Ten Titles: Vacation Reading Winter 2026

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When it comes to travel, nothing beats an e-reader. I have a whole system about putting books on hold on Libby, and then strategically suspending and unsuspending them to fill my Kobo just before I leave on vacation to maximize the three-week borrowing term. It works great! Unless the Kobo freezes up and has an issue, in which case it is not great, Bob.

And that did happen for me a couple of times on this trip, which makes me think that I should take a physical book with me as insurance. But physical books take up space! I pack carryon only! There are weight restrictions on certain airlines! And I have always eventually managed to get the Kobo working again, which gives me both a whew feeling and also a am I running out of time feeling. The tl;dr of this is that maybe I need a new, non-wonky e-reader. But this one still works, I’ll think, and then I’ll feel panicked all over again because what if it doesn’t?

Anyway. I managed to read ten books in the past three weeks, thanks to lots of plane, boat, and bus time. I was disappointed because Pick A Colour, a book I have been looking forward to, came up on my Libby holds but then disappeared off of my Kobo, and no amount of searching could find it. Hopefully it will come up on my physical library holds soon. Also, I had a DNF, and that DNF is a popular book that I am almost scared to tell you about: The Academy. I was reading it in Cambodia, where the high school attendance rate is something like 21%, because school fees are too high for the mainly impoverished population, and teenagers are needed to help bring in income for their families. Given that, I had a very hard time getting into a story about extremely privileged teens at an elite boarding school. I got to a part where they describe the particular clothing people had to wear for dances, based on their grade – sorry, their “form” – and I just closed the book, never to reopen it. Wrong place, wrong time.

But what did I read? Some rereads, some new reads, some great reads, some mediocre reads, some reads that I’ve already kind of forgotten about. Here we go!

Vacation Reading Winter 2026

Totally and Completely Fine. This was a cute and sweet story about a pretty heavy topic: grief, and learning to live and love after loss. It’s a crossover book with the author’s hit Funny You Should Ask; I think reading the two together would be a fun experience. Unfortunately I read Funny You Should Ask years ago and I cannot remember much about it at all.

The Age of Innocence. I read this book years ago and liked it – but after watching The Gilded Age, I liked it even more on the reread! Talk of a new opera house! Forbidden love! Affairs! Deeply ingrained rules of society! Very fun. I decided to reread it because it was my friend Engie’s Cool Blogger Book Club pick (HI ENGIE) and I felt I could use a refresher. Not that I’ve participated in any of the discussions yet! Can I still use jetlag as an excuse? No, I cannot.

Heartburn. A great reread for a long boat ride! Nora Ephron’s novel based on her own divorce when she discovered – at seven months pregnant – that her husband was having an affair. IMAGINE. There is a pie-in-the-face scene which is satisfying, but also feels like a steel-pipe-in-face scene would be even better. Who cheats on their wife when she is pregnant? Or anytime? NOT COOL, CARL BERNSTEIN.

Revenge of the Tipping Point. Years ago I read The Tipping Point, and this is Gladwell’s interesting and refreshed look at superspreader events, white flight, the opioid crisis, and how people really can choose to make change – we are not at the helpless mercy of societal waves. Interestingly enough, while I was reading this, I chatted with one of our tour mates who was a social worker in England who dealt with addiction issues. He told me that there is not, and never has been, an opioid problem in England or, indeed, anywhere in Europe.

Chop Suey Nation. I first read this when it came out in 2019 and it was a good reread for a long bus day. The author, a Globe and Mail journalist, travels across Canada by car to visit small town “Chinese Western restaurants” to learn about the owners and their lives. Her own parents also owned a restaurant in the 70s. It’s a fascinating look into the Chinese immigrant experience in Canada.

Frying Plantain. I first read this in 2020; a friend loaned it to me when it was lockdown and all the libraries were closed. She feared for my sanity and I appreciate that! It was a good reread – great, actually! It’s a collection of connected stories about a Canadian born girl of Jamaican descent and her life in Little Jamaica, Toronto. It’s a moving and beautiful commentary on mothers and daughters, on seeking a better life, and on the juxtaposition between life in the community and in society as a whole.

Half of a Yellow Sun. I really like this author and this book delves into the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967-70, from the points of view of two wealthy twin Igbo sisters and their partners, one a revolutionary and one a British ex-pat, as well as the revolutionary’s houseboy. I learned a lot about something that I knew literally nothing about. It’s an unsparing, often brutal look at the human cost of war. Incredibly difficult to read about the plight of the children especially, but it’s important, I think, to know about such atrocities.

Somehow. I really like this author and this is a lyrical little book about love and connection, with a heavy emphasis on Lamott’s true Christian faith, of the What Would Jesus Do variety. It made me think hard about the ways we show up for other people, in sometimes misguided but well-meaning ways. I read this in the flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver so it is a bit scattered in my brain. I don’t think the book is scattered, I think it’s me.

