What are you up to this weekend? I’m looking forward to seeing Kate Hammill’s Emma on stage, going to an appetizer party, and hosting a friend for a visit. Plus of course I’d like to enjoy the last forty pages of my current read and dive into a new one.
I hope you have something good to look forward to this weekend, and that this collection of interesting reads and favorite things helps ease you into that weekend frame of mind.
My favorite finds from around the web:
I offer gift links for articles whenever possible (you may still need to create an account with the publication); if there’s no gift link and you’re not a subscriber, check to see if your library carries the publication or use a bookmarking service.
The Gospel According to Emily Henry. (The New Yorker) “Henry’s books are all about healing. Her work is premised on the belief that the people in our orbits can explain who we are, why we are the way we are, who we will be. The moral arcs of our lives are determined by the way others treat us, and any brokenness that results can only be undone—can only be healed—by other people, too.” The New Orleans backdrop of this profile is also very fun.
Thank you for celebrating 10 years of What Should I Read Next with us!
On ‘The Pitt,’ E.R. Doctors Try to Fix This Broken World. (New York Times gift link) Great profile. “Having watched The Pitt on TV, I was excited to be on set. I wanted to know everything. How did they make the wounds look so real? (Answer: prosthetics, Q-tips, spray bottles, petroleum jelly, various jars of goo.) Was Katherine LaNasa, who won an Emmy for her performance as the senior charge nurse Dana Evans, really like that in real life — a no-nonsense control tower of glamorous sass whose authority seems to flow directly from the center of the earth? (Yes.)” I love this show, even if I spend a fair amount of it shielding my eyes from what’s on screen.
11 Common Cooking ‘Tricks’ That Don’t Actually Work. (The Takeout) Were you surprised by any of these?
I opened a bookshop. It was the best, worst thing I’ve ever done. (Financial Times) “Because bookshops make everything better, don’t they? The smell of them, the silence of them, the sense of possibility that each and every one of the books they house promises. A great book has the power to change your way of looking at the world. And the opportunity to seek that book out, in your own way, in your own time, is one of life’s great luxuries.”
On the 2026 Golden Globe Red Carpet, the Winner Is Bright Colors. (Vogue) I love a red carpet photo gallery.
Will gave me a kitchen blowtorch for Christmas so we’ve been having a blast torching all the things: favorites so far are this Vanilla Crème Brûlée (NYT Cooking gift link) and brûléed grapefruit (Food Network). This is the blowtorch I have; I was terrified but I’m finding it easy to use.
What I’ve been reading lately: the new and the notable. (MMD) An eclectic mix of genres and a whole lot of backlist to start 2026 right.
He spends 12 hours making art in the snow, then watches it vanish. (Washington Post gift link) These photos are stunning. “The patterns can be as large as three soccer fields. After they’re done, Beck photographs them, often using a drone or by perching high on a nearby slope. Then, the drawings melt or are swept away by the wind or skiers — or they’re covered by fresh snow. The ephemeral nature of his work is part of the point.”
I’ve been living in bootcut and wide-leg jeans this winter; some of my favorites are on sale at Evereve right now. I love Mother’s Hustler Roller Sneak (24–32, linking to the black; mine are blue but they’re sold out) and Pistola’s Evie High Rise Slim Bootcuts (24–32). I am consistently happy with Kut from the Kloth’s quality/price ratio and they have a ton of styles on sale (00–16). I have the Paige Anessa in blue (24–32, I’ve been a Paige fan since I bought my first pair of their maternity jeans in something like 2005) but I’m intrigued by this rust-colored pair (24–32). How are we feeling about colored denim these days? Because I’m thinking these would look lovely with my extensive collection of camel and ivory tops.
The Pride and Prejudice Bennet family home has returned to the market after two years. (House & Garden) In case anyone has a spare £4 million.
My favorite purchase this fall/winter was Anthropologie’s Cline Chunky Crew-Neck Sweater. My green is sold out, but it’s still available and on sale in a wide variety of sizes and colors (XXS–XL). I’m 5’9″ and went for a very roomy Medium (the Small would have been my true fit, but even then it was sold out). All Anthro sale is 50% off this weekend so this is a steal! (Take note: the 50% off sale items are final sale.) I also love this Goldie Crew-Neck Cashmere Sweater (XXS–XL) and this Long-Sleeve Boatneck Tinsel Sweater (XXS–XL). A lot of comments say it’s hard to wear outside the holiday season but my mom taught me to bring out my brights and sparkles on the dreary days of winter: this sweater in any shade could be perfect for a grey February day.
Gourmet Magazine Is Back. It’s Not Exactly Sanctioned. (New York Times gift link) How it began: “Last year, the writer Sam Dean, formerly of The Los Angeles Times and Bon Appétit, was browsing the U.S. trademark database, as one does, when he discovered the Gourmet trademark had not been renewed in 2021.” My biggest takeaway is: now I want to reread Ruth Reichl’s Gourmet memoir Save Me the Plums.
9 U.S. City Names You’re Probably Saying Wrong. (Daily Passport) Featuring my town: “The city in Kentucky is called “LOO-a-vul.” (My kids watched Stranger Things and their mispronunciation in season 5 was the source of much hilarity at my house. Watch the short Elizabethtown clip too!)
The Dream of the Universal Library. (Asterisk) “At the turn of the millennium, Google Books and similar mass digitization projects for the world’s print books were widely seen to promise a universal digital library for reading access on the web. Instead, the future we thought we’d get for human readers has arrived only for machines.”
Are Contemporary Fridges the Problem, or Is It Us? (Taste) “Consumers also ask a lot more of their refrigerators than they did a decade ago. We now expect them to take an active role in keeping fresh food longer, supporting meal planning, and reducing food waste.”
Don’t miss these posts:
21 Jane Austen retellings worth picking up. It is a truth universally acknowledged that I am a sucker for Jane Austen retellings.
Revitalize your To Be Read list with this simple method. Simple but it’s a game-changer!
17 recommended reads for those traveling to Ireland. For anyone planning a trip to Ireland or looking for some armchair travel.
Have a great weekend!
11 comments
Anne, use your torch to brûlée your oatmeal! Life changing!
Oh my goodness, I am trying this immediately! Thanks so much for the genius tip.
The city name article was fun! It featured two of my home state names (Idaho) and my new hometown Louisville! I’m glad I’m saying it right! It’s really fun to hear people here try to pronounce those Idaho towns and my Idaho friends trying to pronounce Louisville.
Any recommended reads for those going to Scotland and Hawaii?
As a matter of fact we do! Recommended reads for Scotland are here, and recommended reads for Hawaii are here. You can browse all our locations here in our literary tourism archives.
A great Ruth Reichel memoir is Garlic and Sapphires. It’s about when she became the restaurant critic for The NY Times and had to dress up in disguises so no one would recognize her. Hijinks ensue.
I loved that one!
I appreciated the article about how to pronounce some hard city names; I got most of them right, but it doesn’t hurt to check! And I’m practicing LOO-i-vul!
But I loved the article about the new bookstore owner! Ate it up! I am interested in what goes into actually buying and running a shop. But I wanted to hear “the rest of the story”!
That Takeout article must be ragebait…or written by AI. Who is throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it’s done, lol??
Mary, your comment made me giggle: that guidance was prevalent when I was a kid. I have numerous (happy) memories of making dinner with my middle school friends and throwing noodles against the wall to check for doneness. We were CONVINCED it worked. 🙂
Oh, throwing spaghetti against the wall was definitely a thing! If memory serves, they did it in the movie The Big Chill.
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