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Day 27 – The Last Friday Five of the Series

Posted in 31 Days, Books, Food, Friday Five, Fun, Home, Mental Health, Nostalgia, Seasons on October 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Tomorrow, our Rise and Shine book club is discussing spooky reads and there’s a Halloween party in the evening. On Sunday, there is a book fair at a local bar and our annual Spiderdead show in the afternoon, and then I have an RLA interest presentation (the last one I’m giving this year!) early that evening. I’m definitely taking Monday and Tuesday off for what will be some much-needed and long-overdue downtime. 

Here are five food-related/adjacent ponderings I’ve had this week:

  • I especially love this time of year because, while I do enjoy some spooky things and darker themes, I mostly just love how much cozier everything is. Cool weather (actual cool weather, not the “it’s no longer in the triple digits must be a cold front ha ha” phenomenon) is on its way in the next 48 hours. I will wrap up in a blanket with a cup of tea and a bowl of popcorn while I settle in to re-watch a soul-soothing show or movie any time of the year, but cool weather means I can do that without cranking up the A/C. Tonight I’m probably going to watch something hygge/homey/foodie from this list. My regulars are Chocolat or Under the Tuscan Sun, but the list reminds me of quite a few I haven’t seen in a while, and also how did I miss A Good Year?
  • Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree – I think I’ve found the genre I want to write. Cozy fantasy. This one was especially lovely to me because the main character is an Orc who decided to leave the mercenary life to open a coffee shop. I WANT TO LEAVE THE MERCENARY (I mean, Student Affairs, but sometimes it’s basically the same) LIFE TO OPEN A COFFEE SHOP. It’s like The Hobbit, but if Bilbo had just said, “No, thank you, but would you like another spot of tea?” instead of going on the adventure. It taps into my deep-seated desire to have a home that is so cozy and welcoming that I never want to leave and is also a place where I can feed people and watch their faces as they have those little moments of joy that a really good cup of coffee or delicious pastry can bring. 
  • The main thing I like about joining Tertulia is all the discounts I get (and also I enjoy their co-op vibe). Another thing I like is that I get curated lists like this one in my inbox with recommendations to add to my home foodie collection. Alice Feiring’s To Fall in Love, Drink This has been on my TBR for a while. That may be my next Tertulia purchase.
  • I’m pretty good about keeping my pantry and freezer (and to a lesser extent, my fridge – sometimes some questionable things linger in there) reasonably stocked and cleaned out. When space is limited, it only takes a little swerve in the direction of either sparse or out of control to have me ordering takeout more often than I (and by I, I do mean my budget) would like. But occasionally, I get a wild hair and end up buying way more of one item than I need. Right now, I have so many canned beans in my apartment. I mean, as overages go, shelf-stable ones are my preference, but dang. I guess I’m having beans in just about everything I cook at home for the foreseeable future. 
  • I really could have used a list like this when I was first starting out as a new-ish home cook. There’s lots of great advice and resources linked in here. It also sparked a bit of nostalgia through several moments when I thought, “I remember when I learned that!” It took me so long to figure out that “What are your favorite flavors and textures?” is such an important question for me when it comes to a meal plan that I’ll actually use (rather than one that I feel is a good plan I should want to use – very different things). 

My long weekend is so close I can taste it. I hope your weekend is nice!

I’m writing about food and home this month.

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Day 21 – My Charcuterie Journey

Posted in 31 Days, Books, Food, Home, Nostalgia on October 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I participated in Dewey’s Readathon this weekend. Well, sort of participated. I stretched it out into three days because I had extra plans. Also, my month has to go A LOT more smoothly than this one has for me to have the stamina for a 24-hour readathon. So I was gentle with myself but still got a lot of good reading time in.

My go-to food when I’m hunkering down for a long reading weekend (whether in conjunction with an online event or on my own) is a series of snack plates that fall under the category of charcuterie. It doesn’t take much prep time. It also can typically be eaten with one hand, leaving the other free for smudge-less page-turning.

