Oopsie Daisy
Live and Learn
Sometimes the only way to learn is to mess up. To do the wrong thing. To jump in and attempt to figure it out. To live and learn.
My brain may be developed—at least my frontal lobe is—but neuroscientists have made the radical discovery of neuroplasticity. Our brains can develop and create new neural pathways until we die. In that case, it behooves us to make mistakes, to take chances, to make the wrong choice. Sometimes that is the only way to grow.
Do you want to stay young? Skip the face creams and the botox. And just make a wallop of a mistake. You will feel like a kid again.
Watching the last season of the show Hacks, there is a scene with Deborah Vance and her friend Marty who are both in their 70s. Marty has just been left at the altar and he wonders how he could have been so stupid. But Deborah has a different perspective. She thinks it is extraordinary to continue to take risks at their age. Their desire to keep trying new things is what keeps the show entertaining and relatable. Their messing up, falling down, and trying again keep us coming back each week.
Personally, I want to keep figuring things out, to keep learning. I want to surround myself with people I can learn from and who have a desire to learn as well. I want to laugh at my mistakes. Not take myself so seriously. To know that I am epically human.
I want my mantras to be:
“Oopsie daisy”
“Oh well”
“Good try”
Even as I am getting older and wiser, there is no way to know everything. Maybe the purpose of life is to keep putting ourselves out there. Showing up. Trying our best—whatever that means. And passing along what we learn to the next generation so they can go on to make new mistakes of their very own.
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Leave Your Mess At Home by Tolani Akinowa
“Warm, smart, hilarious, delicious, riveting.”—Curtis Sittenfeld, New York Times bestselling author of Romantic Comedy
“Powerful… There are multiple messes in Leave Your Mess At Home; I loved reading about every one of them.”—Rachel Khong, New York Times bestselling author of Real Americans
**A Best Book of April: People, The Millions, Atlantic Journal-Constitution, The Root, Muses of Media
**A Most Anticipated Book of 2026: Electric Lit, SheReads, HelloBeautiful, ScaryMommy
The Longe siblings are really botching their parents’ American Dream.
Sola Longe, eldest daughter, estranged from the family, is secretly back home in Chicago for the first time in a decade. She’s a newly single and recently disgraced influencer trying to quietly put her life back together again. The other three Longe siblings aren’t doing much better.
Anjola is in love with her best friend, who just got engaged to someone else; Karen, a college junior and the baby of the family, is grappling with her sexuality and self-image; and Ola, the golden child with a baby of his own on the way, is questioning his marriage and how to raise a Black son in America.
Sola’s unexpected return sets them on a crash course towards each other, and when the four siblings find themselves together again at their Nigerian immigrant parents’ Thanksgiving table, a decade’s worth of secrets and a lifetime of resentments explode to the fore.
In the wreckage of their fateful reunion, each Longe is forced to reckon with the past, take stock of what really matters, and find a way back to each other. Big-hearted, hilarious, and wise, Leave Your Mess At Home is a poignant exploration of forgiveness, unconditional love, and becoming who you want to be, asking the question: what do we owe to our families, and what do we owe to ourselves.
The Calamity Club by Katherine Stockett
“So immersive, exciting, and downright fabulous, you never want it to end.”--Oprah Daily
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The multimillion-copy-selling author of The Help returns with a bold, big-hearted novel about a group of unbreakable women, fighting for what’s rightfully theirs--and the power of friendship to change everything.
“Pure, hell-raising entertainment.”--The New York Times Book Review
Oxford, Mississippi, 1933.
Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed.
Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies.
Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates--and Meg’s--converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan for them to take control of their lives. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women’s freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences.
The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer--an epic testament to underestimated women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious--the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.