I’d never heard of Ursula Parrott when McNally Editions in­troduced me to Ex-Wife, the author’s 1929 novel about a young woman who suddenly finds herself suspended in the caliginous space between matrimony and divorce. The first thing I won­dered was where it had been all my life. Ex-Wife rattles with ghosts and loss and lonely New York apartments, with men who change their minds and change them again, with people and places that assert their permanence by the very fact that they’re gone and they’re never coming back. Originally published anonymously, Ex-Wife stirred immediate controversy for Parrott’s frank depiction of her heroine, Patricia, a woman whose allure does not spare her from desertion after an open marriage proves to be an asymmetrical failure. Embarking on a marathon of alcoholic oblivion and a series of mostly joyless dips into the waters of sexual liberation, Patricia spends the book ricocheting between her fear of an abstract future and her fixation on a past that has been polished, gleaming from memory’s sleight of hand.

It’s been nearly a century since Ex-Wife had its flash of fame (the book sold more than one hundred thousand copies in its first year), and as progress has stripped divorce of its moral op­probrium, it has also swelled the ranks of us ex-wives. Folded in with Patricia’s descriptions of one-night stands and prohibition-­busting binges are the kind of hollow distractions relatable to any of us who have ever wanted to forget: she buys clothes she can’t afford; she gets facials and has her hair done; she listens to songs on repeat while wearily wondering why heartache always seems to bookend love. My copy is riddled with exclamation marks and anecdotes that chart my own parallel romantic catastrophes, its paragraphs vandalized with highlighted passages and bracketed phrases. There is a sentence on the book’s first page that I outlined in black ink: “He grew tired of me;” it reads, “hunted about for reasons to justify his weariness; and found them.” The box that I have drawn around these words is a frame, I suppose; the kind that you find around a mirror.

For all its painful familiarity, it’s easy to get caught in the trap of Ex-Wife’s nostalgic charm; there are phonographs and jazz clubs and dresses from Vionnet; there are verboten cocktails and towering new buildings that reach toward a New York skyline so young that it still reveals its stars. If critics once took issue with the book’s treatment of abortion, adultery, and casual sex, contemporary analyses have too often remarked that Patricia’s world cannot help but show us its age. “Scandalous or sensational?” wrote one critic when the book was last reprinted, in 1989. “Times have changed.” Yes and no; released in the decade between two world wars, and just months before Black Tuesday turned boom to bust, Ex-Wife probes the violent uncertainty of a world locked in a perpetual state of becoming.

Lurching toward sexual revolution but still psychologically tethered to Victorian morality, women of Parrott’s generation found themselves caught in the free fall of collapsing conven­tion. The seedy emotional texture of Ex-Wife’s Jazz Age de­bauchery reflected the panic felt by women across the country who had glimpsed freedom but remained ill-equipped to navi­gate its consequences. Almost immediately following the book’s publication, the press began a guessing game that sought to identify who was being shielded under its mantle of anonym­ity; was Ex-Wife a confession, a fantasy, or the indictment of a culture shifting too rapidly to acknowledge the inevitable casualties we leave in the wake of change? By August of 1929, conjecture had correctly zeroed in on Katherine Ursula Parrott (née Towle), a journalist and fashion writer who seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to her bobbed and brushed heroine.

Joaquin Phoenix stars in Ari Aster's three-hour sprawl of angst and despair

Concerning news: Marcus’ Harry Maguire merch is rapidly decreasing in value. Marcus, Luke and Andy look back on a chaotic night in Spain, as Manchester United get pressed like some fresh Seville oranges.

We also wonder whether Sean Bean will be in the crowd at Wembley, whether Diego Costa will do the decent thing and sacrifice himself to some crocodiles, and just how more bad news Spurs fans can take.

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Remember that survey of literary agents put together a month ago to see what the reality is in publishing right now related to book bans? It was widely shared across social media, as well as through several other online literary outlets. Today, let’s look at what was said.

With human activities directly and indirectly leading to the decimation of the diversity of animals on the planet, scientific study of animals, in order to understand how best we can protect them, is more important than ever. At a time when human lives are becoming more and more isolated, both from nature and from meaningful human connections, reading about the fascinating science of the animal world, and marveling at the interconnectedness of our existence in it, can be a cathartic, reassuring experience.

