Life lately

Sarah reports back on her cold weather camping adventure.

Abby got to see Hamilton!

Reading lately

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Sarah read There, There by Tommy Orange and Abby read the follow-up to the All Souls Triology: Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness.

Our Year in Books, 2018

We take a look back at our reading life in 2018: our challenges, our wins, and our favorite books of the year. We’d love to hear your favorite books of the year!

• Fiction
  • Sarah: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
    
  • Abby: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
• Non-fiction
  • Sarah: Louise Penny’s Gamache series, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Outdoor Design by Charles Montgomery and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
  • Abby: Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy by Angela Garbes
    
• Most enjoyable
  • Sarah: Crazy Rich Asians trilogy and From Twinkle With Love by Sandhya Menon
    
  • The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang and Hamilton’s Battalion: A Trio of Romances by Rose Lerner, Courtney Milan, and Alyssa Cole
    
• Memoir
  • Sarah: Educated by Tara Westover, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown, and When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrice Khan-Cullors
    
  • Abby: We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True by Gabrielle Union and Everything Happens For a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler
• Ones that missed the mark for us
  • Sarah: Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer and the Darker Shade of Magic series by V. E. Schwab
  • Abby: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
    
• Looking forward to in 2019
  • Sarah: Re-reading Harry Potter
  • Abby: Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny, Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Too by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, and Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne
    

Eating lately

Abby made a shepherd’s pie with her Thanksgiving leftovers.

Sarah made these brownies after a cookie dough disaster.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!

Life lately

Abby successfully completed her longest solo-parenting stretch to date!

Sarah is headed into a cold-weather camping weekend; wish her luck!

Reading lately

Abby read Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, the first book of a fantasy fiction triology. Sarah stepped outside her usual genre and listened to the classic novel Another Country by James Baldwin.

Graceful quitting

We share why neither of us are quitting averse, our most memorable quitting (and not-quitting) moments, quitting regrets, gracefully quitting relationships, and our thoughts on quitting books and television shows.

• Freakonomics episode on The Upside of Quitting
• Twitter thread about setting boundaries

Eating lately

Sarah is searching for simple lunches to incorporate into her family’s life.

Abby is looking forward to eating roasted cranberry sauce, both on Thanksgiving and for many days after.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!