A Summer Affair. As the title suggests, this book is about a summer affair between a mom of four and the man who is on the board for a charity gala that she is co-chairing. It’s an interesting choice as the man is described as being much less attractive than her husband, with whom she has an active sex life, but who also doesn’t pay attention to her. It felt oddly realistic, and I really enjoyed it – I love a juicy affair story! Also the DRAMA surrounding a charity gala was fun to read, and strangely relatable – I have been amazed at the drama that surrounds events on a much smaller scale. I shall never forget the drama surrounding Fun Lunch, during my days chairing the School Council/ Parent Association. My friend Nicole (HI NICOLE) also reminded me of the brouhaha surrounding the idea of Fresh Fruit Fridays. In any case, this was a fun read, although the ending was not super satisfying for me. There is a lot of character crossover in these books, which would work better for me if I had read more of them! Maybe I need to read them in order of publication.

The Guest List. This multi-POV thriller about a wild wedding weekend had a lot of twists and turns, and ended in an unexpected way. I don’t know what else to say about thrillers! It feels too easy to let a spoiler slip! So I will say nothing.

Speaking of books, there’s still time to enter the giveaway for a signed copy of Inhale Exhale! Monday’s post will address all the questions from my Ask Me Anything with regards to my writing and publishing journey for that book, from Michelle, Maya, Stephany, and Anna (HI MICHELLE MAYA STEPHANY ANNA). I also have a couple of great books that I read this past week to tell you about. Until Monday! xo

My Southeast Asia Adventure

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Happy Monday! For Valentine’s Day, I got a lot of sleep, and thank goodness. I think I underestimated how exhausted I was from travel, jetlag, and the busyness of our trip to Southeast Asia. It was well worth it but still I am glad to be, in the words of Spirit of the West, home for a rest.

We took a guided group tour with Travel Talk Tours, and on the first leg – Vietnam to Cambodia – there were 26 of us. Six people left, and two more joined when we arrived in Thailand. It was a nice mix of people; mostly Canadian, followed by British, with one couple each from India and the US. I will say that guided tours are fantastic for seeing a lot in a limited amount of time, and with all the border crossings and transportation, it was very relaxing to have all of the logistics taken care of. Also, it’s great to meet people from all over the world! For those of you who were wondering, there were no “Ms NZ’s” on this trip, although I did encounter an absolutely dreadful woman from Estonia on our boat crossing from Vietnam to Cambodia. She was the only unlikeable person I met during the entire trip.

Good Morning Vietnam!

After twenty-six hours of travel, we arrived in Vietnam. Our hotel let us check in five hours early, so we happily showered and immediately went exploring in order to stay awake before meeting up with our group that evening.

Ho Chi Minh City

Still often referred to as Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City is a busy, chaotic city – and I loved it! We quickly learned how to cross streets in Vietnam: just start walking, and hope for the best.

Mekong Delta, Cai Be, Can Tho

The very next day we headed to the Mekong Delta, where we boated around for a while and visited floating markets.

We enjoyed the night markets at Can Tho, and that was where I had the best meal in the entire trip. As a side note, it was not as easy to find delicious vegetarian dishes as I thought it would be. I was absolutely able to get rice or noodles and vegetables everywhere, but any dish more interesting than that was a rare sighting. Particularly in Thailand, where there was fish sauce and egg in nearly everything, it was trickier to eat. It was not at all hard to be dairy-free, though.

Chau Doc

This was such an interesting place; Chau Doc has a hotel from which a large speedboat launches to take tourists across the border to Cambodia. This is where having an organised group tour really pays off; the border crossing was as smooth as it could be, given that there were quite a number of restrictions and a lot of paperwork to be done. Other than the one hotel, Chau Doc is NOT a tourist destination; in fact, there are no shops, no restaurants, and certainly no English speakers that we encountered. My husband and I opted out of the bird watching excursion because I could not stand the thought of being on the bus for another two hours, and instead we wandered around the town that could not have cared less about us. It was a really cool experience.

Phnom-enal Cambodia

After a total of six hours on the boat and an hour at the border crossing, we landed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I absolutely loved Cambodia, and I think everyone should visit and boost up that country with tourism dollars.

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia, and I had emotional whiplash there. We visited our first of many Buddhist temples, where I was so happy, followed by a visit to the genocide museum, where we met one of the seven survivors of the prison and killing fields. Seven! And two are still alive. It was incredibly moving and both a testament to the human will to survive and also to the absolute horrors of the Pol Pot regime. After that, I was emotionally wrecked – I basically started to hyperventilate while looking at the mug shots of all the prisoners – but then we were taken to our absolutely stunning hotel complete with rooftop bar and hip hop music. I did not expect that at all. If that wasn’t enough of an emotional turn, the next day we toured the Royal Palace in all its beauty.

Battenbang

We saw SO much on this part of the tour! Travel Talk, like most responsible tour groups, chooses family-run businesses to patronise, which lifts them up out of poverty. We visited two women-run businesses: silver smithing and pottery. The pottery woman, in her early 60s, was a widow who also looked after her adult brother, born without the use of his legs. Life is very hard in general in Cambodia, but for widows and the disabled it is particularly difficult. In any case, I was very pleased to use my shopping dollars for silver and pottery! In between those two, we climbed to a hilltop temple, visited a monastery, and then went to a cave to watch the nightly migration of eight MILLION bats coming out of a cave. I will tell you that by that time, I was tired and a bit cranky, and as I stared at the cave I thought this is stupid. But then! A couple of reconnaissance bats flew out, followed by an enormous flow of bats that continued for twenty minutes. It was honestly really incredible to see. Nature! It is miraculous. The bats feed on the insects in the rice paddies that would otherwise harm the crops.

