If you're in NYC, I've got a handful of tickets to share to my book launch press party next Thursday! (Use code "newsletter buddy" to get the ticket at half off.)

It's going to be kinda epic: aura photos, energy readings, Swarovski crystal ear seeds, a custom affirmation station, botanical cocktails, and of course signed copies of the book. I would love to see you there.

(And if you know any press who might like to attend, please send them my way!)

Speaking of the book launch party, it's going to be held at the not-even-open-yet flagship of Chillhouse, which was just announced yesterday in VOGUE–in this beautiful piece about Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton. Cyndi worked for me for a few years, and I have truly never met anyone who works harder than her. She's a force and it's so fun to watch her shine!✨

Totally different subject, but I'm also happy to see this trend: California just became the first state to require late start times for middle and high schools. Finally! It has always struck me as so hypocritical how schools go after kids to get more sleep but then force them to wake up at 6 am. I hope more places start acting reasonably about this issue.

(Also, have you heard of "closet accounts" on Insta? Wow, they are huge.)

Since this week was Indigenous People's Day, I thought I'd share an app I really like: Native Land, which you can use to tell you which indigenous territories did–and do–exist, wherever you are in the world. It also has info about native languages and treaties. I've learned a lot. 

And hey, speaking of learning, do you know the difference between the terms Hispanic and Latino? It was murky for me and then I read this delightful comic and I was like, "Oh that makes so much sense!" and I will never forget again. 

(And by the way, "Latinx" is simply a gender neutral term for Latino/Latina. It's pronounced "lah-teen-ex.") The more we know!

In the middle of reading several Very Serious Books, I wanted a bit of a break and I stumbled on Red, White, & Royal Blue: A Novel. Stick with me: it's about if a Mexican immigrant from Texas had won the 2016 Presidential election and her son ended up in a love affair with Prince "Henry" of England. It's a great little love story, and it also felt like a nice break to imagine what might have been if the election had gone the other way. Recommended!

I am also currently reading The Log From the Sea of Cortez, which is a hybrid philosophy-science-travel book that John Steinbeck co-wrote with his BFF, the biologist Ed Ricketts, about their self-funded marine specimen collecting trip in the 1930's. It's surprisingly charming, self effacing, and educational. It reads kind of like a Wes Anderson movie if Wes Anderson had a sense of humor and/or humility about himself. Also a recommended book! 🐟

Noise is one of my main gripes with NYC, and a serious part of why I leave it so much. (And it's not just me noticing: the city is getting increasingly louder.)

But it's also not just in the city that noise is an increasing problem: louder noises are everywhere. The Atlantic recently published "The End of Silence: Why Everything is Getting Louder" and it made my heart rate go up just to read it. (Which, by the way, is also one of the many detrimental physical effects of loud noises.) This is a great line from the piece:

“Noise is never just about sound; it is inseparable from issues of power and powerlessness. It is a violation we can’t control and to which, because of our anatomy, we cannot close ourselves off.”

I hear that.