Well, it’s starting to look like I need some sort of special section for the incredible kindnesses extended to me by the brilliant people who let me tinker with their words! My addition today has me all kinds of verklempt–it’s from the acknowledgements of the new and transformative book Life Under Pressure: The Social Roots of Youth Suicide and What To Do about Them, by Anna S. Mueller and Seth Abrutyn:

It is hard to figure out how to appropriately acknowledge and thank the marvelous Letta Page, who painstakingly poured over every chapter of this book providing us with important edits and insightful comments and helping us hone honestly everything about the book. It would be easier to figure out how to acknowledge Letta if that was all she did. But she also became our most trusted confidant and the person with whom we were most vulnerable (with our ideas). She made writing this book possible and even joyful. Letta, we aren’t sure we would have gotten here without you. Thank you for all you gave us, the words and beyond.

Just another truly awesome acknowledgment from a brilliant author, NBD. Okay, to me? BD. Very BD. This one’s from Tina Fetner’s Sex in Canada: The Who, Why, When, and How of Getting Down Up North:

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to the very talented wordsmith and my good friend Letta Page. Her enthusiasm for this project was contagious, and I appreciate the energy that her upbeat attitude gave me when I needed it most. Letta refuses to let me calcify into a stodgy academic, even though that would be as comfortable as curling up with a good book. Instead, she lent her wit and humour to the project, as well as her substantial talent as an editor, helping me find my voice for this work. If you enjoy reading it as much as I hope you will, you can thank Letta. I certainly do.

What a joy it was to work on this project and to help the inimitable Tina Fetner bring her own signature wit and wisdom to bear on the topic of, well, ways to warm the flannel sheets!

Recently, I was thrilled to receive a copy of the brand-spanking-new, brilliant and beautiful book The Peer Effect from author Syed Ali. And when I turned to the acknowledgments, I turned to mush. The authors have written:

Lastly, we want to thank our wordsmith, Letta Page. While we were pretty sure that the book was good, once it got into her hands it got soooo much better. It helps that Letta, a degree holder in classics, knows more sociology than most sociologists. In fact, she has forgotten more sociology than most sociologists know. She pointed out flaws, she stressed good points, she suggested additions and subtractions, she said go read these things right now, and she gave the writing a good spit-shine polish. We can’t thank her enough.

And in turn, I can’t thank them enough. What a dang delight!

At long last, I’ve updated my “recommended readings” list for those who want to learn more about writing through reading. The occasion was grand—a conversation with scholars at the University of British Columbia about lively academic writing—and I’m pleased to share the list. As always, my choices are arbitrary and capricious, just a smattering of good reads for those who enjoy nonfiction. I haven’t, however, taken the time to write any descriptions, so I fear you’ll have to read them and find out!

Bonus: A few handy references for the writerly minded out there! For the book list, skip down a few lines.

Reference Books to Keep Close at Hand:

• Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus
• Choose the Right Word, S. I. Hayakawa
• Writing for Social Scientists, Howard S. Becker
• On Revision, William Germano
• Stylish Academic Writing, Helen Sword

Books for Readers and Writers:

• At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Bill Bryson
• Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, Susan J. Douglas
• The Library Book, Susan Orlean
• The Monk of Mokha, Dave Eggers
• Angels and Ages: Lincoln, Darwin, and the Birth of the Modern Age, Adam Gopnik
• Thunderstruck, Erik Larson
• The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown
• Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter
• The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
• How to Be Danish: A Journey to the Heart of Denmark, Patrick Kingsley
• Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Greatest Migration, Isabelle Wilkerson
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Patrick Radden Keefe
• Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed To Be, Marissa R. Moss
• The Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St. Clair
• The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—And How It Changes Science, Cities, and the Modern World, Steven Johnson
• A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams, Michael Pollan
• Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life, Lulu Miller
• Humankind: A Hopeful History, Rutger Bregman
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann
• Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire, Colleen Morton Busch
• Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line, Martha A. Sandweiss
• Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble, Stefan Fatsis
• Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans, Dan Baum
• Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, Gilbert King
• Wait Till Next Year, Doris Kearns Goodwin
• The Astronaut Wives Club, Lily Koppel
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, Margot Lee Shetterly
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach
• A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
• Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World that Made Him, David Henry and Joe Henry

(Amateur Edition)

In May 2019, I was nearly as shocked as I was honored to receive the University of Minnesota’s Public Sociology Award. This award honors outstanding contributions to the discipline of sociology and the public conversation—and I’m not a card-carrying sociologist! But, I’ve been sociology-adjacent for over a decade now, and I really do see it as my mission to make sociological knowledge public knowledge. I can’t wait to see where my work will take me next!