September Recommendations by Jenn D
It’s stationery time!
This is the time of year where Hobonichi debuts their lineup for the next year and it’s always a favorite in our household. Three of the four of us use these diaries for various appointment-keeping and personal recording. I like the Cousin for my daily journalling, and the Weeks is my appointment book (in the before times, it went everywhere with me, as I use the zip-around case as a wallet). I also plan to add in an Original Techo (in the Avec) as my daily goal/to-do list for 2022.
And look, I’ll be honest, I always get a bunch of pretty stuff to go with. Washi tape and notepaper and sticky notes…
I’ve been enjoying collecting sets of King Jim washi tape strips, made by Kitta. I’ve found Bunbougu to have a fantastic selection and quick delivery. (Warning: hide your credit card if you, like me, are vaguely obsessed with cute stationery…)
Because I’ve been at home for eleventy-million weeks, I’ve taken to fine-tuning the organization on my desk. Muji has a lot of gorgeous acrylic desk organizers. I picked up the glasses case, the three-drawer units, and the five-drawer stacking units. All of my pens look so pretty now and they all fit in my fancy little vintage desk just perfectly.
Music - I’ve been listening to Robyn’s 2018 album Honey a lot over the past couple of weeks. It flows really well together—each song cascading into the other—and I love both how chill it is, and also how much depth it has. I’m going to link to the Pitchfork review here because it has a lot of background info on the album itself, but you can skip the read and find the album on Spotify if you want to get stuck into listening.
This article about the world’s oldest modern poem really stuck with me this week. I love the poem itself, too:
they say
what they like
let them say it
I don’t care
go on, love me
it does you good
I just think it’s so interesting how long we’ve been making poetry and songs like this! Many many decades longer than we originally thought. I also love that this is the equivalent of a quote T-shirt, and here I am, loving it after all this time.
Some books arrived, so I’ve got more on my TBR list…
An Emotion of Great Delight - Tahereh Mafi
I also started Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves series. I’m not that far in but hoo boy. Yes to everyone. I want to know what happens next!
I read this fun collection of Nordic Tales, illustrated by Ulla Thynell, and really enjoyed it.
And I finally got around to reading Jenn Bennett’s Chasing Lucky. One thing I love about Jenn Bennett books is how the location of her stories is as finely and intimately portrayed as any of the main characters. I felt like I was in Beauty. And also, Lucky Karras, man.
TV - Still banging on about Ted Lasso. We’re in the dark forest, and some people have got O P I N I O N S about it. But I am letting myself trust the writers to tell me a story. I’m taking it slow. I’m not clamoring. I’m going to let it unfold and experience it. And it will be amazing. There was a good article on Vox by Emily VanDerWerff worth reading.
I’m taking some time off to do thinking work this week, so I may be a bit wibbly-wobbly when I get back to my running next week, but I would like to recommend the app that helped me get started: 10K Pro. I haven’t kept up with the app (it got buggy in places and lost some workouts?) but I’ve transitioned to using my watch and phone together to log workouts, and it’s actually pretty great. I was glad to have a system to help me get started!
Look after yourselves and get those vaccines!