For the most part, award-winning author Diane McKinney Whetstone’s characters live their complicated lives in between El stops in early to mid-20th-century West Philly.
In her new book Family Spirit, released by Amistad earlier this fall, her protagonist Ayana works at a fictional West Philly coffee shop in 2019.
And Ayana is clairvoyant.
Whetstone packs a lot of Philadelphia in this 229-page book. Ayana weaves in and out of downtown office buildings. Her aunt Lil flashes back to 1970s Philly when she was shopping at Wanamakers and up for a gig on TheMike Douglas Show, when the variety show was filmed in Old City.
Diane McKinney Whetstone, author of newly published book Family Spirit at her home in Wynnewood, PA., Thursday, October 23, 2025.
But the majority of the story takes place in Southwest Philly at the Mace family house, where women on Ayana’s paternal side have gathered for 100 years to take part in rituals that reveal the future.
We talked to Whetstone, a lifelong Philadelphian, about her perfect Philly day.
5 a.m.
I get up early and make really strong coffee. Every day I spend a couple of hours writing. I have to, that’s my best time of the day. Sometimes I will write for three hours. Other times, I write until noon. Sometimes, I write the whole day if the spirit hits me.
8 a.m.
If it’s not a writing day, and I’m done for the day, my husband and I will go out for breakfast. Sometimes we will go toSabrina’s Cafe in Wynnewood.
A student from the Krieger Schechter Day School of Baltimore, MD, on a field trip to the Franklin Institute on February 12, 2020, enters the right ventricle of the Giant Heart.
But lately, I’ve really liked going to Boutique River Falls off Kelly Drive, near Midvale. They have the best pancakes and fried fish. If my grandkids are with me, we will go to the Frankie [The Franklin Institute] and go through “Body Odyssey,” especially the “Giant Heart.” They love it.
If we have a lot of time, we take a nice long walk on Kelly Drive. I’m a big walker.
11 a.m.
Both my husband and I are from Philadelphia and we like to drive around our old neighborhoods. On some days we will head down Lancaster Avenue where it intersects with Haverford and reminisce about the days it was a central shopping district like Center City.
Sometimes we will drive down to 52nd Street. When I’m over there, the sounds of the El train, the way the houses are situated on the street, it takes me immediately back to my childhood.
1 p.m.
If it’s a nice day in the summer, we may go to theNile Swim Club in Yeadon. My sister has a membership there. On any given day there are families there relaxing, sharing stories. It’s a really nice place to relax.
A historical marker is pictured ahead of the opening for the summer season at Nile Swim Club in Yeadon, Pennsylvania, U.S., May 27, 2022.
2 p.m.
Again, if my grandkids are in town, we may go to a matinee atthe Academy of Musicin Philadelphia. We saw The Wiz. It was so good. Then we went around the corner to Samurai Japanese Restaurant. I’m not a real big fan of raw fish, but the teriyaki there is just so good.
4 p.m.
I cook a lot at home and especially a lot of fish. I eat salmon three times a week and I love it fresh. I really enjoy going down to Fairmount to pick up my order from Small World Seafood. I love that I get to cook restaurant-quality food.
Bri Smith of West Philadelphia poses by the Roots Picnic sign with the city skyline in the background before the start of day 2 of the Roots Picnic at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, June 4, 2023.
8 p.m.
I would end my day at a concert at the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts. I saw Cynthia Erivo there in June and it was incredible. She sang Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I saw Your Face” and I nearly cried. The view of Philadelphia’s skyline is amazing. It’s just a wonderful way to end a day.
When Malala Yousafzai hit world headlines in 2012, she was 15 and lying comatose in a hospital in Birmingham, England. She had been shot in the head by Taliban militants while on her way back from school after an exam, in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.
“I was getting defined as a brave, courageous activist, a girl who stood up to the Taliban and fighting for girls’ education. But I had still not opened my eyes and figured out what had happened, where I was supposed to now live and restart my life,” said Yousafzai, 28, whose new memoir, Finding My Way, came out this month.
Malala Yousafzai’s “Finding My Way” is a delightfully candid memoir of her journey through her teen years, finding love, defying expectations, and reconnecting with her mission to empower girls.
The book begins with the words, “I’ll never know who I was supposed to be.”
She thinks about that often.
“Maybe I would have lived a life where I felt less pressure and didn’t have to meet so many expectations. But then, I would be facing so many challenges in my own education, let alone fighting for other girls.”
Earlier this year, the first class of girls graduated from the high school she started in her native village of Mingora. “The first class in the whole village,” she asserted, breaking into a smile on Zoom.
Delightfully candid, the memoir speaks of Yousafzai’s high school years in Birmingham. She struggled to make friends. “By the end of it, I had only made one friend,” she said.
Apparently, a Nobel Peace Prize doesn’t make you cool enough. “Not with friendships anyway,” she said. “Maybe the work you want to do for girls’ education, but not with making friends.”
Malala Yousafzai during her years at the University of Oxford, where, in the summer of 2018, she met Asser Malik, her now husband
The memoir details her college years in Oxford, where she nursed heartbreaks, smoked weed, met Asser Malik whom she’d eventually marry, and, yes, made friends.
As one reads on, the eternal image of the 15-year-old in a veil splashed across TV screens and newspapers, slowly begins to shift. Yousafzai has stepped into womanhood, and she has embraced all the heartbreak and hormones that come with it and is not ashamed to talk about it.
“In a way, this is a reintroduction of me,” said the author. “I have talked about my love life, friendships, and mental health. It’s been a wild ride from nearly failing my exams to getting ghosted by my crush, to reconnecting with my mission of educating girls.”
