What are you up to this weekend? I’m flying solo here on the parenting front and hope to spend some quality time with my youngest two while Will’s away. (Do you have any good movie recs for me and my 13- and 16-year-old? I would love to hear your recommendations in comments!)
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 2023 Modern Mrs Darcy Gift Guide for Book Lovers. (MMD) Gifts to delight the book lover in your life—or yourself.
How Jesmyn Ward Is Reimagining Southern Literature. (New York Times gift link) Imani Perry profiling Jesmyn Ward?? Incredible.
I buried this Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookie recipe in my 9 (mostly) little things I’m loving for late summer round-up, but I’m sharing it again because after tasting them this week, my child’s college roommate asked for the recipe. Can you say “proud parenting moment”? (NYT Cooking gift link)
What Makes Some Long Books Feel Too Long? (Tor.com) “Every book that works for a reader does so via the specific, elusive alchemy of reading. What in your mind clicks with what came from the author’s? And when it doesn’t work, what connection has failed?”
Retinoids work, wipes don’t: 21 things I’ve learned about skin care. (The Guardian) Great list.
The strange, secretive world of North Korean science fiction. (Ars Technica) “’When you experience familiar plot structures and tropes but with the protagonists and antagonists reversed, there’s a distancing effect that makes you question why only certain configurations of good and bad roles feel uncontroversial.’”
Self Check-Out Is a Failed Experiment. (The Atlantic gift link) YES. “At the bottom of all the supposed convenience, you do actually just need a lot of people to operate a store.” In a deviation from routine this introvert never saw coming, I’ve started deliberately visiting the grocery during peak hours just so I can have a human cashier at Kroger.
Favorite fall find: the Skims Fits Everybody T-Shirt Bra. I was gobsmacked this summer to find out I was among the 80% of women wearing the wrong bra size. Like, way wrong. A friend recommended I try these for everyday wear and I LOVE them.
How to light the dark months. (The Clearing substack) Grateful for Katherine May’s tips on handling the gloomy winter months.
What I’ve been reading lately: the new and the notable. (MMD) Eclectic October Quick Lit featuring fiction and nonfiction, serious and breezy, literary and decidedly not, moody fall vibes and anytime reads, even a middle grade novel.
How a Dallas Designer and Arts Patron Created Boston’s Most Viral Bookshop. (PaperCity) I want to visit!
The Mystery of the Bloomfield Bridge. (Tyler Vigen) This is pure urban planning nerdery and I love it.
Credo Beauty has a fabulous and rare 20% off site-wide sale happening now. A few quick favorites: the Tower 28 MakeWaves Mascara and SOS (Save. Our. Skin) Daily Rescue Facial Spray (I use this daily for sensitive skin and redness). The Westman Atelier Baby Cheeks Blush Stick (I have this in three colors), Super Loaded Tinted Highlight (mine is Peau de Peche), and Lip Suede (I have Les Rouges but am interested in Les Nudes). I received the Nécessaire five-product skincare sampler set as a gift and I love it all, especially the Body Serum + Body Lotion combo for my seasonal dry skin. And I’m taking advantage of the sale prices to finally try the LolaVie Glossing Detangler I’ve had my eye on. If you have any favorite products to recommend, please tell us in comments!
I was delighted to pop in to my friends Mel and Dave’s Library of Lost Time series to share my Distraction of the Week. (Strong Sense of Place) Hint: books are involved. And food!
Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners show the beauty — and precarity — of nature. (NPR) Some of these shots are unreal!
Don’t miss these posts:
20 unputdownable mysteries and thrillers to keep you glued to the page. There’s nothing like a well-plotted mystery novel to shake me out of a reading slump or to get the pages turning when it feels hard to focus.
25 jigsaw puzzles to treat yourself or someone you love. An array of puzzles to give as gifts or replenish your stash!
14 quintessentially British audiobooks for chilly weather listening. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself taking the dog on a longer walk just so you can keep listening.
Have a great weekend!
56 comments
A good movie that I think kids of every age would like is Super 8. It came out in 2011 when our daughter was 12 and we loved it. It’s an underrated film, but really good.
Super 8 is such a great movie!
Enjoy your solo weekend! My girls and I just watched Greta Gerwig’s Little Women this week. I’d never seen it but I loved the old movie when I was their age. We also are going to watch Mean Girls soon in preparation for the Mean Girls movie musical being released!
We’re looking forward to the musical as well!
