ICYMI: We’re all holding on by a thread | There’s someone dying upstairs Part 1 and Part 2 | Panning For Gold | How to break your screentime addiction | The Wind Phone Returned | February Bonus Episode |
Coming up this week: A new season of TTFA Anthologies (Spotify | Apple) and another bonus episode for paid subscribers!
Many of us are living for Love Story on Hulu, even though we already know how it ends. Some of us are even practicing CBK/JFK Jr. cosplay (Gen Z loves a toxic relationship, and they reallllly love the 90s). Some of us are thinking, wow, I have never once played it cool romantically and I never could. And some of us (the suck ups, and I am among you) want a little extra credit to go along with the show. We want to crack open a book (or three) about this couple, go deeper than the public fights and the black turtlenecks.
In that case, may I recommend:
📖 Ask Not by Maureen Callahan is gossipy and salacious and enraging. Justice for every woman who has been ground up in the gears of a man’s ambition and/or apathy.
📖 Once Upon A Time by Elizabeth Beller gets a nod in the credits of Love Story, and it’s in paperback now. This one also centers Carolyn, especially her life before JFK Jr, and I’m surprised it hasn’t sold out TBH!
📖 What Remains by Carole Radziwill is the 2005 memoir by the only RHONY alum to have her author photo taken by Ghislaine Maxwell 🥴. Carole married Anthony Radziwill, JFK Jr’s cousin, and was best friends with Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. Anthony died of cancer a few weeks after that plane crash, leaving Carole to grapple with all of that loss.
My February Reads…
📖 Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand is the third in the Winter Series (I read the first three in January) and I couldn’t not read it, but I also really can’t distinguish it from the previous three. Make a note on your calendar to request these at your library in December, so in January-March you can escape to the tropics without booking a flight. It’s a nice little holiday-themed escape.
📖 Margot’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe was a book I went into fully blind (my favorite way to enter books and movies). Margot is young, knocked up by her loser English professor, and struggling to survive. Her mom is pretending to be a born-again Christian to lock down her youth-pastor boyfriend. Her dad is a pro-wrestler with another family who has been a sporadic presence in her life. Maybe the answer to her problems is in applying what her father taught her about pro wrestling to creating a persona on Only Fans? It wraps up a little too neatly, with no pressing on the very traumatic elements of the story, but it was just such a good read I had to buy it when I was done.
📖 The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave was one of those thrillers where I’m not thrilled, and I actually don’t really care if the dead body at the beginning of the book was murdered or not. I stuck with it, but I was skimming, and in the end I was like, oh, okay I guess that settles that.
🎧 The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose fulfilled a very specific purpose for me: the thriller that keeps me company on a very long drive. Adam’s mistress is found dead in his vacation home, and his defense attorney wife, Sarah, is his only hope. Lots of twists and turns, and the final one was 👌.
📖 Honest Motherhood by Libby Ward is a book for women who know that motherhood is not just magical. If you’ve ever been at the end of a rapidly fraying rope and found yourself thinking, “I should have make cupcakes” then you probably need the message in this book: it’s not just you, the pressure of motherhood is impossible, and you’re not the worst mom in the world (because I AM!!!).
What did you read this month? What’s on your TBR? Did you notice that this came out on a Saturday night instead of a Sunday because tomorrow is March? Do you know how much I struggled between sending out a February Reading List in March vs. sending out a Sunday email on a Saturday? Did I make the right choice or is everyone mad at me?
Yours in earnestness and imperfection,
Nora
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❤️ It’s Going To Be OK is back! Apple | Spotify
I felt EXACTLY the same way about The Night We Lost Him, and also went into (and picked for book club) Margo's Got Money Troubles blind. Not what I expected at all, yet we all liked or loved it, and had a lot to discuss about it. I think I was rooting for Margo so much, I was glad it tied up neatly.
They filmed some of the TV show based on Margot's Got Money Troubles in the courtyard of my office building and I definitely spied on Nick Offerman out of the conference room window like a creep. I regret nothing.