And here we are in the merry month of May! The birds are chirping, the grass (ugh) is green again, the invasive garlic mustard is ev-ery-WHERE and needs to be dug up, and, of course, there are books to read! Hopefully your reading is going as swimmingly as mine has been lately.

April was a strange month, full of unexpected twists and turns for me, but ending pretty calmly. My computer is back and running, fortunately; I’m also taking on a bigger role at one of my volunteer gigs and am doing some extensive prep for that in order to ensure that I do the position and our clients justice. Temps have risen here, so I’ve been able to spend time outside, both in my own yard and neighborhood and at the garden where I volunteer (tis the season where I begin to come home absolutely filthy every time, which, honestly, is pretty awesome). But more about real life later on. 

Let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in April 2024

The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People & Communities by Will Allen and Charles Wilson

2. Ten Rules for Living with My Sister by Ann M. Martin (read out loud to my daughter)

3. The Woman in the Dark by Vanessa Savage

4. How to Make Friends with the Dark by Vanessa Glasgow

5. Housewife: Why Women Still Do It All and What to Do Instead by Lisa Selin Davis

6. Koya DeLaney and the Good Girl Blues by Eloise Greenfield (read out loud to my daughter)

7. The Aliens Among Us: How Invasive Species Are Transforming the Planet – and Ourselves by Leslie Anthony

8. American Girls: by Jessica Roy

9. Tiny House Basics: Living the Good Life in Small Spaces by Joshua Engberg and Shelley Engberg

10. How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls by Zoey Dean

11. The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

12. If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann

13. Double Felix by Sally Harris (read out loud to my daughter)

14. Missing Max by Karen Young

15. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman

16. The View from Alameda Island by Robyn Carr

 17. One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School by Scott Turow

Not a bad month, considering. I’ve been doing my best to stick to reading from my own shelves as much as I can, which has been interesting. Some of the books on there I picked out, others were given to me, some I won randomly, some I have zero clue where they came from, so it’s been kind of a crapshoot in terms of reading things I enjoy, but it’s definitely been keeping me on my toes. How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls ended up being a really great lighthearted chick-lit-style novel; I would definitely read Zoey Dean again. And oh, Fredrik Backman! I have loved everything I’ve ever read from him; he’s a master storyteller and I hope he never stops writing. I’d never read Robyn Carr before The View from Alameda Island; what I ended up liking about this book was how low-stakes it felt. Even when she was writing about something traumatic happening, she writes with so little urgency (which I very much enjoy!) that I didn’t feel that edge-of-my-seat panic that I sometimes do when bad things happen to characters. It was just chill all around, and while this wasn’t my favorite book of all time, it was a lovely read and actually kind of exactly what I needed at the time, so I can definitely see myself reading her again as well.

NUMBER of books total; 12 fiction, 5 nonfiction. TWELVE of these came from my own shelves! There’s a huge gap on my shelf across from my chair downstairs, which I LOVE. I’ll eventually refill this with books from my stash upstairs, but not until it’s much emptier. And eight of these books have been donated to local Little Free Libraries. : )

State of the Goodreads TBR

Five last month; six this month. I’m actually reading one from the list right now. I added one that comes out at the end of this month. I did peek around at a local library for some of the books from my TBR, but they weren’t in the day I was there. This won’t get much larger, I swear!

Bookish Things I Did in April 2024

Hmm…I don’t think I did anything in particular? Does donating to Little Free Libraries count?

Current Podcast Love

When my computer went down, I was so worried about my unfinished manuscript being trapped in a bricked computer forever that I couldn’t bear to listen to anything book-related, and instead switched over to listening to Dateline as a podcast, which…There’s just something about the narration of Keith Morrison and company that puts me almost straight to sleep…and for the times when I can’t sleep, the content is super interesting, so it’s a win-win all around.

I’m still listening to Teach Me About the Great Lakes when I do my volunteer work and sometimes walk (although I’m kind of starting to get obsessed with bluegrass music and have been enjoying that a lot when I walk alone; it’s so happy and upbeat, which is a good thing for being physically active!), so that’s fun! 

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

Oof. No move on this front. It’s been a really busy month. Passover this month meant a TON of cooking and time in the kitchen, so some relaxation and study time was definitely sacrificed, but it was all for the greater good. : )

Real Life Stuff

April went by in a flash, y’all. I cannot believe it’s already May.

We just finished Passover last night, so bring on all the leavened grains once more! I ended Passover by enjoying a slice of homemade bread with pickled garlic mustard (yes, that noxious invasive weed!), made by one of the leaders at the garden where I volunteer, and it was AMAZING. Passover was really meaningful to me this year, and the dietary restrictions weren’t that tough, mainly because I’ve had a lot of other things on my mind. Hopefully I’ll have some good updates in a few months, but we’ll see what happens. : )

The school year is almost over! My youngest daughter has approximately 17 school days left until fourth grade is over. Her first year back to in-person public school hasn’t been without its ups and downs, but sending her back was definitely the right choice (even though I’ve absolutely missed homeschooling here and there, and there have been times, including last week, when she was begging to be homeschooled again). I’m grateful for all her growth this year, both academic and emotional, and am hopeful for the growth that fifth grade – her last year in elementary school! – will bring. I’m also VERY MUCH looking forward to summer break!

I’ve taken on more work at the virtual nonprofit where I volunteer, so I’m going through some back stuff for them so that I’ll be better prepared, and it’s intense, but the people I’m serving deserve no less than my best. New roles can be intimidating, can’t they? This is definitely a period of growth in my life, and I’m trying to lean into it and not be bowled over by self-doubt. 

That’s really about it! Despite it being a really busy month, it was also fairly quiet in general, nothing huge and showy. May is somewhat shaping up to be like that as well, so we’ll see. I *will* be back soon with a review of a NetGalley book I’m reading now, so keep your eyes peeled for that one. It’s incredible so far.

Wishing you a lovely spring, with flower-scented air, soft breezes, gentle rains, and sunshine that feels like a hug when you need it. And, of course, amazing books. Be well, friends. 

Holy moley, can you believe it’s April already? I’m not fooling! We’re one month closer to SUMMER! \o/

March went by so quickly! Not a bad thing, in my opinion. Spring has always been my least favorite time of year, but this year hasn’t been so bad in terms of depression and feeling like I just want the season to pass so we can get to summer. I think my having learned to enjoy the seasons for what they are and getting outside no matter what the weather has really helped, as has my time at the garden where I volunteer. We’ve tromped out in the snow to cut down buckthorn and haul the wood back to the fire, so I’ve learned exactly what I need to wear in order to be comfortable at every temperature range. So, to sum it up: spring this year has been okay for me so far!

