In the Margins: March Reads

Notes from what I read, began, and bookmarked this month

Some of my favorite things to read from Substacks I follow are reading roundups. The two I read the most religiously are Family Stuff and Scott Cunningham’s Closing Tabs. Inspired by them and other Substackers, I wanted to include a monthly reading roundup of some of the books, papers, and articles that I read this month. I also want to include what books are currently in my rotation and what I’ve saved to read in the future.

March was busy – too many weeknight plans and too many hours spent in airports – but in between, I found time for a few gems: a poem perfectly suited for Lent, a plea for more playgrounds, and a frightening look at populism's economic cost. Here’s what I read, what I’m reading, and what’s calling to me from the growing stack on my nightstand.

What I Read in March

Books

• Flowers of Fire - Hawon Jung
  A striking read about South Korea’s feminist movement. Full review will be out on Wednesday

• The Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot
  I read the Four Quartets for the first time in college and decided to reread it on a slow Sunday. Every time I reread, I see a line in a new light and feel parts of the book more deeply. I have always loved “The Dry Salvages” the most.

• The Gospel Comes With a House Key - Rosaria Butterfield
  This book challenged me in a lot of ways. Butterfield’s family lives out biblical hospitality in a very impressive and radical way that I would love to achieve one day. However, I was hoping for a more practical guide on how to be hospitable and this is much more like a memoir.

Articles

• “The Art Works in Flannery O’Connor’s Attic” - Charles Bethea The New Yorker
  A look at some of O’Connor’s recently discovered oil paintings peppered with commentary on what is inside her home

• “Why Do I Keep Finding Padlocked Playgrounds in New York City?” - Liz Wolfe Reason
  NYC keeps locking kids out of playgrounds, to the harm of kids and parents. Wolfe makes the case for letting kids play and parents decide what is safe

• “Making the World Safe for Criminals” - Francis Fukuyama Persuasion
  On Max Weber, modern authoritarianism, and repatrimonialization

• “Do you actually have friends?” The Messy Middle
  A call for friends to suffer together instead of just grabbing brunch once a quarter. Friendship and perfection are incongruent

Papers

• “Populist Leaders and the Economy” - Funke, Schulartick, Trebesch American Economic Review
  The authors show that the economic cost of populism is high – after 15 years of populist rule, GDP per capita is 10 percent lower than the plausible counterfactual

• “Measuring Work from Home” - Buckman et al NBER
  The authors quantify how much Americans are working from home and highlight that parents and women demand flexible work more than other groups. They also show that people work from home less than they would prefer to
  

What I’m Currently Reading

• Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? - Katrine Marçal
  A critique of the inherent lack of femininity in “homo economicus”

• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - Caroline Criado Pérez
  How data fails to take into account gender and what it means for bias and discrimination

• Good Material - Dolly Alderton
  A hilarious story of heartbreak and rebuilding
  

What I Want to Read

Books

• Dolls of Our Lives - Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks
  A deep dive into how American Girl captivated a generation and why so many women still feel deeply attached to American Girl into adulthood. Purchased for me by a friend who knows me very well

• The Cult of the Presidency - Gene Healy
  Explores how the presidency has changed and how our hunger for centralized power has led us to elect presidents like Trump

• Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
  About other worlds and exploration. Two of my friends loved it and recommended it - an immediate “to read”
  

Articles

• “We could abolish child poverty in the U.S. with Social Security benefits for poor kids” - Melissa Kearney Brookings Institution

• “This is What a Faith-Based, Pro-Family Agenda Really Looks Like” - Adam Russell Taylor Sojourners

• “Valuing Informal Care in the Nordic Countries” - Claire It’s a Hobby