Generative AI is for losers. It’s so embarrassing to watch people debase real artists, the environment, and themselves for a sloppy, rip-off of a party trick.

Grammar pet peeve (I know, language is constantly evolving, etc.) but I’ve seen this three times today: You graduate FROM college (intransitive usage of the verb). The college is what graduates you (transitive). The college remains where it is; you take your degree and flee.

If you make a billion dollars — or $500 million or even $100 million dollars — and you keep trying to make more, then there is something seriously wrong with you. It's a mental illness akin to hoarding or drug addiction.

Don’t comply in advance. Fuck fascism.

I get so furious when people who could easily write something dumb and quick clearly use Chat GPT to toss it off. They’re just branding their foreheads with the word LAZY.

Pretty impressive that through this entire scandal and press blitz, RFK Jr. hasn't lost focus on his life's work of shortening the life expectancy of the average American and endangering the lives of children.

I have an actual allergy to Bad Things sentences. They simply don’t appear in the work of people who are attentive to language, unless the writer is using them for a clear purpose (and with extreme rarity).

They are so funny. Our neighbors are being stuffed into unmarked vans, and they’re all like let’s vote against a term we probably can’t define instead.

There’s no satisfaction as a bookseller greater than leading a lovely young person who asked for Ayn Rand toward Carmen Maria Machado instead.

After a bird flu outbreak tore through Midwestern barns, killing millions of chickens and spiking egg prices, the federal government didn’t investigate if the virus was airborne. So ProPublica did. Absolutely terrifying reporting from @natlash.bsky.social: www.propublica.org/article/bird...

HAPPY NOVEMBER 18th!

There are scams doing this under my name, too. I’ll never ever ever offer consultations for any price! Ever! I’m sorry! I’m too tired to consult on my own children’s school papers!

There’s another wave of author impersonators offering consultations/mentoring for a price. (I got one from “Claire Keegan” telling me I’m very promising!) I’m sure you are great, but I didn’t email to tell you how swell you are. Here’s info on book scams: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/prh-fraud/

Reminder: If you use generative AI for *any of your writing tasks* you are a Slopper not a writer and should be ashamed of yourself. The end.

This is really good to see: Miki Sherrill just put out a statement sharply criticizing the Senate Dems' pending cave in the government shutdown, ripping it as "malpractice" and a betrayal of the people who are "counting on us to fight for them." Sherrill knows what drove her victory. Wake up, Dems.

No health care, no deal.

As the owner of an independent bookstore, I must ask all of y'all to do the opposite of this forever and ever, amen.

“I saw someone coming toward me through the twilight on the road ahead, a skinny man in a glowing white shirt, and dread rushed into me.” New short fiction by Lauren Groff: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/10/mother-of-men-fiction-lauren-groff

Women should have jobs, but Ross Douthat shouldn’t.

Did Knee-Jerk Contrarianism Ruin the New York Times?

I hope the centrists learned a hard lesson last night. No more reaching across the aisle to people who have been spitting in our faces for decades. Run young people, run socialists, run on actionable ideas that seek to make our lives better.

I think a thing we'll learn tonight is that people fucking hate what is going on and they will straight ticket vote against anyone involved in starving people while pillaging the country and kidnapping their neighbors. I don't think it matters at all who that person is.

The Pentagon has failed seven audits in a row and the DoD has confirmed nearly $11 billion in fraud in just 7 years. But the concern is the poorest Americans abusing the average $342 monthly alotment. foxbaltimore.com/news/nation-...

GOP: I can't believe Dems are trying to stop us from taking away your healthcare. Just for that, no food for you.

If you’re still a Republican or a billionaire after all this, I’m sorry to say that you’re absolutely going to hell. Don’t yell at me. Take it up with Jesus Christ. They’re his rules.

16 million children rely on SNAP benefits. Republicans are literally stealing the food out of babies’ mouths.

The firings and SNAP failures are just a reminder that Republicans are willing to let people starve so they can continue to deny people healthcare.

Straight up plagiarism can ALSO help you beat writer’s block!

Food insecurity is ALWAYS a political choice. Famine is ALWAYS manmade. People go hungry because of other people’s decisions. We have more than enough food for everyone, and enormous amounts of it are wasted—literally thrown in the garbage—on purpose.

the flaw in the touch-the-stove plan was, always, the lack of endgame. It gets exhausting to repeat it, but you cannot strong-arm a party that likes it when the government is shut down.

Well this sure feels on the nose www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Been wrong before but demolishing part of the White House while prices rise, the government is shut down, and health premiums are about to go through the roof? Might break through

If a bunch of Republicans like the ones on the NYT Editorial board want Dems to move center-wise, that’s exactly what we should NOT be doing.

For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings

Stop using AI. Stop using it NOW.

To become dependent on ChapGPT is to evacuate yourself from your own life. YIKES, no thanks. I’m gonna be alive inside every damn thing I do, even and especially the ish I don’t wanna do.

Made a pilgrimage to @thelynxbooks.bsky.social to be in conversation with @legroff.bsky.social about Fonseca and it was all amazing! She’s a #penelopefitzgerald fan!

Did you know that if you buy my book on Amazon, Jeff Bezos makes 5 times as much as I do on each copy sold? Sharing some behind-the-scenes book math on why buying directly from presses is best for EVERYONE (except Bezos) in my newsletter today! aubreyhirsch.substack.com/p/book-math

The “Oops, protein powder is full of lead” thing would explain so much.

That evening, Monday, October 13, I will be reading and talking with @legroff.bsky.social about #penelopefotzgerald at @thelynxbooks.bsky.social!

These are also terrible numbers for America, since about 37% simply do not live in or acknowledge reality.

Whenever anyone says how much of the U.S. economy is tied to AI right now, I'm like...damn, what if a single rich person had any idea other than "try to zero out labor costs through theft."

I wrote about how the road to fascism is paved with false equivalencies. lithub.com/the-real-thr...

#Florida has some excellent indies, inclu. Tombolo in St. Pete, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Midtown Reader in Tallahassee, Books & Books in Miami & Key West (where Judy Blume runs the store), Story & Song in Fernandina Beach, Happy Medium in Jax & the Lynx in Gainesville, run by @legroff.bsky.social.

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day? Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

Just a reminder! If you're buying books in support of #BannedBooksWeek buying from Amazon undercuts the broader project of social justice supporting the right to read is a part of. Get your banned books absolutely anywhere else!

I love this brave young person so deeply.

"The Free State of Florida" once again banned more books than any other state — for the third year running. More than 2,000 books were pulled off of shelves last year.