Hello and happy Friday! What are you up to this weekend? Around here we’re still sweltering in the heat dome, but also excited to celebrate a kid’s milestone birthday and pick up a bundle of Peach Truck peaches. (Got any recipe ideas? Please share!)
I hope you have something to look forward to these next few days, 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 offer gift links for articles whenever possible (you may still need to create an account with the publication); if there’s no gift link and you’re not a subscriber, check to see if your library carries the publication or use a bookmarking service.
Everything’s Coming Up Cozies. (CrimeReads) “This year, a host of authors with successful track records in historical fiction, contemporary women’s fiction, crime procedurals, literary noir, romance, and magical realism have taken a leap into different territory. Their new genre of choice? The cozy mystery.”
The Great Egg Heist. (Washington Post) 280,000 stolen eggs. This is such a 2025 story!
An Obituary for Reading the Internet. (Culture Study) I’ve relied on Pocket for years, not only for compiling these weekly Links posts but saving recipes and things I’m considering buying and so on. But a few weeks ago, Mozilla announced it was ending Pocket. This is such a great reflection about the ways we read the internet evolved over the years. (For the curious, I’m trying out Raindrop.io. If you have a favorite bookmarking service, let me know in the comments?)
This summer’s most talked-about performance on London’s West End isn’t onstage. (NPR) This is so cool! “What was amazing, when she reached that crescendo, to hear the crowd cheering, that’s what would have happened [with Eva Perón].”
Explore U.S. National Parks through these 14 books. (MMD) For anyone planning a trip to one of our U.S. National Parks, or who just enjoys armchair travel.
We love the original, so I couldn’t make the 2025 update for Smitten Kitchen’s crispy chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe fast enough. My family came out strongly in favor of the updated version.
Molly Jong-Fast Wrote Her Memoir For You. (Bustle) I LOVED this book, a 2025 Summer Reading Guide nonfiction selection.
Counter Intelligence. (Peter Miller Books) “You want a completely fresh canvas, with not a thing on it. You are starting a new season, with new foods and fresh herbs, with new hopes and new tasks. Let the counter sit for a moment, alone. Enjoy the open space.” Does anyone else need poetic inspiration to give their countertops a fresh start? (I read this and did it immediately!)
See the ‘Tribute to Jane Austen’s Books’ LEGO Set Everyone Is Obsessing Over. (Good Housekeeping) I did not see this coming but I love it! (Please LEGO, we want to see that Pemberley set next!)
Can Emily Henry Write Her Way Out of the Box BookTok Built? (Smart Romance) Interesting retrospective of Henry’s adult fiction career to date. “But success this meteoric breeds its own kind of constraint. BookTok has been both rocket fuel and golden handcuffs, catapulting Henry to stardom even as it narrows the lane she’s expected to traverse. Fans have become not just devoted, but prescriptive.”
Could the semicolon die out? (Smithsonian Magazine) Please say no! “British literature in 1781 contained a semicolon about once every 90 words, but in 2000, the semicolon appeared once every 205 words. Today, the punctuation mark shows up just once every 390 words—a nearly 50 percent fall from the start of the century.”
All my friends and I talk about is getting rid of our phones. (This Is Going Somewhere) On our phones “as the tiny gods we are trying not to worship.”
The Phoenix Pencil Company is a 2025 Summer Reading Guide Minimalist Pick and the July 2025 selection for MMD Book Club! I’m looking forward to our discussion with Allison King on July 23 and hope you’ll join us.
My favorite inexpensive tiered cotton midi dress (XS–XL) is back in stock at Nordstrom. I love a breezy dress on scorching days, and we’ve sure had a lot of them lately. (I’m 5’9″ and a Medium.)
I’m the First Person to Travel to Every Country in the World Without Ever Getting on a Plane–How I Did It. (Travel + Leisure) “I set three cardinal rules. First, I had to be in each country a minimum of 24 hours, but I could stay as long as I wanted. Second, I couldn’t return home until I reached the final country. It had to be one journey. And lastly, no flying for any reason whatsoever.”
