The best chocolate sheet cake ever – This is not an overstatement. This recipe, from the Pioneer Woman, is incredible and I make it a lot (we always seem to have too much buttermilk). I leave out the pecans. Cannot recommend more highly. This cake looks humble but is absolutely delicious. A classic weeknight treat around here.
The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead’s spectacular book is, as of now, my favorite of the year. This extraordinary story manages to be both excruciatingly raw and violent and luminously beautiful at the same time. I can’t stop thinking about Cora. Run, don’t walk, to read this.
Want to Raise a Tail-Blazing Daughter? – I’m so grateful to my friend Gale for sending this marvelous piece to me. Every piece of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s advice resonates, and of course I love that fostering a love of reading is #1.
24 Great Books that show Empathy and Kindness – I adore this list, which I found on twitter when my idol Michael Thompson re-tweeted it. Such a terrific list. Grace, Whit, and I have read some but not all of these, and I’m madly ordering from the library.
I write these Things I Love posts approximately monthly. You can find them all here.
I’ve made that sheet cake many times. It’s a definite winner around here too. I’m also so glad to know that the Trailblazing Daughter article resonated so greatly with you. I think much of the advice probably bears out just as well for sons, but I love any writing that enables our girls to strive.
The Colson Whitehead book is on my list. Deep into Ferrante at the moment.
i’m printing out the cake recipe for Rebecca (my almost 10-year-old) who LOVES to make cakes!
Something is gravely wrong with me as I just cannot get into the Ferrante. Must try again. xox I SPELLED YOUR NAME WRONG OMG I AM SO SORRY!!!
it is so good! xox
I really like the books on kindness. My husband’s cousin once said, “I want my children to be kind.” It took my breath away.
My family valued intelligence, hard work, stoicism in the face of adversity, but kindness? That was the first day someone pointed it out to me, and I realized it’s a cornerstone of my life.