Sunday Sundries 042: Messy Family Novels & Bookish Dinner Parties

Plus, links. Lots of them.

Welcome to Sunday Sundries, the antidote to—or at least a distraction from—your Sunday Scaries.

A moment from last weekend in Maine.

Hi friends,

Just like the heat wave, I was in and out of New York this week. Last weekend, I took a quick trip to Maine and this weekend I’m in Boston. The latter was a last-minute flight booked to make the most of my mini book break between drafts.

While I was home, I had big plans to wade into newsletter land and get ahead on July drafts. Usually, I write the mid-week letter on Monday, and Sunday Sundries on Thursday or Friday afternoon, but it would be nice to get a couple weeks ahead on mid-week letters.

Instead, the heat made me lethargic. At one point on Wednesday, despite the best efforts of my window AC unit, my living room was 87 degrees. So, I exiled myself to my bedroom where it was cooler, sacrificing my productivity in the process. (I heard Ann Patchett wrote the entirety of Truth & Beauty in bed, and my primary reaction is… how?!)

Honestly, it was peak guilty pleasure to eat watermelon in bed on a weekday afternoon while doing some mid-day reading and TV watching (more on that in a sec). Zero regrets.

OK, let’s sundry.

📚 Messy Family Novels

My name is Becca and I can’t stop reading books about sibling drama.

Maybe it’s because I’m an only child and the concept of siblings fascinates me, or maybe I’ve OD’ed on breezy romances after the glut of spring releases from auto-buy romance authors, but right now if you give me a “Succession meets X” comp, I’m sold. In the past week alone, I’ve gobbled up 2, and have a third on deck.

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean (out July 8): This first foray into contemporary fiction from a popular historical romance author is a total crowdpleaser with tons of secrets, sibling drama, an inheritance game, and a strong romance sub-plot. In it, the sudden death of a Steve Jobs meets Richard Branson-esque eccentric tech billionaire spurs his four children to return to their childhood retreat on a private island off the coast of Rhode Island.

Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E. Smith: This novel about four estranged siblings—three of whom are famous in different fields—is a little less Succession and a little more Royal Tenenbaums. Three years after a blow up fight, the youngest sister (also a famous actress) issues a mysterious summons for her siblings to join her for a weekend in North Dakota. I feel like Smith’s adult debut, The Unsinkable Greta James, was tragically under-hyped, and this one, is a pitch-perfect follow up.

[On deck]: Park Avenue by Renée Ahdieh: Next up for me is this book, which is pitched as Succession meets Crazy Rich Asians. Told from an outsider’s perspective, a hungry young lawyer is assigned to work for a family-owned Korean beauty conglomerate in turmoil. LFG!

Further reading:

Want even more books about sibling dynamics? Here are a few older books I’ve enjoyed. But tell us your favorites in this genre in the comments.

• This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (2009)

• The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand (2017)

• I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson (2014)

• Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi (2021)

• Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (2024)

• The Most Fun We Ever Had by Clare Lombardo (2019)

🍽️ Question: Fantasy Book Dinner Party

As I was brainstorming for a forthcoming “Three Things” episode of Bad on Paper, I came up with a fascinating question, but realized I didn’t have an immediate answer. However, I think some of you might.

Question: If you could insert yourself into a meal portrayed in a book, which scene and book would you choose? Maybe it’s because the food sounds delicious or some major drama goes down that you’d like to be present for. Or maybe this is just an opportunity to spend time with favorite characters? Tell me in the comments!

📺 Gulpable New TV

As a culture, I feel like we’ve been woefully deficient in 30-minute comedies the last few years. But this week, I took down both of these new shows in record time.

The first, Adults (FX; Hulu), is billed as Gen Z’s answer to Friends for Gen X or How I Met Your Mother for millennials. I was unsure during the first episode, but by the second—about an unexpected medical emergency—I found myself lightly chuckling, and by the third—when a member of the group accidentally befriends a wanted criminal—I was full-on guffawing.

I’d also been hearing a lot about Overcompensating (Amazon Prime), the semi-autobiographical show about internet-persona Benny Drama’s closeted college years. Does everyone on this show look 30? Yes. Is it unclear whether this takes place in 2012 (at one point Benny’s character raps “Superbass” by Nicki Minaj at a pre-game) or 2025 (Charli XCX, who also did the music for the show, plays a concert in a later episode). But it was also genuinely funny (though sometimes in a cringe, uncomfortable, Curb Your Enthusiasm way).

• I did not have Jimmy Johns x Walton Goggins on my 2025 book collab bingo card.

• Would watch.

• Someone wore a dress printed with tiny swimmers at a book event I attended this week and I could not stop complimenting them.

  • This brand is new to me and I also love this blue ballet-inspired dress that’s on sale.

• Project Hail Mary trailer incoming on Monday!!

• J.Crew is doing an extra 60% off sale and I think it’s finally time to buy this dress I’ve been eyeing for months. This crochet-trimmed slip dress also got my attention.

More soon,

Becca