The next morning we took a ride on a bamboo train, which I thought would be an actual train, but instead was this:

It was honestly so fun; once these were used to haul bamboo and other things, but now they are used for tourist rides, and I am one hundred percent into anything that brings money to these regions. After that we climbed to another hilltop temple – this one an ancient Hindu temple – and carried on to Siem Reap.

Siem Reap

We had a fantastic day touring Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Ta Ream. Truly incredible sights, a memorable day to be sure.

I was seeking out shade – we were there in “winter” and wow, it was hot!

Thai-ing Out Thailand

We flew from Siem Reap to Bangkok, and if you think I didn’t have One Night in Bangkok stuck in my head, then you don’t know me at all.

Bangkok

There are 44000 temples in Thailand, and I will say one thing right now: if you’re not interested in temples, maybe give this trip a pass. Fortunately, I AM interested, and a day in which we visited two temples and the Grand Palace, where the famous Emerald Buddha resides, was lovely.

The queen’s mother had just died, and so the Grand Palace was not open to visitors until 1pm, which meant that it was very hot and very crowded – but hey, it’s Bangkok! The world’s our oyster!

Kanchanaburi, Ayutthaya

After Bangkok, we visited a museum dedicated to those who died building the railroad from Thailand to Burma, and went to the Mae Klong river, also known as the River Kwai.

We took a short hike through Hellfire Pass and saw Burma in the distance.

Phisanoruk

This day started early for six of us, who got up to make a food donation to a local monk, and received blessings in return. After that we visited more temples, and the remains of an ancient royal palace.

Sukhothai, Chaing Rai

There were a few long driving days, but we saw more incredible temples and a “hidden” Buddha.

Chaing Rai is home to the Blue Temple – my favourite colour! – and the very Instagrammable White Temple. I know this is a controversial opinion, but I love seeing people set up photos that are obviously meant for Instagram. It’s kind of delightful.

Chaing Mai

There are some days that will forever be etched in my memory. This was one of the best days of my entire life. We visited an elephant sanctuary, where we fed, bathed, and walked with elephants that had been rescued from very bad situations in the logging industry and circuses. Elephants are such incredible creatures, and it was such a gift to be so close to them.

A couple of people have asked about the clothing that we were all wearing: the rescue organisation gives every visitor to the sanctuary these red outfits to wear, plus rubber boots. Elephants cannot see very well, and because of their abused pasts, get agitated with unknown people. But they associate these red outfits with safe people, and so they accept the presence of visitors wearing them calmly and without stress.

If that wasn’t enough, after the elephants we drove up a very long and winding road to a temple that overlooks Chaing Mai. I was not particularly prepared for this, and was wearing a tank top and short skirt, which are not allowed inside a temple. I had resigned myself to just walking around the outer area.

As I looked at the temple entrance, a woman materialised beside me, holding out a shawl and a long skirt, nodding toward it. I am not one to turn down signs like that. I put the clothing on overtop my clothes, and ended up being blessed by the monk inside.

Hong Kong

The next day we got up early for our flight to Hong Kong. Such a fascinating and busy city it is! We had only a day and a half there, but definitely made the most of it, exploring on foot and taking the Peak Tram to look at the city. The city is preparing for Lunar New Year, and I enjoyed all the horses around.

It was a wonderful trip, and I’d like to go back in that direction one day to explore northern Vietnam and the beaches of Thailand. I’ll be back later this week to tell you about the books I read – including a DNF! – but for now, I hope you have a wonderful week, friends. Thanks for coming along on the journey. xo

Five For Friday: The So Very Grateful Edition

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Inhaling Love, Exhaling Happiness. First of all, thank you all SO much for your enthusiasm and support for Inhale Exhale! I am overwhelmed with love and happiness. I have been receiving so many lovely messages and it means the world to me. My little novel is but a drop in the ocean of books released every year, but every time someone shares on social media, leaves a review, or blogs about it, the ripples get larger, and for that I am so very grateful. Thank you to everyone who has purchased a copy, shared a post, rated, and reviewed! Big thanks to Suzanne (HI SUZANNE) who very kindly hosted a giveaway, and to Coco, Michelle, Julie, Sarah, SHU, Alondra, Laura, Allison, Kyria, Maya, and Birchie, for the blog links. (HI SUZANNE COCO MICHELLE JULIE SARAH SHU ALONDRA LAURA ALLISON KYRIA MAYA BIRCHIE) (If I missed you, please let me know! I had over 200 unread posts in my reader on Monday, so apologies if things got lost in the shuffle!).

My book, in Vietnam!

Where In The World Was I? My husband and I were in Southeast Asia! We visited four countries, if you include the day and a half we spent in Hong Kong – which I do! – which meant four border crossings, four different currencies, and four languages in which I learned how to say hello, thank you, and vegetarian. I also learned how to say this food is delicious in Thai. In addition to our brief time in Hong Kong, we were in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, three neighbouring but very different countries. I will have more to say about that on Monday’s post; for now I will just tell you that it was a wonderful trip in which we saw and experienced incredible, interesting things. Travel is a big priority for us right now since we are both healthy, fit, and mobile, and as we all know, a person cannot take those things for granted. I hope we will be healthy, fit, and mobile for many decades to come, but you just never know. As we went through this trip, it occurred to me constantly that such travel would be very difficult for people with mobility and health issues. Steps and stairs, uneven walking surfaces, long hours on buses and planes – none of these things get easier with age, and so we have a pretty heavy travel schedule planned for the next few years. Health! I am grateful for it.

