End-of-Summer Sprezzatura

An Exercise in Studied Carelessness

Photo by Miss Porcelain on Unsplash

Sprezzatura is a fabulous Italian word that, according to Miriam Webster means studied nonchalance : graceful conduct or performance without apparent effort. I’m feeling the end of summer laziness, so this week’s post is going to be an exercise in sprezzatura. A nonchalant roundup of all the things that have captured my fancy in some way or another lately rather than my more wordy, intellectual musings. But maybe this will be more fun. Ready?

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What’s Capturing My Interest/Bringing Me Joy This Week

• I loved discovering more about some of the world’s most magnificent libraries!

• Reading this 1968 essay from M.F.K. Fisher gave me immense pleasure. She really was a master at this whole food writing thing.
  

• Some of you know I’m a gamer…I have loved playing video games (especially story-rich games) since I was a kid in the 80s. Lately, I’ve been loving Baldurs Gate 3, Guild Wars 2’s latest expansion Secrets of the Obscure, and I really can’t wait for Starfield to come out (early access TONIGHT!).

• Do you stick your tongue out when you are concentrating? I do, and my husband is forever making fun of me for it. Here’s why we do it.
  

• This cartoon a coworker shared in our #dadjokes channel made me laugh.

• I hope you’ll consider joining me on Threads, the Meta alternative to Instagram. I’m enjoying it quite a lot, and while they are still making upgrades to it all the time (it still needs search, save, and DM features), I’m finding it to be a really chill place with a lot of bookish, academic, fun people. If you were thinking of not joining because you heard that you can’t delete Threads without deleting Facebook, that’s true because the technology for Threads is based on Instagram. But that said, they’re looking for a way to decouple Threads, so that will be coming. And if you join and decide it’s not for you, can you easily deactivate your profile. The best part about it is that if you feel like your Instagram is a great place to be when you activate Threads, all your Instagram followers who have activated Threads will automatically follow you (except blocked Instagram followers!) so you will have an immediate audience. They also released their desktop app, making it easier to spend your day at a computer like I do.
  

• I’ve talked about my love for Kris Waldherr’s novel, UNNATURAL CREATURES before, and if you haven’t read it, now is the time to snag it. Today is the LAST DAY for the $1.99 BookBub deal!

  

• I do feel like this is really true:

• This is SUCH a great idea. Late-night hosts switch to podcasting to help pay out-of-work staff during the strikes: Now you can get Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel, Meyers & Oliver in one place. Be ready for a little language. The first episode of Strike Force Five aired yesterday.

• Merlin is living the life. Don’t you wish you could give this guy a good belly rub?

  

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Congrats 🎉🎉to Ellen Kitson, the winner of last week’s book giveaway of A Day of Fire following the lives of those in ancient Pompeii on the fateful day Mount Vesuvius erupts, written by six bestselling authors, Victoria Alvear, Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot, and Kate Quinn. I’ll do more book giveaways in the future, so stay tuned.

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Thanks for Joining Me

If you love food and love Italy, and haven’t read THE CHEF’S SECRET or FEAST OF SORROW, click the links to learn where to buy your copy! 🍒🍗🍷

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