The Week In Recommendations 12.13.23

An actually-fun Hanukkah movie, the return of corduroys, a gripping podcast and makeup essentials.

This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest podcast was about Netflix’s most deranged Christmas movie! Rich Text is a completely reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!

Claire has been reading… 📖

I don’t know what to say anymore. It’s become comical. Last week I didn’t read anything because I got a stomach flu, or food poisoning, or something that made both me and Greg too sick to function for two days. (Inconceivably, society still expects you to take care of your children when this happens.) Then, as soon as we felt better, we had to spend the weekend throwing a birthday party for our now-four-year-old, which I’m pretty sure was more stressful than throwing a wedding. This has been my weekly update on whether moms have time to read. Current answer: obviously not.

Emma has been reading… 📖

Molly Rosen’s essay in The Cut about her public persona (she founded Stone Fox Bride), her highly Instagrammed marriage, and what happened when that marriage fell apart. This paragraph, about the contrast between her booming wedding business and growing Instagram following, and what she was experiencing in her most intimate relationship is wrenching:

Here’s what no one saw: the STD test at my six-week sonogram. The evidence of more affairs unfolding, month after month, year after year — in the laundry hamper, on our phone bill, in my DMs. The creams and balms and salves I slathered on before bed, believing it was my fault, that I’d become too baggy, too saggy, too bitchy, too naggy, that if I woke up shiny and taut I’d win his love back.

Claire has been watching… 📺

I’ve been working my way through the “Bachelor in Paradise” finale in short segments, since that is what my life allows for at this moment. I was devastated to miss the finale podcast taping because of my sudden illness, but I wasn’t even recovered enough to start watching it until the morning after it aired. By the time I’d chipped my way through the first half of the episode, I had been completely spoiled by Instagram posts from all of the season’s “successful” couples announcing their breakups. “Paradise” is truly in its flop era, I fear. (And yet, weirdly, that makes me feel a little protective and affectionate toward it.)

Emma has been watching… 📺

As we have spoken about extensively on this newsletter, Hanukkah movies — even bad/good made-for-TV ones — are hard to come by. But this year, Hallmark actually delivered? “Round and Round” is sweet and Jewish (or at least Jew-ish… the central family has a suspicious amount of “Hanukkah decor” that mostly looks like blue Christmas decor), and stars resident Jewish hottie Bryan Greenberg!! Plus the plot involves a time loop and a lot of cheeky references to 1993’s “Groundhog Day.” Inject it right into my veins.

Claire has been listening to… 🎧

This week, I have nothing. But my to-listen list is getting longer and longer!

Emma has been listening to… 🎧

Yearbook, a new-ish series from the Armchair Expert team, hosted by Chad Sanders and produced by my dear friend Amanda Cowper! In this show, which drops on the Armchair Expert feed, Chad explores a formative year in his life: 2006, when he was a junior in high school and experienced the sudden and tragic loss of a friend. It’s moving and thoughtful, and Chad also grew up right near where I did, in Montgomery County, MD, and is one year younger than me, so his references all hit particularly close to home.

Claire has been buying… 🛍️

I’ve been buying many things I can’t exactly recommend lately. A root canal, which is a fun splurge purchase you get to make when you have soft teeth, multiple pregnancies, and bad flossing habits. A number of holiday gifts for my preschooler, who has specifically requested things like plastic excavators, plastic grabber toys, and a light to put on his balance bike. 

But I did take advantage of Everlane’s holiday sales to try their wide-leg corduroys, since its getting cold and I’m sick and tired of insufficiently cozy pants. I got the toasted coconut ones, but am contemplating a dark color as well; there are still lots of sizes available in off-white, navy and black. They’re basic but flattering and, with the current sale, well-priced.

Emma has been buying… 🛍️

It’s holiday party season and holiday travel season. With a handful of festive events coming up — and some international travel that includes a wedding — I swung by Sephora to refill some of my makeup products that I had run out of. I repurchased Ilia True Skin Serum Concealer in Arrowroot (I literally scrape the last bits of this stuff out of each tube), Charlotte Tilbury Lip Liner in Pillow Talk, Makeup Forever HD Skin Foundation (shade 1R02). I also had been wanting to try out brown eyeliner for a softer look, so I grabbed Makeup By Mario Eyeliner Pencil in Perfect Brown.

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