What are you up to this weekend? Three kids here are on Winter Break, so we’re going to go see a fun show, make waffles for breakfast, and enjoy some time hanging out with no looming homework. I’m hoping to finish at least two books (I’m already halfway through one so this feels doable) and choose my next audiobook before my next short walk with Daisy (any recommendations?).
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:
- How an Ikea storage solution became Gen Z’s most coveted bookshelf. (Penguin UK) “The trolley acts as an ever-changing display of what the reader is interested in.” (If you’re inspired to start your own: I love the great colors available for this rolling cart from The Container Store.)
- Helen Garner on happiness: ‘It’s taken me 80 years to figure out it’s not a tranquil, sunlit realm.’ (The Guardian) “I’m going to settle for small, random stabs of extreme interestingness–moments of intense awareness of the things I’m about to lose, and of gladness that they exist.”
- Scrumptious Cozy Mysteries to Tempt Your Palate. (CrimeReads) “From chocolate to donuts, there are cozies to satisfy any reader’s sweet tooth.” The titles on these are great.
- Can Poetry Heal a Broken World? (ELLE) This is a lovely interview with the first Latina poet laureate, right from the humorous opening: “Ada Limón told her speaking agent she couldn’t take the mysterious late-morning phone call. She had physical therapy. Her agent suggested, gently, that she reschedule.”
- 17 Movies About the Many Layers of Friendship. (Shondaland)
- The Best Coffee Shop in Every State. (Tasting Table) I’m sad to say the shop named for my state doesn’t serve the decaf I need (sniff), but I will vouch for their chocolate chip cookies.
- How to Experience the Lasting Legacy of Harriet Tubman. (Shondaland) I didn’t know you could tour her home in Auburn, New York! The pictures in this piece are gorgeous.
- Nothing says spring like a cream cable sweater. (This deeply discounted version also feels just right for this time of year.)
- HarperCollins Union Voted to Ratify Contract. (Book Riot) This is new news as of yesterday. I’m relieved to hear the strike is over; HarperCollins employees return to work on February 21.
- The French Tian Is the Prettiest (and Easiest) Way to Cook and Serve Vegetables. (Martha Stewart) This makes me want to go turn on the oven and get started right this minute!
- Skinny jeans will never die, says Levi’s — and these Gen Z fans. (Washington Post gift link) “Data suggests that when skinny jean stalwarts say they aren’t giving them up, they mean it.” (I’ve worn an unpatchable hole in my favorite skinnies and need to replace them—want to put in a word for your favorite style before I go shopping? I’d love to hear!)
- My friends at Strong Sense of Place just kicked off Season 5 with this fabulous episode about Spain—a place I already very much wanted to visit and now want to even more.
- Why I Ditched Solo Trips & Travel With My Parents Instead. (Refinery 29) “In an era of “solo trips” trending on social media, traveling with your parents may not seem as cool to some. But for those who do have a healthy relationship with their parents, I can assure you that it’ll be an experience you’ll treasure for the rest of your life.” Somebody tell my teens about this, okay?
- 40 Simple Baking Projects for a Winter Snow Day. (The Kitchn) Bookmarking!
Don’t miss these posts:
- Take a trip to the icy Arctic with these 8 awe-inspiring nonfiction books. The Arctic is as harrowing as it is beautiful and that makes for great page-turners!
- Buy the flowers. There’s never been a better time.
- Get hooked on a new mystery series with these 10 addicting audiobooks. These well-written procedurals are worth the read.
Have a great weekend!
31 comments
Thank you! I have bookmarked the new Harriet Tubman National Park which sounds amazing; forwarded Helen Garner’s essay to my 85-year-old mom; and forwarded the mystery audiobooks list to my husband. I do believe my work is done for today 😉
Happy weekend Anne! Hope you enjoy your time with all the Winter Breakers and your voice gets the rest and exercise it requires 🙂
I’m technically a – wait for it – ‘geriatric millennial’ (I kid you not: “The elder tier of millennials, those born between 1980 and 1985, fall into the micro-generation category of geriatric millennials”. Rude. I mean, accurate but RUDE). That said, I too have a couple of book trolleys – and they’re brilliant. I heard about the new generation of trolleys on Reading Glasses and they sounded like a handy solution to my “Oh crap, where did I put that new book?!” problem. In my bedroom, I have a powder pink one that houses all my physical TBR books. As I partly work from home and don’t have a permanent work space, I use the dining room: I have a dove grey trolley that looks after my working-from-home paperwork and stationery. Us elder millennials wheeling in will likely doom the Gen Z book trolley trend (apparently we are Gen Z kryptonite. Apparently it’s the insistence on emojis. Sad face). But I’ll be keeping my portable shelving buddies for the foreseeable future.
