#1 | 9.28.2022 | Wednesday Round Up

Happy Humpday Folks!

Here are some gems I have been reading, listening to, watching, and cooking this week! Star scale is based on the amount of joy it gave me personally. Some have just come into my consciousness recently and have left an impact, others are old favorites I’m currently enjoying. More next week!

📚 Reading Round Up

This book is getting ZERO buzz, and I have NO idea why. It is not a thriller or a mystery like the title suggests. It spans twenty years of the main character’s life, as she navigates everything that goes along with coming of age in the nineties. I laughed and cried. The way the author describes the dynamic of sisterhood, of daughterhood, of young love. Chef’s kiss. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is Harry Potter Fanfiction of the Dramione (Draco + Hermione) variety. It is one of the best written fics I’ve read, a SLOW burn, enemies-ish to lovers with amazing banter. Draco is an extremely competent Auror assigned to protect the extremely intelligent healer & research biologist Hermione. Set in Cambridge. I laughed out loud. Still my favorite fic. Spicy in parts. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎧 Listening Round Up 

I discovered Matt via Harry Potter tiktok wherein he has conversations as various characters that never took place in the book but are about canon events. Hysterical. This led me to his podcast with Harvey that absolutely no one (187 people including me) watches, but that is one of the funniest and most relatable podcasts that two white men have ever created. They are like 30 mins long and are completely disorganized, and I LOVE them. They get better and better. Harvey and Matt have a TV show in production— I am praying these guys make it big and/or never stop making art. Top stuff. Class. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

  1. Give Me a Minute by Lizzie McAlpine (2020 Album)

I have listened to this album front to back, inside out and back again. It chronicles a breakup and into a new relationship. Ultimate sad girl autumn vibes. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been watching too much academia aesthetic tiktoks, but I picture myself walking through Cambridge with trousers and a chunky sweater, drinking tea and settling down to write in a leather bound journal in a cafe as it rains when I listen to this album. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎬 Watching Round Up

I began watching this series at my sister’s house this past week. I didn’t have Apple Tv+, but suffice it to say…I do now! I am a sucker for Irish comedies, and this one is amazing. It is a dark thriller and comedy (a love-child of my two favorite genres) and I love absolutely every actor in this series. Sharon Horgan of Catastrophe (Amazon Prime), Eva Birthistle of The Last Kingdom (Netflix), Eva Hewson of Behind Her Eyes (Netflix), Anne- Marie Duff, Sarah Greene, Daryl McCormack, Brian Gleeson, and Claes Bang give excellent performances against the beautiful backdrop of Dublin and its seaside Based on the Flemish series Clan. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

  1. You Don’t Know Me (Netflix) 1 season - Thriller/ UK Courtroom Drama

As a lover of UK thrillers/ mysteries / courtroom dramas, I was primed to love this, and I did!  The monologues can feel a bit much if you’re not used to them but I love the performances of the actors (Samuel Adewunmi, Sophie Wilde, Bukky Bakrayand) and the writing was brilliant. A man is on the stand, representing himself in a murder charge of a local man he claims is a drug dealer. It ends up getting a lot more complicated. Fabulous performances all around, though I’m a sucker for all things Roger Nsengiyumva (Informer). ⭐⭐⭐

🧁 Cooking Round Up

My small friend Lea (she’s 8) LOVES these muffins. She calls them “pum-chos” and this notoriously picky eater would eat them for every meal if she could. She hates breakfast food, but eats two of these before school. From Lea and my experience, they are best enjoyed with a glass of milk, friends, and a screening of Halloween Town in the living room. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

People are obsessed with these meat balls! Hilary popped six cold ones in her mouth on the way home from a horrid day of teaching. Devon took two for the road at my birthday party and put them in her purse. Peter, a man at said concert, ate said meatballs from said purse. I don’t blame anyone — they are really yummy. I first ate them when my step-sister was on Whole-30 and making everything from scratch. She made them as chicken burgers but I’m a meatball girl! I wing the recipe now but that basil aioli is top! Enjoy! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

⏪ Oldies But Goodies!

I recently did a re-watch of season 2 (IYKYK), and since, I have been appalled at how many of my friends have not seen Fleabag? Do yourself a favor and watch it. Or re-watch it. The first few episode are raunchy, so don’t watch it with your parents or roommate you don’t know very well, but PLEASE give it time. It’s one of the most brilliant pieces of TV ever written by the genius that is Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Killing Eve). Based on her one woman show at The Fringe. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 To Read: The History of Love

There has never been a book I’ve recommended or purchased and given away more than the History of Love. I read it for the first time when I was fifteen, and I think it imprinted on me. But it holds up. It’s the most beautiful novel, the most beautiful prose. I’m re-reading it this week and gifting it to someone special for Christmas. So many characters whose lives intertwine in the past and present with memory of war and loss and things unsaid. The way Nicole Krauss write from the perspective of an octogenarian…amazing. She does such justice to an elderly main character, so human and so beautiful. Do yourself a favor and read it! It’s gorgeous. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

This tea tastes like you’re being hugged from the inside, next to a warm cozy fireplace as it snows. It is pure comfort. Caffeine free before bed. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Stay tuned for more gems next week! Have a fabulous rest of your week. Quit your job! Just kidding….kind of.

XOXO,

M