Getting steps in, literally.

Time Travel. Speaking of long hours on planes, it took us over twenty-six hours of travel to get from our house to Vietnam, and because we flew over the international date line, we skipped a day. On the way home, we left Hong Kong at 1 am on Monday night and arrived on Canadian soil at 7:45 pm Sunday, and it was nearly midnight before we were back at our house. Time travel! I should have bought a lottery ticket. It took until Wednesday for me to not feel that bone-deep, jetlagged fatigue, and to be able to do anything that required more than minimal brain function. I mean, I forgot the word for “lunch.” I will say that we had lie-flat seats for the long flights, which helped immensely, and I am, again, grateful to be able to travel this way.

Travel, make new friends.

Staying Healthy, Somehow. I am almost hesitant to write this lest I be smote, but my husband and I were healthy the entire trip, and have been since we got home. How, I do not know. It was pretty easy to avoid Traveller’s Tummy, because we only consumed hot, cooked meals, peeled fruit, and filtered water, but I don’t know how we dodged the coughs and colds that seem to be rampant. We were in many very crowded places, including several planes, and by the end of the trip it seemed like a third of our tour group was coughing and sneezing on the bus. There was even some dramatic tension between two friends travelling together and sharing a room, one of whom had a cough and the other of whom treated the cougher like a leper. I mean, I get it. No one wants to get sick! And I am grateful that I didn’t. But also? I felt for the poor cougher, who was – from my vantage point – being a bit shunned by her group of friends that had travelled with her.

The crowds in Bangkok were wild! This is in the Grand Palace, the site of the Emerald Buddha.
On the other hand, there were plenty of serene moments.

Today Is Galentine’s Day! It is officially Galentine’s Day today – February 13, where ladies celebrate ladies, and I am raising my glass to all of you. And, if you are a man reading this blog, you can be an honourary member of the Gals, just for today. I hope you enjoy my perimenopause content, and discussions about body sugaring. But as you all know I do adore my girlfriends, near and far, longtime and new, and everything in between. Where would we be without our gal pals? I don’t even want to think about it!

For the month of February, my friend Elisabeth (HI ELISABETH) is hosting The FIG Collective, where we all find joy in gratitude. I am grateful every single day for my life, but this week I am especially grateful for all of these things – the ability to travel, lie-flat airplane seats, health, and, most of all, the friendship and support from all of you. To show my gratitude, I am going to be doing some giveaways, both here and over on Instagram. To win a signed copy of Inhale Exhale, simply leave a comment and tell me one thing you are grateful for this very minute. If you already have a copy, OMG THANK YOU, and also I would be pleased to send, in the event that your name is drawn, the copy either to you or to a friend of your choice, in honour of Galentine’s Day. Contest closes February 21, 2026 11:59 pm PST.

I have so many things to tell you! I want to talk to you all about my trip, and books that I’ve been reading and rereading, and – since you asked in my Ask Me Anything – my thoughts about friendship, and my writing and publishing process, and SO MANY THINGS. But alas, all of those things will have to wait a few days. Happy Galentine’s – and Valentine’s! I am wishing for you an abundance of love, pink puffy hearts, and heart-shaped chocolates. And maybe a virtual elephant hug. xo

INHALE EXHALE IS HERE!!!!!

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Hi friends, I am interrupting my blog break to tell you my exciting news:

ZOMG I cannot believe it, friends. It’s here it’s here it’s here! Full book description and all the purchase details are available at nicolemacpherson.com (and it’s such a pretty little website!!!), but here are some shortcuts:

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Local friends can also purchase directly from me!

I am very excited to share this with you, friends. Many of you asked me about my writing process and publishing journey, and I promise – I PROMISE – I will give you all the details! But now I am FOR REAL on blog break for a little bit and I will be back to talk to you all about my adventures, both in writing and in reality. xo

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Brought To You By The Letter C Edition

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As I was putting together my Favourite Things this month, I realized that all of them started, or sort of started, with the letter C. So many C words! But not this C word:

My friend Hannah (HI HANNAH) sent that to me a few years ago and I think about it constantly. Every time I feel grumpy or irritated, including but not limited to around the holiday season, I think I’m a cunty reindeer topiary today! It is immediately cheering.

So I guess that IS kind of one of my Favourite Things.

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Brought To You By The Letter C Edition

Correcting The Crepe

Listen, I am a Lady of a Certain Age, and while I do not, Nora Ephron-like, feel bad about my neck, I also don’t feel great about it. I mean, it’s fine. When I smile fully all the ligaments pop out like a striated tree trunk, and it’s slightly shadowed by jowls, but in general, it’s fine. It’s a neck. Nothing is going to change those features.

But I do want the skin on my neck – and decolletage – to be as smooth as possible, and so I was influenced by a podcaster to buy this cream from Gold Bond:

I must tell you that the influencer in question is in her thirties and so I question how much crepe she is correcting, here, but I have been using this for the requisite (for me) three months, and I can say that I do see a difference. I apply a little to my stomach and lower back as well, and I really think my skin is much softer and less crepey. At the very least, it’s extremely moisturizing and also unscented, so it would probably be great for anyone suffering from winter-dry, sensitive skin.

Caffeine, Inside and Out

There are people who don’t mainline caffeine like their lives and the lives of their loved ones depend on it, and there are people who don’t wear mascara. I salute them all. However, as we all know I am an addict of both items. In addition to drinking vast amounts of coffee every day, I also like to use it in my skin care routine, specifically in my daytime undereye cream. I used to exclusively use The Ordinary Caffeine Solution, but a few months ago I bought Neutrogena’s Caffeine Undereye Cream SPECIFICALLY because I got PC points for Neutrogena products at Superstore.

Does it work? I have no idea, because I do not know what I’d look like without using a caffeinated undereye cream. But it has a nice little tingle to it and my undereye bags do not look like steamer trunks, so I will take it as a win. I do have little wrinkles around my eyes but, as esteemed beauty editor Val Monroe says, those are the least unbeautiful lines on my face.

Casing The Joint

Speaking of the letter C, my beloved Aunty C (HI AUNTY) has been gently after me for years to use a silk pillowcase, and for years I have gently ignored this advice because I am half Scottish. I already have a pillowcase! I would think, in a miserly manner, looking at the price of silk pillowcases. Plus, if you have one you have to have two, as they are hand-wash-hang-to-dry items. What am I, made of money? However. Blissy had a wild Black Friday sale, and I quickly consulted Aunty C to get her opinion on the brand. She mentioned that a couple of other brands had a better gromme count, something I have zero knowledge about, but, as she says, at the end of the day, the sale wins. I crossed the Rubicon, so to speak, and she was right: I’m never looking back.

Not only do I see an improvement in my skin and less hair breakage, but it’s also cooler, and I think we all know that Ladies of a Certain Age enjoy a bit of coolness in the bedroom. We are Hot Stuff, literally and figuratively.

Plus it comes in such a cute little box! What I wouldn’t have done for a handy little box like this when I was a kid, in which to keep treasures and doll clothes and whatnot. I have saved the boxes and maybe there will be a treasure that needs a home.

Creatine-ing a Monster

My husband and sons have used creatine “for gains” for a number of years, and I was always quite critical of this. My husband would assure me that creatine is “the most researched supplement on the planet” which is probably true, because men. However! I dug in my heels and argued against it, and my argument was an unresearched “that’s stupid.”

Well, well, well. How the mighty have fallen. Just like everything I have viewed through the Judgmental Lens in my life, this has come back to bite me. It all started when my husband started telling me about new research regarding perimenopausal women and creatine, and how many benefits accrue from its usage, including increased bone density. And that, right there, is my kryptonite. I feel that I spent my prime bone-building years neglecting my poor skeleton, if not outwardly abusing it. I have been trying very hard to make up for those lost years, and so I now grimly scoop some creatine into my morning BCAA mixture.

I’ve been using this for, again, three months, and I really have gotten stronger. The econometrician in me would like to note that it is impossible to net out the changes from regular strength gains through the routine I’ve had in place for the last five years, as I am not living a sliding-door kind of double life. However, I have noticed a real increase and that makes me and my skeleton happy.

Cardio Queen

To me, there are few things less interesting to read or write about than the details of workout routines, but I got a very fun, workout-adjacent question in my Ask Me Anything from Lindsay (HI LINDSAY): How do you select your Peloton classes? Do you plan them in advance or go with vibes on the day?

This summer will mark six years since my husband, in what can only be called an act of self-preservation, rearranged our basement in order to fit the Peloton which he had ordered for me. It is never a chore for me to do my nearly-daily ride, and that is because I have a very specific, very joyful way of choosing them: I have a backlog of “bookmarked” rides based on the instructor and the playlist. Over the past six years I’ve developed a roster of favourite instructors based on general vibes and class programming (more climbs, fewer sprints): Ally, Cody, Hannah, and the entire British team. I rarely, if ever, take classes outside of that roster. But that’s not enough – I am very motivated by music, and so I always check the playlist first. My preference are “decades” rides, specifically from the 80s and 90s. If there is a disco ride? I can’t hit “start” fast enough!

I typically have a length of time in mind based on the day of the week, and so I look at the bookmarked classes and choose one. To answer Lindsay’s question, it’s a little bit planned and a little bit vibes, but it’s always great music and a fun, usually but not always British, instructor.

Sweaty selfie! Disco ride! Strange neck ligaments! This photo has it all.

Outfit of the Month

I was toying with discontinuing my favourite monthly outfit, but you know what? I love seeing other people’s clothes and so I’m going to keep it up for a while yet.

I have a few girlfriends – Florence, Carolyn, and Darlene specifically (HI FLORENCE HI CAROLYN HI DARLENE) who wear a lot of white and they look like snowy foxes. So crisp! So lovely! And I love the way I look in white so I always want to emulate that Snowy Fox Look, but practicality must, occasionally, prevail. All these gorgeous women go about their days in white tops and even white pants, looking fresh, and I do not know how. I know if I so much as buttoned up a pair of white pants, seconds later Rex would lean against me after rolling around outside, or I would sit in something, or I would immediately spill food or drink, or I would suddenly and unexpectedly experience an epically heavy rogue period. But every once in a while I throw caution to the wind and put on a white top, like this sheer Lululemon one with a white-and-grey striped tank underneath, a grey cardigan for warmth, and jeans.

But of course I spend ages in the kitchen every day and so I try to keep things pristine with an apron; this one was brought from Scotland by my parents many years ago.

Sadly, at dinner I managed to somehow spill salsa on my sleeve, rendering the apron useless for the intended purpose. I guess one of my Favourite Things is also Oxy Clean, for such occasions.

Friends, I am taking a blog break for a couple of weeks, and when I’m back I will have news, stories, and adventures to share. Take care of yourselves tenderly, and I will see you all (C you all?) in February. xo

The Highlight Reel

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I ended 2025 as a War History Buff, having listened to every episode on the World Wars and the leadup to those wars and interesting one-offs like the Christmas truce of 1914 on the podcast The Rest is History. I learned so much! And now, here we are, fully into January 2026, and I have become obsessed with a podcast about Sweet Valley High, Double Love, in which two Irish women around my age deep dive into each book in the 180 book series.

Hopefully this isn’t having a negative impact on my brain. I hope all my World War knowledge won’t be nudged out by dramatic 80s teen antics, but I don’t see how it won’t be. I mean, Elizabeth gets kidnapped by an orderly while candy striping at the hospital, the very same hospital that Annie is recovering in after an intentional overdose following her failure to make the cheerleading squad, due to Jessica’s bullying and rumour-spreading. How can reality compete with THAT?

There is SO much drama. There are so many dances, and dates, and tragic events! It’s making my daily drudgery so much more enjoyable. Never have I been so entertained while folding the laundry. On the topic of drudgery, in a recent discussion about social media, a friend expressed astonishment that I follow a number of authors on Instagram. What could authors possibly be posting on Instagram? she wondered. Wouldn’t their lives just be boring, sitting in front of a laptop all day?

Well. I was quite perplexed by this question because really, what does anyone post on Instagram? Most, if not all of us lead very ordinary lives filled with many dull and monotonous tasks every single day, and what is Instagram for if not to highlight little glimmers that add sparkle to those lives? It feels like the social media equivalent of Mary Oliver-ing, of paying attention and being astonished. Yes, we might spend hours in front of a laptop screen, or folding laundry, or chopping vegetables, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate our blooming amaryllis, or a sunset that knocks our socks off.

We might also appreciate how unhinged and weird Duolingo is these days.

Eddy! I am scandalized.

Not every moment is a flower or a sunset or even a weirdly sexual language app. But the truth is I actually DO love seeing the very mundane aspects of other people’s lives, and I probably WOULD enjoy seeing a whole scroll of photos of people typing busily away on laptops or folding laundry. And if a person posts a photo of their hair or outfit? I am HERE for it. I am nosy, is what I’m saying.

I have had a number of meetings lately with promotions and social media specialists, in advance of the release of Inhale Exhale, which is coming out next month, if you can believe it.

I’m very excited, of course, but am also practicing non-attachment. Sending creative work out into the world to be examined and critiqued and possibly loathed is a very vulnerable thing. This week I read The Ten Year Affair, which is one of the best books I have ever read, and guess what: it’s largely panned on Goodreads. I did what I never do, which was to read reviews, and I was absolutely shocked by them. Everyone has different tastes, of course, but I felt like so many of these reviewers completely missed the point of the book. I started to wonder if we had even read the same book, at which point I put my phone down and slowly backed away.

I was looking at my Ask Me Anything form and typing away at my laptop over the holiday break, when I looked up at my older son, who was milling around. My blog readers want me to talk about parenting adult children, I told him. But the thing is, I don’t really do anything. He shrugged. Maybe that’s the point, he said.

Putting a book out into the world feels a little bit like that. It feels like letting go and seeing what happens. I had so much fun writing it, and it turned out the way I wanted it to, and that feels like the whole point. It was pure joy to write, and I hope it brings joy to readers.

And if that doesn’t, maybe my next project will be Sweet Valley: The Midlife Years. A Botoxed Jessica gets lip fillers and they are way too overdone! The mole on Elizabeth’s shoulder has changed, and it turns out all those years of tanning on the beach were unwise! Lila’s getting her third divorce after having an affair with the guy who cleans her pool! Everyone’s skin has turned to leather! Todd’s depressed because his dreams of being a basketball star amounted to nothing and now he spends his days watching General Hospital and eating onion dip! Bruce Patman gets drunk and drives his Porsche off a bridge! Can Roger, who against all odds did make it to medical school and is now a renowned emergency medicine doctor, save him? Tune in!

