Good Stuff, Vol. 4

October is all about vibes

Hi friends! Wow, October has flown by in a breeze. I have been deep in my manuscript working on some more edits thanks to my new critique group, which is a few weeks in and going strong. Time for some life and reading updates! I’ll have a Recent Reads edition coming soon sharing my mini-reviews of books read in October, which to me is a month that is ripe for seasonal reading and the vibe-iest month of fall overall.

Photo op at the North Park Book Fair, where I saw several dogs posing for pictures.

Since it’s been a while since I’ve sent out one of these, I’ll share both current and recent reads from my kids as there’s been a lot of good reading going on.

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🏡. At Home with the Bennetts…

📖. What We’re Reading

• Gigi (17)— Frankenstein (for 12th grade AP English), Pride & Prejudice (a choice read for English class),

• Brody (14)— Great Expectations (for honors English— I read it along with him and we both loved it); other recent/current reads: Spy School Goes Wild by Stuart Gibbs, Westfallen by Ann & Ben Brasheres, Small Spaces by Katherine Arden (which is a creepy fave in my library)

• Hallee (13)— The Mother Daughter Book Club & Much Ado About Anne by Heather Vogel Frederick (as recommended by Gigi),

• Me!— As I’ve said, I usually have audiobooks going with my two kids who don’t drive. Whenever we’re in the car alone, we try to listen to these. It’s been a very enjoyable (and dare I say, special) activity for us. Current listens are…

  • with Hallee: We started City Spies but went on hiatus when our libby copy expired. Getting back into it soon!

  • with Brody: The Secret of Golf by Joe Posnanksi

  • Bonus! Since I’m often in the car with both Brody and his next-door neighbor/best friend for carpool purposes, the boys and I started And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

  • See all my current reads here on StoryGraph

🥰. What We’re Eating/Loving/Watching/Doing

• David and I are currently watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Only Murders in the Building, and we just started the 3-part docuseries about the 2004 Red Sox, called The Comeback (with Gigi).

• I binged Nobody Wants This on Netflix, and loved it. The ending wasn’t quite perfect for me though, so I’m very intrigued where season 2 will go whenever it arrives!

• Last weekend, David and I took ourselves out on the town to the North Park Book Fair in San Diego, which is essentially a street fair that’s book themed and therefore a perfect event for me. I didn’t buy any books (though I loved sifting through bins and tables full of them), but we enjoyed a delicious steamed bun!

• We had a fun time going to see our son’s undefeated high school football team this season. I have complicated opinions about football, but there is something so fun and nostalgic about being around all the fanfare of a HS game.

• I always make a few different chilis on Halloween as we head out to our driveway to post up and hang out. Here’s what I made this year: the standby fave, Shauna Niequist’s White Chicken Chili (from my beloved copy of Bread & Wine), Jenny Rosentrach’s Three Bean Chili with Chocolate (from The Weekday Vegetarians… because I wanted to make a veggie chili this year, and because I am the type of person who tries out new recipes on other people), and Jimmy Fallon’s crock pot chili (a classic, via Martha Stewart).

• And of course, we got to watch the Dodgers win the World Series this week, in dramatic fashion. Let’s go!!

📚. In the Library

It’s been a delightful month in the library with spooky readalouds, fall- and Halloween-themed ambience “rooms” playing on the TV, and displaying all the seasonal books around the room. My 5th grade fall book clubs are wrapping up soon— we finish our reading of Chasing Vermeer next week and I can’t wait to discuss the ending with my students!

🤓. At My Writing Desk

As I said, I have a new critique group that I connected with through my local SCBWI chapter. We have met on zoom and have been emailing chapters every week, and next week we have our first in-person meetup. I know that any chapters that this group reads will come out stronger for it, and I’m thankful to have this opportunity!

👩‍💻. On Substack

I love this post from Maggie Stiefvater on making decisions as a creative. “When faced with competing interests for your time and emotional bandwidth, it helps to define a task's MAIN value to you.”

"Yes." "No." "Eh."

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I’d love to know what you’re reading/watching/eating/enjoying!

xo,

Nicole

I always use affiliate links with Bookshop.org when I link to books. If you purchase through my links you support me a tiny bit, and more importantly, you