Issue #118: I Don't Need Another Gift Guide (Do You?)

How to give meaningful gifts or skip them altogether.

Morning Person is a weekly newsletter packed with obsessively-curated recommendations and ideas—let’s get to it!

📚 So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan: In the title short story, a man commutes home from work while tallying the costs associated with his fiancée who has recently left him: the engagement ring, of course, and once, “he’d seen her pay three euros for an ordinary-looking head of cabbage.” There are hints at who this woman is—she convinced a farmer to allow her to forage wild mushrooms on his land, walks barefoot on the beach in winter, and cooks farmers’ market finds “with apparent light-handedness and ease.” But the story is written in such a way that we notice these details as warmth, bravery, and an appreciation of beauty at the same time he misses them. To the man, the relationship was purely transactional. There is something keeping him from seeing her in her totality. Keegan’s collection deftly maneuvers through tales of misogyny in this slim collection, with a beauty available to those who allow themselves to see it. You can listen to Claire Keegan reading the story on the New Yorker podcast here. I also relistened to her novella, Small Things Like These, which is similarly quietly radical and perfect for this season.

🎥 Princess Diana flicks: Although I haven’t consistently watched “The Crown,” I picked up with the final season all about Princess Diana, which inspired a watch of other films that address her life and death, including ‘Diana’ starring Naomi Watts, ‘The Queen’ starring Helen Mirren, and ‘Spencer’ starring Kristen Stewart. Each grapples with answering things we can never really know, including what it felt like to have the world’s attention shining down on her during such vulnerable and tender moments. An interesting deep-dive.

🍝 Sautéed Coconut Kale: After a week of over-the-top meals and dinners out with friends, I was craving something hearty and simple. Enter: The dish I’ve already made three times this week. After sautéing fresh, raw garlic and ginger (I used the frozen cubes from Trader Joe’s), I loosely followed this recipe to cook the kale in the pan until bright green, then added a hearty splash of coconut milk, which quickly evaporates, leaving the kale coated in a light touch of coconut fat. It’s delicious, especially served over rice with a ton of ghee and chickpeas, or another simple protein.

A few other recommendations… Also interested in seeing Emerald Fennell’s latest film, ‘Saltburn’ and appreciate Dolly’s foray into rock, cementing her role as a total badass.

During the five years I worked at a lifestyle blog, I was tasked with the annual tradition of curating and ghost-writing the site’s holiday gift guides (over thirty, in total). A few months before Christmas, I’d create a running doc that I’d add to anytime I came across a product or brand with just the right blend of novelty and affordability. The ideal gift guide product is something you would never think to buy (or, better yet, know existed), but the moment you see it, you think, “Oh, that’s kind of cool!”

This year, like most years, my inbox has already been flooded with gift guides. There are guides by personality: Tech-Savvy Gifts for Sports Lovers! For Your BFF Who Loves Reading! Guides by price (as I did two years ago): Gifts Under $150! And, of course, guides curated by celebs and experts (and experts of celebs): We Asked Beyoncé’s Interior Designer What She’s Gifting This Season! As I wrote last year, no matter how they’re packaged, the guides often end up including similar items (if 2022 was the year of the squeezy olive oil, 2023 is the year of cocktail olive pillows, bow earrings, quirky tapered candle holders, and Flamingo Estate.)