June Recommendations by Jenn D
Well, winter has settled in and I have been wearing all of my jumpers and all of my socks and draping myself over the heater as required. It’s a whole thing. I love this season, mainly because I love jumpers and socks, so it’s a win-win.
But! Winter is for baking, and baking I have been doing. You can’t go wrong with cookies (they just make everything better) and lately I’ve been making them really teeny tiny, using a teaspoon to measure out the dough. This recipe (Itty Bitty Cookies) is a great place to start. They’re so satisfyingly little. As my friend Shawna says, “What is it about tiny things?”
My Spotify has been a bit same-y lately, but I did stumble upon a song I’m really loving: 4bit from #1 Dads. I’m a bit of a Tom Iansek fan and have joyfully listened to all his various bands and side projects, and #1 Dads gets a lot of repeat action here, but Big Scary and No Mono are also worth a bit of a listen. (He’s Australia’s coherent answer to the unformed question that is Justin Vernon.)
I tend to want a good love story in cold weather, so I’ve been sticking close to reading romance. I picked up Emily Henry’s latest, People We Meet on Vacation and wow, wow, wow, I loved it. I also loved both Shipped by Meredith Tate and What’s Not To Love by Emily Wibberley — both are rivals/enemies to lovers, both are set in high school, and both were just fun to read. Shipped also has a fandom element which I really loved. I’m also in the middle of another Rachel Lynn Solomon book — We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This. So far loving it!!
I don’t want to talk about Mister Impossible (I read it fast because I had to vet it for Jen V) because my heart is very sore. It’s all right, I’ll be fine. Just… all the feelings. Who knew I’d become such a Declan ride or die? (I do love a dad friend, though. Just saying.)
For narrative nonfiction, I have been delighted with John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed. The podcast of the same name is also well worth a listen.
In other podcast recommendations, I have been loving the gentle nudge I’m getting from The Confessional when it updates. Whatever I’m doing, I want to stop and write everything down: it all feels that profound.
I had a sewing deadline so I made my way through a couple of early seasons of The Great British Bake-off. That show is a delight. I also chewed through all of the Shadow and Bone series on Netflix (and even reread the first book to remind myself what actually happens) and guys? I loved it.
A couple fanfic recs - I quite enjoyed this little bit of Zutara joy in my inbox this week: red, blue, steel, silk.
“We Got Work To Do” has been stuck in my head because, well, it’s a bop.
I would also like to gently instruct you to spend some time watching B Dylan Hollis on TikTok, as he reliably combines two things I love—cooking, and all things vintage—with a third and fourth thing I also love: yelling and hyperbole.
Things I’m looking forward to:
We’ve finished reading Strange the Dreamer, so I’m gonna shotgun Muse of Nightmares just for some closure.
Any Way The Wind Blows is being published NEXT MONTH. Can’t wait can’t wait!
Praying with Jane Eyre by Vanessa Zoltan (you may have guessed we’re fans) is out soon! You can preorder it from Booktopia. And you really should. It looks amazing. I can’t wait to dive into that one.
There’s new series of Ted Lasso coming at the end of July as well… I will be talking about nothing else for at least a month. Steel yourselves, folks. It’s about to get cheerful.