It’s Mercury and Jupiter retrograde, friends – hold on to your everything. The planets be wilding out there. Against common advice, I decided this was a good week to do All The Things. Which is to say, I did a bunch of really important book publishing related stuff. If you’re on the mailing list for my author newsletter, you will have received some exciting updates in your inbox. All I’m going to say here now is: bookmark January 8, 2026 because that is the day when A Party to Murder will be released!

OK, I’m going to say one more thing: the e-book is now available for pre-order (Amazon and other retailers), and I would be eternally grateful if you chose to support me by pre-ordering in advance of Jan 8. Pre-orders are hugely important to the ranking that new books get on release on platforms like Amazon, which in turn impacts the algorithms that determine how broadly the book gets pushed out to other customers. Basically, the more successful Amazon’s algorithm thinks your book is, the more it shows it to other people. (A Party to Murder is available on a number of different online retailers’ platforms, so there are options for people who don’t want to support Amazon).

In other news, this week I fell down an Instagram rabbit hole of Frankenstein-related content. I am talking, of course, about Guillermo del Toro’s new movie. I haven’t seen it, and I’m not sure I want to – I’ve heard it focuses on an exploration of parent-child and intergenerational trauma, and that’s just too heavy for my current emotional bandwidth to handle. But I’m obsessed with the gothic romance vibed clips I’ve seen … and I say that as someone who never considered herself a monster romance girlie. If anyone can change my mind, it’s GdT, I suppose. (Crimson Peak still occupies a significant portion of my brain-space, rent free all these years later.) Who else would cast a 6’5 Australian hunk as a ‘monster’ and have him wear a mummy’s version of a Speedo for a good chunk of the movie? GdT knows what he’s doing … and, let’s be honest, we are all here for it. I am also sat for the costumes – his movies are always flawless when it comes to vibes + style, even if the pacing and plot are sometimes a bit wobbly. Personally, I just want to watch Elizabeth and the Creature hang out and bond over the beauty of nature and how much they both hate Victor. That’s it, that’s the movie. I hope there will be a director cut of this at some point.

Not coincidentally, my Instagram discovery page is now saturated with Jacob Elordi-adjacent content. Generally speaking, I’m not mad about it. In this trash fire year of our lord 2025, there are a lot of far, far, far worse things I could be doom-scrolling through. Did I mention he’s 6’5? Anyway. The worst thing that has come out of this is … God, I can’t believe I’m about to admit this … I’m now kinda intrigued by Emerald Fennel’s upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights. OK! Before you come at me with your literary pitchforks, listen: I made fun of it too when the first on-set photos came out. It looks utterly stupid as an actual literary adaptation and it’s completely historically anachronistic, and I don’t even like Wuthering Heights the book. [In fact, I loathe it. Now you can come at me with the pitchforks.]

But!

If you look at it as a thirst trap for people who enjoy quasi-historical cosplay and toxic smutty romances, I think it might be a really fun ride, no pun intended. Like, based on the trailer, this movie looks like it was made for people who like Frankenstein’s Creature but want to call him daddy. I hope the trailer and the advance buzz for this movie haven’t oversold how horny and depraved it is. I think it would be super interesting (ahem) to see that kind of story told from a female perspective, ya know?

Full disclosure: I have not seen Saltburn or anything else from either Fennell or her lead actors. [Yes, that means I haven’t seen Barbie either.]

Have a great weekend!

One of my favourite clothing purchases this year was an H&M cardigan. Yes, you read that correctly. It was secondhand, and I paid very nearly full retail price for it. Yes, you read that correctly too.

“But, Adina,” I can hear some of you go, “why?! And how, when your closet is full of amazing designer pieces?”

I’m going to hold your hand as I say this: not every piece in your closet needs to be amazing. It’s OK if some things are just good enough. Provided – and this is important – that they do one of two things (and preferably both): (1) they fill a functional need, and/or (2) they spark joy. That H&M cardigan? It’s good enough to do both, and I love that for me.

I am as guilty as the next gal of falling prey to the mindset that one’s closet is a work of constant progress, in which even basics need to be ‘elevated’ to their peak iteration. I’ve done a lot of ‘elevating’ in my years of clothes-buying, using thrifting to source the highest quality pieces I could reasonably get my hands on. And many of the items currently in my closet are pretty high quality indeed. Lately, though, I’ve been revisiting the whole idea and pondering how, in many ways, it boils down to a striving for perfection. To wanting to make the best and most optimal choices. This is not necessarily a bad thing (though some people have suggested that, on the whole, ‘maximizers’ tend to be less content than ‘satisficers’, but that’s another blog post). I am all about maximizing the value of my money; after all, finding the best quality stuff for the (relatively) lowest price possible is my raison d’etre as a thrifter. Just kidding. [But not really.]

On the other hand, value doesn’t only (or always) come from quality. Utility and joy also represent and give value, and they do so independently of quality. Let’s dig into that a bit further. In many cases, it’s probably fair to say that, for example, utility + quality = great value. Sometimes, though, the contribution made by quality to that equation is less significant than might appear at first. Sometimes, the bulk of an item’s value (to the individual person) derives from its utility, and the quality is just a cherry on top. And the same goes for joy + quality, too. In those cases, paying extra for quality – whether in terms of a cost premium or in time spent looking for the “perfect” item – isn’t really worth the sauce.

