What I Loved This Week (77)

I'm all about spies, living off the grid and a small town murder show this week

Things that Make Me Happy! is a newsletter full of recommendations of things and links that bring me joy. If you liked this issue, click on the heart button! That’s the biggest praise you can give me. You can also buy me coffee here if you’d like.

Instructions to best enjoy this letter: Grab a beverage of choice, sit somewhere cozy, blanket highly suggested, and enjoy! Mentally I’m here:

📚What I Read and Loved

The Spy Coast: September got me in the mood for a Thriller with a capital T, and my librarian told me that this was the best one she’d read in a while. Can I say she’s my most trustworthy book person? Librarians rock!

I’d categorize this as an international high-stakes spy story with a murder club of Richard Osmand’s type on the side. It reads in a breeze and is so much fun! Since it will be a series, I added a pre-order for the second book, which will be published next year.

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she's living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.

But when a body turns up in Maggie's driveway, she knows it's a message from former foes who haven't forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends--all retirees from the CIA--to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This "Martini Club" of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they're eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.

Complicating their efforts is Purity's acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau. More accustomed to dealing with rowdy tourists than homicide, Jo is puzzled by Maggie's reluctance to share information--and by her odd circle of friends, who seem to be a step ahead of her at every turn.

📺 What I Watched and Loved

Penelope: This show is unlike anything on TV right now. What a beautiful coming-of-age story. I have always had a fantasy of leaving everything behind to go live off the grid, and this type of story always gets me. Was it a bit unrealistic? Yes. But beautiful (both the cinematography and the story) and heartfelt. It really stuck with me. (Netflix)

While on a high school camping trip, 16-year-old Penelope feels called to abandon her family and friends to explore a new life in the wild unknow

Murder in a Small Town: Cozy Mystery Fans Unite! This is what I like to call a Xanax show that is perfect for unwinding. It has breathtaking scenery, low-stakes murders, and a coastal town with quirky characters. Only one episode is out, but you better believe I’ll be tuning in. (Hulu)

Karl Alberg moves to a quiet coastal town to soothe a psyche that has been battered by big-city police work, but finds himself needing to call upon all his skills to solve the murders that continue to wash up on his shore.

💕 Micro-Joy

Halloween decorating and fall spooky vibes! Whenever I go thrifting throughout the year, I collect Halloween stuff for cheap(witches are my favorite). We put out decorations in September to ensure the Halloween spirit lasts over a few weeks.

✅ To-do List

• Getting excited for the shows that are coming our way

🐰 Rabbit Holes I Went Into

• The best true crime of the week: Ruby Franke, from Influencer to monster

• My Secret Life as a Mysterious Multimillionaire’s Personal Assistant and, on that same note: Downton Abbey but with NDA’s

• If you can palate more rich people stuff: America’s love affair with the increasingly weird Kennedys

• People are over the perfect grid of social media: Exhibit A, B, and, more importantly, C

🧜🏼‍♀️  Articles and Bits I loved

• Customized drinks are out of control - I love a customized drink and won’t be taking any slander!

• Haunted hotels across the globe you can stay at

• Yellowstone turns us into maniacs!

• On “Quiet Luxury” and the allure of private via

  Ella

😄 Free Happiness

• 8 People you meet at every fashun week

• Soup Festival???!!!!!! Count me in

• Marriage

• Selective memory

👋🏼 Classifieds

• Each morning, The Sample sends you one article from a random blog or newsletter that matches up with your interests. When you get one you like, you can subscribe to the writer with one click. Sign up here

• Don’t clutter your inbox with newsletters, be like me and use Meco and read all your favorite newsletters in the same place. It’s life changing.