September 19, 2025
A gritty new playlist, some thoughts on art-as-therapy, and books—always books.
Checking in! I don’t have much to say because the world seems insane and bad at the moment. Still, I’ve been stitching together a new playlist, filling pages with art journaling, and (no surprise) reading.
The mood I’m aiming for as the year slides toward October is vaguely Northeastern—somewhere between Maine and Copenhagen by way of a beat-up Land Rover and a fisherman’s sweater.
It’s salt air, chambray, espresso, tobacco brown, waxed leather, terry socks, splintery docks, wool knits, oxblood, faded denim, old books, cedar, low jazz, and foggy gray.
I’m pretty sure this mood is rooted in the planning of an upcoming trip—headed to Portland, Maine, soon, where it might actually feel like fall. Living in Florida means I rarely get to see the leaves change in real time, so I’m craving that shift in color and temperature—the crisp air, and actually needing a sweater.
We’re planning a drive along the coastline, with a stop on Block Island to ride bikes out to the Mohegan Bluffs, then passing through Portsmouth, New Hampshire (where my dad lived in high school), and ending in New Haven, Connecticut, to stay with friends. I’m hoping to visit the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale. Fingers crossed.
Thing # 1
Journaling at the End of the World — A Playlist
This playlist blends fuzzy indie rock and dreamy pop with a little garage grit — Wolf Alice, Alvvays, Sonic Youth, Dehd, Tennis, and more. It swings between upbeat, jangly tracks and slower, late-night songs, the kind that might be right for a long drive or playing softly in the background while you rage journal.
Lipstick on the Glass – Wolf Alice
If I Was Ever Lonely – Sharp Pins
when sunday comes around – Marlon Funaki
Comfortable Town – Summer Set
Hands Down – The Greeting Committee
Big Shot – Pearls
Atop a Cake – Alvvays
Shot Down – The Sonics
Sister – Tennis
New York Times – Communicant, Syndie Jo
What Did You Expect (with Such A Beautiful Wife) – Kicking Bird
Delta Rice – Oil Boom
Oxygen – Anika
First Time – The Boys
Bull In The Heather – Sonic Youth
Sex Tourists – French Kicks
i haunt ur dreams – hey, nothing
Lucky – Dehd
Bricks or Coconuts – Jacuzzi Boys
Honey – Drugdealer, Weyes Blood
Spray Paint – Deeper
Flying – Dehd
Slow the Burn – Sungaze
Thing # 2
Rage Journaling — A Hobby
Lately, in an effort to avoid all the bad news in the world, I’ve been journaling. Not the tidy, linen-covered kind of journaling, but something messier—closer to scrapbooking if scrapbooking had an attitude problem. I’ve been calling it rage journaling: tape, ink, scraps, half-thoughts, things that don’t quite belong anywhere else. Art therapy is real. I can only encourage you to give it a try!
Since it seems I’m not the only one who needs a place to put all the noise, I hosted another collage party last week. My kitchen counter and table were full of paper scraps, scissors, paints, and folks arrived willing to let their hands work while their minds wandered. It felt like a continuation of what I’ve been doing privately on the page. I’m trying to care less about whether any of it is “good” and more about enjoying the experiment, which is something I don’t always get from my work as a graphic designer.
Thing # 3
Books! — A List
I’ve read a lot lately because it also keeps me from doomscrolling. Here’s a list of what I read over the summer. Not an exhaustive list—just ones I would recommend.
Between Two Moons by Aisha Abdel Gawad
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Two sisters at the edge of adulthood. Ramadan, graduation, the quiet friction of family. Then their brother comes home from prison, and suddenly faith, identity, loyalty—all are unstable. The streets outside thrum with raids, protests, and injustice. Inside, Amira and Lina try to separate, to stand alone, but blood ties and secrets knot them close.
North Woods by Daniel Mason
North Woods follows a single house in the Massachusetts woods across centuries—from forbidden lovers to farmers, sisters, artists, and ghosts. Lives come and go, the land endures, and each story leaves behind its echo, a reminder of how memory and loss linger in the beams and the trees.
