“Why are they taking pictures?” asks Sasha.
“It’s supposed to be the blue door from the film Notting Hill,” I explain. “Though I’m not sure it’s the real one.”
We’re just stepping out the door next to the blue one after an hour hidden away in a tiny podcast studio, where, much like in one of the scenes in the film, a stylish American woman is quizzed by a bumbling British fool.
I am a bumbling British fool, for many reasons. But particularly relevant to my foolishness in this case is the fact that I’ve never read Toni Morrison. Thankfully, Sasha picked one of her books to discuss, and now I have had the pleasure.
Indeed, welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
As you may well know by now, in each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books and culture to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
In this episode, as I say, my very special guest is the journalist, critic, and author, Sasha Bonét, whose brilliant book The Waterbearers is published in the UK by Merky Books. We discuss her pick for the library, the 1981 novel Tar Baby by Toni Morrison.
About Sasha
Sasha Bonét is a writer, critic, and editor living in New York City. Sasha’s debut book, The Waterbearers, is a sweeping intergenerational memoir and cultural history on Black matriarchy in America. (Knopf, 2025). Her criticism and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Aperture, New York Magazine, Vogue, and BOMB, among other publications. She received her MFA from Columbia University and teaches nonfiction writing at Columbia’s School of the Arts and Barnard College. Sasha is the nonfiction editor at Apogee Journal.
About Toni
Toni Morrison (1931–2019) was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor renowned for her powerful, poetic prose exploring the African American experience. As the first Black female fiction editor at Random House, she shaped literary canon before achieving acclaim for novels like Beloved and The Bluest Eye.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order Tar Baby by Toni Morrison and The Waterbearers by Sasha Bonét from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* Find Sasha Bonét on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
* Find The Library of Lazy Thinking on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. If you’d like to support the library and get access to everything here, you can become a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge). All support goes back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and artists here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands. Meanwhile, I am currently working on my first novel, The Invention of Memory.
