Hometown Best Town

Plus: How many tacos can I eat in three days? Not enough.

Hey there. I’ve recently returned from San Antonio (GSG!), where I spent all of my time visiting family and shoving all of my favorite things into three days. There were breakfast tacos and puffy tacos, margaritas and central Texas wine (okay, not my favorite). There were massages, pedicures, and hot springs. I even got to visit Nowhere Bookshop, where I bought a signed copy of The Bloggess Jenny Lawson’s Broken (in the best possible way) for a friend’s birthday.

But arguably the best part of the trip was joining my mother and her coven of miscreants for their Friday night happy hour + cards. And I’m not just saying that because I won the first game (or am I?). Those old broads (love y’all!) are some of the sassiest I have spent an evening with and they reignited my longstanding desire for a regular women’s card game of my own.

Good ole San Antone

In other news, we now have a rising high schooler in the house. The school communications referred to the event yesterday (too long, too hot) as a “moving-up ceremony,” which is accurate, and then the programs announced it to be a “culmination ceremony,” which I suppose is also true. But people call it a “graduation.” And I could not let that stand. He was not graduating from middle school. There was no degree to be had. There was a certificate though.

a lot of good hair in one pic

Don’t miss today’s recs:

1. I’m participating in Jami Attenberg’s 1,000 Words of Summer this year, finally, now that I have the time and flexibility. IT STARTS TOMORROW. It is run through her newsletter, CRAFT TALK. I have five one-month gift subscriptions to give away and I’m happy to share with the first five readers who comment or email me (raised hand emoji). There is also a companion book to the project, which you can use any time of year: 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round.

2. Do you read the New York Review of Books? The May 28 issue is particularly good.

3. I’m sure you’re tired of hearing about Patrick Radden Keefe’s genius storytelling, but everything you’ve heard is true. His newest book, London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth, is almost 400 pages and I read it in well under a week. And I didn’t think I cared about this one! The original New Yorker story didn’t grab me at all. (Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland is still my favorite of his.)

4. An audiobook rec for you: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. My niece put me on to this one by saying if you liked The Correspondent, you might like this, and she wasn’t wrong. It’s not epistolary, so if that’s not your jam, don’t turn away. I’ll just say that there are connections that might surprise you in the end. Is there more god with a capital G than I usually prefer? Yes. But there’s no religion.

Until next time!