back, and I love both of them - so, boom. This is a NY novel, and a pandemic novel, and sort of a “Gone Girl” crossed with “Our Country Friends” narrative - equal parts darkly humorous and deadly serious. Every character feels fully fleshed out and real (even if they themselves struggle with their identities), and the multiple POV is riveting - you genuinely care about what is about to happen next. I have already bought Porter’s other book “The Travelers” and am starting a mini campaign to get everyone excited about her. Any authors/books you feel are going undersevedly under-hyped you’d wish to recommend?

Entitlement - Rumaan Alam - OK, on the topic of over/under hype: as much as I loved “Leave The World Behind” (and I am here for the movie too - Ethan Hawke was BORN to play that role), I did feel it was a little over-exposed/everywhere. And in the same vein, I feel that “Entitlement” was not hyped enough. I have not felt so gut punched by a book in a minute. It juxtapozes two very NY lives: Brooke, 33 and a black adopted daughter of an upper middle class white mother, is working at a new foundation helping an octogenerian billionaire give away his wealth (but maybe not all of it? those darn billionaires these days!). The “plot” is more a vehicle for character development: Brooke and the billionaire form a bond, anchored in the fact that both of them are looking to get SOMETHING out of it, while not willing to reveal themselves fully. What could go wrong? Obviously, a fair amount. The events are quite frustrating and no one is likable at all, but the writing is elegant and to-the-point and I absolutely LOVED IT and couldn’t put it down. Have you read it? Did you like it?

And I think that is it? Some real winners, but also more so-so’s than I’d like.

I have not been watching MUCH aside from obviously “All Creatures Great And Small” and getting caught up on award bait - but I am hoping to change all that in March (to include a mandatory White Lotus binge)

Thank you for making it all the way down here. See you soooooooon!