fun things

Read, Watched, Listened

I love reading just about everything (okay, you won't see any horror or sci-fi picks on here), watching things that make me think and especially if they make me laugh, and wholeheartedly embrace the podcast. Here's my two cents worth.

READ

I Hope This Finds You Well
Kate Baer is all the fire emojis. This is poetry for people who don’t think they like poetry. Promise.

Wish You Were Here and The Sentence
I’m putting these two together because they both tackled the year 2020, albeit in very different ways. Both place their protagonists in the middle of a 2020 epicenter: Wish You Were Here in NYC (though also with some escapist island vibes) and The Sentence in Minneapolis. I think it might be a case of “too soon” for me, as neither quite hit the mark. I’m sure MUCH will be written about this time in the coming decades (both fiction and nonfiction) and while I appreciate the idea of tackling this in the moment, I feel like I need a bit more distance to consume this type of writing.

But You Seemed So Happy: A Marriage, in Pieces and Bits
I adored this book. Kimberly Harrington’s writing is on point and even though she’s writing about her divorce, I read it as a happily married person thinking, “Yes, that’s exactly right.” It’s funny, easy to read, and tackles a difficult subject with honesty and nuance.

The Best American Food Writing 2021
I look forward to this particular collection every single year. As far as I’m concerned, this is a must-read if you’re interested in food at all.

The Midcentury Kitchen: America’s Favorite Room, From Workspace to Dreamscape, 1940s-1970s
Eh, I was hoping this one had more depth. This was a basic overview of what I learned in my college classes. Though if you’re interested in home design and a general history of what’s become the modern kitchen, this is a quick read that covers all the basics.

Cozy: The Art of Arranging Yourself in the World
I’ll start by saying this book should ONLY be read in winter. Like, January is preferable. That said, I loved the premise more than the execution. It gave somewhat of an overview of coziness in the beginning, but the bulk of it was to present how different life scenarios or objects can be made cozy. It felt more like something that could be done in article or blog post form, not a published book. Though I will admit it made me think a lot more about how to make things cozy, which is a lifestyle I’m happy to pursue wholeheartedly.

Nightbitch
I’m still not sure what I think of this book. It was like no novel I’ve ever read. Not exactly fantasy but the woman thinks she’s a dog? Come for Rachel Yoder’s brutally honest writing about motherhood, stay to figure out what you think about the rest of it, I guess.

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
SO GOOD. Just ask Tyson: I could not shut up talking about this book while I was reading it. Amanda Montell, a linguist, dives into the language of cults and cult-like phenomenons (think: MLMs, CrossFIt, Peloton) and it is FASCINATING. It made me realize why I chafe at so much religious speak and also certain Instagram accounts. Highly recommend.

Matrix
I…did not seem to have the same reading experience everyone else did. The premise: about nuns in a medieval convent, was something I wanted to like more than I did. The writing was generally beautiful but I took issue with the pacing. Some things felt incredibly drawn out and other things were glossed over too quickly for my taste.

Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch
Tyson gave me a memoir subscription for Christmas from Wild Geese Bookshop and this was the first pick. They did good! I was in somewhat of a reading rut until picking this up. Erin French’s writing is lovely. I’m always impressed when people can condense their stories into something so inherently read-able. And I didn’t think I wanted to visit Maine but now I want to eat at her restaurant.

Black Cake
This book is exactly in my wheelhouse: it’s a multi-generational family drama, excellent writing, and interwoven with food. I think people are going to be talking about Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel a lot this year.

Re-reads: Beartown, Us Against You

WATCHED

Bluey
We’ve been watching through the entire series as a family (which makes all these sub-zero January days more fun) and it is the best. The rare kid’s show that’s just as much for the parents as the children; it gives me faint Simpson’s vibes. You can just tell that the people who make the show are actually parents. (See: how they depict the backseat of the family car, the subtle sarcasm of the parents, how the kids talk, etc.) And at 8 minutes a pop, it’s not even that much of a commitment. Hammerbarn and The Claw are two of my favorite episodes.

