A Riveting Memoir About a Year of Self-Discovery


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Kendra Winchester is a Contributing Editor for Book Riot where she writes about audiobooks and disability literature. She is also the Founder of Read Appalachia, which celebrates Appalachian literature and writing. Previously, Kendra co-founded and served as Executive Director for Reading Women, a podcast that gained an international following over its six-season run. In her off hours, you can find her writing on her Substack, Winchester Ave, and posting photos of her Corgis on Instagram and Twitter @kdwinchester.

When I REALLY love an author, I’ll read anything they write—a grocery list, instructions on building furniture, menus—I’d read them all. For me, Melissa Febos is one of those writers. Her prose is stunning. Her insights are sharp and creatively presented. Her anecdotes are spot on. So, when I heard that she had a new memoir coming out about her year of celibacy, I couldn’t sign up fast enough.

a graphic of the cover of the dry season

The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex by Melissa Febos

After a horrific break up with her partner of two years, Febos felt adrift. She dated off and on for awhile, but something wasn’t right. That’s when Febos realized she had been in a relationship since she was a teenager. She’d spent her life moving from one person to another until she didn’t have any idea what kind of person she was on her own. To better understand herself and learn how to be alone, Febos decides to spend three months celibate.

Throughout the memoir, she moves backward in time through the people she dated, grappling with why she went out with them in the first place. Did she feel obligated to go out with them? If she didn’t really have chemistry with someone, why did she kiss them anyway? Examining these relationships helps Febos begin to untangle her unhealthy relationship habits. With every new revelation, she started to make changes in her thought process of why she dates someone. What is she looking for in her sexual partners? What boundaries does she need to set?

But three months turned into six, and six turned into 12. Febos slowly changed the way she dressed and how she spent her time, focusing on herself and what made her the most comfortable. Her friendships became deeper. Her happiness grew. As a reader, I appreciated the way Febos brings us along on her experience, explaining the internal workings of her mind and how her new self-discoveries manifested in her behavior. She deftly moves through her past relationships, letting us in on some of her most intimate moments and analyzing what went wrong.

The Dry Season is Febos’s record of that time in her life, the impact it had on her, and how she learned to love herself outside of her relationships with other people. Her prose is perfection, as always. I was riveted from the first page to the last.

The following comes to you from the Editorial Desk.

This week, we’re highlighting a post discussing becoming a reader as an adult. Whether you’ve never been a big reader or lost your reading spark along the way, these tips and tricks will help you get into books.

Read on for an excerpt, and consider becoming an All Access member for similar thoughtful and bookish posts.


Some people are book nerds from the start (myself included), but that’s not the case for everyone. When I was in college, my partner didn’t see himself as a reader, even though he read more in magazines each week than I did in books. One day, he told me he felt like reading a book and asked if I could recommend one to him, please?

Y’all: the pressure was real. I suspected that finding a good match might ignite something for him, but choosing poorly could further alienate him from the world of books.

This story has a happy ending. I set him up on a book date with a popular sci-fi read that appealed to his logical mind and love of adventure. He’s never looked back. Now he reads all kinds of books I’d never think to pick up, and it’s pretty cool to see how different our reading tastes are.

So, how do you get into reading? How does one simply begin reading as an adult? There are so many books published annually–estimates range from a few hundred thousand to a few million, depending on whether or not you include self-published books and audiobooks. How can an aspiring reader find a book that works for them?

Don’t let the numbers intimidate you. Here are some pointers to help you get started.


Sign up to become an All Access member for only $6/month and then click here to read the full, unlocked article. Level up your reading life with All Access membership and explore a full library of exclusive bonus content, including must-reads, deep dives, and reading challenge recommendations.



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