The Process of Change is Ugly
Time to rip our bushes out and plant flowers.
This past weekend I wrestled with a bush. Three bushes, actually.
Fueled by stubbornness and a vision of hydrangeas, I sawed through the dense root system of the six-foot tall unidentified bushes in our front garden that have been bothering me for years. They’re ugly, difficult to prune, and they drop a blanket of seeds that have to be hand-plucked once they sprout.
There’s currently two gaping holes of exposed dirt in the aftermath because I still need to buy top soil, compost, and mulch. The space is going to look a whole lot worse before it gets better.
Now that my hydrangeas have arrived, I’m extra motivated to push this process along. They’re only quart sized, which means they’re going to look tiny in this open space until they’ve had a chance to grow and fill in.
Once they’re five feet tall and gloriously in bloom, I’m going to be thrilled that I did the grunt work of hauling out these big bushes and planting something new. But right now, this in-between phase is awkward, like when you decide to grow out your hair and reach that weird inflection point.
Going from a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly is an ugly process, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t wrestle with our bushes and plant beautiful flowers in their place.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo
This week, I devoured The Favorites by Layne Fargo. You don’t have to be an ice skating fanatic to enjoy this book (I’m not). The drama is juicy and tense with relentless twists and turns throughout the book.
Ice dancers Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha have known each other since their tumultuous childhoods in a Chicago suburb next to Lake Michigan. To escape their turbulent lives, they cling strongly to each other and to their dream of being Olympic skaters.
Their partnership comes to a shocking end after an unexpected event at the Olympic Games. As an unauthorized documentary is released on the ten-year anniversary of their final skate together, Kat reemerges to tell her story in her own words. The truth is even more scandalous than the rumors.
I don’t get emotionally involved in every book I read, but this one had me feeling all the emotions: anger, sadness, anticipation, sympathy. I felt on edge during their biggest skating competitions, a tension I don’t even feel for real-life sports. Before I knew it, it was almost 1 a.m. and my husband was asking me why I was up so late.
In addition to the story itself, the author does a great job of weaving together bigger narratives of celebrity culture in the 2000s, the all-consuming lifestyle of becoming an Olympic athlete only to be obsolete by your mid-twenties, and the different ways we treat male and female athletes. She does it without preaching about it, which has become an irritant of mine in recently published books.
I’m bursting at the seams to discuss the ending with someone!
Other Things I’m Reading
Amazon strikes again: Yesterday was Independent Bookstore Day, and Amazon just so happened to host its second annual book sale during the same time.
YA literature is on the decline. Where are this generation’s The Hunger Games, The Giver, or The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? Surprisingly, the CW might’ve been the hero we didn’t know we needed. The heyday of YA books and CW shows coincided with each other as the network adapted so many YA novels into popular tv series.
Chronic oversharer Camille Charrière just signed a book deal for her memoir. Releasing in February of 2026, Ashamed is a deeply honest memoir about female friendships, social media addiction, fertility, and more. I love reading about book deals because I always learn a new term about the publishing industry. This time it was “24-hour pre-empt.” It means a publisher knocked out the competition by making a high-enough offer within 24 hours of receiving a submission to prevent it from going to auction.
Books I Added To My TBR List
Fish Tales by Nettie Jones: A party girl travels between New York City and the affluent Black community of Detroit. There’s champagne, cocaine, and a fight for dominance with a handsome and cruel man.
I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying by Youngmi Mayer: A memoir from a standup comedian about growing up as an offbeat biracial kid in Saipan.
Riders by Jilly Cooper: A raunchy British romance novel with a ridiculous cover about the scandalous world of equestrian show jumping.
Your new favorite book is waiting for you! Browse categorized book recommendations from me here.
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