No. 5. The July Report
My Steinbeck summer, latest book reviews, and assorted interests—the best of the blog lately.
July has been busy, but is usually my favorite month. I spend roughly three weeks each summer in rural Canada with family, and that lakeside version of myself is my ideal: relaxed, productive, and extremely tan. Upon returning to O’ahu, I’m quite happy, even while catching up on some “real life” responsibilities in a crucially air-conditioned apartment on a swelteringly hot day. (I know: poor me.)
Housekeeping note: I somehow never realized you could create sections within a Substack, so I added book updates as a section within my newsletter rather than running the two—main and book news—separately. If you’d prefer not to see one or the other, you can unsubscribe within your settings, but I appreciate you sticking around and will do my best to keep both appealing. During July, I finally started nailing down a posting cadence, so I hope that rhythm carries over to my Substack. I have an explanation of each section here.
To kick off the combined letter, I decided to share a R.E.P.O.R.T—a summary-style template that’s a popular way to share the latest reads, eats, hobbies, obsessions, recs, and treats. In each Succinctish post, you’ll get the best of Words Like Silver delivered in under 1500 words.
Reading
July has been insatiable on the reading front, the numbers hiked by my Steinbeck kick and my desire to consume every hockey romance that’s ever graced the TikTok charts. (I call it market research for genre, and it felt right in Toronto.) I’ll share a list of my mid-year favorites shortly too.
Recent Reviews:
Figuring by Maria Popova — Popova is my literary idol as the founder of The Marginalian, and her book traces the lives and discoveries of trailblazing women across science, literature, philosophy, etc. I had mixed thoughts on execution, but loved finally reading.
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune — a delightful lakeside Canadian romp (fitting!) that built a vivid, sparky romance. This is tied for my top title of hers alongside This Summer Will Be Different.
Mad at the World: The Life of John Steinbeck by William Souder — I am not a biography person (I prefer an adjacent microhistory every time), but loved the context of the man who’s now my favorite “Great American writer.”
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck — His last novel grapples with the slow erosion of morality, and how to deal with the 1:1 presumption that doing the right thing will ultimately lead to success. His musings feel especially relevant to the current moment of American fatigue. Loved.
In case you’ve never seen it before, I also keep a running list of favorite quotes and underlines throughout the month. As well as a happy list of small gratitudes if you need a pick-me-up.
Eating
My mom makes a delicious cherry-date smoothie that I’m going to attempt to recreate. (I do not pretend to be a good chef myself, even on a blender level.) Here’s the recipe:
3/4 cup coconut water
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup frozen cherries
1/4 ripe avocado
1 tablespoon almond butter
2 pitted dates
3-4 ice cubes
Playing
Friends and I have talked a lot lately about the necessity of doing real things with our hands1 after a day working remotely on a screen. Plenty of people take ceramics classes; I’ve decided to get into needlepointing so that I’m not tempted to scroll when comatose. (Did any of y’all know how expensive needlepointing is as a hobby? Wow.)
RELATED: Books to Make You Hurl Your Phone Into the River
We’re also loving games as a way to pass the time. I discovered I’m a Monopoly Deal prodigy, for example. If you’re looking for another way to unplug when with others, I’ve reviewed We’re Not Really Strangers before and appreciate the excuse to ask some hard-hitters.
I was an art minor in college, so I recently attended an open figure drawing class in Honolulu. I talk a lot about energy-givers vs. energy-takers, and how a hobby is often better for me than resting when drained.
Obsessing
I’m currently fixating on the vocabulary words oeuvre and quixotic, and once I learned them, I now see them everywhere.
I’m on an audiobook kick and will put together a list of my favorites. Quick pick: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (narrated by Will Patton.) His drawl fits the Virginian sense of place so deeply, and always makes me think of a stormy Southern summer driving through the Appalachian Mountains. I’m also listening to The Winners by Fredrik Backman, the third Beartown book, and his phrasing and pacing translates so well to audio.
Recommending
Around this time of year, I get a ton of questions about which planner I swear by (as a paper gal) and it’s undoubtedly the Laurel Denise Horizontal Weekly Planner.
I love the many tabs and visual layouts that let me see everything at once, keep notes, and even track habits without it getting far too crowded. If I don’t write it down in my planner, I will forget. It’s helpful for me to keep a to do list in a quadrant too—
need—timely
need—not timely
want—timely
want—not timely
I’ve realized a way to keep my head on straight is to keep a “done list” in addition to a to-do list or else I reach the end of a day and go “I didn’t do enough” only to realize I read a book, finished an article, went to the gym, recorded and edited a voice note, wrote part of a chapter, or whatever the combination might be. I know I’m very cruel to myself about optimization, and so this practice helps.
Oliver Burkeman, author of my personal bible Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, recommends the done list to soothe time/productivity anxiety too.
Treating
Not so much a treat so much as a goal: I’m hoping to get better about actually shutting my laptop at night. The problem here is that I’m utterly useless in the afternoon, so often have a decent chunk of work to wrap up still. Still, I’m notoriously a terrible sleeper, so would love to reduce factors that could keep me up—like blue light and spiking my engagement right before winding down. Boundaries are hard, y’all.
If You’re Here for Book Updates!
Mountain Sounds is still my driving force, and I’ll share as much as I can soon about my debut Southern Gothic novel. If you’re interested in the craft and business of writing a book, some recent blog posts you may enjoy for a peek behind the scenes—
An Extensive Portrait of Eight Book Drafts
Some Questions Y'all've Asked Me About My Book, ‘Mountain Sounds’
Did I Ever Mention My ‘Mountain Sounds’ Epigraph?
Building Out a Book's Mood Through Music
As you may notice on the archive, I’ve paywalled my old Graceful book updates just because I’ve since opened up the full newsletter to the rest of Substack now; my updates were previously private, and I’d like those posts to mostly stay within that audience (unless someone really, really cares enough.) I don’t plan to paywall anything else going forward, but like the compromise here.
Bonus Pick—a Stay You Should Know About
Two years ago around the end of July, I had my first-ever “adult vacation” at a hostel in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica thanks to a lucky flight voucher. On the blog, I broke down everything you need to know to recreate the trip, including my costs, thoughts on staying at Somos (funky, social, sleek) for ~$17/night, what to pack, and more.
More books, scraps, recs, and more to come. As always, thanks for listening, and you can connect with me across social media. The Words Like Silver account is up and running too!
The science behind this is backed up in every single psych book I’ve read this year and last, including but not limited to How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldmann Barrett, The Molecule of More by Daniel Lieberman and Mike Long (who just released a guide to soothing the chase, by the way), The Extinction of Experience by Christine Rosen, and more.