Jen’s Weekend Drafts: Creepy Reads, More Good Bagels, and More.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links below, I may receive compensation.

Image via Metier. I’m obsessed with all of their bags!

+WEIRD THINGS WE READ: This week, I wrote a paripatetic Instastory about a Robert Frost poem called “The Death of the Hired Man,” in which I shared: “It reads more like a short story than a poem, with dialogue and characters and an unfolding plot. Some of its imagery has impressed itself so powerfully on me that I call on regularly, as if it’s a core culture referent — especially the moon hitting the clouds, and filling Mary’s apron. It’s such an incredible piece of fiction. Evocative, ambiguous, shows and does not tell. A true defiant of genre.” After, I asked my Instagram Magpies: “What’s something weird that you’ve read that’s stuck with you?” A sampling of the answers, if you’re in a witchy mood (I added a few of my own — these would make for moody fall reading):

“The Cask of Amontillado” (Edgar Allen Poe)

“The Gift of the Magi” (O. Henry)

“The Lottery” (Shirley Jackson)*

“Hills Like White Elephants” (Hemingway)

“She Was So Outgoing She Was Incoming” (Rachel Aviv)

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (Flannery O’Connor)

Anything Ray Bradbury

“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl**

“Where Are You Going Where Have You Been” (Joyce Carol Oates)

“To Build a Fire”(Jack London)

“For Esme with Love and Squalor” (Salinger)

*I read this my second or third year of high school and it still haunts me, and many of you, evidently, too. Should I compile a little booklet of these books and we can discuss?

**More nightmare fuel from high school. This one does not mess around. Still remember passages of it with startling clarity.

N.B. I’m 60% through God of the Woods at the time of writing this post and it’s satisfying a major “creepy reads” itch. It reminds me not in tone or style but more in ethos, atmosphere, of The Girls, by Emma Cline, which I found haunting. Both are very well written. Moore in particular is a talented line writer — I’ve highlighted dozens of casual bits of prose. Beautiful…and creepy.

+LOSS ISN’T A ONE TIME EVENT: This snippet from an interview with Hanif Abdurraqib moved me deeply. In it, he makes the point that when we lose someone, it’s not a one-time thing — we lose them over and over again, each time we remember them. He goes on to explain that we can express and find repeated gratitude in this process — an opportunity to celebrate the people we love. Profound! An extension of the concept that grief is a permutation of love.

+GOOD BAGELS: OMG! I was tickled by all the bagel comments last weekend and solicited “best bagel recs” from fellow Magpies via Instagram. (Please add your own two cents below!) Sharing the shortlist below — these are only the spots that got multiple upvotes. A lot of one-offs, too! I added all of these to my Google Maps with a “Want to Go” flag and the following note: “Magpie rec.” So you know it’s legit. (You could also Pin or Screenshot!). Now how might I make Montreal a reasonable business trip destination in the next few months…?

+EYEING + BUYING: I have fall on the brain. I can’t stop thinking about this Jenni Kayne cardigan, which I’ve convinced myself I need. It looks like the perfect heavier weight sweater that can double as a top layer on cool days and mid layer on cold days.

JENNI KAYNE CARDIGAN // ONE OF MY FAVORITE FALL CANDLES (10% OFF WITH MAGPIE10; ABOUT HALF THE PRICE OF, BUT SIMILAR TO, DIPTYQUE’S FEU DE BOIS, MY OTHER FAVORITE); DORSEY LUCIEN EARRINGS (RESTOCKED FINALLY!) // OBSESSED WITH THESE LIP OILS RECENTLY — GLOSSY BUT NOT STICKY // VERONICA BEARD DASH BAG // MY NEW FAVORITE TRENDY JEANS // EPRES HAIR REPAIR KIT (JUST STARTED USING AND LOVE — 20% OFF WITH JENSHOOP)

+ARE MOVIES FUN AGAIN? I dragged Lan to see “Twisters” (he kept arching his eyebrow on the Glen Powell matter) and we both loved it. Fast-paced, funny, big, diverting! Highly recommend as a date night if you’ve not yet seen it (followed by dinner somewhere with good food where you can hear one another talk!). There’s a big scene where a tornado hits a movie theater, and it’s a great meta moment. Also, Glen Powell. It feels like there’s been a sudden surge in big popcorn movies that both of us want to see. (Are we finally waving goodbye to the superhero megaplex franchises?! TG. Not that Landon was big into these, but just generally – enough.)

A few of our favorites below (Mom and Dad, none of these are for you):

“Twisters”

Dune I and II

“The Fall Guy”

“Hit Man”

What I like about all of them — big stars, fun (or flat out good, excellent) script-writing, romance, action, self-awareness.

In this category, can’t wait to see “Fly Me to the Moon,” which I hope will prove similar. Do we all love Channing Tatum, or do we all love Channing Tatum? (You may correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like the Sandy Bullock-Channing Tatum movie “The Lost City” was the first movie I’d seen in years that fell into this not-too-serious-and-perfect-for-a-Friday-night-action-romance category. A harbinger of things to come! I want to revisit it at some point for its explicit treatment of the romance genre — c.f., my comments on Katie below!)

+ARE YOUR CHILDREN BACK AT SCHOOL? I still feel as though I’m in the early and green days of motherhood, but I will say that I went into this back-to-school season primed and prepped in ways I’ve never been before. My husband and I proactively talked about how this month might present regressions, bad moods, wet beds, emotions that come out sideways. And we were right. You should have been a fly on the wall the afternoon they got back from their first (half!) day of school. Attitudes, slammed doors, tears! Transitions are hard for kids! Because I anticipated this, I was able to meet them with more compassion, or at least the remove that enabled me to rise above the moment and call a spade a spade. Sending love if you’re also in the trenches. And also a reminder that you are where you. need to be this school (ahem, illness) season.

+BEACH READS & BUBBLY LIVE BOOK CLUB: I am such a fangirl of Katie’s, and she is running her first live-cast book club event this Wednesday to discuss Elin Hilderbrand’s The Perfect Couple, which was just released as a Netflix series. You can buy tickets here — please join me?? I read the book awhile back but can’t wait to tune in to hear Katie’s thoughts, and here’s why: what Katie is doing for the beach read and specifically romance genres is important. I think we often dismiss female joy. It’s frou-frou, it’s trivial, it’s nothing. But there are reasons for the popularity of the genre, and romance publishing is a serious business. I recently heard (from the A Thing or Two podcast) that of the around 30 million romance readers in America, something like 65% read more than a book a week. I probably should have fact-checked that, but I’m recalling from memory and can’t find the podcast where they shared the stat. But, even directionally, the point is that romance readers are voracious readers.

+THIS WEEK’S BESTSELLERS: You all are loving this asymmetrical top. Date night, here we come! (Wear to watch “Twisters” and go for a martini after!). For this and all other Tuckernuck links below, use code YOUROCK for 20% off.

01. DATE NIGHT TOP // 02. PERFECT WEDDING GUEST DRESS // 03. FEATHERWEIGHT CASHMERE POLO // 04. WOVEN FLATS // 05. SHARP BLAZER (UNDER $200!) // 06. BARREL JEANS // 07. STRIPED DRESS // 08. CHICEST KITTEN HEEL BOOTS. // 09. EARLY MORNINGS TEE (PERFECT HYBRID OF A TEE AND A SWEATSHIRT) // 10. MY SECRET TO A SLEEK, SMOOTH BLOWOUT // 11. MICROWAVE POPCORN UPGRADE // 12. VERONICA BEARD FREYA COAT