Happy Hanukkah!
It’s the fourth night of Hanukkah tonight!
My fourth night wishes for you: I hope you can see the world around you with optimism and move within it with practical determination to make it better a little bit each day.
It’s time for our fourth night giveaway!
For the fourth night of Hanukkah, we have a $50 gift card to The Ripped Bodice Bookstore in Culver City, CA. You could order signed books, swag, a Read Romance Repeat box – the options are endless.
We want to make sure you have enough to read in the coming year, so your warm and fuzzy fortress of contentment looks a little like this:
To enter, please comment and tell us what piece of media made you so very happy this year – a movie? TV show? Streaming series? Podcast? Tell us all about it!
Standard disclaimers apply: We are not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and ready to add about nineteen-billion-thousand shows and episodes to your watch or listen lists. May cause the desire to order in and eat dinner under a stack of blankets.
Comments will close 22 December 2022 at or near 11:59pm ET, and winner will be announced shortly afterward.
Good luck, Happy Hanukkah, and thank you for being part of Smart Bitches!
Winner update: Congratulations to Jcp!
The BBC radio now has a radio show of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising, done as a radio play. It’s AMAZING. The sound is immersive (they suggest using headphones for max enjoyment) and the acting is incredible. Loving it!
Books by Alexis Hall – I after read anything by them until this year, and I’ve now been racing through them!
I love snuggling in and watching the Great British Baking Show with my husband.
I’m so late to the game, but Ted Lasso gives me life!
I read Rachel Lynn Solomon’s See You Yesterday on an airplane while traveling for work (without kids! yay!). I found out that my new waterproof mascara WAS waterproof. It was such a squee. I read it to review for the Association of Jewish Libraries and it was a lovely, lovely book. It made me so happy. But I was also without my kids on a work trip so that made me happy too 🙂
It makes me happy to watch the dog show that is on television after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Though I usually don’t actually see a lot of it, since I’m running around cooking.
A friend recommended Band Sinister by KJ Charles early this year, which led me to the rest of her work, and then I found Allie Therin, and Jordan L Hawk, and I’ve just read so many books I loved so much this year.
What piece of media made me so very happy this year? The new TV Series “Magpie Murders.” What a complex mystery, what a fascinating series of murders. I’ve watched it twice and I still want to read the book, by the light of my Hannukah candles, of course.
Bridgerton Season 2
I’m so excited for Season 3; it is my favorite in the series.
I binge watched The Great Pottery Throwdown on HBO Max earlier this year, and wish I had an easy way to watch the new season. GBBO-inspired, but with a greater chance of breakage.
The Sandman adaptation as well as Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
Heartstopper on Netflix and You’re Dead to Me (BBC podcast) both brought so much joy this year <3
I don’t consume visual media. Andrew Bird’s “I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain” video stretched the limits of my attention span.
Currently loving The Big Brunch! Dan Levy is a Canadian treasure.
I began listening to the Slate’s Hit Parade. It is really great about getting you to think deeply about something that is just interesting and is not life and death. Chris Monlanthy is the best!
Cobra Kai!!!! 80s goodness.
A surprise joy was “This Fool” on Hulu. It’s hilarious.
I am not much of a watcher/listener, but there is this great podcast that kindly provides a written transcript. It’s called Smart Podcast, Trashy Books.
I am really enjoying the Willow tv series on Disney+!
Apple TVs Spirited movie is delightful! The nods to the 1970 musical Scrooge and lovely Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell made it so fun!
I’m enjoying the podcast “Live From Pemberley,” where Vanessa Zoltan and Lauren Sandler talk Pride and Prejudice chapter by chapter and bring in experts to talk about things like “does Mrs. Bennet have an anxiety disorder?” and “would Mr. Collins switching allegiance from Lizzy to Charlotte so fast have been scandalous even at the time?”
Started with season one, episode one of THE MIDDLE on HBO Max. We call it our happy show because we smile like idiots for 20 minutes before going to bed.
I loved Thor:love and Thunder. First, Chris Hemsworth, almost naked. I mean seriously, that’s a happy thing right there. But beyond that, there was a nurturing theme that was a perfect counterbalance to the usual Marvel stuck and drang which, don’t get me wrong, I also love because who doesn’t have a few things they’d like to blow up these days. And finally, because I saw it with my grandson, which is pretty cool, not to mention the serious discussion we had about it afterwards.
I rewatched Sex and the City this year, which I enjoyed again. I also love cooking competition shows, and I like most, enjoyed the GBBS, but I also like Halloween/Holiday Wars and Holiday Baking Championship on Food Network. For any knitters, VeryPinkKnits is one of my favorites.
The return of Quantum Leap! The original series was a big favorite so I was skeptical, but the sequel series (NOT a reboot!) has a wonderfully diverse cast, delightful characters, TWO overarching mysteries, and tied back into the original series perfectly, with all the humor and heart of the original too. So glad it’s been picked up for a second season!
A Court of Fae and Flowers on Dropout. It’s the most amazing D&D campaign, set in a Brigerton-esque Faewild. It features an unexpected romance with the most delicious pining.
‘Derry Girls’ brought a lot of laughter into my life this year. And ‘Bridgerton’ Season Two was chef’s kiss good.
Leverage Redemption
Our Flag Means Death was fantastic.
Apple+ was my go-to this year: Ted Lasso, Bad Sisters, and Mythic Quest.
My spouse and I enjoyed watching My Lottery Dream Home, where people buy a house after winning the lottery, and Bargain Block, which has an M/M couple fixing up and selling really run down houses in Detroit.
Overdrive (romance ebooks), Hoopla (romance audiobooks), and Freegal (streaming music) through the public library!
Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Hsu in EEAO!
loved the new novel The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Kore;\litz. Where else will you find the story of a thoroughly dysfunctional family that includes triplets conceived via in vitro fertilization?
Bosch never disappoints and I am waiting impatiently for Netflix to release the movie version of Matilda the Musical on Sunday
Streamed the Wednesday show on Netflix as well as enjoyed the Food Networks Beat Bobby Flay series.
Bluey. I love when kids shows work on many levels. Funny and heartwarming.
Nailed It on Netflix continues to be such a great watch. The show is always so joyful and the baking is hilariously bad. Excellent for when I’m in a tv watching slump.
I read the entire Walsh family series by Kate Canterbary earlier this year and am now listening to the series on audiobook. Really enjoyable and new layers are revealed with each re-read.
Plus the audiobook for Thanks for Listening by Julia Whelan which I also listened to twice this year and loved.
And Glitterland by Alexis Hall, which I read and then listened to twice this year and just adore.
And the Check, Please graphic novels which I read twice this year, and makes me so very happy. A lot to love!!
REBOOT (Hulu) had me howling with laughter. Key + Bloom + Reiser + Greer + Knoxville is a pretty phenomenal combination of funny.
Watching BAD SISTERS (Apple), I alternated among being on the edge of my seat, laughing my a** off, and shaking my fist at the brother-in-law from hell. It was a wild ride.
I also echo recs for Mythic Quest, Derry Girls, and Magpie Murders.