☀️ No Post on Sundays: November 2022

Happy holidays! We hope everyone had a yummy Thanksgiving. There’s a lot of stuff we’d love to share that just won’t fit in our usual Thursday newsletter. Some of that stuff is here. Read on for a special collection of podcast, book, and miscellaneous other recs from your trusty Double Take duo.

— Jess Spoll and Jenni Cullen

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Jenni: After the obligatory Charlie Brown Thanksgiving viewing, I watched The Swimmers on Netflix with my parents and really enjoyed it. Based on a true story, the movie follows the Mardini sisters — two Olympic hopefuls who make the trek to Germany as refugees, hoping the rest of their family can soon follow. I found it extremely touching and inspiring; it’s very much a laughing-then-crying-then-laughing-again, rooting-for-the-underdog-against-terrible-odds kind of story.

Jess: I got sucked into the cheesy Christmas rom-coms a little early this year, starting with Falling for Christmas, Lindsay Lohan’s return to the silver screen. Even with my standards being fairly low for this sort of movie, it was painfully bad. Things did not improve from there, with Christmas With You starring Freddie Prinze Jr. as my second watch of the season. I’m not sure why he and Lindsay decided to return to acting via terrible Christmas movies, but these feel less like career comebacks and more like pitiful cash-grabs.

I checked out another new Christmas movie, Spirited, a musical retelling of “A Christmas Carol” starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds on Apple TV+. As Elf’s number one fan, I was more excited than anyone to watch Ferrell in a new Christmas movie, but this movie was wildly disappointing. It wasn’t as funny or charming as it was trying to be, and the musical aspect of it fell flat. I love musicals, but the vibe here was like they were apologizing for being a musical, and the result was cringey.

Jenni: Went to my first concert in a long time to see the end of the Origami Angel tour featuring Pool Kids and Insignificant Other. Of the three, only Pool Kids has made it onto my more recent playlists, though.

Jess: Honestly, I’ve just had Taylor’s latest album on repeat. When I need a break from that, I’ve been listening to my Spotify playlist aptly named “autumn.”

Jenni: During the Thanksgiving break, I finally finished Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson. If you are a fan of Malcom Gladwell books or Bear Grylls content, definitely give this a try. It loosely follows the “Breaking2” attempt by the team at Nike to achieve a sub 2-hour marathon, but examines a wide range of other endurance sports, human limits, and avenues for improvement along the way.

I’ve also just recently picked up She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan and though I’m only 50 pages in, I’m already loving it. It’s a historical fantasy novel that re-imagines the rise to power of the Hongwu Emperor in the 14th century. I’ll keep you posted about final thoughts once I finish.

Jess: I thought Chasing the Boogeyman, a metafiction book written as if it’s a true crime novel, would be right up my alley. Sadly, it took me forever to slog through it, all for a hastily-paced conclusion that was barely satisfying. With many overly long (and dry) passages about the author’s childhood, I found it to be a very poorly edited book.

For book club this month, we read Every Summer After, a coming-of-age romance novel. It was compelling and easy to read; I finished it in less than a day. But I wouldn’t recommend it — it read like a cheesy YA novel and ended with a “twist” that truly irritated me. If you want a feel-good romance book, I suggest picking up an Emily Henry book instead.

Jenni: The classic Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich, duh. I do not follow a recipe for this one, I follow my heart. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy all on beautifully toasted sourdough? Yes please.

Jess: My contribution to Thanksgiving this year was a Pear Pomegranate salad. Perhaps everyone was lying to me, but it seemed to be a big hit. I made some slight changes to the linked recipe; I used goat cheese crumbles instead of feta, and I used a spinach/arugula blend instead of spring mix. Spring mix is lame. Honestly, it would be hard for this salad not to be a hit, when it features candied pecans, which may be the greatest snack to ever exist.

I’ve also been on the hunt for a good pumpkin cookie recipe, and I recently tried this one from A Cozy Kitchen. My boyfriend liked them, but I thought they too closely resembled the texture of Chips Ahoy Chewy cookies, which is not a positive thing in my book.

Jenni: I want to buy all the waffle knit items from the new Foundationals collection but I haven’t made the leap just yet. Despite being enticed by all the Black Friday sales (looking at you Set Active & Violette FR), right now I’m mostly focusing on buying holiday gifts for my friends and family, and in case any of them are reading this I’m going to keep those details under wraps.

Jess: I am obsessed with Abercrombie’s bodysuits and lucky for us they are running a 30% off sale for Black Friday. I bought this sweater bodysuit and this long-sleeve bodysuit. I also love their high-rise athletic shorts, and I now own them in 4 different colors.

Not on a Black Friday sale, I impulsively bought myself a Nintendo Switch (I know, I’m like 3 years late on this) and I can’t stop playing Overcooked. It’s an addictive co-op game where you have to work together to cook food and serve customers. It’s a fun activity to do with my boyfriend rather than just watching TV like always.