„The half of it“ (Netflix) is a wonderful Coming-of-age movie which gives the old cyrano-de-Bergerac-theme a modern twist. How the film handles identity and love is really beautiful and the main characters are the best people.
I don’t know this one, thank you!
My husband and I really enjoyed Peanut Butter Falcon! I find a lot of people haven’t seen it. A little bit of language but generally appropriate for those ages.
Yes! We loved this one, too!
This is one of my fav movies! The soundtrack (or any playlist based on it) is good too!
I’m super happy to hear self checkout is a failure. I miss the interaction with cashiers. Self check doesn’t reduce my time in line and I sometimes wait longer because customers don’t know how to use the register, bag their purchases or have to have an employee check IF for alcohol purchases. I think customers should get a discount for doing the work formerly expected of employees.
That’s a great point. When you use “Self Checkout” you’re doing unpaid work for the store. In addition, you might be helping to put someone out of a job.
I live in New England. Our local grocery store employs young adults with mental or physical disabilities, some of who operate the registers or bag the groceries and/or carry them to the car of someone who needs extra help. They are hardworking, polite, and find it difficult to get work at the best of times.
This is why I refuse to use “Self Checkout” lanes.
Recently rewatched Spykids and think it might fit the bill. I’ve heard good things about the new movie about a Latino astronaut.
The new movie you’re talking about is called A Million Miles Away and it is so good!! Definitely recommend.
Thank you!
13 and 16?
Bring on the scary zombie movies!! There’s no time like the present for a this introduction. 🙂
I have a 13 and 16-year-old too! Both girls. They love Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which I find a little odd, but hey, it IS a good movie! They also love just about anything with Tom Hanks – Forrest Gump, Castaway, Apollo 13, and Turner and Hooch are tops for them.
I’ve noticed that our local Target limits self checkout to ten items or less. The lines used to get longer at self checkout than regular checkout. I’ll use it if I only have one or two items otherwise I’d rather use the regular checkout.
Agreed. I only use self checkout if I have fewer items than I’d need for a bag. Otherwise it takes too long and I’d rather wait to have someone do it for me.
Try Hidden Figures. Very entertaining, and brings up issues that invite discussion.
Can you share the cookie link again, they sound scrumptious! The NYT link will only open with a subscription :O(
Whoops, that’s my fault! I just updated the link. Thanks for catching that, Jill!
I recently watched Ruby Gillman teenage Kraken and I think it’s something you might all enjoy. It’s animated but it has a cute story and perfect for this time of year even though it’s not scary it’s about a “monster”
Just curious, for the cookies do you follow the recipe as written or make any changes? I was reading the comments and it seems to be a mix. Thanks for sharing it. I love shortbread and can’t wait to try it!
I am also an avid reader of the comments! I’ve made these several times and have always had great results. (I’m not at altitude.) When I made these last week I used unsalted butter and added maybe a half teaspoon of salt to compensate, I used all the chocolate chips in the house and then added an ounce of a chopped up Theo bar to make up the difference, I skipped the egg wash and didn’t notice a difference from the last time I made these when I actually did that step, I chilled the dough for maybe a couple of hours, I cut the dough with my regular chef’s knifes and smushed the crumbled dough back together when necessary (not terribly often). I did cook them a few minutes longer than the bake time suggested in the recipe, 18 minutes instead of 15.
I tried to be thorough: I hope the details help!
Thanks!
Movie suggestions: bye bye birdie if both girls, if you have a son, then I’d do the Star Wars trilogy or Flight of the Navigator or the old Shaggy DA or the original Flubber with Fred McMurray- we like old movies.
Bye Bye Birdy is a family favorite of ours! Husband loves it and my 5 mostly grown now kids loved it as well and watched it numerous times growing up.
Definitely recommend Theater Camp if you have not already seen it!
We enjoyed it!
Thanks for the piece by Katherine May on how to light the dark months. When I saw that she had lived in Sweden, Norway and Iceland, I could relate. Having lived in Alaska for almost 30 years, I am very familiar with many of the ideas May shared for the winter months. The hardest thing I found, now living in Washington state, is that I find the rainy winter months much darker, and depressing, than 6 months of snow that I was accustomed to in Alaska. Snow is reflective of the low winter light and gives another outdoor method to deal with the “dark” months.
I love watching movies with my teens. Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a very funny and poignant New Zealand movie is our favorite. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty bombed at the box office but fit our quirky sense of humor perfectly. My sons also enjoyed Casablanca (almost required viewing before A Gentleman in Moscow comes out), and here’s an odd one: The Pelican Brief. Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington (a little bit of Sam Shephard). It’s a thriller (oh—and Stanley Tucci in a cameo as a bad guy!) but touches on Supreme Court politics and my sons found it fascinating.
