June linkies

Don’t ask me how I spend my money edition

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How much would you pay for cake? How about gâteau? This month, I pondered my limit and whether it might be wiser to put my money toward books for children.

Snacking

I am deep in a fancy chocolate algo which has me considering buying a black sesame gâteau Basque for a cool $60. Shipping is free, but could my daily sugar habit be clouding my ability to reason?

On that note, a life hack for you: daytime dessert. Why wait unnecessary hours for after dinner? I don’t just mean a polite little square of dark chocolate, either. Enjoy that slice of pie/mall cookie/ice cream now. Normalize midday decadence!

Not gâteau, but we try

Reading

Books

This month I enjoyed Amanda Hess’s Second Life and Liquid: A Love Story by Mariam Rahmani. Reading the former felt like diving into a r/newmom subreddit, where I could compare notes and commiserate on everything from birth plans to judgy strangers. I didn’t always want to relive these things, but I couldn’t put the book down. Probably because Hess is so astute in her critiques, including of herself. My favorite moment is when she, a mother of two, is revisited by an old essay she wrote on Slate entitled “The New Opt-Out Revolution: Not Having Kids.” The things you write on the internet will haunt you!

Rahmani’s book is a marriage plot of sorts with a wry protagonist who hatches a cynical plan to go on 100 dates and marry herself off to someone rich by summer’s end. The conceit started to feel a bit gimmicky midway, but then the plot took a turn (no spoilers) and even though I could see the end coming (maybe that’s Rahmani’s point?), it still felt fresh enough that I enjoyed reading through to the last page.

Essays

• My favorite of the month had to be this one by Torrey Peters on embracing being insulted.

• Who could resist Caity Weaver in Paris? One choice quote: “Our reunion is interrupted by the appearance of an openly hostile man whose scowl makes plain that he would prefer that we were dead or, even better, bleeding out in a gutter. He is the waiter.”

• From NYT Magazine: Forget reading a coming of age novel, try writing a novel as a way to come of age.

• Speaking of coming of age, Aminatou Sow shared some very good 40th birthday advice from a few heavy hitters.

Shopping

I will share about my checkered history with food, alcohol, and dating here, but tell you the details of my discretionary spending? That’s too personal. So instead, here are some general shopping tips:

• London bookshop Heywood Hill offers a book curation service that I’m lucky enough to have received as a gift. Each selection is personalized based on a survey you fill out and comes with a pretty bookmark. Now they’ve launched a kids summer reading subscription. Seems like a better use of money than an overpriced gâteau that will surely melt en route to your doorstep. Gift it to a child you happen to know. While you’re at it, make a donation to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library so a child you don’t happen to know can get some books, too.

My kids summer reading subscription has a woodland critter theme

• Martie is a grocery app where you can buy overstock of Whole Foods-tier snackies on discount. Some of my recent purchases include Sanzo, Fish Wife, and Kind. If you purchase with this link, you get $5 off. That’s right, I’m a grocery coupon influencer now.

Listening

Music

I’m at the age where a lot of my musical preferences could be categorized as “throwbacks,” so it was a pleasant surprise to discover something new this month. Too bad it is also technically a throwback. I’m referring to “The Lost Tapes” by Mad Anthony, a 1970s folk outfit that I will lazily compare to The Band because I lack the time or motivation to think of something more esoteric.

Now, for some actually new music:

• Frankie Cosmos has my heart with the track “Bitch Heart,” off their late June release of the same name. I’ve enjoyed the band for a while, but I love this song and its lyrics.

• Weyes Blood and Drugdealer have released another single together. As you might expect, it is vibes.

• Earlier this month, the Rihanna song from the new Smurfs movie soundtrack made my morning runs extra bouncy. It’s also how I learned the meaning of the term “riddim.” (This is why I’ll stick to grocery coupon influencing.)

Podcast

I think it’s fair to say I listen to the Critics at Large podcast in part for the parasocial aspect. I feel like I’m having a fun convo with three erudite but chill people. Two recent episodes hit in particular:

• The first on Jane Austen, for obvious reasons: I’m a former English Major and a forever fan of the “smart woman surrounded by idiots” romcom trope. If you are both/either of these things, you might also appreciate the episode and/or the fact that this year would mark Austen’s 250th birthday.

• The second about Jesse Armstrong’s recent movie Mountainhead. I suspect I’d enjoy Mountainhead but probably won’t get around to watching it (see: Watching below). Thanks to the podcast, I got a vicarious experience like I did watch the movie and also know what to think about it. Could I have derived the same benefit from an AI overview? Sure, but who wants to parasocialize with a boring AI?

Watching

Sadly, I could not get through the first episode of season four of my beloved Hacks. Something felt off? The tense interoffice scene with the tense music seemed kinda forced? I do aspire to finish season two of Nathan Fielder’s PoMo fantasia The Rehearsal (I’m through episode four and liking it), but my husband and I still struggle to watch a full episode of anything (read: we are novice parents), let alone finish a whole season.

That’s why this month I mostly just binged these 30 seconds of baby javelinas over and over again; it gives a real bang for your viewing buck. Finally, money well spent.