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Priyanka Mattoo

@primattoo

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• How to be Less Useful: the Joy of Inefficiency (@aaknopf 11/26)
• Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones (@aaknopf ‘24)
• Filmmaker, ex-agent

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Next Thursday: come and see Lisa Hanawalt in conversation with Priyanka Matteo at Skylight Books at 7pm!

Admission is free, seating is first-come first-served

RSVP at the link in bio 🐎

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What if the secret to a happier life is becoming a little less useful?

We’re trading productivity for pleasure at our next Chicago Literary Salon!

Join us on Saturday, November 14, for a very special afternoon with @primattoo, celebrating her witty, wise, and wonderfully liberating new book, HOW TO BE LESS USEFUL.

Somewhere along the way, adulthood became an endless to-do list. We schedule, optimize, multitask, and make ourselves indispensable—often at the expense of the things that make life worth living. Afternoon naps. Dessert. Dancing. Lingering with friends simply because we can.

Priyanka is here to remind us that not everything we do needs to have a purpose. Sometimes pleasure is reason enough.

And what better way to celebrate that philosophy than with an intimate afternoon at the beautiful @atpallasstudio? Think tea, pastries, cookies, a fascinating conversation, and absolutely no pressure to accomplish anything. Just the pleasure of being together.

✨ THE DETAILS
📅 Saturday, November 14 | 1:30 PM
📍 Pallas Studio | 833 W. Webster Ave., Chicago
📖 Your ticket includes a copy of How to Be Less Useful, an intimate author conversation, refreshments, and a book signing.

Consider this your official invitation to clear your calendar, put down your to-do list, and spend an afternoon doing something wonderfully inefficient.

Tickets are available now at the link in bio!

#ChicagoLiterarySalon #PriyankaMattoo #HowToBeLessUseful #ChicagoBookEvents #ChicagoLiteraryScene BookLoversOfChicago

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World Mental Health Day reading list. These recently-released and forthcoming books explore mental health systems, grief, loss, the mind, and how we live.
1. When Healing Harms
2. Into the Flow
3. How to be Less Useful
4. Our Long Goodbye
5. To Grieve is to Carry Another Time
6. The Vanishing Children
7. Subjective Realities
#worldmentalhealthday #netgalley

When Healing Harms unravels a long-buried story behind one of the most consequential—and most misunderstood—malpractice cases in modern psychiatry. Author Eric Caplan revisits the admission of a well-known doctor into one of the nation’s top psychiatric facilities, where he was confined to lockdown, neglected, and mistreated. When Healing Harms dives deep into a case from 1979, but considers how similar issues persist to this day. It’s deeply-reported using primary sources like medical documents, case files, and legal archives, yet remains highly accessible non-fiction that’s equal parts tragedy, thriller, and political expose. A true mental-health page turner.

Into the Flow is a funny, soul-baring memoir for anyone navigating burnout, healing from heartbreak, or craving deeper purpose in a world where the old maps and well-worn solutions have stopped working. Through insightful, entertaining encounters with spiritual teachers, therapists, and shamans, plus a few wild adventures, @kathleen_branigan discovers that freedom isn’t found in miracle cures or the next breakthrough. It’s about learning to trust herself again. It’s a wild romp through piles of self-help books, high-flying skydives, multi-day ayahuasca ceremonies, and treks through the Amazon. Into the Flow is a call to let go and a reminder that the path to healing is rarely a straight line.

@primattoo considers the joy of inefficiency in her new book, How to be Less Useful. She offers readers a guide to chilling out, and asks what we lose when we opt for optimization over everything. (Hint: It’s not just naps, dancing, “pointless” hangs with people we love, and activities that are fun, but that we aren’t actually good at.) Touching down in the midst of middle age, this self-help/memoir mashup is like sitting down with a good friend. Mattoo exp

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Join us and our neighbors at Firefly Fiber Arts Studio for Maker’s Night with a twist! We’ll be welcoming Priyanka Mattoo, the author of How to Be Less Useful: The Joy of Inefficiency, for a reading and discussion with WBEZ Chicago’s Greta Johnsen. Who knows more about the rewards of inefficient crafting among good company than fiber artists?

November 13th @ 6:30 at Firefly Fiber Arts Studio’s new event space. Bring your least practical WIP and join us to revel in the joy of slow, intentional making. RSVP on our events page. Priyanka Mattoo's How to Be Less Useful: The Joy of Inefficiency at Firefly Fiber Arts Studio on November 13th @ 6:30. Priyanka will be in discussion with Greta Johnsen. BYO WIP!

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You’re going to want this on your Portland Book Festival itinerary this year. 🫡

Our annual collaboration with @literaryarts and the #PDXBookFest is back, and we’re so excited! It’s the perfect activity for fans of books and local public radio.

Join us Saturday, November 7th (7:30-9:30pm) at the @albertarose.theatre for delightful conversations with:

Drag king comedian, @murrayhill
Writer and filmmaker, @primattoo
Author and illustrator, @lisadraws
Synth pop artist, @sangabrielmusic

Discounts are available for Live Wire members, students and folks under 35, and those eligible for Arts for All.

