Behind the scenes on The Today Show, and spicy chocolate cupcakes!
SO, I was on The Today Show this week! Here's a link to watch the segment, with me and the delightful Isaac Fitzgerald, and you can see all of the books we recommend. The entire experience was cool and nerve-wracking and fun and wild, all at the same time. Everything there is way smaller than I would have expected -- the green room, the hair and makeup rooms, the dressing rooms (which were just for the major people -- I desperately wanted to take a picture of the one with Regina King's name on it, but I couldn't), the set itself, all small but highly organized. Everything is on a very strict schedule, and everyone there was incredibly nice -- I got to meet Hoda, who gave me a hug, I got to meet Jenna Bush, who was so nice, and they all helped to relax me before we went on camera. ALSO, Regina King walked right by me in the green room after she was on, and pointed at my dress and said "Great color" and I'm going to be on that high for WEEKS. Many many thanks to the producers for inviting me, their hair and makeup team for making me look great, Isaac for being such a fun partner to rave about books with, and everyone there for being so kind and helpful. And I hope you all read all of the books I recommended, which are perfect for being cozy on a cold holiday weekend and reading a bunch (links to all of them, and a bonus recommendation, are in that link).
And a huge thank you to all of you who helped make The Proposal #9 on the New York Times Bestseller list last week and #5 on the list this week! I'm so so grateful to all of you, and to the Reese Book Club for embracing the book!
Also, if you missed it this week, I get to write more books!
I'm currently in Nashville, where I had a delightful event last night at Parnassus Books (if you missed the event and live nearby, stop in for signed books, they have a bunch!). Thank you all for coming out, and huge thanks also to everyone who came to see me at BookPeople in Austin, and for Kayleen Schaefer for her great questions! I leave for Washington DC in a few hours, and tomorrow I'll be at East City Bookshop in conversation with Nicole Chung, and I cannot wait! On Sunday, I'll be at Greedy Reads in Baltimore, and then on Monday I'll be at Changing Hands in Phoenix. I hope to see lots of you in the next few days! And if you want signed books, you can call any of those bookstores to get them (call in advance if you want it personalized), and you can always call my home bookstore, East Bay Booksellers in Oakland, and they'll ship it to you. The events page of my website has other upcoming events (there will be more after March, I just haven't updated it yet, including the LA Times Festival of Books, and Book Lovers Con in New Orleans).
If you're looking for some comfy and cute pajamas (which...when aren't you, really?) I highly recommend the ones from Soma. I got my mom a nightgown from them for Christmas, and in a brilliant move bought myself a nightgown and some pajama pants. I'm wearing the pajama pants as I type, and I love them so much -- they're super comfortable and light, they have them in a good range of sizes and lengths (I'm short, so I love the cropped ones, because I hate pj pants that are too long), and there's a whole range of fabrics and styles and patterns to choose from. I can't wait to buy some more.
As for your recipe this week, I wrote up the spicy chocolate cupcake from The Proposal for the Reese Book Club/Hello Sunshine! The base recipe is the chocolate cake my mom always used to make when I was little, and I've made a million times (it makes excellent cupcakes). I tinkered with it to make it spicy, but feel free to decrease or increase the spice as your spice tolerance allows.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Jasmine
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Buy The Wedding Date and The Proposal, and preorder The Wedding Party!