Weekly Reading

Of course, anyone who follows my Instagram knows that my feed is largely made up of books that I’ve read, but one thing I don’t do is talk about my DNFs. This is mostly because, in the past, I rarely DNF a book, but that is going to CHANGE in 2026, people. I am going to DNF whenever I feel like it! And I had one this week, but I will say I hesitated greatly before putting it aside, and that is because this is a book that actually lives on my shelves. I bought a copy of The Dud Avocado after a friend recommended it, because the library didn’t have a copy. Maybe it’s because I started it after The Ten Year Affair, and I was adrift not knowing what to read after a masterpiece, but it just seemed stupid to me. But I didn’t want to abandon it because I spent money on it. This is very silly. It’s a sunk cost and if the worst comes to the worst and I never pick it up again, I can give it to a Little Free Library, where hopefully it will be loved, or at least tolerated, by someone else.

Best Laid Plans. From Childhood Reread Week to Important Adult Behaviour! Some of you may already know this author as Sarah from The Shu Box– she is part of the blogging community and also a podcaster (HI SHU). It was great to “hear” her voice on these pages. There are a lot of takeaways here for planning and organizing one’s life to achieve goals. The book has templates for annual, seasonal, monthly, weekly, and daily planning, but my favourite part was seeing quotes and anecdotes about my friends in the blogging community, shoutout to Jenny, Lisa, Elisabeth, and Kae. I felt starstruck! I KNOW THEM! (HI JENNY LISA ELISABETH KAE).

The Ten Year Affair. As noted above! Wow wow WOW. Friends, this book blew me away. Absolutely blew me away. It follows a woman who escapes the drudgery and disappointment in her life by having an affair…but only in her mind. This mental affair with a man she meets at baby playgroup lasts for years, and then the lines blur from fantasy to reality. At the end of the day this book is about the sublime and also the mediocre, the little boring ordinary details that make up a life and also the striving to make something extraordinary. The characters are complete and nuanced, and there is a lot of subtext and unwritten backstory that makes this a literary gem. It is also really, really funny. I cannot say enough about this book except that it is truly an exceptional read about a non-exceptional world. A perfect book!

Games and Rituals. After I finished The Ten Year Affair, I was in a bit of a slump, a bit bereft, a bit “what now.” So I stared at my bookshelves and saw my Katherine Heiny books and thought YES. YES, that was exactly what I needed, to reread a collection of pure delight. Friends, I cannot say enough about this author and her ability to convey deep emotion and build worlds in only a few sentences – her writing is so tight, so smart, so evocative, and so incredibly funny. This collection of short stories is just one wonderful read after another. Every single one is perfect and absolutely delightful and made me both laugh out loud and stare at the wall thoughtfully.

Happy Monday, friends. I hope you are all taking care of yourselves in these very distressing days. May I suggest listening to Sweet Valley High recaps to dissociate from the news? It works like a charm. Take care, friends. xo

Makeup As Self Care

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I was chatting with my dear friends Hannah and Allison last week (HI HANNAH HI ALLISON) about the skin care regimes of our youth. How, I ask you, do we even have skin after the 80s? I don’t know what you were doing in 1988, but in addition to pinning my future on being a mayor of an undisclosed jurisdiction, I was also using a Buf Puf to apply St Ives Apricot Scrub to my face twice daily, and following that procedure with a bracing application of Sea Breeze. Hannah and I recalled also applying toothpaste and rubbing alcohol to our pimples, and all I can say is that I’m glad my skin has forgiven me my trespasses.

My skin care routine has evolved greatly since those days, but my love of makeup, and my basic makeup procedure remains the same. Since I started wearing makeup circa 1987, I have always maintained a dark eye and a dark lip, although I do not wear Revlon’s Love That Red anymore.

This perfectly sums up “Nicole at Sixteen.” This was my favourite outfit of all time – Canadian girls of a certain age will remember Le Chateau, dream store, and I adored this swing top with a matching miniskirt. I mean, I’d probably still wear it now. And of course, Love That Red! Note the spiral perm.

In my younger years I was made to feel a lot of shame about my love for makeup, vanity being a grave character flaw. But for me, makeup is actually self-care. I do not feel ready for my day without my makeup on, and I refuse to feel badly about that. I wear a full face of makeup every single day, no matter what I am doing, no matter who I am seeing or not seeing, and no matter where I am going or not going. It’s such an important part of my day. I cannot write unless I am showered, dressed, made up, and sitting at my desk. Basically I can’t function without that routine. And yes, I probably do think that song is about me, but it’s more than that, it makes me feel good about myself. I guess I work from the outside in.

Last month my friends Elisabeth and Sarah (HI ELISABETH HI SARAH) posted about their makeup routines; Elisabeth’s specifically is “3 Minute, Cheap, and Minimal.” I would say mine would be whatever the opposite of that is, although to be fair, it probably only takes about ten minutes. It’s not minimal, and it’s not particularly cheap, although I do use some drugstore products. The only time that I would say it is minimal and takes three minutes is post-exercise, pre-walking the dog, where I put on a mere four products: SPF moisturizer, pressed powder, mascara, and tinted lip balm.

My post-walk-and-shower face includes many more products:

First I put on undereye cream (currently Neutrogena Caffeine) and the Ordinary serum on my forehead.

Then comes Smashbox Primer and Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint with SPF 40, although between early morning walks and general winter cloudiness, my face hasn’t been really exposed to the sun since Morocco.

You can take the girl out of the 80s, but you can’t take the 80s out of the girl: this is too dewy for me to leave it on its own. Matte face is part of my deeply ingrained sense of self, and so I add L’Oreal pressed powder.

