Weekend Reads #292

Weekend Reads

Eyes wide opened. (Swamp)

Taraji P. Henson made Project 2025 the talk of the BET Awards. (MSNBC)

How Taraji P. Henson spotlighted Black designers at the BET Awards. (Vogue)

FEUDS JUNE 11, 2024

Martha-Ann Alito is beefing. (The Cut)

And the original 2006 article by Robin Givhan. (Washington Post – gift link)

How I hacked my life by saying yes to everything. (Wall Street Journal – gift link)

TikTok is an unrivaled trendsetter. Will its influence last? (AP)

What you need to know about hormones and hair loss. (Gloria)

Katie Pumphrey completes 14-hour trek from Bay Bridge to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. (Washington Post – gift link)

Saks owner to buy Neiman Marcus, with help from Amazon. (Wall Street Journal, gift link)

Author Yulin Kuang explains how she gives readers “that pulse-pounding, dry-mouth, flushed feeling” in a romance novel. (The Cut)

Sale Alert

Please know I cannot guarantee items in stock, items part of sale, or even that the sale is still continuing. If you find any errors in my sale reporting let me know so I can update accordingly. Also, if I missed any great sale, share in the comments!

Lands' End

Lands' End has 50% off sitewide and 60% off swim and clearance with promo code CELEBRATE. This is a fantastic sale and a time to stop up on some fabulous fashion, swim, and home. My picks:

• Need a graduation, baby or wedding shower gift or a housewarming present? Get one of their personalized canvas totes (large or XL) and have their name or the baby's name, or whatever on it and choose a favorite color or the color of their college, nursery, or house trim and fill it with useful things (diapers, towels, shower caddy and supplies, kitchen essentials). Tie the handles together with a bow and done.
• Another great gift for others or for yourself are Lands' End beach towels. I have the cabana stripe and had them personalized with “The Garys” on each of them. The Turkish towels dry super fast and don't collect sand; great for college kids, travel, and beachgoers.
• Lands' End makes great bath towels and bedding. I am partial to these cotton Oxford striped sheets, which are coastal chic and classic.
• Instead of a MiracleSuit, I recommend this suit from Lands' End. It comes in Regular, Petite, Long, Plus, Plus Long, as well as four cup sizes. I got it last summer (see my Lands' End swimsuit review) and am still rocking it as a favorite suit that looks nice, makes me feel confident without being restricted, and has straps that can handle a few laps or water aerobics.
• I have a new capsule wardrobe coming next week, and it will include not only the swimsuit I just recommended, but also this linen shirt and this rashguard. I own them, love them, and think they're great choices that look stylish summer after summer.
• If your size is in stock, you should get this leather jacket. Only Misses left.
• If your size is in stock, you should consider this sweater. I wish I didn't sleep on it, I think it's classic and perfect for a breezy evening. Only Plus left.
• I have and love this packable rain jacket. It looks good, feels good, and does keep me dry. Great color options available in Misses, Petite, Tall, and Plus.
• These water shoes are so cute; they run small, so size up.

Universal Standard

Universal Standard continues to offer 25-35% off sitewide. Plus, use code INFS-SWSALISON for an additional 10% off your entire order.

Talbots

Talbots has 50% off sitewide through the weekend. I am having an upcoming campaign with Talbots and have tried a lot of stuff lately.

• Last week I recommended the Sutton Shirtdress, and here I am wearing one on the 4th of July in size 16P.
• The leather bag I featured in this post is now $99.99 with 50% off!
• This sweater is really nice in person. I plan to wear with a skin-colored bra, but you could do a skin-colored cami, a tank a similar color, and when the temps drop it will look great over a crisp white button-front shirt. The colors are true to what you see online.
• It's hard to find stylish knit shorts with a longer inseam; these French terry shorts have a 7″ inseam, fit great, and have deep pockets. Misses, petite, plus, and plus petite.
• I really like Talbots shoes. My feet are a bit too wide for them, but have worn some of the pump and flat styles and find them well crafted and comfortable. Talbots' sandal collection is on point this season with low and flat dressy styles, quirky thongs for casual situations, and a great selection of espadrilles which are a classic but also on trend this summer and likely will remain popular next summer.

