What are you up to this weekend? I’m in Grand Rapids for the Festival of Faith and Writing, though I’m still jet lagged from our family’s spring break trip to Europe to visit our oldest who’s studying abroad in northern Germany this semester. We got to see his small town, take a few day trips, visit with favorite friends, and spend a wonderful long weekend in Copenhagen, plus bring home books, chocolate, an amazing Scandinavian sweater and candle … and an adult ear infection, boo. I shared a few pictures over on Instagram if you’re interested.
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:
Annie Dillard’s Classic Essay: ‘Total Eclipse’. (Atlantic gift link) “I had seen a partial eclipse in 1970. A partial eclipse is very interesting. It bears almost no relation to a total eclipse. Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him.” These words from Annie Dillard were key in our decision to drive an hour north on Monday so we could experience totality instead of Louisville’s 98.9%. WORTH IT.
Learn how Puzzle Editor Wyna Liu makes Connections, the game that humbles us daily. (Instagram) I love a good behind-the-scenes.
Do you want to know about the $30 white jean jacket my favorite local stylist says she’s telling everyone to buy these days? It’s right here.
Amanda Gorman Is Using Poetry to Create Social Change. (ELLE) “The idea of being a role model can be ‘daunting,’ Gorman says. “‘How I try to internalize it in my own head is to say, ‘Maybe I’m the first, but I refuse to be the last.’ I hope I’m not a model of all there is or all that is possible for young voices, but rather an example of just how different and daring we can be.’”
12 Of The Best Coffee And Donut Pairings, According To An Expert. (TastingTable) I’m going to have to try these for myself.
These Skandinavisk candles smelled so divine I dragged a fairly heavy one home from Europe with me. (Let’s be honest: Will is the one who packed it.) We opted for Hav, but I would have squeezed one of each scent into my bag if I had room (and the cash). A few scents are also available on Amazon.
What you need to know about the 2024 Summer Reading Guide, coming May 16. (MMD) Mark your calendars!
Tommy Orange Wants To Change You With Fiction. (Kirkus Reviews) Great story about how Wandering Stars got its title.
Why Are (Most) Sofas So Bad? (Dwell) “Midcentury design was still a product to be made and sold in a capitalist system, but it wasn’t the grimmest possible expression of that system, the way contemporary sofas can be.”
There Is No Point in My Being Other Than Honest with You: On Toni Morrison’s Rejection Letters. (Los Angeles Review of Books) I wonder if getting a rejection letter from the Toni Morrison softened the blow.
Sticks. And the People Who Love Them. (New York Times gift link) This is exactly what it sounds like, and it cracks me up. Daisy would be a HUGE fan if she could only read!
Fly away with these 9 books about birds. (MMD) This was so much fun to put together!
We’ve been making enchilada casserole once a week for months now. This is a solid recipe from Gimme Some Oven, but our style is considerably more freewheeling these days: we’re cooking everything in our large cast iron skillet, giving it a nice stir (including the tortillas; we’re not even layering), and putting the whole thing in the oven for twenty minutes. An easy peasy crowdpleaser!
Harper Collins made a tiny tweak to its book design—and has saved thousands of trees as a result. (Fast Company) Incredible! (It’s not explicitly stated, but this piece also reveals how much variation there can be in word count for books that seem to be the same length.)
Why isn’t dental health considered primary medical care? (Knowable Magazine) “Dental students study anatomy, physiology and other sciences related to the whole body, then home in on clinical care for mouth and teeth. But many physicians have almost no training in oral health.”
Don’t miss these posts:
17 recommended reads for those traveling to Hawai’i. It’s a good time for literary tourism.
Favorite items in my spring-to-summer wardrobe. A few of the pieces I rely on to see me through spring into summer.
15 books to give for graduation that graduates will actually want to read.
Have a great weekend!
15 comments
So glad to hear you made it to the path of totality, Anne! Absolutely worth it. My family lives in the path here, and we also traveled to Kentucky for the 2017 eclipse. We’ll have to figure out where in the world we can make it for the next one, since the next eclipse in the US isn’t until 2045!
Just bought the jacket. It is exactly what I have wished for on MANY occasions!
Also… have you read The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu? NOT what we expected, but so interesting. We did the audio book.
It’s hard to overstate the frustration at purchasing something that is priced to be “quality” but is anything but. Even products at supposedly ‘high end’ retailers seem to fall apart almost immediately even when they initially seem like they’re good quality. Everything is just built to fall apart now so that you have to go back and buy more, more, more.
I’ve been experiencing that same frustration lately. I have been satified with my purchases from JJill. I’m a petite size, so it is sometimes tricky to find a “real” petite size that fits a “real” body.
I love that you take the time (almost) every Friday 🙂 to send this. Just bought the candle on Amazon. Looks terrific. Glad you had such a wonderful visit to your oldest spending the semester in Germany.
Please show us the sweater!
I so wish I could come see you at the Festival this weekend in my hometown of GR. Tickets are just beyond my budget 🙁 Hope you find some great things to check out. My favorite coffee/pastry shop is Chartreuse Sisters GR. Check it out if you have time!
Such great links this week, thank you! The Dwell article reinforces the fast consumerism trend once again. And the article on dental care really hit home. It’s criminal that it’s not considered primary care in the US. I love the progress the CA dentists and doctors are making with their partnership pilot. And the graphic was powerful showing how gum disease leads to heart and circulatory disease via inflammation. Maybe one day Medicare will actually cover dental care.
I live in northern Indiana and we drove about 30 minutes to see full totality and it was completely worth it (and the 75 minute drive home with traffic). I know a lot of people here who didn’t travel because we were 99% at home but that’s 1% is such a difference! It was truly amazing to see it in person. I definitely want to see another one.
My husband and I made a 2684 mile round trip to see totality in Texas! It was worth every single mile! Of course we made it an adventure and visited lots of things on the way to and from NC.
I look forward to your “Links” post each week. Always such a variety of finds. Sometimes the clothing is out of my budget, yet I get ideas to search for that are in my budget range to add to my wardrobe. And love the read recs. Thanks
The stick article is wonderful and cracked me up. My husband is always picking up sticks on walks and rehoming them in our garden. No surprise when we were at an art gallery in the NC mountains he picked out a piece of art that had been fashioned from a stick.
Thanks for sharing all this! It sounds like you had a great trip! I’m headed to Copenhagen with friends in November for a 50th birthday trip. Any tips or recommendations?
It was a great trip! We were only there for a long weekend, and with teenagers, but we loved taking a canal tour, grabbing pastries and coffee at Hart, walking through the Kings Garden, and just walking around and exploring the neighborhoods. We wanted to visit the Black Diamond library but it was closed for Easter weekend—I hope YOU get to visit!
Oh, and Tivoli! We were on the fence about whether that would be a “good” use of our brief time there but we all had a blast.