Over the weekend I spent some time at one of my favorite places in LA - Greystone Mansion (stop me if you’ve heard this one before, i cannot remember if i’ve already written about this…). You can visit the grounds of the Beverly Hills mansion at any time, but this year, on the first weekend of every month, you can go inside the house as well.
The thing about this mansion is, it has history. It was built in the 20s by an oil tycoon for his son, who died in the house a year after they moved in, along with his assistant, in what appeared to be a murder-suicide… Though his family continued to live there until the 50s (his wife remarried three years after he was murdered - also in my mind, the son and his assistant were having an affair and the assistant killed him in a fit of passion lol). In the 60s, the city of Beverly Hills bought the land, built a water reservoir on the property, and then dedicated it as a park in 1971.
It’s been used in several movies (and tv — it’s chilton in gilmore girls), including one I recently rewatched (the prestige)!
It’s also just, gorgeous.
After I walked around the house (just the rooms on the first floor, you used to be able to go upstairs and also down to the basement bowling alley), I walked around the gardens, plopped myself on a bench and just sat there – until I got hungry enough that I ordered a chicken Caesar salad from California Chicken Cafe (say that five times fast. also order this caesar: fresh, shredded chicken, croutons, parmesan, fusilli, half an avocado, plus i add bean sprouts bc this is california and i can).
I always feel refreshed when I visit the mansion. I love that it’s just this gorgeous, quiet plot of land sitting on a hill above the city. When I go now, it reminds me of when I first moved here — when I was freelancing and not always working and would sometimes go just to get out of the house in search of some perspective.




Some things—
i’ve now convinced two other people to watch the real housewives of salt lake city — there’s room for more! come on in, the water is NUTSO!
one of my favorite things on rhoslc is that when the conversation starts getting out of control, one of the housewives says some version of, “this conversation is no longer productive. i’m disengaging. i’m not engaging in this.” — more housewives should use this tactic
juno temple is set to star in apple tv’s adaptation of the husbands — the more distance i get from this book, the more i like it! so i’m excited to watch it on tv
i just learned that wine consulting for an airline is a job… definitely will be working that into some fiction at some point
this was my least favorite season of white lotus, but i want a movie version of just the girlies (i cried at carrie coon’s monologue)
jack lowden might play darcy in netflix’s pride & prejudice series, which i forgot was happening, but did know is being adapted by dolly alderton (author of good material), and i feel like my body is ready for this (i’m also seeing p&p 2005 in theaters next week and i cannot w a i t)
What I’m Reading
One of the girls in my book club went to a wedding at the Boston Library — the reception was in the reading room and they used the green banker’s desk lamps on the tables — and I can’t stop thinking about it!
Earl Crush by Alexandra Vasti - This is the second book in a new regency series that started with Ne’er Duke Well, and thank god, it’s just as much fun (and steamier!!!). For the last three years, Lydia-Hope Wallace has been writing anonymous political pamphlets and corresponding with the Earl of Strathrannoch under her pen name. The two are so politically aligned that Lydia believes they will make a great match (plus she’s bad with new people and can’t end another season in failure under the weight of disappointment from her mother). When she shows up at the Earl’s door to propose marriage, he has no idea who she is – it turns out she’s been corresponding with his younger brother, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.
And when the Earl relays his fears that his brother may be a traitor to his country, Lydia enlists herself to help track him down. And if during their madcap journey the two have to pretend to be married, and then actually fall in love and want to be married for real, so be it!
Eclipse by John Banville - Whenever I pick up a book from my very large floor stack, I treat its opening pages like an audition. If they don’t grab me immediately, I can choose something else.
This is a book I acquired over Christmas break at one of my favorite used bookstores in Philadelphia, and when I read this on the opening page—
It was April: bird and bush, silver glint of coming rain, vast sky, the glacial clouds in monumental progress.
I knew I had picked up the right book. It’s such a treat when you’re reading a book at the same time of year as it’s taking place (that’s why i have to save elin hilderbrand for the summer).
An adaptation on my radar:
Mansion Beach by Meg Mitchell Moore - Having not seen or listened to the music from the Gatsby musicals, I fear we have already suffered from the book entering the public domain, but Elin Hilderbrand just put this beach read re-telling on my radar, and I’m obviously going to have to read it – it’s Gatsby but modern day and all the central characters are women.
What I’m Writing
Another thing about Greystone Mansion — it’s home to a host of (juicy, dramatic) scenes from Novel 1, so whenever I’m there, I think about those characters and miss them like old friends.


I renamed one of the characters in Novel 2 because he had the same name as my new boss and I thought… I do not want any part of my workplace to be associated with this. I did a find and replace in the google doc to update the name, but it also accidentally replaced the “ian” in other words in the document as well, so I had to scrub through the novel to fix it. Unsurprisingly, the word “Italian” appears several times.
I’ve suddenly decided that one of the characters in Novel 3 is going to know things about wine. I started to google something, but remembered that I have two different wine-centered coffee table books that can probably tell me everything I need to know in this case (like what wine pairs with sushi). I forgot how fun the research phase of writing is!
Also, how truly wild is it that I’m beginning a third fucking novel? Lol.
A pen I’m newly obsessed with
sharpie s-gel, 0.7 - it was in my cart before i even knew what i was doing because they’re a very cute light blue (pictured above), and luckily, it writes extremely well (tho i’m still writing my novel 3 scenes in pencil)
That’s all from me this week, stay tuned!
We love a good pen!