This week I read Well-Read Black Girl edited by Glory Edim. It’s an anthology of essays written by black women about discovering themselves in literature and what that meant to them. The collection is wonderful, touching, delightful, and reiterates how much representation matters — be it in literature, pop culture, whatever.

Booknerds, you’ll love it. If your reading list is still shamefully white like mine, you’ll be introduced to a whole bunch of books and women you should be reading.

This book set me up to be even more receptive than I would be to this conversation between Hannah Gadsby and Roxane Gay. I feel so seen. I could weep from the recognition. Some of these quotes from Roxane Gay feel like they could be paraphrased from our last Rock & Roll Bookclub conversation.

“Not a day goes by where someone doesn’t stare at me. And now, I have to ask, what are they staring at? Are they staring at my height? Well, maybe. Are they staring at my weight? Absolutely.”

“I have a woman’s body. I get called Sir, every day.”

“There’s always something. When you’re not what people expect from a woman, they’re always going to be angry about it.”