245. READ. LOOK. THINK.

I stab and stab, unfortunately famous, a wholly typical reticence, a new tinted moisturiser, 'Ooh, I’m a provocateur'. CYK IS OUT IN UK THIS WEEK!

Now next to my desk: the wrapper from the piece of chewie Helen Garner gave me at Sorrento Writers Festival.

READ.

Anne Enright on Helen Garner’s diaries!!!

‘This was another one of my big tenets, to avoid prowess wherever possible. Everyone’s good at everything, and I kind of don’t care. Show me what it looks like when you are bad. Show me how it looks when you get it wrong. It feels like that’s what’s at stake to me. Trust they know you’re smart and that you know how to do things, and that working in these simpler or more spontaneous or more naive-feeling forms is going to do something interesting.’ — Lorde. (An investigation into Lorde’s skincare | a slightly cynical but fascinating take on the new Lorde.)

‘She was shocked on her return to find out that she was, unfortunately, famous in New Zealand.’ Amazing long piece on Janet Frame by Lucie Elven.

‘I know I was alert by then to the word ‘homosexual’ as it appeared in headlines, and disturbed by this bold-faced naming of a deepening preoccupation of my own. I can see my father’s Times and my mother’s Mail raised on either side of the fireplace, and catch still the slight discomfort in the air, though I can’t recall their saying anything about the great question in my presence – a wholly typical reticence, and a great relief to me. Now I know the sort of stories they were reading and the opinions they were absorbing.’ Alan Hollinghurst on queer history in the LRB.

Currently I am reading diaries and memoirs by memoirs by people who have run the National Theatre. Almost certainly going to read this Princess Diana book with a beautiful cover! And the new Edward St Aubyn. A reminder to everyone that Happiness Forever by Adelaide Faith is out this week AND IS AMAZING.

LOOK.

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I love this idea for an easily stored child’s playhouse but couldn’t justify the cost of this exact one.

I have experimented with this tinted moisturiser because it has no fragrance and it is nice!

THINK.

‘We have found that authoritarian followers share three tendencies: they obey authority figures from their in-group (called authoritarian submission); they punish rule breakers (authoritarian aggression); and they rigidly endorse long-held traditions (conventionalism).’

‘So many of us spend our whole lives denying ourselves the best things because the time is not right or we feel we haven’t earned them yet, or we fear that someone – probably our parents – will disapprove of us if we drop them. This attitude to objects sometimes goes along with a wider impulse of self-denial. This may be the legacy of hunger and rationing, or a religious childhood, or simply of the social attitudes of earlier generations. But if you don’t use the best china now, you may never use it.’

‘I’m a millennial who sorts and prices the clothes in an op shop [charity shop/thrift store], and the current state of fashion is even worse than you think.’

‘I don’t have that shitposter gene. I’m not like, “Ooh, I’m a provocateur; look at me, waving a red flag in front of a bull; I’m so controversial.” I would so much rather everyone either like or ignore me.’

Being shouted at by parents can alter a child’s brain.

Whatever you do, don’t do the silent treatment.

MY BOOK!

Consider Yourself Kissed is out this Thursday in the UK! It has been out for a month in Australia and (ever since) I have not had a day without thinking about it! Luckily, it is going well.

‘Forget Emma and Dexter, move over Marianne and Connell — the summer of 2025 belongs to Coralie and Adam. They are the protagonists of Jessica Stanley’s Consider Yourself Kissed, a sparkily enjoyable romantic comedy that, like One Day and Normal People, leaves you feeling bereft at the final page.’ I was profiled in The Times (!)

‘Consider Yourself Kissed is a novel that enjoys people, that likes them, and this intelligent goodwill saturates the pages. Buy this for yourself and then buy a few more copies for everyone you know.’ Amazing review by Madeleine Gray (Green Dot).

And in The Guardian, Consider Yourself Kissed is ‘irresistible’, ‘delightfully grounded’, ‘will immediately become a treasure’. And I loved this, and felt Ella landed on my project in a way I couldn’t really summarise myself: ‘This is a book about making a better world, globally and domestically – and whether, perhaps, those two might amount to the same thing.’ ❤️

Also: CYK is a Natalie Portman book club pick (wow!)

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Jess

X

PS. I loved meeting everyone at my Australian events. It’s so terrifying to put out a invitation and then wait to see who responds. Of course, the fear is: no one! But people did, and THANK YOU. I will share UK events soon on my Instagram. Please come!

PPS. A few people came up to me and said ‘I’ve been reading you forever but I have never heard your voice!’ A funny thing to say, and true. This is the way I like it (I am really just a person who types) but I have recently recorded podcast eps for See Also, Read This and That Rom Com Pod and they are either out now or will be soon! I loved doing them so hopefully they are fine.