Malala Yousafzai at her matriculation at University of Oxford, where she studied philosophy, politics, and economics at Lady Margaret Hall.
For someone who won a Nobel at 17, topped school in Pakistan, and became a beacon of hope for girls who dream of getting an education, talking about almost failing in college wasn’t easy.
“I realized that I cannot miss this opportunity to prioritize making friends,” she said, recalling sitting in the library and looking outside to see friends sitting in the sun and laughing.
“I realized I wanted to be with them more than anything … It’s not just about having fun and socializing. I think learning from people can be life-changing, and it can stay with you forever.”
Malala Yousafzai during her years at University of Oxford, where she joined all the societies she could find and took up rowing
At Oxford, she attended Lady Margaret Hall, studied philosophy, politics, and economics, took up rowing, joined every society that she could find, organized social events, and attended parties.
It’s also where, in the summer of 2018, she met Malik through mutual friends and bonded over a shared love for cricket.
After a string of secret dates, a desire to never get married, and an eventual change of heart, she decided to tell her parents.
Malala Yousafzai (right) with her family in England on Oct. 10, 2018. From left: Father Ziauddin, brothers Atal and Khushal, and mother Toor Pekai.
She first told her forever cheerleader and father, Ziauddin, who was a schoolteacher back home in Pakistan, and asked him not to tell her mother, Toor Pekai, just yet.
“Because I knew she would freak out.”
Her father, she said, “took no pause and called my mom. I was like, ‘Dad, how could you do this?’ And then my mom told me off.” It felt like a betrayal. But eventually, “after all of that hide and seek, they finally approved us.”
“I love my mom,” said Yousafzai. “Her upbringing, childhood, and experiences were so different from mine. I understand her fears, and that she wants to protect me. We constantly have these conversations. I keep telling her that we have to resist these pressures, so we can make it comfortable for more girls to be able to express themselves.”
Malala Yousafzai visiting a Pakistani classroom as part of the Higher Education Readiness (HER) program.
Toor Pekai, her daughter says, is “a work in progress.”
“She just started reading the book. So we’ll find out how much more work needs to be done on her,” Yousafzai said with a laugh.
She and Malik were married in 2021, but it wasn’t an obvious decision just because they had dated for a while. Yousafzai, running schools for girls in Pakistan and Lebanon, wondered if “embracing love and taking a big decision like marriage” would take away from everything she had achieved.
Asser Malik and Malala Yousafzai on their wedding day in November 2021 at her parents’ home in Birmingham, England.
“I had so many questions and doubts about marriage. We all know the issue of forced marriages and child marriage. We also know how, historically, marriage has meant more compromises for women. So I took my time, I did my research, I learned, and more than anything, I asked Asser questions.”
One of them was, “What if I earn more than you?”
“He would say something like, ‘If my wife earns more than me, I’ll be the luckiest husband, and I would love to just sit at home and enjoy my life.’ So I was like, ‘Wow, this guy is funny as well.’”
“We need better men, better boys,” said Yousafzai.
Which she said, makes her Team Conrad, referring to the Prime Video show The Summer I Turned Pretty that she binge-watched with Malik.
For someone who was forced out of her home country, she has now learned to find a sense of belonging. “It is the home that we have in Birmingham now, where my family lives. It is when I’m with my friends, or when I’m with my husband, and we have a moment of joy together. It’s when we’re watching our favorite TV show, or holding hands. All of that is now home to me.”
Her book tour brings her to Philadelphia on Tuesday, where she’ll be in conversation with Kylie Kelce.
“I’m really excited to be in Philadelphia,” said the cricket fan, “and open to going to an Eagles game. I don’t think I’ve been to any of the games.
“What is it called? American football?”
“Malala Yousafzai: Finding My Way Book Tour,” Oct. 28, 8 p.m., the Fillmore, 29 E. Allen St., Phila., livenation.com
On Tuesday, Harper — an imprint of HarperCollins Publishing — announced the release of Shapiro’s forthcoming memoir, Where We Keep the Light: Stories From a Life of Service, which will hit shelves on Jan. 27, 2026.
Shapiro, 52, has worked in some level of government for his entire career: on Capitol Hill as a staffer, in Montgomery County as a commissioner, and in Harrisburg as a state representative, attorney general, and now governor. He has noted that he has never lost an election, going back to his election as student body president his freshman year at the University of Rochester. Along the way, elected officials have whispered about his talents as a politician, orator, and rumored presidential ambitions.
The Montgomery County native has become a key player in the national Democratic Party, touting a brand as a governor of a split legislature in the most sought-after swing state. His administration’s motto is “Get Stuff Done,” which he defines as bringing Democrats and Republicans together to accomplish long-delayed reforms, or restarting residents’ trust by improving their interactions with state government. (Pennsylvania still has not finished its state budget, which was due July 1, as legislators from the Democratic-controlled House and GOP-controlled Senate cannot agree on how much they should spend this fiscal year and causing school districts, counties, and nonprofits to take out significant loans to continue offering services during the 113-day budget impasse.)
Shapiro’s rise through the Democratic Party ranks skyrocketed last year, when he became a front-runner for vice president during Harris’ whirlwind, 107-day presidential campaign, in which she ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Harris also released a book this year, which includes stories from her interview with Shapiro for the role.
Shapiro, who was born in Kansas City, Mo., before moving to Montgomery County, has credited his upbringing by his parents — his father a pediatrician, and his mother an educator — as laying the foundation for his life in public service. Shapiro has four children and is married to his high school sweetheart, Lori. He and his family still live in Abington Township and split their time between their family home and the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg.
