everything you need to know for an overnight flight

plus, musings from across Colombia 🇨🇴

hello, from Bogotá!

it’s been the most fulfilling week traveling through Colombia, beginning in Medellín (where I wrote to you from on my birthday last Sunday), exploring the Cocora Valley, and now, being firmly planted in the capital city for the past few days. my first week of 31 was filled with experiences that got me out of my comfort zone; in the last seven days, I’ve eaten insects at an Amazonian restaurant, stayed at an eco-lodge that involved a midnight wolf spider incident (SOS), picked coffee beans at a farm in Colombian coffee country, ridden in the back of multiple open-air Jeeps, hiked through the place Encanto is based on completely in awe of the tallest palm trees in the world, and attended my first ever Latin Jewish wedding.

tonight, I depart Bogotá at midnight on a nonstop flight to Paris to kick off my month-long stint flirting with life in France. in classic fashion, I’ll be following all my tried and true overnight flight rules and rituals—each of which I’ll be outlining for my paid subscribers below…but first, a rundown of what to expect in this week’s edition.

this week’s sunday series includes:

• a reminder of what exactly the Sunday series is and the bonus content that paid subscribers now receive! plus, a peek at the focus I’ll be taking with Q&As for the following month 🇫🇷

• what I’ve read and loved lately 📖

• my rules for a fruitful overnight flight 🛬 (exclusive to paid subscribers)

• takeaways from my travels across Colombia 🇨🇴 (exclusive to paid subscribers)

---

“what are you doing tomorrow?” he asked me in the middle of the dancefloor. it was just after midnight, but we’d be here, shuffling between the DJ booth and the bar until well after 4 a.m.

“working!” I shouted back, conveniently leaving out the part where I planned to sleep till noon, order room service, and then get an in-room massage before starting said work.

“working? on what?” he asked in dismay, as if the concept of working on a Sunday were completely foreign.

“I have a newsletter that I send every Sunday!” I replied before inevitably having to explain what it the Sunday series is all about…

the encounter—a different version of the same conversation I’ve had dozens of times—left me feeling like I needed to clean up my elevator pitch. how do I concisely describe to someone (let alone a straight, white male…LOL) what I write here and how much this Substack community means to me?

so, I decided to lay it out in black and white, both for me and hopefully for you to share with a friend who you think would appreciate this labor of love in their inbox each week. because, in case you didn’t know, you forwarding this to a friend and suggesting they subscribe would mean the world to me!

the Sunday series is a weekly love letter straight to your inbox that delves into books, writing, life in New York, and recommendations from my travels around the world, plus Q&As with authors, tastemakers, and talent within the literary world and beyond.

speaking of the “and beyond” bit, in August, ICYMI, I did a little summer school series where I had four back-to-back Q&As with inspiring women across various industries including marketing (Carly Hill), finance (Katie Gatti Tassin), design (Michelle Wintersteen), and fashion (Rachel Cohen). in a slightly new twist, for the following four weeks starting next Sunday, I’m going to be leaning into writers and creators who have a connection to France. I can’t wait to use these conversations to help color my journey as I put down temporary roots in Paris!

beyond Q&As—which will always appear above my (new) paywall—paid subscribers are now going to be privy to more of my in-depth recommendations, including destination guides, products and services that I’m fangirling over, personal life updates, and any other special tidbits that I’d prefer to keep to a more exclusive group! thank you SO MUCH to those who’ve already adjusted their subscription to a paid tier. your support allows me to dedicate even more time and resources to our special little corner of the internet, and for that, I’m so grateful. xKD

---

what I’m reading and loving lately

between West Village Book Club (our spread from our last meeting is pictured above!) and my own personal picks, lately, I’ve read a mix of new releases and backlist titles—that is, books that have been on the shelf for at least a year. below is a mix of titles that I especially enjoyed in recent months. and while I barely scratch the surface of ‘well read’ compared to creators in the book space, I guess I do read more than the average gal! to answer the question, “how do you read so much?” I present the below WhatsApp message I received from our BRIDE (!!) yesterday who could see me getting my hair blown out with a book in hand from her window at the Four Seasons. basically, if I’m going anywhere that I think I may have even an iota of free time, you’re going to see a paperback in my bag, and hopefully, soon in my hands!

• THE MOST FAMOUS GIRL IN THE WORLD by Iman Hariri-Kia (out this Tuesday, September 17th!): if you’ve been a Sunday series subscriber for a bit, you may remember that I featured

  Iman Hariri-Kia
  last October; I absolutely loved our Q&A, and was thrilled to get an ARC (advanced reader copy) of her sophomore novel earlier this year at a Meta event. as you can see in the above photo, I’ve been toting this book around Colombia this week, and whether I was reading a STEAMY SEX SCENE while at the hair salon in Bogotá or devouring it in-flight which resulted in a fellow passenger asking how I got my hands on the ARC (!) it’s been such a treat to talk about this book with fellow readers. you can really see the evolution of Iman’s writing between her debut and this second book. it’s a homerun for anyone seeking a story set in New York centered on a modern fraudster (think: Anna Delvey) becoming a pop culture obsession.

