My Orange County restaurant recs: Bear Flag fish tacos; Anepalco Mexican restaurant; Gelato Paradiso; Zinc cafe (the tiramisu omg); Ramos House Cafe; Maison, Flower Child.
Favorite beaches: Thousand Steps in Laguna Beach, Treasure Island beach at the Montage Laguna Beach; Corona Del Mar State Beach; and Crystal Cove.
Sight seeing: the Mission in San Juan Capistrano (for the flowers alone) and old San Juan/ downtown; renting Duffy boats in Newport Harbor; the Ocean Institute in Dana Point; the Rainbow Sandals factory store in San Clemente; the Carlsbad flower fields
Thank you for the link to Maia's piece about book bans - I missed that Washington Post article. 60% of the 1000 book bans analyzed were submitted by 11 people?!?! Fires me up! I need to go hug some librarians!
It makes my blood boil. These people aren't banning books because of content, they are banning books because of the political BS that has been going on for years. It's good to see some places are winning against these people and some cities, counties and state are passing laws against book banning. All of this is performative BS. Thanks for reading!
Love the photo, and haven't read everything yet but enjoying Ms. Scottolini's bookshelves! By the way I arrange mine partly by what I can read before going to sleep (those are hard for me to find!) and what I can read at our dining room table (not too huge--it's a small table!) I try also to keep all books by one author together, and sometimes subjects, so there's a group on Paris cafes next to some on Paris history, and another group on music --biographies of composers mostly. I also have a group of books about cities, which I study and write about. (This is slightly off subject, but my husband gave me a lovely gift this year--a big wall calendar with wonderful photos of bookstores around the world.)
What a great gift to receive. Fortunately, I don't have very many physical books, so I don't have to worry about how they are arranged in a box. lol I'm not even terribly organized with all the Kindle books either. Thanks for reading!
Heading to CA myself and hoping that weather forecast sticks! I could use some warmth and sun! My BA is in Comparative Literature and I always loved taking the literary criticism classes. One of the classes was focused on applying different literary criticism to films. It was one of the highlights of my college years.
Have a great trip to CA! I didn't know there were classes in literary criticism. I can barely write a book review, but this has my interest. Thanks for reading!
I'm glad you found a couple to read. If you haven't already, I recommend listening to the 1st season of The Dream podcast. There is so much more info related to the MLMs. I binged the entire season on my trip to Savannah a couple of weeks ago. I was fascinated with it.
It's fascinating to read about how they hook and suck people in and all the things the MLMs do to keep them inside, even when common sense tells people otherwise.
I used to get sucked in on the seminar and one-on-one in the beginning, but when it came Tim to put my money where their mouths led I came to my senses. I made a lot of these people angry, but thankfully didn't fall for any of it (those I personally knew ended up either broke, in debt, or angry at themselves for getting involved.
I knew two or three cosmetic and skincare specialists who got involved with high end MLM skincare and made fortunes at it... but they were either estheticians or nurses who were able to incorporate the product and sell it to their clients... and might I add the product itself was high-grade and cost prohibitive to the masses.
I'm always looking for a successful side hustle. Instead of MLM's dominating today's market, now it's courses online selling programs and marketing coaching and some product for side hustles. I'v found that those making the most money are the ones creating and offering the courses and service. I must admit I've been caught in quite a few of these—moat of the time I don't regret it, I've managed to gain knowledge and experience even though no successes to date.
Hey, Gayla, as always I appreciate all your Friday links! So many books, bookish folks and topics to explore! I've been reading too many depressing true-life memoirs. I think I need a good engrossing mystery, but right now I'm trying to catch up on a few films in advance of the Oscars. Afraid I'm just going to have to watch some of the contenders AFTER the event at this point.
Welcome to very sunny (finally!) Southern California. Our town, Manhattan Beach, has some excellent restaurant choices and a thriving bookstore, Pages, if you're in the area. I'd even meet you there, though it sounds like you may have a lot on your plate! Here's a link to Pages, just in case you want to check it out: https://www.pagesabookstore.com.
I'm looking forward to my visit with family. I'm not sure what my sister-in-law has in store for me, but I've definitely taken note of the bookstore you recommended, and if I find myself heading that way, I'll email you and maybe we can meet up. Thanks for reading, Ruth!
This is one of my favorite substack sites to visit. The only problem is that I come away with too many "must check this out" assignments, and I am drowning as it is. Just keep it up though. It's a treasure.
Thanks for reading, Jill. Treat it like a buffet--you can sample all of it or some of it, but you don't have to unless you want to. And most of these links are evergreen, so you could come back to them at some point in the future when you are looking for something to read. :)
A feast! Thank you!
Thanks for reading, Cheryl!
You’re coming to California!! Can I give you unsolicited food recommendations?!
Sure. I'll be staying in Irvine with my sister-in-law so we're open to rec's. Fire away. lol
My Orange County restaurant recs: Bear Flag fish tacos; Anepalco Mexican restaurant; Gelato Paradiso; Zinc cafe (the tiramisu omg); Ramos House Cafe; Maison, Flower Child.
Favorite beaches: Thousand Steps in Laguna Beach, Treasure Island beach at the Montage Laguna Beach; Corona Del Mar State Beach; and Crystal Cove.
