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Interesting reads and favorite things for your weekend

How’s your weekend shaping up? Around here, somebody is scheming to extend a Thursday birthday into a weekend-long celebration. (I’m good with that!) And we’re on the hunt for a crowd-pleasing movie that might satisfy newly-13 to 18-year-olds. I’ll take any good recs you have!

I’m still laying low while I (hopefully) recover from my respiratory weirdness, which looks like lots of reading time and perhaps a bit of puzzling. I just finished my first jigsaw of the year (I know, finally!) and I enjoyed working the vintage print so much. (Puzzlers: this New York Puzzle Company puzzle features the same illustration at a lower price point.) Now I’m itching to start another one!

Wherever you are, whatever you up to, I hope you have something 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:

Stroll Through the World’s 11 Most Unusual Libraries. (Fodor’s Travel) Don’t mind if I do.

Jenny at Carrot Top Paper Shop is offering a selected few “tokens of friendship” for 40% off for a limited time, in preparation for Valentine’s Day. No code needed—look for the green price reduction on stickers (including my favorite Call Me Cordelia sticker), select postcards, the Hate not, Fear not, LOVE mug, and more.

The Fake Shack (or the Shack Burger at Home) Recipe. (Serious Eats) We tried these for dinner this week and they were DIVINE. I’ll also note that these sounded like considerably more effort than they turned out to be: once you have the technique down they’re a breeze! (We used brioche slider buns because we had some on hand.)

N.K. Jemisin’s Novel The World We Make Reimagines New York. (Oprah Daily) This is why I keep reading her: “At the end of the day, I am here to entertain people. It’s just that my idea of entertainment involves hard questions.”

US Cities Are Falling Out of Love With the Parking Lot. (WIRED) “In much of the US, more space is devoted to parking than housing.”

Why You Should Start Book Journaling Right Now (& Prompts to Help You Start). (Book Riot) Obviously I agree: get the My Reading Life book journal right here!

I was surprised to discover our town got a J.Crew Factory Store this month! (Louisville: it’s a few doors down from Trader Joe’s.) I picked up these high-rise classic vintage jeans which I think I like as much as my Paige ones (which I just discovered are also seriously marked down right now).

Speaking of: Trader Joe’s Just Announced Its Customer Choice Awards: Here’s What Won. (Food and Wine)

Winning Images from the 11th Annual Ocean Art Underwater Photo Contest. (Underwater Photography Guide) My family gawked over these at breakfast.

‘Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret’ Trailer Shows Off First Judy Blume Movie Adaptation. (Deadline) What a great cast!

Email Unsubscribe Services Don’t Really Work. Follow This (Free) Advice Instead. (New York Times; no paywall) The advice we need.

Announcing the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists. (PEN America)

And don’t miss:

12 favorite Book Club selections that have stood the test of time. These Book Club picks have incredible staying power!

5 tips for cozy sweater care. Regular sweater care helps keep the moths and pills away! These simple solutions make it easy.

14 wintry audiobooks to listen to on dreary days. It might seem counterintuitive but I try to get outside every day during the winter. My daily walk lifts my mood and it provides the perfect audiobook-listening time.

Plus these reader comments:

Katie F. on What’s saving your life right now? “My sister donated her kidney to my 20 year old nephew yesterday. Both are doing well. She’s my hero.”

Courtney on What’s saving your life right now? “Honestly, my almost 17 year old daughter is saving my life right now. She’s just the absolute best. I just enjoy spending time with her and watching her blossom into such a beautiful human. She’s recently become interested in film and movies, so my husband and I are revisiting our favorite old movies with her. She’s our only and I’m just soaking up every minute until she leave the nest in another year or so.”

Megan on Great books you may have missed in 2022: You mention Last Summer on State Street being set in 1990 and not historical fiction – I have two stories from work (a library) that relate: 1. I was putting genre stickers on some new books that came in, and had to call my supervisor to ask if a book set in the 1990s qualified as fiction or historical fiction – the verdict was historical, believe it or not! 2. I was looking up survival books for a brochure for kids, and one book that came up with the Library of Congress Subject Heading “Survival — Juvenile Fiction” was set just after 9/11 – it also had the LCSH “Historical Fiction” – for a book set in 2001!!! Both of those were out-of-body, out-of-time experiences for me!

Linda on What’s saving your life right now? Books! In winter, I look for books that create interconnectedness, community and an element of joy. I just finished “Still Life” by Sarah Winman, an incredible gathering together of disparate people to create a found family and a sense of belonging. “The Sentence” by Louise Erdrich, when I read it last year, gave me the same feeling. Ditto for “How to Find Love in a Bookshop” by Veronica Henry, although in a lighter vein. Add to the list “Winter Solstice” by Rosamund Pilcher and “A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” by Becky Chambers, and I feel buoyed through the winter months by lives of kindness, integrity, and love.

Have a great weekend!

36 comments

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  1. Heather says:

    I’ve been wondering if you’ve seen the World of Jane Austen puzzle yet? (Laurence King Publishing). It’s got beautiful pictures and a map describing all of the characters from Jane Austen’s books to find. I’d prefer if the pieces fit together a bit more tightly but it’s a puzzle worth doing 🙂

  2. Eliz says:

    Anne, I hope you and your lungs get back to normal soon! I had two separate viruses in December so was sick for the whole month and the cough still lingers, so I –sort of–know what you’regoing through. It’s not a movie, but we started the new National Treasure series on Disney+ and like it a lot so far. (We need something fun and distracting right now as we had to put our dear 12-year-old kitty to sleep this week). This weekend we’ll be rooting on our Bengals, too. Who Dey!

