Issue #50: How My Relationship with Running Has Changed

Tuning into my breath.

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

📚 Time Zone J by Julie Doucet: This autobiographical graphic memoir is unlike any I’ve ever read; a “stream-of-conscious zine” may be a more fitting description. Written as one continuous scroll in a style so frenetic, it can feel at times stressful, Doucet revisits journals from 1989 to draw the time to flew to France to meet a man she fell in love with through passionate letters they wrote each other. I don’t think this book will appeal to everyone, but it requires a fairly small time investment and reimagines a form I’ve fallen in love with through more accessible graphic novels like In. by Will McPhail, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, and Good Talk by Mira Jacob (another memoir!).

🎧 “Book Exploder” Podcast: Hrishikesh Hirway’s limited series is a take on his popular podcast, “Song Exploder” in which he breaks a song down into the sum of its parts to explore its construction—this time, he’s looking at books. Cohosted by author Susan Orlean, the podcast launched last week with an interview about the choices she made in writing a passage that describes how a fire moved through library stacks in The Library Book. Guests this season include big names like Celeste Ng, George Saunders, and Tayari Jones (whose novel I recommended last week!). To find it, search for the “Song Exploder” podcast and look for the special episodes there.