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Hi (and hi to all our new subscribers!),

We’re BACK from our two-week break and ready to embrace all things fall this week (and in the coming weeks!) in our newsletter. 🍂 How are you welcoming this season? Personally, I've just returned from our honeymoon in Italy and embracing all things analog, developing the film photos I took on our trip and printing out a beautiful hardcover album of our time there. It feels good to slow down like this, taking time to reflect, away from screens.

I hope you can kick back with your favorite fall bev (apple crisp macchiato for me—yes it’s a sugar bomb and yes it’s delicious), your coziest blanket, a nostalgic 90’s rom-com, and enjoy. —Alisha

This Week's Recommendations

This week's Sponsor:

Finally, a chic water filter pitcher that actually DOES stuff for all your WFH hydration needs.

“My typical WFH routine involves getting up from my desk several times a day to refill my water glass. The existing dispenser that’s attached to our fridge isn’t the best (let’s just say that it’s been looking a little grimy recently…) so I was excited when LifeStraw got in touch about trying out their water filter pitchers. After testing the pitcher out for a few weeks, I can say with confidence that it will be my new WFH buddy, perched on my desk and ready to help me hydrate—without any ick.

What I love most about this pitcher is its combination of form and function. The sleek, Danish-designed hand-blown glass pitcher looks just as great sitting in the fridge as it does out on the table, desk, or nightstand. As someone who values aesthetics, this pitcher gets an A+ from me.

The technology is truly the star: the 7-cup pitcher filters water with a membrane microfilter and activated carbon + ion exchange filter, and is actually the ONLY pitcher that removes microplastics, bacteria, parasites, lead, PFAS, and 30+ other contaminants. Hello, perfectly crisp, safe, and dramatically better-tasting glass of water! 

Finally, I love a brand that is thoughtful in living out its values and giving back. LifeStraw believes that everyone deserves equitable access to safe drinking water: they’re a certified B Corp and Climate Neutral company and for every product purchased, a child in need receives safe water for a year. A win-win.” —Alisha R., Founder at GNI

💧 GNI readers can use code GNI20 to take 20% off the purchase of LifeStraw Home products, valid through 10/14/22.

3 Good Things with Writer Mattie Kahn

1. Reading Fierce Attachments during long-walk season
   

   A few months ago, a friend gasped when she learned I had never read Fierce Attachments, the feminist writer Vivian Gornick’s memoir of her impossible relationship with her relentless mother. Published in 1987, it still crackles. 

   I devoured it over the summer on a languorous vacation, but I wish I could read it for the first time now. Fall is its spiritual season. The book oscillates between Gornick’s memories of her childhood in the Bronx and her descriptions of her present adulthood in which she walks with her mother through the streets of New York. Grab the book and head to a cafe that will take at least 40 minutes to get to on foot; meander home savoring Gornick’s exquisite and frank recollections.  

2. Reviving white sheets with Oxi-Clean
   

   I can’t believe I’m enthusing over what is an unglorified chore, but I swear this one feels like magic. The context: I love and refuse to deviate from white sheets. Other than a brief period of experimentation in college, I have not laid a hair on a patterned pillowcase since I was a little kid. The problem: white sheets are hard to maintain. White sheets turn sallow. Even with frequent washing, white sheets do not retain their fresh-from-L.L. Bean pristine pallor!

   I am too risk averse to handle bleach and not enough of a diva to replace bedding after just a few months of use. Enter: Oxi-Clean, which somehow restores sheets to their initial splendor in about six hours. I followed these instructions, but the gist is: soak sheets and pillowcases in Oxi-Clean, drain, launder as usual. Prepare to be amazed.

3. Asking forgiveness 
   

   We gave the world time-honored mourning rituals and Seinfeld. We popularized bagels and cream cheese. We have turned survival into an art form. But in terms of Judaism’s best contributions to the wider culture, Yom Kippur—which is next week—has to rank near the top of the list. We transformed asking for forgiveness into a spiritual practice! We created a framework for atonement.

   We live in a shameless era, and I am not immune to its charms. I love to be right. I adore having an extra glass of wine and talking trash! For a long time, I was terrible at apologizing, which was bad for me and even worse for the people I love. I am so glad I learned the selfish little secret of making amends, which is that admitting to having hurt someone feels so much better than stewing in guilt and self-recrimination. Yom Kippur tells us we can renew ourselves; it’s work. It’s worth it.

This Week's Reads

• Don’t Objectify Yourself (The Atlantic)  — "Most of us spend too much time being observed and not enough time observing."
• The Dream of An Easy Weeknight Dinner (The New Yorker) — “The idea that cooking dinner can be a huge hassle for hardworking Americans, especially those who have young children, is retro yet timeless.”
• Can Brown Noise Turn Off Your Brain? (The New York Times)
• Constance Wu on Her Memoir, ‘Making a Scene,’ and How She’s Moving On (The New York Times) — Excited to read Wu’s memoir, out soon.
• How About a 4-Day Workweek Already? (The Cut) — Would be a dream, don’t you think?
• I Made Every Big Pandemic Life Change I Could. Now What? (The Cut) “Even when your life is made new, even when you barely recognize it, circumstances can still shift in an instant. A single pivot can become an endless pirouette. Decisions must be made among options you didn’t quite choose. And that can make it challenging to choose anything at all.”
• What Parisians wear to a wine bar. (Eater) — Fun! Chic!

A Few Excellently *Stylish* Newsletters We Love

• A Thing or Two is a cult-fave newsletter ℅ design enthusiasts Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo who are always somehow the first to know about the next cool thing—whether that’s the best niche condiments or the perfect button-down.
• 5 Things You Should Buy from stylist and editor Becky Malinsky is new on the newsletter scene and quickly becoming a favorite. She has an eagle eye for foundational closet items that are, well, worth buying, whether it’s a sneaker or a pair of “fun pants.”
• Gloria is a smart weekly newsletter that asks the important question, “What does aging look like when you still feel 25?” Helmed by Leslie Price and Michelle Curb, come for the thoughtful essays and interviews, stay for the expertly curated high/low fashion finds.
• True Style is a newsletter that’ll gently hold your hand on all things style and wardrobe planning. Stylist Lakyn Carlton dives deep into topics like fashion rules (and how to break them), how to elevate your wardrobe, and how, exactly, to copy a cool ‘fit you saw on Instagram. 
• Worn In, Worn Out by Kitty Guo keeps us in the loop with Gen Z fashion in her newsletter with  “conscious curations from a Gen Z shopaholic” surfacing cool finds like ceramic nesting bowls, cottagecore art prints, and surrealist tableware.