What it has NOT been this year has been full of reading! I’ve been SO busy getting other stuff done around the house that reading has kind of fallen to the wayside, but I think we all know that life is just like that sometimes. : )

Anyway, let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in March 2024

1. Conquering Fear: Living Boldly in an Uncertain World by Harold S Kushner

2. Transitions by Elodie Durand

3. Everyday Sisu: Tapping Into Finnish Fortitude for a Happier, More Resilient Life by Katja Pantzar

4. Taken at Birth: Stolen Babies, Hidden Lives, and My Journey to Finding Home by Jane Blasio

5. Not So Shy by Noa Nimrodi (read out loud to my daughter)

6. Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World’s Worst Diseases by Lydia Kang

7. Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson

8. No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder

9. Ungifted by Gordon Korman (read out loud to my daughter)

10. The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon

11. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan

12. A 1000 Mile Great Lakes Walk by Loreen Niewenhuis

13. Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell

14. Epic Homesteading: Your Guide to Self-Sufficiency on a Modern, High-Tech Backyard Homestead by Kevin Espiritu

15. Discover Nature Around the House by Elizabeth P Lawlor

16. Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

This is my slowest month of reading in a LONG time (I finished the four books in the last two days), but I’ve spent a lot of time doing stuff other than reading. Craft stuff, stuff around the house, doomscrolling the internet, taking walks, attending garden meetings and garden work days, having fun with my youngest daughter on spring break, stuff like that. It’s been a busy month, so reading took a bit of a backseat. That’s okay, though; I made up for it in terms of quality!

Patient Zero was gross and fascinating; Relinquished was incredible, heartbreaking, just as good as The Girls Who Went Away and so relevant right now. No Visible Bruises was just a gut-punch of a book and one I think should be read by every single person alive. The Exvangelicals was also incredible; if you or someone you love has been through or are going through the process of deconstruction, this is the book you need, because it’ll help you understand so much. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes was one I’ve wanted to read for a long time, and I’m so, so glad I did, even though it hurt my heart in so many places to read how much humanity has harmed the lakes (there were sections that I had to put the book down and doomscroll the internet, because the ecological devastation was just so painful to read about). And I LOVE Loreen Niewenhuis’s books and am so, so very jealous of all her adventures; A 1000 Mile Great Lakes Walk was so much fun to read!

Seriously, a great month in terms of the quality of stuff I read. So many five star reads!

Sixteen books this month; thirteen nonfiction, three fiction. Five of these books came from my own bookshelves (hopefully more next month!). 

State of the Goodreads TBR

Keeping this low, still. We’re at 6. My youngest daughter and I are reading through one; I’m on a waitlist for another; a third doesn’t come out until August. The other three are new; they’re available at local libraries (well, they EXIST at local libraries; whether or not they’re currently on the shelves is up in the air); I just haven’t made it over there yet. 

BUT.

I sat and did some thinking about what I want my reading to look like in the future this month. I made a few trips to wander the library and pick out what I felt like reading that looked good on the shelves, and while that was fun, I also felt a little unmoored. Once I was at home, I sat with that feeling for a bit and then asked myself if there was something I wanted to read about that I’d been putting off the past few years while I tackled my TBR, and another trip to the library answered that question for me.

I want to read more about nature.

I want to learn more about plants, animals, trees, gardening, and nature in general. I also want to learn more about the Great Lakes (more on this later), since I live in a Great Lakes state. I want to have the kinds of knowledge and skills that the people I volunteer garden with have, and I’m fortunate to be surrounded by libraries that are full of great nature book collections. So that’s why I picked up The Death and Life of the Great Lakes when I did, and why I ordered A 1000 Mile Great Lakes Walk via interlibrary loan, and grabbed Epic Homesteading from the New Books shelf at the library. Expect more nature books in the near future!

Bookish Things I Did in March 2024

My younger daughter and I went to a library $10-per-bag book sale; she filled up most of the bag, but following my want-to-read-more-about-nature theme, I came home with these!

I also grabbed a history book for my daughter from a Little Free Library. We’ll read a little bit of that every day when we finish the food book we’re reading now. : )

Current Podcast Love

Still listening to Smart Bitches, Trashy Podcast at night while I fall asleep/wake up in the middle of the night, but when I do volunteer work and walk, I’ve been listening to Teach Me About the Great Lakes, which I’ve REALLY been enjoying! The premise of the podcast is that the host, who is from Louisiana but now lives in Indiana, interviews experts in their fields whose work involves some aspect of the Great Lakes. It’s fascinating! I’m learning so much, and some of it ties directly into what I’ve read so far about the lakes. I’m one thousand percent nerding out over this podcast and loving it so much!

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

On Chapter 18 of Norsk, Nordmenn og Norge; it’s been a slow month for learning Norwegian and my brain hasn’t been cooperating on that front. Maybe I’ll start up reading a bit of something harder in the summer…

Real Life Stuff

Busy, busy month!

Spring break was just absolutely lovely. My younger daughter is going back to school tomorrow, and I don’t want her to, we’ve had so much fun! (Can you believe I’m actually missing homeschooling her right now? Fortunately we’re only about eight weeks out from the end of the school year!)

My time at the garden where I volunteer has started to transition from our work rewilding the woods to getting the main garden ready for planting. I’ve really enjoyed helping with the rewilding, so that’s something I’ll keep up with doing next year. I’ve learned a *ton* about identifying trees and plants and how to use various tools, and I think all of this has helped with strengthening my back as well. This past Saturday, I weeded an entire garden bed that was right along our constructed spillway, which was awesome and also meant that I came home absolutely covered in mud. It felt good. : )

Younger daughter came down with her major illness (besides our bout of COVID last year) since kindergarten. Poor kid, she was miserable, coughing constantly and her ears were bothering her. I took her to the doctor after it was clear she wasn’t getting better on her own, and she ended up needing a round of antibiotics to clear up the sinusitis that had filled her ears with fluid. No fun!

I did a bunch of knitting this month; nothing super fancy, just pockets for all my cardigans that didn’t come with pockets. I’ve got four more pockets to sew onto two other cardigans, and then this will be complete! It’s SO satisfying to be able to slip my cell phone into a pocket of a cardigan that didn’t previously have pockets. TAKE THAT, STUPID FASHION MANUFACTURERS! I CAN MAKE MY OWN POCKETS!!!!!!!!!!

