Issue #122: A Merry Little Twixmas and the Things You're Making Room for in 2024

Best enjoyed with hot coco.

Morning Person is a weekly newsletter packed with obsessively-curated recommendations and ideas—let’s get to it!

📚 The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen: Set in 19th century Scandinavia, this sweeping love story is the ideal read for the quiet time between Christmas and New Years. In it, a Lutheran minister has arrived to convert the native Sámi people, who have herded reindeer under the Northern Lights for centuries. When the minister’s daughter, Willa, becomes infatuated with a herder’s son, Ivvár, she follows the herders on their hundreds-miles trek to the sea for summer grazing. Beautifully written, Pylväinen’s novel is all-encompassing. (Thank you to

Anne Helen Petersen

for bringing it to my attention!).

🎧 “In Retrospect” Podcast: In preparation for my nine-hour drive to Reno last week, I downloaded some seriously dense audiobooks about counseling theory… For breaks in between, I turned to “In Retrospect,” a podcast by journalists Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett. Each informative episode dives into a moment in pop culture, with a strong feminist bent, revisiting the impact of moments like Pamela Anderson’s red “Bay Watch” one-piece, Oprah’s red wagon of fat, and that Newsweek article that pretty much invented the scarcity myth in dating.

🎥 ‘Fair Play,’ on Netflix: Phoebe Dynevor stars in this high-stakes erotic thriller as a financial analyst secretly engaged to another analyst at their firm. When she’s promoted over him, his ego suffers a huge blow, and she goes deeper into the fraternity of men at the top as their relationship turns increasingly toxic.

My family is fairly casual about Christmas—there was no tree, presents, or traditions yesterday beyond being together and cooking a big, delicious dinner—so I’ve spent the weekend resting and reverting to my thirteen year-old self (albeit with a better grip on my hormones). Just like we did in high school, one of my oldest friends, who many of you met at our event in L.A., and I have been heading to our local mountain to go skiing. I’ve been falling asleep in front of the fireplace after dinner in decades-old pajamas and heading out on trails I grew up hiking.

It’s exactly the rest I needed after a hectic year, and an energy I’d like to maintain on a smaller scale in 2024: I’m interested in less rigidity and control, and more comfort in sitting with ambiguity and allowing plans to unfold.

Issue #68: In Defense of Spending 'Twixmas Solo

At the end of my interviews with Thao Thai and Shira Gill, I asked them both: Tell me about something from 2023 you want to do less of, and what you want to make room for more of in 2024. They both offered such wonderful answers, that I asked you to share your own. Below are a few of my favorite things you’re leaving behind, and what you’re making room for more of…