Let’s take the example of my H&M cardigan.

When I thrifted my first version, in black, at the beginning of the year, I didn’t think it was an especially exciting purchase. I bought it not because the quality was amazing – it’s OK, but more on that in a moment – but because it fit specific criteria that I had for the kind of cardigan that was missing from my closet at that time. It’s chunky and a little boxy but not too bulky. It’s cropped at the perfect length for me, which is important because I’m particular about proportions in my outfits; I had been struggling to find a cardigan that was the length I needed for my preferred aesthetic. It’s very plain and unfussy, which makes it a good “unobtrusive” piece to add to a variety of different outfits – aka a basic staple. And guess what? Over the course of the year, I found myself reaching for this cardigan constantly. Like, nearly every week … which, for someone with as big a closet as I have, is saying a lot.

And you know what else started happening? I found myself thinking, ‘gosh, it would be so handy to have this in cream or beige.’ Because sometimes I’d want the exact same style/functionality but in a different, lighter neutral to go with a particular outfit. I ended up finding a near-identical version (also H&M) in blush pink at the thrifts, which helped fill the whole to some extent. Still, though, I continued to “miss” a cream version in my closet.

Well, you know what happened next.

And as much as it pained me to pay $30 for a secondhand H&M cardigan, I did it and I have no regrets. I’ve already worn it a handful of times and I’m sure that will continue.

So, what about the quality?

We’ve talked about this before, but quality in fast fashion (which now describes the vast majority of the fashion industry, not just Shein, Zara, and H&M) is very hit and miss. Now and then, there are pieces that are better quality than the usual norm. Not amazing, but good enough. What do I mean by that? I mean good enough to do the job they need to do, for a good enough amount of time. My H&M cardigan is a cotton blend (mixed with acrylic) but has a handfeel that I like – it feels like decent cotton, isn’t scratchy, isn’t too thin, etc. I enjoy how it feels on my body when I wear it. It can be machine washed, which is great. I don’t throw mine in the dryer, which should extend its longevity. I see no reason why this cardigan won’t last me for years and years. It’s good enough.

Now, I could have spent more time (and probably more money) trying to find a “nicer” version of this cardigan – maybe one that’s 100% cotton and a better brand. But the value I would get from the increase in material quality would be relatively minimal in this situation. Construction-wise, given the nature of the garment, I’m not sure there is a ton of room for meaningful improvement in quality there either; certainly not enough to materially improve its wearability to me.

A last word on joy: while this cardigan doesn’t exactly spark joy in and of itself, the outfits I am able to make with it do. So, indirectly, I guess it does bring me joy to have it in my closet 🙂

Perfect.

Kinda hard to believe it’s November but also, thank God. I really, really could use a break, and I’m planning to take a couple weeks off work around the holidays, which can’t come soon enough. I will not bore you with the details, but I had another major anxiety spiral this week (what’s new, lol!) in regards to the process/logistics of self-publishing, and that was a real downer. I keep telling myself that doing hard things is a sign of growth in progress … but, honestly, it would be nice to do a little less growing and a bit more coasting this time of year. I’m exhausted!

This week, I channeled my spiritual malaise into splurging on some new books. I say “splurged” because they were both $30+ (for paperbacks). To be fair, though, one is literally 1,000 pages long (and the other is almost 500). I know what I’ll be reading for the rest of the year. One is Blinding by Mircea Cartarescu – whose Solenoid is one of my fave books of the past decade – and the other is Schattenfroh by Michael Lenz. Both, coincidentally, are translations (one from Romanian, one from German) and literary fiction. I got them as fuel for my writer’s brain. Having started Blinding, I can confirm that I made the right decision; the prose is stunning (Sean Cotter’s translation is brilliant) and the narration is lighting up my brain like an acid trip. [Full disclosure: I have never taken drugs of any sort, so I’m just guessing here, hah!] There is no plot, really; just gorgeous language and one devastating idea/insight/image after another.

I am currently angry at Value Village for making their latest 30% off coupon valid only Wed-Fri this week. It’s bullsh*t. In the past, these coupons – which get sent rarely, because thrift grift always be grifting – used to be good till Sunday, allowing me to shop on the weekends when I can go in the morning and enjoy a quiet(er) store. I guess I’m gonna pass this time. Frankly, in recent months, thrifting has taken a real nosedive. Part of it is my own lack of interest, as I’ve been busy with writing and other things, but part of it is the continuing decline in the quality of stuff at the thrifts, combined with increasing prices. I know I sound like a broken record now, but … ughh. I miss the old days!

This weekend, I’m going to a friend’s 50^th birthday party and the theme is the 90s, which is very exciting. (She is also having it in the afternoon/early evening which is extremely appreciated because, let’s face it, staying up past 9 PM is a real struggle for some of us these days.) I haven’t figured out what I’m going to wear yet, which is stressing me out a little bit. I think I’m struggling to decide because I wear 90s style so often these days that I’ve become oblivious to it. It’s, like, what even is a quintessential 90s outfit versus, you know, what I wear every day? Anyway, I’m thinking that I’ll go with grunge – maybe a short plaid skirt and Docs and a graphic tee – but we’ll see.

Have a great weekend!