The month ended on a shitty note. My computer died last night, and the resident fixer has…issues…with needs that are not their own, on their exact schedule, so I took four hours this morning to reboot an old computer so I could do my volunteer work on there and then post this. Do I want to do this every day? Absolutely not, especially since the keys have a habit of double and sometimes triple typing letters, which ends up making my hand hurt with all the backspacing I need to do. So I may just be going techless for a while. Who knows.

That’s about it! My younger daughter turns ten in April; Passover is coming (so I need to start menu planning like RIGHTNOW); the seeds I’ve started will likely take over the kitchen this month (wish me luck there, haha!). I’m looking forward to it all.

Wishing you a beautiful April with plenty of great reading, great weather, and lots of peace and happiness. See you next month…maybe.

Moving on! It’s March already, can you believe it? Summer and the long days of reading on the porch are coming!

It’s been a quiet month here, a little bit depressing on and off, but I’m keeping on keeping on, doing what I can to combat it, and that’s all I can do, you know? This time of year has traditionally been kind of crummy for me, what with the weather always being so weird. But thanks to climate change and El Nino, we’ve got some warmer days coming up, so…Not that I love what’s happening to our planet, but I’m definitely going to try to help my mental health by taking advantage of the weather and getting outside a little more. That always helps. : )

Let’s get this roundup started, shall we?

Books I Read in February 2024

1. The Kindness Diaries by Leon Logothetis

2. Old Fashioned On Purpose by Jill Winger

3. Runaway Amish Girl by Emma Gingerich

4. The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right Wing by Tina Nguyen

5. We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian

6. This Will Be Funny Someday by Katie Henry

7. Remix Judaism by Roberta Rosenthan Kwall

8. Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust’s Long Reach into Arab Lands by Robert Satloff

9. Occulted by Amy Rose

10. Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

11. The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

12. The Woman They Wanted by Shannon Harris

13. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

14. Something Wilder by Christina Lauren

15. Brief Histories of Everyday Objects by Andy Warner

16. Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

17. Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing by Olga Mecking

18. Getting Me Cheap: How Low-Wage Work Traps Women and Girls in Poverty by Amanda Freeman and Lisa Dodson

19. Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder by Jo Nesbø

And here I thought I hadn’t actually read that much this month! That’s pretty funny.

It’s been an interesting month of reading. My TBR, which I’ll talk about more down below, is almost non-existent at this point, and so I’ve had two or three trips to the library where I’ve just wandered and picked out stuff that looks good. It’s liberating, but also a little scary! Will I like this new stuff? Will I be bored and put everything down ten pages in? NO IDEA!!! (I did have one book that, 40 pages in, I decided, nope, not the book for me, and put it in the return pile for the library.) I almost don’t know what to do with myself there!

Some great reads this month, though. We Were Once a Family and Getting Me Cheap are both damning accounts of everything wrong with American society. This Will Be Funny Someday had me laughing out loud; Katie Henry is a perpetual favorite of mine and this book was great. And Prairie Fires is something I’ve wanted to read since it came out; it wasn’t on my TBR, but I grabbed it on my first ‘wander’ trip to the library and absolutely blew through it and loved every single page. Man, Laura and Rose just kind of sucked in a lot of ways…

19 books this month; six fiction, thirteen nonfiction (one of these was graphic nonfiction!). Seven of these books came from my TBR; four of them came from my own shelves.

State of the Goodreads TBR

Here we are, folks. Last month, we left off at nine. I added one book to my TBR this month (Hana Khan Carries On, then I immediately requested it from the library BECAUSE I CAN DO THAT NOW!! It came in like two days later, haha), and now, I’m down to…

3.

Three books.

Y’all, I did it! I’m considering this pretty much conquered at this point. Because one of those books (Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill), I ordered used from Amazon, it arrived, and my daughter and I are going through it – one entry and one piece of classical music per day. One book, I’m on the waiting list for at the library (last time I looked, I was #8 out of 9), and the other book doesn’t come out until August.

When I started tackling my TBR in, I think, 2015 or 2016, it was up to 332 books. I read it down to 78, and then the pandemic hit, and it ballooned back up to 200-something. And now, it’s a low number, and I won’t ever let it get that high again.

The plan now is to free-read from the library AND read down some of the books from my own shelves. The Kindness Diaries has already found a new home in a Little Free Library a few blocks away (the Katie Henry book stays because it’s autographed!). As I read some of the books I own, a good portion of them will move on to new homes and I’ll be able to make some room on my shelves.

This feels good. : )

Books I Acquired in February 2024

I did get that copy of Year of Wonder by Clemency Burton-Hill; we’ve been really enjoying listening to a short piece of classical music in the mornings, so if that’s something you’re interested in, I can’t recommend this book enough!

I also came across a copy of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan in a Little Free Library near me, which thrilled me, because I’ve been wanting to read this for some time. A friend of mine says it’s a pretty depressing read, so I’m working up the courage to get to it soon!

I think that’s it, though!

Bookish Things I Did in February 2024

Nothing that I can think of, other than dropping off a few books (and bringing one home) at some Little Free Libraries.

Current Podcast Love

I’ve been listening to some back episodes of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books as I fall asleep, and that’s been fun to catch up on! That’s where I learned about Hana Khan Carries On, and I put it on my TBR and requested it in the morning. Super fun to be able to do that! 

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

Hmm. I don’t really have anything going here, other than continuing to work through my Norwegian book, Norsk, Nordmenn, og Norge. (Chapter 17 now! Woot!) Eventually I’ll start working my way through something else; I still have (UGH) that half-read copy of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road to finish…

Real Life Stuff

What a month.

Older kid ended up with a positive COVID test on Valentine’s Day – not the best gift! Fortunately, she isolated in her room and masked whenever she came out, and we got lucky, and no one else in the house got it. She only has a lingering cough, which isn’t a surprise, so fingers crossed that that’s all the side effects that round left behind. 

I’ve still been very active with my gardening group! I skipped one indoor meeting (I still mask indoors, but with my potential exposure, I didn’t feel right going to this and potentially exposing other folks), and as luck would have it, we didn’t have our Saturday work day on the week I would’ve skipped, so that worked out. But every other Saturday, I’ve been out there helping to cut down buckthorn and move the piles of trees and branches elsewhere. It’s an amazing workout, and we’ve opened up a lot of the area we’ve been working on to more sunlight, and that will in turn help the native plants thrive. Yay, rewilding! 