I don’t just resort to this type of meal when I’m reading, though. It’s a frequent staple at my place. This habit started long ago.

One of my favorite weekday lunches when I was little was a plate full of cheddar cheese chunks, Vienna sausages, raw veggies such as celery or carrot sticks, and crackers (typically saltines, but every once in a while we got fancy with those buttery Club crackers). Looking back, it’s clear that this was one of Mom’s favorite lunches for us, too, because we had it a lot. She was usually in the middle of a cleaning project or getting ready for afternoon errands or planning dinner, so it made sense to find something quick to put on the table. As a bonus, we could feed it to ourselves with relatively little potential mess.

My charcuterie tastes have matured somewhat (I now spring for the salami or prosciutto, and there may not be crackers or bread at all involved), but it’s still one of my favorite meals. It’s easy, simple, and delicious.

And it always reminds me of my childhood.

I’m writing about the foods that remind me of home this month.

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Day 20 – Free Friday Five

Posted in 31 Days, Books, Food, Friday Five, Fun, Home, Joy, Mental Health, Roots, Work on October 21, 2023| 2 Comments »

I love having a free day. I was off work today, and my car is fixed, and I had cookbook club tonight, and it was just a great day.

Here are some foodie things I enjoyed reading this week.

  • And we’re right out of the gate with some controversy, but I really need to get something off my chest. Sweet potato pie is superior to pumpkin pie. Discuss if you must, but I said what I said.
  • We had a whole discussion about favorite holiday foods and favorite sides at staff. There were divisions, alliances were formed, shots almost fired. It was glorious. Best staff meeting ever. In related news, I need cranberry salsa in my life. 
  • When I find a foodie book I really love, I often re-read it. In fact, of all the genres, foodie memoir or fiction is what I’m most likely to re-read. We are discussing Lessons in Chemistry in a book club at work on Monday, so I’m listening to it again this weekend. It may be my favorite book I’ve read this year. It’s so good. I’m also re-reading Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi, and I love it just as much as I did the first time. The stories people tell about food, its place in their lives, and its impact on culture are meaningful to me. It’s one of my favorite ways to get to know someone.
  • The Modern Proper: Simple Dinners for Every Day by Holly Erickson and Natalie Mortimer – I adored this cookbook from the beginning when one of the authors was talking about her grandma teaching her the “proper” way to dice. What little culinary education I gleaned during childhood was learning the proper way (i.e., Mom’s way) to do something. My mom and I once had an argument because I was adding water to the pie crust recipe wrong (my point was that I had seen several bakers doing it a different way and their pies turned out ok…to which she responded “But they weren’t baking in my kitchen.” Welp, they sure weren’t. She had me there.). Conversations like this one were why, while most of my formative memories of food stem from the place I grew up, most of my actual cooking skills were developed when I had a kitchen of my own. Like the authors of this cookbook, I have great memories of observing Mom, Aunt Gale, MeMaw, and (later in adulthood) Dad in the kitchen, but my workable knowledge is the result of experimenting and creating my own sense of the proper ways to do things. It’s how I learned that the way I add water to a pie crust is just fine and also that if you replace half the water with vodka (or gin), you get a flakier crust (the dough puffs as the alcohol evaporates). Sometimes learning new ways to do things is good.
  • And this has absolutely nothing to do with food, but it has everything to do with home, and also I love Jenny Lawson, and maybe someone here might benefit from reading it, and plus…I do what I want. Actually, looking at the drawing, I can picture myself curled up in a blanket, drinking something warm and eating something comforting in that little house. So it IS sort of food-related after all (if you really want it to be). Read all the way to my favorite line at the end – “Sometimes the mistakes are beautiful. Just like you.”

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I hope you’re enjoying this series on the food that reminds me of home this month!

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Friday Five – In Praise of Perfect Evenings

Posted in 31 Days, Books, Church, Denton, Food, Friday Five, Home on October 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I’m so happy it’s Friday. I’ll be even happier when tomorrow is over, because it’s UNT Fall Preview Day, and we are in for a long, busy day. I’m going to have to move comfort food night to tomorrow and sleep in on Sunday.

