October Mishmash
Boo! Happy Halloween!!! 👻🦇🎃🧙♀️🕸️🖤
Hi friends, I hope spooky season is treating you well! Send me pics of your/your kids/your pets costume!!
Food!
The best thing I cooked this month was a slightly modified version of this Sweet potato & sausage soup. I first sautéed onion, celery, and carrots, because I found it odd the recipe didn’t have them. I used impossible sausage instead of chicken sausage, and added some shelf stable gnocchi! It was realllllly good! I’m ready for soup season!
Books
You can shop all my recent reads here: https://bookshop.org/shop/michelleflook (Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.)
I have two non-fiction and four fiction books to talk about this month! My total books read for the year so far is 60, which was my goal for the whole year! I read Voice Like a Hyacinth via ebook, and the rest were audiobooks. Link above to buy any of these!
Non-fiction:
The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch is a GREAT memoir. I just loved it and the person who read the audiobook really infused a lot of personality and passion into the story. Lidia has lived an interesting life, and I would definitely recommend this to anyone. My fave this month.
The Sing Sing Files by Dan Slepian is for true crime fans. The author is a producer for Dateline and this book spans 20 years of his involvement with wrongfully convicted inmates at Sing Sing prison.
Fiction:
Voice Like a Hyacinth by Mallory Pearson is my fave fiction this month. Set at an art school, a close knit group of queer girls who live together and make art and love each other fiercely. There is a horror element, and has a dreamlike feeling. Kind of a slow burn but I really enjoyed it. Also the title is such a lovely phrase and I love the cover.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang is a book that got A LOT of hype, and I get it, I really liked it too. Skewering the book industry, social media, and plenty more,it’s a wild ride.
State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg is a strange book, told in short vignettes of life in Florida, post-pandemic, and morphs before you realize it into an unhinged story that you can’t help but keep reading to see how it winds up. A unique book, for sure.
The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch was my least fave this month but I think maybe audiobook is not the best format for this story.
TV/Movies
Monsters on Netflix,about the Menendez brothers. I thought this show was great. I didn’t know a lot about the case, was too young when it happened, and the way each episode made me question and change my alliances was masterful. It’s a really sad story overall.
After we watched Monsters, we watched one of the new documentaries about the Menendez brothers also on Netflix, in which the brothers talk from prison. Just really reiterated how sad the whole story is, and that their abuse allegations weren’t taken seriously back then is such a bummer.
Into The Fire (on Netflix) is a seriously upsetting documentary that we watched this month. A woman finds out that the daughter she gave up for adoption many years earlier went missing, and the search to find her. It is a crazy almost unbelievable and very sad story.
The Lost Women of Highway 20 (on MAX) is a documentary about several women & girls who were assaulted, vanished, or murdered along highway 20 in Oregon. a little close to home, so scary and sad. I guess I have a type!
As I type this I’m finishing the newest season of Love is Blind (season 7). The dudes sucked this season, but I like the couples who got married and hope it works out! (No spoilers here!)
The Circle (also Netflix) newest season was good! I love that show, definitely my favorite reality show!
I also watched Nobody Wants This (on Netflix), a really cute fun rom com series with Kristen Bell. I don’t normally watch this kinda show or movie, but I really liked it!
Projects!
I finished my Arete Quilt which was the Q3 mystery quilt from Toad Circle. It’s really fun doing these mystery quilt alongs, working on it in pieces week by week. This one was a lot faster and easier than the previous one. I love how it turned out. The next mystery quilt along just started this week, so stay tuned :)
Here’s my October block for the Sweet Potato Block of the Month. Each month these get easier and easier and I’m really glad I signed up for this sew along, it’s been a great skill building project. Only 2 months left!
I have another quilt that is almost finished, but I’ll share it next month.
Miscellaneous!
Halloween is my favorite and I really loved my costume this year for a friend’s 2nd annual Halloween party.
We went to see Julio Torres, who is one of the funniest most creative people, I love him SO MUCH. We had a great time. He’s the best! If you’re thinking who is Julio Torres, please watch My Favorite Shapes on MAX! also Fantasmas (show on MAX), Problemista (movie is streaming on MAX), AND Los Espookys (show on MAX)! Julio forever 💜
Remi!
Remi can’t help but jump on top of any quilt she sees!
Goodbye, until next month!
xoM