These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
Alice Storm returns to the island she left behind, where her father’s death sets off riddles, resentments, and a week of storms that force the family to face old secrets.
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Lily, bored and pretty but feeling stuck in life, wakes up one day in a sleek, derelict modernist house in the desert with nineteen other contestants. What begins as a reality TV game of luxury rewards and brand deals quickly shifts: rules demand pairings, tasks, banishments, all while cameras never turn off. Intimacy, jealousy, and desperation creep in. And as Lily grows into her power, the question keeps hitting: what will you sacrifice to get those rewards — and what’s waiting for you when you win?
The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner
Alice Rathbone’s quiet suburban life fractures the night she kills a man who breaks into her home. Cleared in court but haunted all the same, she begins to question whether the attack was random. As unsettling messages appear and those closest to her start acting strangely, Alice is forced to confront just how fragile — and how twisted — her “safe” world really is.
Foe by Iain Reid
Not my usual type of read — a little slow in places, but interesting. (There’s also a film adaptation with Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal that, from what I’ve read, is unfortunately not good — a shame, since I like them both.) The novel follows Junior and his wife, Hen, living in isolation until a stranger arrives with news: Junior has been chosen for a space mission, and while he’s gone, Hen will stay behind with a lifelike replacement. What unfolds is a quiet, unsettling story about love, identity, and what it means to be truly known.
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
A lush, romantic escape set in Harlem, where Ricki Wilde chases her own creative life and finds unexpected love wrapped in music, magic, and history. I loved the magical elements—they gave the story a real sense of escape. FYI: moderate spice level. And maybe I’m an outlier here, but I can’t stand sex scenes in romance unless they’re handled with total care and none of the usual cheese.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Set in the 1980s, Atmosphere follows Joan Goodwin, a once-quiet astronomy professor who joins NASA’s astronaut training program when they finally open applications to women. She forges friendships, juggles family obligations, and falls in secret love with Vanessa, a fellow astronaut. When a mission goes wrong, everything she thought was steady—her career, her heart, even her sense of possibility—is shaken. I’ve seen mixed reviews, and I didn’t LOVE this book, but certain parts landed with real power in a way I can’t quite describe.
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
PJ Halliday is 63, haunted by his daughter’s death, estranged from his younger daughter, and numbing everything with drink—until tragedy forces him into an unexpected role as guardian to two orphaned children. He packs them, his grouchy grown daughter Sophie, and the death-predicting cat Pancakes into a car and heads west, hoping to reconnect with an old romantic flame in Arizona. On this chaotic road-trip through grief, hope, absurdity, and family secrets, PJ must decide what kind of man he wants to be—and what kind of father these kids deserve.
This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead
After her father’s sudden death, Jane Sharp is adrift—until she finds community in true crime forums, where she’s no longer just a mourner but an armchair detective. When three sorority girls are found murdered in Delphine, Idaho, the case drags Jane and her online friends into a tangled web of clues, media circus, and moral danger. The deeper they dig, the more Jane realizes that grief doesn’t just make you broken—it can make you dangerous, too.
Rainbow Black by Maggie Thrash
Lacey Bond grows up in early ’90s New Hampshire under a cloud—her parents run a daycare, but when the Satanic Panic hits, they’re arrested on horrifying charges. She’s only 13, more curious than frightened, but life forces her to grow up fast: in courtrooms, foster homes, and later in adult life as she tries to rebuild. She changes her name, acquires a girlfriend, and takes a law clerk job, but the past keeps tugging back. It’s a story of queer identity, trauma, love, and how secrets don’t stay buried.
I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally
Keith McNally maps forty-plus years of New York restaurant lore in this memoir, from his scrappy London origins to creating iconic eateries like Balthazar. He’s charming, shameless, often self-aware, and never afraid to show his flaws: strokes, failures, regrets, near misses. What stayed with me was how regret threads through even the loudest triumphs, softening the shine of success and making the whole story feel both bigger and more human.
That’s it for this week’s dispatch of Things on Friday. Thanks for reading, and here’s hoping you’ll stick around for more future Things!
Signing off from where summer weather lasts through November,
— Staci