Coffee Break #002: Jewel thieves, giant skeletons, and NaNoWriMo's spiritual successor.
How is it almost November???
Dear Friend,
Hello and welcome! I spent all last week gallivanting around New York City, which is why this love letter is a day or two late. I won’t get too into the trip here, since I’m planning a full recap post, but it was a wonderful time and a much-needed break from everyday life.
Now I’m back, and excited to wrap up the last week of my favorite month with a bang (and a very niche Halloween costume). I don’t have many spooky plans, except for my work’s annual Halloween brunch party, but I plan to enjoy myself all the same. I loved seeing all the spooky decorations adorning the brownstones and apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Manhattan last week (I’ll never get sick of those 12-foot skeletons, I swear).
As much as I love traveling, I love coming home even more. That first night sleeping in your own bed, in your own house, with your own coffee maker to greet you in the morning, finally feeling like you can exhale properly – blissful.
This week smells like…
Pumpkin waffles, champagne, and fried chicken.
The last of the rain-drenched leaves on the sidewalk.
Pumpkin ‘guts’ scooped onto wet newspaper.
Hot dust from the radiators being turned on for the season.
This week sounds like…
Everybody Scream by Florence + the Machine
Gaggles of kids trick-or-treating.
champagne problems by Taylor Swift
My dog woof-ing me awake after a week apart.
This week feels like…
Getting emotional over the bench dedication plaques in Central Park.
Your kindergarten Halloween party in 1999.
The last vestiges of inner peace before the holiday rush.
The itch of bobby pins and a wig cap as you try on a different identity for an evening.
Reading updates, new releases, and more news from the stacks.
Just Finished
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – I was really excited about this new release, and read it on the plane to and from New York last week. It absolutely lived up to the premise that I was hoping for – a multigenerational, supernatural tale of witchcraft featuring all my favorite beats: dark academia, New England, witch hunts, unsolved mysteries, and plot twists. I highly recommend it!
Currently Reading
We Had a Hunch by Tom Ryan – This just released earlier this month, and the premise hooked me immediately. Basically, what if a group of stereotypical teen sleuths (think Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, etc.) screwed up an investigation and got people close to them killed? What would that do to the small town who had held them in such regard? And what happens when, over two decades later, a string of copycat murders rocks that same small town, and the original murderer refuses to talk to anyone except the teen detectives? I’m really enjoying it so far!
Up Next
Constant Reader: The New Yorker Columns 1927–28 by Dorothy Parker – I picked up this McNally Editions collection of Dorothy Parker’s column at the McNally Jackson bookshop in Williamsburg last week, and I can’t wait to read it. I’d read some of Dorothy Parker in college, but somehow I did not know that she had an entire column about books? Not sure how I missed that memo.
November’s Book Club Pick
I’m so delighted to announce that the book for our inaugural session of the Fifteen Minute Book Club is Heart the Lover by Lily King! We’ll kick off reading on November 1st, so be sure you’re part of the FMBC group here and grab a copy of the book from your local library, indie bookstore, or our storefront on Bookshop.org!
Things I’ve read, saved, shared, or bought this week.
First Draft November – I was apparently the last person on the planet to learn that NaNoWriMo was no more? I was bummed since I was fully intending to participate this year, but then I found Sub Club’s new First Draft November challenge, which essentially amounts to the same thing: a challenge to write 50k messy, imperfect words of your novel (or other writing project, but for me, it’s a novel).
I’m extremely obsessed with this Spike & Joyce tee shirt from Poetic Betty.
I loved this guide on having a Witch’s Night In by Natalie Catalina – aka, how to have a delightful Halloween night in. Other than my spooky office brunch, I’ll be having a quiet Halloween this year, and it was fun reading all of Natalie’s suggestions for having a nice night, sans party.
These claw clips shaped like crocheted granny squares and vintage Tiffany lamps are so cute!
Clara’s recap of the Louvre heist was both fascinating and hilarious (I love her writing style so much!). I know Crime is Bad™ but dang, a jewel heist in broad daylight? Très chic.
Young People Are Helicopter-Parenting Themselves and Each Other – this essay was really interesting to me. I had never heard of the app Life360 until a couple years ago. My teenage cousin and her friends were crashing at my house to attend the Eras Tour. As we were prepping for it, her mom warned me that the teens would probably make me download Life360 to keep track of them. She (a staunch Gen X-er) laughed it off, saying that her daughters were always trying to make her download the location-sharing app, but that she didn’t need them knowing her whereabouts at all times. I downloaded it to put the teens at ease, and honestly kind of fell in love with it. I made my husband download it too (not a trust thing, purely just wanting to know when he or I leave from work or the grocery store). It’s interesting to see how the helicopter parenting that Millennials and Gen Z were raised with has seeped into the general consciousness. As the article points out, most teenagers and young adults today don’t know anything different. Digital surveillance has been the norm since they were small. It certainly is contributing to the rising feelings of anxiety and even isolation in the younger generations, and really makes me wonder where all this is going to lead. I’m sure older generations have been saying that since the dawn of time, but all the digital options available nowadays really adds a sinister edge to it all.
What I’m eating (or rather, what I’d like to eat) this week!
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Snacks
Drinks
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Thank you so much for sharing my halloween night post! Also, such good content in this. I'm glad you shared Clara's Substack and the heist recap. Thoroughly enjoyed!!!!
Yes to heart the lover! It’s my book of the year