How does a chronically bad decision maker make a big choice?

Asking for a friend, which is to say me!

My mind has been feeling bottle-like lately, with ideas jostling eagerly to get out. However, the neck of this mind-bottle is crowded with bossy, personal topics insisting they won’t budge until released into the world. So, I’m trying something new and just letting myself write freely until I feel un-jammed. [Relinquishing the bottle metaphor!] Today, I’m exploring the decision K and I made to leave London and move to the US, which is now just six short weeks away. Find it after the recommendations.

• New! Bon! Iver! At! Last!

• An account with cozy illustrations and spooky season vibes I can get behind.

• I like this game even better than Wordle.

• Playing Mario Kart 8 on my new Nintendo Switch with K and friends—so much more fun than sitting watching a movie together.

• 10 thought-provoking questions to ask of your text by Sheila Heti, one of my faves. It’s aimed at novelists, but good for anyone wanting to write publicly or privately. [Side note: this is on We Transfer—ah, the commerce-content hybrid is basically all we can expect in a post Church and State publishing world.]

• This surprisingly effective hack for energetic dogs on rainy days.

Currently reading:

I finally finished Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (conflicted thoughts coming in my next book roundup) and am currently rotating my way through these three books:

1. Underwater by Rebecca Elliott. Based on her PhD dissertation, my favorite professor at LSE wrote this book about flood insurance and the sociology climate change as the sociology of loss. I’m particularly interested in her research because of how she looks at insurance as a form of (perceived) risk mitigation, but it feels particularly relevant after Hurricanes Helene and Milton recently ravaged the Eastern coast.

2. A Horse at Night by Amina Cain. Writing is nothing without reading, which Cain investigates in this collection of essays about the two activities. Since I began reading it, I have passed along one particular quote to my clients: “What we see in our minds we make real.” I translate this into: If you want to write something, imagine it, then describe it in a way that the reader can create a vivid picture from it. The goal, I say when sharing this quote, is that a reader can remember your story as vividly as a memory of their own.

3. The Slowest Burn by Sarah Chamberlain. Written by a London friend (and high school classmate of mine), Chamberlain’s debut romance is about a cookbook ghostwriter and the unruly chef she must work with. Though I tend to avoid food-centric books, I have been drawn in quickly and am excited to finish it in a big gulp over the weekend.

Deciding to leave London was a big process with no easy answer

The way home from Hampstead Heath on a blustery morning