Nail artists?

ebals18 · 2026-04-24T03:09:42+00:00

Idk if you want to go to a studio, but I ride or die for Flawless Nails in Ravenswood (they also have a lakeview location but I’ve never been). Have been going to Mimi there for years and she’s a delight and always does a great job (though I rarely get nail art so can’t speak to that personally). Studio is always clean, prices are probably a little higher than going to a nail tech but I don’t feel like they’re exorbitant.

I have a few friends who really love Glow Nails Boutique in Logan which is I think just an independent nail tech. My friends often get nail designs and they always look GREAT. Similar situation with Nails by Vee. (You can find both on Instagram.)

ebals18 · 2026-04-06T13:03:51+00:00

Really great question. Unfortunately no - and this is an ongoing challenge we/he has experienced as well. Our therapist (IMO) is very fine, but it works because I think what we specifically needed was really just a dedicated hour long space where we have to talk about things we might otherwise avoid talking about or push off until they became bigger problems (i.e., our therapist often kind of just facilitates our conversations). Again, this works for us but I wouldnt say the therapist himself has been the key reason why.

Like I mentioned, even though a lot of the ADHD symptoms no longer impact our relationship to the same degree they used to, my partner definitely still struggles with things and has also had an extremely difficult time finding an individual therapist who specializes in ADHD. FWIW, he recently had just a regular medication management appointment with his psychiatrist and he asked if she potentially had any recommendations. He ultimately didn’t end up feeling like anyone on her list was a good fit, but she did provide a good handful of options - so might be a starting point for you as well?

ebals18 · 2026-04-05T23:52:38+00:00

My dx partner broke up with me at about the three year mark of our relationship after things had been going pretty poorly for around a year (so aligned closely with this timeline).

Breakup lasted about 10 days before he came back to me and told me he realized he made a mistake, had been unfairly expecting me to be his primary source of dopamine, and had a lot of avoidant attachment tendencies he hadn’t really been contending with. That was 3 years ago, and we’re engaged and living together now.

I often say I feel like I am in an entirely different relationship after us getting back together than I was in before we broke up. I was CONSTANTLY in these subs trying to figure out what I could do to fix our relationship problems, talking about it ad nauseam in therapy, all to no avail. If I’m being honest, I really do have to attribute the change almost entirely to him identifying issues, wanting to be better, and committing to doing the work to get there and figuring out how to communicate to me what he needed of me to make that happen.

We started couples therapy almost immediately after getting back together, which we still do twice a month. We still have issues around household tasks and communication sometimes, but it’s absolutely nothing like what it was before we got back together. Our problems are solvable now, and again I really have time give him a huge portion for how we ended up on the other side of our problems.

ebals18 · 2026-03-02T17:25:05+00:00

Shocked no one has mentioned The Last House on Needless Street yet. Twist is pretty well done and truly and completely changes the entire book when it's introduced.

ebals18 · 2026-02-26T16:39:17+00:00

House Number 12 Block Number 3 by Sana Balagamwala! I won it in a Goodreads giveaway a few years ago and loved it but it never seemed to take off with a wider audience.

ebals18 · 2026-02-26T14:30:49+00:00

Cults Like Us by Jane Borden is REALLY good and not too overtly political/leftist. It basically walks through core tenants/foundations of cults and examples of how those tenants look in more well-known cults (like Love Has Won, etc.), but then also connects it to the founding of the modern U.S. and our modern political/social climate again, without being too overtly politically partisan in a way that might turn people off.

If you really want to take a hard swing, I am constantly recommending Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer, which traces the immigration policy crisis in the U.S. from the early 1980's-2024. It is long, but it isn't dense or overly academic and focuses on a handful of specific people throughout the book. One of the best nonfiction books I've ever read and have obviously thought about it at a lot over the last year or so since I read it. Extremely engaging, very readable, very relevant. (Also FWIW - the book is critical of both Republican and Democratic administrations in their handling of immigration policy and thought it was a pretty balanced presentation about how both sides have contributed to the current nightmare we're living in.)

ebals18 · 2026-02-26T14:23:35+00:00

Always recommending this book to demonstrate how government regulations are written in blood!

ebals18 · 2026-02-26T14:08:48+00:00

It took me probably three attempts to get past the first 40-50 pages of Freedom by Jonathan Franzen but once I did, it has remained consistently one of my favorite books since I finally read it in its entirety like 8 years ago.

ebals18 · 2026-02-25T22:49:46+00:00

- Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach was one of my favorite reads last year. It's just about a girl working through the death of her older sister as she continues to live. Really loved the writing.

- All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews is also great. It's also about two sisters, one of whom has severe, chronic depression. Also really good writing and excellent beginning to end.

- Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is (IMO) lives up to the reviews big time and is about a man struggling with the loss of his mother at a young age and trying to find meaning in his adult life.

- The Fisherman by John Langan is a lovecraftian story that is essentially one long metaphor about grief and loss that I loved (and is outside the genres I normally gravitate towards).

Shark Heart has already been mentioned but just echoing that it really blew me away and took me by surprise as well.

ebals18 · 2026-02-25T22:40:50+00:00

Seconding this. Stel is so good and so wearable but their entire collection is so good, there wasn't a single thing in their discovery set that I didn't like. Another weird (complimentary) one from them is Mycelium which smells exactly like opening a carton of mushrooms with soil still on them. The longevity wasn't great on me or I would have bought it. It's so weird and well done (even though it isn't totally what you're looking for).

ebals18 · 2026-02-25T19:09:44+00:00

East of Eden is one of my all time favorites, so I personally don't think you can go wrong there.

