The Best Things I've Seen on the Internet Lately: top picks and fave finds

Some Good Articles

• The Best Advice I’ve Ever Heard for How to be Happy

  There are some good nuggets here. I really like the idea of the “mini vacation.” You list the things you liked about a recent vacation and then recreate those activities/ behaviours at home — sleep in, going for a bike ride, visiting a museum etc.

  Ha, I realise I don’t particularly like doing ANY of the three behaviours I listed above! Thinking back to our recent Australia trip, the things I liked were not being rushed in the morning (do-able); going out for breakfast (do-able); swimming outside (do-able in the summer) and seeing kangaroos in the countryside (trickier).

  To prolong the happiness you felt on vacation, list what you loved most about the trip, said Sarah Pressman, a professor of psychological science at the University of California, Irvine. Say, daily naps, reading novels or family dinners.

• Why We Forget Our Childhoods

  A study about the phenomenon of childhood amnesia. Why can’t we remember anything before three? Are those memories still stored somewhere in our brain?

  This study examined infants under the age of three. It showed that these kids were able to make memories, even if they were too young to explain that they had remembered. This suggests the issue is that in later life, these memories become irretrievable.

  Power says that one theory suggests that because humans must switch from relying on their caregivers to being independent, infantile amnesia acts as a “reset” that prepares humans for adulthood

• I didn’t know it was possible to have Pandemic Nostalgia, but we all did some weird stuff during those lockdowns and not all of it was horrible. The Celebrity Princess Bride Remake was a very good thing, and if you missed it when it came out (due to massive anxiety and existential dread) then you can watch it now, when the world is — better?

Reels

(Warning, when you click, you’re taken to Instagram)

Dogs with zoomies are some of the best dogs

jinxedbom

A post shared by @jinxedbom

It is embarrassing, but this IS the stuff that makes me laugh…

love_booksforlife

A post shared by @love_booksforlife

Book stuff

A flurry of activities!

Monday, June 9th!

This is going down on Monday night, so come on out if you’re in Toronto!

Saturday, June 14th

Now, if you’re in Ottawa the following weekend, (June 14) I’m at the Parkdale Market signing books with my neighbour, the lovely and talented Jamie Liew (who is also the second-place winner of Canada Reads for her terrific novel, Dandelion!)

Saturday (I’m on from 10 until noon! and then the wonderful Don Butler and Katie Tallo take over, so time it right and you could meet two MORE talented authors!)

Monday July 14th!

What is better than a small town literary festival in gorgeous cottage country?!

I am very excited to spend an hour talking books, publishing and all sorts of other fun stuff. I was thinking for this event I might try to answer the age old question of “Where do you get your ideas?” I would delve into each book, and why I decided to write it… I realise for each of my four books, one single concept or idea struck me and I built the book around that. For Honeybee it was the idea of a story that immersed the reader in Paris; for The Foulest Things I was working in an archival vault and when I pulled the rolling shelves apart I thought — “what if a body tumbled out?” For Speak for the Dead… Well, you’ll just have to trek to Eganville to hear my talk!

Programming Note

Well, my darlings Meli-Meloers, summer is finally arriving in old Ottawa and I am easing into my summer publishing schedule, from now until June 30th this newsletter will only come out every two weeks and after that I will take the usual two month break and return to you refreshed and filled with Bloody Caesars for another year of newslettering.

P.S. Update on the demise of the app, Pocket — I’m giving Raindrop a try. It’s okay so far? More to come!

P.P.S if you follow the link above under “Programming Note” you get taken to my old post about Bloody Caesars, but as an added bonus, that post has the Rhubarb Streusel Muffin recipe that I forgot all about, but that I will be making very shortly, because those muffins are very very good and it is RHUBARB SEASON, BETCHES!