This is the Friday post, a weekly roundup of recommendations and delightful distractions. If the email cuts off, you can view it on the web here.

Happy Friday! Happy spring! Today’s issue is free for all and a grab bag of this and that.

But first, a few housekeeping things…

📚 Announcing our April book club pick! We’ll be reading Come and Get It by Kiley Reid. Thanks to everyone who voted in last week’s poll. I loved Reid’s first novel, and I’m really looking forward to this one. There will be a separate email sent with details on how to sign up to host or attend a book club in your city (or on Zoom). It made me so happy to hear from everyone who attended a meetup last month! As a reminder, book clubs are open to paid subscribers to keep the gatherings safe and a manageable size.

🫧 A code for cozy home things. Anthropologie’s team sent me a gift card, so I refreshed a few bath things for our daughter’s bathroom, like the bath mat shown below. I also picked up this plush bath mat. You can use the code ALISHA20 to get 20% off bedding, bath, and pillows at Anthro through 3/26.

Before and after, featuring their adorable rug.

📧 ICYMI: a new column. Thanks for all the enthusiasm and emails you’ve already sent my way about the new style column, Downtime Edit. Please keep your requests coming. I’m workshopping a few other columns for paid subscribers—more soon…

Introducing: Downtime Edit, a style and shopping column Alisha Ramos · Mar 20 Read full story

🧵 Got a rec? What are you reading/watching/loving right now? Check out our subscriber chat thread here to share yours and see what others are up to.

A few things I’ve noted this week…

• Irish Wish on Netflix. “When the love of her life gets engaged to her friend, Maddie puts her feelings aside to be a bridesmaid at their wedding in Ireland. Days before the wedding, Maddie makes a spontaneous wish for true love, only to wake up as the bride-to-be.” I have yet to see a Lindsay Lohan romcom that has failed to entertain me. On most nights, I’m not looking for a critically acclaimed show, I’m looking for pleasant vibes I can half pay attention to whilst I scroll on my phone. Irish Wish seems like it will scratch that itch. People are joking that ChatGPT wrote the script (Irish boyfriends are trending, after all). All jokes aside, I believe the almighty algorithms at Netflix to absolutely be the co-producers of this movie—but Lindsay’s in on the joke and laughing all the way to the bank. I can get behind that. Will you watch it?

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• What I made this week: I cooked two great recipes from the cookbook Hot Sheet, which was featured two weeks ago—the oven fish tacos and the mango coconut broccoli shrimp. Both were delicious, but the fish tacos were a standout for being so simple but flavorful and will be on rotation for us.

• ANOTHER romantasy book: I‘ve seen the book Bride by Ali Hazelwood pop up everywhere. It’s a…paranormal fantasy romance? Featuring a werewolf and vampire? I think??? When I heard it mentioned on the latest A Thing or Two podcast, I knew I had to finally give in—I’ve placed it on my to-read list. (And I deeply regret googling “Omegaverse.”) Have you read this yet?

• A Tiny Desk concert worth watching: Justin Timberlake and his band brought me some much-needed joy this week. (I can’t say the same for his new album, I’m sorry to say!) Fast forward to the finale, SexyBack, for the best part.

• A soothing food podcast: Co-hosted by Ruth Reichl, Nancy Silverton, and Laurie Ochoa (aka 3 legends), Three Ingredients is an unscripted podcast that feels like eavesdropping on a convo with three very wise women who know quite a lot about food, cooking, and life. I can’t help but chuckle when they discuss the merits of Sorrento vs. Meyer lemons and when they reminisce about that one time Nancy tried panna cotta for the first time ever in Italy, then brought it to her revered restaurant, Campanile, in the 90’s. Nancy notes that Google did not exist in the same way then, so she had to rifle through various cookbooks to suss out how the dish was set without eggs (the answer was gelatin). These discussions and anecdotes have no direct impact on my life, and yet, I am listening with GREAT eagerness and a hint of nostalgia for a time in food culture I never lived through. If you know of similar pods (or books/audiobooks?) in the same foodie/soothing/nostalgic vein, please do share. And yes, I’ve read Reichl’s Save Me the Plums!

• Lastly, I loved this cute book about dumplings for little ones. 🥟 I got it from the library.

Tell me! What ice cream do you get at the store?

The other day, I was picking up a few groceries when I decided to mosey down to the ice cream aisle. You know, just to see what they had. Lo and behold, they had my favorite ice cream in stock: Vanilla Bean by Haagen-Dazs. This flavor is weirdly hard to find, so naturally, I grabbed a pint. I deeply regret not buying two after my husband and I scarfed it down while watching the final ep of Masters of the Air. 🥲

I’m truly curious - what brand and flavor of ice cream do you usually pick up from the store? People have pretty fierce loyalties in this category! I also bought Coffee Hold the Cones from Trader Joe’s this week, which is now a close second favorite. What do you get?

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holy grail

Reads

• Thanks to my friends at Platonic Love for interviewing me as part of their friendship series. In the interview, I share how friendships have changed since becoming a mom and tell a story about a time when I tried to make a friend and failed. The whole series is thoughtfully done - check it out.

• From 'Lolita' To Dakota Johnson's Book Club: A Brief Look At Beauty's Relationship To Literature [The Unpublishable] — “What is the celebrity book club if not the celebrity skincare brand’s successor?”

• How to stop catastrophizing, according to therapists [Vox]

• How Quinta Brunson Hacked the Sitcom with “Abbott Elementary” [The New Yorker]

• "Sharenting": The Real Cost of Being a Parent Influencer's Kid [Cosmopolitan, as part of their Sharenting package]

Fun Links

• A pillow for side sleepers! (thanks to reader Ash W. for the rec)

• The Kindle Paperwhite is on sale now, in case you’re interested. It goes on sale just a few times a year.

• Carrot cake with ginger mascarpone frosting

• A brief guide to what happened to Kate Middleton - too good. [satire by Bess Kalb ]

• A retired couple does fit checks

• A perfect haiku about spring

• Gorgeous tableware and settings for spring

• Confusing spring fashion, summarized:

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Wishing you a cozy weekend. x Alisha