Coffee Break: Gather Bag

68 Comments

1. Help! I need a pageturner to get me through a lengthy medical appointment tonight where distraction will be much appreciated. I’ll take recommendations for thrillers, historical fiction, or any of those really great non-fiction books that read like novels. I’d prefer nothing written in present tense or with alternating perspectives every chapter – tired of that.

   1. Eric Larsson for combo of thriller-nonfiction that reads like a novel. Dead Wake is my personal favorite but Devil in the White City is probably his most famous one?

      1. also along these lines, Into Thin Air or Shadow Divers.

         1. Read and love all of those, but thank you!!

   2. Lost Moon (may be sold as Apollo 13) by Jim Lovell.

   3. Poisoner’s Handbook is nonfiction and excellent.

   4. Historical suspense: Arianna Franklin, CG Sansom, Patricia Finney/PF Chisholm, and Ruth Downie.

   5. If you haven’t read them, I like the Maeve Kerrigan books by Jane Casey. Decently written, fairly absorbing, but not so complicated you can’t zone out for a page or two. More suspense than thriller I would say.

      1. Are they pretty gory? The Libby description of one of them sounds grim.

         1. It’s been a while since I read the earlier books, but I don’t remember them being particularly gory or graphic (although they are murder mysteries). They’re fairly protagonist driven from a younger woman’s perspective, which I liked. Obviously everyone’s tolerance is different.

   6. (cough: The Spymaster’s Lady – hist-rom from Joanna Bourne)

      1. OMG, I wish I could read this for the first time again. Also The Black Hawk. Sigh.

         1. I really like the Forbidden Rose too! Lord & Spymaster felt very out of place in the series, although I guess it was more insight into the world that Hawker comes from.

   7. The Wide, Wide Sea – Hampton Sides, about James Cook’s attempt to find the northwest passage

      The Wager – David Grann, about a British sailing ship in early 1700s trying to sail around South America, chasing Spanish gold

      The Emerald Mile – Kevin Fedarko, about a tiny boat navigating the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon after a flood in the 1980s

      Fatal Storm – Rob Mundle, about a tragic year in the Sydney-to-Hobart boat race

      The Hall of the Mountain King – Howard Snyder, about an attempt to climb a face of Denali in the late 1960s

      White Winds – Joe Wilcox, the rebuttal to the previous book by the expedition leader. These two books are fascinating to read together.

      1. I read The Emerald Mile while rafting the Colorado River!

      2. It’s wild to me that The Wager is a pageturner to anyone! pages and pages describing an ocean current or the construction of a ship. I have some friends who loved it so I know you’re not alone, but it was so dry to me!

         1. That’s how I felt about Midnight in Chernobyl and all the technical specs.

         2. Same, couldn’t continue after a couple of chapters.

      3. For historical fiction: Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawton – about a woman who worked for the British Special Operations Executive during WWII to supply and arm French resistance fighters.

         1. Loved this too!

      4. I read The Wager while in Antarctica! And I loved it — sorry not sorry.

   8. The Conclave is my gripping page turner pick. If you didn’t read it when it got popular, now is the time.

   9. Anything by Kate Quinn or Jon Krakauer!

   10. Not entirely what you’ve asked but great mystery/thriller reads with sort of “ripped from the FL headlines” vibes: all Carl Hiassen books.

       Most of my other non-fiction reccs might tread too closely to your well-stated boundaries.

       1. Carl Hiassen captures Florida Man perfectly. He would absolutely have OP snort laughing during her medical appointment. :)

   11. I Who Have Never Known Men is the best page-turner I’ve read recently. Good luck at your appt!

       1. OMG that book just … I don’t even know. But +1 to the rec.

   12. A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko, about an end-to-end hike of the Grand Canyon. Gorgeous descriptive writing and exciting pacing.

   13. Thanks all!!

2. Has anyone bought Scarosso shoes? If so, how was the quality? I bought a pair on Nordstrom and they were shipped directly to my house from the vendor. The Scarosso invoice stated $169, but the shoes were +$400 on the Nordstrom website. Not sure what is going on. Although, the quality is on par with $169 not +$400 though.

   1. I would contact Nordstrom if you want to keep them. I once got a pair of espadrilles from them that had a sticker attached from Nordstrom Rack with a lower price and they refunded me the difference.

