Today is the day: MY BOOK IS OUT!!! It’s about science and rituals. Also falling in love and holidays and my parents and having a baby and death and religion and being secular and all the stunning grandeur of reality that requires no faith. And also sex and the encyclopedia. So if you like any of those things you might be interested. • And I just have to tell you, I’m so grateful to so many who made this book possible, like my sweet husband and mom, my whole family, my besties, the MOST AMAZING colleagues, writers I admire who gave me very kind blurbs, and so many random people who probably don’t even know they helped me, like a singing cab driver in DC. Please read the acknowledgments if you have a chance, you might be in them! #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe #pubday
This picture really captures how these last few days in New York have felt. California, get ready, I’m on my way! #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
My book comes out (with a slightly different subtitle) in Australia, New Zealand, India and other wonderful places tomorrow! Although it’s already tomorrow in some of those places… so today! 🎉 #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
Really grateful to be here in my beautiful hometown on this #carlsaganday. I love and miss my wonderful dad and I know a lot of you do too. Thank you for keeping his flame burning. ♥️
Happy to report that life as a 37-year-old mom is a lot more exciting than I imagined it would be when I was like 19. Thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday, everyone ♥️
Here I am at the very moment I sat down to start writing my book. Only 12 more days until it comes out 🤗📄 #TBT #amwriting #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
I had THE BEST time tonight at my very first book tour event! Thanks so much to @porter_square_books & @cambridgepubliclibrary, and #gregepstein (who doesn’t have Instagram) for moderating. And most of all to everyone who came. I’m so pumped I get to do this all over the country! #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
The totally finished hardcover copies of my book arrived and I am over the moon. They’re just so much prettier than I could have ever hoped! I’m very nervous and very excited for this baby to be out in world in just few short weeks. Really hope you like it ✨ #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe #bookstagram
I suffer from a deep fear of pressing the wrong button and accidentally creating some kind of catastrophe. Here I am at immersion therapy.
This week I got to do something I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. It was really hard. I stumbled. I mispronounced. I cried. But I got to tell my own story, in my own voice. And I am very grateful for that chance🎙♥️ #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
Tonight was so special. Thank you @zoe.kazan for being the most amazing moderator, with notes and quotes and brilliant questions. And thank you to @strandbookstore for having us, among the rare and beautiful books. I’ll never forget it. ❤️
There are no words for how much I adore this woman, such a dear friend and one of the most fun people on earth to talk with about anything under the sun. Nicole, you were so wonderful and I was frankly overwhelmed by all the lovely things you said about the book — as evidenced by my facial expression in that second picture. Thank you, @nicolerichie for the most fun evening and the most interesting discussion. Can’t wait for our next one, even if it’s not in front of a room full of people at one of our very favorite bookshops. #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
There are no words for how much I adore this woman, such a dear friend and one of the most fun people on earth to talk with about anything under the sun. Nicole, you were so wonderful and I was frankly overwhelmed by all the lovely things you said about the book — as evidenced by my facial expression in that second picture. Thank you, @nicolerichie for the most fun evening and the most interesting discussion. Can’t wait for our next one, even if it’s not in front of a room full of people at one of our very favorite bookshops. #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
There are no words for how much I adore this woman, such a dear friend and one of the most fun people on earth to talk with about anything under the sun. Nicole, you were so wonderful and I was frankly overwhelmed by all the lovely things you said about the book — as evidenced by my facial expression in that second picture. Thank you, @nicolerichie for the most fun evening and the most interesting discussion. Can’t wait for our next one, even if it’s not in front of a room full of people at one of our very favorite bookshops. #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
There are no words for how much I adore this woman, such a dear friend and one of the most fun people on earth to talk with about anything under the sun. Nicole, you were so wonderful and I was frankly overwhelmed by all the lovely things you said about the book — as evidenced by my facial expression in that second picture. Thank you, @nicolerichie for the most fun evening and the most interesting discussion. Can’t wait for our next one, even if it’s not in front of a room full of people at one of our very favorite bookshops. #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
During our last beach day of the year, my husband turned to me and said, “every time I see someone reading a book I think maybe when we come here next year we’ll see people reading your book”. And suddenly my faint melancholy for the ending of summer lifted and I found that I am unabashedly excited for this autumn.
Come see me! EDIT: one small change to note! The Ithaca event is now at 4pm on 11/9✨
Please allow me to contrast this image from over the summer, where I am feeling very relaxed on vacation with the fact that I am presently FREAKING OUT BECAUSE MY BOOK COMES OUT ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!!
My husband is kind of shy. But today is our 6th wedding anniversary and I am obsessed with him and want everyone to know he’s amazing. So this pic is our compromise ♥️ Ok, we’re going to go celebrate now. Bye!
Hello from Chicago! I’m so happy to be here. It’s maybe my second or third time and my first time in many years. I’m excited because this is the city where my dad attended college and grad school. It’s changed dramatically undoubtedly in the almost seven decades since he attended orientation. Still, it’s fun for me to imagine him arriving here, at 16 years old in 1950. He played basketball. Kennelly was mayor. The Chicago Board of Trade Building was the tallest skyscraper. These kinds of details help me time travel a little, if only just in my imagination… Anyway, come hear me speak about my book (and maybe time travel too) tomorrow at 1pm at @chihumanities if you’re here too! #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe #chicago
Our sweet, clever, curious little girl turned two yesterday. To celebrate we spent the afternoon admiring another species of mammal who also care tenderly for their young, nurse them for many months, play with them, sing to them, and protect them fiercely. And we three humans each felt moved by their majesty 🐳💙
In honor of the fact that #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe comes out exactly one month from today, here is a photo from May 18th of last year when I texted my husband to say I had finally reached my contractual obligation of sixty thousand words as I cobbled together the first messy, “TK”-riddled draft of my manuscript and he came home with sixty tulips in celebration and I melted.💗🌷 #tb #writingprocess #luckyduck
Since I was 17, I’ve lived in cities and enjoyed them with a rapturous passion that I retain. Over the weekend we visited the New Hampshire woods, swam in a lake and ate blueberries from the bush. I couldn’t help but notice that the sight of all this lush chlorophyll was making me, well, kind of high. Sure, being outdoors feels good, but why and how exactly? What’s happening in my brain when I see these trees? Back at my computer, I did a cursory google search. I’d still love to understand it more deeply (if anyone has expertise on the subject or can recommend a relevant book, please leave a comment) but I did learn there is some real evidence to suggest that just looking at green plants really is good for you, mentally and physically. Even maybe when it’s just a picture of them. So here you go. Hope this makes your Tuesday a little better. 🌳💚
I am so thrilled I got to be a part of the @chihumanities. It’s really an honor and was so much fun. @goldnbraid was an excellent interviewer, the audience asked such good questions and @nerdosapiens brought me an apple pie! 🥧🍎🌌 Thank you, Chicago! I can’t wait to come back. #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe #chfpower
