What a week, friends. I’m looking forward to a cozy rainy day here, and homemade pizza tonight, and the 7% remaining in my current read (a whimsical sci-fi novel that is definitely a departure for me). But I also can’t get the Nashville school shooting off my mind: it feels like this is all I’ve been talking about with friends this week—including my friends in that community.
I hope this week’s collection of Links I Love meets you where you are. May your weekend be filled with grace, peace, rest, and good books.
My favorite finds from around the web:
“Not one more.” From author and Nashville resident Mary Philpott, in the wake of this week’s tragedy: “It is time to ask everyone we know: Are you ready to support reasonable gun safety reform? And if not, what are you willing to sacrifice? Whose children? Name them.”
2023 Audie Awards. (Audio Publishers Association) A well-deserved win for Viola Davis.
Clint Smith’s Poetry Collection ‘Above Ground’ Is an Ode to the Complexities of Parenting. (Shondaland) I loved this collection. It feels especially timely for this week, as he writes poignantly about how joy and disaster are both inevitably part of this life. (You can hear me speak about it more in this week’s episode of What Should I Read Next.)
The Sun Safety Kit from Sephora is back! Sample a whole bunch of fan fave sunscreens. This sells out every year so get it while you can.
Audie Cornish’s Long Struggle to Remake the News. (The New Yorker) Great interview.
“You’re So Vain”: An Oral History of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. (Vanity Fair) So much fun.
The Art of Talking to Strangers. (Outside Magazine) “When it comes to keeping life interesting, it pays to make room for the occasional surprise.”
Martha Stewart has a new curated collection for Etsy and the offerings sure are interesting! This $2000 coffee table is completely gorgeous, but so are these $7 handmade pastel tapers, this linen table runner, and this beautiful herringbone bracelet.
Kazuo Ishiguro on Life, Death, and the Movies. (The Millions) His thoughts about adaptations are especially interesting.
A Knitwear Sensation at 83. (The New York Times gift link) What a delight!
If you’re a coffee lover who doesn’t know about the Italian dessert Affogato, this recipe is for you. (NYT Cooking gift link)
Top 10 lost women’s classics. (The Guardian) How many of these have you read?
I’m in a Travel Writer Group Chat, and These Are the 16 Products We Can’t Stop Talking About. (Travel + Leisure) I always pay attention to what the pros recommend.
From our archives:
12 evocative nonfiction and fiction books by poets. Some poets write more than poetry!
8 great Audible alternatives for audiobook listeners. Many readers want to try audiobooks, but it’s easy to be intimidated by the number of choices we have now.
18 fresh and flirty contemporary romance novels for your TBR. I’m not the only one who turns to romance novels for comfort and escape.
Favorite reader comment:
“Oh my goodness, I LOVE the comment sections of your posts, Anne! I always get the best book recommendations from such kindred spirits.” — Andrea on My favorite subgenre: emotionally resonant fiction
I share your terror of reading books about airplane crashes, but you need to read “Dear Edward”, it’s such an amazing story. Also, Judy Blume’s, “In the Unlikely Event”…also about plane crashes, but it’s Judy Blume!! — Natalie on 16 Classic literature retellings, remixes, and reimaginings
“After we think we’ve packed, we THEN (reasonably) follow the advice, “Take out half of your suitcase, and bring double the cash.” This has generally been true for all my family’s airplane trips (ie not a road trip), especially international ones. We tend to pack too much and assume we will spend less than we actually do. Planning for both has been good advice for our family of 5. My kids are well into adulthood now and I still remind them before they travel on their own!” — Katie on My best travel tip
Have a great weekend!
21 comments
We need mental health reform. The Nashville shooter bought his guns legally. He had no criminal record. But he was mentally ill and no one helped him. Thats where the focus should be.
He sure knew how to buy those guns and rifles, though, from not one but 5 different dealers. Guess he was mentally with it for those transactions !
Yes this – so much this. I work in elementary schools and the needs are so great.
