25. Our End of Year Episode: The Good, The Great, and the Even Greater!

For the last episode of 2022, Kayla and Taylor discuss their favorite reads of the year - podcast books and non-pod books! They also share their reading goals for 2023, reflect on this year’s episodes, and more!

This week’s drink: Blood Orange Champagne Mule via Half Baked Harvest

INGREDIENTS:

• Juice of ½ medium blood orange

• Juice of ½ lime

• 1 oz vodka

• Mint leaves

• 2 oz chilled ginger beer

• Chilled champagne for topping

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a glass, combine the blood orange juice, lime juice and vodka. Add the ginger beer and top with the champagne. Garnish with blood orange slices and fresh mint.

Books discussed in this episode:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

• Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

• The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

• Verity by Colleen Hoover

• A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum

• The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

• Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

• Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

• Carol by Patricia Highsmith

• The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin

• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

• When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill

• Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

• Into Every Generation a Slayer is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts by Evan Ross Katz

• Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin

• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Book Lovers by Emily Henry

• The Secret History by Donna Tartt

• Bait and Witch by Angela M. Sanders

• My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff

• I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins

• Out There: Stories by Kate Volk

• Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home With Books by Nina Freudenberger and Sadie Stein

• Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

• One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large by Chris La Tray

• The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Kayla’s song lyrics (to the tune of “New Year’s Day” by Taylor Swift):

There’s pages on the floor after the party

Girls carrying their tote bags in the lobby

Chapter books and bookmarks on the hardwood floor

We read so much the night before but

Don’t read the last page

Cuz I heard

That the ending is bad so just give it away

I want your midnights

But I’ll be cozying up readin’ with you on New Year’s Day

Hold on to the romances they will hold onto you

Hold on to the thrillers they will hold onto you

Hold on to the classics they will hold onto you

And they will hold on to you

Follow us on Instagram @literatureandlibationspod.

Visit our website: literatureandlibationspod.com to submit feedback, questions, or your own takes on what we are reading. You can also see what we are reading for future episodes! You can email us at literatureandlibationspod@gmail.com.

Please leave us a review and/or rating! It really helps others find our podcast…and it makes us happy!

Purchase books via bookshop.org or check them out from your local public library. 

Join us next year as we dive into more great books and delicious cocktails! Keep an eye on our Instagram and website for upcoming titles and drinks.

First up in January:

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff