With a new year, many new books to offer inspiration and insight, a new gardening series from Monty Don, the return of a favorite British sleuthing series, a great sale from a trusted casual American clothing company (I love their linen fabric items), a new-to-me French series that involves sleuthing with a dose of comedy and everyday life hiccups, a favorite Victorian P.I. returns standing fully on her own two feet and I think better for it, and still so much more.

Books

—Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity and Finding Your Life’s Purpose by Martha Beck

Released this past Tuesday, an author, sociologist and life coach I respect, especially finding great value in her book The Way of Integrity, Martha Beck’s latest book Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity and Finding Your Life’s Purpose continues to offer insight and science to help readers along their life journey.

“Using a combination of the latest neuroscience as well as her background in sociology and coaching, Beck explains how our brains tend to get stuck in an ‘anxiety spiral,’ a feedback system that can increase anxiety indefinitely. To climb out, we must engage different parts of our nervous system—the parts involved in creativity. Beck provides instructions for engaging the ‘creativity spiral,’ in a process that not only shuts down anxiety but leads to innovative problem solving, a sense of meaning and purpose, and joyful, intimate connection with others—and with the world.”

Released January 7th, 2025

—Buy What You Love Without Going Broke by Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni

Also released this past Tuesday is a book I had the opportunity to not only read this past summer in preview, but also interview one of the co-authors, Jill Sirianni for episode #385 of the podcast where we talked about finances and contentment. Buy What You Love Without Going Broke is the debut book of the co-hosts of the Frugal Friends podcast, and “shares a plan for sifting through what’s not important to find the things you truly love spending money on. You’ll learn how to:

• Analyze your current spending and identify what you value
• Prioritize your values when you can’t afford everything
• Identify the root causes of your impulse spending
• Make your habit changes stick long-term

“From credit card and student loan debt to the rising costs of childcare and homes; it has never been more important to get control of your spending. Jen and Jill show you how to do it in a way that’s healthy, not shameful, while exploring topics like overconsumption, self-worth, and the insidious history behind our consumption-obsessed culture”.

Get to know Jill Sirianni and a bit more about her new book in episode #385 of The Simple Sophisticate podcast as we talk about how finding peace with our finances cultivates contentment and visa versa.

—How to Be Enough: Self-Acceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists by Ellen Hendricksen

Yet another book released this week as we step into a new year and carve a path for each of ourselves that values who we are and all that we have already within us that just needs to be seen and cared for is How to Be Enough by Dr. Ellen Hendriksen, a clinical psychologist, and anxiety specialist. “In How to Be Enough, Hendriksen charts a flexible, forgiving, and freeing path, all without giving up the excellence your high standards and hard work have gotten you. She delivers seven shifts―including from self-criticism to kindness, control to authenticity, procrastination to productivity, comparison to contentment―to find self-acceptance, rewrite the Inner Rulebook, and most of all, cultivate the authentic human connections we’re all craving”.

If you are your own worst critic, explore How to Be Enough and discover how to be good to yourself with this clear and compassionate guide.

—The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool that Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About by Mel Robbins

I want to thank one of TSLL’s TOP Tier Members for bringing this new book from Mel Robbins to my attention during our most recent A Cuppa Moments because I feel often we weigh ourselves down by worrying far too much about the outside world’s approval. The Let Them Theory, Robbins’ latest book, was just released in late December and “teaches you how to stop wasting energy on what you can’t control and start focusing on what truly matters: YOU. Your happiness. Your goals. Your life.

“Robbins explains how The Let Them Theory can be applied to eight key areas of your life to make the biggest impact. Discover how much energy and time you’ve been wasting trying to control the wrong things—at work, in relationships, and in pursuing your goals—and how this is keeping you from the happiness and success you deserve”.

—The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus: A Novel by Emma Knight

Let’s chat about a new novel that is getting quite a bit of buzz as of late, and looks to be quite the lovely read. Set in Edinburgh, specifically the University of Edinburgh, the protagonist Pen has arrived for her first term and “knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time . . .

“As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward.”

