Sunday Surprise: A Cozy Read in Winter

Plus, stories to snuggle up to this weekend.

Hi everyone! Thank you to all of our new readers (and to all of those who’ve been here awhile!) for joining this lovely book-loving community. I adore writing to all of you every week!

We’ve been having an amazing trip in the islands, even spying two octopus, sea turtles and numerous stingrays while snorkeling right off the beach. It poured rain this morning so we got a late start but then we made our way over to Hansen Bay where we kayaked. On the way home, we stopped at this amazing place called the Windmill Bar, which had the best views ever! See the photo! If you haven’t been to St. John in the USVI, I highly recommend it. It’s one of those special places where nature rules and you spend your entire vacation in lush mountains and sugary white sand beaches.

I finished The Sweet Spot by Amy Poeppel, and I adored the Greenwich Village-based tale of a complicated family finding their way through some tough times. Highly recommend. Now I’m halfway through Rebecca Makkai’s buzzy new book I Have Some Questions For You, and I have many (MANY!) thoughts I’ll share in an unconventional review in coming weeks. (I’m very excited to introduce all of you to this new format I’m working on! Stay tuned!)

Some other exciting book news is that I signed the contract on my next two novels!! My third book All the Summers In Between will officially release to the world in May 2024 (woot! woot!) and my fourth in May of 2025. I never thought I’d ever be a writer that got a single contract, let alone a two book deal, so I literally feel like I’m floating down here.

One fallout of having a mom as an author though: My 8-year-old was posing her Dork Diaries book on the beach today, like a true bookstagrammer. I laughed with my husband that I wasn’t sure if I should be proud of her (or slightly embarrassed) that she thinks that’s a critical part of being a writer. The truth is I love reading other people’s books so much that posing them is quite fun. So maybe it’s both!

Tomorrow one of my longtime bestest friends is flying in with her family, and we’re all piling into a house rental for a week together. I cannot wait! The kids can hang, swap books, snorkel together, while the adults do much of the same. Yay to childhood besties! These particular friends have never been here before, and I can’t wait to take them to our favorite beaches, restaurants and smoothie stands. (By the way, I mentioned that St. John doesn’t have a great bookshop but then I revisited and my daughter was thrilled to find several Dork Diaries and they stocked just about every Elin Hilderbrand novel ever written so…don’t give up on Papaya Cafe just yet!)

Have an amazing weekend! Oh! And here are some other fun tidbits and things I’ve been enjoying this week.

-Reading about Celeste Ng’s book picks

-Amy O’Dell’s issue about why we watch when Kim Kardashian washes her face

-Speaking of face wash, this amazing one by EltaMD is probably the most expensive face wash I’ve EVER owned and yet I love it because it’s saving me this winter from drying out

-adored this telling interview with Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow) from the In Case You Missed It newsletter

-George Saunders’s edited letter to young writers about why failed books give you the freedom to discover what you really want to say.

-grateful to Gayla and her SoNovelicious newsletter for including me in a roundup of her new favorite bookish Substack reads

-Another super random tidbit. Have you seen Bend it Like Beckham recently? We watched it with my kids and it really holds up!!!

-Lastly, tell me about the coziest place to read in your house? For me, it’s on lazy weekend afternoons when the sun streams through my living room windows and bakes me on my couch. You? xo Happy weekend, all!