We don't have to tell you that it's been another challenging year with lots of tough news and changes and uncertainty.

Launching this podcast has been a bright spot for us and we hope it has been for you too,

bringing you a little joy or escape in the way only a really good book can.

If you're able, help us continue to bring you these conversations in the

year to come. Just visit donate.npr.org to give to your local NPR station today. Thanks so much

for listening. Hey, it's NPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaung. If you're listening to

this book podcast from NPR, I think it's fair to guess

that you have some interest in narrative and how it shapes a story. But what about real life?

More specifically, your life. It's something I've been thinking about since I heard this next

interview with journalist and author Salika Joad. Her best-selling book is titled

Between Two Kingdoms, A Memoir of Life Interrupted. And it's about how after she got diagnosed

with leukemia, she lived in this stretch of uncertainty and isolation. I'm going to take

another wild guess here. You can probably relate a little to that. Anyway, she told NPR's Beck Harlan from our Life Kit podcast that what got her through

all of that was a creative practice, journaling, because it helped her regain some

narrative control over her life.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

I remember from your book you wrote to yourself in your journal.

You wrote stay afloat.

And I'm sure that you had to say that to yourself many times in the following years.

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