How is it already the second weekend of September? Our temperatures are cooling off just a little bit here, which means great weather for hiking and biking these next few days. I also hope to finish a book or two and make serious progress on a big book-moving project that suddenly popped up recently.
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.
Fall Book Preview is almost here!
Our fifth annual Fall Book Preview is coming soon! In this live, 90ish minute event I’ll share 42 noteworthy titles publishing between August 29 and year’s end. Expect to hear about books I’ve read and LOVED, books I can’t wait to read, and books the industry is especially excited about this fall. Your ticket includes your live event invite, the replay video to watch whenever and as many times as you want, and our beautifully designed Fall Book Preview PDF booklet, a handy 12-page accompaniment that includes all 42 titles across 8 categories, more info on our spotlight titles, and 9 bonus selections.
Fall Book Preview is happening Thursday, September 14. Preorder your Fall Book Preview ticket now, or get it as a free perk of one of our member communities. (We talk more about how to choose the one that’s right for you on that page.) Your membership gets you all sorts of bookish goodness—and sustains our work for the long haul.
My favorite finds from around the web:
9 (mostly) little things I’m loving for late summer. (MMD) Laundry detergent! Navy dresses! The most adorable dessert on the planet! A collection of small things bringing me joy right now.
20 of the World’s Most Stunning Libraries. (Daily Passport) I could not click fast enough.
I’ve posted about Anthropologie’s fabulous Colette Cropped Wide-Leg Pants before, but I just got a new pair in olive green (called “Holly”) for fall and I love them so much. (True to size: if it helps, I’m a 28.) This week I dressed them up with a nice black blouse and dressed them down with an American Giant black tank and both outfits were cute and comfy. (I just discovered they have the Colette pants in Corduroy for fall. How many pairs is too many?)
“Going shopping” is dead: How stores sucked the fun out of an American pastime. (Vox) Illuminating and validating.
Bonnie Garmus wrote ‘Lessons in Chemistry.’ She learned the formula for TV would bring changes. (Los Angeles Times) It’s always interesting to hear what an author thinks about adaptations of their work.
Salmon salad: the one and only. (Dinner: A Love Story) We made this several times for dinner this month and it was a huge hit! This recipe is versatile and delicious, especially if you serve it as a composed salad instead of tossing it all together. One night we had several vegetarians join us for dinner and we just added hard-boiled eggs and served the salmon on a separate platter so everyone could take what they wanted.
Who’s Afraid of Lorne Michaels? (Longreads) “Very rarely can we see an entire system reflected through one person. Lorne Michaels is such a person.” This was especially interesting to read with Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy still ringing in my ears.
The Blurb Problem Keeps Getting Worse. (The Atlantic) Do you pay attention to book blurbs?
Target has adorable Hocus Pocus t-shirts available right now. (Thanks to team member Leigh for putting these on my radar!)
18(!!!) audiobooks I’ve enjoyed this summer. (MMD) A wide-ranging assortment of great audio reading experiences.
This is 44…Personal Thoughts About Growing Up And Aging Through Digital And Social Media. (Emily Henderson) “Digital (specifically social) media is a game that has so much potential for reward (and I’m so grateful for parts of it) but due to the algorithms it often feels like the Hunger Games—we are all thrown into a battle where the second we figure out how to use the weapons we were given, the rules change and that weapon no longer works.”
How to Build a Fabulous Cheese Board. (Shondaland) Yes, please.
This Nature-Themed New Jersey Bookshop Fits A Lot Of Magic Into A Little Space. (Only In Your State) It looks and sounds dreamy!
How to Keep Your Produce Fresh for Weeks (Hint: It’s Not Always in the Fridge). (NYT Wirecutter) A helpful guide.
I almost forgot! Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty is happening now. I’m especially fond of the Peter Thomas Roth Water Drench Hyaluronic Cloud Rich Barrier Moisturizer that’s 50% off today.
From our archives:
Assigned reading we actually enjoyed. Required reading doesn’t have to be boring.
Sweaters for every fall wish list. Here’s hoping sweater weather will be here soon!
Quick and easy Penguin Classics poster DIY. It still makes me happy.
Have a great weekend!
6 comments
The salmon salad recipe doesn’t say how many people it feeds. What would you say?
We served five the first time we made it, but used a full pound of green beans instead of just a handful, because we love green beans. And our salmon filet was 1.5 pounds instead of the single pound called for in the recipe. We most recently served a dozen people with this basic recipe, but we scaled up the vegetables accordingly and did add those hard-boiled eggs. I love how flexible it is as a method.
This week I made Molly Yeh’s Salmon Salad from her Home is Where the Eggs Are cookbook – it’s like an everything bagel type salmon salad. You even make croutons out of everything bagels. It is so delicious, I recommend it!
That sounds AMAZING! I’ve really enjoyed her cookbooks but haven’t picked up that one yet—thanks for the nudge!
I think book blurbs can be helpful, especially with genre reads; if you’re looking at a new author’s contemporary romance and she’s blurbed by, say, Jasmine Guillory, Helen Hoang, Abby Jimenez or Emily Henry, I’d be more inclined to give it a second look because I enjoy all of those authors. That said, I have friends who are authors, and they get so many requests for blurbs that they can’t possibly agree to all of them. (They DO read the books!) One of them finally had to stop blurbing altogether, because she’s so well-known in her literary niche that it finally became easier just to give a blanket “no” rather than pick & choose.
I never read the blurbs. I read the synopsis and decide for myself if it sounds interesting enough to pick up. I’m reading all the time and seem to be able to get plenty of recommendations from your lists (and commenters!) and many other blogs and sources. Reading endorsements from other authors would most likely not entice me to pick up the book if I hadn’t already decided it sounded interesting. My TBR is never-ending already.