Good Stuff, Vol. 5
November & December goodness
Hi friends!
I’m out of school for winter break and am pumped for some time off, both to rest my body, and to rest my soul with doing things I love. I haven’t been as excited about my holiday reads as usual (though I’m loving my advent devotional, pictured above), and I’m wondering if this is in part because I started out on such a high with The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, which I feel like was made just for me (it’s so popular that it was clearly made for lots of other people too). But yeah, I loved it.
I am currently pretty excited about two holiday audiobooks though… in middle grade, I’m close to finishing Let it Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy, and it’s super cute. It’s a Parent Trap-esque story but with an adoption twist and set at Christmas/Hanukkah time. In YA, I’m just getting started with The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand, a Christmas Carol retelling that I’ve heard great things about (our family is obsessed with the movie Spirited since last year so I am looking forward to getting into this one).
🏡. At Home with the Bennetts…
📖. What We’re Reading
Gigi (17)— This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang (a reread!)
Brody (14)— Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie (he’s on an Agatha kick!), and the graphic novel Noodle & Bao by Shaina Lu
Hallee (13)— between books (and not enthusiastic about reading these days), but may pick up Mixed Up by Gordon Korman soon.
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: City Spies by James Ponti
with Brody (and our neighbor): And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
See all my current reads here on StoryGraph (have you seen the news that you can now pause current reads on SG? I am so excited about this. I often lose library holds, especially on those slow-but-steady audio reads with my kids, so now I can “pause” them on SG and not have them taunt me from my Current Reads shelf while I await their return impatiently).
🥰. What We’re Eating/Loving/Watching/Doing
We are all about the traditional watching of Christmas favorites, so that has been occupying our watch time for the last few weeks!
David and I had the privilege of going away for the weekend to Ojai, CA, and we had the best time. We visited local faves like Bart’s Books (a mostly-outdoor bookstore), The Duchess for both amazing breakfast and dinners, and Ojai Ice Cream, and my husband got to play golf twice at the beautiful Soule Park golf course (we also had breakfast there). We also saw Donald Glover enjoying some casual friend time on the patio of a cafe and were a bit starstruck. Thankful for our friends who invited us away from real life to celebrate their wedding.
📚. In the Library
One of my natural inclinations at work is to get to know my students’ reading tastes and be able to make recommendations. Recently I read a couple of books that reminded me of a student who’s no longer at my school who always was reading WWII books. Luckily, her little sister attends our school still, so I decided to send these recs her way via her sister as messenger. The best part? She replied! I hope I get word if she reads the books I told her about.
🤓. At My Writing Desk
Having regular critique partners has been so good for me, and I’ve been really loving the feedback on my MG manuscript. Hopefully in the next few months I will be ready to query it. In the meantime, I have dusted off a YA fantasy, done a new read-through on it, and am now working on preparing a submission packet for an indie publisher that accepts unagented submissions. Also, I recently found out that a real-life acquaintance, who I have known for a few years, is also an actively querying MG writer. I’m excited to connect with her more about writing.
👩💻. On Substack
I wish you and yours a lovely holiday season, and as always, I’d love to know what you’re reading/watching/eating/enjoying!
xo,
Nicole
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I recently read Let it Glow and loved it! Such a sweet holiday story.