The Happiest Hour – 5/11/19

This whirlwind week began with frigid conferences rooms and ended with rosé with authors in a cozy East Side bar. Who can complain about that?

No one, which is why I will complain instead about these dismal days, when the pollen taking up residence in your airways is second only to the permafrost coating your apartment, because it is too warm for heat but not warm enough for air-conditioning.

Here’s what you missed this week:

 

Cheers,

E

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The Happiest Hour – 3/22/19

Tonight, we gather for our second Drinking Club meeting of 2019. Our gathering spot has the same name as a location in my Hallmark Channel guilty pleasure (conveniently not one of the twenty shows that starred Aunt Becky, thank God). Will one of us have a meet cute that will make you simultaneously cringe AND swoon? Only time will tell.

Here’s what you missed this week:

  • We can silently sob together while watching this Michelle Obama book club video.
  • While I love Nora, and would love to have her Rolodex, we would have had major problems if we were roommates.
  • Book Twitter shares the books listed in online dating profiles that should have you running for the hills, and also reminds us of the books from which springs eternal love.
  • Let us pray that the Gods bring Letters Live back to the States so we can all enjoy this heartfelt and hilarious event…and Benedict Cumberbatch.
  • I’d live in the Cupboard Under The Stairs, if it had one of these.

 

Cheers,

E

 

EVLeave a comment

The Club Sharpens Its Pencils

Today is the first day of school in NYC, meaning all those empty seats on the subway during this sweaty summer will now be filled by pre-pubescents who have yet to discover the magic of anti-perspirant. Instead of their stench, however, I will be remembering the sweet scent of fresh looseleaf in a binder so obnoxiously bright, I could have landed a plane with it. Back to school shopping was my favorite; I once asked my mother to go to Staples the week after school ended. Color-coding my notebooks and folders by class helped me start the school year on the right foot, along with consulting my friends on their schedules as soon as the envelopes hit our mailboxes. A part of me would be lying if I said the long weekend didn’t make me want to pop into the nearest stationary store for a new notepad, or investigate who would also be taking AP Lit.

Instead, I bring you the next best thing: back-to-school reading, which will definitely put you in the collegiate state of mind, if you weren’t there already. Lit Hub pulled together a comprehensive list of campus novels to transport you to ivy-covered halls, or wherever you wished you had gone to school. No recommendations of your own, you ask? Well, the greatest campus of all would be Hogwarts, so I would certainly suggest dusting off your copies and heading to Platform 9 3/4, especially as Harry and the gang are celebrating 20 years. But why would I need to provide any additional recs, when Lit Hub has proposed THIRTY titles to suit all your desires?

For example, want to read about campus cults? Sign up for The Secret History. Feeling like this is the year you’ll reach #relationshipgoals? Possession, My Education, and The Virgins cover a variety of directions your relationship could go in. I’m devouring the copy of Eligible I picked up during our book brunch, so I’m definitely looking to score a copy of Prep (and if you haven’t, read EW’s interview with the author about her debut novel, and how that cover came to be). Tana French has also been on my list for a while; I’ll be pushing her closer to the top of my TBR list with The Secret Place.

Have a favorite not included on this list? All you teacher’s pets can leave them in the comments section.

 

–E

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