What’s in store for your weekend? We are recalibrating around here, after taking TWO kids to college this week for the first time. I am feeling tender this week: transitions are hard, even when the change is good and right and needed (I keep reminding myself).
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:
I have no clue why but my books all seem to be on sale right now on Amazon, including Don’t Overthink It for more than 50% off and My Reading Adventures: A Book Journal for Kids for the lowest price I’ve seen yet. My Reading Life: A Book Journal, I’d Rather Be Reading, and Reading People are also available. If you’d prefer to support independent bookstores, my local Carmichael’s Bookstore has signed copies available.
Great American Novelist. (Slate) A thoughtful profile of James McBride and his work. (I adored his new novel The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, a 2023 Summer Reading Guide pick.)
What I’ve been reading lately: the new and the notable. (MMD) August Quick Lit features a nice variety of genres and tons of audiobooks.
Lists are menus. (The Imperfectionist) “Picking just one or two items from a menu is something you get to do, not something you have to do.” On to-do lists (and to-read piles!).
How Library Cards Became the Jay-Z Merch of the Moment. (New York Times gift link) Such a cool collaboration.
Notes from Grief Camp. (The Walrus) “Togetherness makes sorrow a little easier to bear.”
When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Ina Garten’s Lemon Poppyseed Cake. (Tasting Table) I’m a big fan of this classic combo!
Want to feel close to your favorite writer? Spend the night in their home. (Washington Post gift link) “Across the country, a few former homes of writers are opening their doors to private guests—some even letting fans stay the night.”
Get ready to set the mood for a cozy season. (MMD) Favorite candle brands and scents for a treasured fall and winter ritual.
Words I never thought I’d say: I am obsessed with Anne Helen Petersen’s Bama RushTok coverage. Will and I took Daisy on a 2-mile walk last night and did I talk about this for 1.75 of those miles? Maybe. (Yes.)
How One Man Walked 6,000 Miles Across America’s Largest Metropolis. (Literary Hub) “You need to walk slowly through an area to capture its essence, to appreciate the buildings, to observe how the people function in the space, and to talk with them. Driving gives you nothing more than a snapshot.”
Why brands are blowing up your phone. (Vox) More and more I’m coming to believe that the discount—for emails or texts—often isn’t worth it.
Madewell has a great sale on denim right now: save $50 on a bunch of pairs including these Kick Out Crop Jeans and the Perfect Vintage Wide-Leg Jean.
‘Tom Lake’ Is a Meditation on a Love That Could Never Be, Family, and the Quiet Beauty of ‘Our Town’. (Shondaland) Great interview with Ann Patchett. I LOVED this book.
Redesigning the Siren. (Curbed) I didn’t even know there was another option!
From our archives:
20 notable novels featuring family secrets. Stories built around family secrets make irresistible reads!
A to-do list trick. A seriously simple tip that might change your life—or at least the way you approach your to-do lists.
10 favorite audiobook narrators (plus 30 excellent audiobooks they narrate). The comments are a treasure trove!
Have a great weekend!
19 comments
I use my Google Voice number to sign up with brands. I don’t have notifications on for my GV line, so I check messages when I want to get those discount codes. It helps!
I was coming to say just this!
I’m with you. I don’t think the discounts are worth the texts or emails either. Now I am headed down a rabbit hole weekend with the rush thing
Many blessings to you Anne as you navigate two at college. We are looking at colleges now for 2025 and even though it will be a good experience for our teen, there is something that does not seem right about daily interacting and pouring into said child to then see them maybe once in awhile/ holidays. The void of the space that they encompassed while home, just dreading it. Surely there is a book on this somewhere as I need to ready my heart to let my child fly freely. Praying for you and all other moms this week experiencing the next adventure of parenting.
Love your quote: “transitions are hard, even when the change is good and right and needed”
Today is my first day as an empty nester, and though I am very excited for this next stage for all of us, I too am feeling “tender”. Thanks for this phrase, I am going to post it on my bathroom mirror. Emotions validated!
Thinking of you, Anne! The first time drop off is rough, as you know!
My kiddo is going to the local community college this year, which I like for the $$$. The struggle is giving him the space to figure things out, while also making sure he doesn’t forget important things.
Loved the candle links — pub several on my Christmas list also enjoyed the links about to-do lists and looking at my 196 page TBR list as more of a menu ……….
Oh, I’m a list person, so I enjoyed the link to The Imperfectionist. I’m not sure when or how it happened, but being able to transform my thinking “I’ll never complete [whatever]” from being about my inadequacy to being about abundance has made such a difference. Maybe as I have come to the end of so many meaningful parts of my life where there are natural limits and losses, I appreciate more the limitless nature of other things. Even if sometimes those things are laundry! Ha!
I just sent my twins off to college this week! It feels good to know others are going through the same thing. I’m so happy for them but it’s tough.
Thank you for the interview with Ann Patchett; I just saw her in Blue Hill, Maine, earlier this month!! An hour was too short!! So I’m adding any interviews I can get, which included yours and one on PBS Newshour last night. Ann was soooo charming and such a good storyteller (I guess, duh…) and so funny. I feel so privileged to see her in person and to listen to her speak. She was animated, she gestured a lot, she was wryly funny, she was cute, she told us she was freezing to death in Maine and had to buy a jacket on the way, and she was modest, but not insincerely so. What fun!!
I just finished RushTok pt. 1, and now I am *invested*!!😂 My Instagram feed is primarily people with different life experiences/perspectives than mine (plus books and dogs…), so I find the glimpse into this world fascinating. Looking forward to the next installment!😁
Love the garden food picture at the start- is that a quiche? I am looking for the recipe but don’t see
For those of you just beginning to have children fledge, I have a book for you. Take a look at Jim Burns’ “Doing Life With Your Adult Children.” He is a Christian but the book is not overtly Christian in that he talks about values and principles rather than faith specifics. It is good to read pre-emptively as you consider the changes you need to make as your children fledge, but also good to read as you might be experiencing some unexpected bumps as your young adults separate and form their own lives. For me, #4 is beginning her Sr year in college, one is married and living locally, one is living in another state, and another one has boomeranged back home. I was struggling! The book is affirming and gives sometimes hard-to-read, but good, principles for loving my kids no matter what.
Thank you for sharing about this book. I’m ordering it today. This is right where I am.
Thank you so much for the link to the article about reframing todo lists and seeing them as menus instead. That was so liberating and I looked at mine with fresh eyes today. Instead of “what are all the things I have to do today?” I thought instead “what things do I select from my list to do today?” And I accomplished what I selected. I feel so productive 😊
I also never would have thought I’d be interested is Bama Rush but AHP has me glued to every post. The whole thing is fascinating (and I don’t mean that condescendingly, even if some of it seems deeply problematic to me!). I shed real tears over an update tonight. I’m so much more invested than I thought possible!
Thank you for sharing you are feeling “tender” right now. I’m right there with you. We took our oldest to his second year of college yesterday, and we take our second son to his first year of college on Tuesday. And we still have one in high school. My emotions are so close to the surface all the time right now, and I’m giving myself pep talks all the time. These days are bittersweet. Thinking of the other mommas feeling these things right now.
I always look forward to Links I Love each week. This morning while continuing to read Mary Henley Rubio’s excellent biography on Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings, I came across an unfamiliar word which piqued my curiosity. A quick Google search for the definition of ‘antimacassar’ led to a history lesson on its background from worldwidewords.org. What an interesting website!
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