*The Visit to the Nursery,* c. 1775, Jean Honoré Fragonard

Happy Friday, readers!

I was so glad to hear your positive response last week to this experimental newsletter format. Let’s roll with it for a while and see what happens!

What’s on tap this week:

A review of the perfect complement to The Frozen River
A reading rec for your Super Bowl weekend
February new releases I’m excited about
5 Things: Links and Opinions

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A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Ariel Lawhon’s The Frozen River has been a bestseller since hitting shelves just over a year ago. It’s shown up on tons of “Best Of” lists, including multiple discussion threads here on Read More Books. That great novel tells a fictionalized version of the life of Martha Ballard, an 18th-century midwife who delivered hundreds of babies from her home base of Hallowell, Maine. In the end notes, I was thrilled to see that Lawhon cited A Midwife’s Tale, a 1990 Pulitzer-winning history, as her inspiration.

Given my own Pulitzer Project, I knew moving A Midwife’s Tale to the top of my list would make for the perfect pairing.

Using Ballard’s diary, which had previously been given scant attention by historians, Ulrich paints a picture of day-to-day domestic life during the Revolutionary Era. As a midwife, Ballard actually performed a number of functions basically amounting to being a general practitioner and counselor in addition to her gynecological role.

Each chapter features an excerpt from the journal, setting up an exploration of a specific facet of daily life — medicine, religion, politics, crime, love, sex. It may sound dry, but I promise it’s not. I was fascinated from start to finish.

If you enjoyed The Frozen River and want to learn about the real story — which is nearly as dramatic at times — Laurel Thatcher Ulrich A Midwife’s Tale is an accessible, enjoyable book that very much deserves wider awareness.

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In the News: Super Bowl LIX

This section offers a book recommendation based on recent headlines, to help you make sense of the world with a bit more depth and context rather than just clickbait.

Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger

Though Buzz Bissinger’s classic 1990 book is about high school football, it’s easily the best book I’ve read about the gridiron. Bissinger goes well beyond the sport itself, diving into the town’s culture and the lives of the players/coaches to get at the very heart of why football can be more than just a game. It’s a must-read if you’re at all a fan of sports stories.

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February Releases I’m Excited About

Somewhere Toward Freedom by Bennett Parten — A short but potent re-appraisal of Sherman’s March to the Sea. I’ve already read it and it’s fantastic.
Lorne by Susan Morrison — I’ve loved SNL since I was a kid and I’m really looking forward to this big bio of its beloved and enigmatic creator.
Presidents at War by Steven Gillon — I’m a nerd for POTUS books. This one looks at how WWII shaped a generation of presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to George H. W. Bush.
Beartooth by Callan Wink — Mysteries and thrillers with an atmospheric outdoorsy setting are right up my alley. This one is set just up the road from us in Yellowstone.
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks — I’m not generally one to read memoirs centered on grief, but I’ve long been a fan of Geraldine Brooks’s novels as well as her late husband’s (Tony Horwitz) books. I may give this one a shot.

5 Things: Links and Opinions

🐉 Rebecca Yarros’ Onyx Storm is the fastest-selling adult title in over two decades, racking up nearly 3 million sales in its first couple weeks. Regardless of your thoughts on this book series, its success is great for the publishing industry as a whole. As wrote a few weeks ago, “We should all be grateful for all those bad books.” (I promise I’m not saying Onyx Storm is bad!)
🐓 There are two games I play on my phone these days. The first is Crossy Road, which is basically an updated version of Frogger. It’s especially fun because the kids play it too and we have competitions to see who can get the high score on the daily level (which releases at 5pm MT). Give it a shot if you haven’t yet. I’ll tell ya about the other game I play next week.
📺 My wife and I are finally watching Schitt’s Creek and it’s just as good as advertised. It takes a few episodes, but the Rose family really grows on you. It’s ridiculous, funny, and sweet — and a great distraction from the news.
🗒️ I’ve long been a fan of Field Notes pocket notebooks. Their annual subscription, which includes quarterly shipments of limited edition notebooks, makes for a great gift for any stationery fan.
🏀 Like all other NBA fans, I was thunderstruck by the Trade of the Century last weekend. It seems to signal a new era of power shifting from players to GMs/owners. It’s incredibly rare for everyone in the sport to be taken by surprise, so it’s been a fun week to be a fan of the sport and see everyone talking about the same shocker.

Thanks so much for reading. Be good to each other.

-Jeremy

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What to Read Next: February 7, 2025