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How do we decide what is beautiful? How does our understanding of beauty affect our lives? Chloé Cooper Jones looks to philosophy and her personal experience to unpack these questions in her book, Easy Beauty.
“I am in a bar in Brooklyn, listening to two men, my friends, discuss whether my life is worth living.” So begins Easy Beauty, Chloé Cooper Jones’ bold, revealing memoir about moving through the world in a body that looks different than most. Jones brings the full force of her fierce intelligence and intimate honesty to the subjects of motherhood and disability, tracing how we think about beauty and the painful realities of not meeting society’s standards. Alongside her very personal account is a philosophical investigation that makes the densest thinkers not only understandable, but alive and relatable. An Award-winning journalist, Jones was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for her profile of Ramsey Orta, who filmed the NYPD killing of Eric Garner.
Catherine Lacey is the author of five books: Biography of X, Pew, The Answers, Nobody Is Ever Missing, and a short story collection, Certain American States. Her debut work of nonfiction, The Möbius Book, is forthcoming, as well as a second short story collection, My Stalkers. Based in Mexico, she is a fellow at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library from 2023 to 2024.