I hosted my first Wild Plum book club, Pairings, last week and I am still fizzing with happiness. What a thing to have an incredible group of women together to talk about All Fours. Everyone had lots to say about the book — regardless of whether you did or didn’t like it, it got a reaction — and the whole thing was so energizing! It was fascinating to learn that those who listened to the audiobook found it so much funnier than those of us who read it. Apparently Miranda July is practically a stand-up comedian in her delivery.
I’ll be announcing the next Pairings pick later this week so, if you’re into that sort of thing, follow along on IG.
Bookstore stuff aside, we’re deep in the throes of work, school, weekend soccer games and harvest. We spent Sunday in Sonoma checking out Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. Andrew and I had a great time! The girls love stomping up and down the rows for about five minutes and then they’re hot and hungry and arguing over who gets the blue marker. Why are we trying to color outside anyway?? Nothing that a basket of fried shrimp and some Sprecher’s root beer couldn’t solve.
Then the diner we stopped at gave us a basket of lettuces to feed to the goats and we were utterly charmed. Look at this lettuce loving cutie!!
📺 WATCHING
There is so much good tv right now. Lately I am a husk of a human by 8:30pm and I cannot wait to make my favorite tea, set out the pound of magnesium that I’ll take before bed, and put my feet up on the couch. This what I’m tuning into lately:
Only Murders in the Building!! Need I say more? The most delightful show in the history of television.
Slow Horses is back, baby! Episode one had me laughing and screaming Noooooo and utterly rapt. Also, Kristin Scott Thomas always looks on point and no one does schlubby like Gary Oldman. It’s dark, it’s fast-paced, it’s exciting, it’s perfect entertainment.
Pachinko is bringing the heat again this season. So gorgeous to watch and so deeply moving. I love an epic historical drama and, as I’ve mentioned before, I wait impatiently each week for the new episode. The agonies of being human!
Bad Monkey is a surprise hit for me. Vince Vaughn at his most charming, playing a disgraced detective in the Florida Keys. When a severed arm gets reeled in by a fishing boat it sets off this fun, good time murder mystery.
We’re a few episodes into Sunny and, so far, I’m hooked. I resisted watching it because I’m not into robots, but I am a fan of Rashida Jones. Now I have fallen hard for the bad-joke telling, very lovable Sunny and need to uncover the mystery behind her husband’s disappearance and peculiar, dark past.
Last night we inhaled two episodes of English Teacher and I could not be more charmed! Funny and feel-good about a gay high school teacher in Austin, Texas.
📖 READING
I just finished There Are Rivers in the Sky after two separate people came to the bookstore recommending it. Excellent premise — a drop of water falls in ancient Mesopotamia and that same drop of water returns throughout three other moments in history in the lives of interconnected characters.
By page 300 I found myself wishing it was over because, for me, it had a saggy middle. It’s a braided novel that alternates between three narrators, but I couldn’t connect with one of them which made me groan whenever I got to her chapters. Until the end when her’s was the only storyline I was interested in! Up until the last quarter, it had started to feel like the author wrote those sections as teaching moments through the voice of a wise elder and it drove me nuts. But then came such horrors (2014 Iraq thrust ISIS into the young narrator’s life) and my stomach was lodged firmly in my throat for the remainder of the book. Harrowing, beautiful, painful and emotionally deft. Recommended.
Next on my list? Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner’s latest spy thriller and I couldn’t be more excited.
🧵 WEARING
After
teased this on her newsletter a few weeks ago, I waited impatiently for it to drop. Barn coats have been on my mind for fall and this one in a dusty pomegranate red is perfect, perfect, perfect. It’s on the pricier side at $325, but it feels utterly timeless and I find the Alex Mill knits and outerwear pieces are really well made.And, speaking of fall, my fantasy self wears these drop dead beauties from Jamie Haller. But, since they’re $600 (and sold out), I decided to snap up these suede driving shoes from H&M instead. They run big!! I wear a 7.5 so I got the 8 and my feet are swimming in them. Hoping the 7s will be small enough. Stay tuned.
I’m suddenly a woman who needs better support when it comes to footwear, because standing at the store all day in a pair of paper thin flip flops makes me hobble home in the evenings. After a very good friend flat out refused to let me get a pair of Hoka recovery slides, she sent me a link to these instead. Based on the name, Cushionaire, I wish they were cushier, but my feet are much happier these days and they get tons of compliments.
I must not be drinking enough water or something because my skin is dry, dry, dry these days. I’m blaming a big part of that dryness on the fact that I ran out of my beloved Hanni shower salve. When I reordered I threw one of these fun deodorant-looking Fatty sticks in the cart and now it might be my favorite body moisturizer ever??
That’s all for now!!
Yes to Slow Horses!!!!! Also check out Perfect Couple on Netflix. Utterly absurd, utterly entertaining...
Love those driving mocs! Huzzah! Slow Horses is better than ever! Can't wait to try Bad Monkey!