Whoa, it never occurred to me to watch The Pelican Brief with my kids! I love the book, which I’ve actually reread somewhat recently, but haven’t seen the movie in ages! We enjoyed so many of these suggestions EXCEPT for Casablanca, which we showed to them when they were too young and now think is the most boring movie in all the land.😂
Yes, Hunt for the Wilderpeople is hilarious, quirky, and moving. Now I want to watch it again; thanks!
Perhaps Princess Diaries could be a fun watch?
Beacon Hill books and Cafe is as adorable as it looks in the pictures! The little brick arch entrance to the cafe is enchanting. So happy to have been able to visit.
I’m delighted to hear this!
I don’t usually mind self check out, but my Fry’s/Kroger is a test store for a new video system that is absolutely the worst. They record the entire transaction and multiple (as in 3 times for 10 items) times the video said I had made an error. The employee then has to come over and watch the recording all the way through, sometimes more than once, before they can enter the magic codes to let us continue. It is SO bad. Also frustrating is that there are 12 self check outs, and only 1, sometimes 2 actual cashier lanes open. Either trust us to pay for our groceries or open enough registers to do it for us!
My 17 year old and his friends who are at a boarding school/soccer academy insisted we watch The Illusionist and Forever My Girl. Good movies which surprised me as 17 year old boys recommended them!
Thanks for these!
So fascinating to me how we all see life differently! I absolutely love self-check-out. I like bagging my purchases the way I want to unload them and I also find it to be much quicker at my grocery than the traditional check out lines. My grocery does have very new scanners and there are no annoying messages being played, so I am sure this skews my feelings.
I love self-check-out too! My daughter doesn’t enjoy the experience if any of her children are along, and my husband is too particular with packing groceries for the too-sensitive ‘extra item in bagging area’ monitor…but otherwise and especially by myself I really like that option! (maybe it’s because I am an introvert? food for thought!)
Disclaimer: My suggestion might be too girly. Thought since it’s October. I’ve recently started rewatching Witchy disney movies. Twitches 1&2 Hocus Pocus 1&2 and The four Halloween Town movies. All fun Halloween movies.
Come to Boston and we’ll go to Beacon Hill Books! xo
I was in Boston (from here in Minneapolis) for a wedding at the end of last month and made it to Beacon Hill Books and it truly is enchanting. I loved the train!!
Beacon Hill Books is GORGEOUS!! Come to Boston!
We recently watched Mr. Holland’s Opus with our 15, 12 and 10 year olds. All were captivated. Mom may have cried.
I have a book recommendation for you. I found and bought this book when my kids were about 5 and 6. It’s The Best Old Movies for Families by Ty Burr. I am huge fan of older movies and was so excited to find this. It lists movies by age groups. My kids watched Bringing Up Baby from the 1938 when they were young and they loved it. It is still a family favorite. Not sure if your kids are too old to start watching vintage movies, but this book was amazing for our family. The recommendations are so good.
Th÷ Peanut Butter Falcon was a good movie. Uplifting and inspiring
Good movie: Enola Holmes; Millie Bobby Brown playing the sister of Sherlock Holmes; mystery; came out in 2020
The sequel is also good! AND those films about Enola are based on the Enola Holmes mystery series by Nancy Springer. There are at least two graphic novels by Serena Blasco, too.
Great movie: The Biggest Little Farm. Beautiful cinematography, great story about a couple who buys a farm to fulfill a pipe dream. Fascinating, beautiful story that will appeal to all audiences. I can’t recommend it more highly.
My 14 and 17 year old girls and I recently enjoyed watching the Netflix movie Love At First Sight. It is very cute!
Fun new movie for Halloween: Totally Killer.
Beacon Hill Bookshop is wonderful. Keep in mind, if you want to eat in the cafe you have to make a reservation on line. There was nothing available the day we were going and we took a chance and walked in and snagged a couple seats at the bar along the wall.
Thank you for the Mystery of the Bloomfield Bridge. I loved reading about a good rabbit hole dive. As for movies with the teens, I recommend Clueless, What a Girl Wants, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and 13 Going on 30, all older movies.
The Boston bookshop is beautiful, & an independent bookstore is wonderful. But I have to say I am very put off by the pretentious feel of that store. For me, it just isn’t a welcoming space to browse & wander through.