Book Mail Monday 10/31/2022

Happy Monday, book friends! And a very happy Halloween and a blessed Samhain to those who celebrate! It’s also the final day of Blogtober, so all around a day of celebration.

This week, I must confess I have once again brought another book into our home. And not just any book–a cookbook. You see, I happened upon the fact that there is an Unoffocial Sims Cookbook featuring recipes from the game, and I simply couldn’t not immediately buy it.

An image of a hand holding up a an orange and blue book titled The Unofficial Sims Cookbook while her dog stares at her judgementally

One of my favorite things about playing the Sims is exploring all of the different recipes that a Sim can learn as they level up in Cooking, Gourmet Cooking, and Baking skill. A lot of them are fairly standard recipes, like chef’s salad, waffles, or butter chicken. However, there are also mood-based foods like the Silly Gummy Bear Pancakes.

I confess I can’t say for sure that this will become a heavily-referenced recipe collection in our house, but I am going to enjoy the possibilities of it. Just flipping through, I can see that each recipe references the game (or game pack) it’s from, plus a little blurb about the recipe, full of Sims lore references. The photos are also stylized in a fun way that has me going, wait, is this real food or video game food?

The Unofficial Sims Cookbook came out this year, which means it’s relatively up-to-date with all of your favorite Sims recipes. Including those silly gummy bear pancakes, which I can’t quite decide whether I actually want to eat. The author is apparently also the creator of the website Ultimate Sims Guides, which I am confident I’ve probably used on many a Google search to learn how to do a thing in the game. Needless to say, I think we can trust that she knows her Sims stuff.

I’d be remiss not to mention that this is a timely book mail Monday topic, since one of my all-time favorite Halloween costumes has got to be the year that I dressed as a Sim. It was such an easy costume, just normal clothes with a little plumbob headband that I made.

Amanda wears a black and white flannel and t-shirt, with a Sims plumbob headband on her head. She is smiling in absolute delight that she manaed to craft this thing.
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The Best Books I Read in October 2022

How is October already coming to an end? This month was full of travel with my best friend getting married and my half marathon back home. On top of that, I decided to participate in Blogtober again this year (one blog post a day for 31 days). 

Blogtober is always a lot of fun, but it’s a huge time commitment between writing a post each day and engaging with other people’s posts as well. I love discovering new blogs and making new friends, but it definitely took time away from other aspects of my typical morning routine. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this has been a bit of a reading slump month with everything that’s been going on. But that doesn’t meant I didn’t get at least a little bit of reading done. Thank goodness for audiobooks! 

In total, I read four books this month. Only one of them was from my witchy TBR, sadly, but I’m hoping to get through The Kiss Curse before the clock strikes midnight on Halloween, so that’ll be at least two. Let’s take a look at which books were the best reads for me this month. 

(Full disclosure: This post uses Bookshop.org affiliate links. Books marked with a an asterisk were received as complimentary review copies.)


Lucy on the Wild Side by Kerry Rea

Format Read: Audiobook

Why I Read It: Set in Ohio? At a zoo? Count me in. 

I’ll admit that I went in to Lucy on the Wild Side with lukewarm expectations. But I ended up absolutely loving it! I got so invested in Lucy’s desire to get promoted and was really rooting for her even when I didn’t agree with her choices. 

My full review went up earlier this week: Mini Review: Lucy on the Wild Side


Something Wilder by Christina Lauren

Format Read: Audiobook

Why I Read It: I’ve enjoyed some of their previous books and the adventure plot sounded road-trip perfect

Something Wilder was not at all what I expected. I’ve read a few Christina Lauren books before, and it feels like each one brings something different to the table. This one is really a wild ride of an adventure story, with a love story tossed in because why not? 

I wrote a full review earlier this month, which you can check out here: “Something Wilder” is a Wild Adventure I Didn’t Expect


Honorable Mentions

  • Lucy Checks In* by Dee Ernst was great from the start, but just too slow through the middle and too abrupt at the end for me to really love it. Full review here
  • From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper was a lot of fun to read, but felt a bit unfinished and had some details that didn’t quite bear up under scrutiny. Mini review here

October didn’t wind up as witchy as I’d hoped, but it’s okay. There are months when other things take the forefront over reading. Plus, now I’ve got some great witchy reads to look forward to! 

I hope you’ve had a great reading month as well, and I’d love to hear about your best reads of the month.


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