But right now, it’s 8:00 on Friday night. I’m on my second glass of wine, after having watched a couple of Gilmore Girls eps and eaten a mountain of popcorn, air-popped and then lightly buttered and salted. Today was hectic, and tomorrow will be…whatever it will be…and I am without a working vehicle at the moment…but tonight I don’t have anywhere to be or anything pressing to do, and the wine is good. I’m having the perfect evening.

Here are some foodie things I enjoyed this week:

  • How To Read a Recipe (Joy the Baker) – I appreciate it any time someone breaks a process down that, on the surface, seems like a no-brainer. Turns out, very few things are no-brainers. I need my brain for most things, including reading a recipe. As always, Joy’s advice is spot on and useful and touches on things that are not immediately obvious to me, even as someone who has been successfully reading and using recipes for decades. And there are other things that are so immediately obvious to me that I do them without consciously thinking of it, and thus forget that other people haven’t learned that yet, which is good to keep in mind when writing my own recipes. 
  • My friend Shadan, leader and host of our cookbook club, has a cookbook coming out soon. If you want a sneak peak of the kind of delicious things you can expect when you buy it, check out her new blog!
  • The Comfort Food Diaries: My Quest for the Perfect Dish To Mend a Broken Heart by Emily Nunn – I am listening to the audio, but I think I would have enjoyed the print version more. In fact, I feel like that’s a theme with foodie books, especially if they have recipes. It’s also possible that this is a busy month full of many expected and also unexpected stressors, and thus the ability to focus that usually helps with reading via audio is just not there. Anyway, I am enjoying the book so far. She’s telling a lot of stories about how her friends and family rallied around her during a rough time and what she ate, so it’s right up my alley. 
  • Equal Exchange chocolates are among my favorites. Support small farmers and get great treats for Halloween. [This is not a paid advertisement; I just really, really love them.] Speaking of great things to support this weekend, our annual Empty Bowls fundraiser is tomorrow. For the price of a ticket, you get all the soup you can eat and get to pick out a handmade bowl crafted by a local artisan. And you can even buy tickets at the door. If you’re local (Denton), go to Harvest House tomorrow any time from 12p-2p, and tell them I wish I was there. 
  • And finally – I’m staying home all day Sunday to recuperate from this week. I’m going to make a big mess of pasta, maybe some soup. Maybe I’ll take a long walk to the library (the branch I go to is almost exactly two miles from me) to pick up the books I have on reserve. Or maybe I’ll just read what I have here and watch more episodes of The Bear. Or more Gilmore Girls, with their diner and their chef and their Friday night dinners. Even the fictional characters I love are obsessed with food.

I hope your weekend is restful and good, and I hope you eat something wonderful.

I’m talking about the food I love and its effect on my life this month.

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Day 6 – First Friday Five

Posted in 31 Days, Books, Food, Friday Five on October 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I am so excited to share some of my favorite latest foodie reads/listens with you today. I found something inspiring in each one of them, and I hope you do, too!