My cooking kick from having read Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken continues. I now have a sourdough starter! I’ll actually be making my first loaf of sourdough bread later on today, so wish me luck, haha. Never thought I would be this person. : )

That’s about it! Lots of reading, a little writing (I’m now at over 54,000 words, yay me!), a bunch of knitting (I designed, knitted, and stitched on pockets to a cardigan that lacked them, and now I’ve got two more for a different cardigan, and am working on the pockets for a third. Don’t let the patriarchy tell you you can’t have pockets, my friends; make your own). Doing my best to keep on keeping on, one foot in front of the other.

Be well, friends. Stay healthy, stay safe, and find some uplifting books to read. I’ve been trying to better balance the harder stuff I’m usually drawn to, and that’s been kind of nice. Hopefully you’re able to do the same. Happy reading!

I’m here! A day late again, but I made it!

Hello, hello, from the not-quite-as-cold beginning of February! Are you at least partially thawed out?

Phew, January was absolutely brutal in terms of cold! We had a snap here that was just days and days of temps in the single digits and even below zero a few times. Not gonna lie, that was rough. Being outside, even with a heavy down coat on, wool socks, boots, and two pairs of gloves, my fingers and toes started to burn and then go numb within minutes. If you live in a place where it’s like that for longer than a few weeks at a time, I bow down to your hardiness (and humbly beg you to teach me your ways, because I’m obviously doing this wrong). I usually enjoy the coziness of winter and being cuddled up with a few dozen blankets, but this year, I’ve felt a little stir crazy from time to time, not being able to get outside like I normally do. A walk this past weekend, in the balmy temperatures of the low 30’s, definitely helped!

I hope you’re doing well, staying safe and warm, and getting in some excellent reading for this start of the year. I’ve been pleased so far, and I’ve definitely had a little extra time to read, what with outside being canceled for a bit…

Anyway, let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in January 2024

1. Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones

2. Maximum Insecurity: A Doctor in the Supermax by William Wright

3. Raising Critical Thinkers by Julie Bogart

4. Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food by Chris Van Tulleken

5. Once We Were Home by Jennifer Rosner

6. Fred Rogers: The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Fred Rogers

7. Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future by Oliver Franklin-Wallis

8. The $150,000 Rugelach by Allison and Wayne Marks

9. For the Love of Cod: A Father and Son’s Search for Norwegian Happiness by Eric Dregni

10. Sins of the Father: The Long Shadow of a Religious Cult by Fleur Beale

11. Survive and Thrive: How to Prepare for Any Disaster Without Ammo, Camo, or Eating Your Neighbor by Bill Fulton and Jeanne Devon

12. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: A Visual History by Tim Lybarger and Jenna McGuiggan

13. The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman

14. Waiting for the Apocalypse: A Memoir of Faith and Family by Veronica Chater

15. All the Fighting Parts by Hannah V. Sawyerr

16. Making Home: Adapting Our Homes and Our Lives to Settle in Place by Sharon Astyk

17. Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream by Alissa Quart

18. Growing Sustainable Together by Shannon Drescher Shea

19. Perfectly Good Food: A Totally Achievable Zero Waste Approach to Home Cooking by Margaret Li and Irene Li

20. We Sinners by Hanna Pylväinen

21. If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say by Leila Sales

22. Mend!: A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto by Kate Sekules

Phew! That’s a lot of books. You might think I’ve done nothing but sit around and read, but I actually got a lot of other things done this month, too, so it’s just been a really productive month in general. Dreamland by Sam Quinones is an incredible look at the horror of the opioid epidemic, how it was foisted on Americans due to corporate greed, and the devastation it’s wrought on the US. For the Love of Cod was a perfect read for me these days; Eric Dregni took his son to visit family in Norway, and this is the delightful story of their visit. The Matchmaker’s Gift is an utterly charming novel of a Jewish grandmother and granddaughter and their matchmaking abilities; Waiting for the Apocalypse, about a traditional Catholic family who rejected the changes that came with Vatican II and the chaos that ensued in their family life afterwards, fascinated me. Bootstrapped, about all the ways America basically hates its people and refuses to care for them in the way a society should (and thus leaves it up to individuals to cope with the devastation that follows), both enraged me and made me feel a little better about how I’ve dealt with some of my own issues. 

But the book that affected me the most this month was, without a doubt, Ultra-Processed People. That book has entirely revamped the way I eat. I’m spending a little more time in the kitchen, but it’s worth it. This book truly, truly horrified me and made me take a good, hard look at what I’ve been putting into my body – and my diet was pretty clean (for what that word is worth) to begin with, but I’m a fairly obsessive label reader now. I’ve stopped eating store-bought bread. I’ve stopped eating store-bought cookies. I let some things slip by, but eesh, I don’t want a lot of the things the author talked about in my body, so… The good thing is, I’m eating better than ever in terms of both quality and taste, so, uh, yay for that? chomps on more kale

Six fiction, sixteen nonfiction. One came from my own shelves. EIGHTEEN were from my TBR!!! Speaking of which…

State of the Goodreads TBR

Oh my goodness, friends. Here we go!

Last month, we left off at 30. I think I ended up removing one or two books that just didn’t interest me any more, and then I read a whole bunch, and that leaves me at…

9!

9 books!!!!

So here’s how this is going to go. 

I have one on hold as an ebook. One, I’m reading right now. One is on hold via my library. One, I’m waiting for at a different library (but will put it on hold if it doesn’t come in soon). And three are on their way to me as interlibrary loan books. One doesn’t come out until later this year, and another will stay on my TBR because it’s something I eventually want to buy as a reference. 

And then that will be it!!! 

For far too long, my TBR has been far too big. I’d add something when it sparked my interest, but then I wouldn’t read it until ages later, maybe when the interest had petered out a bit. And I don’t want to do that anymore. If something interests me, I want to be able to read it NOW, and that’s what I plan on doing, along with reading all the amazing books I’ve stuffed my own shelves with over the years. And I was able to read a book from my own shelves this month (and finished another one yesterday and that one will be headed off to a new home in a Little Free Library soon!), and CAN YOU TELL HOW EXCITED I AM?????????

Never again will I allow my TBR to get so big.

