In the last two weeks Jacob was out of town for 10 days, my parents were here for five, Ada had Scarlet Fever (PSA: it still exists and requires antibiotics), half the fam had lice, Julian had a croup-y cough, and I ran the NYC Half Marathon. It was challenging and invigorating, but tbh it was less challenging than everything else during those previous two weeks. During miles 6-9 while I was running up the FDR, I thought the middle toes on my right foot were going to seize up and fall off. Fortunately, miles 10-12 were very fun, the crowds delivered, Times Square provided welcome distraction for the first time ever, and at the end I got to see friends + Ada which was very sweet indeed.
I was going to write about how Pokémon cards bring out the worst in everyone in the family and also how time autonomy is the new parenting flex (but will prob get to those in the weeks to come). Instead, here are the last two weeks of assorted recs for you instead.
Also…because guns are the #1 leading cause of death for kids and teens in this gd country and our government is inept at dealing with it, I’ll match the first $200 in donations to Everytown this week. It’s enraging and terrifying and you can make a donation here and then send me a screenshot or receipt of donation to youngna (at) gmail (dot) com. TY in advance.)
Recommendations:
Food Things aka Snacks + Cookies edition:
Those Ines Rosales Olive Oil Tortas are like the perfect cracker-cooking mid-afternoon sweet pick-me-up. Always saw them, never tried them, now obsessed.
The pine nut cookie at Win Son Bakery. Underrated! So good! Nutty, chewy, savory, sweet, salty.
The giant soft sourdough pretzels at Winner that are available every afternoon. Julian was willing to wait in a 30 minute line for these which says a lot!
Jesse Szewczyk’s Cookies: The New Classics cookbook which has really good cookie recipes that are also not overly complex. Organized by fruity, chocolate-y, nutty, boozy, etc. Borrowed it from the library which is also my new pro-tip about cookbooks: try ‘em out before you buy ‘em!
To watch:
“Le Pupille” (links to video trailer) is a very sweet and cheeky short film (nominated for an Oscar) about a group of girls at an Italian boarding school who decide to rebel. Directed by Alice Rohrwacher and available on Disney+.
Been on a French films kick lately and also watched “Anais in Love,” “Things to Come” by Mia Hansen Love, and “Petit Solange” by Axelle Ropert and tl;dr the French are all philosopher philanderers and going through middle age divorce??
If you’re a tennis person, then the Netflix series Break Point is both totally mediocre and very fun, though the top male tennis players all having model girlfriends they met online dating in the first few episodes is a bit much. After this I actually subscribed to Tennis TV and I don’t regret it because watching actual high quality tennis is even more fun (for me).
Succession Season 4, obviously!
To listen:
Jo Piazza’s new podcast, She Wants More, about women who have affairs. She goes into the various whys and what the women get from them, why they pursue them, and the actual logistics of it. Totally fascinating.
The Mary Lattimore’s song Pine Trees is a great and very calming and extremely beautiful and probably my most listened-to of the year.
Min Jin Lee talking to Sam Fragoso on Talk Easy (which was the perfectly absorbing thing to listen to while running the half-marathon.)
The Ada Limon interview with Krista Tippett who is back with a new season of On Being is soothing to the soul.
Mira Jacob (of the great graphic novel memoir, Good Talk) is guest-hosting the Thresholds podcast this spring and talks to Sarah Thankam Matthews who write All This Could be Different, which I read and really enjoyed recently.
To read:
Mieko Kawakami’s Breast + Eggs which I’d heard a lot about and was glad to finally read. It’s about relationships between sisters and mothers and daughters and aunts and nieces and women friends, interrogating intimacy and closeness and the desire to mother and create in many different ways.
Beyond Birds and Bees, a great book on talking about gender, sexuality, puberty, bodies, and more recommended by my friend Tiya. The author lived and raised her kids between Amsterdam and the US and made a lot of observations about how American parents could approach these convos and topics with fresh perspective. My kids will soon enough be tweens and I’d like to feel more equipped.
Big Swiss, the much-discussed, set-in-Hudson pulpy fiction by Jen Beagin about a sex therapist’s transcriptionist named Greta who becomes obsessed with one of the therapist’s patients (nicknamed Big Swiss). Extremely fun.
I’m reading The Wild Robot by Peter Brown aloud to the kids and it’s really the first chapter book that feels both genre and level appropriate for both kids at the same time.
Ada’s been loving Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series, and is also obsessed with the “I Survived” graphic novels (that explain various natural and manmade disasters…lol). They do explain a lot of significant historical events (like Katrina, 9/11, Titanic, etc in a kid-friendly way).
“Are Helicopter Parents Actually Lazy?” about how cultivating independence + autonomy is actually what takes more work by Kathryn Jezer-Morton who writes my fave parenting newsletter/column, Brooding, for The Cut.
Things:
Ankle socks: I have strong opinions about socks and Balega has the best ankle socks for running.
Kids’ Water Bottles: I put together a piece on the best water bottles for kids for The Strategist!
A great giant tote: We made a highway detour a month ago to go to LL Bean IRL just so I could pick up one of the Everyday Lightweight Tote bags and it’s a very light, oversized, water resistant, inexpensive, zip-top large tote and really does the job.
Recycling Bin: We’ve been piling random boxes and paper recycling next two our trash for two years and I finally got this expensive-but-worth-it Uashmama Hamper that is exactly the perfect recepticle for paper recycling. You can also get multiple and they snap together.
Bodega tulips. Go get ‘em. Incredible mood booster!
See you next week!
Breasts + Eggs has been on my TBR list for the longest time, this is motivation to (electronically) crack it open.
congrats on running the half!!