  • A Table in Venice: Recipes From My Home by Skye McAlpine – This love story of Venice and its vibrant smorgasbord of flavors was a joy to read. There are a lot of recipes in here that I have absolutely zero interest in making myself (looking at you, duck and fish recipes), but I did enjoy learning about them, and the pictures are so beautiful. It makes me want to bake, and I heartily approve of the habit of decadent pastries for breakfast. Also, I’m 100% on board with any cookbook that has multiple recipes for risotto. This is one I want to add to my own collection.
  • A Literary Tea Party: Blends and Treats for Alice, Bilbo, Dorothy, Jo, and Book Lovers Everywhere by Alison Walsh – I need this book, too, if for no other reason than it has given me some great ideas for my Alice-in-Wonderland 50th birthday party in a couple of years. As the title suggests, it has decadent recipes for all types of tea parties, only with a literary twist. I was especially fascinated with the section on making your own tea blends – perhaps I’ll give that a whirl at some point. 
  • Giada’s Italy: My Recipes for La Dolce Vita by Giada de Laurentiis – I like the way the recipes are divided up between amazing things that don’t take a lot of time to make and more complicated recipes that are definitely worth the effort but maybe something to save for when you have a whole afternoon and easy evening. This book works really well with my own eating rhythms and rituals, so I think it’s another one I’m going to need to buy. I’m most excited about trying the apricot mostarda as a delicious addition to my next antipasti plate.
  • Go-To Dinners: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten – I looooove Ina Garten. I love her signature kind of pickiness (“If you can’t make your own ___, store-bought is fine”), but I also appreciate how much she has mellowed over the years, and that really shows in this cookbook. It still contains well-tested recipes with high-quality instructions (e.g., notes that “The batter will look curdled” are much appreciated for second-guessers such as myself), but with a more relaxed feel. She still includes some of her more finicky tastes but also gives alternatives. The recipes in this volume are easy; in fact, some are just assembly and require no cooking at all. I love the different boards (i.e., breakfast board, dessert board, etc.) she includes. The recipes I’m looking forward to trying the most are the potato fennel soup, chipotle cheddar crackers, and easy eggs in purgatory.
  • Wiser Than Me – Julia Louis-Dreyfus interviews Ruth Reichl. I did not even get past Julia’s introduction before I was tearing up. I knew it would be special. I grew up in a family that built memories around food, but it was Ruth Reichl who actually inspired me to write down my own. I don’t remember which of her memoirs I read first (see below), but it was my first experience of food writing. Combining food and story in such a tangible way forever changed the way I see both. I may never meet her (and if I ever do, be prepared for me to never shut up about it), but I am so grateful for the impact she has had on my life, and I highly encourage you to start with this interview and then proceed to read everything she’s ever written.

I don’t remember if it was in Comfort Me With Apples or Tender at the Bone where Ruth Reichl shared Danny Kaye’s lemon pasta, but I have been playing around with my own version of it ever since. Here is how I make it (currently).

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • Juice and zest of one lemon
  • As much minced garlic as you want (normal people would suggest something like “2 cloves” but that just doesn’t seem like enough to me)
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 pound pasta (I like orecchiette or shells, but a flat pasta like fettuccine is traditionally what is recommended for cream sauces)
  • ½-1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (Who am I kidding – I grate a bowl of Parmesan to stir into the pasta dish and snack on the chunks that didn’t quite get grated while cooking. I don’t measure it. Buy a block of good Parmesan and just use it all. Save the rind to make soup stock.)
  • Fresh herbs such as parsley or basil for serving

Instructions:

  1. Put a large pot of water on to boil. Salt generously.
  2. In a large skillet (I use a 10- or 12-inch), warm oil, butter, lemon juice, and zest on medium heat until butter is melted. Add garlic and cook for about 2 minutes.
  3. Reduce heat to the low side of medium and add cream and pepper. Stir occasionally throughout the cooking process.
  4. While the cream sauce thickens (keep stirring occasionally), add pasta to boiling water. Allow to cook until al dente (8-10 minutes, depending on the type of pasta).
  5. Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with the cream sauce. Add cheese and stir to coat.
  6. Sprinkle with fresh herbs to serve.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that, on days when I want this but am not doing dairy, I just leave out the butter, cream, and cheese. If you do it this way, you don’t need to substitute other ingredients but wait to saute the garlic with the oil and lemon until after you add the pasta to the pot of water, as that part of the process won’t take as long without the cream. It’s not quite as decadent as the creamy version, but it’s still delicious. You can’t mess it up.

I hope you have a good weekend and get time to enjoy some of your favorite recipes!

I’m writing about the food that reminds me of home – both past and present – this month.

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Day 2 – Foodie TBR

Posted in 31 Days, Books, Food, Resolutions on October 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

You didn’t actually think I’d skip the TBR because it’s a series month, did you? Of course, you didn’t. A good chunk of the list still fits the theme of the series, though. This month’s TBR is definitely food-heavy. 

