What are you up to this weekend? Around here, I’ve got raking leaves, watching football (while I read, honestly), and office tidying on the horizon—and I’m looking forward to all of it!
I hope you have something to look forward to these next few days, and that this collection of interesting reads and favorite things helps ease you into that weekend frame of mind.
Gift ideas for book lovers
If you’re looking for gift ideas for the bookish people in your life (or for yourself), we refreshed last year’s gift guide. I also have my eye on…
Our moving sale
Brought to you by the Bogel family’s crowded shelves: I bring you a request, a plea, and a really good deal? Thanks to a summer home projects that required a bit of household reorganizing, I would very much like to clear out some of the MMD/WSIRN stock inventory we’re storing at home, especially the copies of my first book Reading People I WAY over-ordered as a first time author who didn’t understand how it all worked. (Our copies happen to be the beautiful metallic-gold embossed copies that are near impossible to find in the wild now.) Here’s what our household moving situation means for you:
• Get your copies of Reading People for the hugely discounted price of $5—I really want to clear these out! As always, all copies we ship are signed; make your personalization request in your order comments if you have one and I’ll be delighted to fulfill it.
• We currently have limited stock on three t-shirts: What Should I Read Next?, I’d Rather Be Reading, and our Book Camp v-neck. Remaining sizes are $19, marked down from $24. We NEVER put apparel on sale, but we’re doing it now to free up that shelf space.
• As an extra thank you for your timely order, use the code GOODIES and we’ll add a free sticker to your order of $10 or more (2025 MMD Book Club Yearbook not included). If you’d like, specify your sticker preference in your order comments. Otherwise, we’ll surprise you!
• My first book and our selected tees are marked way down, but now is a fabulous time to order for the holidays and for your new year (hello reading journals). Ordering now is also a real kindness to our small team—it’s easier on us to get you your order in November than during the holiday rush, so thank you in advance! I’m tempted to rattle off every single item from our shop, but our top three right now are: our gorgeous ampersand Leuchtturm journal, our To Be Read tote, and our Well Read hat.
• Popular stocking stuffers: our book dart tins, pencil pack, bookish button packs, and of course our stickers.
• All my books are available in our shop, and every copy is signed!
Sale is good through November 24, or (for our deeply discounted items) while supplies last. Thank you for your orders, for your moving help, and for kindly helping our team with our holiday rush!
My favorite finds from around the web:
I offer gift links for articles whenever possible (you may still need to create an account with the publication); if there’s no gift link and you’re not a subscriber, check to see if your library carries the publication or use a bookmarking service.
‘By Chance, Did You Win a Cottage in Ireland?’ (New York Times gift link) This story is WILD in the best way! “She told him more about the contest; he thought it was a scam. What were the chances that she had won a worldwide raffle competition based in Britain with just three tickets? But when she received an email from Raffall, and then from Ms. Collins herself, Ms. Spangler realized it had actually happened.”
15 highly recommended novels from my favorite genre, the family drama. (MMD) My most-recommended family dramas, plus a few more I’ve especially enjoyed lately.
The Innovation That’s Killing Restaurant Culture. (Atlantic gift link) “In effect, delivery has reversed the flow of eaters to food, and remade a shared experience into a much more individual one.” Am I the only one who still loves to eat out?
A friend gifted me some red Camellia kidney beans from her bulk order, which prompted this spectacular Red Beans and Rice dinner at home this week. (I took a suggestion from the comments and went the Instant Pot route, plus I added a ham hock because I had one in my freezer from last winter.) Sooo good!
Lily King on Campus Novels, Time Jumps, and Having Fun While Writing. (Literary Hub) Wonderful conversation between Lily King and Emma Straub.
This is 57: Bestselling Author Catherine Newman Responds to The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire. (Oldster) “I’ll walk past a tour group on campus and smile to myself, thinking that everyone probably mistakes me for a college student, and then I have to laugh because not only do they not mistake me for a college student, but one student actually asked me once if I had been alive during the last pandemic—as in, the Spanish flu of 1918.”
Replenish your jigsaw puzzle stash with these 25 puzzles. (MMD) Favorite puzzles to give as gifts or stock your puzzle cabinet.
The annual Sephora sale is happening now: on the high end, I’m going back to the day moisturizer I was using last fall when my skin was looking its best—at least in recent years. (Correlation or causation? We’ll find out!) On the low end, I grabbed the cult favorite Touchland hand sanitizer. Reminder that all Sephora Collection is 30% off with code EVERYTHING.
The most popular baby names of 2025. (Babycenter) I couldn’t resist; I was so curious! (I was surprised at how little this list has changed in the past twenty years.)
All the Colours We Cannot See. (Unmapped Storylands with Elif Shafak) “This might be a strange thing for a fiction writer to say, but I do not like the word ‘fiction.’ In the English language, especially.”
How Gen X Broke Open the Menopause Conversation. (Flow Space) “Gen X is the first generation to bridge the analog and the digital eras. They said: wait a second, all this wasn’t available, but now it is, and how can I leverage this to make this better for myself?”
Crafting a personal curriculum for a lifelong learner. (What Should I Read Next?) The fun is in the details in this reader’s self-designed personal learning project.
How Toni Morrison Changed Publishing. (Atlantic gift link) Clint Smith on Morrison the editor: “A salesman at a conference once told Morrison, ‘We can’t sell books on both sides of the street’: There was an audience of white readers and, maybe, an audience of Black readers, he meant, but those literary worlds didn’t merge. ‘Well, I’ll just solve that,’ Morrison decided. She was determined to ‘do something that everybody loves’ without losing sight of her commitment to Black readers.”
The Power of Sour. (Taste) “From sour grapes to dill pickle–flavored chips and every puckering moment in between, people can’t seem to get enough of this very real, very bracing trend in food.” I’m a fan!
Don’t miss these posts:
12 funny mysteries to brighten your day. A list of whodunits that will make you grin, chuckle, or even laugh out loud.
9 tasty teas to warm up your winter days. We need all the hot beverages.
25 family sagas that will sweep you away. With the holidays approaching, now is the perfect time to pick up an engrossing story about complicated families.
Have a great weekend!