"So, what is it about me that you don't like about yourself?" 😂

On needing older, unlikable women…

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Hello, Lovelies. How the hell are you?

So, I’ve been here in Cambridge, quietly immersing myself in the back-office trenches for Empress Editions—think warehousing, fulfillment, and navigating the labyrinth of Teamsters bureaucracy. Fun fact: nothing gets done without the Teamsters. And they eat sandwiches. Lots of them. Hard-earned sandwiches. If you see a Teamster, buy her or him a sandwich and say thank you because they are literally the reason that anything and everything happens in America.

I also had another crazy thing happen last night. We had a fire in our building and everyone had to evacuate in their PJs amid the wild Arctic blast. You know how you always think when a fire alarm goes off that it’s just some idiot who’s burnt a pizza again—THIS was an actual fire where Boston’s Finest had to come with AXES and things! I wanted to take a selfie, but I was too much in AWE. They moved past us like the dudes from Game of Thrones or like Jedis. They had serious HEFT with all their gear, but I was like HOLY Cats, if this isn’t some crazy masculine rescue juju, I don’t know what is! They were fast too. Our floor was back in bed in no time.

They were like THIS but with tidy haircuts and helmets!

Meanwhile, Empress Editions officially opened for submissions on January 1. It feels somehow very right that we should be founded amid the Daughters of Revolution.

And today… we also acquired the World Rights to Unfixed by Kimberly Warner, set to release in bookstores everywhere on October 14, 2025.

When I first read Kimberly Warner’s memoir last year, I was struck by its cinematic depth and the way its storylines unfolded with the precision of a limited series. Unfixed weaves together two mysteries running on parallel timelines, powered by two richly layered characters in profound internal conflict. The heart of the narrative is as emotionally gripping as it is intellectually stimulating—where yearning curiosity collides with the fear and delight of uncovering truths about one’s parentage.

With a narrative essence reminiscent of Noah Hawley’s Fargo infused with the haunting, folk-mystery undertones of Where the Crawdads Sing, Kimberly’s storytelling is further elevated by her intimate portrayal of living with chronic illness.

For me personally, this memoir hit home in an extraordinary way. As someone navigating the relentless uncertainty of chronic illness, Kimberly’s reflections on her body and mind as unreliable allies mirrored my own experience of falling—always falling—through the liminal space of midlife. Her voice, much like Dani Shapiro’s in Inheritance, is one we’re honored to amplify through Empress Editions. To get your copy and some treats—

Suffice it to say, it’s been busy here, so when the firemen woke me up last night, ghaaaagh, I was pretty punchy.

“Ditch the perfect. Don’t overthink the happy.” —Kimberly Warner

But, let’s talk about the Golden Globes—the dick pic of awards season.

Every Globes awards dinner always teeters on the edge of becoming an Albee play after a round or two of cocktails. But this year, something felt… different. Sure, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (or whatever they’re calling themselves now) is still a ridiculous, opaque institution no one fully understands, but the vibe shifted.

Enter Nikki Glaser, who gave us a surgical roast of Hollywood’s ego parade, complete with a deep-cut System of a Down joke about Glenn Close—objectively miraculous. Still, the real stars were the award choices.

For me, the night’s pièce de résistance was not a three-hour epic about architecture. It wasn’t even Demi Moore’s comeback, but rather, Jessica Gunning. She edged out Allison Janney (The Diplomat), Liza Colón-Zayas (The Bear), Hannah Einbinder (Hacks), Dakota Fanning (Ripley), and Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country) to snag the win for her searing, downright feral portrayal of Martha in Baby Reindeer—the series adaptation of Richard Gadd’s real-life stalking nightmare.

Gunning’s Martha is not someone you want to sit next to at brunch. She radiates hot-stove intensity—a profoundly unlikable midlife character who makes you uncomfortable in your own skin. And yet, you can neither dismiss her as a flat-out villain nor look away. Through Martha, Gunning drags us into the jagged terrain of mental illness and the excruciating inconsistencies of being human and desperately lonely. Martha’s story of borderline personality disorder and erotomania is one utterly bereft of belonging, which makes her strangely riveting.

Unlikable women, the Marthas of the world, are often verboten in the stories we sell in the room in Hollywood. They’re too grim, too complicated, too much. They’re not relatable. But I think these are, in certain ways, the stories we need: the messy, maddening, impossible ones.

“So, what is it about me that you don’t like about yourself?”

