After finishing the first draft of The Mysterious Affair at Gaunt Hall back in July, I spent the rest of the summer catching up on my long-neglected TBR list. And I made a decent dent! Of course, I also added books to the list, so the physical pile is just about as tall as ever … but we’re still gonna count that as progress. Since at least one person expressed interest in seeing what I’ve been reading, I decided to do a speed round of quick reviews here; if you want to see (and hear) more, you can head over to my writing IG account [murders_she_writes] where I post regular book reviews and reccs.

This is a verrrry random assortment of non-fiction books, but all ones I enjoyed a great deal (for different reasons). I thought Saving Time by Jenny Odell was a thought-provoking follow-up to her previous book How To Do Nothing. In the last few years, I have spent a lot of time examining my relationship with the concept of ‘productivity’ (particularly but not exclusively in connection with creativity and creative work) and working to disentangle myself from unhealthy habits. I find books like Odell’s to be helpful as I’m figuring out how to reframe my perspective and my own internal language around work, rest, and creativity; they are a good counterpoint to the capitalism-driven messaging I’m constantly bombarded with on social media.

Gwyneth by Amy Odell (any relation, I wonder?) was a fun, gossipy celebrity bio. Nothing deep, but sometimes you just want that hit of 90s nostalgia, yeah? At the other end of the spectrum, Pathogenesis by Jonathan Kenndy was a serious but engrossing read. As the title says, it’s a look at human history through the lens of epidemiology; basically, how various pathogens have influenced our history, from the paleolithic era onwards (up to and including the COVID years). The book is well-written and very accessible.

As I was writing The Mysterious Affair at Gaunt Hall, I fell down a rabbit hole of reading about the history of magic — research, if you will. I read a few books by Ronald Hutton, who is a preeminent scholar in this field, but they were generally fairly dense and leaning more towards the academic. The Book of English Magic, on the other hand, was both super informative and super accessible. It’s a good introduction to basically every aspect of (English) magic from pre-Roman times onwards. You can read about Druids, water dowsing, cunning folk, wizards, Rosicrucians, Wicca, and more. And each chapter has a really good bibliography for further reading.

The Life of Stuff by Susannah Walker was quietly devastating, and so so good. It’s a memoir that touches on grief, identity, mental illness, intergenerational trauma, and our relationship with the objects in our life. The book describes the author’s attempts to grapple with the legacy left by her mother, who was a hoarder in her later years — both the physical (her mother’s dilapidated house full of objects) and the emotional (their own difficult relationship and their family’s history of mental illness, alcoholism, and fractured relationships). As someone who, like the author (and her mother), sees objects as vessels of personal history and identity, this book struck many, many chords in me. It’s beautifully written and thought-provoking. Highly recommend.

Of course, I’ve also been reading a lot of historical non-fiction because that’s my ultimate jam. These were all pretty good reads, but my faves were the two Queen Victoria books (that was another one of my recent rabbit holes) and the Casanova book. It’s always exciting when I see that Lucy Worsley has a new book.

I spent a bunch of reading time trying to find comps for The Mysterious Affair at Gaunt Hall in preparation for querying, which meant lots of fantasy and fantasy-mystery on tap. None of these books ended up being good comps, but they were super fun reads. My top faves were Rivers of London, Voyage of the Damned, and Early Riser. I think I have found my new fave series in Rivers of London; I have already devoured the next 2 books, and am patiently waiting for the rest to come in (via holds at my library).

The Eighth Detective is just straight mystery, not fantasy, but it has a cool premise and will keep you close to the edge of your seat all the way through. The Thirteenth Tale is also not fantasy, but rather gothic suspense. Not my usual flavour of tea, but I enjoyed it quite a lot — the writing is beautiful.

These 2 are my most recent reads, and I’m going to go against the grain (maybe?) and say that I preferred The Daughter of Doctor Moreau to Katabasis. I have a LOT of thoughts on the latter, which could be a whole separate post, but suffice it to say that I simply found TDoDM to be a more fun, engrossing read. Katabasis is a far more ambitious book but (imo) doesn’t quite succeed in all of its ambitions and also has some pacing and characterization issues that got in the way of the story (for me). If you’ve read it, I would love to hear your thoughts.

And please share your recent reads and reccs in the comments!!

This week was just one, long spiral. I was getting annoyed at myself for not being able to pull out of it, and then I realized that there is Just. A. Lot. Going. On. right now. Like, A LOT. In the world, at work, in my personal sphere. There is only so much emotional regulation my ADHD brain can handle at one time. Sometimes, falling apart (for a little while) is just, well, unavoidable. I know I’ll pull myself together again sooner or later. In the meantime, what I need most from myself is grace, not a guilt trip.

It hasn’t been all bad, though. This past weekend, my husband and I had a blast at dinner with some new friends; we celebrated our daughter’s 12^th birthday (she’s officially a tween but going on 25, lol!); and had a lovely family BBQ at my dad’s house. I got a pedicure and finally found a cute pinkie ring (it’s been a journey, y’all).