Chico's

Chico's has the Semi-Annual Sale going on with an extra 30% off sale and free shipping on orders $125+. Chico's does no-iron shirts, Zenergy (great for travel and active situations) and cool summer prints really well and there is a lot of great stuff part of this promotion. Some of my picks:

Top Row: swimsuit coverup | floral shirtdress | off-the-shoulder dress | tank dress
Bottom Row: orange top | abstract print shirt | printed sleeveless top | poncho | green shirt

Top Row: black dress | green dress | tan dress
Bottom Row: skirt | blue linen shirt | white shirt | turquoise dress

See/Hear/Read

I love the TV series The Bear (Hulu). My husband and I have been fans since the get-go, and I avoid most discussions about the show to be in the same mind space as my husband, who doesn't absorb any content or are in any circles that would lead to such discussions.

But I did see as I was scrolling Threads (which I uninstalled for the month of July for a bit of a detox), that someone said Season 3 was not like and not as good as the previous seasons. And as we watched Episode 1 and even Episode 2, I understood where they were coming from. In fact, after those two, my husband suggested a few days break before we went back to The Bear.

One night this week, we caught up to finishing Episode 6—Napkins. We're hooked again. The Bear is so fantastic. If you haven't watched it, I recommend it for Gen Z through Silent Generation and beyond.

Michelle commented on last week's Weekend Reads about how I mentioned on Threads that I was listening to the audiobook of Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth. I listened to it when driving to pick up our kid from school, but that wasn't enough time; I had to know just a little bit more. I began playing it during showers and when putting on my makeup and at times when I usually just had silence.

Darling Girls is a murder mystery thriller and the chapters are from perspective to the perspective of three sisters. Every time I felt I had a grip on the story or a character, it would change, and that kept me going after school was out of session. I really enjoyed it. The ending is a bit over the top, but it was also fun.

Be warned if you choose the audiobook route: The narrator is Jessica Clarke, an Australian. She is very good, but her voice is distinctive. One of the main characters is named Jessica, and even weeks later, I am thinking and saying that name with a bit of an accent.

A Family Affair (Netflix) is a romcom starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Joey King. Yes, like The Idea of You, it is about a woman in midlife who gets in a relationship with a famous person over a decade younger. But it is otherwise a different story, and while my husband thought it sucked, I really enjoyed it.

This isn't some movie striving to win any awards, it's a fun lighthearted story about a 24-year-old girl who is the assistant to a 36-year-old movie star named Chris. And he is like one of the many Chris actors in Holywood: superhero movies, can't live a normal life for such a recognizable face. Nicole Kidman is the mom of the actor's assistant and she ends up getting with the actor.

I was especially interested in watching after watching Efron in The Iron Claw. I thought it was a performance worthy of award nominations. I also was interested because I wanted to know how they would handle a 24-year-old daughter, 50-year-old mom, and 36-year-old handsome movie star.

Most romcoms have some sort of jealousy or competition for the same romantic partner and this one didn't. When King's character, Zara, enters the kitchen with Eugenie (Liza Koshy), I was like, “a-ha, they avoided the competition trope by making her a lesbian.” But nope, Eugenie is her bestie who lives with her male partner.

The daughter never had a single romantic cell in her body for the actor and it made realize how far we've come in movies from last century. No jealousy, no deception, no competition, but understanding tension (and humor) can come from characters playing people with depth beyond their crotch.

I felt that Joey King felt like a serious Gen Z only child and her own story (except the stupid part when trying to get into a gala) and her relationship with her widow mom felt pretty realistic. I expected to find Nicole Kidman wrong in the role, but besides her thick and lustrous golden yellow hair, she played her role well. Zac Efron didn't have to make much of a stretch with his role, but he was both infuriating and endaring.

For Your Entertainment

When Lana Del Rey came out in 2011, I heard her songs but she wasn't really my vibe. I felt she was a gimmick and everything sounded the same. But Lana Del Rey (birth name Elizabeth Woolridge Grant) stuck around, began winning awards, doing impressive collaborations and writing songs for movie soundtracks. Thanks to my Gen Z daughter, I hear Lana Del Rey regularly and have come to appreciate her as an artist.

Lana Del Rey is coming out with a new album this September. Below is a single from Lasso, which is supposedly a country album. “Tough” is a collaboration with Quavo, an artist and music producer (he was in the hip-hop group Migos). This song, this collaboration, this video feels very current yet brings a lot of nostalgia, even if you can't relate to it. I really love how this song takes two genres and shows that working together and respecting one another's differences can make something really beautiful.