What are you up to this weekend? Will and I are kicking things off with Friday planning coffee and I’m hoping to squeeze in a hike before Monday comes around. We’re also overseeing college applications around here (gulp—send advice if you have some) and I hope to get in some quality reading time as my pace as been SLOW these past weeks.
May these next days be filled with grace, peace, rest, and good books, and may this collection of interesting reads and favorite things help ease you into that weekend frame of mind.
My favorite finds from around the web:
- My heart goes out to everyone who was affected by the devastation of Hurricane Ian. American Red Cross is accepting disaster relief donations.
- Tom Hanks set to release debut novel next year. Do you think he’d want to come and talk about it on What Should I Read Next?
- An interesting insight into our What Should I Read Next creative process.
- Craftsy just launched a new Halloween deal: get your premium membership for $2.49 for your first full year (instead of the usual $89.99)
- Publishing Is Weird: How My Book Became a Hit with Elderly People. John Green has a great example of the unanticipated impacts of algorithms on publishing.
- 13 things I learned in October. 2015. I so enjoyed this stroll down memory lane!
- Every movie right now, from Amsterdam to Glass Onion, stars a million A-listers. Fascinating explainer on the Endgamification of everything from our November Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club author.
- She Founded American Girl To “Bring History Alive.” Then She Made Over A Town. Fascinating profile with an urban planning edge.
- The 2022 Sephora Makeup Must Haves set is here! I order this set SO FAST every year. In this year’s edition I’m especially excited to try the ILIA mascara (I’ve heard great things) and KVD Beauty eyeliner. Their Sephora Favorites Advent calendar is also a lot of fun.
- Can a Childhood Friendship Really Last a Lifetime? Great interview with Kamila Shamsie about her new novel, Best of Friends (as seen in our Fall Book Preview).
- Wait, What? A List of Psychological Thrillers with Gobsmacking Twists. Perfect for spooky season.
- Sandwiches must be cut diagonally, and I’m not taking questions. (Gift link.) This is a riot!
- Rare signed edition of The Catcher in the Rye on sale for £255,000. I didn’t know signed copies of his work were so hard to come by.
- Can the hurricane TV reporters come in now? Please? It makes me so nervous when they’re out in these storms!
- I enjoyed going behind-the-scenes with Cindy from Thoughts From a Page Podcast!
Don’t miss these posts:
- 12 horror novels for wimps. Scaredy-cats deserve good spine-tingling reads! These horror novels strike the right balance.
- My new little book page pumpkin. A seasonal craft for your weekend!
- 14 quintessentially British audiobooks for chilly weather listening. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself taking the dog on a longer walk just so you can keep listening.
Upcoming Events:
- October 20: WSIRN Trivia Night: Our team has been talking about putting on Trivia Night for ages and we’re thrilled to finally offer this fun bookish event for our What Should I Read Next Patreon community! More details here.
- October 27: Live discussion with Hala Alyan: Time for our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club discussion of The Arsonists’ City with author Hala Alyan! (Events are available as replays for members who cannot attend live.)
You can find more upcoming events here.
Have a great weekend!
18 comments
We told our boys we’d pay for five applications. Son number one ended up applying to either 18 or 20 schools! (Freebie application schools plus a handful he paid for on his own. In the midst of FAFSA and CSS I said NO MORE.) Neither of my boys visited their schools — Lehigh and University of Virginia. The first time they saw them was move-in day. Now son number one is a senior studying in Madrid, and number two is a sophomore in VA. They’ve loved their experiences. It will all come together! Best of luck!
Well, I am an expert on how NOT to help manage your kids’ college applications. I applied to about 8 small, liberal arts colleges, two honors colleges at big state schools, and 1 Ivy. I had something like 32 essays to write. (Do you think the most precious/pretentious questions were for the Ivy school app? Nope. They were for a tiny southern college that was 99.9999% white and privileged asking me how I would contribute to campus diversity. Like, you first??)
