I hope your week was nice. We’re in full summer-with-kids-mode over here. I’ve also been working on house projects, and hoping we can tie up some loose ends by the time summer is over.
I’m also having fun making so many summer salads with my kids every day. Here are 50+ easy BBQ side dishes. And here are 10 things I am loving this week!
1. Just got this book—City Country Coast. I have loved all the Soho house books for design inspiration and recipes, too. This one is just as great as the first two!
2. Just picked up this book after my friend Elise (our third sister) recommended it. I’m very excited to read it! What else should I add to my TBR list? Hard sells only–give me your absolute favorites!
3. The best sunscreen on earth.
4. I just got my kids a Magic 8 Ball and they are having so much fun asking it questions constantly.
5. This vase is so pretty. Love!
6. Personalized stationery from Etsy.
7. I decided to do The Curated Closet Workbook one more time since I recently moved and sold about half my closet. When seasons of life change, I think it’s a good time to change up the ole closet as well.
8. Beautiful art print.
9. Still in my fairy garden era. I will share a full blog post soon.
10. Currently watching The Afterparty. What are you watching?
P.S. Here are some recent posts in case you missed them!
A great dupe for the Unseen Sunscreen is available at Trader Joe’s. It’s much more affordable and is very comparable. It’s called Trader Joe’s Daily Facial Sunscreen. Try it!
I just finished “After You’d Gone,” by Maggie O’Farrell. It’s devastating, gripping, and suspenseful (not in a crime-novel way). This author writes in a manner where she time hops you through a few different characters’ stories, and you learn more about a major event at the beginning of the story in bits, as you read each character’s story. It’s extremely beautiful the way she does this, so I’m not going to say anything about the plot. Maggie O’Farrell also wrote Hamnet (not a typo but 100% about William Shakespeare’s family), and I 100% also recommend that book. Both had me weeping at one point or another. As I finished Hamnet, I was on a plane crying my eyes out. She also has this way of writing final paragraphs in books, I read both the last one in After You’d Gone and Hamnet maybe 5 times each.
I finished ‘We All Want Impossible Things’- which was incredibly beautiful but also devastating. Content warning- it’s about cancer, Hospice, and death, but will make you ugly cry in the best way. Life is beautiful.
My recent fav summer read so far is the prequel to the Hunger Games series!! For some reason I never really heard much about the prequel when it was released (probably because it was 2020..), but dang, it was such a good read! Took me back to my 20s when I read the series..it basically gives President Snow’s origin story, the games origin, a little romance, a little mystery..it inspired me to rewatch the movies, and the prequel movie is coming out in the fall. Worth the read if you haven’t already!
Hello Beautiful is such a good novel—kind of like Little Women for today, but that description doesn’t do it justice. It’s really about the power of sisterly love. It has the richest characterization I’ve ever read (and I’m an English teacher).
My absolute favorite favorite book that I have a great hard sell for, but have hardly ever convinced anyone to read, is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke! It’s like Jane Austen Era England but with magicians and ghosts and things. The New York Times called it “Hogwarts for Grown Ups” and it legitimately does have all of the best elements of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Jane Austen books all wrapped up into one (which sounds weird but it totally works). It is so magical, so funny, so weird and wacky.
The reason I have rarely convinced anyone else to read it is because it is LONG. Like 800+ pages (don’t worry there is an audiobook…It’s 32 hours long lolol). But believe me – it is worth it!
If you don’t have time for a million years long book right now, Susanna Clarke also wrote a much more normal length book called Piranesi. It’s not set in the same world/universe and is best read if you know absolutely nothing about it beforehand. It’s a journey!!
My top three books from the last year are: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Thistlefoot, and The Night Watchman. I think you might especially like the fact the house is a central character in Thistlefoot.
As far as watching, have you watched Escape to the Chateau? It documents a British couple who purchase a castle in France and slowly restore it. I guarantee you will love it!