With apologies to my Northern Hemisphere friends, the time of year we’ve all been hankering for is finally here - warmer days, and longer, lighter evenings. Hallelujah! It’s always this time of year that I start to crave fresher, lighter dishes - tuna tartare, oysters, cured meats - and a crisp Riesling or fresh lemonade to wash it all down. Thankfully we’ve got a clutch of recently-opened trendy wine bars in Sydney (watch your back, Melbourne) for all of our salty and briny dreams, and which will be taking a lot of my money for the foreseeable. I’m also musing on the Substack-ers who have me opening the app more than Instagram, and some new items to swoon over and save for.

Without further ado…

Reading

How to Know A Person - David Brooks
Fast becoming a contender for my Book of the Year, this book is a salve for anyone who wants to really understand empathy and the human condition, the art of asking good questions that lead to great conversations and how to really see someone for who they are. Endlessly fascinating. 

Blue Sisters - Coco Mellors
Coco Mellors has done it again. Following on from her blistering debut Cleopatra & Frankenstein - the darling of many 2022 book clubs - comes Blue Sisters, a literary dive into grief, addiction and the bond between four sisters set between London and NYC. I inhaled it, and couldn’t stop thinking about the characters long after. 

The Unwilding - Marina Kemp
It’s a hot and sticky summer in 1999 in the hills of Sicily, and an illustrious male writer invites a clutch of protegees to his family manor house. Alongside the protegees, we meet his wayward family and mysterious wife, and what follows is an exploration of power, adulation, family secrets and struggle, eloquently portrayed and a page turner until the very end.  

Tabs I’ve got open

Getting back into opening Substack has been a welcome addition to my morning routine. While there seems to be a lot of hand-wringing of late about whether it actually encourages quality writing, for now I’m enjoying reading different ideas and finding new sources of creativity.  

Zara Wong - Screenshot This
One of the smartest newsletters out there, Zara writes about the intersection between fashion, style and business, and is generous with her insights into what makes brands succeed. She recently published The Bag Edit, a curated list of investment bags that’ll stand the test of time and catering to every budget - and is firmly bookmarked in my inbox. 

Elizabeth Day - Daylight
Here on known as Queen Elizabeth - has just launched Daylight on Substack to a roar of applause from an already-hyped and adoring crowd. If you haven’t read Elizabeth’s books, you’re missing out on free therapy.  

Dining

It has to be said - Sydney has taken to a wine bar very well. You know the ones - almost always small, dimly-lit, with the obligatory hand-scrawled blackboard and wine bottles with pop art labels lining the walls, an upturned milk crate fashioned as a makeshift table. Three of my favourites have to be Bar Copains in Surry Hills, the OG 10 William St, Paddington and our very own Randys in Avalon. 

Objects of desire

We’ve just booked an eight night road trip around the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia between Christmas and New Year, and as such I’m hankering after a bit of camping luxe - such as these Miu Miu-adjacent rope sandals from Italian brand Flowze to go with cobalt blue shorts or denim cut-offs, and these super soft cotton striped pants from Sydney-based ELCE Swim will be great with a bikini top and linen shirt, for when the nights draw in under the stars.

That’s it for now! See you next time x

2023 has been a great reading year for me, and I credit that to three recent reads keeping me leaping from one new release to the next. These are books I’d categorise as frothy and pacy - modern day literary fiction, focusing on familial dynamics and the relationships with those closest to us. Throw in a bit of scandal (Becky) and those who create for a living (also Becky, and Romantic Comedy) and I’m hooked!   

Reading:

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackon

Set in New York City, Pineapple Street follows the wealthy Stockton family who have made their fortune buying property in the city’s affluent fruit streets. Set against the backdrop of old-money, the book grapples with identity and expectation, and what it lacks in depth it makes up for in pure escapism - an easy novel to lose yourself or an afternoon in.

Becky by Sarah May

Dubbed ‘a Vanity Fair for the mass media age’ by the Guardian, the story borrows two of Thackeray’s central characters (Rebecca ‘Becky’ Sharp and Amelia Sedley) and charts their rise and fall in 90’s tabloid era London, with much of the storyline building to the infamous phone hacking scandal by the now-defunct News of the World. Dark and frothy and still shocking over twenty years later. 

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

The book you’ve seen all over the internet! This was my first Sittenfeld book and it did not disappoint. Sally is a sketch writer on TNO, a fictional take on Saturday Night Live and is jaded about love after a divorce in her twenties. So far, so predictable, but this novel manages to balance being witty, emotionally smart and also tender - Sittenfeld perfectly portrays the vulnerability Sally feels after divorce and her subsequent fierce independence and commitment to her career. It is charming and engrossing and page turn-y, even when you feel a bit lost with some of the US TV references in the first half of the book. 

Watching:

Love Me (available on Binge)

This gorgeous Melbourne-made drama is back for its second season and I gobbled up all six episodes in two days. It picks up where the previous season left off and follows the Mathieson family as they navigate infertility, love after loss and new parenthood respectively. It’s so acutely observed - it’s hard to believe the Mathiesons aren’t a real family - and also manages to be dryly funny in places, too. And of course Hugo Weaving is divine as the lovable, sweet patriarch, Glen (who is also declared a ‘lovely, big-hearted bear of a dude’ in Ep2). The soundtrack is also *chefs kiss*. 

The perfect white tee 

…does exist! And it’s from the Jac + Jack’s men's section. Buttery soft, slightly drapey/oversized without being a tent and not at all see through. I’ve been looking for a quality white tee shirt that will last years and years, but found most fell short in either being too transparent or would start to degrade after a few washes. Camilla & Marc’s Huntington tee does come in a close second, but it seems as though they’ve discontinued the ones that don’t have any logos across the front. 

Jac + Jack Mills t-shirt, $100

Links I’ve loved:

On reading habits, trends and the joy it brings:

I nodded so vociferously to this piece by Pandora Sykes, which makes the respective arguments for keeping books or giving them away. As someone who carefully curates the books I choose to keep (and donates the ones I’m not hugely attached to to book libraries or friends), I’m fascinated how other people file theirs | Are you a hoarder or a purger? 

I’m always nerding out on the science behind reading fiction | Can reading make you happier? 

On influencer culture: 

This NYT story looks at one influencer who turned her back on her six figure career and pivoted instead to running workshops helping influencers use their skills to gain ‘normal’ jobs. Fascinating.
| Is there life after influencing?

On community:

We often look to those in the Nordic countries for inspiration on a life lived well, and the popularisation of saunas in recent years is proof of that. This story delves into why community saunas have become an antidote to loneliness and a ‘leveller’ (because so many of our status symbols are removed when we have no clothes on), as well as how being more in tune with our bodies and our environment can boost our wellbeing in a myriad of ways | The rise of community saunas

On heartbreak: 

For a while it felt like heartbreak was having a moment, but I am in adoration of writer Danielle Gay, who has turned the breakdown of her relationship (of which the wedding invites were out and her honeymoon booked) into a beautiful newsletter community | The Gimlet Waiter Is Flirting With You

Coveting:

Two coffee table books I’m lusting after:

Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act

Bre Audrey Graham’s Table for Two

That’s it for now! See you next time! x

*A judgement free zone. Some of the best things live on the internet.