Anyway, my parents printed out a list of all the essay questions and taped the pages to the kitchen door. Then, they highlighted the ones I still had to finish. So, I got to see that totally chill reminder about 462 times/day. Yeah, we were “mentally tougher” back then than today’s kids, but at what cost, I ask you!!!!! How much money have I spent on therapy and anti-anxiety meds??!! 😂😂
In spite of all this, I ended up at an amazing school and have continued to enjoy both teaching at the high school level and, recently, also being a grad student for my second MA.
You and your kids are going to slay college apps! There are many, many ways to be successful, and if your kiddo goes in-state or gets a scholarship, you can put the money you save into a therapy fund for later.
Books I’ve read recently:
The It Girl, Ruth Ware (a murder at Oxford)
The Gospel of Thomas; new perspectives, Elaine Pagels, a Hoopla audiobook
Hazards of Time Travel, Joyce Carol Oates (a smart girl is banished from a dystopian future to 1959 Wisconsin)
Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty, Lauren Weisberger, (parent going too far to get her daughter into Princeton)
Marian Consecration with Aquinas, Matt Fradd and Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., on Hoopla
Educated: a memoir, Tara Westover
Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner, Korean-American food memoir
And I’m working on:
The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazalwood
Left on Tenth: a second chance at life, Delia Ephron
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
I am Vengeance, Dan Smalley (Texas crime novel set in 1933)
First, it would be so awesome if you could get Tom Hanks on WSIRN!
Second, I think the diagonal cut of a sandwich is definitely the superior cut. Unless I’m feeling nostalgic and make a PB&J. Then I cut it into 4 squares like my mom used to do for me.
(Hopefully this comment only posts once, as my internet crashed when I was clicking “Post” before and I probably clicked it 12 times trying to make it work 😛 )
Thanks for the tip about Craftsy…I don’t know what that is, but at that price I signed right up! I’ve been doing a bit of acrylic painting, and it’s nothing I’d show anyone, but I really enjoy time spent painting and I’m looking forward to the tutorials for new techniques!
Oh, I really hope you can get Tom Hanks on the podcast. That would be amazing!
Tom Hanks would FOR SURe want to talk with Book Club. He seems so approachable and has done many things like photo bomb pictures and talk on podcasts, that I beat you could get him with your vast and incredibly involved community! Besides, who wouldn’t want to talk to so many erudite women/people?!
I love John Green, thanks for sharing that video!! And as a New Yorker (not in the city, just to clarify, as some people in other parts of the country seem to think NYC is all there is to NY), I can totally relate to the “Welcome to Fall” piece. Thanks for pulling these together every week!
I’m a HUGE fan of John Green, so it was very exciting to see him here! And it is indeed a very weird story. 🙂 I also grew up loving American Girl, so lots to enjoy here! 😀
I live about 20 minutes away from Aurora, worked at a shop there in town during law school, and have so so so many thoughts about Pleasant & that article. Thanks for sharing!
So after reading your Oct. 2015 list, I NEED to know how you previously pronounced banal!
In the 1980s I taught a half day kindergarten at a Christian school & we used the Pleasant Rowland, Beginning to Read, Write & Listen program. It had no religious content & was extremely effective. All of my students were reading at the end of the year.
It’s nice to have a stretch school or two, a couple probablys and one sure thing. Don’t go crazy worrying about which school is perfect. Visit the ones you can and pick the one that feels like a good fit. Also know that if it really isn’t right-you can switch! Hint-The summer before they go away, they will be trying to emotionally separate from you, so often act like total jerks. It’s ok. Just put up with it.
My best college application tip is to write a meaningful and personal essay paragraph(s) This is the one single thing that will differentiate you from all the other applicants with comparable classes, GPAs, hobbies and interests.
Deb Perelman had her own sandwichgate on Smitten Kitchen after she cut a grilled cheese sandwich on the horizontal. Also hilarious!
I love these posts. They are so full of great thoughts and inspiration. Tom Hanks?! A book! Well that should be cool. I’m heading over now to the What Should I Read Next link…
Recently I think you mentioned a new book or one coming soon that is a retelling or similar to The Scarlet Letter. Can you provide the title again?
Thank you
I would love if you could snag Tom Hanks for an episode. I am not a huge audiobook person, but when I heard he was the narrator of The Dutch House, I decided to read the book that way. My ancient iPhone still plays random bits of it when it is having a meltdown in the car.