The Righteous Gemstones
This show is ridiculous in a good way. It follows a famous televangelist family who are the most dysfunctional you’ve ever seen. I liken it to a comedic version of Succession, except instead of a media conglomerate, the empire is spreading Christianity.

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts
This special is more nostalgia-bomb than anything else. It’s a delight, but nothing earth-shattering. You will laugh, you will tear up, you (likely) won’t learn much new. Still worth it. Also putting in my request to the universe for a 10-part making-of series re: the Harry Potter films. Make this happen, please and thank you.

WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn
I will take a fall of an empire documentary every time. (See: LuLaRich, FyreFest, etc.) Why are these so endlessly fascinating?

LISTENED
Honestly, nothing revolutionary to share. My staples are The Daily, Pantsuit Politics, The Popcast, and Maintenance Phase. (And also highly recommend joining Pantsuit Politic’s Patreon for their premium content.)

Life Lately

November is a whiplash of holidays. We usher in the month with a candy hangover and carved pumpkins on our porches and end with twinkle lights, Santa Clauses, and all things glitter. In-between, there are earth-toned pumpkins, corn stalks, and turkeys. We rotate through eating Kit Kats and Sour Patch Kids to a feast of fourteen separate dishes to eyeing up peppermint cookies and gingerbread men.

Phew.

I feel stuck in the pumpkin-ish phase of things. We put up our tree over the weekend but I’m worried there won’t be snow for Christmas. It feels impossible, when I look out our windows to the brownish grass outside, that we’re nearly a week past Thanksgiving. The lights glimmer at me from the living room, determined to lend their cheer whatever the weather.

I know many of my friends live in places where not having snow is the norm, where Christmases consist of 70 degrees and palm trees, or at least green grass. But I’m a born-and-bred Minnesotan. To not have snow yet, not even in the extended two-week forecast, makes it feel like we’ve jumped the gun, like we’re closer to Christmas in July than December 25th.

We almost didn’t have snow last year, I remember. I remember because it felt almost unbearable, on top of everything else 2020 dumped on us, to not have snow for Christmas. A brownish Christmas felt like the ultimate insult.

It arrived, unexpectedly, on Christmas Eve. We weren’t supposed to have any snow, or maybe just a dusting, until a storm moved further south than they thought or lasted hours longer than they predicted and so we ended up with a properly white Christmas, after all. I remember how ridiculously grateful I felt for the swirling snowflakes outside. I remember making appetizers in the kitchen while playing Christmas music and it finally felt acceptable. How I felt, for really the first time last year, in any sort of Christmas spirit at all.

This year, though, I still feel like the pre-Christmas Eve me of 2020. Despite trading in our pumpkins and leaves for twinkling lights and all things red and green, I can hardly wrap my head around the month of December. Not yet. Of course the lack of snow just feels like a final insult. Again.

I was reading through Sarah Bessey’s Advent guide on Sunday where she wrote, “In these days, celebration can seem callous and uncaring, if not outright impossible. But here’s the thing, my friend: we enter into Advent now precisely because we are paying attention. It’s because everything hurts that we prepare for Advent.”

I wouldn’t say everything hurts, not exactly, not for me this year. The shock of 2020 has worn off, or at least softened around the edges. 2022 looms, even as it seems impossible that we’ve lived through not only all of 2020 but also 2021. March 2020 still feels thisclose, despite being almost two years past on the calendar. And yet the kids will be officially fully vaccinated as of New Year’s Eve, exactly two weeks past their last dose. Miracle of miracles. We’ll have much to toast to that night.

We enter into December, into Advent, because we’re paying attention. We just spent a holiday giving thanks: for family, for friends, for food, for those vaccines, and now we wait in hope. For more light in the world. For healing for our planet. For stacks of presents from pages and pages of lists and catalogues, if you’re my kids. As for me? I’ll keep hoping for that snow.

