💬 Friday Thread: What Are Your Lasts, Currents, Nexts?
books, tv/movies, recipes + an end of the year discount!
Hello!
Today’s intro is going to be short and sweet. I know we’re all busy this time of year. This week, I’ve been hard at work recording and editing my best books of 2025 podcast episode which is coming your way very soon. Katie - Basic B's Guide joined me again this year and we had a great time chatting about our 2025 reading lives—what worked, what didn’t, what surprised us, what our 2026 reading intentions will be & a countdown of our top 10 books of the year!
In case you missed listening to last year’s episode….
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As a reminder, the comments are closed to paid subscribers. If you’ve been considering upgrading your subscription, now’s the time because I’m offering an end of the year discount on annual subscriptions! I would love to have you join our Friday Threads community and talk books (and more) with us all year. If 2026 is the year you’d like to consistently get great book recommendations (especially under the radar ones), connect with other readers, and get all of my 2026 podcast episodes, then consider joining with an annual subscription. This offer is good through Dec 31.
** To avoid fees from Apple or Google you can upgrade via your computer web browser instead of the app. Substack limits discounts to new annual paid subscribers but if you’re a monthly subscriber who wants to upgrade you can cancel your monthly subscription and then resubscribe via the discount link.
For today’s questions, let’s have fun sharing our lasts, currents, and nexts for our reading, tv shows and/or movies, recipes we’re making….feel free to get creative!
Question Time
The questions I ask in weekly threads are meant to be fun and help us connect, so please know you don’t have to answer each question, if you only have the time/desire to answer one, great! Please put book titles IN ALL CAPS for easy reading and include the author’s name if possible:)
What are your lasts, currents, nexts in books, tv shows/movies, recipes & more?
See you in the comments!
Have a great weekend 📚🍂
Renee
Hi all! I hope you're finding some time to relax and enjoy yourself during these busy times! I'm telling myself that too:)
READING- My reading has been super limited because I prepped for, recorded and am now editing the best books of the year episode with Katie - I think you all will love our conversation and maybe be surprised by some of the books that made our top 10. I'll get that out to you soon, lots of books to link then it will be ready:) But I will update you on THE DINNER PARTY by Viola Van de Sandt which I was reading last week- I ended up dnfing it. I just didn't have the patience for such a slow story and the back and forth time frames didn't help. I'm currently doing a print/audio combo read of LATE IN THE DAY by Tessa Hadley. This story about two midlife couples who have been best friends for years when one of the four suddenly dies has me interested in what might have been going on below the surface. The audio is British narration and very good. Next up for my reading - I'm going to try BEST OFFER WINS on audio and on my Kindle I just downloaded ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME 1 - this seems like it might be too experimental for me but it's short and if I love it there's 3 books already out and a total of 7 planned. Also, it's translated and as you'll hear in the best books episode, translated fiction worked well for me this year
TV - I finished all 3 seasons of ABSENTIA and I loved it so much. Talk about twists and turns galore and just a riveting series. Now I'm bummed I binged it too fast and it's over haha. I'm currently watching LANDMAN - love the addition of Andy Garcia who is a much needed breath of fresh air to this show. Also, I just started the new season of EMILY IN PARIS and the Rome setting is visually stunning! Love all the eye candy from the fashion, the city sights, the food, etc.
RECIPES - I've been making homemade Reese PB Christmas Trees and they are so easy and very delicious- I got the recipe from Mindfullymademotherhood on instagram -
Ingredients are: 3/4 cup natural peanut butter (I use almond butter)
2/3 cup almond flour - I've also used oat flour and that works just as well
1/4 c pure maple syrup
1/2 c chocolate chips
1 tsp coconut oil
Mix- combine peanut butter, flour, and maple syrup and stir until smooth and dough-like.
press out the "dough" to your desired thickness onto parchment paper then place in freezer for 10 min. In a saucepan over low heat melt the chocolate and coconut oil together stirring until smooth. Remove dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out pieces and then dip each into the melted chocolate using a fork or spoon then place on a parchment lined tray or plate. Then put in freezer for 20 min. That's it! They're so good, enjoy! Not sure what I'll make next but I'm thinking Almond flour chocolate chip cookies
Hey everyone, I got the best books episode edited sooner than expected so I just dropped it! I figured maybe you all would like to listen while you're wrapping presents, doing last minute errands, baking etc. I hope you enjoy it!