Hello again.

From where I write in Connecticut, it’s easy to compare our little ol’ suburban selves to the brighter lights of our neighboring bigger city, but really, we’ve got it pretty damn good. Case in point:

• Olufunke Grace Bankole | Thursday, November 6 | 7PM

  The Westport Prize for Literature celebrates its third edition by honoring The Edge of Water, the miraculous, multi-generational debut novel by Olufunke Grace Bankole, as the winner of this year’s prize. Bankole will take part in a special conversation with The Yale Review editor Meghan O’Rourke.

• Taffy Brodesser-Akner | Thursday, November 13 | 7PM

  Three cheers for Westport Writers Workshop bringing best-selling novelist, screenwriter, and journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner to Sacred Heart Community Theatre.

• Lily King + Kate Russo | Wednesday, November 19 | 7PM

  Maine writers Lily King and Kate Russo will be in conversation about their latest books at Darien Library. I haven’t picked up Kate’s book yet but goodness me if Lily isn’t batting a thousand with Heart the Lover.

I’m still riding a pretty sweet high from attending Darien Library’s Tuesday event with Virginia Evans. I wonder, if I were able to snag her for a virtual chat, would you listen? Putting it out into the universe. Stay tuned…

PS: As you all know, most of my posts are free, but I do partially paywall these monthly round-ups because they take a good amount of time and energy. Included below the paywall: A mother/son road trip to end all road trips | Recipe links to break you out of weeknight dinner ruts | What’s giving me hope in the literary world | Books I’m reading | All manner of viewing recommendations. XOXO

✏️ Putting a call out to NYC readers, snag some Sourmilk and leave a review in the comments below, please and thank you. Or better yet, drop me a handwritten note using the new cheffy Blackwing drop.

🍸 How Sober Should A Writer Be? | Probably sober enough to hit the submit button on Submittable, but other than that? To each their own. For fans of Slone Crosley. Also, now’s the time to place your pre-order for the reissue of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s On Booze. It’s going to make the perfect host/hostess gift for all your holiday parties accompanied by a bottle of your favorite spirit. You’re welcome!

💦 Think three martini lunches are a relic of a bygone era? With Restaurants Pitching Water as a Fine-Dining Experience, you might be the prime candidate for a water sommelier. Or maybe hop on board with the lawmakers desperately looking for a tariff loophole to save their beloved caffeine vehicle of choice from looming tariffs that promise to make an already erratic coffee market even more so.

🛏️ It’s Time to Let Padma Lakshmi Cook | As if we didn’t love her enough already:

I love to eat in bed. I’m very organized. I lay out a towel so I don’t spill, because turmeric does not come out of a Frette sheet—or pomegranate.

🛍️ Slinging the Dainties | As a NYC-adjacent kid, department store cafes were my jam, the reward for tagging along with my mother on every-so-often shopping excursions. Saks was a constant, but Bergdorf’s was a close second, and of course, fro-yo in the basement of Bloomies (#fortycarrots4eva).

Department stores, and the cafes within, were some of the first public spaces in which women could socialise safely and without risking their reputation. Suffragettes met in the tea rooms, while less wealthy women were offered employment on the sales floor. Apparently, there was even an all-girl gun club on the roof of Selfridges.

One of the original third spaces, then! Speaking of third spaces, a lovely piece on Berlin’s Cemetery Cafes that’s anything but macabre.

🍴 Forked | Foodie doc following Feniger’s (that’s Susan for the non-culinary sort) footsteps as she embarks on her first solo foray into opening a restaurant after a veritable five-star lifetime of culinary goddessness with her business partner Mary Sue Milliken.

🍝 Six Seasons: Pasta | Trying to keep up with the weekly cookbook drops might feel impossible, so let me help you out: if you only buy one this month, make it Six Seasons: Pasta. You think you don’t need it. You’re a saucy water boiling expert! Think again. Joshua McFadden’s books are well-stained, well-worth purchasing treasures. Pasta Salad with Fennel, Arugula, Radish, and Ricotta Salata alongside quick-grilled sausages or chicken; Beets with Brown Butter and Poppy Seeds; “Penne” alla Vodka to rival any you’ve had before.