The Happiest Hour – 5/31/20

During a weekly dance party (aptly named Dance Your Rona Off), we concluded that winter was two days ago. How is tomorrow June and I haven’t gotten a sunburn drinking frose outside?

Here’s what you missed this week:

  • This is by far the most important and urgent recommendation we will ever share here. This anti-racism resource contains the content we must engage with in order to do the necessary work white people must to create an antiracist world (myself included). It can’t wait a moment longer.
  • Summer reading roundups are here, and I feel compelled to pretend I’m back at this delightful Catskills diner. (NYT)
  • Is it okay to turn every door into a bookshelf? (On The Bookshelf)
  • Speaking of bookshelves: here are the celebrity bookshelves we’re judging (Town & Country)

Cheers,

EV

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The Happiest Hour – 4/11/20

It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again: frozen margaritas make everything better.

Here’s what you missed this week:

  • Are all you cool cats and kittens feeling aimless after bingeing Tiger King? These reads are better than the meat that falls off the Walmart truck. (NYT)
  • You could use some of this free time people keep saying we have (if you see mine, please send it back home) to catch up on the classics. Or you could check out these drawings and get back to your puzzles. (LitHub)
  • What does The Drinking Club love more than a good happy hour? Judging people, especially about their books. (The Guardian)
  • The minute this is over, we’re treating ourselves to one of these. (BookRiot)

 

Cheers,

EV

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The Happiest Hour – 4/4/20

Grub Street said it best: “[Ina Garten] has read the room, and what the room needs, she has decided, is a giant, neon-pink pitcher of Cosmopolitans, for one, preferably gulped down well before noon.”

Here’s what you missed this week:

 

Cheers,

EV

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The Happiest Hour – 3/20/20

Well.

When I wrote last week’s post, I didn’t think we would be here a week later. The world is in freefall, waiting to slam into rock bottom. And each day, that bottom seems farther away. Many of us (myself included) are boomeranging between existential dread and some distant relative of cautious optimism. An optimist at heart, I believe we will come out of this, though I know it won’t be without some bruises and concerns about what our future will look like. So for now, I’m taking it one day at a time. And I’m wishing you and yours health and sanity during this challenging time (the understatement of the month. I can’t even justify saying the year because IT’S ONLY MARCH).

Here’s what you missed while refreshing your news app this week:

  • Comfort reads from the literary cool kids. (NY Times)
  • How independent bookstores are adapting to the age of COVID-19. (Vulture)
  • While many stores and shuttering, and publishers are cancelling book tours, we can still support our local indies and authors! Check out this list of authors who would have been touring now and support if you can. (Bookshop)
  • Drinking Club favorite Sloane Crosley advocates for a little distance before we submit Love in the Time of COVID. (NY Times)
  • Sports are on hold. The Bachelorette is postponed. Might we suggest #LiteraryMarchMadness to fill your Fantasy League needs? (NYPL)

 

Cheers,

EV

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The Happiest Hour – 11/1/19

We’re comin’ atcha this week from Bavaria, where we are sinking slowly into a carb coma due to overconsumption of pretzels and beer. We’re very okay with this.

Here’s what you missed this week:

 

Cheers,

EV

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The Happiest Hour – 6/2/19

Blessed be the boss that releases you early from the hallowed halls of the Crystal Palace, after a week of attempting to stem the frustration of book nerds who missed the galley drop by minutes.

And now, my watch has ended.

Here’s what you missed this week (or really, what I missed this week. Cell service in the Javits is abysmal):

 

Cheers,

EV

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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 – 4/13/19

Spring has sprung, dear readers. NYC is welcoming the warmer weather with some alarming flash rainstorms, which I discovered as I floated across Flatbush Avenue on my way home last night. Give us sun and outdoor patios for day drinking and reading.

Here’s what you missed this week:

  • National Library Week has just finished, and CNN shared a few tidbits about librarians, including (and I quote): “At the end of the 19th century, library work was considered to be too overwhelming for women, and in 1900, the Brooklyn Public Library Association proposed building ‘a seaside rest home for those who had broken down in library service.'” That Dewey Decimal system get ’em every time.
  • The New York Times put together an interactive sneak peek of books being published around the world this year. Come for the expansion of your literary horizons, stay for the flying hardcovers.
  • We fully support Emily Gould borrowing our Time Turner to go back a give dear Sylvie the review she deserved.
  • The biggest literary question of the year will be answered on Monday (and no, the question is not who’s the first person to die in GoT’s final season).

 

Cheers,

E

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The Happiest Hour – 11/23/18

This week, we’re coming to you from our childhood bedroom, the only place safe from: former classmates who have taken up residence in the local pub; mothers with too much caffeine finishing their holiday shopping at Target; and family members with well-meaning but ill-advised questions about our lives. Also, it’s the perfect spot to sleep off our hangover turkey coma. Let’s jump right in:

  • We’ll get the serious business out of the way: The New York Times released their 100 Notable Books of 2018. Go for the literary street cred; stay for the strange book angel.
  • A man in Fairbanks, Alaska got drunk, and then broke into his local library to read. Yep, sounds about right.
  • And while we’re on the topic: here are weird hangover cures from Ancient Greece to today. Can we bring back wine therapy?
  • Tis the season for miracles: An English bookstore sold their copy of a William the Conqueror biography for children 27 YEARS after it arrived in the store. We wish it and its new owner every happiness.

 

Cheers,

E

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The Happiest Hour – 11/16/18

The Club is drinking with Ryan Merriman (of Luck of The Irish DCOM fame) tonight. Jealous? We thought you might be. So here’s something that’s (almost) as good: a week’s worth of weird reads. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy.

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