The 📖📺🎧🔪🛍️ List
A review of "The Women," what I'm reading now, perfect white crew socks, and more!
Lots to cover this week, so no cutesy intro. We’re diving right in with the precision and grace of Olympic divers, except our splash is gonna be substantial because I can’t seem to master the art of subtly.
READING 📖
About a week and a half ago, I finished the highly popular novel, The Women by Kristin Hannah. Spoilers are ahead! I’ll notate when it’s safe if you need to scroll down.
This was my first Kristin Hannah. I know people go ga-ga for The Nightingale, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. However, I kept seeing The Women everywhere so I decided to do something I normally avoid when I can — go with the trend.
I really liked this book; not loved, but really liked. I was much more into the first half when she’s in “the shit” in Vietnam. I’ve never read a Vietnam book before, so it was exciting and horrifying to see the war through Frankie’s eyes. I enjoyed watching her evolve, but her subsequent breakdown was really hard to stomach, which I think was the point, no? Reading her parent’s and the world’s reaction to her as a woman in ‘Nam was beyond frustrating — I wanted to scream out loud every time she was ignored, doubted, and not taken seriously in any capacity.
About 75% of the way in, I realized that we were going to be dealing with a Castaway-esque sort of conclusion and it ruined the book for me, but only temporarily. When I realized that Rye was definitely not dead but just MIA and that he was going to show back up right as Frankie was moving forward with her life (no matter how begrudgingly), I got really annoyed at the author for making it so obvious.
But the affair and subsequent implosion of itself and of Frankie was not what I saw coming, so I was back in once I realized that Rye being alive served more as the final straw in Frankie’s imminent mental breakdown than as her happy ending.
The relief I felt when she finally sought help, the compassion and love I felt when it was Henry who helped her the most out of the goodness of his heart and love for her, and the joy I felt when her parents showed up to the wall dedication brought the book full circle for me. I finished it while flying back from Tulsa a few weekends ago and was sobbing on the plane as soon as her parents showed up in D.C. It was so beautiful and, although I still harbor resentment toward her dad for taking so long to say what needed to be said, I was satisfied.
Truth be told, I had completely forgotten about Jamie, so that was a lovely surprise, and I genuinely hope they lived happily ever after.
I’m working on an EMMASTHING rating system for books, but for now let’s say that if 1 star is absolute trite garbage and 5 stars is one-of-a-kind, life-changing, I’d give The Women 4 stars!
OKAY, SPOILERS OVER! YOU CAN COME BACK NOW.
Upon finishing The Women, I immediately started my next book, Writers & Lovers by Lily King. This came highly recommended from Ellen whose book taste I revere deeply, and I am absolutely enthralled with this book so far. The writing is absolutely incredible, and I’m basically devouring this. When I saw it was on
’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list, I felt extremely validated in loving it so much. I’ll have a full review next time!WATCHING 📺
This list of TV and movies is uncharacteristically long this week, so I’m going to go through it quickly:
Dark Matter — My best friend implored Zac and I to watch this series, so we started it and really liked the first episode. The only problem is we’ve yet to keep watching? I don’t really have a reason why besides travel and the Olympics, so I’m sure we’ll continue eventually.
Top Chef: Season 19 — We started to watch Charleston, immediately recognized that Brooke wins that one, and decided to just fast forward and catch up on the last few years instead.
Fun with Dick and Jane — I have no idea why Zac got it in his craw that we should watch this 2005 movie, but we started to, realized quickly that it’s neither funny nor good, and promptly turned it off. It was a weird night.
Florence Pugh on Hot Ones — I love Hot Ones. It’s such a comfort watch when you can’t think of anything else to put on and just want to see some celebrities react to spicy chicken. “Miss Flow’s” is exceptionally entertaining and reiterated what I already knew — we’d get along well IRL. She’s dropping “f” bombs and sweating from her upper lip the entire time.
Those About to Die — The new Roman empire show on Peacock. HORRIBLE. We literally watched the first five minutes and immediately turned it off. The cinematography was odd and reminded me of soap operas, and the script and narration were an immediate “no.”
VEEP — I started to get into VEEP years ago but never quite kept up and couldn’t remember where I left off. Seeing as though it’s extremely timely, Zac and I decided to start from the beginning and JFC… it really is so brilliant. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and after every episode, we look at each other and say “This is such a good show.”
Unfrosted — I watched this in bed while sick in Florida over the weekend (🙃) because it was an easy thing to do. It was cute! I didn’t scoff at it as much as I thought I would — I mean, the cameos alone make it super entertaining and, while the plot basically makes no sense, it made me giggle and was nothing but a feel-good-when-you’re-feeling-bad kind of movie. Plus, it made me want a Poptart real bad.
My Next Guest… Miley Cyrus — I love Miley. Not sure if you guys knew that, but I do. I would venture to say her voice, Amy Winehouse’s, and Adele’s are my favorites of the 21st century. Miley is fucking wild and her past antics were a lot, but her musical talent is always mind-blowing to me. Zac and I watched her interview with David Letterman and watched her perform at Chateau Marmont, and it was a super entertaining and interesting bit of TV.
SHOPPING 🛍️
Every time I travel, I have to scramble to find something small enough to store my hair accessories in but not anymore! I ordered this $12 3-pack from Amazon and OMGame changer! I knew exactly where my bobby pins, small hair ties, and tiny hair claws were in Florida at all times and didn’t leave one behind. That’s a new record for me. I can’t recommend these organizers enough!
We ran out of bottle cleaning tablets last week, so a re-order was… in order. I haven’t relied on just soap and water for years now — these tablets leave no trace of dirt, mildew, or otherwise and clean stainless steel, plastic, glass, WHATEVER! Can’t recommend enough.
My bestie in Tulsa had all her Greek yogurts neatly stacked in a bin in the fridge, and it made my heart pitter-patter so I got some and immediately felt better about my life.
I realized I only own one pair of plain white perfect crew socks and desperately need more, so I got this 5-pack from Amazon and they are… plain white perfect crew socks!
Did we already talk about this non-maternity unitard from Target? I think we did, but I’m wearing it today for the first time and was reminded why I bought it and feel the need to share with you guys again. It’s just really damn cute!!!
❤️ If you liked or loved this letter, hit that little heart at the bottom to show some love. A little love goes a looooong way around here ❤️
That’s all for this week! I’ll be rotting in the Texas sun if you need me.
Until then…
EGM
Loved the women! 4 stars are perfect! Not life changing but very worth the investment of time. I recommend Kristen Hannah’s other books The Four Winds and the Great Alone along with The Nightingale. All 4 star books. 4 Winds starts in West Texas. Looking forward to your comments on Writers and Lovers. It has been a while since I have read it! But remember it as being a good read!