I’m not a citizen of the U.S., nor do I live there, so perhaps I shouldn’t be commenting on this issue. But I would like to gently suggest that it is not an either-or proposition. You can have better mental health supports AND more effective gun control legislation. They are not mutually exclusive.
Pat—thanks for your comment and gentle suggestion. Right now we have far and away the most mass shootings in the world and I value what we can learn from those outside the U.S. And I firmly agree: we need better mental health supports AND effective gun control legislation.
Exactly, Pat. It makes me so sad when children are dying that we Americans aren’t able to allow ourselves to explore all of the reasons this might be happening and instead lock ourselves into partisan bubbles while allowing children to continue being killed.
We need to accept the gender identity that every individual has, whether it was assigned at birth or not. We need to respect the rights of individuals to have their own identity. We need gun control– or a determination to take all current weapons off the market and replace them with muskets and musket balls. We need leaders who have the emotional maturity to put people’s lives ahead of the NRA lobbying strength.
I have nothing against hunters or people who insist they need personal protection but what we have is condoned violence. I’m 75 and no one has ever shot at me, assaulted me, threatened me or my family members. I’ve never held a gun. I have, however, been diagnosed with mental illness and had a decade of pondering suicide.
Kristine, thank you for sharing from your experience and specifically about your experience with mental illness. I hope that you are able to get the support you need now, and I hope we can support all our citizens better in the future with improved mental health care access and common sense gun control.
Peggy, thanks for your comment. Our focus should certainly be on mental health care access—alongside common sense gun control. Both things are desperately and urgently needed.
we can do more than one thing. Guns are out of control in this country. More than half of the country, including responsible gun owner, agree to reasonable reform. Name the children that should die before we do this.
The quote from Mary Philpott regarding gun control should be sent to every Congressman and Senator in Washington D.C. What a powerful statement – and question.
I’m an introvert, but I love talking to strangers in low stakes situations, like at the grocery store or waiting in a line somewhere. Humanity as a whole can be discouraging sometimes, so having a positive interaction with someone no matter how small can bring a little micro-joy to my day. 🙂
Annie, I am in the same boat. Sometimes it’s surprising how delightful a low stakes convo can be. I thought that Outside article was a shallow dive into talking to strangers but I enjoyed the writer’s perspective on expectations v reality. As I age I am much more willing to chat with strangers in line or upon sharing an outdoor space. Post pandemic it’s a nice way to engage humanity, face to face!
Thanks for sharing, Anne! These posts are a bright spot in even the heaviest of weeks, and I really appreciate it.
Re:the conversation about guns and mental health. While I agree with what everyone has been saying, one question I have is this: we bemoan Congress’ unwillingness to pass real, substantial gun control legislation that is both veto-proof (if necessary), and that will pass muster at the SCOTUS. We bemoan the fact that we do not have strong federal help for those with mental heath issues. Yet how many of our Congresspeople and Senators have been in place for 20 or 30 years (in some cases, even longer) because they keep getting re-elected by US? In the end, who is truly at fault here?
And it’s not about term limits. We, the people can effect term limits by not repeatedly voting for the same person time after time after time.
YES!
The focus of gun control efforts needs to be on controlling guns, as our European friend pats says. It’s not that there aren’t serious mental health issues – and that’s true of other countries as well, not just the U.S. But they don’t have anything like the death toll we do, as others have said. We can advocate for better mental health support (I do this myself) AND pass common sense gun laws like outlawing assault rifles. It doesn’t help us move towards change if we’re constantly looking for other reasons for our horrifyingly high death toll and avoiding the most obvious.Kathr
Sorry, I meant to say Pat in my last comment, not “pats.” 🙂
I seriously wish that this country had more mental health resources on the front end to provide evaluations and support before something happened instead of a reactionary process…
Loved the Ishiguro interview, but it badly needed a proofreader: “marred in paperwork”? “Cubical to cubical”? Sigh.
Love the travel products! I have thet foot sling and when I’m not traveling, I hook it under my desk and use it to prop my feet up when working from home!