Smacksy Sunday Links

8 Ways to become a nicer person.

Don't finish that book.

Jewelry lessons I learned from my southern grandmother.

Child's pose.

What to say to someone who is dying.

Song at Capri.

Simple ways to feel better.

Porch snacks.

How to pick a good tomato.

And I will always vote - get a dog.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

I had to choose between my head and my heart.

Snacks and coffee will help.

All this staring at our faces is messing with our heads.

I love Nancy's Substack.

Helen of Troy and the perception of beauty.

The grief iceberg.

Samantha Morton.

The glorious burden of stockpiling little glass jars.

Forgetting the book is not proof that you failed it.

New images of the sun.

15 Most beautiful beach towns.

And scenes from the 2026 dog surfing championships.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

Yield to the reality of the sublime.

On grief and the endless barter for time. 

Rest peacefully, Glen Hansard.

The comforting resurgence of Grandma Hobbies.

Her Odyssey translation.

An ode to vintage book design.

Turkish breakfast.

The live shark cam at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

And winners of the International Pet Photography Awards.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

 

Most of our lives are spent running from the moment.

On critical thinking.

What to know before seeing 'The Odyssey."

The words have escaped the asylum. 

How to improve the quality of your everyday life.

The world's largest pop-up book.

These writing prompts.

What to do if you start choking when you're alone.

A painted cover from another mother.

New European entry requirements. 

This country has a word for ice cream roadtrip.

And a alive action anime-style bunny fight.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

 

My experience as an only child.

You got to dance with them what brung you.

Why we still love Mr. Darcy 200 years later.

She canceled her streaming services for the summer.

The joys of a simple life.

Too many books?

How to gently let go of sentimental clutter.

15 Ideas for using summer stone fruit. Yes, please.

And a baby panda on a slide.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

 

Questions to ask your grandparents.

Life design.

The silence of middle age.

The natural born artist.

On beauty and wellness.

There's no magic retirement number.

Money diaries.

We lived around the corner from this family in Aptos, in the 1970s.

Mediterranean summer staycation.

Six organic produce box subscriptions.

And this quokka. 

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

Portraits from Ellis Island. 

How can you not be romantic about baseball?

Be the light.

Ann Patchett has already determined the best book of the year.

What ancient writers understood about bees.

A list of good cook books.

A little red cottage in the Swedish countryside.

The oldest restaurant in each state.

And a baby porcupine eating corn.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

Idiot wind.

What coffee is for.

Ferris Bueller 40 years on.

Making a fuss of anniversaries is good for your body and brain.

Why dinner never gets easier.

Noah Wylie visits the LA museum founded by his grandmother.

The cook book endures.

She bought a house in Italy for $13K.

And hamsters in hats eating snacks.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

The history of Juneteenth. 

Soothe your soul with a quirky side-quest.

Prom night in America.

Fold laundry with me.

You don't have to be a minimalist to own less.

Two volunteer peach trees out near the compost.

The history of the Michelin Guide.

The first official portrait of Barak and Michelle Obama together.

Cy Twombly.

The books readers are most excited about this summer. (2 down, plenty to go)

Junk journaling.

And kissing giraffes.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

 

Let go to get what you want.

You can't heal in survival mode.

What actually increases your energy.

Georgia O'Keefe.

The Segrada Familia.

Tom Hanks at the typewriter store.

Great French movies for free on Tubi.

This home in Larkspur, California.

Beautiful small towns around the world.

This carousel.

And these Newfie puppies.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

 Harness the joy of anticipation.

Mental health *is* physical health.

Nora Ephron and the speech that made me.

Your friend group has a financial culture.

The Nobel-winning psychologist who believed he found the secret to happiness.

Stop telling me I look good "for my age."

Maggie O'Farrell talks Hamnet, family history and her new novel Land.

At 101, this artist is finally getting her big break.

Could you do yurt living?

Best movies to watch on a long flight.

New books for June.

This West Sussex farmhouse.

They never miss.

And baby goats.

Sunday Links.

Smacksy Sunday Links

Here's the essay I wrote in the LA Times this week.

What I learned about loss while skateboarding at Costco.

This interview about creativity with Hozier.

The man who reads books for a living.