I also did the seasonal switch in my closet, moving from summer to fall and doing some editing in the process. I may have jumped the gun a bit – the weather has been holding steady here (for once!) – but I was feeling the urge for a clean-out / fresh start with my clothes. As the season progresses, I plan to do more editing because I still feel like my closet is too full for my current needs. I’m finding that I crave less variety than in the past and gravitate more towards wearing my fave pieces on repeat.

The problem is that there are very few low-hanging fruit left to trim in my wardrobe. It’s easy to pick out and get rid of items that are ill-fitting, poor quality, or not my style … but that doesn’t describe anything currently in my closet. Like, I love all of the eleventy million skirts I currently own. I might love some of them slightly more than others, but the differential isn’t so significant as to make it a no-brainer when it comes to downsizing. I know, first world problems.

To not compound my problem, I’m staying away from fall trend forecasts. I don’t need to play with fire temptation when it comes to buying new things. I’ve also decided to forego making a fall wishlist this year – mostly because I don’t feel like I need anything, and also because I don’t want to convince myself I need anything. I am debating potentially getting a long trench coat (thrifted, of course) but I’m not entirely sure that the oversized look is something I like on myself. I think I’ll try on a few options if/when I come across them at the thrift store and assess.

Which reminds me … I still need to go through my outerwear closet, oop.

And my shoes.

I guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.

Have a great weekend!

It’s no secret that I love watches. It should be no surprise that I love them as aesthetic accessories more so than functional objects. (Fun fact: I think I have one working watch in my entire collection.) To me, they are fancy bracelets with extra bits. Like jewelry, watches are wearable art. With a couple dozen in my collection, there’s one for every mood and outfit. I definitely have favourites, though. Wanna see them? Of course you do.

The Timex moon phase watch was one of my thrifting White Whales for a long time. I ended up finding one on Poshmark after a years-long search, but before that happened, I found the vintage Guess version on the left at a local Goodwill. To this day, these two watches are my absolute favourites – the 2 that I’d save first in an emergency. I am a total sucker for anything moon/sun/star themed, which goes a long way to explaining my fondness for these watches. I love their vintage feel – they’re very 90s-coded to me. The Guess watch also happens to have my favourite font (?) of Roman numerals, reminiscent of the Cartier Ballon Bleu which is the watch of my dreams.

I am not generally a huge fan of skeleton watch faces, but I love the intricate steampunk-ish vibes of the vintage Fossil watch on the right. I also love how black-and-gold colour scheme pops. If you like the vibes of this trio and want to add something similar to your collection, I recommend looking at vintage Guess and Fossil because they had some great designs in the 80s and 90s. There are tons of listings on eBay, and the prices are generally far more affordable than, say, Timex and other similar brands.

The Bruno Magli watch (middle) is another piece I spent months hunting online because it reminded me of the classic Cartier tank watch, at a fraction of the price. (And I ended up finding it for a killer deal on eBay.) The vintage Emile Renaud watch on the right reminded me of the iconic Gucci stripe design. I got it for a song on Poshmark and replaced the old, cracked strap with a new leather one off Amazon. Good as new! Same strap, in a different size, went on the vintage Bulova watch I thrifted at Value Village, replacing the original metal strap that showed a ton of wear. Changing straps is a super easy way to “fix” up thrifted watches – you just need a basic watch repair kit, and there are lots of inexpensive ones on Amazon. (They will also allow you to replace batteries at home, if a working watch is a must have for you 😉)

On a related note: if, like me, you have champagne tastes and a beer budget, it’s worth looking at non-dupe dupes. Inspiration being a widely accepted form of flattery in the fashion/design industry, many iconic designs end up being “copied” by a variety of different brands at various price points. The Emile Renaud watch is a good example of that. It’s not pretending to be Gucci (i.e. not stamped as such), but it looks an awful lot like, well, you know what.

I tend to gravitate towards watches on the daintier side, but the Michael Kors watch on the left is an exception. It’s hefty … and I love it! I think it’s the purple-blue watch face, along with the chunky Roman numerals (sense a theme?), that make it a standout for me. The Anne Klein watch on the right was my attempt to “dupe” the Cartier Ballon Bleu at an affordable price point (aka under $50). It checks off all my boxes, but it has one downside – the strap is non-adjustable and slightly large for my wrist. I have to wear it pushed up my arm a bit, which I don’t love. I got the watch on eBay and assumed that, like most bracelet-type straps, I could adjust the size by removing links. Wrong. It also turns out that it’s basically impossible to remove and replace the entire bracelet. Sigh.

Last but not least, shoutout to the “starry night” Skagen Anita watch, one of my OGs. I have a couple of versions of this design, and it’s such a cool, minimalist everyday option. It’s definitely something of an outlier in this line-up, but I still adore it. It’s a rare sighting on the secondhand market, but worth chasing down — I always get tons of compliments whenever I wear it.

And there you have it: the highlights on my (current) watch collection. I’m still dreaming of a day when I might get my paws on the one watch to rule them all [ahem, Cartier] but I’m happy making memories with this lot in the meantime.

Come tell me all about your fave watches in the comments!