Links I love

What are you up to this weekend? Around here we’re celebrating a family birthday, catching a show, and trying out two new holiday cookie recipes. I’ve been running around a lot this week and my reading time has suffered, so I also hope to settle into a new audiobook and finally finish the mystery I’ve been reading all week.

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.

Return of the Nigerian Prince Redux: Beware Book Club and Book Review Scams. (Writer Beware) Thank you to the authors who have let us know scammers have been impersonating me and MMD Book Club in this manner, using my business name, words from our sites, and even my likeness. I hate this so much for everyone involved. Please take note: no one from MMD will ever ask for money to promote a book or author. That’s not how we roll! In fact, we pay our MMD Book Club authors for their appearance. We issue our MMD Book Club invitations from the modernmrsdarcy.com domain (and we are currently sending invites for the spring months). All the spam emails we’ve been forwarded so far have been from gmail addresses. If you’re not sure if you’ve been contacted by me or someone on my team, please ask! We don’t want anyone to fall for this ploy.

My favorite books of 2025. (MMD) Superlatives from a very good reading year.

Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation? (New York Times gift link) “Why does their work — their music, books, films, television shows, even their magazines — continue to resonate? As I looked at their cultural contributions and spoke to the artists, actors and writers who shaped the Gen X canon … I began to think that their upbringing, no matter how arduous it was to live through at the time, might also have provided the ideal conditions for making art.”

Louise Penny gives us a tour of her book collection. Her dogs come, too. (Washington Post gift link) “For me part of the joy of not having an order to the shelves is that it’s like going into a used-book shop. You end up finding things you weren’t looking for, that you didn’t even know you wanted.”

Add joy to your holiday celebration with a gingerbread house competition. (MMD) Shannan’s story is a delight; I smiled and laughed my way through this piece and now I’m inspired to do this myself!

Five of the best translated fiction of 2025. (The Guardian) Several bestsellers but others not yet on my radar.

How to Turn the Bureaucratic Grind of Life into a Party. (Wall Street Journal gift link) “I called my nerdy little party Admin Night. The premise: deal with the stuff we’ve been putting off, help each other when possible (“anyone have luck connecting with Comcast?”) and make a fun evening of something onerous.” I love this so much.

13 Ways to Make Your Home Smell Like Christmas—All Month Long. (Real Simple) So many good suggestions.

Speaking of scents: I just restocked the incense matches we keep in our bathroom: this is a favorite little luxury, as well as an excellent stocking stuffer. (This beloved stocking stuffer post is populated with many more ideas in the realm of small affordable luxury or delightful practicality.)

The Black Friday offer at Crafty was so popular they extended it through this weekend: snag a full year of Craftsy Premium for just $0.39 — and if you hang out on the page a few seconds, the price drops to an unbelievable $0.25! This has proved popular with MMD readers not just for the cooking, crafting, photography, and home decor, but for the options found under “writing” like journaling, hand lettering, memoir writing, and fiction writing.

‘Home Alone’ Turns 35 – And Macaulay Culkin? The Kid Is All Right. (Deadline) “I show that movie to my kids all the time. Man, they have no idea who they’re sitting next to, the entire time. They just go, ‘Oh, there’s Kevin.’”

Current puzzle: Christmas in Paris. Next puzzle: Christmas in New Orleans. (More favorite puzzles: right here!)

The Pelvic Floor Is a Problem. (WIRED) Casey Johnston writes: “While I was frustrated that there didn’t seem to be one easy answer to my pain, I was fascinated that my pelvic floor dysfunction seemed to potentially exist at the intersection point of multiple running timelines: family trauma, recreational sports, pregnancy, a writing career, unrelenting ongoing unforgivable atrocities all around, all of it coming together to yank on my tailbone like an insistent toddler. It had gracefully tolerated one injustice after another, until the straw of a book tour broke its back.”

Recs for a reader in search of “best in class” books. (What Should I Read Next?) Good ideas for branching out in your reading life.

Before all we began Thanksgiving food prep, I used Dan Pelosi’s technique to clean up an All-Clad stainless steel pan that was in terrible shape and the results were AMAZING. My daughter—who frequently cooks with this pan—wanted to know if it was a brand-new pan. (This technique worked okay on my Le Creuset dutch oven but the results were nowhere near as miraculous. I’m going to try it again soon but in the meantime, I welcome any tips you have!)

Winners of the 2025 International Landscape Photographer of the Year. (Atlantic gift link) Breathtaking.

Don’t miss these posts:

112 reader recommendations for festive holiday fiction. ‘Tis the season!

A literary tradition like no other. All about our family’s Christmas literary tradition inspired by the Icelandic Jólabókaflóðið.

Addictive spiced nuts. We devour this stuff.

Have a great weekend!