Sunday Sundries 036: Pool Reading Report & A Necklace Recipe on Repeat
Plus, links. Lots of them.
Welcome to Sunday Sundries, the antidote to—or at least a distraction from—your Sunday Scaries.
Hi friends,
I’m writing you from an airport Chili’s—well known to be one of my favorite places on earth—and yet I’m also experiencing some BIG Sunday Scaries. Specifically, of the post-vacation variety. I was in Palm Beach this weekend for a girls’ trip at The Breakers—another of my favorite places.
I brought a group of friends for my 30th birthday and since then it’s become a cherished tradition (we’ve gone 5 out of the proceeding 8 years). This was our largest Breakers trip yet—8 people! And also one of our best. This morning, as we sat on the floor of our hotel room sipping iced coffee, giggling, and eating breakfast sandwiches, I shmoopily remarked, “I’m so sad that we don’t have this trip to look forward to anymore!”
So, if you’re also feeling big scaries, I’m right there with you. I need this email-sized distraction just as much as you do. Let’s sundry, shall we?
🏖️📖 Poolside Reading Report
I love a girls’ beach trip for all the regular reasons—fruity frozen drinks, pool gossip, vacation outfits that would feel wildly out of place in my day-to-day life, crowding around a bathroom mirror with your besties as you get ready for the night to a soundtrack of throwback jams—but I also love it for one very weird and possibly “just me” reason: poolside book snooping. And I have field notes!
A personally poor showing
On my end, I made it through about 25% of Annabel Monaghan’s forthcoming release: It’s a Love Story. I know, I know, a lackluster showing for someone who recently declared beach reading to be her favorite flavor of reading, but I was distracted by aforementioned pool gossip. So far, it’s great. I already can’t wait to crawl into bed early tonight for more as a salve to my post-vacation blues.
Backlist is king
Of all my many book sightings, only 5 were front list titles (AKA books released in the past year). There were 2 Great Big Beautiful Life spottings, one copy of The Names by Florence Knapp (AKA May’s Read with Jenna pick), one sighting of Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner, and one BOTM edition of Silver Elite by Dani Francis.
Brought not bought
The resort had a small and truly bizarre selection of books in their on-site shop. No, really, I’m talking book 3 in a series, but not books 1 and 2; Barbara Streisand’s 992-page memoir; the original Wizard of Oz. Which means that all the books I was seeing were brought from home, or at the very least bought at the airport or on one of the island’s 2 bookstores.
It’s an EmHen world
Much like the world outside vacationland, EmHen is the reigning queen. In addition to the 2 GBBL’s, I also saw a Funny Story and a People We Meet on Vacation. It’s interesting to note that the woman reading PWMOV was older, since one astute commenter on last week’s post about Book of the Summer predictions said she was curious to see who filled the Elin-sized hole in this summer’s reading after Elin Hilderbrand semi-retired. The commenter went onto say she didn’t think Emily Henry or Carley Fortune would fill that gap for older readers. It took all my willpower to restrain myself from asking this lady what she thought so far.
The men are catching on
Last time I was at this same resort in 2023, one of my reading field notes amounted to “Are men OK?” Of the very few men reading a book—as opposed to a newspaper or playing on their phone—one was reading Camus. Nothing wrong with that per se, just not what I’d call leisure reading. This year, there were more men reading books in general, and the books felt more… shall we say, hinged? There was a John Grisham thriller I didn’t catch the title of, one gent reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and another with Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (AKA the Facebook tell-all).
Other spottings
…under my umbrella: My friend Molly brought Heartwood by Amity Gage, which we bought together in Maine. I brought Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe for Julie whose latest read was my book in 2023. She was loving it and asked if she could bring it home (obv yes!). Betsy had The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley. Elizabeth had The Tao of Wu by The RZA from Wu-Tang Clan (this would make total sense if you knew her).
…further afield: I also spotted copies of The Covenant of Water, The Alice Network, Astor (Anderson Cooper’s Astor family biography), and The Nightingale. I silently cursed every person I saw reading on a Kindle, precluding me from snooping on their beach reading choice!
💎 A Necklace Recipe on Repeat
One of my MVPs in Palm Beach (and lately, in general) is the Nura Pearl Necklace from Monica Vinader ($185; but code BECCAFMV gets you 20% off). I’m loving it stacked with a beaded necklace, like the beachy one from Mignonne Gavivan shown above or one of these beaded necklaces from Local Eclectic (I have the blue opal gumdrop one, which is sold out, but they have plenty of other cute options!).
Speaking of Chili’s, did you know there’s one on the Nile River? New bucket list trip unlocked.
Authors
and put together an “AuthorStack Guide” of Substack writers with books coming out in 2025.Immediately added this episode the “Good Hang with Amy Poehler” podcast with guest Michelle Obama to my queue.
I was thrilled to discover that my favorite daytime mascara is available at Nordstrom (Sephora stopped stocking it a few years ago—rude!). Restocks just got so much easier.
Before I knew Nordstrom stocked it, I tried this one as an ALT (on sale!) and really liked it, too. Gosh, I love a plastic brush for maximum lash separation.
- has an explainer about the drama surrounding the new romantasy series, Silver Elite.
Did you read the Taylor Jenkins Reid profile in TIME magazine? I love seeing authors get the star treatment. Two of the tastiest morsels: she got $8M/book for her latest 5-book deal and she’s writing a jukebox musical with music of The Chicks.
Another tasty morsel (I hope?): I’m in conversation with
at The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn for her new book, It’s a Love Story, on June 6. Tickets here! (I will be fan girling HARD!)
More soon,
Becca
Honestly, if someone came up to me at the pool and asked if I was liking my book so far, I'd have a blast!! Lol
My 60-something year old boss is reading Book Lovers after having just read GBBL! She’s a newly minted EmHen fan!