Released January 7th

—The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne by Kate Winkler Dawson

Fellow American literature teachers and professors, this new book is one to add to your library! After having taught The Scarlett Letter for years (and loving it more with each teaching – the shock of students after discovering what the novel is really about delighted me each year, and oh what wonderful discussions we would have about all sorts of themes and prior assumptions and stereotypes, etc.), a new book has been released that dives into the actual true story, or should I say stories, that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic.

“In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to nineteenth-century small-town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements—including ‘forensic knot analysis’ and criminal profiling (which was invented fifty-five years later with Jack the Ripper)—Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams’s research to find the truth and bring justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given.”

—The Woman Who Knew Everyone: The Power of Perle Mesa, Washington’s Most Famous Hostess by Meryl Gordon

Already a must-read book of the year 2025 by Town & Country and a best book of the month by Amazon, the new biography of Perle Mesa by Meryl Gordon introduces readers to “this wealthy globe-trotting Washington widow [who] was one of the most famous women in America, garnering as much media attention as Eleanor Roosevelt. Renowned for her world-class parties featuring politicians and celebrities, she was very close to three presidents–Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson. Truman named her as the first female envoy to Luxembourg, which inspired the hit musical based on Perle’s life – ‘Call Me Madam’ – which starred Ethel Merman, ran on Broadway for two years and later became a movie. A pioneering supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, she was a prodigious Democratic fundraiser and rescued Harry Truman’s financially flailing 1948 campaign”.  

Learn more of the “chronicles of Perle’s lavish life and society adventures in Newport, Manhattan and Washington, while discovering her important, but nearly forgotten contribution to American politics and the feminist movement”.  

British Finds

—Father Brown, season 12, BritBox

A new season of Father Brown is about to debut on BritBox and BBC One! Tune today – the 10th – in the UK on BBC One and on January 23rd on BritBox for ten new episodes as the sleuthing Father and his trusted companions Chief Inspector Sullivan, Mrs Devine, Brenda and Sergeant Goodfellow bring justice to Kembleford, England, in the 1950s.

—Miss Scarlet, season 5, PBS Masterpiece

Step back further in time to Victorian England and Miss Scarlett, Kate Phillips, returns in season 5. No longer working alongside the Duke and now the entire focus of the series, I had the opportunity to watch all six episodes of this new season and thoroughly enjoyed it. Look for the first episode to debut this Sunday the 12th on PBS Masterpiece. Have a look at the trailer below.

Film

—The Brutalist

As we know the Golden Globes often hint at the likelihood of the winners at the Academy Awards and The Brutalist starring Adrien Brody just took home the award for Best Drama and Best Actor in a Drama. Telling the story of “visionary architect László Toth who has escaped from post-war Europe, he arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost…” Have a look at the trailer below and find it in theaters now.

—Diane Warren: Relentless

If you sing along to many of the most ear-catching songs since the 90s (even 80s), I have a feeling you’ve been singing some of Diane Warren’s lyrics a time or two. From Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” to Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time”, the list is long and crosses over into many different genres. Now a documentary steps into her life and the creative genius at work. Have a look at Academy Award winning song-writer Diane Warren: Relentless, premiering in theaters today.

Francophile Finds

—A Cyclist’s Guide to Crime & Croissants by Ann Claire

Upon reading through Sharon Santoni’s latest issue of My French Country Home magazine, I discovered a new mystery series set in France that might just be one to follow. The first book in the series by Ann Clair is A Cyclist’s Guide to Crime & Croissants and the main character Sadie Greene has just “shocked her friends and family by ditching her sensible office job in the Chicago suburbs and buying a sight-unseen French bicycling tour company, Oui Cycle. Now she’s living the unconventional life of her dreams in the gorgeous village of Sans-Souci-sur-Mer. Sans souci means carefree, but Sadie feels enough pressure to burst a tire when hometown friends arrive for a tour, including her former boss, Dom Appleton. Sadie is determined to show them the wonders of France and cycling—and to prove she made the right move. 

“When Dom drags his heels on fun, Sadie vows he’ll enjoy if it kills her. That is, until Dom ends up dead. The tragedy was no accident. Someone went out of their way to bring a permanent end to Dom’s vacation. 

“As more crimes—and murder—roll in, suspicions hover over Oui Cycle. To save her dream business, help her friends, and bring justice, Sadie launches her own investigation. However, mysteries mount with every turn. On an uphill battle for clues, can Sadie come to terms with her painful past while spinning closer to the truth.”

