All Aboard!

It's just a sweet, sweet fantasy baby.

I’ve been trying to be better about leaving the phone behind on my daily walks lately. Something about quieting all of the noise. I feel like I’m holding so much in my head — everything from padded mailer dimensions (online orders!) to coordinating authors for events to query letter follow-ups to the dreaded summer camp scheduling — that I’m looking for ways to settle down internally. It’s been glorious listening to the birds and the bees. Less glorious listening to my own mental chatter.

But, while I was doing laundry and vacuuming, I did queue up this episode of Mel Robbins with two Stanford professors about designing your life. Mel drives me a little nuts, but the two guys were so charming and optimistic about LIFE!

Glenn Close living the DREAM

The questions they posed are actually echoed down below in the American Fantasy review (!!). They believe that most people can envision multiple lives for themselves. I currently own a bookstore, but I also dream of finally finishing my Napa-set novel. And, if I take it further and there was zero judgement, it would be an absolute fantasy to have that novel adapted for tv or film. Again, reaching for the stars here! But it can also be smaller. One of the professors would like to someday be a waiter in a fine dining restaurant. He also decided that he wanted to try his hand at painting. Fascinating!

Imagine all of the lives out there waiting to be discovered if you’re curious enough to ask yourself. Who knows where these fantasies might lead.

• By the time I clicked on Sezane’s spring release email, this truly excellent shift dress was already sold out (really, the whole look, right down to the anklet), but I’m setting an alert in the hopes that it comes back in stock. And this cotton sweater is the perfect shape.

• Faye is heading off to sleep away camp for the first time this summer (cue the waterworks! Also, the excitement!) so I’m starting to check things off her packing list. First up, this outrageously cool windbreaker/rain jacket with SPF. Now to find the least hideous pair of Keens that I can…

• There’s a lot of online chatter about Carolyn Bessette’s oval sunglasses (these look very good), but I’m really interested in JFK Jr.’s!! My husband desperately needs some new shades and these Ray-Bans come pretty close.

• DTF St. Louis — Are you watching? One episode in and I’m still on the fence. Why do all shows seem to give away the main plot point right away and then film the rest of the season as flashbacks? I want things to unfold! I know there will be more to uncover, but I don’t know about this one.

• I saw the very stylish Laurel Pantin in the mustard version of this top and fell hard, but it’s the cherry red that’s really calling my name.

American Fantasy by Emma Straub

Gah!! My advanced copy has been burning a hole in my nightstand for months — I wanted to read it as close to the release date as possible (4/7), but I could wait no longer! I will read absolutely anything that Emma Straub writes (do you get her supremely wonderful newsletter??).

This Time Tomorrow will always have a soft spot in my heart. Emma wrote it as a love letter to her dad and I read it shortly after my own dad died, laughing and crying my way through it. All to say, it made me a fan for life and American Fantasy did not disappoint!

I’m going to keep it high level here because I don’t want to spoil a single second of the joy and tenderness and gorgeous humanness dripping from every page. Broad strokes: Annie, a 50 year old woman, gets roped into taking a cruise with Boy Talk, her favorite boy band from her youth. She finds herself on board with thousands of other super fans — there are a lot of delightful Etsy-inspired clothing descriptions with Boy Talk faces airbrushed on bathing suits and t-shirts and pajamas — though Annie is a little embarrassed to be there.

Emma writes women so well!! I underlined a thousand things like when Annie is thinking about her recent ex-husband finding a younger wife:

“Chris had found a newer model. That’s what men did. And then the old models—interesting, smart women—hung out with each other until they died.”

And this:

“Annie didn’t feel like an old dog. She didn’t feel like a young dog either—she hadn’t gotten her period in two months, and plucking her errant chin hairs was one of her most satisfying tasks—but still, Annie felt vibrant and alive and that she wasn’t ready to slink off into a corner of an Eileen Fisher…”

There is so much understanding of what it is to be a woman rediscovering herself after having outgrown the roles of wife and mother and a career. And against it all, you get Keith’s point of view. Kieth is one of the aging members of Boy Talk and Emma also seems to really understand middle-aged men. Both! And!

It is fun and escapist and also tenderly knowing. I felt so seen and also like maybe I need a few days on a themed cruise ship?? Something I never would have dreamed of before. It also begs the question: what’s your fantasy? See my little intro above for a deeper dive into this idea.

Out April 7th, I ordered a million copies for the store because I think everyone is going to want one. You can pre-order here and pick it up in person (or I can ship!) as soon as it hits the shelves.

1. A big, beautiful, happy-making canvas tote to go from the airplane to the pool.

2. These women are dancing the night away — there isn’t time between shows to be worrying about hair. Enter my favorite dry shampoo to keep things from getting too weird.

3. American Fantasy by Emma Straub

4. This lemony beaded necklace with a tangle of beachy charms?! Get out.

5. A very chic headscarf (but make it a practical headband) so Annie can look like Jackie O’ aboard the American Fantasy.

6. $5 flip flops — the navy!

7. A sequined mini skirt for a very chic take on a Disco-themed night.

8. I am a broken record about this SPF, but it just that good. Gives you glowy, gorgeous skin. And who doesn’t want that?

9. My all-time favorite big brimmed sun hat is a necessity out on the open sea. Plus, it’s packable!

10. This gorgeous, breezy dress would feel incredible thrown on at the end of a day poolside. It’s all of the money, but this is a fantasy, right?

11. Really, this whole look for chilly nights up on the Lido deck. Knit Jacket. Pants.

I’ll be here navigating 95+ degree March days and looking for my next escape. Hope you’re reading something good 💚