My eldest daughter used to ask me this question. It would stop me in my tracks. Mostly because she was nine. But also because, although aspects of her neurodiversity made our lives absurdly challenging—there is nothing I don’t love about her and there is plenty I would fix about myself. I also think she was trying to encourage me to write less likable characters—to let them live and breathe in a more welcoming world. Because unlikable women remind us how to be human. They teach us to let go of our relentless drive for perfection and embrace radical compassion—not just for others, but for our imperfect, wildly messy selves.

In the meantime, Hollywood isn’t exactly known for being generous to women in midlife, but this year’s Golden Globes offered a somewhat refreshing exception. The red carpet saw showstopping moments from Nicole Kidman (57), Viola Davis (59), and a radiant, makeup-free Pamela Anderson (57). Even more remarkable, five of the seven Best Actress awards went to women over 40. Among them was Demi Moore, who snagged her first major acting honor at 62 for her role in the film The Substance—a biting twist of irony, given that she played a “fading Hollywood star” unceremoniously ousted from her TV gig after turning (ahem) 50.

Could things be shifting? Debatable. In the words of

Jill Krajewski

“as thrilled as I am to see older women from Demi Moore to Nicole Kidman have sustained careers (a welcome change in Hollywood!), I’m bothered by the implicit “as long as you spend thousands of dollars to still look young” It’s kind of a crock, no?

The Weekly Doofus

Still Hollywood.

And Now… Marvelous Misc.

Woody Guthrie’s 1943 Resolutions

It’s hard to compete with Woody Guthrie’s timeless list of New Year resolutions from 1943, which includes these ever-relevant goals:

Work more and better.

Read lots of good books.

Keep the hoping machine running.

Help win war – beat fascism.

Wake up and fight.

Music League

Have any of you tried this? Just curious.

Blending music discovery and creative competition, Music League helps you discover new music, share your favorites, and play against your friends. Feels like a gamified Letterboxd or Draft Kings meets music…?

An Embroidery Journal

Since January 2020, Sophie O’Neill has been keeping an embroidery journal. Each day, she sews an “icon” to represent that day’s memories and events.

“I embroider an icon every day,” Sophie says. “So at the end of this year, I’ll have 366 icons.” The 29-year-old has now embroidered more than 1,800 one-pence-coin-sized symbols to represent every stage of her life over the past five years. A self-taught seamstress, she picked up the craft in 2019 when looking for a new hobby.

But as for her embroidery journal, Sophie said: “I had just started a new job and I thought it would be a really cool way to track everything I learned throughout the year.”

O’Neill also keeps track of the books she reads by filling in an embroidered bookshelf. You can keep up with her activities on The Stir-Crazy Crafter and Instagram. If you’d like to try your hand at embroidery journaling, O’Neill sells a kit on Etsy.

A Melange of Marvelous…

A few more treasures to get you through the Arctic Blast:

1. In Consolations II, David Whyte returns with fifty-two brief, “elegant meditations on a single word ranging from ‘Anxiety’ to ‘Body’, ‘Freedom’, ‘Shame’, and ‘Moon’. He embraces their nuances, amplitudes, and depths, and, in doing so, confronts realities that many of us would spend a lifetime trying to avoid.”

2. This feather-weight cashmere from Quince is such a deal!

3. These sneakers are way beyond my budget, but I do love the color for winter.

4. This cocofloss tastes like a cupcake every time you floss—kids adore it.

5. I am doing a ton of swimming this winter and this is the least embarrassing of all the suits and it’s not a million dollars.

6. This is my effort to fit in with the kids here. Plus, I just needed many more long-sleeved T-shirts because it’s cold as hell!

7. Anyone who knows me knows that I covet Toteme black leather riding boots with a gray sweater dress—that is my midlife uniform (when not stuck out in the country).

8. Now that I am back within walking distance of Kiehl’s—life has returned! With Midnight Recovery Cleansing Oil… It’s so good.

Brain Candy!

A new puzzle… See you in about five years?

In Wordfall, players are presented with a seven-letter word and must use six of the letters to make another word, then a five-letter word, then four, then three. Letters can only be used once per word, “dead end” words that are in the dictionary but don’t allow the game to be completed turn orange, and words that work turn green. Try it here.

By the way, has anyone tried Hardle? If someone can explain to me how it works, please do! It has seriously broken my brain.

Also, did you know if you enjoy crossword puzzles, you are a cruciverbalist? I think that’s hot.

Best Zinger:

Today the words of Jack Whitehall are ringing ever so true for me: “I’m sure wherever my Dad is, he’s looking down on us. He’s not dead, just very condescending.”

That’s what I got this week! Yours in mittens - xoxo - gotham girl

PS - I am a human typo. Amnesty appreciated.

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