Books I Acquired in January 2024

One really cold day, I was going a little stir-crazy in the house and poked at a local library’s website and discovered, to my delight, that they were having a book sale the next day! Not a huge stuff-everything-in-a-bag-for-$10 sale, but a sale nonetheless, so my daughter and I bundled up and headed over, and we came home with a few books! (The How Food Works came from Five Below; my younger daughter and I are really enjoying reading one set of pages each day and getting some interesting facts about food and the human body!)

Bookish Things I Did in January 2024

Besides a whooooooooooooole lot of reading and that book sale, I also attended a virtual book talk with Jennifer Rosner, author of Once We Were Home (which I also read this month), held by the Jewish Women’s Archive, who always do really great events. Hearing her perspectives on her novel and the research that went into was really interesting, and I deeply appreciate that there are still these virtual events out there!

Current Podcast Love

Doing my volunteer work and sometimes in the kitchen, I’m still making my way through Leaving Eden episodes, but at night, while I try to fall asleep, I’ve been listening to The Deck, a true crime podcast from the host of Crime Junkie. It’s all cold case files and unsolved mysteries, so there’s no resolution, but I really enjoy Ashley Flowers’s narration style, so this is a good one for me. 

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

Still working my way through Norsk, Nordmenn, og Norge; I’m up to Chapter 15 (out of 28, and then there are a bunch of additional readings and grammar bits in the back, so I’ll absolutely go through those as well). I’m taking my time and making sure I memorize vocabulary and grammar rules before I move on, plus I’m also occasionally watching episodes of Karl Johan (and memorizing that vocabulary!), and translating stuff like song lyrics and learning grammar rules of things I learn on the internet, so I’m in no big hurry on this one. The ultimate goal is to finish this book at some point during this year (and then I have the follow-up waiting for me after that!).

Real Life Stuff

What a cold, gross month this was! Kid #2 actually got…two days? I think? off from school. One was because of the snow and cold; the other was because the roads were just so horrifically icy until about noon that day that the district, thankfully, didn’t want anyone to take the chance of being out there. We snuggled at home and stayed warm inside. I realize what an inconvenience snow days can be for a lot of parents, but for us, they’re just happy. : )

Because of winter break (which went on fairly late this year) and the extra snow days, I haven’t gotten as much writing done so far this year as I would like, but I’m still plugging away at it and did manage to pass the 50,000 mark in terms of word count, so yay for me there! It’s still really piecemeal; I’m writing everything entirely out of order and there will be so much editing to do, but that’s perfectly fine, because I’m a way better editor than I am writer, so it all works out, right?

I’ve also been doing my best to keep up my exercise routine. I’ve got an exercise bike in my bedroom that I ride for 30 minutes or so at a time; I used an Amazon gift card to get a stairstepper (instructions say it can only be used for 15 minutes at a time, but then needs a 30 minute rest, which is absolutely fine with me, because holy crap, does that thing make me sweaty and exhausted), so on days when I use that, I do two fifteen-minute sessions; I’ve also been doing some yoga and HASFit workouts on YouTube. I may not be Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition material, but at least I’m doing something to take care of my body, right??? (And you’d think my back would be happier with all of this, but it’s still a grouchy asshole. Oh well. Some folks are just never happy…)

That’s about it. Lots and lots of reading this month, interspersed with working out, cooking, baking, darning a TON of socks, and doing my best to stay warm. Weird to think that I’m already ⅕ of the way through my Goodreads goal for the year!

I hope your start to 2024 has been happy, healthy, and productive, and that you’re staying warm and filling your brain with zillions of good books. Stay well, stay safe, stay kind, and I’ll see you next month. : )

Happy December! Somehow this year is coming to a close already. Time just speeds up when you’re an adult, doesn’t it? I remember months stretching on forever like March of 2020 when I was a kid, and now we just blink and a whole new year is happening. Wild.

It’s been cold here, and we’ve gotten another round of snow since Halloween, but nothing major, and it’s warmed up enough now to be rainy and gross, so that’s festive! I’ve been busy busy busy getting house stuff done, so there’s been less reading than other months, but this was soooooooooooooooo necessary. I’ll get to all of this in a little bit. Super worth it to me, even though I’m currently buried in a stack of library books twenty feet tall…

Anyway, let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in November 2023

1. Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate by Alexandra Minna Stern

2. Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

3. Our Bodies, Their Battlefields by Christina Lamb

4. A Good Country by Sofia Ali-Khan

5. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

6. Our Great Big American God by Matthew Paul Turner

7. The Prophet Calls by Melanie Sumrow

8. Inside This Place, Not of It by Robin Levi and Ayelet Waldman

9. Surely You Can’t Be Serious by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker

10. Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein

11. The Assignment by Liza Wiemer

12. After the Fire by Will Hill

13. We Need to Talk About Antisemitism by Rabbi Diana Fersko

So, much less reading than usual this month, but that’s fine with me in this case, because I got so much done in the rest of my life. Seven Fallen Feathers, about the mostly unresolved deaths of Indigenous Canadian children at boarding schools (recent deaths, this isn’t history) was just tragic and infuriating to read about; Surely You Can’t Be Serious, about the movie Airplane! and the men who wrote it and fought so hard to get it made was just an absolute delight to read. I’ve been a fan of not just Airplane! but the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker team ever since I was a young teenager, so this was a wonderful and fun read. And fun fact: turns out Sofia Ali-Khan, author of A Good Country, lived in my town for a while! I nearly fell out of bed when I got to that part of the book. There were no dates about when she was here, so I’m not sure if our time overlapped or not, but that was super cool to read! She wrote about places and things that are familiar to me and that I see every day around here. So wild when that happens!

13 books this month; five fiction, eight nonfiction. Twelve of these books were from my TBR! Speaking of which…

State of the Goodreads TBR

Slowly, slowly, we’re creeping to the end. I’d hoped to be further along in the process, but with all the work I’ve been doing around the house this past month, that seriously cut into my reading time. Such is life! Last month, we left off at 55 books, and now, we’re at the lovely number of…

43 books!

Getting it done. Hopefully at some point in January or February, that’ll be down to close to nothing. I still have a small list of interlibrary loan books, so those may take a bit to come in. I’m cool with those hanging out on the list for a bit while I read them in between other stuff. : )

(It’ll be 42 later today; I have a heavy nonfiction book I’m on the verge of finishing. I’ve been reading it in 25-page chunks, so it’s taken me a while. And it would’ve been 41, except I added one last night, but that’s for something I’m writing, so it barely counts, right?!?!??)

