What are you up to this weekend? Will and I are celebrating our anniversary and finalizing travel plans for later this summer. (Got any Barcelona recs to share? I’d love to hear!) I haven’t gotten much reading in this week so I’m also hoping to finish a book or two before Monday morning rolls around: I’m in the middle of Ethan Joella’s A Quiet Life in hardcover and Sara Nović’s True Biz on audio and thoroughly enjoying both so far.
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:
The Marlow Murder Club TV Adaptation is Coming to MASTERPIECE. (PBS) Another mystery series adaptation! Death Comes to Marlow is in our 2023 Summer Reading Guide (still available at that link) thanks to team member Donna who chose it as her selection.
10 Cleaning and Organizing Projects You Should Do Every Summer. (Real Simple) Now to decide which one to tackle first…
My Reading Life: A Book Journal is back in stock all the places! Order your copy wherever you get your new books: Target (where it’s part of the current buy 2, get 1 free on games, books, movies & video games promotion along with My Reading Adventures, Don’t Overthink It, and I’d Rather Be Reading), Amazon (where it’s part of the 3-for-2 promo), or loads of indies like Browsers Bookshop in Olympia WA, Bookmarks NC in Winston-Salem NC (I think these are signed?), Main Street Books in Davidson NC, Fabled Bookshop in Waco TX, or get a signed copy (of any of my books) from my local indie Carmichael’s Bookstore.
How Rosamund Pike went from playing Moiraine to voicing new Wheel of Time audiobooks. (Entertainment Weekly) What a cool trajectory!
Trader Joe’s Just Leaked Info on 19 New Groceries Hitting Stores This Summer. (The Kitchn) I will be keeping my eyes peeled for a few of these items.
A Podcast About the Airport Best Sellers We Can’t Escape. (The Atlantic) Have you listened to If Books Could Kill yet? Team members Leigh and Will are big fans.
This tshirt cracked me up. I’m nerdy like that! (Or maybe you need this one about the Oxford comma?)
2023 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced. (Book Riot)
The Case for Phone-Free Schools. (Jon Haidt’s substack After Babel) Many of the findings about phones and negative outcomes cited here apply to grown-ups as well.
Things I’ll wear 1000x this summer. (MMD) Summer wardrobe staples I wouldn’t want to live without this season!
The Huge, Fast-Growing Audience That Hollywood is Just Ignoring. (Esquire) “Today’s 50-plus consumer is reshaping everything in our culture, as they live longer and demand new ways to entertain them.” (We receive so many requests for books and book lists featuring “seasoned” protagonists and we try to deliver! Here’s one example.)
Your secret weapon to becoming a better cook costs nothing. (Salon) Spoiler alert: that secret weapon is the library!
The strange survival of Guinness World Records. (The Guardian) Anyone else love paging through these books as a kid?
The Best Coffee Subscriptions for Single-Origin Obsessives, Decaf Drinkers, and Everyone in Between. (bon appétit) I’m drinking my first cup from one of the recommended subscriptions, Trade Coffee, right now!
From our archives:
12 high stakes spy novels that will keep you turning the pages. You can’t go wrong with one of these page-turning spy novels!
20 tasty and tantalizing food memoirs. One of my favorite literary genres! Food is full of stories, from the family history behind a handed-down dish to juicy kitchen drama at a high-end restaurant.
Have a great weekend!
24 comments
The link to the quiz in What’s your reading personality? isn’t working. X
As Team Oxford Comma, I LOVE that shirt!
I also love reading about personalities, so I was excited to take the ‘Reading Personality Quiz.’
Unfortunately, it says the quiz is no longer available.
In Barcelona you definitely need to visit Sagrada Familia. It is amazing outside but the light inside will take your breath away. It is one of the most beautiful spaces I’ve ever been in. Definitely worth paying for a guide to point out all the tiny details you might otherwise miss.
We just came back from Barcelona. Definitely go to Segrada Famillia and the Park Guell ( not sure if my spelling is correct. )
Next to the SF, a little touristy place to eat on the street called Chill is surprisingly GOOD.
Have fun!
Loved loved Tru Biz – Sara did a great job capturing the different issues/challenges facing the Deaf community.
The literary quiz doesn’t work.
I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize it had expired! I’ll remove the reference from links now.
Barcelona old town is awesome. Check out the History museum which has Roman ruins. If you finish up there around closing, you can catch the traditional Catatlan dancing that still takes place Saturdays just around the corner from the museum in front of the Cathedral. We loved spending most of the time in the old city. We did Sagrada familia but looking back would have skipped Park Guell.
Depending on how long you’re there, you might also consider a day trip to Monserrat. Was incredible views and unique experience. Easy walks, amazing views, unique with cable car to get up.
Have a great time!
I also just returned from Barcelona. Sagrada Familia is a must – buy your tickets online ahead of time. Casa Battlo, the Palau de Musica, and Park Guell are also top tier sites. I really love Recinte St Pau Modernista – a beautiful campus of what used to be a hospital. It’s a lesser visited site and so peaceful.