Aimz – I am a straight up 50 year old Gen X’er and I too have a book trolley (actually two) one in my bedroom for my most recent TBR books and one in our family room that holds library books my daughter and I have borrowed. She is a Gen Z’er and doesn’t seem threatened by my love for the book trolley. Her Gen X Aunt has two as well.
I am currently planning a multi generational family trip to Alaska for 2024 with my father-in-law and kids. I’m pretty good at vacation planning, if I do say so myself, and my FIL has watched us galivant around the world and recently stayed with our teens while we went to Europe for 2 weeks last summer. So we decided to plan a trip for all of us. I loved the post you shared and the one big takeaway for me is to make sure to communicate the need for alone time up front.
I have no idea if you’ve already booked something, but we did a 3-generations together family cruise with Alaska Dream Cruises in 2019 for my in-laws 50th anniversary and it was fabulous. We were on a very small ship with only a couple of other families and everything about it was excellent (accommodations, food, crew, itinerary, humpback whales, etc!). https://www.alaskandreamcruises.com/
If you haven’t read Where the Rhythm Takes You by Sarah Dass yet, it was great on audio with the Caribbean accent!
What a great list of links! I bought a sweater, followed a new podcast, added a couple of books to my TBR, and read some great articles!
Thank you!
Cathy
Horse: A Novel, by Geraldine Brooks is a good listen.
Molly Shannon’s memoir, “Hello, Molly!” is absolutely perfect on audio! I devoured the print book and then promptly purchased the audiobook for a road trip to Florida. My husband loved it as much as I did. For those not familiar, Molly Shannon is a famous SNL performer/actress whose family experienced a horrible tragedy when she was a young girl. Her alcoholic father crashes their car on the way home from a family gathering, instantly killing Molly’s mother, baby sister, and cousin. Molly and her older sister and father survive the crash, and her troubled father has to raise the two young girls on his own. This memoir is a beautiful portrait of resilience and forgiveness in the face of overwhelming tragedy. The charming young Molly takes it upon herself to make everyone laugh, and develops the unique sense of humor and optimism that shapes her life and career. You will fall in love with this hilarious and wonderful woman.
Helen Garner is a gem! Here is a link to my favorite article of hers originally in the Australian journal “The Monthly’, about ageing.
https://lithub.com/the-insults-of-age/
“The insults of age had been piling up for so long that I was almost numb to them. The husband (when I still had one): “You’re not going out in that sleeveless top?” The grandchild: “Nanna, why are your teeth grey?” The pretty young publisher tottering along in her stilettos: “Are you right on these stairs, Helen?” The flight attendant at the boarding gate: “And when you do reach your seat, madam, remember to stow that little backpack riiiight under the seat in front of you!” The grinning red-faced bloke who mutters to the young man taking the seat beside me: “Bad luck, mate.”
I found and love these skinny jeans (from Costco no less): https://www.costco.com/buffalo-ladies'-high-rise-skinny-jean.product.100832223.html
Skinny jeans forever! I’m plus size with not big hips and legs I’m proud of! Also I’m short; I don’t need a volume of denim to haul too.
I love that upstate NY get love in multiple stories this week. I live in a suburb of Rochester and Ugly Duck Coffee deserves the love it gets in the coffee story. I am also about an hour from Auburn and while I have read about the Harriet Tubman House and it becoming a national park, I still haven’t made the drive out to visit, so that was a nudge to get out there. We have Susan B. Anthony’s House here in Rochester (along with her grave, and Frederick Douglass’ as well), so anyone traveling to Auburn who hasn’t been to Rochester should consider that too.
I can’t wait to bake a Tian! And I hope you try or are a customer already of Day’s
Espresso and Coffee on Bardstown Road. They are one of the few places in town that serves decaf expresso! My favorite KY (Louisville) coffee shop.
Happy weekend!
