Weekend Reads #314

Weekend Reads

ICE watch programs can protect immigrants in your neighborhood — here’s what to know. (Teen Vogue)

I always love trend predictions, and this one for 2025 is interesting. (8Ball)

How Glossier got its glow back. (Inc.)

Sex not part of woman’s ‘marital duties,’ court rules in divorce case. (The Washington Post – gift link)

If you like the lady jacket style but don't want to drop a lot of money on it, I think this cardigan is a great piece to wear now into early summer. Here is the same sweater in plus sizes.

Who was cyberbullying Kendra Licari’s teen daughter? (The Cut)

Does fact-checking work? What the science says. (Nature)

People diagnosed with ADHD have significantly shorter lifespans, study says. (Washington Post – gift link)

I get liquid gel/builder gel at my nail salon, but I am happy to see at-home options like this builder gel from Le Mini Macaron. LED lights are easy to find for very little (my daughter has this one) and builder gel is a way to strengthen nails without adding tips or sanding or causing damage.

Walmart refreshes logo with thicker sphinctal folds and a tighter pucker. (BoingBoing)

When your son goes MAGA. (New York Times – gift link)

How to financially plan for taking care of your parents. (The Cut)

Are self-care and elder-care mutually exclusive? (Poor Man's Feast)

No such thing as a free toilet: Starbucks reverses open bathroom policy. (NPR)

Less than $50, these pants are great to dress up or down from work to a night out but so easy care you can also lounge in them on the weekend. XS-XXL (if you carry in your belly, you may wish to go with your larger size).

At 74, I don't consider the words “Old Lady” derogatory. (Allure)

What matters more for longevity? Genes or lifestyle? (New York Times – gift link)

How Trader Joe’s remains a beloved brand despite record product recalls, safety violations, worker misconduct complaints, and an environmental record that belies its reputation. (Fast Company)

Sustainable fashion and accessories brand Able has its Online Warehouse Sale through January 26th. Save 25% off sitewide with an additional 50% off markdowns. Use code OWS. Great time to buy the Able tote I swear by and included in my closet basics for women in midlife.

Walgreens CEO describes drawback of anti-shoplifting strategy: ‘When you lock things up…you don’t sell as many of them’ (Fortune)

For those who want to delete Facebook but also can't imagine being able to stay connected to groups, distant loved ones, and communities without it, check out the News Feed Eradicator extension for your Chrome browser.

Style Ispo

I am seeing so much color this spring, especially with blazers. Pairings of red and burgundy with coral and pink, green and teal with turquoise and blue, olive and navy with chartreuse and yellow, and plenty of pastels.

Top row: one (link to misses) | two | three | four (link to plus)
Bottom row: one | two | three | four

Style with jeans, as a complete suit, white jeans and trousers, and slip over floaty dresses and add boots to wear those warmer spring dresses in the cooler weather.

Top row: one | two (link to plus) | three | four | five
Bottom row: one | two | three (link to misses) | four | five

See/Hear/Read

We began watching The English (Prime), a revisionist western starring Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer. This show is utterly gorgeous; I wish I could watch it on a big movie screen. Sweeping landscapes, creative and powerful cinematography, and once it gets going, it all makes sense.

Emily Blunt's character, Lady Cornelia Locke, shows up at a hotel in the middle of absolutely nowhere, Kansas. Seriously, there is absolutely nothing else for miles, and she rolls in on a covered wagon carrying a scarlet dress and a satchel full of money. It's clear quite early in the film that the hotel manager (Ciarán Hinds) is not a good dude, and he doesn't plan on offering stellar customer service.

This is an extremely violent film. Hangings, shootings, cow pox, makeshift surgeries, and everyone a little bit mad from living in such a difficult existence. But Eli Whipp (Spencer) and Lady Cornelia Locke (Blunt) are fascinating characters and the more you watch the more desperately you want to know their pasts and how their futures turn out.

I'm still on my Elin Hilderbrand kick and the most recent audiobook I borrowed by this author was A Summer Affair. I have read over 20 Eli Hilderbrand books since my mom passed in the fall of 2023. Some I adore, some I just like okay, none I have hated… until now. I hated this book, I hated the characters, I felt that it was written by a completely other author.

I chose A Summer Affair because some list on the internet said it was one of her best books, and Goodreads people gave it good reviews. I wonder if I hated it so much because of the narrator. Because the narrator (Isabel Keating) made every man's voice really slow and condescending, the protagonist whiny and clueless, gave the husband an annoying Boston accent, the best friend a rough and deep Irish brogue, and everyone drove me batty.

The protagonist, Claire, is a glass artist with a piece in The Whitney. She stopped creating when she passed out and went into early labor when working in her hot shop. She wasn't drinking water, it was hot as balls in there, and she has lived with guilt ever since that something is WRONG with her baby (who is just fine, everyone including the doctor agrees, but she still worries).

Claire feels guilt about a lot of stuff. For example, one night she went out drinking with friends and one refused to take a cab home, drove home, hit a deer, and got a TBI. Claire felt it was her fault because she bought the last drink. So when the woman's husband asks Claire to co-chair a major gala she says yes out of guilt.

And then she proceeds to sleep with the husband. And then at one point accuses her own husband of cheating (he is so offended he sleeps on the sofa for a long while). She's cheating on her husband, lying to her best friend, feeling even more guilt towards the ex-friend with the TBI, and shirking her parental duties to spend every night “working on the gala” (sleeping with this other dude, who BTW is a billionaire).

Billionaire Booty Call tells Claire she's a talented artist and begs her to get back to work making glass art and convinces her, on top of working the gala and sleeping with him, to make a museum-worthy piece to raffle off at the gala. And dumbass Claire yet again ignores her body, ignores common sense, doesn't drink water and passes out in the hot shop.

Oh, and Claire's high school sweetheart is the equivalent of Bruce Springsteen and still is in love with her and his first hit song he wrote for her. He comes to Nantucket to perform at the gala and hopefully win her heart after 20 years apart. Claire has these three dudes obsessed with her, and she just continues to suck.

And then the gala happens, and life goes back to normal. Claire's husband never finds out about the affair, Billionaire Booty Call returns to his angry wife, Rock Star High School Sweetheart goes back to being a lonely drunk on tour, and Claire likely lives happily ever after with Jaso and her four kids, making taffy-like candlesticks for eccentric billionaires.

A Summer Affair was written in 2008, and besides The Blue Bistro, it is the oldest of Hiderbrand's books I've read. But I read a book of hers published a year later that felt completely different. I need a palate cleanser. Recommendations for a light enjoyable book without any characters named Claire or Jason are greatly appreciated!

For Your Entertainment

Viagra Boys is a Swedish punk band that started in 2015. Their latest album, viagr aboys, is coming out in April but they dropped their first single from it this week. “Man Made of Meat” and its corresponding video has so much you may find yourself rewatching and relistening to capture everything. Did they say, Chandler Bing? What does his forehead tattoo say? It's a cynical song about modern life under capitalism and feels very on the nose for 2025.