For food, don’t miss gelato at Gelaati di Marco. If you’re a lemon fan, the crostata limon flavor is the best gelato I’ve had in my life! Patatas bravas at El Nacional and pan con tomate at El Xampenet and Els 4 Gats were also some of my favorites.
Finally, if you can catch a demonstration of the Castellers of Barcelona, you’ll be amazed.
Melanie, thanks for the recommendations! I’m delighted to hear you enjoyed Els 4 Gats—we’re meeting friends in Barcelona and already have reservations there!
I second the other recommendations for Barcelona. A few others I have are Palau de Musica for a live performance of Spanish classical guitar and flamenco (by the same architect who did the hospital recommended). It’s gorgeous inside. Another Gaudi museum that I did not visit but wish I had is Casa Vicens Gaudi. It looks stunning. Finally, a restaurant for paella that I really enjoyed is 7 Portes. Enjoy!
I recently started a subscription to Big Island Coffee Roasters and I absolutely love it. Every month I get a bag of fresh Hawaiian coffee. Takes me right back to my memorable honeymoon and anniversary trips to the Big Island.
Thank you for the link to Jonathan Haidt’s Substack! I follow him there and the work he’s doing is so important.
If you are not bothered by heights and it is still open to the public, the views from the roof of the Barcelona Cathedral are incredible.
I’ll echo the suggestion to book a tour of Sagrada Familia. Having a guide help us focus on specific artwork and aspects of the building made the visit much more meaningful.
Barcelona suggestions… Casa Batllo is beautiful but heavily touristed. The Palau Guell is less well-known but gives you just as good a sense of Gaudi as an architect. Also highly recommend a food tour by Devour Barcelona. Usually last about 3 hours. They take you to the markets but also to small family-owned food businesses, bars and restaurants. I take all my friends who visit on one of these tours and they have never been disappointed. Finally, check out the granjas on Carrer de Petreixol. Get a hot chocolate and an ensaimada (pastry) in the afternoon; it’s a tradition. The chocolate is the kind that you can stick your spoon in and it practically stands upright!
I adore Barcelona! I heartedly second a visit to the Sagrada Familia cathedral – as well as Gaudi’s Casa Mila (I took a guided tour in the evening) and a stroll or lunch at La Bocqueria market.
I second the recommendation for La Bocqueria market! Walking along La Rambla and visiting the market is a great way to spend an afternoon. La Sagrada Familia is a must see, but I also really enjoyed visiting the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar and the Cathedral of Barcelona if you enjoy church architecture.
yes to more active mature women on tv! And to more older protagonists in books!
Anne, I LOVE Barcelona. Yes go see La Sagrada Familia – it’s amazing, as is Parc Guell. I recommend looking into Devour Tours for a food tour that will take you to so many wonderful spots. You will learn about food, history and culture as part of the tour. In order to see Barcelona and determine what we wanted to focus on, we did the Hop on Hop off buses. The beach is beautiful. The Gothic Quarter is interesting from an historical perspective. It is a magical city that I could visit over and over.
One of my favorite travel souvenirs ever is a mosaic picture frame we made at Mosaiccos in Barcelona (you can make other mosaic items too). Once we got home we put in a picture of us at the top of Park Guell. The place is located near the Picasso museum and makes for a really nice break while seeing the sites!
I went to Barcelona in April, and I highly recommend Bodega La Palma for delicious tapas and fantastic atmosphere! Don’t miss their cheesecake, it’s amazing. Casa Gispert is a great little shop for dried fruit and nuts, perfect for snacking on while exploring the city. We also enjoyed taking the cable car to Montjuic castle. The view was incredible!
Regarding your Barcelona question, we just spent several days in Madrid this Spring. An acquaintance who routinely winters in Barcelona recommended Spanish hot chocolate. We tried it at a local cafe and wished we’d had time to get another cup. It’s quite thick, like the consistency of pudding, and it needs to be consumed with a spoon. Spanish chocolate is dark and not super sweet. I recommend consuming it with a plate of churros. Have a great trip!
Oh Barcelona! What fun! My husband and I were there a few years ago to celebrate our anniversary and going here was one of our highlights:
https://beaire.com/en/aire-ancient-baths-barcelona/#
A food blogger that I follow is an expat along with her husband and has great recs for Barcelona:
https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/barcelona-travel-guide/
We tried several restaurants from her guide, and they were all great! Do you have your accommodations reserved already? We loved the location of our hotel and the service was top notch.
https://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/bcnrz-hotel-arts-barcelona/overview/
The book “Cathedral of the Sea” is about a cathedral in Barcelona that was built by the people. They wanted to build their own cathedral and did so by hauling stone from a nearby mountain on their backs, and the book is a fiction account of one of the builders. I enjoyed the book and the actual cathedral is Santa Maria del Mar. It was one of my favorite sites in Barcelona and worth a visit! It is different from many of the cathedrals throughout Europe and there is a display about the history there. Enjoy your trip!