What We're Reading, Listening to, and Watching This Week (12/18/2025)
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Good Hair Days by Grace Helena Walz. Described as a modern twist on Steel Magnolias with a little extra Dolly Parton flair, this Atlanta-based novel delivers on family drama, love, forgiveness, and the importance of good hair (as in, well-maintained and styled with oodles of product). Good Hair Days is very moving and underscores, yet again, the importance of not taking life for granted.
Listening: Enjoying quiet to balance the busyness of this time of year personally and professionally. The hum of an aromatherapy diffuser, bird calls outside the office window, and occasional dips into instrumental stations on Pandora are my background sounds.
Watching: Loved the newest Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man. The philosophical and spiritual conversations between the priest and detective are the kinds of conversations I live for. They revolve around storytelling and how stories, whether of divine origin or created in our imaginations, explain our humanity, our struggles and hopes.
Candice Huber / Membership:
Reading: Still finishing Oathbound by Tracy Deonn and Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree.
Listening: The silence of winter and snow falling, which is really peaceful.
Watching: All the holiday romcoms and movies still, but also Dexter Resurrection because I have to stay spooky. It's really bringing me back to the good years of the original Dexter, and I'm enjoying it immensely!
Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy. Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys. And Mom and I are both spending a lot of time trying to decipher my grandmother's handwriting on all the cards in her recipe box. It is a little disconcerting when you can't tell if a word is "fig puree" or "bourbon."
Listening:. Revisiting more old Slighly Foxed podcasts. Anything that comes under the heading of "rural living."
Watching: The television has mostly been off, except for the Bills game on Sunday afternoons. Those have been kind of crazy.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: My copy of Good Morning, Midnight (Jean Rhys, for book club) arrives today and I can't wait to start.
Listening: The unabridged audiobook of Dorothy L. Sayers's Gaudy Night, which I have read so many times over the years, I nearly have it memorized.
Watching: One of my very, very favorite holiday movies: The Shop Around the Corner. It's unbelievably charming, bittersweet, funny, witty, and set so perfectly it will somehow make someone in Raleigh, NC in 2025 nostalgic for Budapest in the 1930s.
Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: Anything holiday related! I loved Jean Meltzer's Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah (adorable second-chance romance) and am currently reading You Better Watch Out by James Murray and Darren Wearmouth (less adorable but still fun Christmas thriller).
Listening: I took a break from Showgirl for a few weeks but now I'm back and Father Figure is my current fave.
Watching: Like my SIBA coworkers, I also loved the new Knives Out movie! The whole cast is incredible, but Glenn Close just blew me away entirely.