In her compelling memoir, Barbara Freinman Todd reveals the craft of ghostwriting: “Writing other people’s live is a bit silly, like playing dress-up, clomping around in your mother’s pumps that don’t quite fit, but it also lets you have a momentary sense of what it’s like to be someone else.” She began her career as a copy aide at the Washington Post, advanced to be a researcher for Bob Woodward in the investigative unit, and became ghostwriter for high profile politicians in Washington. Her work for the First Lady Hillary Clinton led to mistreatment from Clinton herself who refused credit her for ghostwriting It Takes a Village and the betrayal from her mentor Woodward. A fascinating read.

Jay Z’s crisp and concise latest release is filled with personal revelations: apologizing for cheating on his wife, accepting his mom as a lesbian, revealing his failures, reflecting on his past, and schooling young rappers. Even though his flow and swag remained cool under pressure, his heartfelt lyrics are poured all over No I.D.’s minimal-yet-soulful productions. As a concept album, 4:44 continues the monumental success of Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint, and The Black Album.

As we were walking on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey, I told Đạo I wanted to ride the Spring Shot. Đạo replied, “No. The strings will break because you are too heavy. I don’t want you to die.” What a smart and careful boy who always think ahead.

Sedaris is a keen observer of the world around him. Through his dairy, spanning from 1977–2002, he recorded many incidents including racist remarks, domestic violence, and personal struggles. Through dark humors and compelling storytelling, Sedaris found his own voice as a writer. Reading over 500 pages of his entries inspired me to keep writing on my blog for personal recollection.

Goodbye Salvo, North Carolina. Wildwood, New Jersey, here we come. Had a fantastic time here with my in-laws. Ate lots of junk food. Gaining massive weight. Read a lot instead of excercise. Always felt bloated.

Let’s change it up a bit at Wildwood. Walk more on the boardwalk. Eat less junk food. The rental house doesn’t have internet. That will be good. No need for screen time anyway. Continue to read.

Had Jay Z’s records on shuffle and struck by this: “Orange juice style, beat niggaz to the pulp.” Without context, this bar is horrifying, especially with the current police brutality. Jay, however, is licensed to use it. Though it’s the wordplay intrigued me—not the context. Can’t wait to listen to his new album 4:44.

The neighbor texted me:

I gather u must be on vacation. But wanted to let you know that apparently you left your garbage on saturday night in a box And some animal destroyed it at night. It was spread on your sidewalk. The truck picked up some of it on monday. But there is still plenty on the ground.. smelling..

I asked him to help me clean up and offered to buy him some beer. He texted back:

I picked up what I could. But trash is still on the ground as Everything is loose, not even in plastic bags, papers, cans, napkins, food.. Just plain gross!

Oh, no need for beer or anything.

I made a dumb mistake. I should have used the trash can. Since we will be away for two weeks, I didn’t want to leave the trash can on the sidewalk for that long. In addition, we only had two trash bags. I didn’t think about the damn animals.

In his New Rules segment from episode 430, Bill Maher joked:

If you happpen to meet one of the seven percent of the American adults who believe chocolate milk comes from brown cow. You must tell them that nonfat milk comes from skinny cows, and condensed milk comes from constipated cows, and skin milk comes from cows from the Mafia.

We’ve been in Salvo, North Carolina since Saturday. My schedule has been pretty simple. Wake up at six and read until the boys get up around nine. After breakfast, we headed to the beach until noon. Go back to the vacation house for lunch, hang out for a bit, and then hit the pool. I would play in the water with Xuân until he got out. After that I continued to read while watching the big boys. It’s so nice that they can swim by themselves. After dinner, the kids get to watch a movie. They usually got knocked out around 10:30 PM. I get back to reading until midnight.

It’s so nice that the kids are completely off the iPad. I also limited my use on the iPhone. I leave it in my room most of the day. Only access it during the night or early in the morning.

Currently reading Davis Sadaris’s Thef by Finding. His short dairies are like blog posts.

In his new memoir, Franken reveals his journey of how a successful satirist became a sophistic senator. To prove that he was serious about politics, Franken and his team had built a DeHumorizer. Fortunately, the humors never left him and they have made their way into this book. He had plenty jokes for politicians, and the best one is reserved for Ted Cruz. Despite the funny moments, the politics became robotic, especially in an almost 400-page book. The content probably could have been cut in half.