Elizabeth is fully in her October era — “October, she is that girl” — and this week, in the name of Libra season balance, she made an executive decision: no processing the collapse of society today. The news cycle has officially blown past the point where touching grass fixes anything, so instead of rage, she’s handing out vibes in the form of recommendations.
On books: Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say ruined her in the best way, Alison Aubrey’s Your Turn: How to Build a Midlife You Love got an honest review (she’s mostly off personal-development books these days, but made an exception), and she clocked that every book currently on hold for her at the library happens to be written by a woman — a pattern she’s choosing to read as a sign of the times. There’s also a wee tangent about her aversion to books that treat random, out-of-nowhere violence as a plot device, which is a very specific and extremely relatable 2026 nervous system complaint.
On movies: she saw Digger, the new Tom Cruise film that got panned in early reviews, went in skeptical on the strength of an endorsement from a comedian she doesn’t even particularly respect, and came out the other side declaring it art. She also watched the Martin Mull documentary on Netflix and now she’s mildly obsessed — both with Mull’s career and with the reveal that he was secretly an incredible painter the whole time, a detail that sent her into a brief spiral about her own buried creative gifts.
On music: no new songs this round, but two mellow instrumental playlists (French Jazz Café, Fancy Hotel Lobby) for nervous-system regulation, plus a resurfaced playlist called 90 Day 90s Reset — very Lilith Fair–coded, Sarah McLachlan and Indigo Girls and Alanis, with a light dusting of grunge because it wouldn’t be her playlist otherwise — currently doing more emotional labor than her actual therapist.
She closes with an assignment: make your own mixtape from your younger self to who you are now.
