Happy Friday! For new subscribers, the weekly Friday post is a casual round-up of recommendations for your downtime and useful/fun things noted from the week. It’s a bit of brightness for your inbox. Enjoy. x

• ICYMI - If you’re a paid subscriber, you can now start a thread in our subscriber chat. It’s a helpful place to ask for and give recommendations. This week, I gave away some tickets to see The Idea of You screener in NYC. :)

Here are a few things I recommend + noted this week…

• Reading: So many fun new books are out now from the best romance authors. I have Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (sounds like a classic “let’s sort of pretend to date, then break up” plot—sign me up), Funny Story by Emily Henry (will Daphne fall in love with her “ex-fiancé's new fiancée's ex”?!), and This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune all on my to-read list. I’m a literary fiction lover through and through, but once summer rolls around, I can’t help but pick up this sort of lighter fare. What are you reading?

• Also reading: Come and Get It by Kiley Reid. Just in the nick of time, I finished reading our April book club pick. I zoomed through this book, and I’m gathering my thoughts for a longer post and discussion thread about it. Overall, I enjoyed and would recommend it.

• This week, I cooked: Braised ginger meatballs (for the fourth time now—it’s so good and easy), veggies and chimichurri steak on the grill, and huevos rancheros. I love a simple menu.

• Pajamas I recommend: I‘d like to think of myself as somewhat of a loungewear connoisseur. (I ran a brand called Girls’ Night In for many years, after all…). That is to say, I have tried a lot of brands. Here’s a mini round-up of the best quality ones I’ve tried if you’re in the mood to upgrade your sleepwear. Are there any I’m missing out on?

  • Eberjey:

    • Worth buying: I pretty much rotate this PJ set in two colors (navy and yellow) every night. It’s stretchy and slinky in a very pleasing way. I’ve washed my sets several times, and they’ve held up well (tumble dry low, always).

    • Worth skipping: Their modal slouchy sets. The material is way too thin and requires a bra. But perhaps they’ve changed the material within the past four years since I first bought these?

  • LAKE:

    • Worth buying: After wearing the brand LAKE's pajamas for years, I was thrilled to work with them recently on a partnership. Their robes aren’t too thick, come in the best colors, and have a tie that’s attached to the robe (🔑). I wore the wrap-style PJs a lot during pregnancy and postpartum, and their pima cotton kids’ pajamas fit snugly in that adorable sort of way.

    • Worth skipping: I haven’t tried much else from this brand. Any other reviews? Are you curious about anything else from them?

  • Petite Plume:

    • Worth buying: I love their longer nightshirt for sleeping (during warmer months, especially). I just got this sweet sailboat print romper for our little one.

    • Worth skipping: Their floral prints don’t work for me; I tend to stick with crisp, classic solids or stripes, which they do well.

• Watching: We’re going to see Challengers, the new tennis-centric drama starring Zendaya and Josh O’Connor (who played Charles in The Crown), in theaters this weekend. It looks intense, but I’m looking forward to experiencing some ~cinema~. 🎾🎾🎾 Have you seen it yet?
  

  

• Also, I can’t recommend watching this: The Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway, is now streaming on Amazon Prime!!! It has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. 🤯 I admit I was shocked when I saw that, and I’m even more excited to watch. Do we need to have a live chat about this?
  
  For the uninitiated, the movie is based on a romance book of the same title by Robinne Lee. It’s spicy and FUN, about a divorceé who falls in love with a much younger member of a boy band (allegedly inspired in part by Harry Styles). What’s not to love? I push it on all my friends when they need a fun read.

• Gifting: I know Mother’s Day can be a difficult day for many, and as someone who struggled with this holiday for many years, both due to my own complicated relationship and my IVF experience more recently, I see you. Please feel free to skip this next part. — —

  For my readers who are looking for gift ideas for the mother figures in your life, I rounded up some ideas here ranging from nice to very $$$ luxurious. Mostly, though—and I am saying this as a new mom—I think the best gifts aren’t material things. A breakfast in bed, a massage, a solo day sans kids. A follower on Instagram suggested gifting a personal styling session, and I love that idea, especially for any postpartum mom.
  
  What do you think? I’d like to hear your creative gifting Mother’s Day gifting ideas.

  Leave a comment

  (I’m also all for moms asking for exactly what they’d like. I’ve asked my husband to take our daughter and me out to a nice brunch. That’s really all I want—quality time with our family!)

Looking for more recommendations? There are 45 other fun issues to flip through in the archives. You can also give and receive recommendations in our subscriber chat!

Links:

• Melting lemon chicken. (from a beautiful recipe newsletter, btw!)

• Oooohing and ahhing at these beautiful and glowy shades that look like stained glass (via Leslie Stephens )

• On going to the movie theater, lol

• Just a wholesome video about Rick Steves, the travel guide, expert, and author (like how he uses his money to fund local arts programs and affordable housing. Elon, are you listening?)

• A green banana-scented soap has me v v v intrigued 🍌

• Do you know about EatYourBooks? It’s a tool that helps you use your cookbooks. It comes up every now and then in the comments, so I thought I’d share.

Reads:

Have you read anything good or interesting lately? I browse the NYT headlines and read newsletters, and that’s the majority of what I “read” on the internet these days…

Leave a comment

• Harry Styles, Anne Hathaway's Collarbones, and Me —Does Harry Styles know about the Idea of You book?! A funny investigative piece by Becca Freeman

• Shop Like a Collector, Not a Buyer [Gumshoe] — I love this post from Harling Ross Anton, which contains many nuggets of wisdom on personal style. “A retail buyer focuses on newness, but collectors are experts in what they already own and love.” It made me realize I’d like to become an expert in what I already own…

  “The relationship you have with your existing stuff — what you wear the most, how you wear it, and why you wear it — is your most valuable data for evaluating future shopping decisions.”

• I Watched a Guy Eat a Barrel of Cheeseballs [Between a Rock and a Card Place] — A short, delightful read by Caroline Cala Donofrio that tells a very “only in New York” story in a very touching way.

There’s lots of fun stuff coming up next: Our Come and Get It book club discussion thread, a Bookmarked column featuring author Sahaj Kohli, a cookbook and recipe feature from Kismet in LA, and sharing some favorite outfits and reads from the month of April. Plus, a surprise.

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely weekend! x Alisha

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