    • Anne Bogel says:

      Eliz, I’m so sorry to hear you were under the weather for so long! I hope that cough fades soon.

      Thanks for the movie recs! And have fun cheering on your team this weekend.

  3. Josie says:

    Feel better soon, Anne!

    I love jigsaw puzzles, too! I was trying to think of something different to give to my partner this year for Valentine’s Day and I came upon this puzzle blogger’s website: https://hurrayforpuzzlesblog.wordpress.com/

    There’s a link on the left hand side of the site that takes you to a page called “How to make a jigsaw puzzle advent calendar.”

    The supply list, instructions, and photos are great. And the concept would work with any puzzle, not just Christmas-themed ones. I bought a great Valentine’s Day themed puzzle and I’m going to turn it into a 14-day Jigsaw Puzzle Advent Calendar to countdown the days til Valentine’s Day!

  4. Ellen Cole says:

    In case you’d like to actually go out to a movie, A Man Called Otto is truly wonderful. I know, I KNOW! It’s an Americanized version of the book but, believe me when I tell you, A Man Called Ove is my all-time-favorite book and I loved the movie. They did a fantastic job and stayed true to the book. Clearly they couldn’t capsulize the entire book into a 2 hour movie, but they did everything necessary to fully capture the beauty of the story. Tom Hanks is (of course!) awesome, and the woman who plays the new neighbor is absolutely fabulous!!!

  5. Martha says:

    A wonderful and very entertaining film is “ The Adventures of Tintin, “ directed by Spielberg. It’s based on a few of the novels by Herge.

  6. Abigail M says:

    My personal classification for historical fiction is if it takes place during the author’s lifetime, then it’s not historical fiction. To me, a book like Quan Barry’s “We Ride Upon Sticks”, which coincides with her high school years in the late 80’s, reads very differently (better?!) than an author writing about a period decades or centuries before her birth. Marie Benedict as an example. Probably not a useful classification method for bookstores or libraries but it makes sense to me.

  7. Suzy says:

    Have your kids seen “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” about the aftermath of 9/11 for a young boy? I just found out that my niece, who was five in 2001, was embarrassed to tell her mother that she didn’t actually know what the references to “9/11” WERE until recently….and your kids (the ones 13-18) were all born AFTER it happened!!

      • Suzy says:

        Oops, I completely forgot, only one day after re-reading your story about flying on 9/11, that you were almost THERE, and of course, would have told your kids all about it. I’m sure this movie would be a trigger for that. YEs, it’s from a book by Jonathan Safran Foer.

  8. Kathy says:

    We’ve been re-watching Mission Impossible movies, which gives everyone a little something (fun, edge-of-your-seat, not too much language). We also re-watched Zootopia last weekend, which kept us all laughing and looking for all of the clever human to animal spin-offs :).

  9. Caroline says:

    Movie rec: Music & Lyrics with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant. We just watched this with our kids. It’s worth it just for the send-up of ’80s music videos.

  10. Lori says:

    This is not a movie but we love the new All Creatures Great and Small series on PBS-masterpiece. We watch an episode as a family every weekend and we have 9 kids ages 2-18. It is now in season 3, but you can start at season 1 and work your way through. Does not follow James Herriot’s books exactly, but it is an enjoyable adaptation. We also love older movies and our teens enjoyed The Scarlet and The Black and The Great Escape.

  11. Christine G. says:

    I was never really interested in jigsaw puzzles before, but then I started playing a puzzle game on my iPad, and I really enjoy it. I now want to try real puzzles, but I have two cats who get into EVERYTHING. Is there a trick to keeping your puzzle and the pieces safe?

  12. Lori says:

    I highly recommend the movie CODA (2021). It’s a coming of age story about a young girl who is a child of deaf adults (CODA). Its rated PG 13 and is lovely.

  13. Suzy says:

    Have you guys seen Uncle Buck with John Candy? I’m not really a comedy fan, I find most either stupid or raunchy, but this movie makes me and my husband laugh SO HARD. It’s classic. A young Macauley Culkin is in it, too. This movie has almost as many memorable quotable lines it in as The Princes Bride. I love John Candy’s axe…..

  14. Ruth O says:

    I am accidentally stretching a Thursday birthday through part of the weekend! It was weather actually and schedules…dinner out is tomorrow night, the cake was tonight…you’re never too old to be happy to have it last, I guess!
    I hope you truly kick this respiratory illness, Anne.
    Have a great weekend, everyone.

  15. Marilyn says:

    Regarding the San Antonio Bibliotech library, it sure looks bleak, but offers so much & so many resources to the community. It is located in an area of the city where residents have not had easy access to outreach/learning/teaching activities and now they do. The central library in S.A. is also unattractive – a big red building that is called the Red Enchilada. But inside it is big, bright, spacious, & also offers an area for homeless people, (or those in shelters), to use the computer resources. The small branch that I go to used to be a Mexican food restaurant, & has a drive-up window. Great during Covid. Personally, you couldn’t get me into the library with the cube-on-the-neck design, ugh!

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