I typically lean toward the “eating and reading don’t mix” side of things. I prioritize the safety of my books (and, more importantly, books I’ve borrowed from friends or the library) over any hunger pangs I may feel while in the midst of a really good story. If I’m holding the book in my hands, I will go for hours without any sustenance beyond coffee, water, or tea. 

An unhelpful relative once remarked that reading was a good diet plan for me (PSA: Let’s not say things like this to a child. Actually – let’s not say these things, regardless of the age of the other person. Let’s mind our own business and also stop perpetuating diet culture.). 

My fairly recent (i.e., within the last few years) embrace of audiobooks allows me to be a little more flexible in this area. I don’t have to worry about getting crumbs or other food-and-drink residue on the pages if I’m listening. Most of my reading is still pretty old-school (i.e., physical book in hand), though. 

So any time I have a long reading session planned, the menu looks a lot like snacks I can pick up and eat with one hand that don’t leave a lot of residue behind. This may be why one of my favorite suppers is just snacks. I associate it with those glorious nights of reading.

Here are some of the things I’ll be reading during such nights this month.

Book Clubs

Three of these can count for this month’s Girlxoxo key word reading challenge (keywords – darkness, take, and of), so I’m pretty set for success there!

Seasonal Reads

The cooler weather isn’t the only reason I love October. It has the contrasting feel of cozy and spooky as it gets darker earlier outside while warm clothes and blankets start making an appearance again. Gonna cuddle up with a cup of tea and these books this month.

  • Holly Horror by Michelle Jabès Corpora – The first bedspread I remember from my childhood that was uniquely mine was Holly Hobbie. So…a haunted Holly Hobbie story? OMG YES. I’m super hyped about this new series.
  • The Enchanted Hacienda by J.C. Cervantes – A cozy magical realism story that Jenny Lawson describes as “…like Practical Magic and Encanto had a baby.” Sold!
  • The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna – I actually read this one this past weekend, and it definitely lived up to the hype. I read it in one sitting. Thanks to everyone who recommended it to me!
  • The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods – Recommended by someone with infallible taste (i.e., very similar to mine) in books. It’s got mystery, books, mystical elements…I’m already hooked.

Foodie Books

And, of course, I’d never feel as if I’d explored a topic thoroughly if I didn’t also read extensively on the subject. This month, we are continuing with the Friday Fives, but they will specifically be food-oriented. I’ve been reading cookbooks, food memoirs, and foodie fiction even more than usual in the past few months. I’ll also be including a few articles and other types of media (I’ve just started The Bear on Hulu) in the mix. This is my current list of books I want to read next on this broad subject, but I’m sure I will add cookbooks or substitute others that grab my attention as the month progresses.

Where do you land on the snacks-or-no-snacks spectrum while reading? Feel free to share your favorite book-friendly refreshments in the comments.

I’m writing about the intersection of food and home this month. Click to see the full list!

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To Sarah on Her Birthday

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Denton, Home, Joy, Lucky, Music, Nostalgia, Roots, Spiderweb on September 30, 2023| 2 Comments »

Besides my sister, there is only one friend I grew up with about whom I can say we are even closer today than we were back then.

That friend is Sarah.

We went to school together in Childress, and we hung out at school (and outside of it, too, when I was allowed). Even then, she was perpetually cool and always up for an adventure. We had very different experiences growing up, but Sarah has always been someone who can be trusted with my hopes and dreams (even when those dreams are a romance novel I wrote in 6th grade).

(Photo credit – ? Did Stephen take this picture?)

Years went by, and we saw each other around Denton occasionally, but then she invited me to a book club at her house. A chance to reconnect – and over books?! Of course, I’m in! I’m so glad she thought to include me, because the book club is wonderful, but even more than that, because she reached out, today I get to count her among my closest friends.