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Action Item

I think the best action item of all for December is rest. There are a million people and organizations vying for your money, time, and talent right now. You don’t need me to write up yet another one. Give what and if you can, and then rest. Breathe. It’s been a long couple of years.

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Around the Internet

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Eating

  • These really are the best chocolate cookies. I halved the batch which made more than enough for us (between 15-18 fairly large cookies), but would use the amounts given to bake enough for holiday gifting.

  • I’m pretty sure I sang the praises of this Coconut Chicken Curry last year, but since I’ve made it twice this past month, I’m here to do it again.

  • This is one of my go-to pastas. I can’t eat shrimp, but sub in 1/2 lb. of Italian sausage instead. The sauce is DIVINE. Add in ALL the basil and top with shredded parm. It’s 10:32 in the morning and my mouth is watering.

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Fun Things

  • I’ve been loving a dab of Cloud Paint on my cheeks.

  • Sushi Go! has been our family game of choice lately. We are obsessed.

  • I wore these pants for Thanksgiving and strongly approve. They feel like sweatpants but are acceptable in public and even for holidays. Elastic waists forever.

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See you in 2022, or very close to it. Hopefully with snow.

Read, Watched, Listened

I love reading just about everything (okay, you won't see any horror or sci-fi picks on here), watching things that make me think and especially if they make me laugh, and wholeheartedly embrace the podcast. Here's my two cents worth.

READ

The Preacher’s Wife
This one missed the mark for me. There were some good nuggets but I felt like I had to wade through a lot of text before getting to them. So much of the book seemed anecdotal, which partly makes sense when it’s a book on the state of women in positions of power in the Evangelical church. But largely it felt like a parade of one woman after another and how they were examples of that without much meat or connection. In the end I wanted more!

The Midnight Library
I loved this one. It felt like a good escapist read, where a woman is given the choice to try out different lives to see how things would play out had she made different choices. It felt somewhat like a combination to me of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. (TR: suicide)

Good Company
This was…fine? I almost DNFed it a couple of times…it seemed like it dragged on. The premise—of two couples and their bond over several decades—was interesting enough to me. The discovery of the infidelity of one of the husbands (not exactly a spoiler alert) is supposed to fuel most of the plot but I found it rather tired. “Middle-aged man has affair which is discovered years later by his wife” isn’t exactly an inventive plot point, and I don’t think this book added anything new to that conversation.

Several People are Typing
This book was bizarre and I mean that in the very best way. Once you get past the fact that it’s entirely written as Slack conversations, it’s a quick, entertaining read.

Wholehearted Faith
All the stars. I won’t even pretend to be unbiased where Rachel Held Evans is concerned. I keep hoping this can’t possibly be her last book, and someone will stumble upon some hidden treasure-trove of her writing. A girl can dream.

The Guncle
This feel-good novel, about a guncle (that’s gay uncle) who ends up with custody of his niece and nephew for the summer. It’s funny and lighthearted, though it times it turns sort of preach-y. The first half was a delight but I thought the second half dragged on.

Harry Potter
If you’ve paid attention to me on Instagram at all this fall, you know I’ve been re-reading through Harry Potter for the first time in about a decade. I mean, I knew Harry Potter was good, I’ve been a Potterhead since middle school, but I forgot just HOW good. Here are my hot takes on each book in the series:

Sorcerer’s Stone
Brilliant. A great introduction to the series. Pair with the first movie for the ultimate delight.

Chamber of Secrets
Plot-wise, it’s a bit of a re-hash of the first book, but so well done.

Prisoner of Azkaban
I forgot how much I actually like this one. The plot starts to thicken just enough to set it off from the first two. I think I’d conflated it with the third movie in my head (my least favorite of the films), but this book holds up.

Goblet of Fire
My absolute favorite. All the stars. I think it really bridges the youthful, fantasy vibe of the first few books as well as the darker tones of the last three.

Order of the Phoenix
Least favorite for me, but we’re grading on a Harry Potter curve here so of course it’s still wonderful. Harry going around pissed off and yelling at everyone gets old but honestly, what else do you expect him to do as a 15-year-old full of hormones in a world where almost no one believes him? And the whole ministry scene is epic.

