When Community Fails: Manners, Media, And The Meaning Of Home

Holiday joy meets hard truths as we swap Grinch-green decor ideas and then dive into the book world’s best and worst moments. We share the thrill of meeting favorite authors and the sting of being blatantly ignored at a signing—eye contact made, greeting skipped—which opens a larger conversation about reader respect, author etiquette, and how small moments can change what we choose to support. If community is our shared bookshelf, basic kindness is the spine that holds it together.

We recalibrate reading goals without shame, talk about why some of us pause in December, and lock in a group pick: a Kamala Harris audiobook that promises more lived-story than stump speech. That dovetails with our recent memoir streak—Dawn Staley, CeCe Winans—and the way leadership, faith, and grit echo across genres. On the screen side, we break down new TV returns and Lifetime’s Eric Jerome Dickey adaptations, plus the high stakes of casting when you already love a character on the page. Adaptations can miss or win, but either way they keep the culture talking.