issue #37 - the very full, very busy, very chaotic one

This was a doozy of a week - a two-day video shoot, tons of meetings and podcast tapings, so many emails and calendar Tetris-ing, and all the pasta. One of them is live - my episode with Gee Thanks Just Bought This.

It also had some very fun things - Rho’s first piano lesson, cocktails with the other investors in Heymama, Grace’s 10 year anniversary party for The Stripe, and Lydia’s birthday party.

If this is your first e-mail from me, welcome! In addition to writing the book How To Pack, I'm an entrepreneur and angel investor, an avid reader, and a mom of two boys (a 4 year old and a 8 month old).

Every Saturday, I share the 25 best reads from the Internet (culled from the daily shares on my Instagram), the books I've read that week, and things I'm generally loving at the moment. You can join the conversation on all these articles - and more! - in my Facebook group.

Looking for my packing list template? Here you go!

#ThingsILove This Week

• Things I own and love that have kept me going this week - Daily Harvest smoothies (the mint cacao and banana & greens) and bowls (kimchi cauliflower), these $25 pants, my lap desk, Banza’s plant-based macaroni and cheese, Brightland olive oil (one of my portfolio companies), and my Nespresso lattes.

• I got a lot of questions about needlepoint for beginners. Here’s the only resource you need - SBT Stitches beginner kit and online class.

• The Daily is killing it lately - the episodes about Harry & Meghan and how fracking affects the Democrats’ chances in 2020 are must-listens.

• Overtone’s extreme silver coloring and daily conditioners have been a lifesaver for reducing my highlights’ brassiness and restoring the charcoal shade they originally were. They’re also deeply hydrating and are formulated with high quality ingredients (none of the bad stuff, 100% vegan, cruelty-free).

• Things I want to buy but I’m not right now - this top and pants from MM.LaFleur (one of my portfolio companies), this sweatshirt, this ring, and this robe.

What I read this week

A quick note - I hope you reserve the books I recommend from your local library, or purchase them from your favorite independent bookstore or the audiobook fromLibro.fm. I’ll be usingBookstore Linkfor all my book links, which lets you find and order these books from your favorite indie bookstore online.

• Tightrope (c/o Book Of The Month) - “What happened to the American Dream?” This has been on my mind a lot lately. And Tightrope answers it, heartbreakingly and honestly. And at the end, hopefully. This book is exhaustively researched and deeply empathetic to the American experience that I’ve never faced. It opened my heart and my eyes to just how vast and interconnected the problems are that have led us here - and how much work all of us have to do to fix it. Together. This is not an easy book to read. But it might be the most important book you read this year - and for a long time. Read it - with an open mind and an open heart. And then let’s get to work.

• A Taste Of Sage (ARC provided by NetGalley) - after Followers and The Fight (ACLU book), I needed a brain candy book to reset my mind, and this was it. Two chefs - one having to close her restaurant and the other a famed one, collide in an expected way and inevitably fall in love and contend with drama and have some steamy moments together. It's a predictable and almost forgettable romance, but a good palate cleanser. A good library read.

Current book reviewshere, and here are all my random Amazon favorites.

Hitha’s Favorite Things

• Libro.fm is my favorite audiobook app (it credits your favorite independent bookstore with the sale). Use code HITHA to get 3 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you create a monthly membership. You can find my favorite audiobooks here.

• This is the only book club I’m a member of

• my Amazon shop

• my favorite vitamins (both their pre-natal and their essential one for women)

• my favorite produce delivery company

• the app to save #5SmartReads to read later

• the notebook that has changed my life (see how I use it here and here). Get 15% off with code HITHA15.

• the marriage check-in my husband and I do every single week

• my favorite workout - and why. Use code G37YVV for $100 in accessories (spin shoes, weights, headphones - oh my!)

• Small Packages (one of my portfolio companies) is the curated gift box company I’m always talking about - get 15% off your order with the code HITHA

The Top 5

1. My Time With the British Aristocracy (The Atlantic)

2. 49ers' Katie Sowers to Become 1st Woman in NFL History to Coach in a Super Bowl (Bleacher Report)

3. The basics: What we know — and don’t know — about the virus spreading in China and beyond (STAT News)

4. The British Royal Family Has More To Lose Than Harry And Meghan Do. (BuzzFeed News) Worthy of your inbox - BuzzFeed’s Royal Tea newsletter.

5. Is Everyone Buying Fake Bags But Me? (Elle)

The Catch Up

Monday

• Black women were at the forefront (The Philadelphia Tribune)

• The Silicon Valley Economy Is Here. And It’s a Nightmare. (The New Republic)

• Fleeing justice (The Oregonian)

• For Bumble, the Future Isn’t Female, It’s Female Marketing (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Tuesday

• Hackers Are Coming for the 2020 Election — And We’re Not Ready (Rolling Stone)

• Patients Still Struggle To Balance High Costs Of MS Treatment, Despite Generic (NPR)

• Budget Squabble Threatens U.S. Nuclear Modernization Efforts (The Dispatch)

• Rep. Ayanna Pressley Reveals Beautiful Bald Head and Discusses Alopecia for the First Time (The Root)

Wednesday

• How to Raise an Activist, According to the Harris Women (Glamour) Preorder the book here!

• Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories. (New York Times)

• TikTok is full of Sephora and Chipotle employees spilling secrets. That can get complicated. (Vox)

• Taylor Swift: No Longer ‘Polite at All Costs’ (Variety)

Thursday

• I Quit My Job After a Particularly Good Beach Day (New. York Times)

• Bernie Sanders’s attack machine comes back to haunt him (Washington Post)

• No Matter How You Feel About Abortion, You Need to Better Understand D&C (InStyle)

• Cummins’ Non-Mexican Crap (Medium)

Friday

• Big Pharma's bottom line is leaving the world vulnerable to pandemics (Axios)

• What It's Like to Never Ever See Yourself on TV (TIME)

• 4.4 million 2012 Obama voters stayed home in 2016 — more than a third of them black (Washington Post) What the headline doesn’t mention - but the articles goes into detail about - is the weakening of the Voting Rights Amendment and subsequent voter suppression and disinformation campaigns that affected black voter turnout. Bad headline, but really smart article.

• 9 parents separated from families return to children in US (ABC News)