Half-Blood Prince
Also excellent. Dumbledore is everything in this one.

Deathly Hallows
A close second place for me. The last 250-300 pages are actually impossible to put down. It really is a perfect end to the series and closing this book after reading through them all again has ruined me for all other books for the rest of time. The very last line, “All was well”, sets me off every time. Well done, J.K. Rowling.

WATCHED

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
It should be obvious that this was a re-watch for me, but it was a first with the kids. Peak parenting.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts I and II
I re-watched these after finishing book 7. I think part I is excellent but part II is…not great. There were a lot of liberties with the filmmaking that I take major issues with, particularly the entirety of the Battle of Hogwarts which is, y’know, basically THE BULK OF THE FILM. I also CANNOT STAND the ending (i.e. the trio tossing the broken halves of the Elder Wand away). There are bits and pieces of it I enjoy (hello, Gringotts), and it’s the very last film so of course it tugs at the heartstrings, but overall I think the book was cheated. (Gee Shannon, tell us how you really feel.)

Succession
We’re obsessed. Like we literally subscribed to HBO just to watch this. It’s so good. (And then found out that HBO carries all the HP movies, so obviously this was an amazing life move.)

Downton Abbey
People, re-watching this series is so much fun. It’s nothing more than a very fluffy soap opera but, dammit, it wants to be the MOST GORGEOUS fluffy soap opera you’ve ever seen. And it is.

When Harry Met Sally
One of my favorite fall movies. An absolute classic. Meg Ryan + Billy Crystal together is magic.

All Too Well: The Short Film
We love to see it.

LISTENED
Maintenance Phase
I’ve been binging this podcast after hearing Beth on Pantsuit Politics mention in passing that she was listening to the Rachel Hollis episodes. Those episodes are EXCELLENT, seriously SO GOOD, and so are the rest of their episodes. They make all things diet-industry related funny and interesting, despite their takedown of all things related to today’s version of “wellness.”

MuggleCast
OBVIOUSLY. Maybe I should just call this “Read, Watched, Listened: Harry Potter Edition.” I wish I would have listened to this years ago. As it is, I’ve just been diving into the archives to find episodes I’m interested in. And since they started back in 2005 (!), I’ll be scrolling back through the archives for…a very long time.

Every Single Album
This one has its own dedicated feed now which makes me so happy! I couldn’t wait to get to their deep-dive into Red (Taylor’s Version) (That album: another major one for this “listening” list.), and now they’re going to tackle all of Adele’s albums. Can I turn off Taylor long enough to listen to Adele’s back catalog? Stay tuned!

Life Lately

My plan this fall was to re-read through the Harry Potter books. I thought I would do this somewhat slowly, savoring-ly, interspersed with other books and library holds as they came up.

People, this is not how it went. It’s been a solid decade since I last read through the entire series and I forgot just how all-consuming they are. I could not devour the last three books fast enough. (Or I should say from the last third of book five on, because the bulk of book five with Harry yelling at everyone is the only one that gets even a little bit tedious.)

I finished book seven on Wednesday, spending the majority of the day doing just curled up in a corner of the couch, because I forgot just how un-putdownable they are.

At the risk of using the most cliche of cliches, these books are, simply put, magical.

I closed book seven, teary-eyed, the very last sentence sending me over the edge (All was well and maybe now I need a tattoo of those words?) and looked at the clock and was filled with nothing but a sense of what on earth do I do with my life now? I wandered around for the last half hour before the kids arrived home from school like a Hogwarts ghost, unable to do much of anything tangible. I felt an enormous sense of loss, almost grief, at arriving at the end. I’d been so immersed in the HP universe that real-life paled in comparison. I messaged a friend and told her I was absolutely ruined for all other books now. How can I read any other book now? It’s like after a breakup, but instead of a transitional boyfriend, I need a transitional book.

It’s not exactly that I want the books to keep going. No, I would rather end with this feeling than to be several more books in and think, well, that should have ended three books ago.