      1. Thanks for the tip!

   2. Very belated response, in case you are still checking the thread.

      I bought a pair of Scarosso furlanes (velvet Venetian slippers) a few years ago, but I ordered them to be delivered to my hotel in Italy and paid in Euros, so they were much cheaper than USD pricing. For the easy slipper-type shoe, they are fine, more or less on par with other Italian furlanes (Piedaterre, Papusse), but I’ve not bought another pair and just buy Papusse. I had considered ordering some leather loafers (also to be delivered to Italy) but have always gone with a different brand, as there have been better options for price/quality when ordering in Italy.

      I have a hazy memory that it’s also not a longstanding Italian brand, but something made possibly in the spirit of Everlane or some tech-y adjacent brand (as in, not real heritage shoemaking but taking advantage of the desire for such things). That turned me off from ordering additional pairs.

3. how much do you “keep house” daily? i could really step things up in that area.

   1. This is an area of frustration for me. I’m one of those people who wants to do as little as possible to allow more time for fun stuff out of the house and that part tends to go OK, but we’ve badly outgrown our old, unattractive apartment now that we have a toddler and it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep things neat and looking nice between the babyproofing, the fact that we have to store things like bikes and toolboxes in our living room, and two adults who WFH. It feels like I shouldn’t even bother cleaning up because it’s going to look like crap anyway. But of course it looks even worse if toys are all over the floor and couch cushions have all been dismantled for fort-building and worse. We’ve already downsized as much as we can and we have way less stuff than probably 99% of people here, but we do need SOME toys and SOME tools and our bikes and those things can’t go in a storage unit. Can you tell I’m over this place? We’re house hunting as fast as we can but the market is awful so no real progress.

      Rant over! The best things I do each day that make an impact are cleaning the kitchen every night before bed, picking up all toys, and putting laundry away so it’s not sitting out in baskets for days.

      1. This. There are whole categories of stuff that we simply don’t own at all, but the necessities don’t fit comfortably, and the built in storage is inadequate, outdated, and inaccessible.

         Now a new medical treatment has come with piles of stuff to store (like a laughable amount), and it’s going to be a hassle again. I don’t think it’s an impossible problem, but it’s a big project to solve.

         1. Omg, it’s my comment you’re responding to and we also have that problem with medical supplies related to a chronic condition. The supplier always sends so much stuff even if I ask them to! So rough.

            1. Are you sure you couldn’t use another sharps bin though?? Good luck with the house hunting; I really hope something comes through!

   2. Daily? Mostly tidying as opposed to cleaning, though the kitchen is always completely clean (like all overnight-soak pots and pans washed) before commuting / starting work in the morning.

      Thinking about it, the daily tidy is things like-
      -bed is made, PJs and robes are hanging on their hooks
      -no products left out on the bathroom counter
      -clothes are where they should be – either in the hamper, in the bag to go to the cleaners, on padded hangers if airing out (i.e., yesterday’s sweater), or back in the drawer or closet)
      -mail has been dealt with, mostly shredding tbh
      -packages have been dealt with, as in items checked as keep or return; if keep, box has been broken down and put in the recycling bin, if return, packaged and ready to leave the house
      -purchases have been put away (like that Target run on the way home from the office? the laundry detergent is on the shelf by the washer, not sitting in a bag by the door where I set it to take off my coat…)

      “cleaning” other than kitchen counters is a vacuum as needed or running a washcloth around the bathroom counters. We have a cleaner who comes bi-weekly who handles the deeper cleaning.

   3. With minor exceptions, all toys off the floor and no dishes on the counter (dishes in the sink is okay-ish). I try to keep our kitchen island – the dumping ground – relatively tidied, meaning, stuff that has a place goes to its place, stuff that needs to be reviewed can sit out longer, kid’s artwork is collected in a pile. Extraordinary messes are cleaned up. Clothes off the floor.

      What this does not include: vacuuming, scrubbing, putting everything “away”, doing dishes every night, making beds.

      1. Same. Leaving the clutter to pile up make it take ages to sort through when you do get to it, and occasionally picking up toys with a toddler is more of a struggle than making it a daily habit. But dishes can soak in the sink and be easier to clean the next day.

