Heartburn, It Happened One Summer, and Stolen Youth.

Week 122.

Mar 04, 2023

Hello hello! Happy March! Here’s a recap of my week:

Things I Read

Books

If you’re looking for a book to read, try this list of contemporary romance recs, this list of other fiction recs, or this list of non-fiction recs.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron: I have a list of books I want to read in the imminent future (I already own them or have them on hold at the library, etc.) and then there’s the incredibly long list of books I theoretically would like to read at some point. This book was always on that list. I obviously love Nora Ephron, queen of the rom com movie, and this has a pretty juicy backstory— it’s an autobiographical novel about a woman who finds out her husband is cheating on her, as Ephron’s second husband did to her. Also, there’s famously a salad dressing recipe in here. Anyway, a few weeks ago I discovered that this audio book is read by none other than MERYL STREEP, and checked it out from the library immediately. It’s fun! I think Meryl brings so much to this, the narrator has such a sassy and specific voice. I don’t think I would care about this if it weren’t for the lore surrounding it, but I just had to read it and I don’t regret it. Listen to the audio! It made me laugh several times.
It Happened One Summer and by Tessa Bailey: This is really popular but I didn’t love the other Tessa Bailey books I’ve read (the first two in the Fix Her Up series) so I never went for this. MISTAKE. It was so good! It’s about Piper, a rich LA socialite who takes her partying a little too far one night, and then her step-father decides to cut her off and send her to spend 3 months in a small fishing town where her biological father was from. Her sister, Hannah, decides to go with her for support. In the town, Piper meets Brendan, a grumpy but very hot fisherman. Piper is based on Alexis from Schitt’s Creek and I think it worked well. She is a huge bimbo in the beginning and she goes on a really nice growth arc, but for HERSELF, not for a man. These characters made each other better without asking each other to fundamentally change who they were, which was so nice. This also was….just filthy honestly. I was not expecting it and I was taken ABACK. This is about as spicy as you can get before you start getting into Shirtless Man on the Cover territory. This was so good, I loved it….
Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey: ….so much that I finished it and then immediately checked out the second book in the series and finished it in the same night! This one is about Hannah, who befriended another fisherman named Fox during her summer in the town, and now has returned six months later for work and is staying in Fox’s apartment for six weeks. I loved both of these, but I think I liked the second one a little more than the first. I just love a good friends to lovers story. Again, I loved that Hannah had a lot going for her outside of the romance, and there are lots of other side storylines happening that I was invested in. These two books really did it for me this week, I loved them both. They are hot and fun and cute and just a good time. I had not yet read a rom com in 2023 and these really hit the spot.
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren: These Tessa Bailey books really sent me spiraling and now I cannot stop reading rom coms. This is a classic enemies to lovers story about Olive, whose twin sister Ami is getting married to a guy named Dean. At their wedding, *everyone* gets food poisoning except Olive and Dean’s brother, Ethan. Ami encourages them to take her non-refundable honeymoon, so Ethan and Olive end up on a 10 day trip in Maui. But, they hate each other!! You’ll never guess what happens. I thought this was pretty good, I really liked Ethan. The whole book is from Olive’s perspective and I wish we had gotten his as well. There are some funny moments, and some things that don’t really make sense if you think about it too hard, but I don’t read these books to think really hard about them. Christina Lauren is a writing duo with a pretty large catalog of romance novels, I have read several of them and find them to be pretty reliably good.

Articles

Thank Goodness for Meg Cabot: Hard to overstate how important Meg Cabot was to teenage Emily. She is the author of the Princess Diaries series, and several other books that are foundational texts of my young adulthood. I LOVED the Princess Diaries series, and the Mediator series, and the All American Girl duology, and Airhead, and The Boy Next Door…..you get it. I loved this profile of her, and cannot emphasize enough how important it was, and continues to be, to have someone writing books like this about girls. Independent, smart, fully formed, real girls. Middle school me loved them.

Things I Watched

If you’re looking for a show to watch, try this list.

Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence (Hulu): I actually watched this last week but I forgot to write about it! This is a crazy story, which was also the subject of this 2019 NY Mag article that I remember being *riveted* by. The article lead to an FBI investigation, the aftermath of which is documented in the third episode of this docuseries. This is about a group of college students who get sucked into a decade long nightmare when their friend’s dad (Larry) gets out of prison and comes to stay with them, and then pulls them all into a sort of sex cult/coercive control situation. I still have a lot of questions after watching this (for example: why???? and also how???? did this happen????). I don’t think the documentary tells the story any better than the article did. What was fascinating though, is the third episode. When Larry gets arrested, there are two girls who have not yet left him. The third episode follows them over the course of several months, and you see them deconstruct their beliefs in real time. This was riveting to watch and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like it. Usually people aren’t interviewed until after they’ve done this work. This is so dark and extremely bleak, but I thought it was very interesting. Just a crazy story.
Survivor: It is once again time for me to yell at all of you that you should be watching Survivor. A lot of people discovered this show during the pandemic, but I am an OG Survivor fan and have seen every episode. If you’ve never watched, start with a pre-40 season (I’d recommend 15, 18, 32, or 37). The game has changed a lot and it’s worth watching some of the earlier ones to get a better understanding of the foundation of the show. I promise, you will be hooked. Season 44 started this week and the first episode ended with one of the most bizarre tribal councils ever, so we’re off to a good start! Some older seasons are on Hulu and Netflix, and they’re all on Paramount+. The current season airs Wednesday nights on CBS.

Movies

I only read rom coms this week, I did not watch a single movie.

Things I Bought

You can read about my full skincare routine and favorite products here. If you need a sunscreen recommendation, try this list.

Necessaire Sunscreen: I have genuinely loved every product I’ve tried from this brand, so this pains me to say: I *hated* this sunscreen. This is mineral, SPF 30, 20% Zinc Oxide. I knew it was bad the second I put it on my face. It took a minute to rub in and had a minor white cast (minor on me, would not be minor on anyone with an ounce of melanin), and then I could just feel it sitting on my face. I put a little bit of makeup on over it and it immediately started pilling. By the time I got to work it was just crumbling off my neck. Mess! This was just so bad. Very bad. Upsetting because I love this brand! Hard pass.

One Last Thing…

I have an announcement! I am going to take the month of March off from writing this newsletter. I’ve been doing this for over two years now (???? that’s crazy) and it has truly been SO fun, but in the past few weeks it has started to feel a little less fun. When I started this it was deep in pandemic quarantine times, I was in grad school and working from home part time, and I had a lot of time to consume all the things. Now I work full time in an office in a very emotionally demanding job (that I love! It’s just hard!). It’s been quite the adjustment and I’m a little tired. I am absolutely certain I will come back, I really do love writing this and hearing from one of you that you took a recommendation of mine. When tell me you read a book I liked or watched a movie I loved, and especially when you tell me you wear more sunscreen now, that is SO fun and also huge ego boost that I do not need but do thoroughly enjoy. I do not ever want to get to the point where this isn’t fun anymore, so a lil break is in order. If you want to keep up with what I’m doing this month I am going to keep posting on Instagram (I post a lot of pop culture thoughts and nonsense that doesn’t always make it in the newsletter over there, too). If not, I’ll meet you back here on April 1st with a big huge catch up.

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