The One With the All The Romance

It’s my wedding anniversary - I love you, J 🩷

I’m a sucker for romance and have watched every movie featuring JLo in a wedding dress with pride. My novel even has a big wedding scene in an olive grove in Central Park with snow gently falling…

There’s so much emphasis on us to be productive and charge through life, sometimes we downplay celebrations of the singular thing that matters most: love. With extra cheese.

So here’s a photo of my grandparents looking snazzy on their wedding day in Jaffa, Palestine in the late 1940’s:

My own wedding was on a beautiful beach in Glyfada, Greece, dancing a hybrid Palestinian dabke/ traditional Greek zorba-style dance. I grew up in Athens and still revisit every chance I get! 🇬🇷

During dark times, we must remember joy, love and community kindness. In that spirit – and with summer around the corner – I thought to pack this newsletter with loving inspiration. Enjoy!

Read: Sweeping Love Epics

There’s something so unique about every love story - you get a peek inside a character’s mind, the choices they make, discover how it feels to fall for another person alongside them. It’s very hard to write a great love story… too much cheese, or one dimensional characters, and it’s easy to put the book down and switch on Netflix (cue trash tv).

I love the classics, like Gone With the Wind, Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby, but there are some solid contemporary works I wanted to share with you (okay, I’ve enjoyed a few Colleen Hoover books by the beach, but I just can’t do the whole emotionally-damaged-guy meets girl-who-wants-to-fix-him thing on repeat…)

Here are 5 sweeping love stories that kept me up past my bedtime:

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

I admit, I didn’t pick this up at first because it’s a Reese Witherspoon pick and I hated one of her other choices (*ahem, Crawdads*), but my friend Tala recommended The Paper Palace and I couldn’t put it down. Elle is a married mom of three who vacations in Cape Cod every summer - and she ends up having an affair with her childhood friend Jonas. The book has a great dual timeline structure, moving back and forth from the time Elle met Jonas to the present moment, leading up to her crucial decision: will she choose her husband or her lover?

Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Sometimes we choose books because there’s a pretty dress on the cover, okay? But this one didn’t disappoint (unlike Daisy Jones, which felt too thin for me). Movie icon Evelyn Hugo hires Monique, an unknown journalist, to tell the story of the seven great loves in her life. Highly enjoyable read.

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

I really admired the way this novel blurred the lines between friendship and romance. The main character, a woman named Frances, has a relationship with her female roommate, Bobby, and later a married man. The novel moves from Dublin, where the women study at university, to a villa in the South of France with a group of wealthy friends. Cue the beautiful settings and bad choices.

One Day by David Nicholls

Was I the only person not a fan of the latest Netflix adaptation of this book? Wasn’t feeling the chemistry between the actors… but the book has it in spades. It may have taken the couple 20 years to realize they are meant for each other, but it will take you 2 days to read this warm novel.

The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

Jojo and I have the same literary agent (hello, wonderful Sheila!) and I’ve always admired this author’s work ethic. She is so prolific and her novels each create their own atmosphere. In this book, journalist Elle discovers letters in a British newspaper’s archive detailing a love affair gone wrong in the 1960’s - and she makes it her mission to track down the star-crossed lovers. I liked the movie version on Netflix and enjoyed the scenes in the French Riviera.

Write: Love Note

Do it. Write a small love note to someone in your life. Your mother, child, bestie, that teacher that changed your life. Now notice the feelings that come up as you’re about to get started - a little awkward, vulnerable, maybe grateful, open, maybe hating me a little.

This emotion is where the magic happens. If you’re able to capture some of these complex feelings in words, you’ll have something authentic to work with.

And I heart anyone who has read this far… <3

Inspire: Travel Inward

Ain’t no love greater than self love, am I right? I think we’ve all been through a lot these last few years - COVID, job shakeups, favorite bookstores shutting down, WW3 on the horizon, traumatizing images coming out of Gaza every day for 9 months… sigh… we need a little compassion.

Here’s one of my favorite meditations to keep calm and carry on:

Browse These Links

Random entertaining things from the Internet:

• June 21 was the longest day of the year, summer solstice AND the strawberry full moon! Here’s what that means #intentionsetting

• Sitting and drinking coffee is much healthier than just sitting (yay, coffee)

• Uh, David Hasselhoff is a lifeguard in Dubai right now… wtf

• Amr Diab still rocking stages, with his latest sellout concert at Coca Cola Arena in Dubai

• A Palestinian American choreographer’s show tells a story of pain through dance in NYC

• Why do we have the dreams we do?

• Netflix has announced two in-person entertainment venues in two US cities

Countdown to My Novel’s Publication Day:

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

With kindness,

Sara