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Sorry, this newsletter is a little late due to a technical issue! We’re back and glad to be in your inbox.
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Dream bedroom. Image source: Daisuke
Happy Friday and hello!
I’ll get right to it: This one is for my fellow bookworms. We’ve got a bunch of great recommendations on what to read right now from book influencer Cree Myles. (Seriously, I already added a few to my library queue!) Plus: Videos that made me happy cry, a smart strategy to actually cook from those cookbooks, and a giveaway to win goodies from some of our favorite Black-owned small businesses, and more. xoxo—Aliza Abarbanel, Executive Editor
P.S. If you could wave a magic wand, how would you change Girls’ Night In? We don’t have a fairy godmother, but we do have a 5-minute reader survey. Take it by Monday, February 27, and you’ll be automatically entered to win one of 3 $100 AmEx gift cards. If you filled out the survey early—thank you!—the form may not have captured your email address. Let us know if we missed yours on an honor basis here and we’ll add you into the giveaway.
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This Week's Picks
Curated this week by Aliza
- Not your average salmon recipe: This crispy salmon curry uses pantry ingredients like anchovy paste and sambal oelek for a deeply savory result with minimal time or chopping required. The recipe got my friend Mehreen Karim through the first round of the new season of Next Level Chef with praise from Gordon Ramsey, so you know it’s gotta be good.
- For the music lovers: I click on new episodes of NPR’s wonderful, long-running Tiny Desk concert series with an intensity that would make my cavewoman ancestors proud, and this week’s foraging expedition bore delicious fruit: a video from singer-songwriter Fousheé. You might already know her work—she was a co-writer on Steve Lacy’s hit summer bop Bad Habit—but you’ll definitely know her name after watching her genre-defying performance.
- A game-changing read: Trust Your Heart is a transformative new book by author, activist, and educator Najwa Zebian sharing tools for deepening self-trust and resilience. Read it, along with millions more books, with a free 60-day trial to Scribd. *Sponsor
- Instant dopamine: I’ve watched every American season of RuPaul’s Drag Race (and a decent amount of the international-verse) so please trust me when I say that last week’s episode of Season 15 had a legendary lip-synch: Anetra vs. Sasha Colby. I just love watching talented people do things they’re great at—ponytail flips to a hot Fifth Harmony song!—and this absolutely fits the bill. 10/10, will loop it all weekend.
- A smoothie for your face: This ultra-simple green face mask from Golde is my skin’s favorite antidote to breakouts and winter dryness. It comes as a powder which you mix with water, kinda like finger painting. The ingredient list is cruelty-free and even technically edible: mango juice powder, spirulina, etc.
- Fave follow: I always have post notifications on for Press SF, an online bookseller specializing in “books with pictures” on design, art, fashion, cooking, and more. Think: a peak 90's photo book of teenagers in their bedrooms, an 80s-era book on Japanese cat photography, or Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life. The books are gone almost immediately, but the content alone is enough…and there’s always eBay.
- Soothe skin while you sleep: Beat winter dryness and get glowy overnight with Onekind Dream Cream Nighttime Moisturizer—a potent blend of squalane, rosehip oil, chamomile, and lavender suitable for all skin types (even sensitive!). Try a full-size cream for FREE with code GNI; just pay S&H. *Sponsor
- The only way I fall asleep: Brown noise is white noise, only lower, deeper, and therefore infinitely more relaxing. If you’re up too late, it’s worth a shot.
- When you don’t know what to watch: Black Film Archive, a living register of Black films from 1898 to 1989, recently dropped their third-annual 28 Films for the 28 Days of Black History Month. It’s a treasure trove with plenty of options for different vibes, from a rich movie era that is often less considered.
- Actually cook from your cookbooks: Owning cookbooks but not actually cooking from them is a classic experience, so much so that there’s a resource dedicated to helping people through it: Eat Your Books. It’s basically a virtual database of your actual library, searchable by ingredient, dish, etc.
