Finer Things

Discoveries from around the internet.

Laikipia, Kenya

Hello readers! I hope it’s a crisp, sunny fall day if you’re in the northern hemisphere, and that you’re getting a whisper of summer if you’re in the southern. A few fine things for your weekend:

Fine Reads

Did a Nobel Peace Laureate Stoke a Civil War? A must-read from Jon Lee Anderson in the New Yorker.

Risking Everything to Offer Abortions Across State Lines by Emily Bazelon in the New York Times Magazine.

Fine Listens

I have been recommending the podcast Mother Country Radicals to anyone who will listen to me. It is so so so good, if you are the kind of person who is interested in 1960s, 70s, and 80s leftist extremists groups and how movements with so much promise went so off the rails, which I definitely am. It’s a fascinating story told from the inside, and just incredibly well-done.

I am also almost finished with the Kruper Island podcast, which is… oof. Maybe you think you know the story of Canada’s residential schools for indigenous children, but I promise, you do not know the full story this podcast tells. It’s incredible investigative journalism, and it will leave you exclaiming “Jesus fucking Christ” and “are you serious?” to yourself as you listen.

I have also been very into the BBC’s Burn Wild podcast, which is about the legacy of the environmental activists who were labeled “eco-terrorists” by the US government (I guess I am on a lefty extremist podcast kick this month?).

Fine Goods

It’s fall, which means it’s *candle season* (in my house, it’s always candle season, because I am married to a major Candle Man). These Prk Studio candles are among my favorites right now (Desert Rain is v good, so is Big Sur, but you can’t go wrong).

If winter is coming where you are, don’t forget to order your Bean Boots, which have a tendency to sell out as soon as it snows. I am also spending a lot of my time in upstate New York these days, so of course I got Blundstones so I could blend in with the rest of the upstate Brooklynites. Gonna be honest: I love them.

All I want to do all winter long is curl up under a blanket. Minna, a sweet little store in Hudson, NY, has some great ones.

Fine Foods

If you have not yet had Meredith Dairy marinated sheep and goat cheese, I am telling you right now: Go buy it. Also buy a baguette. Smear this cheese all over the baguette. Eat. Thank me later.

Cooler weather also means that it’s Carb Season. I am making basically all the pasta right now, but I’m also making tons of risotto with rice I brought back from Tenuta San Carlo, truly the greatest organic farm in Tuscany. Here’s a good recipe for butternut squash risotto; I might add some fried sage on top.

And of course don’t miss the Roscioli amatriciana. You gotta get guanciale though, don’t do any of that bacon bullshit.

It’s also soup season. This lemony white bean soup has been my lunch all week.

Fine Tuning

When I’m not writing for work, I am teaching writing (and yoga). If you’re interested in a writing + yoga retreat in 2023, I’m co-hosting one in Costa Rica in February / March, one in Greece in late May, and one in Tuscany in September (the retreat in Kenya is sold out; I may add a few more retreats in the coming months, though, so stay tuned). These retreats are really really fun and always attract a great group of people (mostly women, but men are welcome too!). And if you’re like, “that sounds great, but I don’t want to do yoga” then… come and just don’t do yoga. Choose your own adventure!

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…and that’s it! Hope you enjoy, hope you have a beautiful weekend, and hope to see you back here soon.

xx Jill