✨ This issue’s essay has been archived, but check out the recommendations below! 💫
some things I’ve loved
📚 I recently read Anna Karenina for the first time and loved it. I realized after the fact that I probably read the wrong translation (I read V&A which is apparently a big no-no) but still really enjoyed it. I will say, however, that it took me over a month to read and that I found the occasional paragraph overwrought and confusing.
🫒 I also read Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout, and it was so good I finished it in a day. I admit I hadn’t read it because the title gave me yuck vibes, but I loved it so, so much. It is set in Maine, and made me very nostalgic for times in my life I’ll never experience again. Maine is the best of all 50 states and no one can convince me otherwise.
🧁 I made this cake for Mother’s Day and was very pleased with how it turned out. It’s my go-to chocolate cake recipe but I was out of parchment paper and very worried about it sticking to the pan. Lots of butter and a very thorough flouring (with cocoa powder) did the trick!
💄 This bougie Nuxe lip balm is the only lip balm I’ve ever finished. I looove it.
🎧 I have been listening to Maggie Rogers on repeat for the past few weeks in anticipation of her upcoming album. She is a brilliant lyricist, and recently graduated from Harvard Divinity School, to boot. All of her songs are fantastic, but the iconic Alaska and Fallingwater are my current favorites.
💻 Phillip Picardi, a former Teen Vogue editor, is also a recent HDS alum, and he writes the delicious and thought provoking Religiously Blonde. I’ve loved his Substack since he wrote the now-defunct Fruity and very much relate to his thoughts and conflicts surrounding the Catholic Church.
Talk soon!
AP 💗