Arrangements in Blue: Notes on Loving and Living Alone by Amy Key

Gloria Steinem remarked that a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. The message is clear: Women don’t need men to lead fulfilling lives. While that’s true, Amy Key’s achingly raw memoir explores the emotional toll of becoming resigned to a lifetime without a partner. It’s a unique brand of melancholy, one Key explores creatively through songs in Joni Mitchell’s oeuvre. Your heart aches when the author recounts the imprints of her grandparents’ time together: “A still-warm cup in the sink. Or coming home to see a light on in the hall, home’s mood already animated.”