Sunday Smörgåsbord #065
The Three Kings, terrible sketches, and a bus that can't slow down. Plus: "cosy kink" is coming for us all.
Happy New Year!
Betwixtmas is coming to an end and I am equal parts sad and excited.
Sad to be finally peeling myself off of the sofa, where I have vegetated too many hours this last week watching Agatha Christie films and mainlining selection boxes.
Excited to crack back on with the new year ahead, and with it my final goal for this last month of my Sabbatical. I have to write 24,000 words in January to hit my goal, and I may or may not have thought I had one week more than I did… (see: Betwixtmas vegetating). Scratch out excited— and replace with scared.
But I am genuinely excited to be kicking off my latest novel procrastination efforts project which is the Sixty-Minute Book Club, a short stories book group for those with less time to read than they’d like. I’ve had an influx of new subscribers joining to take part (hello! so good to have you here!), and we kick off this month with an absolute gem of a short story: The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.
There’s still time to join, just dive into the Scrambled Eggs chat to get involved.
Wishing you all a fantastic 2025 ahead.
Emma x
🍳 Recent servings, in case you missed them…
❤️ If you liked this post don’t forget to hit the heart to let me know and help others find my writing.
📮 And if you’re not yet subscribed, all editions of Sunday Smörgåsbord are free forever. Sign up for free and get next week’s in your inbox
📰 Features & Podcasts
NB: [PW] signifies a paywall, though some providers allow you to read a set number of articles for free.
‘Cosy kink’ — the biggest books trend you’ve never heard of’, The Times. This was one of those articles I screenshotted so much to friends that I finally admitted defeat and sent over the whole article. Weeks before I had come across ‘The Pumpkin Spice Café’ on a table of books in Waterstones and rolled my eyes at this Starbucksification of literature. Little did I know this twee-sounding title had more in common with whipped cream on a hot man than a hot beverage. But beyond this new, cosy erotica trend, the article sheds light on how more popular fiction is being written with trends and AI-generated keywords in mind. Absolutely terrifying, not least because I still haven’t worked out if the last line of this quote is a joke or not: “[Gilmore] has already spawned two follow-ups to The Pumpkin Spice Café, which appeared in August 2023: The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (August 2024) and The Christmas Tree Farm (October 2024). The books have barely exited the bestseller charts all year. We have The Strawberry Patch Pancake House to look forward to in the spring’.
‘‘We’re still in survival mode’: anger persists in Valencia weeks after floods’, The Guardian. We went on a road trip this weekend for a couple of nights, and as we exited the city, the stench of dirt, of sodden belongings, of wrecked and rusty cars, and the thick dust coating everything south of the city came back into focus. Cars are still piled high next to the highway— in the next patch of land a graveyard of ruined furniture and belongings (chairs, tables, toys, household ephemera) has become a citadel. Valencia is not back to normal. It will take years. Please don’t forget. (A thank you again to paid subscribers: your subscriptions plus an amont on top were donated to the DANA relief fund in November).
🎨 Arts, Culture & Entertainment
The Traitors, Series 3, BB1. It’s back: arguably the BBC’s biggest series— and possibly reality TV’s most-anticipated— right now. If you’ve not yet seen The Traitors, it’s like a cross between Wink Murder and Werewolf, but set in a vast castle in the Scottish Highlands rather than around your dining room table. I anticipate this outing could be the UK’s most unhinged: there is a Faithful pretending to be Welsh for no discernible reason, and a Traitor who managed to reveal herself within literally the first thirty seconds of the game. I read an article today which said the casting directors only choose likeable people who ‘you’d want to go to the pub with’. So I guess it’s like your high school friends but seen as their most bonkers, chaotic, selves? This Reddit commentator also has a point:
Speed, dir. de Bont (1994). Pop quiz hot shot. It’s Boxing Day and you need a film the whole family can get behind. What do you watch? WHAT DO YOU WATCH? This iconic 1994 action film featuring the equally beautiful leading stars, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, Jon Voight as a crazed pyschopath putting bombs on a bus, and Jeff Daniels as… well, the best… sob. I was pleasantly surprised that despite the (many) ridiculous plot lines (and holes— the main one being one in the highway they have to jump over), the film still holds up, and the teenagers enjoyed it as much as the adults. Who knew it’d be a family favourite?
