What are you up to this weekend? We’re looking forward to hosting family and friends (though not at the same time) and staying up too late to ring in the New Year. And of course I’m reading piles of great (and, let’s be honest, sometimes not-so-great) books. Mostly novels, but Will gave me this essay collection for Christmas and it’s perfect for reading a chapter at a time.
I hope you have something good to look forward to this long 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 Most Popular Books in US Public Libraries 2023. (Book Riot) Including the ones I totally expected to see and several I didn’t. (Plus some interesting info on how library lists differ from critical lists.)
One small change that changes everything, with coffee. (MMD) How a simple tweak transformed a mundane work appointment into something I love and look forward to.
Why Do We Kiss at Midnight on New Year’s Eve? (Reader’s Digest) I had no idea.
Inside The New York Times’ big bet on games. (Vanity Fair) “…It isn’t lost within the Times newsroom just how integral Wordle, Connections, and the rest have become to the bottom line. As one Times staffer puts it: ‘The half joke that is repeated internally is that The New York Times is now a gaming company that also happens to offer news.'” I’ll admit: I love Connections.
Our MMD & WSIRN shop is open and freshly restocked with tshirts in all sizes! Just for fun, we’re throwing in a sticker pack ($7.50 value) to every journal order between now and the end of the year. No code needed, and you won’t see any reference to it on the site because Will and I just decided it at the kitchen table Wednesday morning. But your sticker pack will be in your order. (We also include coordinating stickers for every My Reading Adventures purchase in the shop—as long as we have them on hand, we’re going to share them with you.)
Goodreads Members’ 63 Most Anticipated Books of 2024. (Goodreads) Speaking as someone who’s already read a bunch of these: it’s going to be a great year for new books!
How Every Recipe on The Great British Baking Show Sounds to Us Die-Hard American Viewers. (McSweeney’s) “‘Pudding’ in the United Kingdom is what ‘dessert’ is called elsewhere. Also, ‘Figgy’ is the same as ‘blech’ to our cousins across-pond.”
Don’t miss the most popular posts of 2023 and my favorite posts of 2023. (MMD) As always, these are very different lists!
Triple-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Food 52) We made this new-to-us recipe for Christmas and they were much loved (even though we defied the recipe and used regular Tollhouse chips instead of specialty chocolate).
The Great Cousin Decline. (The Atlantic gift link) The piece I didn’t know I was longing for! “Despite being related by blood and commonly in the same generation, cousins can end up with completely different upbringings, class backgrounds, values, and interests. And yet, they share something rare and invaluable: They know what it’s like to be part of the same particular family.”
Will gave me the most glorious candle for Christmas: this Charcoal Classic Candle from Apotheke. (They’re having a big sale right now: save 40% on their Best of 2023 collection. I’m so intrigued by the Advent calendar options on sale—could I save them for next year?)
Too Many Products Can Stress Out Your Skin. Here’s How to Scale Back. (New York Times gift link) “The more products you use, the harder it can be for your skin to do its job.”
Ann Patchett Shares Her Reading Resolutions for 2024. (Wall Street Journal gift link) “To me, that’s the whole joy of being a writer. If your mom calls and says, ‘I need you to drive me to the doctor,’ you can do it. I really believe that you have to have time to just live, and to come up with ideas, and to process them and let them grow. That’s what writing comes from for me.”
These Bacon-Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese went over big at my house this week. The recipe is Pinch of Yum, though it’s more about the method than the specific ingredients. We used Boursin we had on hand and it was fabulous.
How to Feel ‘Good Tired’ Instead of Just … Depleted. (Self) “Ending the day good tired means we’ve had the privilege of spending our time and energy in ways that felt satisfying and in line with our values. We weren’t scraped raw by relentless toil, or squashed flat under the weight of trivial commitments, or siphoned dry by an inability to hydrate and have a nutritious meal, or sabotaged by our own fear of setting boundaries, or any of the other factors that leave us not only feeling wrung out but also resentful of the path that that got us there.”
Have a good weekend!
15 comments
Love all things Ann Patchett, so I especially liked her bit in the WSJ. Thanks for sharing. I missed it.
I particularly liked the Ann Patchett article, it was great hearing her voice as a person instead of as an author. She felt like someone who I would like to have as a friend.
Thank you also for doing this lovely post today. I always look forward to this post every week and with so many blogs taking well deserved holiday until New Year I was surprised and thrilled to have it appear as usual. X
Big Wordle nerd here. How did I not know about Connections? Thanks for the info. My morning coffee hour just got cerebral!
Kay, thanks so much for the kind words. We initially had planned to press pause on links this week, but I decided to put together just one more edition for 2023. I’m glad it was a fun surprise in your inbox!
My mother and sister bought beauty advent calendars on sale and are just going to open them for 24 days in January. A post holiday treat.
My grandmother had 35 *living* cousins when she turned 90. I have 6. My nieces have none, though they do have one cousin’s kids who play the role since they live nearby. That is decline.
What a great idea!
I enjoyed the Most Popular Books in US Public Libraries article! It is interesting how older titles can get new life on our lists, since we’re not just looking at books published in 2023. At the library where I work, we only had 3 titles listed in the article on our top 15 books – Spare, Demon Copperhead, and Crying in H Mart. The city I work in is, on the whole, an older community so I wonder if that is why we did not have many of the heavy hitter Booktok books on our superlatives this year.
It would be interesting to see similar articles for YA and Children’s circ stats, too! Our top YA books were all different Manga titles this year.
I believe this is the best ever “links I love”! So many wonderful things to read!
We’re planning an epic road trip this spring to witness the total solar eclipse. We will be spending a few days in Nashville on our way and Parnassus Books is on my priority list so I especially enjoyed the Ann Patchett link.
Thanks for reading, Diane! I hope you have a wonderful time in Nashville and at Parnassus.
Loved the article about cousins. I think we have a lot of “aunts” and “uncles” and their kids in our lives and maybe that’s our way to try to fill that gap. Great selection of links this week- thank you!
Do you shuffle Connections before you begin? I realized I don’t like looking at the puzzle the way it’s presented. It feels like it’s leading me to connections that aren’t there. Interestingly, I mentioned this to my husband a few days ago, and he says he always shuffles twice.
I’ve been paying attention to this more these past few days! Thanks for the tip to shuffle before I even begin.
The British Baking Show article was hilarious! Figgy pudding “stored in a badger” for decades. 😆
I just want to add that Pinch of Yum has the best recipes. I have tried a new recipe every week for several months and they have all been delicious.
Wow, that article on good tired hit me. I’ve been feeling exhausted and worn out lately, and not in a good way. That helped me reframe how I’m looking at my exhaustion and what I might do to make it good tired!