Books I Acquired in November 2023

None! 

Bookish Things I Did in November 2023

Does organizing books count? I did get a heap of books off my bedroom floor and stored into some empty containers in my closet (where they will hang out until I start to read them in between reading stuff I find when I wander the library after my TBR is cleared out!). This feels good!

Current Podcast Love

Still plugging along listening to Leaving Eden! I’ve also been listening to more music, though, so that’s cut down on my podcast time. 

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

No movement on this, which is fine. My focus is elsewhere right now. : )

Real Life Stuff

BOY, have I been busy.

It started with my younger daughter’s room. I spent about three days overhauling that when the weather turned cooler. I took a few days off afterwards, and then went, ‘Huh, I should clean out that weird closet in the upstairs hallway.’ (It’s the weird closet because it’s located over the stairs that go into the basement, so the bottom of the closet is about at chest level for me. It goes to the ceiling, and then goes back about four feet. No shelves, just…space, so. The weird closet.) I emptied everything out there, realized no one needs seventeen mismatched bedsheets, packed those up, got rid of a whole other bunch of crap, organized everything in there, and drove all the stuff we no longer needed to Goodwill. That felt SO GOOD. And the closet has a TON of empty space now.

So the next day, I tackled the linen closet. Threw out a bunch of stuff, organized everything else, collected a bag of every pair of glasses everyone in this house has ever worn (it was seriously like over fifteen pairs, wtf), collected TWO BAGS of expired prescription medicine, and drove them to their respective end points at the eye doctor’s donation bin and a local pharmacy’s drop-off bin. This felt AMAZING. And the linen closet also has a ton of empty space now.

And so I went on with the entire rest of the house. I overthrew just about every room we have, every drawer, every cabinet. I collected, I recycled, I threw out, I vacuumed, I scrubbed down, I organized. I ended up making four trips to Goodwill and a local charity that helps folks get back on their feet, dropping off 5-6 boxes/garbage bags/giant plastic bags of stuff per trip, for a total of over 25 containers of stuff gone from my house! My garbage and recycling bins were also full to the top for two weeks (usually, we’re lucky if we have one single bag in our garbage can). Do you know how good this feels? SO, SO GOOD. I highly suggest trying it. 

Everything is so much easier to deal with now. My closet is organized. My laundry room has a TON less stuff in it. Nothing falls out of my kitchen cupboards when I open them now. There are no crumbs in the drawers, and I can find exactly what I need in my utensil drawer because there’s about 50% less stuff in there. My spices are organized and condensed; my containers for leftovers all have proper lids and I can find them quickly. I know where everything is and exactly what we have, and I can shut my coat closet with no problem!

Guys, this feels GOOD.

It was also exhausting, like, physically exhausting. But I’m going through a really good streak right now with my chronic pain, so I wanted to plow through it all in order to ensure I got everything done that I wanted, because I never know how long it’ll last. But it lasted long enough for me to get the 20+ items on my to-do list accomplished, and it’s still going, so I feel extremely lucky right now.

So what’s next? Reading, of course! That’ll always be on the list. But…I’ve also started writing again, something I haven’t done seriously in a while, and this also feels so good. It’s been making me feel extremely happy the past few days, and I’m gonna continue to ride this high. Writing is something that makes me feel like me, and that’s not something I’ve gotten to experience enough of in the last decade or so, so I’m going to keep this up.

So if you need me, I’ll be chilling in my much emptier house, turning the pages of my book or tapping away at my keyboard, feeling pretty damn happy with all that I got done in November. 

Wishing you all a wonderful, productive December, full of love, light, warmth, and the best reads of the year! : )

How on earth is it November???

I blinked, and October faded away in a glorious burst of reds, golds, oranges, and yellows. It’s still really pretty here in my neck of the woods, though we had a drive-by drop in temperatures and actual SNOW for Halloween, despite the rest of the time being fairly mild-ish fall weather in the 50’s. My tiny garden has been put to rest for the winter, the dehydrator is going full-time in order to dry the herbs I harvested, and I’ve been busy getting the house in order lately. It’s been nonstop. Still on a blogging break; trying to figure out where my mojo went, but at least I’m still getting some reading done, along with a bunch of house projects, so that’s a good thing.

Let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in October 2023

1. How Bad Are Bananas? by Mike Berners-Lee

2. How We Fight White Supremacy by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin

3. Exile by Annika Hernroth-Rothstein

4. Troubled by Kenneth R. Rosen

5. Casting Lots by Susan Silverman

6. Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

7. Cults by Max Cutler

8. The Nature of Oaks by Douglas W. Tallamy

9. The Pain Gap by Anushay Hossain

10. The Boy Who Failed Show and Tell by Jordan Sonnenblick

11. The Family Gene by Joselin Linder

12. What Doesn’t Kill You by Tessa Miller

13. Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele

14. Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper

15. This Narrow Space by Elisha Waldman

16. We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin

Sixteen this month, which is honestly more than I thought I’d gotten to. I’ve had a LOT to do this month in terms of family obligations and just life stuff, so my reading time has been next to nothing a lot of days. The Nature of Oaks was absolutely fascinating; if you like nature writing or even being out in nature, you CANNOT miss this one. Douglas Tallamy goes through the year of an oak tree, month by month, and all the fascinating things that are going on with the tree and the many, many forms of life oaks support, even when it looks like nothing’s happening. SUCH a good book. This Narrow Space is a memoir by an American Jewish pediatric oncologist who moved to Israel and treated Jewish, Muslim (many of them Palestinian), and Christian patients. It’s an absolutely heart-wrenching book; it’s very well-written, but so unbelievably gutting that I kept putting it down to either doom-scroll the internet (which should tell you HOW gutting it is) or clean something (which should also tell you how rough of a read it is!). Very much worth it, though. 

Sixteen reads this month. Thirteen nonfiction; three fiction; one graphic memoir. Twelve of these were from my TBR; three were read-alouds to my daughter. Speaking of my TBR…

State of the Goodreads TBR

Last month, we left off at 66 books. I did a little bit of TBR tidying up; I took off, I think, two or three books. One I tried and it just wasn’t the book for me; another just isn’t as pertinent to my life anymore, and I think the third one I took off because it wasn’t what I thought it was (about nature, but more UK-focused, whereas I was looking for something on the nature closer to home, seeing as though it’s extremely unlikely I’ll ever get to the UK, sadly). All that said, our current total is…

55 books!

