Weekend Reading 06.13
A literary house tour, an author profile, what book clubs are reading right now, and more links for your weekend.
Hi friends. For those of you who love both books and houses, I have something today that I think you’ll love. Recently, I ran across a House & Garden feature of a London home built in 1868 for the writer William Hale White. The home, which has been carefully restored, is amazing, full of antiques, artwork, and even wallpapers designed by William Morris, a friend of Hale White’s who worked on the original house project.
The home is now owned by publisher Rebeka Russell, who found its literary pedigree part of the appeal. It serves not only as a home for Russell and her family but also as the base of operations for her publishing imprint, Manderly Press, which she started in 2021.
Manderly takes lesser-known or forgotten works of literature that feature houses, buildings, or places, and republishes them with beautiful covers and introductions by present-day authors. Think Edinburgh by Robert Louis Stevenson with an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith, or Washington Square by Henry James with an introduction by Colm Tóibín.
Even the name of the company, Manderly, comes from the name of the house in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.
If you are as charmed by all that as I am, you can see the entire House & Garden article with photos here, and this reel on Manderly’s Instagram account tells the story too.
Here’s what else I saved to share with you…
A profile of author Abby Jimenez. She’s the author of “Say You’ll Remember Me” and six other romance novels. She owns three bakeries. She’s also really tired.
Hamilton opened on Broadway ten years ago, and the original cast reunited for a performance at the Tony Awards. Did you catch it?
The strange and magical art of choosing your grandmother name. These are exactly the kinds of conversations that have been happening among my friends, as many of us are becoming grandparents for the first time. If you’re a grandparent, what do you go by?
11 ways to channel Ina Garten this summer.
I was sad to read that Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys passed away this week. A couple of years ago, Tom and I watched the documentary Long Promised Road about Brian, and I came away with both deep empathy for him and an understanding of how gifted a musician/songwriter he was. You can see the trailer for the documentary here. It’s available to rent on Amazon.
Interested in what book clubs are reading? Bookmovement.com polled its more than 90,000 registered book clubs, and these were the top vote-getters for May.
This week’s This Bookish Life newsletter for paid subscribers was about building a summer reading list.