What are you up to this weekend? I’m so excited that fall weather is here and all my (fifteen-to-twenty-two-year-old) babies are home. My house smells like cinnamon and cloves. And I have a stack of great books I can’t wait to read immediately, which doesn’t hurt a bit.
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.
Becoming A Word Magpie. (Wallflower Chats) Thao Thai on her logophilia: “If I encounter a word I haven’t heard, I’m compelled to sit with that word for minutes at a time, turning it over and over on my tongue the way one might roll a sweet morsel in the mouth. I want to taste it, to consume it and make it mine.”
How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More. (Consumer Reports) “The tech industry is so eager for you to try AI that some features are impossible to avoid. But you can disable some of them if you want to and see others less often.”
How a Salary Figure Changes Everything in ‘Materialists.’ (New York Times gift link) “At my screening, the salary detail provoked a collective gasp that briefly sucked the air out of the room. It wasn’t even the amount, really: It was the fact that someone had said a number at all.” Jane Austen enters this conversation, too: “The no-numbers policy of the 1990s rom-com diverges sharply from the practices of the grandmother of the rom-com — that is, Jane Austen.”
WSIRN #499: Weird, nerdy, and totally delightful: our conversation with Kevin Wilson. (What Should I Read Next?) It turns out nerdy + weird = my happy place.
These Pumpkin Cardamom Crumb Muffins (NYT Cooking gift link) were DIVINE. I followed the recipe as written, with liners in a standard muffin pan. Highly recommended!
The 40-Year-Old Shakespeare Virgin. (Esquire) Author and Pulitzer Prize winner Mitchell S. Jackson was never taught Shakespeare at his predominantly Black high school in Portland, OR. Decades later, he decided it was time to become acquainted with the bard.
Fringe Benefits. (New York Times gift link) “‘I’ve thought about growing out my bangs,’ a friend once said to me. ‘But how will people know I’m interesting?'” Ginger and I were discussing this (still great) decade-old piece this week, apropos of my new (old) fringe.
“I, a French Jewel Thief, Refuse to Rob the Louvre Before Mid-Morning.” (McSweeney’s) “I have read of other cat burglars who work in the dead of night, and all I can tell you is they are not French.” Ha!
Editions worth collecting and gifting. (MMD) Beautiful book collections perfect for your shelves—or perfect for window shopping, if we’re talking about the new $1200 Jane Austen set.
Why the best gatherings often start as jokes. (Group Life by Priya Parker) I kept laughing out loud while reading this! Please invite me to your Parallel Parking Championship, Fancy Pants Party, or Library Grand Opening. What a delight.
How Ruth Ware Turned Her Childhood Fantasies Into a Crime Thriller Empire. (Elle) Wonderful interview.
Will and I have been organizing and hanging family photos and now I’m aspiring to print more of my favorites so we can actually enjoy them! I’m pouncing on this Chatbooks deal that I think is gonna help: 12 books ($1 each!), one for each month of the year, plus free shipping. I love their little books.
“Get bangs or get Botox, girl.” (Sarah Bessey’s Field Notes) “We want to love our bodies but we peer into the mirror anxiously and buy the serums; we want to model something better for the generation coming after us but we want to look like ourselves, too. This feels kind of small and silly in the scheme of things and yet we have a hunch it is saying something big and vital about our culture right now, too.”
One Great Book: The Power Broker. (What Should I Read Next? patreon) In One Great Book I pull one book from my personal bookshelves and tell you all about it in ten minutes or less—at least that’s the idea, but I went a little longer for this 1344-page modern classic I recently finished!
The Hilarious New Documentary About Extreme Birdwatching That’s Winning Over Even Non-Birders. (Slate) To my great surprise, I got home the other night to find Will watching the Listers documentary about … birding? Which he is not into, but found his way to via this Slate piece. He was laughing out loud and pretty soon I was roped in, too. I also enjoyed this related Atlantic piece (gift link) that explores how gamifying our leisure is ruining it, as seen in Listers.
Don’t miss these posts:
Science Fiction/Fantasy for beginners. Interested in trying Science Fiction/Fantasy? We’ll help you get started.
12 horror novels for wimps. Scaredy-cats deserve good spine-tingling reads! These horror novels strike the right balance.
9 books celebrating Diné (Navajo) authors and stories. A literary quest to explore the cultural and environmental richness of the Navajo Nation.
Have a great weekend!
11 comments
I plan on celebrating the 100th birthday of our house, and inviting all our neighbors. My dream is for everyone on the block to do this too (open houses for a decade!), but alas, it is hard to cast that vision unless you go first, and our house is not the oldest. We still have a few years to go. You can totally come too, Anne.
My house is 100 this year. My kids have been wanting a party – guess I need to get on that.
I am 2/3 of the way through The Power Broker as we speak and I’m LOVING it! There is no reason I should find this topic so compelling (other than its current relevance 😬) but I really do. I highly recommend it! And also check out the 99% Invisible podcast series on the book from last year. The eps themselves are marathons, but each includes a super interesting and relevant interview.
Cardamom! Is that what’s been missing from my favorite fall treat? (We like ours with chocolate chips.) I’ll have to compare the linked recipe to my tried and true.
I love cardamom and will definitely take a close look at any recipe that uses it! (I also love chocolate with my pumpkin baked goods but I’m in the minority here in my household.)
I’m married to a birder, and his dad is an extreme birder. They are a fun community I never knew about before we married 25 years ago. Enjoy the birders and listen to their stories. They are mindful in a way I try to be when I am out in nature.
I tried that muffin recipe earlier this fall and it’s become my new go-to! It’s universally loved (so far) by all I’ve shared it with. The cardamom really elevates it. I’m planning to try making a gluten-free dairy-free version this weekend to accommodate allergies. Wish me luck!
I’m expanding my cooking / baking horizons these days and cardamom needs to be added to the repertoire. Thanks for the suggestion!
The links this week are fire! Your gifted articles have helped convince me I need a Times subscription.
Thanks for these unusual, interesting links – enjoyed the word Magpie, the sleep-in-late French thief, & most definitely the “Listers” documentary. That is really, really funny. While on a trip to New Mx. ages ago, I was in Silver City & a friend & I stumbled into a group of “birders”, (southern NM is a big area for migrations). Before we knew it they had shared their binoculars, birding books, life lists, advice & enthusiasm with us – they were so fun.
The archive on Navajo books was also great to read & add to my own list.
I too am a word magpie. A daily word started showing up on my email site. I had to laugh because the word today was dysania which means having difficulty getting out of bed in the morning. I didn’t realize there was a word that describes me as i have always been a nite owl. So many words to little time
Comments are closed.