We’re rolling into the weekend with frigid temps perfect for hunkering down with a good book—but first I have to finish the one I’ve been slogging my way through for a week now! (Just 40 pages to go …) I hope you have something to look forward to this weekend, plus a good read to cuddle up with.
My favorite finds from around the web:
- 100 Things About Writing a Novel. Great piece from Alexander Chee.
- The Strange Literary Puzzle Only Four People Have Ever Solved. This sounds INTENSE. (Does it remind anyone else of Moonflower Murders?)
- As I type the Don’t Overthink It ebook is $1.69 for Kindle. A bargain price on a great book to start your year. If you prefer, my local indie Carmichael’s Bookstore has signed copies of (almost) all of my books, and My Reading Life: A Book Journal will be restocked very soon! (Click here and specify “signed copy” in order comments.)
- Speaking of journaling: this pen is bringing me joy.
- Grapefruit Is One of the Weirdest Fruits on the Planet. This is wild. If you enjoy grapefruit and you take medication, you probably need to read this.
- The Case Against the Trauma Plot. “Trauma has become synonymous with backstory, but the tyranny of backstory is itself a relatively recent phenomenon—one that, like any successful convention, has a way of skirting our notice.”
- 5 Things I’ve Learned From Reviewing Everything I’ve Read For Almost Three Years. As a reluctant reviewer myself, I appreciated my friend Leigh’s perspective. I’m in awe of her reviewing streak!
- The Nasty Logistics of Returning Your Too-Small Pants. “We can dispense now with a common myth of modern shopping: The stuff you return probably isn’t restocked and sent back out to another hopeful owner. Many retailers don’t allow any opened product to be resold as new.”
Don’t miss these posts:
- 10 books with satisfying endings that come full-circle. I love when an author sticks the landing.
- 5 favorite recipes for soup season. Soup is a go-to for our family on those chilly, busy nights!
- 16 books to cozy up with this winter. It’s the perfect time of year to get lost in a good book.
Upcoming Events:
- January 27: Choose Your Own Bookish Adventure: Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club is mixing things up this month! Join us to discuss your choice of the following books from Book Club history: Before We Visit the Goddess (2016), Beartown (2017), This Must Be the Place (2018), The Gown (2019), The Poet X (2020), and Kitchens of the Great Midwest (2021).
- February 24: Live chat with author Liz Moore: Time for our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club discussion of The Unseen World with author Liz Moore!
You can find more upcoming events here.
Have a great weekend!
8 comments
I loved the Alexander Chee post!
A note on the FriXion pens – They are great, but not to be used when long-lasting, resilient ink is desired! I used these pens for some letters to my pen pals last winter, and the ink from my FriXion pens DISAPPEARED. They thought I was playing a trick on them!
Was it the cold of MN winters? Was it the heat or friction of the mail-sorting machines? I’ll never know… And I’ll stick to standard pens for my letter-writing from now on!
That is very funny! Nothing can stand-up to those MN winters.😂 At least, I know I couldn’t!
The ink will disappear with heat, but will reappear in the cold! Have your pen pal read them outside!
They are my favorite pens ever and I have committed to only buying them in place of cheap pens that leave me, and my children, frustrated. They also have highlighters!
I use the pens for quilting!! You can mark your fabric for hand quilting and then iron over the ink and it disappears!! According to comments I
I’ve read in quilting posts – the ink reappears if it gets really cold!!
The grapefruit article was so interesting. I knew about it interacting badly with medications because my dad loves grapefruit and had several trees in his yard in Florida. He was happily making grapefruit juice to drink regularly until his doctor said no because it would mess up his medicine. I appreciated knowing the why and plan to share the article with him.
Here’s a link to a post all about bookish beauty–I thought the MMD readers would love it, and I apologize if it’s posted elsewhere on this site:
https://tomandlorenzo.com/2022/01/scottish-book-sculptures-auctioned-for-charity/
Wow! The grapefruit article was super interesting. I already knew about the interactions with drugs but, as noted in the article, didn’t know quite how many there are and the history of citrus fruit was fascinating. I got caught up a CBS Sunday Morning episode about the origin of eels (which I find absolutely disgusting) – citrus and eels have a lot in common in that neither has an entirely understood origin – ha!
Also, I am not a big fan of raw jalapenos as they cause acid reflux for me but I absolutely love the pickled variety. Yum!