One of my favorite things about Sarah is her encyclopedic knowledge of so many fascinating people and things. I loooove learning new things, and I always learn something new around her. Without Sarah, I would not know…

…what deep listening is.

…that Booked Up (RIP) ever existed or half as much about Larry McMurtry (also RIP) as I know now.

…about Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s podcast Wiser Than Me. I’ve only listened to her interviews with Jane Fonda, Isabel Allende, and Ruth Reichl (three people, by the way, who would be in my top ten most coveted interviewees if I were to host such a podcast), and I’m hooked.

…and so much more. Sarah has a way of recommending things to me that she knows I’ll love. She’s an incredible listener and has an amazing memory. I can listen to her for hours.

(Photo credit – Kara Dry)

She is the first person I performed with at a Spiderweb event. In fact, she’s the first person I performed with (outside of church, if you count that) since grad school. I love collaborating with her; I think we work together pretty well.

Sarah is generous with her knowledge, her time, her home, and her coffee.

And her pets.

She’s one of the only people who has a standing invitation to my parents’ farm “whether I come with her or not,” according to Dad.

Sarah, I love you, and I’m so proud of you and all you have accomplished. You inspire me and feed me and love me so well, and I’m lucky we’re friends.

Also – shameless plug – everyone go to Molten Plains Fest in December. This is the second year Sarah and Ernesto have organized it, and it’s going to be AMAZING.

I love you, friend, and I hope your birthday (and every day) is fantastic.

(Photo credit – Ellie Alonzo)

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Friday Five – September Home Edition

Posted in Books, Friday Five, Home, Mental Health, Music, Nostalgia, Work on September 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Today is National Coffee Day, so I am celebrating appropriately (i.e., I am WIRED). Coffee is the scent that greets me any time I walk into my home, so it just makes good sense that today is also the day that I share other things I’ve found that help me ponder what home means to me. Enjoy!

  • I adore the whole vibe of Apartment Therapy’s guide to staying in (although I do ruffle at the idea of staying in or taking care of yourself as being “lazy.” I mean, I get that the guide is basically a long commercial for LazyBoy recliners, so they’re using the term in that context, but still). My favorite title within it is the one about the Instagram captions for your “homebody era.” I feel like homebody is more of a solid personality trait for me than an era, but it made me happy nonetheless.
  • I want to read all the books about mothers and daughters on this list. This year, I’ve been reflecting in my private journal on the family I grew up in and how that shaped me as a person. My relationship with my mother has been particularly on my mind lately. She has been having some accelerated memory loss in the last few years, and that’s been hard. The last time I was home, however, I played some hymns on our old piano, and she sat next to me the whole time, singing the alto parts she still remembers from all her years in choir. I enjoyed it so much. 
  • How badly do I want Stanley Tucci’s GreenPan line? So, so badly. Look how beautiful (and the cookware isn’t bad either).
  • One of the ways that I’m working on being at home with myself this year is learning to accept my neurospiciness as a whole, both the great and challenging parts. I’ve taken on the role of co-president of UNT’s Neurodiversity Professional Network, and we just finished reading The Neurodiverse Workplace by Victoria Honeybourne. It was so refreshing and informative. If I were the highlighter sort (I am typically not), I would have a lot of highlights in this book. The best thing I got out of it was a lot of tips on how to reframe conversations about better ways to do things in the context of customer service and universal design/practice. Also, the format of the book is visually pleasing and thus easy to read – lots of bulleted lists and checklists and a summary of the main points at the end of each chapter. I recommend it for any managers of people in general but ND folks especially.
  • I am trying to branch out with my media choices, so I started listening to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s podcast Wiser Than Me, recommended to me by my friend Sarah. It usually takes me about 14 years to make it through a whole episode of most podcasts (audio conversation/monologue…especially when they skip around, talk over each other, or there is music or other random sounds…which happens a lot in most podcasts…challenging for me to focus), but this one seems easier to follow. The first episode is an interview with Jane Fonda, whom I love. I am inspired by the idea of consistently waking up each day and thinking about what we’re doing to make a positive mark on the world, which she talks about a bit. As podcasts go, I like this one, as I enjoy gleaning wisdom from those who are older and wiser. I think I’ll listen to more!

