i really need to start writing down the ideas i have for this newsletter, because by the time i actually sit down to write one they're gone. anyway, happy November! let's see what comes out.
 

---

🚫 i have begun my (pretty annual at this point) break from social media -- the winter holidays are always overwhelming for me, and something's gotta give, and that thing is social media. i mentioned that i would probably send a few tinyletters out over the next couple months, so if that's why you're here, this may be it and it may not! who knows!!! anything could happen.

♻️ i read through last November's letter and had to laugh because apparently i came up with some system? for choosing what to read?? that can't have lasted very long because i have no idea what it was. i do know it involved a new tab in my spreadsheet and some tagging on Edelweiss and Libby but that's as far as it got. hilariously, i JUST invented a new-new system, in which i made a collection called "reading" on my ereader to see how many books i had going at the moment, and the answer was TWELVE, which is absolutely horrifying. my focus has been shot for months but that can't be helping! so now i'm trying to whittle it down a bit. but the facts are that i read even less this year than last year (65 books currently, down from 103 in 2022, down from 136 in 2021). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ we'll see what happens, but if i were you i'd bet good money on, a year from now, me inventing another system. i share this because i have been a professional reader since 2006, more or less, and i am still (and forever will be) on the strugglebus. just so you understand that none of us, in fact, have it all figured out.

📚 i can't tell you about all twelve (!!!! WHY) of the books i'm reading right now but here are some highlights:

i tore through PAYAL MEHTA'S ROMANCE REVENGE PLOT by Preeti Chhibber, who has been my friend for probably a decade at this point so obviously i am biased but let me tell you that if you need an extremely funny and sweet rom-com that is informed by intersectional feminism and Bollywood, you should pre-order this book immediately. (it's not out until September 2024, sorrrrryyyyyy)

i just started SEEK by Scott Shigeoka, and his hypothesis is that curiosity can help heal the world, and let me tell you that, like everyone, i am exhausted of being terrified of :waves hands: so i will take whatever advice i can get. so far i appreciate the balance he's striking between talking about the science and sociology of curiosity while acknowledging that there are people in this world it might not be safe for us to be curious around, and also curiosity takes energy. promising!

🍪 it has been an extremely busy couple of weeks so this is the first quiet weekend i've had at home, and if i WAS on social media i would have been posting pictures of all the things i've made in the oven. fall brings back my will to cook, and the fruits of my labor currently are pumpkin bread (gluten-free version of this one), mac and cheese (also gf obvi), roasted sweet potato/leeks/carrots, and a crumble that has pretty much whatever was in the fruit drawer and cabinet -- so pomegranate seeds, apples, plums, and dried blueberries. i have no idea how that one is going to turn out because it's not out of the oven yet but crumble is pretty much foolproof for me at this point. throw a bunch of fruit in a casserole dish, spray with lime juice, then top with oats mixed with melted butter and brown sugar. cook at 350 until it looks right. the end.

hold your loved ones close, take deep breaths, remember to hydrate, and treat yo'self, friends. 👋