8 things I learned in August

[Click here to read this post on the blog](). Taking [Emily Freeman’s lead](=) to share a handful of things I learned this month, from the (occasionally) significant to the (mostly) shallow. 1. Don’t pack your half-busted shoes for vacation, at least not as your only pair. We went to Colorado earlier this month for a family reunion. I’m a light packer, and I packed two pairs of shoes for our outdoorsy week: Will’s old beat-up Cons for Colorado (which I have a habit of stealing for my own when his get too grungy to wear to work) and [Tieks for the plane](. But then halfway through the week the sole split wide open on those Cons. Nothing against the shoes, they were old and had seen many, many miles at this point—but the timing was terrible! And you can’t exactly hike in Tieks. (I mean, that probably wouldn’t be terrible for my feet, but I didn’t want my nice shoes to get muddy and gross.) I made it home without any trail mishaps, and promptly ordered my own Cons. (My daughter said it was okay if I got [the same happy color]( she wears almost every day, so [now we match](.) 2. Zappos sells earrings. I love Zappos and their speedy overnight shipping. As someone who hates shopping, they’ve saved me time and energy when I’ve suddenly realized that my kids’ shoes don’t fit anymore (even though they did last week), or when my sneakers suddenly break on vacation. Hypothetically speaking. Right after my shoes broke, my favorite earrings broke. They weren’t anything super special, but they were small and gold and versatile and I wore them practically everyday. I don’t like to skip the earrings (or mascara!); I don’t feel quite dressed without them. And while I love big hoops and pretty dangles, they’re not what I want to wear every day. I really, really did not want to go shopping, or spend a lot of time searching for the right pair, so I checked Zappos on a whim … and sure enough, [pearl studs](. I probably could have found them cheaper elsewhere, and maybe I could have found something a little snazzier elsewhere, but I really didn’t care. They came with my shoes, really fast, and now I don’t feel like I forgot something in the mornings because I’m not wearing earrings. 3. A whole bunch of things about solar eclipses, but my favorite discovery is these crescent shadows. It didn’t occur to me to snap a photo until well after peak totality (we had 92% where I live). Forty-five minutes later they were still very cool. Gaps between tree leaves act as pinhole cameras high up in the air projecting the image of the crescent sun onto the ground. This happens when sunlight passes through a very small hole, as it would through a pinhole camera. Such a tiny opening gathers and focuses the light that passes through it, projecting an image of the light source on the other side. 4. What Rashida Jones has been doing all these years. I loved her in The Office, and then she dropped off my radar. But this weekend Will and I started watching Parks and Rec, and it was so nice to find her again. (We just finished the short season one. Is it worth sticking with?) Hot tip: if you’re a Rashida Jones fan, [this interview with Sam Jones for the Off Camera podcast](=) is fantastic. 5. There are more beautiful box sets than I knew existed. A reader turned me on to all the beautiful box sets available through Juniper Books, and can you say “book lust”? I’m not even sure where to start, but I’ll go with [these gorgeous editions of Anne of Green Gables](. Or maybe [these pink Jane Austens](. Or [these Puffin classics](. (I have these, I love them.) 6. Goodreads has algorithms, too. I thought I knew a lot about the publishing industry before, but my first book, [Reading People: How Seeing the World Through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything](=), is coming out September 19, and I had no idea how much I didn’t know. I knew Goodreads had algorithms, but until this month I was clueless about the difference they made in discoverability for any book. It turns out that the more readers who shelve the book on Goodreads, the more Goodreads will suggest it to new readers. If nobody shelves your book, it’s harder for people to find your book, or ever find out it exists. Would you take 10 seconds and [add Reading People to your Goodreads shelf](=)? If you want to go the extra mile, shelve it with popular titles on personality and personal growth, but any shelf will make a big difference. And if you want to support your favorite authors in a quick, easy, and totally free way, shelve their books while you’re at it. 7. A little bit more about how the New York Times bestseller list is compiled. It’s a big deal for an author to make the NYT bestseller list, but exactly how that list is compiled is a closely guarded secret. (How many copies a book actually sells is just one of many factors.) But this week that list got all kinds of attention when a little-known YA fantasy novel gamed the system and landed the #1 spot overnight. This sudden and unexpected unseating of Angie Thomas’s [The Hate U Give]() raised some eyebrows, and prompted concerned parties to investigate what was really going on. When the dust settled, the fantasy novel was pulled from the list and Angie Thomas’s #1 spot was restored. The scandal shone a spotlight on how a book typically makes the list: only certain sales report; independent stores carry more weight. If you love the inside scoop on stuff like this, [read this piece in which a YA agent digs into the details](). 8. Clean left to right. I read the new Louise Erdrich last week, coming this November. It’s called [Future Home of the Living God](=), and if you loved [The Handmaid’s Tale]( or [The Passage](, you’re going to want to keep an eye out for this one. The book is about how civilization collapses in the wake of a biological meltdown; I found it utterly absorbing. I’m still thinking about it a week after I finished, but weirdly, my biggest practical takeaway was about cleaning my house. Which is absolutely not the point of the story! In the book, the main character is pregnant, and because of the funky things happening with evolution in this dystopian setting, pregnant women are seized for research if they’re found by the authorities. She is in grave danger, and to calm herself down she begins cleaning her kitchen from left to right, like her meticulous mother did when she was young, and she finds the rhythm and steadily increasing order in the room comforting. My kitchen is often a wreck, and my usual approach is to tackle the worst area first. But this week I followed her character’s example and started on the left, working my way clockwise, and I loved it. When I start on the left—which in my kitchen is a tiny counter by the sink—it’s quick and easy to make one small area sparkle, which is so encouraging I want to keep going. I’m not sure if Louise Erdrich would be proud or horrified, but my money’s on horrified. What did you learn in August? [Tell us in comments on the blog](). P.S. If you appreciated Monday's post about [3 lesser-known but helpful books for understanding and managing anxiety](=), the podcast that inspired that post is now live. Listen to [Episode 93 of What Should I Read Next]( in your favorite podcast app, or [click here to listen directly on Modern Mrs Darcy](=). Do you have a friend who would enjoy getting these emails? Please forward this email on to them. [Pre-order Reading People](=) [Modern Mrs Darcy](=) | 6000 Brownsboro Park Blvd Ste H, Louisville, Kentucky 40207 [Opt Out of Blog Posts Only]( | [Unsubscribe from all MMD emails](