Other animals’ interactions with each other, and with their environment, also make for an interesting framework through which we can critically analyze our own social structures and conventions. From miniscule insects to majestic elephants, from prehistoric dinosaurs to our beloved modern canine companions, there is something enthralling to learn about every creature we share our planet with. Thankfully for armchair enthusiasts like myself, many scientists and science writers who experience the zoological wonders of the world firsthand write passionately and accessibly about them. Here is a list of eight well written and informative popular science books about animals to get you started on the journey of getting to know the non-human inhabitants of the world a little better.

Popular Science Books About Animals

Parenting can be a deeply fulfilling and exciting experience, but it can also be stressful or even scary — especially if you’re at the beginning of your parenting journey. Parenting and pregnancy books can help with navigating uncertainties but often, they don’t reflect the questions and experiences that are unique to queer families.

Nothing compares to seeing yourself and your family’s needs addressed in the books you read. These eight LGBTQ parenting and pregnancy books are written for and in many cases by LGBTQ parents, from help guides to memoirs and even poetry. Whether you’re a prospective parent looking for answers to your questions on building a family or a queer parent looking for books that reflect what you’re going through, you’ll find plenty of recommendations here.

Once you’ve gone through this list, you can find contemporary fiction recs about LGBTQ parents here. For more books focused specifically on pregnancy, you can find the best LGBTQ-inclusive pregnancy books here.

Plus, read the essay “I Don’t Want Kids, So Why Am I So Into Books About Queer Parenting?” by Book Riot contributor Laura Sackton. In it, she reflects on the lack of queer parents she saw in books during her teens and twenties and how, in her thirties, books about queer parents gave her hope and catharsis.

8 LGBTQ Parenting and Pregnancy Books

Many of us first met Frog and Toad in childhood classrooms. I had a teacher who would read to us from a lovely, glossy compendium version that I deeply envied. They were silly, cute tales of friendship that we could answer easy reading comprehension questions about.

It took adulthood and the internet to bring Frog and Toad back to us. The memes! The quotes! We love soft, loving Frog and his attempts to cheer up the grumpy, serious Toad, or get him to get out of the house.

Creator Arnold Lobel said multiple times that he didn’t identify with one or the other — he identified as both, and he said that he suspects we’re all both of them, at least a little. But who was Arnold Lobel? How did these silly characters come into our lives? I did a deep dive to find out more about the writer-illustrator and about the legacy of these two smartly dressed amphibians.

A did a funny thing a few months ago. I went to a local tattoo shop to get some new ink. That isn’t the funny part. Since I knew I was going to be there for at least a few hours, I brought reading material. Specifically, I brought three poetry books with me. I didn’t think it was funny. I thought it would be better reading than a novel while being stabbed hundreds of times by a needle.

It was the reaction of the tattoo artists and other customers that was funny. They had never seen someone reading poetry while getting tattooed. Ever. They laughed. They cast furtive glances at the covers of the poetry books, particularly after seeing me, a 6-foot, 200+ pound, tattooed, gym-going white dude who passes for cis.

So I said to myself, “Self, you should share this experience. You are surely not the only poetry fan who likes to get ink. Let’s impart a little wisdom and have a little fun.”

As for poetry, bring a variety of books. Like tattoos, the cover of the book you’re reading says something about you. It sends a message. As different customers wander in and out, you may find you need to change your message. Let the world know that your poetry bookshelf is decolonized. Show everyone that you support transgender people, even as state governments are stripping away their rights.

Chances are you’ve seen the dark academia aesthetic by now: tweed, cardigans, piles of worn books, skulls next to dying candles — all with that dirty brown filter that we used to apply on all of our Instagram photos. Think of schools like Oxford and Cambridge, more often boarding schools. Given the current fascination, especially with Gen Z, of nostalgia for an era they didn’t experience, it makes sense that dark academia is seeing a renaissance — especially on platforms popular with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, like Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. Enter: dark academia romance books.

The best part about this sub-genre is that it can also span multiple literary genres. And I’m super excited about this list because there’s a little bit of everything: romance, dark romance, horror, literary fiction, thriller, fantasy…there’s something for everyone.

Let’s also address an elephant in the room: diversity. Historically, the genre has been known to be exclusive to both white authors and white characters. Dark academia has been called out for its Eurocentricity because of the genre’s roots in classical literature. This list should be way more diverse than it is. And it is my sincere hope that this changes in the future. If there are titles that I missed, I genuinely want to hear about them!