   4. Caveat that I live alone in a 1BR, but about 5-10 mins a day of putting things back where they go: emptying or loading the dishwasher, emptying that day’s lunch containers out of my work bag, putting clean or worn clothes where they belong (not on the clothes chair!), cleaning up after myself if I do some art at night.

      Then I take about 30 mins on a weekend to vacuum/sweep/mop, clean bathroom and kitchen, dust, put away a load of clean laundry, throw out expired food from the fridge.

      Once every few weeks I’ll do more putting away or organizing (I”m ADHD and so “stuff” is a battle for me). I have found that the 5-10 mins a day EVERY day is a life changer for me! I also keep a bin in one closet of stuff that stumps me on where to put it – at least its contained in one spot and out of sight!

      There’s too much I like doing outside of my apartment to put a lot of time/effort into this. But, I’m also totally overwhelmed by clutter and a not tidy apartment that I can’t focus on anything if its messy.

      1. +1 to your first three paragraphs. But I acknowledge that it is so much easier because I do not not have children. When I practiced, I did not have the bandwidth to even tidy during the week but now that I have a more manageable job, I find that I prefer to spend a few minutes each evening putting things away (I am not deep cleaning) and not spend that extra time dealing with it on the weekend.

      2. +1 to the 5 minutes every day. OP, if you’re feeling like you really need to step it up, it may not seem like 5 minutes will do anything, but even 5 minutes of picking stuff up and putting it away goes a long, long way.

         I do that once a day, plus “close out the kitchen” (counters clear and clean, dishes done). Most mornings, I do something similar with the bedroom (bed made, stuff put away). Those little daily habits of putting stuff away make the difference. I do actual cleaning once a week.

   5. we have a dedicated time each week where we’ll spend an hour-ish ‘deep cleaning’ (floors, bathrooms, dust, etc.) – we like doing it sunday mornings as a nice refresh for the week. We’re clean-as-you-go/do the dishes after each meal people, if something’s simmering for 10 minutes I’ll try to wipe down the counters or clean up our entryway instead of just scrolling on my phone. I know some people do the something every day (eg vacuum mondays, sweep tuesdays etc) but for me it just makes me feel like it’s never fully clean & once I’m in cleaning mode, it’s easy to keep going.

      also hot take: mail gets instantly sorted into 1) actual stuff for me 2) actual stuff for husband 3) straight into recycling. I feel like if someone steals my ID, it’s going to be through some online data leak, not them snooping through my recycling bin.

   6. I do a load of laundry every day. Every weekend I tackle one drawer of stuff. Straighten it up and get rid of any damaged items. I also tackle bills and stuff like that on the weekend.

   7. Bed is made daily.
      Bathroom countertop cleared off in the morning and again at bedtime.
      Kitchen cleaned up after every meal. Dishwasher run at night and unloaded every morning.
      I try to keep my clothes and shoes in the appropriate places (closet, laundry basket) but I have my own dressing room and sometimes it gets a little messy for a few days at a time.
      Similarly, I try to keep up with the mail but sometimes it piles up for a day or two or three.

4. I feel like I do a good job with special occasion / small clutches, like to just take out to dinner. But I struggle with daily bags and also the concept of the “large shopper” (like a no-brand version of a LV Neverfull). Smaller daily bags are things I clutter up or become a black hole where I can never find things. The pockets are all wrong, but I can’t really predict in advance what will go wrong. They are all just B- bags once I’ve road-tested them for a week. I feel like I need a zipper top if it’s a bag that stands up and can topple over and dump things; in a soft bag that puddles, it’s not as necessary it seems. Other than that, I have no clarity of how to get a bag to better suit me. The “large shopper” just always looks like a bag for an overnight trip or a more expensive version of a plastic grocery bag. Help!

   1. Here’s my system. (People think I’m insane). Large Shopper (LV Neverfull or same size ones from Liberty of London). Inside is an organizer with pockets for phones (2) and umbrella. There is a lanyard for my keys. The organizer basically adds pockets around the sides and protects the lining of the Large Shopper.

      Sitting in the organizer (which is open in the middle) I have a small structured handbag that holds my wallet and a few things like chapstick, etc. I can take the smaller handbag out and put the phones in it if I need to use the full capacity of the big bag. Otherwise small handbag goes into big bag so I’m only “carrying” one thing. Laptop goes into the tote along the long side if necessary – I don’t have to carry it all the time. Lunch in a soft non-insulated lunch bag goes into the big bag too.