Sight seeing: the Mission in San Juan Capistrano (for the flowers alone) and old San Juan/ downtown; renting Duffy boats in Newport Harbor; the Ocean Institute in Dana Point; the Rainbow Sandals factory store in San Clemente; the Carlsbad flower fields
Thanks for the rec's Alex. I can't wait to share these with family and see how many of them we can do. :)
Thanks so much for the shoutout, Gayla!!
Happy to!
Another great read.
Thanks for reading!
Thank you for the link to Maia's piece about book bans - I missed that Washington Post article. 60% of the 1000 book bans analyzed were submitted by 11 people?!?! Fires me up! I need to go hug some librarians!
It makes my blood boil. These people aren't banning books because of content, they are banning books because of the political BS that has been going on for years. It's good to see some places are winning against these people and some cities, counties and state are passing laws against book banning. All of this is performative BS. Thanks for reading!
Love the photo, and haven't read everything yet but enjoying Ms. Scottolini's bookshelves! By the way I arrange mine partly by what I can read before going to sleep (those are hard for me to find!) and what I can read at our dining room table (not too huge--it's a small table!) I try also to keep all books by one author together, and sometimes subjects, so there's a group on Paris cafes next to some on Paris history, and another group on music --biographies of composers mostly. I also have a group of books about cities, which I study and write about. (This is slightly off subject, but my husband gave me a lovely gift this year--a big wall calendar with wonderful photos of bookstores around the world.)
What a great gift to receive. Fortunately, I don't have very many physical books, so I don't have to worry about how they are arranged in a box. lol I'm not even terribly organized with all the Kindle books either. Thanks for reading!
Heading to CA myself and hoping that weather forecast sticks! I could use some warmth and sun! My BA is in Comparative Literature and I always loved taking the literary criticism classes. One of the classes was focused on applying different literary criticism to films. It was one of the highlights of my college years.
Have a great trip to CA! I didn't know there were classes in literary criticism. I can barely write a book review, but this has my interest. Thanks for reading!
Added both Selling the Dream and How to Walk Into a Room to my toppling TBR!
I'm glad you found a couple to read. If you haven't already, I recommend listening to the 1st season of The Dream podcast. There is so much more info related to the MLMs. I binged the entire season on my trip to Savannah a couple of weeks ago. I was fascinated with it.
The MLM information sparks my curiosity. Looking forward to binging this, also!
It's fascinating to read about how they hook and suck people in and all the things the MLMs do to keep them inside, even when common sense tells people otherwise.
I used to get sucked in on the seminar and one-on-one in the beginning, but when it came Tim to put my money where their mouths led I came to my senses. I made a lot of these people angry, but thankfully didn't fall for any of it (those I personally knew ended up either broke, in debt, or angry at themselves for getting involved.
I knew two or three cosmetic and skincare specialists who got involved with high end MLM skincare and made fortunes at it... but they were either estheticians or nurses who were able to incorporate the product and sell it to their clients... and might I add the product itself was high-grade and cost prohibitive to the masses.
I'm always looking for a successful side hustle. Instead of MLM's dominating today's market, now it's courses online selling programs and marketing coaching and some product for side hustles. I'v found that those making the most money are the ones creating and offering the courses and service. I must admit I've been caught in quite a few of these—moat of the time I don't regret it, I've managed to gain knowledge and experience even though no successes to date.
Hey, Gayla, as always I appreciate all your Friday links! So many books, bookish folks and topics to explore! I've been reading too many depressing true-life memoirs. I think I need a good engrossing mystery, but right now I'm trying to catch up on a few films in advance of the Oscars. Afraid I'm just going to have to watch some of the contenders AFTER the event at this point.
Welcome to very sunny (finally!) Southern California. Our town, Manhattan Beach, has some excellent restaurant choices and a thriving bookstore, Pages, if you're in the area. I'd even meet you there, though it sounds like you may have a lot on your plate! Here's a link to Pages, just in case you want to check it out: https://www.pagesabookstore.com.
I'm looking forward to my visit with family. I'm not sure what my sister-in-law has in store for me, but I've definitely taken note of the bookstore you recommended, and if I find myself heading that way, I'll email you and maybe we can meet up. Thanks for reading, Ruth!
That would be cool, Gayla. No pressure whatsoever. Family always takes priority.
This is one of my favorite substack sites to visit. The only problem is that I come away with too many "must check this out" assignments, and I am drowning as it is. Just keep it up though. It's a treasure.
Thanks for reading, Jill. Treat it like a buffet--you can sample all of it or some of it, but you don't have to unless you want to. And most of these links are evergreen, so you could come back to them at some point in the future when you are looking for something to read. :)
Have a great Tax Deadline trip! 😁 glad we are finally getting some nice weather for you (I live about an hour south of where you’ll be).
I can't believe all the rain so far this year, but SoCal needed it. Thanks for reading!
I just finished The Storied Life of AJ Fickery and really enjoyed it. I don’t remember if you recommended this to me or someone else did 😁
I enjoyed it when I read it too. I don't think I've ever recommended it, so it must have been someone else. Thanks for reading!