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this week’s style inspo:
Pamela Anderson and her tiny eyebrows.
what i’m clicking:
Lessons in success from a celebrity memoir ghostwriter | Why popular shows aren’t enough for Netflix | The secret life of Beatrix Potter | What a shift in fashion says about body politics | Who’s afraid of Pamela Anderson? |Why all the billionaires are moving to Hawaii | How a TikTok heartthrob's middle-aged fandom turned toxic | Inside Facebook’s African sweatshop | One last trip with my brother’s remains | America has failed Brittney Griner–and her detention in Russia sheds light on the gender pay gap | Do Texas prison conditions violate human rights standards? | A boogaloo boi vs. Russia | The war within Kyiv’s zoo
what i’m wanderlusting:
Iquitos, the weird and wild gateway to the Peruvian Amazon.
what i’m watching:
Pam & Tommy, which is about 8 episodes too long but enlightening nonetheless.
what i’m coveting:
A ridiculously impractical silk feather robe.
what i’m recommending:
This recipe for flourless chocolate cake. Hands-down the best thing I’ve ever baked, but take that with a grain of salt cause I find cooking to be a bore and a chore so I’m not very good at it.
what i’m preordering:
The Lifestyle, an Emma retelling but with swingers.
what i’m reading:
Lucy Foley
I have a love/hate relationship with Lucy Foley’s books because I think they’re mostly dumb as hell and disappointing, but the act of reading them is so fun and exciting that I can’t stop. She writes objectively bad books, but they bring me immense amounts of joy. But–but! This book is different. I loved it! (But maybe that’s just because it’s set in Paris.)
Would I Recommend It: I thought the twists and reveals were so well-thought-out and satisfying that out of all her books, this is the one I would recommend most.
Hanna Jameson
I love an apocalypse! I love a fancy European hotel! I love a murder mystery! And I loved this book about a murder at a fancy European hotel during the apocalypse… until the last 20 pages when I was like… what the fuck? Who let you get away with this insane plotline? The ending is weird in a bad way, but the rest of the book is delightful and highly readable.
Would I Recommend It: The ending will make you furious, but it’s fun enough to read that if you are also into the apocalypse, murder mysteries, and fancy hotels you should probably give it a read.
Carola Lovering
When an advance copy of this book arrived on my doorstep, I put down whatever bullshit book I was reading at the time and devoured this in less than 24 hours. This book has so many themes that appeal to me: Brooklyn in the 2010s, post-college friendships, suburban mom drama. Reading this book felt like watching a movie, where I could picture every scene perfectly. It’s more of a domestic drama than a psychological thriller, but it still had me on the edge of my seat, waiting to see how the tension would unfold.
Would I Recommend It: Yes, especially if you liked The Last Mrs. Parrish, Too Good to Be True, or Why We Came to the City. It comes out in June, so get it on preorder.
Jonathan Dee
This book opens with a wedding scene that is so detailed and boring that it reminds me of The Deer Hunter, but if you can stick it out for 30 pages or so (which is a lot, since this book is so short), I promise it gets juicy. There are plot points and high-stakes scenarios that never *quite* get resolved, but it will keep you interested until the very last page. I think if this book was ~300 pages longer it could be compared to Franzen (if you’re into that) but alas it left me wanting more.
Would I Recommend It: Maybe. It’s a fast, well-written, weird little book that didn’t waste my time, but there are so many books in the world and I’ll probably forget about this one soon.