Released in May 2024. Look for book #2 in the series to be released this coming May – learn more about it here.

—My French Country Box, February – French Bistrot

The classic French Bistrot, dining on la terrasse, sipping a glass of wine, and watching all of Paris walk by. What a wonderful theme for the upcoming new My French Country Home Box from Sharon Santoni and team. Reserve your box now for delivery next month!

—Le Stagiaire (aka The Intern)

I accidentally stumbled upon this French series that somehow I didn’t know about, but now am tickled to have found it and want to share. Part drama, part comedy, more on the comedy side, Le Stagiaire (The Intern) takes us to Marseille where after a miscarriage of justice that has led her behind bars, Constance Meyer has decided to take a new career path. At age 50, the farmer and mayor of her village became a student at the National School of the Judiciary”.

Solving crimes alongside a judge, she navigates her new career while being a mother to two adult children and wife to a loving, supportive and all-around-good-guy husband. There are two seasons available to watch via Walter Presents on PBS (where I found it, but you can find it on Amazon Prime as well). Further awesome news about this show is that while it began back in 2014/15, it is still running and is currently in its 9th season, so I imagine we can look forward to many new seasons being dropped in the next months and years. I cannot wait! Have a look at the trailer below to get a taste of what to expect.

Garden

—Monty Don’s British Gardens, BBCTwo

Premiering tonight on BBCTwo is a new five-part series hosted by British gardener, host and author Monty Don. Monty Don’t British Gardens answers the question From the humble backyard to the grandest of grounds, what do Britain’s gardens tell us about our culture, climate and history? For streaming abroad, use a VPN and watch on BBC’s iPlayer.

Shopping

—Eileen Fisher’s Light Cotton Nylon Trench Coat, two colors

Simple, light-weight, perfect for travel in spring and summer, and well-made from a trusted brand. Oh! And classic as well.

—Faherty’s Annual Sale, up to 60% off

When it comes to Faherty, I love their linen options, and with their current sale of up to 60% off, I spied their 100% Linen relaxed shirt, and will taking advantage of this savings. I have shopped a few more things below if you too enjoy their casual, yet quality style.

~SHOP THE SALE:

—Sweaty Betty Pro Run Zip Up

Whether you have set a resolution, revolution, intention or nothing at all, keeping up a health regimen that involves physical exercise is likely on your routine schedule, and look as well as feeling comfortable in what you are wearing always helps motivate us to keep at it. Sweaty Betty is having a worthwhile end of year/new year sale, that I recommend taking a look at, but in the meantime, a few items from their new collection to keep you warm, and dry while you walk or run this January and February.

Loving this color. And then the attention to details: The hands can stay warm, your watch is easy to view and the hood is there just in case, but still slim and hitting just below the waist.

Pro Run Water Resistant jacket, black

This jacket is perfect for running or walking in weather that threatens to rain. Stay dry, yet just warm enough without getting hot and ensure your workout can be checked off your list.

Television

—With Love, Meghan, Netflix

There has been a lot of speculation about what or if, and now we know that this is the series the Duchess of Sussex has been working on. With Love, Meghan premieres Wednesday January 15th on Netflix. Have a look at the trailer below. Her elderly pup Gus stole my heart towards the end of the video as he watches her cook in the kitchen.

Surprise

—The Hedgehog’s Dilemma by Toon Tellegan, illustrated by Annemarie van Haeringen

The first English-translated book from international best-selling author from the Netherlands Toon Tellegen, is now available in the UK and soon will be available in the states (but you can order from Blackwells now and have it shipped to the states). The Hedgehog’s Dilemma pairs with two of the books included above as it addresses the feelings of anxiety, but in a more playful, yet approachable way. A book for all ages, if you enjoyed The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy, this will likely be a book you would find great value in. Addressing deep emotional and philosophical themes with humor, kindness, and intelligence, The Hedgehog’s Dilemma speaks to the tendencies of the overthinker, the worrier and the-wanting-to-please and tend to everyone in your life.