War & Peace, Tolstoy (1867). Mostly in here purely to gloat that I actually finished it! Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that last year I took part in
’s slow read. The journey has been incredible— not only did it make a book I’d previously seen as impenetrable so much accessible, the community we read with were a joy. Some readers were already W&P experts, others brought their depth of knowledge around a specific topic to the chat each day: military history, for example, or location maps. At just under a chapter per day, we soldiered on together— trudging some weeks, flying others. It’s one of the 2024 achievements I’m most proud of, and if you’re still pondering starting, you can easily catch up even if you join now.
📺 What have you seen lately that’s worth a read, watch or listen? Let me know in the comments.
🍹 Lifestyle
Pith Pomelo Notebook 130gsm 156 Pages 260 x 210mm, Cass Art. One of my 2025 new year’s resolutions is to keep a journal. Not the dear diary sort, not the morning pages sort, not the daily gratitude practice I’ve done before (and thoroughly recommend). This year, I want to keep a weekly journal, full of bullet lists, doodles, what I watched and sketches of what stood out that week. With writing taking up more and more of my time, I wanted a form of journalling that took the pressure off. Maybe some weeks I’ll spend ten minutes a day noting down key moments, maybe other weeks I’ll sit on my sofa on a Sunday and draw from my mind’s eye the most important part. Maybe two months in I’ll toss it aside, never to be opened again? Let’s see. Whatever I do journal though will be captured in this handsome notebook from Cass Art. I chose electric blue but there’s a bunch of other cute colours. Yesterday I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as the woman on the balcony opposite watched me sketch. If only she could have seen the finished drawing. I was never much of an artist, drawing-wise, but there’s something liberating (and relaxing) when it’s for your eyes only.
Roscón de Reyes, all over Spain. Christmas is not yet over here on the Iberian peninsula, in fact it’s only just reaching a head this weekend, when Spanish families gear up to celebrate Reyes. 6 January marks the arrival of the Three Kings on the Epiphany, and is the date where traditionally Spanish kids receive their presents. What I love about Reyes is how it extends the sleepy Betwixtmas feeling for a whole extra week, meaning seven days more respite from the ‘New Year, New Me’ energy (the gym, for example? Still dead). But I also love tucking into a Roscón, the traditional ring-shaped cake filled with cream, candied fruit, and— of course, one of the three Kings. Whoever gets the King will have luck in the year ahead. Did I get the King, again? Of course I did. Do I have a lovely partner who makes sure I get it? Also yes. Feliz Reyes a todos! 👑
📝 Substacks
Not a whole post this week, but this was an insight that made me stop and think this week, from
. It’s already been interesting to see how substack as a space has adapted (see also: freaked out about) to the ‘influencer invasion’. I’m intrigued too about how this fear seems so much more talked about (at least on my feed) than the rise of trolls and questionable material on the platform.That’s it for this week. I hope you find something in this list that sparks joy or curiosity.
If you’ve got any recommendations on articles, podcasts, Substacks or shows for me to dive into, please drop them in the comments. Until next time!
❤️ Thank you for reading. If you liked this post don’t forget to hit the heart to let me know and help others find my writing.
📮 And if you’re not yet subscribed, all editions of Sunday Smörgåsbord are free forever. Sign up for free and get next week’s in your inbox.
Film suggestion is you haven’t already - The Room Next Door - Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. I watched in Rome (get me!) over the New Year. Loved loved loved it, albeit tough subject matter
I already cannot wait to binge watch The Traitors once it's all over. I can't believe how good it is and this series sounds nuts already!!