Goodbye Sonny Rollins.

Ode to the kitchen bath.

Tenderly tracking my husband.

This heat.

Design your summer.

Lower your living expenses.

Just do a thing.

Dumpster diving.

Summer beach reads. I'll definitely be reading Ann Patchett's latest.

And this stowaway fox.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

David Attenborough and the voice that revealed a planet.

I will remember Kitty warmly.

A lovely classic.

The tree in the square.

The typo vibe shift.

Stephen Colbert hosts Only in Monroe.

Stepping out of a thought loop.

Science-backed ways to get out of a funk in just one day.

Classics that make your brain feel expensive.

Art, but make it sports.

And this beaver eating cabbage.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

I want to live like Costco people.

Gold.

This bookstore gets good mileage.

Great Ramit Sethi interview.

The secret to success is mono-tasking.

A guide to getting dressed when you're depressed.

The three enemies of clarity.

Advice I wish I'd learned earlier in life.

Point out the good.

Artists and their bohemian ateliers.

Building equity into your wardrobe.

The answer is always chilaquiles.

Nature photographers of the year.

And this baby elephant.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

Math problems for moms.

Questions I ask myself every week to keep life simple.

How to make 5pm feel like the start of your day.

The 10 best books this year so far.

I bought a vintage dress with recipes on it, then I tried them.

Noah Kahan, Tiny Desk.

John of John is next on my list.

This Paris apartment.

Foolproof cacio e pepe.

And this mama bird.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

 How to measure quality of life.

We regret to inform you that the warranty has expired on the Lisa model of your 1964 human body.

She ranked doctors on The Pitt based on how much she wants to date them.

What this kid said about baseball and advertising.

Greatest living American song writers. Maybe?

And the bodega cats of New York project.

Have a great week

Smacksy Sunday Links

My wife is 85. She takes my breath away.

Fine. This is what I was really like in the 90s.

How to be a sensitive person in the world right now.

This Track Star interview with Cameron Crowe is terrific.

The 82 year-old jump rope queen of Beverly Hills.

The hidden cost of rushing through everything.

A treasury of book dedications.

Must read small press books for spring.

Favorite picture books.

And three boxes of kittens.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

Why morning hours vanish when you have plans later.

Write around the puke.

Strawberries and swans.

I'd like to step inside this post.

The routines of super-readers.

The 6:30 PM rule.

I'm in love with this vintage sugar cube packaging.

Buy it for life items.

50 Things to do in Europe before you die.

The small change that can re-set your sleep.

Top 10 US cities for coffee.

My plan for next weekend.

Indoor gardens.

These hotels are made for walking. 

An ode to cherry blossom season.

And these dogs.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Links

A spring nervous system re-set.

9 Reasons to read poetry. 

Medium-olds.

29 Books coming in April.

Artemis lunar fly-by photos.

And baby armadillos.

Happy Week.

Smacksy Sunday Links

Charlotte Rampling at 80.

The magic of putting yourself at choice.

Jon Batiste on Track Star.

Finalists for the Lambda Literary Awards.

NASA's live Artemis II coverage.

A box.

Calling all readers of cursive.

The shape of Paris, a short film.

Let spring produce be your drug.

And this bun.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

Spring Equinox.

Fear and intuition can coexist. 

Some end-of-the-world guidelines.

Fixing your broken attention span.

Spring rituals. 

Simplicity in doing.

Secret service code names of 11 first ladies.

Decluttering mistakes and how to avoid them.

Would love to spend the weekend here with this gem.

European tree of the year finalists.

And this dog.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

 

You probably know what matters.

Who's in your five?

Vita Nova from Louise Glück.

What we carry from winter to spring.

Time is what you garden.

All hail the "Great Woman" memoirs.

Films that will transport you to Italy.

12 Square inches of possibility.

Why are pencils yellow?

I love a look in someone's pantry.

Love lock bridges around the world.

And they rescue dogs in Baja.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

 

Help people suffering in Iran.

Two places I get to call my own.

50 Ways to meet your neighbor.

To my dead friends and family.

Black and white.

Writers and their dogs.

The babysitting empire.

Icelandic glaciers.

And these birds and a butterfly.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

How to get out of a slump.

