Morgan Leigh Davies
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mldavies.bsky.social
Morgan Leigh Davies
@mldavies.bsky.social
Victorian lady invalid, lying in bed surrounded by books. Long covid, ME, other ailments. Bylines in The Sick Times, Electric Lit, Jezebel, etc; cohost of Overinvested pod in absentia; picking away at a novel. she/her https://linktr.ee/morganleighdavies
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I want to start a running thread of 2025 book recommendations. I post a lot about books over at Instagram (www.instagram.com/morganleighd...) but here are some of the new books I have loved so far this year!
I’m gonna talk about Trollope. 😈
ALSO Morgan and I are doing our annual book review podcast for patreon. 💕
the next two eps of Overinvested are going to be on PREDATOR: BADLANDS (very fun movie!!) and THE SHINING!
November 26, 2025 at 1:14 AM
I am absolutely not working full time because I’m not physically capable of doing so, but ironically I’m now writing more than I was before I got sick because at that point I had to work full time and didn’t have time to devote to reading hundreds of books, pitching futilely, etc.
And the folks who are actually writing full-time generally only got there after years of day jobs, family support, or both.

The point of sharing this is not to demoralize anyone, but to let emerging writers know they're not failing if they can't make a living off writing alone. Almost no one can.
almost every novelist you read who's not from the airport fiction or bestseller sections is working a full on day job, including multi-award winners and absolute legends, or they have a spouse or trust that supports them. virtually across the board. just normalize in your mind that's how it works.
November 26, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
Susan Sontag "offered a more apt metaphor than journey, though she ultimately preferred straight, unadorned talk: illness as a place, and often a dark and lonely one, 'the night-side of life' in 'the kingdom of the sick'":

Via @bhanlon15.bsky.social
#LongCOVID

www.statnews.com/2025/11/25/c...
I have long Covid. Don’t call my chronic disease a ‘journey’
A “journey” is something you choose. No one chooses chronic illness.
www.statnews.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I've seen lots of people on here getting very excited for Wong Kar-wai's new TV show, without realizing that there is a massive scandal surrounding it in China. Fortunately there's now some English language reporting on the subject: www.whatsonweibo.com/the-wong-kar...
The Wong Kar-wai Scandal Explained: The Dark Side of ‘Blossoms Shanghai’
Whenever reports surfaced about the harsh conditions on Wong Kar-wai’s sets, mainstream media and fans often brushed off his tyrannical habits as the quirks of a genius. This time, it feels different.
www.whatsonweibo.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Hunger Games prequel had almost 1 million Goodreads reviews… banging my head against the wall.
Like, does the latest Hunger Games book need to be on here. I just feel like, no. It is so hard for books to succeed and this is a mega-bestseller.

Some of these genre titles seem like they've been overlooked, but some have 100k+ reviews on Goodreads... they are doing F I N E !
November 25, 2025 at 4:54 PM
At risk of sounding like a snob (I AM a snob): the NYT needs to chill out on genre fiction. I love that they cover it robustly and I think including some in the year-end list is great. But this is... excessive. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...
100 Notable Books of 2025
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
lordt
A new kind of rapid Chotining. Please appreciate the alt-text.
November 25, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
Ppl w #LongCovid in nyc: avoid the Mt Sinai clinic in union square.
It is not connected to the one lead by David Putrino. The union square is run by a nurse who is pushing SSRIs as the only possible Covid treatment & if you don’t want them they refuse to offer anything else.
And they insult you.
November 24, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
reading this, and it's not bad so far. But if i were the editor, I think this would've prompted some questions.
November 24, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
this is very much a story you can tell was written by a political reporter, not a science and health reporter.
November 24, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
also, frankly, RFK's personal story is way less important than the fact that he is going to kill many, many people.
November 24, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
alas, there's a lot of sanewashing in this piece - even as it expresses frustration in RFK, it treats him as a legitimate, good faith actor in a way that's just not true.
Over many interviews, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Michael Scherer about how he plans to remake America’s public-health system. Can he lead the scientific establishment he’s spent much of his life crusading against?

Read more in our new cover story: theatln.tc/q9hXxlbM
November 24, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Quite telling that The Atlantic has published this RFK piece complete with gauzy photo less than a week after TNY published the piece by Schlossenberg describing how he was actively accelerating her death and those of others with cancer.
November 24, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
It might also be many of us are disabled/chronically ill and being loud online is the only way to be seen as we've been essentially blotted out of public life.
November 24, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
Yes, school refusal due to bullying and/or mental health issues absolutely should be covered (I had a period of school refusal, so I get it.) But it's a bit bizarre that there is no mention in this increased school absences story of the recently introduced virus that kids get regularly now.
Reported illnesses have tripled in some school districts. Some say mental health is a factor https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/school-absences-illness-mental-health-9.6988661

𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 ⇢ CanadaHealthwatch.ca/newsletter
November 23, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
I was the assistant editor on MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO. I have 9000 stories from that time, and many of them feature this man who passed away this morning, Udo Kier. He would talk about Fassbinder, Warhol and Paul Morrissey for hours. I was so lucky to get to know Udo and he will be missed by so many.
November 24, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Shea Whigham’s nomination speech in the first episode of Death by Lightning is the funniest thing I have seen all year.
November 24, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
Always read Rachel Louise Snyder but especially today
Opinion | The Real Epstein Cover-Up
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:51 PM
NOT the "Epstein's Lost New York" man. NO.
Since this hasn’t been discussed: Olivia Nuzzi got the job at Vanity Fair because she is best friends with Mark Guiducci’s partner. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/s...
Vanity Fair Is Reviewing Its Ties to Olivia Nuzzi
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:56 PM
if Hochul improved on climate issues she would be truly crushing it rn... the climate stuff is BAD but her political instincts and genuine hatred and disdain of Trump et al, and willingness to actually act on them, have been legit extremely impressive
Governor Hochul on Elise Stefanik doubling down on her claims that Mamdani is a “jihadist.”

Video: Kathy Hochul via X (@KathyHochul)
November 23, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
You know, eight hundred years after the War of the One Ring, there would be chin-stroking conservative professors in Middle Earth bemoaning the destruction of the One Ring and writing long articles about how Sauron had a point.
November 22, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
11 years ago today, 12 year old Tamir Rice was gunned down by police officers on Cleveland’s west side.

The officer shot him within seconds of arriving at the park he was playing in.

Tamir’s life mattered. It still does. My thoughts are with his family today.
November 22, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
something i'll note is that if nuzzi ran catch-and-kill ops for rfk jr and lizza knew this prior to him being appointed as HHS, and instead of telling anyone, he decided to save it for his substack long after rfk jr had made communicable disease into federal policy, that's completely fucked
November 22, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
the person who should be feeling most embarrassed this morning is not Nuzzi, it's the Vanity Fair boss who hired her
November 22, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Does anybody know if you can resend a letter that has been erroneously mailed to the return address?

My Christmas cards have my address on the back flap and this envelope was stamped and scanned to be sent to me rather than the recipient (in Australia).
November 22, 2025 at 10:31 PM