• THE WEDDING PEOPLE by Alison Espach (2024): this was our September WVBC pick and overall, our crew adored this one! I was lucky enough to go to the Barnes & Noble launch event to meet Alison and her hear conversation with Jenny Jackson. she was just as endearing in person as you’d expect for a person who can write so humorously about heavy topics like suicide and infertility, set against the complicated landscape of wedding culture. this is a great read for anyone feeling cynical about the wild world of weddings, but also just a fun story to help spark conversation about what it means to find ‘the one’ and what it looks like to settle. lots to rabbit holes to delve into if you read this as a book club!

1. SANDWICH by Catherine Newman (2024): I’ve seen so many varying opinions on this book, but I really enjoyed it. don’t let it’s light page count fool you into thinking it doesn’t cover serious topics, though. pregnancy loss and metapause are on full display here, but ultimately, it’s a story about love and families finding their way. set over the course of one week at a beach house on the Cape, it’ll have you thinking about the secrets we keep from the ones closest to us. I would definitely recommend as a ‘beach read’ if you have a vacation coming up and you’re seeking a story that’s not all so sunny, but thought-provoking nonetheless.

2. MARGO’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES by Rufi Thorpe (2024): I listened to this one on my Libro.fm app and was so delighted by Elle Fanning’s reading of the smash hit. you’ve likely seen this one all over your feed, and for good reason. it’s such a fresh, distinct story in which a young woman is knocked up by her (married) professor, and decides to keep the baby, despite tricky financial circumstances. her unusual bond with her father, an ex-pro wrestler with a drug problem, is at the center of the story, and you can’t help but fall for and root relentlessly for these characters. Margo’s adoption of OnlyFans to help support her and her baby takes a funny turn that will have you laughing (and occasionally cringing) your way through this one.

3. THE PAPER PALACE by Miranda Cowley Heller (2021): major backlist title that I’m pretty sure everyone and their mother (literally) has already read, but it was available on Libby (the library app) and I snagged it. WOW. I can see why this was a Reese’s Book Club pick awhile back! I really gravitate towards novels where our protagonist is keeping a secret from their partner and loved ones, and this one is that and more. if you also have yet to read this book, I recommend getting it on your queue for when you’re craving a story about complicated family dynamics, the regret we face about potentially choosing the ‘wrong’ partner, and what it looks like to debate keeping your life intact versus taking the risk that comes with what it would look like to start again.

4. THE LAST MRS. PARRISH (2017) and THE NEXT MRS. PARRISH by Liv Constantine (2024): okay, so I’d read the first book in this (now) series so long ago that I’d forgotten the details, so I did a re-listen to get prepped for the second one! the writers (Liv Constantine is a collaborative sister writing duo!) structured the latest release to exist as a standalone so you could jump right in here, but I wouldn’t recommend skipping the first book. to me, THE LAST MRS. PARRISH is one of the masterclasses in flipping perspectives halfway through a novel (similar to GONE GIRL) and daring readers to decide what version of reality is REAL. I’m just getting into THE NEXT MRS. PARRISH and already loving!

5. STONE COLD FOX by Rachel Koller Croft (2023): not all that dissimilar from some storylines in the above books, this debut was right up my alley with an ‘unlikeable’ narrator who is hiding her past to try and swindle her way into a well-to-do family. she has a super toxic mother who she’s trying to outrun, and the secrets and lies just keep mounting! I’d love to see this one adapted into a series or movie. also love that the author just came out with her next book, WE LOVE THE NIGHTLIFE and looking forward to diving into that when my TBR pile lightens.

6. THE ALGEBRA OF WEALTH: A SIMPLE FORMULA FOR FINANCIAL SECURITY by Scott Galloway (2024): now getting into a few nonfiction recs (all of which I listen to on Libby/Libro.fm), I try to keep a finance book in my mix of content every now and again. Scott Galloway is an inspiring storyteller, and manages to make money-talk not boring. highly recommend if you’re dabbling in your investment era!

7. ONCE UPON A TIME: THE CAPTIVATING LIFE OF CAROLYN BESSETTE-KENNEDY by Elizabeth Beller (2024): the election/Jack Schlossberg-ification of my feed has me really interested in the Kennedys these days, and boy did this book do the trick is diving into the lesser told story of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. archival photos of her street style are now all over our feeds, but if you’ve seen her outfits and assumed she came from a well-heeled family that always had her destined to become a fashion icon, you’re wrong! this book dives into what her family life and relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr. were like, including their tragic deaths in a plane crash on the way to a family wedding on Martha’s Vineyard.

8. I’M MOSTLY HERE TO ENJOY MYSELF: ONE WOMAN’S PURSUIT OF PLEASURE IN PARIS by Glynnis MacNicol: so I’m not going to say this is as a total spoiler, but this book title may or may not be the theme of my month on deck, as well as the content we’re going to be covering in the following weeks here on the sunday series. I relished Glynnis’ retelling of her time in Paris in 2021 as a single woman seeking pleasure after sixteen months of pandemic living in New York. this one is a fabulous read for anyone interested in the reclaiming of a cliché that life only has to go downhill once a woman hits ‘middle age.’

and now let’s get into my top tips for mastering overnight flights…