Coffee Break #029: Sad girl songs, ranch chickpeas, and piles of moving boxes.
Your weekly roundup of inspiration, links, curiosities, and book recommendations.
Dear Friend,
We are T-minus five days from moving day at Parenthetical HQ (aka, my house). I spent last weekend packing most of my earthly possessions into boxes and running to the hardware store for more boxes, more bubble wrap, and more packing tape. Those were each their own trip, by the way.
All of my books have been packed into twelve small sized Banker’s Boxes (thank goodness for my Kindle!) and I’m beyond ready to get this show on the road and finally settle into the new house. It’s been an exhausting, exciting whirlwind of a summer and I am definitely looking forward to a nice, quiet autumn. Any day now.
Love always,
In Brief
📚 Reading
The MASH Up by Laura Marie Meyers. I’ve been wanting to read this since I read the blurb, so I was very excited that it was the poll winner for our inaugural Parenthetical Book Club. There’s still time to join in!
📺 Watching
Batman Begins & the Dark Knight. We were randomly flipping through streaming channels and decided on a whim to watch these back to back. And my husband realized that the building he worked in for a year when we first moved to Chicago is where they filmed all the scenes for Wayne Tower in The Dark Knight!!
🍔 Eating
Biena Rockin’ Ranch chickpea snacks. I grabbed these on a work snack run and they are SO GOOD.
🎶 Listening
New Phoebe Bridgers album!!! aka:
📚 Release Radar
This week’s book releases that are on my radar (and my TBR).
The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas | When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust…
The House That Eats the Dead by Max Doty | A family moves into their dream home—only to discover that it hides an insatiable hunger—in this dread-laced and darkly outrageous domestic horror novel.
Hello Baby by Kim Eui-Kyung | The bonds between six women undergoing IVF are tested when one announces an unexpected birth in this absorbing, candid novel about what women endure to become mothers.
And the Sea Gave Up the Dead by William Friend | A stunning novel where grief, mystery, and something undead haunt a young woman and her family, and soon, a dark history will repeat itself.
Siren Says by Jennifer Herrera | A lush, spellbinding tale about a tenacious young woman who must harness her family’s dangerous magic to put a stop to the sacrifices they’ve been making for more than a century.
Murder on Charity Lane by Jo Nichols | Months after the shocking murders at Marigold Cottages, landlady Mrs. B finds the peace and quiet a little too peaceful. So, she invites her friend CJ Moore to move into a now-vacant cottage. CJ is a suspect in the death of her boss, a wealthy philanthropist. The dead man’s widow claims she saw CJ push him down the stairs, but Mrs. B is certain that she’s innocent.
Ideal Life by Evelyn Skye | In this warmhearted and lightly magical novel, an opportunity to turn back time gives a scientist the chance to pursue her ideal life, only to realize it might keep her from truly living.
The Breakup by Kurt Andersen | A marriage cracks apart as a near-future United States redraws its borders in this penetrating and moving novel from the bestselling author of Fantasyland.
Maisy Bell Is Missing by Kirsty Manning | Intrepid reporter Charlotte “Charlie” James investigates the mysterious disappearance of a well-connected American tourist, unaware of the trouble that awaits her.
💌 Reading List
Essays & articles worth reading this week.
How to Talk Like a Human in the AI Era | Time
Ultimately, when we offload too much to AI, we aren’t just taking a convenient shortcut; we are actively causing our fundamental capabilities to atrophy and increasing our communication anxiety because we know that if we are challenged, we might not have the depth of knowledge to respond.
Ordinary Abundance | Jordan Dworkin
This interactive piece on the modern home and how many things we take for granted—on demand music streaming, light without fire, photographs—were once only dreamed of by writers and philosophers of yore.
It is to humanity’s credit that we remain restless in the midst of all of this progress. We continue to look forward, pushing the frontier further with new treatments, new tools, and new institutions that will help future generations in ways we can’t even picture yet. But our lives today are a gallery of past generations’ heroic efforts to do the same. It serves us, and honors them, to recapture whenever possible the old sense of awe at these wonders that have long since become commonplace.
The Girlboss Is Dead. But the “Girlbaby” Is Just As Bad. | Marie Claire
Kitten author Stacey Yu shares an essay on the rise of the “girlbaby” — the toxic, helpless Gen Z little sister of the Millennial #Girlboss.
The girlbaby knows that life is hard and mean and senseless, and it isn’t her problem. The girlbaby won’t be tricked into fighting a losing battle. The girlbaby could not care less about a raise. Ever the nihilist, the girlbaby suspects the feminists were wrong all along. Then again, so were the left, and obviously the far-right, too—everyone was wrong about everything. The girlbaby is sometimes confused for the traditional male-devotee type, but she hangs out with all crowds because no one can resist a bit of escape. The girlbaby is as pure and trusting as she is damaged and disdainful, and all these qualities make her immune to judgment. The girlbaby refuses to engage. The girlbaby finds safety in retreat.
🧥 In My Cart
Things I’m eyeing and buying this week.
House Basket, $38 | Autumn Wreath, $50 | Polo Sweater, $98 | Soup Mug, $20 | Rattan Pumpkin, $10 | Shimmering Body Oil, $27 | Plaid Pumpkin Pillow, $20 | Heirloom Tomato Candle, $64 | Red Sneakers, $35
✨ Joy Scrolling
Fun links & recs for your reading pleasure.
I’m obsessed with this printable “TBR Ticket” that gives you prompts to help cut down on your TBR pile. One of my big goals is to make a dent in my backlist of books in the next year, so I’ll definitely be trying this!
Loved this piece on activities and hobbies to pursue beyond your streaming habit.
How fun is this interactive site that charts the journeys in famous works of literature and film?!
A helpful primer on how to take better photos of your pets. (gift link)
How 20 well-read people make time for reading with busy schedules.
⏰ ICYMI
What I’ve posted recently.
Parenthetical is for the women who dog-ear pages, rewatch the same rom-coms every season, and want their ordinary Tuesdays to feel a little more magical. Paid subscribers get the full Well-Designed Life curriculum, our monthly book club, and Debut Diaries — the unfiltered behind-the-scenes peek at writing (and querying) my first novel.
Joy Mail Club Members will receive an envelope each month packed with delight—postcards, mini-prints, stickers, punch cards, junk journal & collage bits, greeting cards, and other fun surprises. A little dose of whimsy and joy, from me, to you.