6.20.25
- kaylenralph
- Jul 30
- 3 min read
Welcome to Booked & Busy, the new weekly newsletter from Ladies Who Lit—your go-to guide for staying well read and culturally fed. Each week, we will be spotlighting upcoming creative and cultural events, recommended reads and listens, the books in our proverbial bag right now, and so much more. Stay tuned and don't forget to subscribe to get the best of LWL both on and off the books. Enjoy!
In Our Bag
Books that we’re toting around right now. A mix of new releases and titles from the TBR pile that we’re finally getting around to. What’s in your bag right now?
Didion & Babitz, Lili Anolik (2025)
I Love Dick, Chris Kraus (1997)
The Wilderness, Angela Flournay (forthcoming, September 2025)
For Your Information
News we stopped scrolling for. Articles we bookmarked. Content we care about!
Leslie Bibb takes center stage on this month’s Hampton’s Edition of Cultured Magazine. A LWL girl if we ever saw one, Leslie dishes out a foolproof guide for taking on the summer in style: "I'm into an artist summer—being unapologetic, left of center, and quirky. The edges of it all.” She gets intimate about her rising star post White Lotus S3 and the impact Eve Babitz has on her psyche. Available on newsstands now!
This year's Women's Prize for Fiction has been awarded to Dutch author Yael van der Wouden for The Safekeep, a novel about an unlikely romance in the Netherlands in the 1960s. Chances you’ll see it In Our Bag soon? Very high.
Book club is a lifestyle…for life! This gang of girlfriends has a book club that’s been running strong for 50 years! "Sharing reactions to a book, whether you like it or not, is a route into friendship." (Crying. Inspired.)
The Cut: “Get Your Highlighters Ready:” In a time when “anti-intellectual” is as common a phrase as any other, it’s refreshing to see more communities built on the idea of shared learning experiences. We can’t wait to see Lectures on Tap make its debut in Chicago this fall! Hat Tip: Nathalie R., LWL Founding Member.
Extra Lit
See, watch, listen, learn, revel, reflect, etc.. A mix of arts & culture events we recommend (mostly in Chicago, but not always!), as well as cool things happening that you can experience anywhere.
Screening & Talk: Sisters in Cinema, which celebrates Black girls, women, and gender nonconforming media makers, hosts part of their 2025 series, The Black Women’s Film Canon, at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art this summer. For this iteration, Turner Classic Movies host Jacqueline Stewart joins director Ayoka Chenzira for a screening of her 1994 coming-of-age story, Alma’s Rainbow, followed by a live conversation. July 12th, MCA Theatre.
Podcast: What’s Contemporary Now? Designed for curious minds, this podcast engages various thought leaders across cultural industries. Dive into Season 5 from the beginning, featuring Sara Moonves of W Magazine. Available on all podcast platforms.
Film: Parthenope In this A24 film by by Paolo Sorrentino, the titular character, named after a siren in Greek mythology whose captivating songs lured sailors to their deaths, searches for love in the heady, hot summers and endless nights of her youth in Naples, Italy. Reviews are mixed, but we love a stylistically shot film in a beautiful location, and we appreciate this overarching takeaway from Vulture'‘s review of the film post-Cannes: “…in truth, Parthenope is less about one beautiful person than about our idea of beauty itself as it’s reflected and projected, embodied and perceived.” Available on HBO Max.
Exhibition Opening: Old Friends Gallery in Chicago presents Martyna Alexander in her first solo exhibition, The Distant Now, in which the Detroit-based artist probes sensory memories, encountering within them aqueous, lush landscapes. Opening June 21st, on view through July 26th at Old Friends Gallery.
On The Books
June 21st: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the Lyric Opera [SOLD OUT]
June 25th:Ladies Who Lit High Tea & Discussion of BUNNY by Mona Awad [SOLD OUT]
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