Making progress. Really looking forward to being able to wander the shelves and also read some of the stuff on my own shelves. 🙂 

Books I Acquired in October 2023

None!

Bookish Things I Did in October 2023

…I don’t think I did much of anything bookish, to be honest. We visited a bookstore so my daughter could grab a few books, but I didn’t come home with any. I think I did drop a few books off in a Little Free Library or two near me, though.

Current Podcast Love

Focusing mainly on catching up with Leaving Eden while I walk and do my volunteer work. Sometimes I listen while I’m cooking and cleaning as well, though not the past few days, as I’ve had this *really* stupid headache that will not die. Sigh. Fortunately, it was gone by Halloween, but those multi-day headaches are a real mood-killer!

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

Still no movement on this, which is fine for now. I’m getting other things done.

Real Life Stuff

Ugh. Headache. Caffeinating the heck out of it seemed to help, thankfully! 

Life has been really busy this month. I’ve got a little bit of my getting-stuff-done-at-home mojo back, so that’s at least good. I got my younger daughter’s room looking better than the tornado-distaster she usually keeps it in, and I’m back to following a daily cleaning schedule so that the house stays in a state of not-Hoarders, so I’m happy with that. My chronic pain has been both good and bad this month – bad at the beginning, but it’s chilling out now, so I’m really thankful for that! I’ve also been really enjoying my days volunteering in the gardens of a local sustainability/permaculture group; the joy I get from being there, helping out, interacting with such amazing, knowledgeable people, and learning from them, is absolutely unmatched. We’ll still be active in the winter, doing some restoration and rewilding work, so I’m looking forward to bundling up and pitching in!

My older daughter is busy looking at which school she’ll be at next year; fingers crossed that it all works out, especially financially! My younger daughter is a handful as always. Her counselor and I are working in the framework of her having (or at least being in the ballpark of) pathological demand avoidance, a diagnosis that’s more common in the UK but that’s gaining some traction here in the US. It explains a LOT about her personality and why things have always been so tough trying to get her to do anything. I’ve got high hopes that we can find ways to help her understand appropriate behavior and begin to implement it in time. She’s a good kid; she just needs to learn to use her powers for good. 🙂 

What’s up next in November? I’m in the US, so this is Thanksgiving month! Younger daughter has that entire week off, since that’s the week the school schedules parent-teacher conferences (we’ve already had a LOT of contact with her teacher, so I’m not sure if there’ll be anything new to learn by then, but we’ll schedule one anyway!). Cooking for Thanksgiving is usually a two-day affair for me, but I honestly don’t know our plans yet this year, if we’re going to do anything with family or not. Something we’ll have to discuss, I guess. I’ll likely prepare for both scenarios, just in case; I don’t want to get to that Wednesday night and suddenly everything is canceled because someone is ill and we’re left with no plans! I’m really looking forward to that week off school, though. I appreciate those so, so much.

That’s about it, though; we’ll see what the weather brings. I’ve been enjoying the cooler fall temps and have still been getting outside a lot; that helps so much with my mental health. I don’t dislike winter at all; I still walk when it’s cold – as long as there’s no ice and it’s not windy. Nature is still pretty great, even when it looks like most of it is asleep. There’s always something to see out there.

Wishing you all a warm, comforting November, full of love, beauty, gratitude, safety, abundance, and, as always, a stack of great reads. Be well, friends. 

And just like that, another month slipped away, and here we find ourselves in October.

How are you, friends? I’m…still here. Still not doing great, so the blogging break goes on and I’m sticking to monthly roundup posts until my brain stops being a full-time jerk, but I’m managing, mostly. Doing a lot of reading to cope (no surprise there), and being busier than I would like. I’m looking forward to cooler faller temperatures. We’ve got a few trees starting to turn here, but nothing dramatic yet. Soon, though.

But anyway, I’ll get to all that in a bit. For now, let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in September 2023

1. We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson

2. The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz (read out loud to my daughter)

3. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

4. Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate

5. Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass

6. The Prophetess by Evonne Marzouk

7. The Story of the Jews by Stan Mack

8. Shmutz by Felicia Berliner

9. Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt! by Jean Fritz (read out loud to my daughter)

10. The Royal We by Heather Cocks

11. The Secret Life of the City by Hanna Hagen Bjørgaas

12. If I Should Die Before I Wake by Han Nolan

13. The Incredible Incas by Terry Deary (read out loud to my daughter)

14. How to Be Alive by Colin Beavan

15. Enlightenment by Trial and Error by Jay Michaelson

16. The Ruthless Romans by Terry Deary (read out loud to my daughter)

17. White Feminism by Koa Beck

18. The Forgotten Girls by Monica Potts

19. Disobedient Women by Sarah Stankorb

20. Lost and Found by Andrew Clements (read out loud to my daughter)

21. A Country Between by Stephanie Saldaña

22. Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar

Told you I was doing a lot of reading to cope! Another heavy month both in numbers and in terms of content, but when do I ever have a lighthearted, free-spirited month of reading? (Maybe soon, when I get through my TBR!) 

Best reads of the month: I really enjoyed the books by Lisa Wingate (and Judy Christie) about the Tennessee Children’s Home. Georgia Tann was an absolute monster; I’ve read a lot about her, but the stories, fiction and nonfiction, infuriate me every single time. The Secret Life of the City was a gentle book about the nature we see in cities, why it’s there, why it’s not elsewhere, and how to appreciate it and understand it better. It was just something I stumbled upon at the library while picking up other stuff, and I enjoyed it. How to Be Alive showed me I’m on the right track in terms of creating a life I enjoy living; The Forgotten Girls is insight into growing up in a small, opportunity-less town (depressing, but so well-written). Disobedient Women is an incredible look at the women working to call out things like sexual abuse and abuse of power in Evangelical circles, and it’s AMAZING. And, of course, Jill Duggar’s book. I devoured that in one afternoon. Good for her for growing up, moving beyond the small, sheltered, suffocating world her parents created for her, and learning to recognize what’s healthy in relationships (and what’s not), and learning to set boundaries. May her growth continue.

Seven fiction; fifteen nonfiction (one graphic nonfiction; three memoirs in there). Fifteen of these were from my TBR; none were from reading challenges, because…

Reading Challenge Updates

I’m not currently participating in any reading challenges! 