I’ve started listening to the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast, am re-watching The Deathly Hallows Part I and Part II, and have even ventured into Harry Potter TikTok. I need these things to help bring me down from this adrenaline high, but mostly, to keep the magic alive. I’m strongly tempted to immediately read book seven again. (For the record, book four is my favorite, but seven is an incredibly close second.)

All that to say, I wrote on Instagram last weekend that I’ve basically turned into a Harry Potter fan account now. You’ve been warned. It was one of my most-liked posts ever so I know I’m not the only one with HP fever. Please come alongside me in my affliction and talk to me about all things to do with the wizarding world.

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Action Item

A friend of mine got in touch with me about collecting items for Afghan refugees who are being resettled here in Minnesota. They expect to be working with up to 500 families over the next several months and the need is enormous. If you’d like to donate, you can view their Amazon Wish List or send me a donation via Venmo @Shannon-Williams-291. I will put any money that comes in towards the highest priority needs.

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Around the Internet

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Eating

  • I’ve been making these pumpkin cream cheese muffins as mini-muffins and YUM. I get three-dozen+ from this recipe when I make them as minis.

  • I mean, this newsletter just made me want to eat buckets of popcorn. I’ve been big into making my own kettle corn but this made me want to up my savory seasonings game. For kettle corn: heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large, heavy-bottom pot. Add 1/2 cup popcorn kernels and somewhere between 1/4-1/2 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want it). Shake the pot around, removing from heat when there are 2-3 seconds between pops. Pour in a bowl and sprinkle with sea salt. This makes enough for a family-sized serving; cut in 1/2 for 1-2 people.

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Fun Things

  • This is an enormous fun thing, but we finally got a sectional from Joybird for our basement and I LOVE it. I’ve been eyeing Joybird pieces for literal years and couldn’t be happier. All the reviews were right: it’s comfortable and my new favorite thing in our whole entire house. (Pro tip: We paid far less than the current list price, so wait for a sale if you’re in the market for anything.)

  • If a sofa isn’t in your needs or budget can I recommend to you this mug? I will be drinking out of it for the foreseeable future as my own private little protest against the fact that paid family leave has been completely removed from the domestic policy package.

  • Caden and Brooklyn have been really into playing Rummikub lately. I remember Tyson and me having some epic matches before the kids came along. We might need to revive those again. Highly recommend. (Affiliate link.)

  • Fall farms and pumpkin patches forever.

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It’s almost November and the colors have peaked, sweaters are in a near-daily rotation, and pumpkin and apple treats are still going strong. All is well.

Books to (Re)Read This Fall

Hello, my name is Shannon. (Hi, Shannon!) I am a serial re-reader of books. I come by this honestly. I was the type of kid who devoured stacks of books at a time. There was no way my parents could keep up with the number of library runs or the sheer amount of cash it would have taken to keep me in a steady supply of Scholastic orders. While I read anything I could get my hands on (magazines, the newspaper, cereal boxes, etc.), having an actual book in my hands often meant re-reading from my own bookshelf. I have distinct memories of sitting cuddled in “my” corner of our brown living room couch, reading the last page of a book, and then immediately flipping it around to the front cover to start all over again.

My love of re-reading hasn’t left me. If anything, it’s grown stronger over the past year and a half of the pandemic. There’s something comforting in visiting familiar characters who feel like friends in book form. When there’s so much beyond our control, it’s soothing to visit an old favorite and know exactly what I’ll find there. There’s no risk (I already know it’s a book I love), it’s fun to revisit favorite pieces of dialogue and turns-of-phrase, and I almost always find something new, even in a book I’ve read half a dozen times.

If you’d like to join me in my cult of re-reading this fall, here’s a round-up of cozy, familiar, comforting (re)reads. These are books I think pair best with a blanket, soft pants, and something warm in a mug, even if you only have five minutes to sneak in as children swarm around you.

(See the (re)reads at the top of my list by clicking over to Twin Cities Mom Collective!