Get your tickets now at the 🔗 in our bio or head over to livewireradio.org/live-shows/2026117!

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SPX was just the beginning, folks! Join Lisa Hanawalt on tour this fall to celebrate the release of her latest book I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT HORSES AND SEX with stops at @skylightbooks in Los Angeles, @pegasusbooks in Berkeley, the Portland Book Festival by @literaryarts , the @bkexpocomics in New York, in Toronto with @thebeguiling at the @tpllilliansmith and at @comicartsla

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Some good books I’ve read lately: Priyanka’s second book is so good, I agree with everything she says cuz she’s usually correct and this book is basically like “what if u just existed” which is so simple it’s the perfect advice. It comes out later this year but u should def preorder it. Lost Lambs- weird as hell but hopeful family story about a child prodigy, washed up artists, rebellious teens, and a guy named war criminal Wes. A Good Person- Lillian puts a hex on her ex bf and he actually dies, now she’s gotta deal with all that, read it in one day! Commonwealth- Ann Patchett writes the best family stories, she literally cannot compose a bad sentence. Everybody Knows- a truly solid fast paced gritty LA noir.

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We’ve been using the word “useless” all wrong.

In HOW TO BE LESS USEFUL, Priyanka Mattoo offers permission rather than prescription: an invitation to step away from content optimization and rediscover the pleasure of being a little less useful.

Swipe through for our campaign to reclaim and redefine the word “useless” ➡️🤭

••

#HowToBeLessUseful
#PriyankaMattoo
#ABorzoiBook

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📚 Swipe through for a peek at some of the most anticipated AMPLIFY fall titles, now available for preorder!

Preorders play a crucial role in an author's success—Publishers prioritize first-week sales, so when preorder numbers go up, publishers are incentivized to publish more work by those authors and pay them accordingly.

Your early support also boosts visibility for underrepresented voices and helps sustain local bookstores like Bookshop Santa Cruz. Check out these upcoming titles we're thrilled about and preorder today! 📖✨

View our full list of AMPLIFY fall preorder titles: bookshopsantacruz.com/list/amplify-preorders-2026

#preorder #fallbooks #indiebookstore #bookshopsantacruz #SantaCruz

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Things that happened in London when I went into the world with this one wild and precious life. Grateful to everyone who made it special. Nothing will get you further than wonder and cherishing the things you love. ✨

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much to look fwd to ✨

fiction

Public Access Afterworld by @janedoesnotknow

Shut Up I Love You I'll Call You Tomorrow by @fistfightjones1

Carrying by @samanthaloisjosephs

Red Cherry by @maggiethrash

We Were Forbidden Fruit by Jacqueline Harpman

Fieldwork as a Sex Object by @k.a.n.d.a.s.a.m.y

****Debt by @l_a_warman

Avalon, Rise by @madeline_ffitch

Black Arts by newwavehauntedhouse

Vagablonde by @___adorn

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by @deeshaphilyaw

Bastards by @nate_lippens

non-fiction

****** Black Women Writers at Work in the 21st Century edited by @author_kqueen

Depression Cooking: Feeding Yourself When it All Feels Too Hard by @sonaleeeeeee

The Bed Trick: Sex and Deception on Trial by @izabella.z.scott

How to Be Less Useful: The Joy of Inefficiency by @primattoo

Changing Gender by @susan_stryker

****** MONA: An Immodest Memoir of Race and Rebellion by @azraliaqatkhan

****** We Radiant Things: Notes on Being Alien and Becoming Cyborg by @fancyrhino

Rehearsing the Future: The Thought and Practice of James and Grace Lee Boggs by Michael Doan

Harm + Punishment: Incarcerated Writers on Violence and the US Prison edited Elizabeth Hinton & Elsa Julien Lora

How to Close a Camp: Dispatches From the Fight Against Immigrant Detention by John Washington

Harnessing the State: Oppressed Groups and the Pursuit of Radical Democracy by Hari Ramesh

TOO L.A.: Letters Never Sent (But Some Were) by Eve Babitz, edited by Lili Anolin

Anna Murray Douglass: Biography of a Revolutionary by Celeste-Marie Bernier

****** The Sexuality of Care: On Nursing, Kink, and a Future Without Hospitals by @thekkumkattilmk

WE LIVE IN PUBLIC: Encampments as Resistance and Revolutionary Care in Los Angeles written by unhoused people and allies; Edited by Carla Orendorff, Anthony Orendorff, Lupita Limon Corrales, Ananya Roy, and Marisa Lemorande

WHAT NOW? On Palestine, Freedom, and Our Global Future by Tareq Baconi

End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World by @naomiaklein and @astraamour

Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir by @thedannyramadan

List of titles continued in comments

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hottest party in town thanks to @sohoreadingseries + @primattoo, celebrating the launch of Uprising by @tahmima @canongatebooks ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥
Cherry on top hearing Zadie Smith read from her next novel 🍒

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