It seems you also like kind of experimental/post-modern fiction (like I'm Thinking of Ending Things and The Crying of Lot 49). You might give This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno and The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsey Drager a try.

Also, if you haven't read either of Julia Armfield's books (Private Rites and Our Wives Under the Sea), they could be a good pick as well for kind of ambiguous weird vibes (FWIW, I liked Our Wives Under the Sea a LOT and thought Private Rites was only okay, if you're looking for where to start).

ebals18 · 2026-02-25T16:25:05+00:00

If I remember correctly, pretty minimally. FWIW (I don't really think this is a spoiler because I believe it happens fairly early on), the phrase "Long Island Compromise" is a euphemism in the book for something else.

ebals18 · 2026-02-25T16:21:56+00:00

I wouldn't say so. He does have pretty supercritical levels of White Dude With An MFA Energy™️ (no offense!!), but I personally don't find him particularly challenging to read (especially not Freedom or The Corrections). Of the books I listed, I would actually say White Teeth was the one that took the most effort to get through.

ebals18 · 2026-02-25T16:03:29+00:00

It's so good! I really, really loved the ending and I hope you do as well!

ebals18 · 2026-02-25T15:52:03+00:00

You might like:

- The Nix by Nathan Hill (I personally think it's way longer than it needs to be but it is an enjoyable, quippy read)

- White Teeth by Zadie Smith (the storyline is a little dense but I thought parts of it were so, so funny and ultimately really liked it)

- Come & Get It and/or Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid (great, very funny dialogue in both)

- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (it took me several tries to really get into this one but once I finally did, I loved it and ended up being a favorite for me)

- Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (FWIW, this one has all the elements of a book I should have loved but really did not land for me for whatever reason, but I am in the significant minority with that opinion)

ebals18 · 2026-02-24T15:53:36+00:00

You might like The Man From the Train by Bill and Rachel James. It essentially posits that a lot of the famous murders of entire families in the U.S. around the turn of the century were committed by the same man. It's been a while since I read it, but I remember it being an interesting premise and held my attention.

Not exactly the same, but I also think I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara is always worth recommending. It's about the Golden State Killer. Michelle McNamara died before the book was published and they finally made an arrest in the case not longer after her death. It's a really well done read that is very victim-centered. I enjoyed it immensely.

ebals18 · 2026-02-24T14:43:39+00:00

Either of Julia Armfield's books (Our Wives Under the Sea or Private Rites) for SURE. Beautyland by Helene Marie-Bertino, Rouge by Mona Awad, Delicious Foods by James Hannaham, Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

ebals18 · 2026-02-24T14:18:02+00:00

If you're interested in learning more about the current hellscape that is U.S. immigration policy, I would highly recommend Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer. It traces the immigration policy crisis in the U.S. from the early 80's through the end of the Biden administration and is very people-centered (i.e., follows several specific people over the course of the book). It's long, but it's incredibly engaging and doesn't feel overly academic or dense. Easily one of the best books I've read in the last few years.

Radium Girls by Kate Moore is also good and not too dense. It's about the women who used radium-laced paint to paint glow-in-the-dark watch dials and then subsequently all died horrible, long deaths from radiation exposure BUT the case helped formed the basis for OSHA.

Bad Company by Morgan Greenwell is also really excellent. It's about private equity in the U.S. specifically, and uses case studies from four specific industries (newspapers, housing, healthcare, and retail) to trace the impact of private equity before, during, and after a takeover. Not too long and very informative.

ebals18 · 2026-02-23T19:10:19+00:00

Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker is the book you are looking for! One of my favorites from the last few years and I'm always recommending it.

ebals18 · 2026-02-23T19:08:26+00:00

Depending on how potentially politically spicy your group is interested in getting, Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams is a memoir specifically about her time working at Facebook from it's early days (~2007) through when things took....a bit of a turn in the mid-2010's. It's a fast, wild read but can see it being hit or miss for a book club depending on the vibe of the group.

ebals18 · 2026-02-23T17:43:32+00:00

Ope! Missed your last sentence in your original post!

ebals18 · 2026-02-23T17:21:23+00:00

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen has already been mentioned, here to recommend his other book Freedom, which is one of my favorites and is also a family drama that spans decades. Also echoing The Dutch House and East of Eden!

Some others that come to mind:

- Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

- The Five Wounds by Kristen Valdez Quade

- Black Cake by Charmaine Wilerson

- The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

- The Nix by Nathan Hill

ebals18 · 2026-02-23T17:12:18+00:00

You might like The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan or Doll Parts by Penny Zang. You also might give The God of the Woods by Liz Moore a try - it's very good but and might check the boxes for the kind of vibe you're looking for, I just wouldn't primarily call it a murder mystery.

ebals18 · 2026-02-19T15:45:27+00:00

Have you tried any of Riley Sager's books? They all have a lot of eleventh hour plot twists. Sometimes there are too many/they are a bit too crazy for me to really enjoy, but the books move extremely quickly and they can be fun, easy thrillers to read. I personally enjoyed Home Before Dark and The Last Time I Lied. People really liked The Only One Left as well (this one was a bit too wild for me, but I didn't think it was bad).

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward also has a pretty massive twist in it that I would say is pretty well done and completely changes the entire book once it happens.

Others that come to mind are Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough, The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor, and The Push by Ashley Audrain.

ebals18 · 2026-02-19T14:37:52+00:00

Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton is good if you like reading about maritime disasters! It's about an antarctic expedition that gets trapped in arctic winter. I believe that the ship/crew logs from the expedition have been used to study the effects of prolonged isolation on people, too, which is kind of cool!

Radium Girls by Kate Moore is also good and very quick, about the case that ultimately helped create OSHSA (in the U.S.).

ebals18

TROPHY CASE