A new book from Curtis Sittenfeld is always a cause for celebration for me, and her upcoming collection of stories (due out February 25th) didn’t disappoint. Show Don’t Tell‘s protagonists are mostly middle aged women at moments of introspection about their relationships, their careers and their futures. I love Sittenfeld’s characters because they are so relatable – I feel sometimes like she is in my head taking notes on my own thoughts. Her writing goes down smoothly (she almost never hits a false note), but her books are also worth reading slowly and savoring to ensure that you’re getting every last drop. My favorite story, Lost But Not Forgotten, reunites us with Lee Fiora, the main character in Sittenfeld’s 2005 debut novel Prep, who is attending her 30th boarding school reunion. We see how she has changed – and how she hasn’t – and how what is important in our teens often becomes so irrelevant as we get older. There’s a lot in this collection: the pandemic, racism, tech billionaires, wealth, cancer scares, divorce, bro culture. But my main takeaway from reading Show Don’t Tell was just how much I love slipping into Sittenfeld’s words and worlds. There are few authors who do that so consistently for me, and I am sad that the countdown to her next book must now unfortunately start over.