Acquiring Minds
Treats for the kitchen, medicine cabinet...and bedside table.
The Things
Japanese daily calendar Fell for the XL version of this tear-off calendar in Paris, but couldn’t pack it. Luckily, the excellent design source WMS&CO. stocks the medium size. Yesterday’s page becomes today’s special scratch paper.
David Mellor teapot The British designer’s flatware is resurgent, thanks to spots like Gem Home and fans such as Clare de Boer. But it’s this timeless teapot that caught my eye from Little King in Beacon. Better yet: It’s dishwasher-safe.
Sori Yanagi bowls These stainless-steel nesting bowls and their colander companions have been sold out for ages. They’re back at the excellent Good Liver in LA, so splurge on a few (or just one) now. I’ve had my set of three for almost 20 years… Oof.
Tata Harper Retinoic Nutrient Face Oil Somehow I was invited to a morning with natural skincare pin-up Tata Harper, during which we gave ourselves facials in a backgammon café. (Maybe they knew I ration her cleansing oil?) The product I’ll restock? The anti-aging face oil, which adds retinol-like botanicals to its headily scented mix. It also makes a great surface for gua sha — perfect timing, since a friend had just shared this eye-depuffing routine from her favorite NYC beauty acupuncturist.
Lost Lambs Bank Madeline Cash’s debut for this summer: The madcap satire is biting, funny and brightly off-kilter, skewering female beauty, religion, middle-age chaos, billionaires and more, plus some excellent puns. You’ll be casting it as you read.
In Cars: On Diana Leanne Shapton’s grayscale paintings of Princess Di getting out of cars might appear abstracted, but her take is sharp. A signed copy of this collectible paperback is the perfect gift. Bonus: Its publisher, the photography bookstore Dashwood Books, is having a rare sale. (As in, there’s a $2 bin?!)
Love in the Afternoon, and Evening: Essays and Conversations on Soap Operas When my friend Charlotte Druckman goes down a rabbit hole, everyone benefits. (See: Women on Food, Skirt Steak and Stir, Sizzle, Bake) For this book, she and Mayukh Sen unpack decades of soaps, from All My Children to Falcon Crest. Smart, fun, emotional: cultural analysis should put on its shoulder pads more often.
Vernon Subutex If you’ve read Eliot, Trollope and/or Balzac in recent years, this lacerating trilogy by the fearless writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes is the top of the mountain. Not only does she capture a range of 21st-century French personalities in damning detail, she also traces the ways in which everyone from record store owners to porn stars have been wiped off the board by technology. Hilarious. Terrifying. And that’s only Volume 1. As my bf said, Despentes would have been nominated for the Nobel had she not been a sex worker. Read and discuss.
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Allergy remedy — daily nettles infusion for a few weeks!
That Japanese daily calendar, where yesterday’s page becomes scratch paper for today, is exactly the kind of quiet detail I love. Simple, useful, and somehow really beautiful.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how the things we keep around us shape the way we pay attention. What we notice. How we move through a day. Your list always feels like it’s getting at that.
And yes… adding the Sori Yanagi bowls to my wishlist immediately.