Mother Nature appeared to mimic my emotions this past week with days of buckets of endless rain (of course, as you know I love the rain, and so this provided much comfort), cold nights and intermittent snow. However, on Tuesday, while Bend was socked in under low gray clouds, Nelle and I saw a glimpse of blue sky up near the horizon just below Mount Bachelor and decided to head up and take a morning ski. And in so doing we found a brilliant blue sky and nourishing warmth.

By no means have we healed fully and grieved even a modicum of what will come, but comfort and support has been given and felt in so many ways. As I tried to share in my response to each of your comments on Norman’s Memoriam post as well as on IG, thank you so very much for missing him, for expressing in your kind words of support and understanding for the depth of the loss that is felt with his passing.

From slowing down, talking to friends and loved ones, attending yoga class with people who know my love for Norman, journaling, and so many other rituals that were put into place long ago, we’re doing okay. Each night, the vigil shown on IG is lit as a way of holding him with us as it feels odd to not savor the evenings with him relaxing in his favorite chair, and we will keep doing that as long as it is needed (we are already on I don’t know how many rounds of new candles). Many other ideas are floating in my mind and heart as to how to honor him and hold him in my heart more fully, as I cannot and do not want to stop thinking about him.

Thank you for thinking of Nelle during this time as well. She goes in and out of understanding that Norman is gone, and so the outings in Mother Nature are just as much for me as for her as she is wholly present, playful and utterly happy when we go for a ski, a walk or a snow-shoe outing.

As I shared in this IG post on Wednesday, writing and sharing and offering inspiration and ideas to you the readers of TSLL is healing for me, is nourishing, and so I am back to the regular schedule you have come to expect, and while I won’t burden you with my pain any longer, I do know the pain has been clarifying which is a gift I am thankful for. So I look forward to sharing inspiring quality content for deeply savoring your one and only life. If nothing else, Norman taught me to live well without minding what others thought, something I shared earlier in his Memoriam post, and how to do so without fear is becoming easier to do. I hope to bring you inspired content to set aside fear that may be holding you back so that you can embrace the life that is waiting for you to be courageous enough to live.

Now, to the weekend and thank you for stopping by today. Below are a handful of posts and one video I thought you might enjoy. Until Monday, bonne journée.

~The annual January/New Year sale is on for British Airways! Scoop up awesome savings on all sections of the plane! (sale ends January 28th)

~Ten ways to keep and maintain a strong mental health [NYTimes, gift link]

~Demi Moore’s acceptance speech this past Sunday at the Golden Globes, centered around being enough. Take a watch/listen.

~Ten boundaries therapists suggest putting into place [Time]

~15 places in Paris for the best hot chocolate. [Frenchly]

~Soothing, welcoming, creative and classic English décor. All of these descriptors and more are found in a north London Victorian villa. I especially love the foyer. [House & Garden UK]

~For modern, yet still cozy and oh so British décor, tour this narrow London townhouse [Domino]

~I have a sneaking suspicion many TSLL readers already know most, if not all, of these details to ensure a nourishing and healthy morning routine, but here is an article to refresh – The morning routine that will increase your longevity [Real Simple]

~France’s semi-annual country-wide sale just began! Learn about the key dates of Les Soldes Winter 2025 here. [The Connexion]

~Food for thought (pun intended, and likely something many TSLL readers do already), try grocery shopping the European way. [Mental Floss]

~Looking for a better night’s sleep in the new year? Explore these best luxury mattresses from Clever [Architectural Digest spin-off for clever design ideas]

~Take a tour of this significantly refurbished Grade II 16th century residence situated in the Kent Downs. It was short-listed in 2024 for the House of the Year by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

~Explore last week’s This & That: January 3, 2025:

A handful of books to provide inspiration and ideas for beginning the year well whether you are looking to reinvent, slow down or spark creative ideas in whatever field of work you spend your work week. A new travel accessory that is stylish and highly functional, a new cross-over French/British mystery tv series set in Canada that includes a favorite actress from a long-running British series, a new cookbook from a Francophile chef and still much more. 

~Please note: TSLL is supported by you, readers who take the time to stop by (merci!), peruse and sometimes welcome into your life mentioned and recommended finds. Affiliate links are present in today’s post and may earn commissions for TSLL when you purchase. View TSLL’s full Privacy Policy here.