Don’t miss these posts:
12 high stakes spy novels that will keep you turning the pages. You can’t go wrong with one of these page-turning spy novels!
6 strategies to get out of your reading rut. These really work.
20 tasty and tantalizing food memoirs. One of my favorite literary genres! Food is full of stories, from the family history behind a handed-down dish to juicy kitchen drama at a high-end restaurant.
Have a great weekend!
21 comments
One year we bought a crate of bruised peaches and used Alton Brown’s recipe for frozen peach pie filling. You freeze the filling in the pie shape, then when you want a peach pie later in the year, you just pop it in a crust to bake. Highly recommend.
https://altonbrown.com/recipes/frozen-peach-pie/
Freeze it in a pie shape! That is a fantastic idea.
I’m so excited about the cozy mystery list! I love to read them, and now I have a list of some to look for (I’ve already read and loved Murder at Gull’s Nest thanks to the MMD Spring Book Preview.) 🙂
Thanks, Anne. I added five (5) new cozy mysteries to my to be read pile. All available at my library. I can’t wait to start reading.
Anne – for a recipe to use those peaches, check out The NY Times recipe for Arugula Salad with peaches, Goat Cheese and Basil. It’s a hit at our house. Sometimes in a pinch I will used canned peaches but it is soooo yummy with fresh peaches.
Compiling links? Pinboard.in – used it for years. Old school interface and visual presentation. Straightforward and delivers.
Thank you for the information about Pocket and the Raindrop recommendation. I have a sizeable Pocket collection, but I was happy to discover an “export” feature that compiles the saved links in a .cvs format. This should make it faster to move links over to Raindrop. The email I got back from Pocket was that it can take up to 7 days for the export, so don’t wait too long to do it!
Whoa, I didn’t catch the details about a potential 7-day export—thanks so much for the lowdown!
Thank you for bringing the Evita story. I have now watched it repeatedly on YouTube, bringing me to tears each time. I can just imagine standing in the crowd on the street and listening.
I love the cosy mystery list and have just added them all to my Goodreads page of books I want to read. X
I loved the phone poem! Rang true for sure. I also pinned the chocolate chip cookie recipe to my Paprika app (I love it for keeping track of recipes!). I’m also always a fan of a good food memoir. I LOVE Ruth Reichl’s writing! Happy Friday.
I haven’t added the recipe to my paprika app yet—thanks for the reminder!
I’m sure you’ll get lots of sweet peach recipes, but I’ve really enjoyed these Skillet Meatballs with Peaches &c (https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021402-skillet-meatballs-with-peaches-basil-and-lime?smid=ck-recipe-android-share) and this Ginger Chicken with Peach Salsa (https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/ginger-chicken-confetti-peach-salsa/#more-50966)
Those both sound delicious!
Someday you must visit Peter Miller Books in person. I’ve been going to it since moving to Seattle 30 years ago and am friends with Peter. He is usually there whenever I stop in and our conversations are always good. It’s more than an architectural bookstore with other design categories, urban planning, art, and lots of cool pens and stationary supplies. Peter is one of our hidden treasures of Seattle.
Karen, I would LOVE to! It wasn’t on my radar the last time I was out your way or I would have been there already! I’m glad to hear about your firsthand experience—thanks for letting me in on it!
I make a great salad with fresh peaches: greens, avocado, green onions, grilled chicken, tomatoes, & peaches. Can add any cheese you want on top. Oil & vinegar dressing with a bit of mustard, salt, pepper, and juices from slicing peaches & tomatoes.
That sounds delicious!
I would love a post about headphones. I have been a loyal AirPods user for several years but I feel like they are delicate and need to be babied a bit. I’d love reviews on different varieties of headphones and which ones work better for different situations. Most of my AirPods use would be for audiobooks so this would be a fun topic to read about.
I just got my Jane Austen set delivered to my door today. Can’t wait to build it!
I used Feedly.com for the blogs I read – it gathers them in one spot, saved into categories. I further save them if desired into more focused categories. I’m not sure if it has the ability to easily save things you want to come back to later.
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