Welcome to today’s edition of breakfast in bed, a free newsletter delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning. The intention behind the newsletter is to serve as a distraction from your existential Sunday dread—AKA the Sunday Scaries. It is broken into five categories, each of which represents one of the ways I distract from my own Sunday Scaries. Thank you for reading!
read
books
I am changing the way I do book recommendations on here! Instead of recommending a book I read the previous week, I will now be recommending three books every Sunday. One recommendation will always be a romance novel, one will always be a contemporary fiction novel, and one will be a wildcard. The books recommended may be books I read in the past week, but they may also be throwbacks.
To share my more recent reads, I will be dedicating an entire post each month to a recap of the previous month’s books. This will begin in September with a recap of everything I read in August. If you want more realtime updates on what I’m reading follow along over on Instagram.
This week’s books feature two throwbacks and one book I finished this week!
First, we have a throwback romance recommendation. After seeing that Carley Fortune’s debut novel, Every Summer After, is being turned into an Amazon Prime Series, I had to feature it. I absolutely adore this book and have been dying for it to be made into a series or movie for so long. It’s a sweet friends to lovers/second chance romance story that will melt your heart and leave you booking a one way ticket to Barry’s Bay, ON.
Next up is Maame by Jessica George. I read Maame last summer and it has stayed with me ever since. It is a coming-of-age story about a young woman named Maddie who is trying to navigate the world and learn her place in it, while carrying the heavy burden of her caring for her father with Parkinson’s disease and deal with other family dysfunction. While it deals with heavy topics, it was also funny and fresh!
When I first heard about this week’s wildcard recommendation, Magic Pill by Johann Hari, I had no intention of reading it. However, I love learning about the human body and after seeing the book garner some positive buzz over the past few weeks, I decided to give it a shot and I am so glad I did. I went in really not knowing much beyond the surface level about the new GLP-1 medications and after finishing the book, feel very informed. It explores, in depth, both the benefits and risks associated with the medications, and does so in a very thoughtful manner. Beyond the medications, it carefully examines the food and health crises in the West (America and the U.K. specifically), the role psychology plays in our relationship with food, and more. I found this book to be a very well-researched, informative, and relevant read.
substacks
have you tried not being a thought daughter? by
when was the last time you fed your soul? by
A No Bullshit Guide to Project 2025 by
— Highly encourage any American readers who aren’t super familiar with Project 2025 to read this.other reads from around the internet
Romance Novels are Literature by Casey McQuiston
Why You’ll Never Really Know Ballerina Farm by Kathryn Jezer-Morton
eat
Pretty much every recipe
from gloria bakes shares looks incredible!!! I haven’t attempted any of the recipes yet, but plan to soon. I have the milky super cinnamon-y rolls bookmarked to make one rainy Sunday this fall. I’ve mentioned before that I am not the biggest baker, but cinnamon rolls are one of my favorites — my mom made them pretty much every weekend of my childhood — so I will attempt to make them on occasion.Additionally, I am working on a new food-centric series for c’est la vie! If all goes according to plan, I will share my first post in the series in the next two weeks :) Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!
shop
Not sharing much here today because I am putting together a fall wishlist post and it will be live later this week. The item at the top of my wishlist? A burgundy shoulder bag for fall. I’m loving this Portland Leather bag, but I’m also interested in a woven burgundy shoulder bag, so I’m still searching.
scroll
(I can never get enough of Snoop Dog and Martha Stewart’s friendship.)
listen
Sometimes I like to work/write with music and sometimes I do not. Recently I have been in a music phase and this Bridgerton playlist on Spotify has been perfection. Highly recommend if you like to work to instrumentals with no vocals.
Be There In Five is one of my favorite podcasts and I know it’s been talked to death this week, but I loved Kate’s take on the whole Ballerina Farm situation. Side note — I’m reading Kate’s book, One in a Millennial, right now and really like it. Will share more in my reading recap at the end of the month.
And that’s a wrap! Have a fabulous Sunday and I will be back on Tuesday :)
XOXO,
Maddie
Ok first THANK YOU for the shout out on my post!!!! 🥰 I loved seeing this!!! And again, among so many other great posts!! I'm excited to read this Romance Novels are Literature post too! What a great title.
Second, I'm so thrilled you're going to start doing three different recommendations and in different genres! That's such a great idea.
I had no idea Every Summer After was being turned into a series. I've had this one on my TBR for EVER so maybe I should finally actually read it. My second novel idea is a friends to lovers/second chance so I've kind of been saving it for when I start work on that (maybe later this year??) but now I'm tempted. 🤔
It was great to see Maame on here as well. I also read it last year sometime (I love coming of age stories so much)!
ugh and these cinnamon rolls...ok I'm going to stop because this is getting to be a ridiculously long comment but basically I loved this post so thank you 🤣 (now going to buy all the ingredients for these cinnamon rolls btw)
oh my GOSH. what an honor to be featured!! thank you so much!! also, i LOVE this sunday reset idea. i had no idea you did so many cool reccs! 💜