I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead of you. This weekend I’m taking Summer Reading Guide photos, cheering on kids at sporting events, and hopefully catching an episode or two of the Fran Lebowitz documentary I keep hearing good things about. I hope you have something to look forward to as well, plus a good book to enjoy in the quiet moments.
Heads up, we posted two new videos to YouTube this week. I share our April MMD Book Club selections here, and explain how to use the game-changing bookmarks feature for audiobooks here.
My favorite finds from around the web:
- Deesha Philyaw’s “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” to be adapted by HBO Max. I adored this book. Listen to me recommend it to StoryGraph founder Nadia Odunayo on episode 271 of What Should I Read Next, “Because sometimes a 4.75 star rating feels right.”
- I look forward to this every year: Sephora’s 2021 Sun Safety Kit is here! (UPDATE: it was here. It launched yesterday and promptly went out of stock. In years past a restock has been quick in coming so sit tight!)
- Thank God For Dan Levy. I somehow missed this profile when it was published but it’s just as wonderful to read now. (Also I have been living under a rock: I had NO IDEA until this week that David and Johnny on Schitt’s Creek were related! I know, I know.)
- For just $2.80 ($1.96 for members) you can download the audiobook of Amanda Gorman’s stunning inaugural poem and listen to it over and over. Money well spent!
- We Want Our Friends Back! (But Which Ones?) “For many of us the pandemic was a great social winnowing, a paring down of our widest circles of friends to a skeleton crew of essentials — those who happened to be proximate, available, in our circle of trust.”
- This week’s new episode of What Should I Read Next is perfect for cultivating that weekend frame of mind. Listen to episode 277, “Books that feel like a vacation for your brain,” right here.
- How Ramona Quimby Taught a Generation of Girls to Embrace Brashness. “But if Ramona senses that her impulses are not always compatible with suburban niceties, she refuses to diminish herself. Her character is not a problem to be solved. She demands that those who comprise her universe bear witness to her tangled, wild yearnings—and, what’s more, that they embrace her for them.”
- Have Sad Desk Lunches Gotten Sadder? Cooking burnout is real. (But the comments on yesterday’s post are inspiring.)
- I love the simple pattern on this decorative plant basket.
- A Nerdy History of the Ampersand. The more you know!
Don’t miss these posts:
- 15 literary novels that will have you compulsively turning the pages. A long list of books in one of my favorite (and completely made-up) sub-genres: compulsively readable literary fiction.
- 5 common triggers for highly sensitive people, and 5 antidotes to help them survive social distancing. Here’s what HSPs need to feel calm, content, and collected during these overstimulated times.
- Louisville City Guide. Bookmark this for future travels to my hometown.
Upcoming Events:
- April 20, 1 pm ET: Bird By Bird flight discussion: Time for our Book Club discussion of flight pick Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott! This is an MMD Book Club event. (Discussions are available as replays for members who cannot attend live.)
- April 28, 7 pm ET: Live chat with author Lily King: Time for our Book Club discussion of Writers & Lovers with author Lily King! This is an MMD Book Club event. (Events are available as replays for members who cannot attend live.)
You can find more upcoming events here.
Have a great weekend!
12 comments
Dan, Eugene, and Sarah Levy! A real family adventure.
(Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara are true Canadian acting royalty. Love them.)
I knew about the father/son, but (get out of town!) I had no idea about Sarah!!
I joined book club this week, and I’m really enjoying the book. Looking forward to the author’s chat!
I like the 12 books by writers of Asian Diaspora list, new titles for my TBR! and just at the end of the list, I found a link for the new novel’s cover of Elisabeth Strout …yes, a new novel coming the 21st of october!
The Fran Lebowitz documentary is great. I hope you do get to watch it. Her observation about why she likes children cracked me up. The last episode is about books and the library, so be sure to watch until the end! 🙂
As a Jeopardy! alum, I can tell you that LeVar has a healthy fanbase among former contestants as well. Many of us would love to see him as the new permanent host!
Nope, I’m voting for Aaron Rodgers!
I was really disappointed in the book “The Secret lives of Church Ladies”.
I felt, and this is only my opinion, that this was a pretty trashy book. I rarely find this with books where the entire book isn’t worth the time to read. I wound up skimming through each chapter to see if there was a redeemable area. I just closed it and returned it to the library. It was just too much of the same.
Others may like it, but I really did not. Enough other books I’m moving on to.
Schitt’s Creek…
Twyla is Sarah Levy- real life daughter to Johnny (Eugene Levy) and brother to David (Dan Levy)
Schitt’s Creek is amazing television. Funny, warm, inclusive. I didn’t know how far reaching the fan base was until I watched the post-season episode “Best Wishes, Warmest Regards”, a documentary about the series and stars. Those characters touched a LOT of lives!
Here is the link: https://www.netflix.com/title/81286241
Lots of interesting titles on the Asian Diaspora that are new to me! My husband has told me about going to Saturday school, and then to a Dim Sum feast afterwards in NYC Chinatown as a kid. So rare to see that experience in fiction, Davi Tung can’t have a girlfriend until he gets into an Ivy League school is for sure going on my TBR list!
Thanks for all your varied links, always interesting!
I’m so excited to see that The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is being adapted. Just listened to it a few weeks ago. Got on the waiting list for it after you recommended it to Nadia. Absolutely loved it!