What's the secret to happiness? 

Alysa Liu.

Why we all need platonic soulmates.

Dusking: All you need is a chair and a view.

I Fall to Pieces from my friend Nancy Davis Kho.

What our family spending says about what we value.

So focused on who we want to become.

Life for women in the 13 colonies.

Galileos handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text.

De La Soul's Tiny Desk.

Audiobook award winners.

And these penguins.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

Feel-good hobbies.

My friend Janelle on the dark night of the soul.

How to tolerate annoying things.

Going to the same place over and over again is really good for you.

Tranquil, serene.

In praise of random conversations.

Refresh your life this March.

A ritual of weekly rest.

Hand-me-down Barbie clothes.

An app that finds recipes you want in cook books you already own.

Nonfiction books centered around heart and home.

A cozy Brooklyn brownstone.

And this polar bear mom adopts a cub. 

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

Rest in peace Rev Jesse Jackson.

Interrupting a negative thought spiral.

How to be more interesting in real life.

Simple living for normal people.

Her enduring style.

For Tayari Jones, all roads and all novels lead to Atlanta.

An interview with artist Tracey Emin.

She draws purchases.

A chat about drawing birds.

The cost of just in case.

The Bookworm's rules for reading.

Spending less time on your phone.

Vince Giraldi's first televised performance of Linus and Lucy.

And baby owls.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

How the heart entered our visual vocabulary.

Things you can do today to make tomorrow better.

Go to a museum, any museum.

Blind date with a book.

The heart in the hand.

Reading isn't dead.

I'm begging you to throw away your stuff.

Saying goodbye to the mass market paperback.

The best place(s).

And an otter pup reunited with its mom.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

 Mostly free ways to slow down your life.

Catherine O'Hara, a life in photos.

About loneliness.

What's saving your life right now?

The evolutionary brilliance of the baby giggle.

Her notes to self.

The hippie caves of Malta that housed Joni Mitchell.

A food pantry that makes deliveries.

Saving things for someday.

Resistance songbook.

An epistolary novel for the social media age. (I very much enjoyed)

Rajiv on the practice of picking up street change.

The one day shopping rule.

And Miss Piggy.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

My favorite thing is when your hands get old. 

Things are so bad we're talking about houseplants.

When you are feeling overwhelmed.

Secrets of the super-agers.

Simplify your to-do list.

Lesser known books new to the public domain.

Easy fridge dill pickles.

The stationery channel you didn't know you needed.

And a hamster in a hat.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

 Stand with Minnesota.

Your pile of good things.

This small bit of advice.

Cover your twenty-five miles.

We need the poetry of now.

The anti-Nazi teen gang that beat up Hitler youth and danced to jazz.

A new level of minimalism.

National Book Critics Circle Awards.

These feel good books.

10 Of the world's oldest restaurants where you can still dine.

The novels everyone will be talking about this year.

And hatching baby turtles.

Sunday Links

Smacksy Sunday Links

This is not a spell. 

On Noah Wylie and the belief that someone can fix this broken world.

The Zen habit of direct experience.

Continually thrown out of the nest.

Your checklist for every doctor's appointment you need to make this year.

Questions to help you decide what not to do.

The person you are becoming.

Citrus season and how to supreme an orange with Rajiv.

He spends twelve hours making art in the snow and then watches it vanish.

Winning iPhone photos.

And otter moms and babies.

Happy Sunday

Smacksy Sunday Links

 

Oh to be a fly on the wall at this potluck.

More ideas about self care.

Poetry for weary minds.

Indoor hobbies to get you through the winter.

Green Flag habits.

The willows are sleeping.

What is being old and what is just movement debt?

Novels everyone will be talking about in 2026.

Thresholds and a full moon.

In 2025, most Americans read fewer than four books.

The Weekday Vegetarian challenge.

And this dog, Tommy.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Sunday Links

 

Demand my full attention, even briefly.

NY Times best book picks of 2025.

Forget your perfect offering.

100 Things that made my year.

Hopes or maybe daydreams.

Easy micro-habits that will change your life.

Free things to do this winter.

My favorite recipe newsletter, The Smitten Kitchen.

And the Hedgehog Highway.

Happy Sunday.