I hope you get a discount (or freebie) on your favorite coffee today. Have a good weekend!

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Friday Five – Friday, Finally

Posted in Books, Food, Friday Five, Fun, Music, Writing on September 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Half the office was out sick earlier this week. It was madness. I’m so tired, and despite all the work I’ve done every single second when I’m there, I still feel behind. Also, I have ingested about a vat and a half of Emergen-C. So…come at me, germs (actually, please do not come at me. Just continue staying far away, germs. That goes for you, too, allergens. Do not want.). 

But I got to go to Molten Plains on Wednesday and I get to go to cookbook club tonight in my pajamas. So the week is pretty decent overall.

  • Speaking of Molten Plains, the second Molten Plains Fest is going to be at Rubber Gloves on December 8-9. You can see a list of artists and sign up for updates here. It’s going to be amazing!
  • My friend Shadan (host of cookbook club) is writing/has mostly written a cookbook, and her publisher wants her to have a more solid social media following. Highly recommend – I’ve learned so much about food from her. Follow @shadankp on the Instagram and TikTok.
  • As is my custom every autumn, I am reflecting on my resolutions to see how far I’ve come and how much I have left to do (and also whether I still want to do them or if I’ve come up with an even better plan ). One thing that is helping me with my weekly creative goal-setting (and goal-meeting) is DIY MFA. The information on this site is solid, and it helps me organize and prioritize in a way that makes sense to my brain rather than just dumping everything into one big to-do list that never fully gets done.
  • The Booker Prize shortlist is out! I haven’t read any of these yet, but I am most excited about Sarah Bernstein’s Study for Obedience. 
  • Finally, I’m calling it. It’s officially Cozy Reading Season (™). If you love mysteries with lovable characters, ACF Bookens would be right up your alley. 

I hope you’ve had a good week, but even if it’s been a mess, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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Friday Five – Book Love

Posted in Books, Friday Five, Joy, Seasons on September 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

It’s been a little cooler here this week, and I am freaking out about it (in a good way). I even broke out the tall boots. Is it still too warm for tall boots? Of course. Do I care? Not even a little bit. It’s already autumn in my head. No take-backs.

Here are a few things I enjoyed this week. Hope you enjoy them as well!

  • I just got a new mattress this week, and I love it. Best sleep I’ve had in years. I have been hesitant to try a memory foam option because the topper I had long ago felt stifling, but the technology has clearly come a long way. 
  • Last night was Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Fall Book Preview, and it was so much fun. I enjoyed hearing about the books she’s excited about this season.
  • In fact, this whole week has been full of bookish events. I had two book club meetings on Tuesday (one at work, one in the evening), and I always enjoy those. Emily Henry’s Happy Place was the topic of discussion with my work folks, and it was fun to take a little break from our serious jobs to dish about this rom-com and all the miscommunication between the characters. “Just talk to each other!” was definitely exclaimed at least four times. I love meeting new people who are as passionate about reading a wide variety of books as I am.
  • Another book I finished was the audio of Mycroft Holmes, written by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse. It’s the first in this particular series, and I enjoyed their spin on this classic character. I’m in the middle of listening to the second one, Mycroft and Sherlock, and I think I like it even better (which makes sense, as Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorite literary characters). They also bring out some key points in history and weave them into the stories really well, and the overall tone is not identical but includes a few nice nods to the original. 
  • Companion Piece by Ali Smith goes with her seasons series, and it’s the perfect…end? Each of the other books had a seasonal theme, but this one centered on an expanded view of the concept of season with characters encountering both the impact and continuing aftermath of Covid. She also played with time in this one by reverting to the days of the Black Plague with one section of the story, drawing parallels between the two sections. The language was beautiful and there was a wealth of absurdity throughout, which are two of the things I adore about Smith’s writing in general. 

I hope you have a good day and a good weekend!

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