- When you have to unmute: Jennifer Coolidge is all of us.
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This week's Sponsor: 
Only the best for your BFF
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If you love to read, you know: There’s nothing quite like a good book recommendation. In Steal My Bookshelf, professional reader Cree Myles, who curates Penguin Random House’s @allwaysblack project, shares what is at the top of her stack right now. Cree is a voracious reader with wide-ranging (but always great) taste, and I’ve already added a few of these to my library queue. I hope you’ll enjoy.–Aliza
The Bluest Eye: This will always make my book recommendation lists. It is Toni Morrison’s first novel and it’s perfect. Concise and biting, not one word is wasted.
Sister Outsider: This is a book of essays by the brilliant Audre Lorde and it changed my life. Specifically, “The Transformation of Silence Into Language and Action.” I love it so much, I printed it and hung it in my house.
The Late Americans: Brandon Taylor is one of the literary voices of our generation. The Late Americans is his latest feat and it doesn’t disappoint. It is a campus novel but unlike his debut Real Life, it spans months and interweaves a multitude of relationships. He truly is a master of the quiet story.
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute: The latest romcom by Talia Hibbert. This one follows two highschoolers in a traditional friends to enemies to lovers trope. You know where it is heading the whole time, but I still couldn’t put it down!
An Autobiography of Skin: This is a novel by Lakiesha Carr, but it feels like three separate vignettes most of the time. The stories follow three women at low points in their lives; one is suffering from chronic gambling, one from severe postpartum and one from chronic loneliness. Carr does a beautiful job of unpacking their woes and humanizing them despite many of their self inflicted wounds. If you enjoy Sister Souljah, this one’s for you.
Call and Response: In this debut book of shorts, Gothataone Moeng takes us to her native land of Botswana, where she follows several different women through relational challenges, familial loyalty, friend estrangement and much more. Moeng is a beautiful writer and this collection is pristine. Can’t wait for the novel!
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Win a midwinter pick-me-up with four favorites from this month’s newsletters: soothing shea butter from Hanahana, a purifying face mask and plumping collagen powder from Golde, crunchy gluten-free cookies from Partake, and a fragrant Kelewele spice mix from Zoe's Ghana Kitchen.
Enter the giveaway here. Readers who refer at least 1 friend to the newsletter this week will receive an additional entry — just copy, paste, and share your unique referral link: https://sparklp.co/2bd325dd
Enter by EOD Wednesday, March 1. You must be 18 or older and a U.S. resident to enter. This giveaway is not associated with Hanahana, Golde, Partake, or Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen. We just love these brands and think you will too.
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This Week's Reads
- A Retro Hobby for the End Times (Vox). Peek inside the “delicious, divisive, and surprisingly political world of contemporary home canning.”
- Welcoming Cup of Jo’s Divorce Era (The Cut).
- The Magic of Nostalgia (Shondaland). A package celebrating shopping at Claire’s as an adult, sniffable memories, and more.
- Wait, Sorry, What Is “Glou-Glou” Again? (Punch). Unpacking the term “glou-glou”, which dates back to the 1600s but has become recently relevant as a term for highly drinkable wine, and some would say, the whole natural wine aesthetic.
- YouTube Made Emma Chamberlain a Star. Now She’s Leaving it Behind. (The New York Times Magazine)
- Spirited Away to Miyazaki Land (The New York Times Magazine). Journey into the ultra calm, ultra charming pleasures of the Studio Ghibli theme park in Nagakute, Japan.
- The Road to Becoming Enough (Longreads). “I began, if not to turn away from the mythical notion of a man to ‘complete’ me, to accept that there was no love out there for me. I chose mountains instead.”
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This newsletter may contain affiliate links, which means when you buy through the link, we might get a cut. We only recommend products we believe in or are thinking about a lot. Sponsored content is clearly marked as "Sponsor." Thank you so much for your support!
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