The Astute Macaron

Join me for my very first discussion episode! Yes I did forget to introduce myself! Wow. My name is Misty, and I am joined by the awesome Bridget and Wyatt to discuss the tragedy of Emmett Till and his place in U.S. History. We also discuss To Kill A Mockingbird again, but this time with more nuance.

Some of our digressions include:

• Leonardo DiCaprio's Nipple
• Ghandi
• White people being white
• Turkey

Bonus, you can get a teaser of Bridget & Wyatt's upcoming podcast, Wyatt Explains Shit To Bridget. It's very funny, and I learned a lot!

Recipe this week: The Best Pumpkin Muffins with a cream cheese lemon frosting.

Recommendations:

• The Hate U Give
• 12 Angry Men
• Hunger

For more research, check out these links:
Emmett Till - History Channel
Emmett Till - Biography.com
The Antilynching Act
The Non-White Juror

Music: Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Support the show

I'm back! And this time I'm gonna talk about BUGS! SO MUCH! SO much more than I ever wanted to talk about bugs.

I also tried some new segments! And forgot some old ones, oops. Hey, this is all a process, right?

Dig deep with your bug self and then make some Pineapple Chicken Bowls as you listen to me be super grossed out by this week's read.

My new artwork is by the fabulous @jazzicuh. Follow her on Instagram!

Music: Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Support the show

Hey everyone! 

This is just a super short announcement pod about some changes in format and release schedule. I'm still reading classics and still baking, but I'll be doing it every two weeks going forward, and shows will generally be longer than they have been.

Thank you so much for all the support so far!

See you in two weeks!

Support the show

Wow, I really liked this book! But also i think teaching it in schools is hecka problematic! Let's discuss!

I made a cherry cobbler, from the recipe on this 70 year old index card, oh my god. Loved it, so good. I think I'm going to go eat some more right now, actually.

The wind is attacking my podcast, and I do apologize. I tried recording in 4 different spots around the house and this was the best audio quality I could get.

Recommendation:
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Music: Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Support the show

Oh boy, this one was a doozy. Lots of politics, lots of learning about the joys of living through a young lady's naughty bits. Yep, that really happens, and yep, I really read some of it out loud on my podcast. This is getting weirder and weirder....

Sorry about all the planes flying overhead. Idk maybe it was Big Brother. 

I made hot chocolate! Fancy hot chocolate. Recipe was 1 part heavy cream, 3 parts whole milk, a few tablespoons of powdered sugar, and a handful of dark chocolate bits. 

Recommendations:

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• And Then We Grew Up by Rachel Friedman

Music: Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Support the show

I read a book that is very confusingly a prequel to a book that someone else wrote a hundred years prior! What? Yeah, that's how I felt.

Luckily it was short, because it was super racist. Very uncomfortable. I didn't read much out of this one because there were very few pages that weren't deeply offensive.

For a smarter literary analysis, check out this article from the British Library.

My bake was amazing! I followed this recipe pretty much to the letter, except for baking time. So delicious.

Recommendations:

• Wicked by Gregory Maguire
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Jane Eyre - I GUESS?!? 

Music: Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Support the show

Listen to me mix up the main character name - He's Newland Archer, or Newland, or Archer, depending on the sentence. Sorry. Also I really hate The Great Gatsby. Like, really really.

I modified this cheesecake recipe - I used mango instead of peaches, and lemon lime soda instead of prosecco. 

Recommendations: 

• Not Great Gatsby!!!
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
• The Gossip Girls series

Music: Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Support the show

In this episode I get to experience the crushing weight of terrible humanity - in Japanese! Okay, not actually in Japanese, I read a translation.

This one is short because Rashomon is a short story! Yay, I needed that after last week's insanity. Also I am super sick and it's really noticeable. Hey, at least you can't catch a cold over the internet, right?

My recipe was literally just made up. I poured some match in some milk and added sugar until it tasted nice. 

Recommendations:

• Murakami's top ten: Natsume Soseki, Mori Ogai, Shimazaki Toson, Shiga Naoya, Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Kawabata Yasunari, Dazai Osamu, Mishima Yukio, and ???
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (with caveats)
• Geisha: a Life by Mineko Iwasaki
• Geisha by Liza Dalby

Music: Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Support the show

Join me as I read through this retelling of the Arthurian legends from Morgaine's perspective! This book is so long that I had to split up the episode... and it took me 40 minutes to get through 300 pages of it. Oh boy.

I also had my first successful bake! Rejoice! I modified this cake recipe. 

Sorry about the random music during my second dramatic reading - I didn't know anyone else was home, much less watching TV in the other room. I would have rerecorded the segment, but my throat is swelling up in protest.

Recommendations:

• Once and Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy
• Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• Daughter of the Forest and Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier

Music: Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Support the show

Join me as I read through the Christmas classic by Charles Dickens and utterly destroy a yule log.

I modified this cake recipe and utterly failed to make this frosting. It tasted like Christmas, and looked like my three year old made it.

This episode is short, because the book is short! And I wanted to get it out before the actual holiday. Take a break from your crazy family for 20 minutes and listen to me rag on Scrooge.

Humbug!

Recommendations:

• The Muppet's Christmas Carol
• The Hallmark Channel

Music: Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Support the show