      I am adamant about not being one of those “bag ladies” you see carrying a tote AND a purse AND a gym bag AND a lunch bag. I just carry one giant bag instead.

      1. Similarly, my system is a small Tumi cross-body that is carried inside a larger Tumi travel computer tote. The cross-body is what can be lifted out and taken to go grab lunch during the work day, or to the bathroom, or to a meeting room. It holds the necessities – wallet, reading glasses, sun glasses, keys on a lanyard, personal mobile phone slides into the back pocket, work mobile phone slides into the pocke in the front compartment. Tote carries laptop, paper spiral-bound calendar, bottle of beverage, sometimes shoes, sometimes packed lunch or snacks, pens and post-it notes, and so forth. This system works great for travel, too, as the Tumi laptop tote can be the personal item, along with a carry-on size rollaboard. Although the cross-body might be out and about in the airport, when boarding the flight, it can be consolidated into the tote. All black nylon, about five or six years of hard use and still pretty much looks like new, wears well.

      2. what is said organizer? please share!

         1. This is the one I use – fits perfectly into a medium size shopper and there’s space for my laptop to slide into the bag behind it.
            https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FDKRYBL?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_4&th=1&psc=1

         2. Beware, I’ve found all those organizers make my bags unbearably heavy. My system is pouches – those are easy to move to different bags and keep things organized better, IMHO.

            1. I’ve had mixed luck. The custom one I ordered from Etsy is built like a tank out of LLBean-style canvas duck fabric, and it does add some weight. But I’ve also had good luck ordering cheaper versions from Amazon that are nylon and keep good structure without being noticeably heavy.

   2. I did it differently when i took the train into the city but now that i walk into a suburban office straight from my car i carry a laptop bag, a lunch bag, and a pocket book. I also leave the house with a gym back so usually 4 bags. crazy but it works for me.

   3. My bag is more of a satchel style, but open and roomy with not a lot of interior organization other than one zipper in the lining for a mirror and lipstick.

      It does get messy if I’m lazy about it, but I use bags within my bag. I have a makeup bag with a zipper, which also holds my (very necessary) headache medicine just in case.

      I have a card case for all my credit card/id/library card/health insurance card type things.

      My keys clip to an interior clip sewn into the inside lip of the bag.

      My sunglasses case is in there as well.

      If I’m traveling, there’s a cord case that goes in there as well, like a zippered Cuyana pouch, to hold my chargers and cables.

      That’s all. I could dump my bag and only a few things would roll out.

   4. I’d reflect on how you actually want to this daily bag – are you going into an office or WFH and need something for errands, etc? Are you mostly wearing it, walking around, or carrying it / getting in and out of a car, bringing it to restaurants or coffee shops where it needs to sit nicely?

   5. I bought one of those bag organizers that you put in the bottom of unstructured bags, and it’s amazing.

5. whoever recommended evereve, i just ordered about $600 worth of stuff. fingers crossed!!

6. Random recommendation:

   I saw a woman wearing these sandals and managed to find them on the internet. They just arrived and I love them. Comfortable right out of the box. The insole is cork like a birkenstock, so I assume it will break in to my foot shape like birkenstocks do.

   https://taosfootwear.com/products/on-the-double

   Just very pleased with my new shoes.

7. Annoying update. I was the writer who was spun up about asking my doctor about pursuing an ADHD diagnosis. I told the nurse checking me in and then when the doctor walked in got completely sidetracked by a circulation question and forgot to ask. So I suppose I need to make a follow up appointment.

   1. Hah, the irony. A specially scheduled appt. might be nice anyway if you have time for it.

   2. If you have a patient portal maybe try to message first or try a zoom appointment if time is an issue.

8. Any recommendations for a sure loafer that is comfortable for a lot of walking?

   1. SUEDE loafer. Whoops.

   2. How dressy? I’ve had good luck with these nubuck ones for work days with lots of walking.

      https://www.sasshoes.com/womens-metro-slip-on-loafer/2120.html?dwvar_2120_color=126&cgid=womens-loafers#start=1

   3. These are cute and good for walking, too.

      https://www.sasshoes.com/womens-lara-slip-on-loafer/3726.html?dwvar_3726_color=363&cgid=womens-loafers#start=1

   4. Marc Joseph. Like butter.

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