-
1 week ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Dear Emily, I rescued a dog during the pandemic. He helped lift me out of some of the darkest times of my life. Because of him and his goofy personality and, of course, his incredible good looks and charm, I met so many new people, including my now-partner. Focusing on giving my dog-son love, attention, and a fulfilling life has really changed my perspective for the better. I am 35, and many of my best friends have recently gotten married and had children.
-
3 weeks ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Illustration: Emma Erickson Dear Emily, I am in a longtime group chat with women I’ve known for over 20 years, and a new thing is that it is actually making me actively dislike several of them. It used to be a great way for us to stay in touch, and now it seems almost as if it’s working against its own purposes, like reminding us all why we shouldn’t be friends anymore.
-
1 month ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Hunter Abrams This article first appeared in Book Gossip, a newsletter about what we’re reading and what we actually think about it. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every month. After Torrey Peters published her debut novel, Detransition, Baby, in 2021, her life changed dramatically. Though she’d been writing steadily for ten years, this was her first commercial success, and it was celebrated in a way that few first novels are.
-
1 month ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Illustration: Emma Erickson Dear Emily, When I was watching the new season of The White Lotus with my husband, there was a moment when I turned to him and said, “That’s you.” Parker Posey’s character had given her husband anti-anxiety meds, overcoming his anti-prescription, anti-medication hardline sentiment. And he liked them! My husband laughed.
-
1 month ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Illustration: Emma Erickson Dear Emily, I don’t know how the hell to talk to my friends who are new moms. It’s an age-old conundrum, certainly, but it feels like the stakes have ratcheted up significantly this year. I’m 31, so my friends have been settling down, getting married, and buying houses for years at this point.
-
2 months ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Photo-Illustration: Joanna Neborsky In the beginning, there was Oprah. Now, there are over a dozen celebrity-helmed book clubs that could make an author’s career. But do they actually move the needle? “It used to be that if you got a big book-club pick, your book was an automatic best seller, and that is so not the case anymore,” says one publicist. We asked 15 authors and industry insiders what these clubs can really do for a book. The Big Four 1. Oprah’s Book Club 2.
-
2 months ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Illustration: Emma Erickson Dear Emily, I’m struggling with a romantic situation that’s really triggering my self-loathing. I do the work (therapy, recovery meetings, psych drugs) and have made lots of progress, but I can’t seem to avoid turning my dating life into a vehicle for validation. I still feel like if I can’t win over the out-of-reach man, I’m worthless. This pattern in and of itself has become a source of shame.
-
2 months ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Illustration: Emma Erickson Dear Emily, I’ve been a renter in New York for 20 years, and during that time I’ve seen most of my friends buy a home in the city. With the exception of one or two people I know in finance or corporate law, every single one of these friends has gotten significant help from their parents or grandparents. My parents live comfortably in retirement, as do my husband’s, but they aren’t able (or willing) to drop that kind of money on us.
-
2 months ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Photo-Illustration: The Cut: Photos Getty Images In 2014, I published my first novel, Friendship, about two best friends whose life trajectories suddenly diverge when one of them gets accidentally pregnant and decides to keep the baby. They lived, as I did then and do now, in Brooklyn. Unfortunately for me and my book, the HBO show Girls and its creator Lena Dunham had an absolute chokehold on the cultural conversation in 2014, by which I mostly mean Twitter.
-
2 months ago | 
thecut.com | Emily Gould
Photo: Warrick Page/MAX In the fourth episode of Max’s new medical drama The Pitt, a bickering brother and sister confront their elderly father’s impending death. The sister has finally reversed her initial decision to intubate her dad, which would have subjected him to a cascade of pointless extraordinary measures.