The eyes are what takes the most time, and I use an Annabelle liner in dark brown plus Maybelline’s The Falsies Surreal in black. Or meta black, or whatever ridiculous shade of black I happen to pick up.

Next up, L’Oreal blush and Maybelline Express Brow to smooth out the greying, patchy eyebrows.

And then to finish it off, I put on some lipstick, and I have many brands that I like, but Maybelline Ultimatte in Taupe is my favourite. Pictured is Clinique’s famous Black Honey.

You know those quizzes where you are asked what three things – products, books, food items – you would take with you if you were to be stranded on a desert island? I hate those quizzes, probably because I think way too hard about them. I get actually stressed, thinking what would I cut, the eyeliner or the lipstick? I can’t cut the SPF! I mean, the probability that I am going to be stranded on a desert island with my choice of three things is, as we say in statistical analysis, approaching zero, and even if I was, I would probably be desperately trying to survive rather than rereading three favourite books. If I’m going to be stranded on a desert island, I am going to be Mrs Howell, or I’m not doing it.

Weekly Reading

Speaking of my wayward youth, I decided this week would be Childhood Reread Week in the Boyhouse, and wow, was it fun. Here we go!

Eight Cousins and Rose In Bloom. From the author of my number-one childhood book, Little Women, these books were loved (as you can clearly see) by me. I decided this would be the week to revisit childhood favourites and I can see why I loved them so much: Rose is an heiress and an orphan who is brought up by her sea merchant uncle, and she has a whole passel of aunts and cousins as well. Her uncle has some pretty radical ideas about girls and women – namely, that they are not memerly ornaments but actual humans with brains and spirits and flaws, and should engage in outdoor exercise and shun corsets and other unhealthy things. Well, it was wildly radical back in the 1870s. Anyway, it was a fun reread, other than the very weird and unsettling plotline that all the aunts are proponents of Rose marrying one of her cousins to keep her fortune in the family. That part is not great. But the description of gowns and ballroom dances? Yes please.

Sweet Valley High Box Set Volumes 5-8. Wow, did I ever have a skewed idea of what high school would be like, when I read these in Grades 4 and 5. I mean, I basically NEVER went to the beach in my red Fiat Spider. Because I didn’t have one and also I lived in Calgary. There is a wild amount of death and near date rape in these books, and also a lot of bikinis. I recommend these as a hilarious reread, if only for the descriptions of the clothing and the references to Bo Derek. It’s well worth the 45 minutes it takes to read each book. First we have All Night Long, where Jessica narrowly escapes date rape after being at a party – that lasted ALL NIGHT LONG – with a college age boy, who sports a very sexy moustache. Worse luck, she misses her test to become a…tour guide of sorts? I don’t know. Elizabeth saves the day by doing the whole twin thing and pretending to be Jessica but a fight with Todd means she’s TOO UPSET to do well on the test. She makes up with Todd only to find out that…Dangerous Love: Todd has bought a motorcycle! And Elizabeth is NOT allowed on it, because her cousin (Rexy!!!) DIED in a motorcycle accident. But she’s scared to tell him. Finally she does and it’s okay, he’ll just give other girls rides. ON HIS MOTORBIKE, PEOPLE. But then he decides to sell it. Elizabeth goes for broke and decides she’s going to have one ride before the bike is gone, but, in a crazy twist of irony, they are hit by a drunk driver, and that drunk driver is the very person who was going to buy the motorcycle! And now Elizabeth’s in a coma. Is she going to make it? Dear Sister: Well, she wakes up but her personality is changed! Now she’s just like Jessica. She’s out-Jessica-ing Jessica and will have NOTHING to do with Todd. And she ends up almost being date-raped by Bruce Patman (1BRUCE1) but as he’s fetching them unlawful alcohol, she slips, falls, and hits her head – and she’s back to being Elizabeth! Escape from Bruce, Elizabeth! But as Elizabeth is being Jessica, Jessica is being Elizabeth, and winning over Bill, the surfer guy. Heart Breaker: But Jessica really doesn’t want anything to do with Bill, she’s just getting back at him for turning her down for a long-ago Sadie Hawkins dance. Jessica, like an elephant, never forgets. They are in the school play together and the worm turns when a Hollywood scout watches it and thinks that Bill is the next Robert Redford. Well! Jessica is now actually interested but too late, because Bill is going out with DeeDee the surfer girl. Unfortunately we will never know what happens next because I don’t have any more volumes. Will Lila really go out with Roger? Probably not; she’s rich and he works as a janitor so his family can pay the rent, and we do NOT cross socioeconomic lines in Sweet Valley.

Charlotte’s Web. I am finishing Childhood Reread Week with a classic – this isn’t my childhood copy, I don’t think I even had a copy, but I read it to my kids when they were little. And they don’t remember it at all except that the spider dies. But not before she saves the life of Wilbur the pig! No wonder I have an affinity for farm animals and spiders. Don’t squish them! They have a job to do, people!

I was informed that there is a podcast called Double Trouble which deep dives every single book and you can bet I will be listening to it along with Listen To Sassy, just to relive my youth. The good parts of my youth! Not the Sea Breeze and rubbing alcohol. Again, I am sending out gratitude to my face for still existing after all that agony. I hope you are all having a beautiful week, friends. xo