Friday Lunch Special | A Mini Podcast, A Book Review, Fish Bones, and More

It's a little bit of everything!

Welcome to another edition of Friday Lunch Special. Once upon a time I was a girl who wrote long, winding, heartfelt captions on Instagram. Now I’m a girl who has Instagram blocked on my phone for most of the day, and I use it primarily for IRL connection and sharing this newsletter. Here are some tidbits from the week’s writing, along with some recommendations and links that I want to share with you. As the byline suggests, it’s a little bit of everything. I hope you enjoy!

A Micro Podcast

Red, White and Royal Blue

I read Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston on what would have been a solo weekend getaway except 6 hours in I started missing my husband and invited him to join me. When I sent the initial “I wish you were here with me” text, I had not yet cracked the spine on R,W&RB yet. It was just one book in a stack of 7 books that I brought with me. How does one know what she’s going to want to read before she’s left for the vacation? I started another book first, but it was a bit heavy for before bed. 

So on a whim I picked up the easiest going cover in my stack, a bright pink one, and I climbed into bed next to my husband who wasn’t supposed to be on this trip with me but was and I began reading.

I don’t think anything could have prepared me for how tender, thoughtful and delightful R,W&RB was. I find often I underestimate books that have a lot of hype, not because I don’t think they’ll be good, but because often what appeals to the masses is a three or four star read for me. Don’t get me wrong, I am just like other girls, I enjoy a smutty romance of any kind, but the books that stick with me are generally not those. 

I will be thinking about R,W,&RB for a long, long time. 

What Casey McQuiston has managed to accomplish in the 420 pages of this delightful political romance novel is massive. They drop you into a world you know well, and tell you a tale that could feasibly happen— the First Son of the United States is a socialite, and he accidentally finds himself in bed with a handsome British royal who is in line for the throne. 

The result is a tender, heartfelt masterpiece on identity and sexuality, family and progress. The end had me crying, as did the acknowledgement after.

I was texting with a friend about books and she asked me what my favorite thing I’ve read this year has been. 

I gave her my standard reply:
“Station Eleven, James, I Who Have Never Known Men, Demon Copperhead.”
And then I added:
“And honestly Red, White and Royal Blue may have to make that list.”

It’s that good. 

Fish Bones

Stretched out in the sun on a rock, you can’t convince me that Dale Hollow, in the middle of nowhere in Northern Tennessee, isn’t Portofino. A rock cliff falls into a man made lake where we jump off and swim in waves made by speed boats pulling inflatable rafts of screaming children. There are fish bones nearby, picked clean by birds after being skinned by a fisherman. All the evidence is right there but nothing smells foul. White rock slabs with fossils pressed into them by thousands of years of sitting still hold our beach towels, our discarded clothes, and water bottles.

The water is clean and warm and crashes into the small cliff with a hollow clatter. Fellow fun seekers sit sun soaked and far away, but still within view. The only thing missing is a crisp bottle of pale wine and a silk scarf tied in my hair. It’s an imitation Italy, and as close to it as I’ll get on this Sunday afternoon in late August.

The Past Two Weeks in Reading

Someone asked me to add this to Friday emails every couple weeks and I love that idea. I will also include where the books were acquired, which works well as some of these books were graciously gifted to me by publishers. All opinions, of course, are my own.

The Only One Left by Riley Sager
(borrowed from the library as a Lucky Day pick)
Lots of people do not like murder mystery, but when I finished it I didn’t know that and I gave it a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars with reckless abandon (which is usually how I go into reading anyway).

Worry by Alexandra Tanner
(gifted from the publisher)
It’s like if Girls were written 10 years later and Hannah and Shosh were sisters and Shosh called someone a nazi at a Thanksgiving dinner and Hannah was obsessed with Utah mommy bloggers.

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
(picked up used at McKay’s)
Evie Porter (if that is her real name ((it's not))!!) is such a likable and unreliable lead in this spy thriller. Truly, this woman is unpredictable and at no point could I tell what she was scheming which I guess that makes her a good plant.

The Z-Word by Lindsay King-Miller
(gifted from the publisher)
A zombie rom com? For queer fans of The Walking Dead!

Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything by Colette Shade
(digitally gifted from the publisher)
If you want to be transported back to the AOL chatroom of your youth, this book is for you. This one doesn’t come out until January though!

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
(picked up from a thrift store in Gallatin, TN)
Hold the chefs in your life a little tighter. Bourdain writes like he speaks which means you’re never not entertained while being told some truly heinous stories about kitchens.

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
(read for this month’s book club)
A queer exploration of transition, of family, and of making shitty relationship choices. If you want to find out about the sex lives of your friends, read this book together. It’s brilliant, and complex, and every other good thing people who have read it are saying about it.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
This book honestly had me at “impulsive marriage”. This very sexy, very Manhattan story follows a couple throughout the duration of their relationship, and starts just after they meet outside of a party on New Year’s Eve. I thoroughly enjoyed the saccharine, narcotic nature of the pacing.

P.S. I found this brilliant interview with Coco Mellors and her best friend Adam Eli, who happens to be one of my favorite instagram follows. The video is too lovely not to share.

P.P.S. The book related links in this newsletter are all Bookshop.org affiliate links. If you’re new to Bookshop.org, it’s an online retailer for independent bookstores. I find it’s a great alternative to ordering books on Amazon, which I try to avoid as often as possible. If you’d like to shop my entire reading list for the year or see everything I’ve read laid out visually, you can do that here: My 2024 Reads Shelf

Additionally of Interest

• This interview with MJ Lenderman for The New Yorker has a line I have thought about several times since reading, though the whole thing is worth the read ahead of MJ Lenderman’s release of his new album Manning Fireworks on September 6th.

Lenderman is hyperaware of the ways in which the modern American landscape can feel absurd, especially to a person whose heart is open.

• This newsletter on the Summer of Sandwiches that came through as I was writing this for you, and was too good to not mention. It’s a sort of post mortem on sandwich related news from the summer.

Happy weekend, see you next week :)

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