Newsletter: Great Reads: Of rivers and seas and farewells

Hey there. I'm Kari Howard, and I edit the Great Reads (a.k.a. Column Ones) for the Los Angeles Times.

Actually, I need to change the tense there. I edited the Great Reads. Yesterday was my last day at The Times. Amazingly, after 23 years at the paper, I still loved my job. How many people are that lucky?

But a farmhouse in Maine has been waiting for me, and I've decided it's time to make the leap. There are new adventures to be had, and a new life to be lived.

I think it's fitting that a great read by one of my favorite people, Henry Chu, ran on my last day — and that it was also his last story for The Times. Henry is one of the most talented writers I know, but he's also a wonderful person. That's one thing I love about the Los Angeles Times: It has a knack for collecting people who are both.

They'll keep writing beautiful stories for you, so please keep reading. This newsletter will stop for now. But maybe, if we’re lucky, it will come back under a new byline in the future.

And yes, I have a soundtrack for my departure. A friend sent it to me on the day I decided to leave. It's by a band I've loved most of my life, the Waterboys, and it's called "This Is the Sea." Here are the final lyrics, but I think you should listen to the whole thing. (Or, like me, you can make a Spotify playlist of it six times over.)

Now I hear there's a train
It's coming on down the line
It's yours if you hurry
You've got still enough time
And you don't need no ticket
And you don't pay no fee
And now you don't need no ticket
You don't pay no fee
Because that was the river
And this is the sea.
That was the river.
This is the sea.

Behold the sea.

Want to chat? I'm @karihow on Twitter.