January Digest

What I read, what I bought, what I wanted and more

I was trying to remember if January last year also dragged on the way this January did. Is this how the first month of the year always feels? This post is already a week late…

let’s f*cking gab

the first thing to be added to my pinterest wishlist for 2025 was a bottle of vinegar

Purchased

• Blue Nail Polish, Ruth, $14— I purchased this as a Christmas present for Abby. She kindly shared her gift with me and I painted my nails this perfect shade of sparkly blue that reminds me of aquamarine.

• Fringe Double-Faced Wool Coat, COS — I was doing really well in January, not having purchased any new clothing, just new books. That all changed when Mariajose informed me about the COS sale. Including this coat…

• Smoked A-Line Midi Skirt, COS — and this skirt. I thought I would take advantage of these great sale prices and the 14 day return policy on sale items that are > 60% off. I ended up loving both anyway.

• Silver Hoops — One minute I was watching

  Sarah Gray
  ’s latest video and the next I was sending an offer on some silver hoop earrings on eBay. Inspiration can strike at any moment.

• Celery Vinegar, TART — I spent a long weekend in Hudson, New York with some friends earlier this month. We went on a lovely hike, stopped at some thrift stores and covered about three blocks downtown because it was so cold. We popped into every specialty store we passed. One of them being, a butcher/market with three identical looking men behind the counter. One of them rang me out for this $29.99 bottle of vinegar.

• Japanese Stationary — I always peruse the pen sections of stationary stores, but have never take any of them home, but this time I did and I love them.

Wants

• Casi Myra Flats, Camper, $160 — The color selection of these flats is perfect and makes it very difficult for me to decide which one I need most. I think I’m deciding between the green and the orange, but that changes regularly.

• Pierced Slingback Heel, Tory Bruch, $398 — I frequently go into my mom’s closet and sift through her heel collection. This Tory Burch heel feels like the kind of shoe I want someone to pull out years later and say, “omg can I have these!?"

• Akimbo Hoodie, Akimbo, $150 — My sister has one of these, and you never out grow the desire to have the things your sister has, so now I want this hoodie too.

• Women's Timp 5 GTX ROA, Altra, $195 — The aforementioned hike is the reason for this shoe desire and because

  Mya Gelber
  made these shoes look so good over on her Instagram. They’re practical for my maybe monthly hikes, but also cute to wear whenever.

  

  like come on, they look so good

• “by heart” cookbook by Hailee Catalano, $35 — Hailee is the reason I bought $30 vinegar and now I will spend just a little bit more on her fantastic cookbook.

Read

• The Blue Room by Georges Simenon ⭐️⭐️⭐️

  • Originally published in 1964, The Blue Room is a psychological thriller with an affair between Tony and Andrée and its center.

  • I don’t read a lot of 1) thrillers or 2) books written by men, but this was a fun change of pace. If you’re looking for something short to get you out of a reading rut, I’d say give this a try! It’s nice to switch things up and some parts made me giggle like this line:

    “I was wondering if brunettes scared you?”

• Daughter by Claudia Dey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

  • Daughter is centered around Mona Dean, a playwright, actress and daughter to Paul—a man famous for his novel of the same name. Paul decides he is going to confess to his wife about his affair. This isn’t his first wife, this isn’t his first affair and this isn’t the first time Mona has been at the center of it all.

  • I don’t know if anything I read this year will beat this. This book is incredible. I have underlined so many passages. Here are two:

    “Paul’s life was like some vicious wilderness program in which everyone was a lion, but I had to be a gazelle.”

    “People made the mistake of reducing forgiveness to an intellectual exercise. A thing you told your mind to do. It was not.”

• Be Ready When The Luck Happens by Ina Garten ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

  • Both Ina and I grew up in Stamford, went to public high school there, spent our 20’s in DC and went to the exact same Taylor Swift concert. Invisible sting. Kindred spirits. I just need my own Jeffrey now, please universe.

• Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

  • Amy, Bunny, book-smart and overly cautious younger sister to Olivia, Ollie, the limitless and rash older sister. Covering two decades, Shred Sisters tells the story of what it’s like to love your sister unconditionally.

  • Mandatory read for people with sisters. Warning: it will make you miss them like crazy.

    “No one will love you or hurt you more than a sister.”

Purchases To Be Read

• The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen

• The End of The Alphabet by Janet Frame

• I Paine What I Want to See by Philip Guston

• Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Movies

• The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Martha (2024) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

  • The scene where she scolds her employee for using a pairing knife to cut an orange is incredible.

• Twisters (2024) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

  • Had me tearing up on the plane

• Conclave (2024) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ & 1/2

• Babygirl (2024) ⭐️⭐️ & 1/2

• The Brutalist (2024) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ❤️

  • Saw it at my local independent theater and the woman who sold us the tickets was like, you know this is a four hour movie right?

• Best in Show (2000) ❤️

  • Watched with Liz on a cold New York City day while eating steak burritos. It felt like a fever dream.

• Maria (2024) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

  • Made me want to rewatch Jackie and Spencer real bad.

Music, Most Listened To

• Like a Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan (x13)

• Velvet Ring, Big Thief (x10)

• Sympathy is a knife featuring Ariana Grande, Charlie XCX (x8)

• Wristwatch, MJ Lenderman (x8)

• Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, Bob Dylan (x7)

Extra

• Cine2nerdle — gamer era, my genre of choice is romance of course.

• Wicked on broadway — Cried three different times.

YouTube

I watch a lot of YouTube so I thought I’d share some of my favorite watches from the month.

---

That’s what I got up to this month! Please share a favorite below!! The sun is staying out just slightly later which makes driving home with the last of the daylight such a treat.

xox,

Gabbie