Buy the flowers! I can’t tell you how many times I have read this post since it originally came online. I love the sentiment and it speaks to my heart. I regularly need the reminder to be gentle and kind with myself. Making yourself happy, noticing which little things uplift you, all good. Whenever I buy myself flowers, still a rare thing in itself, I always think of you. Why is it that I would buy a friend flowers in a heartbeat but have to talk myself into it for myself? X
Kay, that is the one thing that I do for myself – buy flowers once a week! I get carnations of all different colors for $7.00 & then add something on the markdown display for $1.99 & I have a full bouquet. I also buy fancy soaps for myself, the bathroom always smells so good! I am about to turn 80 so I figured it was about time to do good things for me instead of for others!
I never heard of winter break. Do your school district also have a spring break? Reading Jefferson’s Daughters and it’s taking me a long time. I hope something in there helps me with my monthly trivia event.
I’d have to say I’m glad the skinny jean thing is over. I find boot-cut much more flattering (plus they work with cowgirl boots). Even straight is better! Skinnies left me looking like an ice-cream cone. I have one pair to wear with knee-high boots and that’s it!
Agree! Boot cut is much more flattering.
Love my boot cut jeans, won’t give them up!
Interesting links. Loved reading about Ada Limón and Harriet Tubman’s home. I hope my adult children will include in their travel, occasionally 🙂 I won’t be annoying and send them the article!
Auburn, NY is my hometown. I recommend visiting Harriet Tubman’s grave at Fort Hill cemetery. Stop in at the beautiful Seymour Library, and drive over to the picturesque Skaneateles for lunch or dinner!
I am currently listening to Finding Me by Viola Davis. It’s wonderful, especially since she narrates it herself. Trigger warnings apply here—I’m not quite halfway through and there is alcoholism, abuse (sexual and physical), neglect and I may be forgetting one. But the good news is we know that she gets her happy ending… 😊
I enjoyed the article about giving back the gift of traveling to our parents. I hadn’t thought of it that way! When I was little, my mother and my Nana would take me on one or two night trips to places like Harper’s Ferry, WV, Williamsburg, VA, Sturbridge, MA and even the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec! In my 30’s, I was broke, but my mother had money and needed a companion—so she took me to France twice and to Greece! Now, she’s in her 80s, but continues to want to travel, so while she is still the one with the money, I have the internet know-how and make all the arrangements (and she’s so grateful) as well as having the car and being willing to drive it! So we’ve been on US and Canada trips—Virginia and MD for a “Roots” trip, to her favorite Ile d’Orleans off Quebec, to Grand Manan Island out of New Brunswick, to cute airbnb places in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, as well as a lovely hotel in Camden, ME, and so on. She really appreciates getting to go and to go with ME. It’s a nice give-back.
I hope your healing continues as it is no fun being ill. I am a forever skinny jean fan. Most of my jeans were in the $150 and up price range until
I just discovered Laurie Felt jeans. They are half the price so comfy and look fabulous on. I like the easy skinny best but own about 10 other pairs from her. She is found on line and I think currently having a sale.
Happy Weekend !!!
I am currently listening to ‘The Verifiers’ by Jane Pek and really enjoying it!!!
I just finished How Not To Drown In a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz on audio. Loved it! Different structure, unforgettable main character, and a detailed immigrant experience in NYC(Washington Heights).
The best coffee house in Tennessee, according to the article, is Rembrandts near downtown Chattanooga. I agree that Rembrandt’s is fabulous! Nice to see a familiar local business highlighted here!
I also still love skinny jeans! I honestly think that just about anything goes these days. When it comes to fashion, it’s best to wear whatever you feel great in. I just bought the Levi’s 501 skinny jeans in the shade Jive Ship. No, that’s not a typo. The color is a perfect medium blue without any distressing, so I can wear them to work on Fridays. The best price was on Amazon from a marketplace seller. They were new with tags and I got them in two days. They are super comfortable and look and feel great! Hope that is helpful. Been loving your blog for years❤️
Love the rolling cart idea! I may have to get one for our new house when we move in. I’m also thinking of getting a sage green one for our daughter’s apartment. I think it would go great by her bed for her books and crochet stuff (she recently started that as a habit). I also still wear my skinny jeans. I rotate them out with wide leg jeans, so I’m not acting like one style is better than the other!
I have one of those carts for makeup, and it has been quite handy. Now I’m thinking one for books would be useful too…
Traveling with my parents has always been something I’ve greatly enjoyed. We took so many amazing trips as a family when I was younger, and I miss those days now that adulthood and daily life make it much harder to all be together.