Meredith Boe

Oct 29, 2024 | chireviewofbooks.com | Meredith Boe

There’s that certain romantic essence of youth, when you first learn of nostalgia. You start to miss something before it’s even gone, whether a love or place. You begin to yearn for things you thought you hated. You discover contradictions. Romanticized adolescence is perhaps more intense when you’ve gotten used to drifting, trying to make a home only to see it disassembled and rebuilt somewhere else. These are concepts André Aciman contended with frequently as a teenager.

Oct 7, 2024 | inhersight.com | Meredith Boe

Many of us with professional ambitions thought that our career trajectory would look something like this: you go to college, study something you’re interested in, graduate with a good GPA, and get a job using that degree. Even if you weren’t doing exactly what you studied in school, working adjacent to your chosen industry would seem like enough, and you could pay the bills and keep getting promoted.

Aug 14, 2024 | chireviewofbooks.com | Meredith Boe

Fear often stems from truths we don’t want to face, like the truth of our inevitable death or the senseless violence that’s all around us. Our own pasts haunt us more than a horror movie’s absurdity. Lena Valencia’s debut short story collection, Mystery Lights, is particularly eerie as she expertly pulls the horror from reality. Again and again, she hits too close to home: a woman feeling scared on her own in a trailer in the desert, even while she fights that feeling.

Jul 22, 2024 | inhersight.com | Meredith Boe

It sounds pretty great to work from the comfort of your own home. No commute, no professional attire, no cubicle-sitting all day. You can wear your pajamas and snuggle your cat. You can save time and focus more on balancing your work and personal life. But what if you don’t have any experience just yet? Or what if you’re shifting career paths? Can you still work from home? The answer is a resounding: definitely. The entire work landscape has changed drastically over the last few years alone.

May 19, 2024 | chireviewofbooks.com | Meredith Boe

More women today are talking about getting older. About being beyond the reach of sex-focused TV ads and ceasing to care. Or about caring too much. About fearing the loss of a sex drive or actually losing it. About what it means to lose the things you thought always made you desirable. Historically, menopause has rarely been treated with compassion, more the butt of jokes—the hot flashes! the dryness!—and simultaneously something women must hide, elegantly.