Feels good to be done, honestly!

State of the Goodreads TBR

I’m getting it done, folks! Last month, we left off at 83 books; I’m still working so hard to get this down to almost nothing so I can read from my (small) TBR, my own shelves, and whatever I find when I wander the library (I’m SO looking forward to that). I think I took a few books off that I no longer needed to read (since we’re no longer homeschooling), and this month, the number stands at…

66!!!

I’m currently slowly reading one of these books in short bursts (I own it, so I can do that), and I’ve got three more on their way to me via interlibrary loan. I’m thinking I’ll be able to reach the end of this list in January, so 2024’s reading as a whole will look a lot different for me. : )

Books I Acquired in September 2023

Eek! I did hit up a library book sale, and would you believe I forgot to take a picture of what I got before I put it away? Some highlights: a few art/fashion books for my little artist daughter; two piano books (one of which I’ve been practicing out of, and which has been a lot of fun!); some classic novels; a few books my younger daughter has loved, like The Penderwicks, and a few holiday gifts for her. I’m happy with my finds!

Bookish Things I Did in September 2023

Hmm. Other than the book sale, it’s mostly just been a lot of reading in my chair on the porch!

Current Podcast Love

I’m finally caught up on Digging Up the Duggars! I’ll continue listening to new episodes as they come; otherwise I’m listening to Leaving Eden as I walk, inside and out, and do my volunteer work. 

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

Currently on hold for a bit, though I am making my way through a French grammar book, so maybe that counts? 

Real Life Stuff

Phew.

Still doing my best to hang in there and also ignore all of reality by reading every book ever in existence.

That’s healthy, right?

Physical therapy is…not great. I didn’t expect it to; I haven’t had great experiences with the place I’m going to in the past. They don’t do what my back needs in order to be at its most functional, and it’s been kind of a giant pain in the ass to work into my schedule (nothing wrong with the physical therapist I’ve been working with, he’s okay, it’s just the place). I’ve got one last appointment, and then I’m supposed to go back to my physiatrist, and we’ll go on from there. Likely it’ll be more caudal injections, which do help, but they’re weird and uncomfortable, and expensive, because American healthcare, so that’s unfun.

My daughter is still doing okay in school, for the most part. She definitely needs a lot of help with math; that’s the subject she fought me most over when we were homeschooling, so I’m 0% surprised her testing scores were as low as they were. Her ADHD plays into her struggles a lot there as well; she’s never met a one she couldn’t forget to carry! Her reading scores are GREAT, though, so I’m thrilled with that! So far, so good, mostly. 

As for me, I’m just…sad a lot. Struggling with being middle-aged and never having had a career (there’s never been a crack I couldn’t slip through in my teenage and adult lives), or even a real adult job, and struggling with how limited I am with physical stuff and how much that limits me in life. You wouldn’t know it much if you saw me walking around at the store, but I have definite limits on how much I can do physically before I need to sit, and I’m in pain most of the time, even when I’m doing stuff. I so badly want to be more productive in my day-to-day life, and my body limits me so very much. It’s so frustrating, and not many people in my real life understand that. There are a few more things in there, but I won’t get into all of that, but it’s been rough. So I’m struggling.

But I’m doing my best, and my ongoing blog break will continue until my brain figures out ways to deal with all this, because I just really need one less thing, you know? 

I hope you’re all doing well. Enjoy the start of this new season, wherever you are and whatever season you’re heading into. May it be filled with beautiful weather, excellent books, and love.

Bonjour, friends! Our temps will start going back up today, so that tiny taste of fall weather we got this week is only a memory. It was nice while it lasted, but at least it’s officially September now!

I’m still on my break from blogging full-time; it’s a much-needed one, and I’ll be back when I’m ready, but for now, I’m just doing monthly roundup posts while I get myself together. There just aren’t enough hours in the day for everything sometimes, right? So I’m having to prioritize a little, and right now my mental health comes first. As it should. 

But more about all that later; let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in August 2023

1. Welcome Back, Maple Mehta-Cohen by Kate McGovern

2. The New American Judaism by Jack Wertheimer

3. Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

4. Death in Yellowstone by Lee H. Whittlesey

5. Anatomy of Innocence by Laura Caldwell

6. Lost Connections by Johann Hari

7. The Temple Bombing by Melissa Fay Greene

8. Cobalt Red by Siddarth Kara

9. Whisper by Chrissie Keighery

10. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord

11. Cheap Land Colorado by Ted Conover

12. A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan

13. Women Talking by Miriam Toews

14. If All The Seas Were Ink by Ilana Kurshan

15. Blankets by Craig Thompson

16. Escaping Utopia by Janja Lalich

17. Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

18. The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright

Not a bad month! Somewhat of a heavy month in terms of topics, but I’m happy with the reading I did. Lots of reading on the porch, which has been nice. 

Best reads of the month: Hello Stranger was a fascinating read about a portrait artist that goes face blind (I adore Katherine Center anyway, and she really knocked this one out of the park); Lost Connections helped me to look at depression and anxiety different, and was a super timely read; Take My Hand, historical fiction about forced sterilization in the 1970’s, is one that will really stick with me.

Seven fiction; ten nonfiction; one graphic novel that’s a fictionalized autobiography (maybe? Hard to tell. It touts itself as a graphic novel and not a graphic memoir…). Fourteen of these were from my TBR. One was for a reading challenge. Speaking of which…

Reading Challenge Updates

CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!

Folks, this was a TIME. So much work, but so enjoyable. I discovered some new-to-me authors that I love, returned to some old favorites, hate-read some poorly written fanfiction, journeyed outside my usual reading comfort zone, and learned a lot about myself as a reader. I truly enjoyed this challenge, even though it was a LOT.

Yay me! : )

State of the Goodreads TBR

So, last month we left off at 94 books. I’m trying to tear through these remaining books at a fairly terrifying rate; my goal is to get it down to a very, very small number so I can only add things I truly want to read, read those things, and then dedicate the rest of my reading to a combination of stuff I own and then things I discover from wandering aimlessly in the library (do you know how long it’s been since I did that with any kind of regularity? YEARS). Anyway, this month, the number is…

83!!!

I’m thinking at this pace, if I’m really careful about what I add, barring any unforeseen nightmares that keep me from reading, I should be able to have this list cleared out by January or February, and then 2024 can be a little more relaxed in what I read. I’m digging that idea. : )

Books I Acquired in August 2023

So, I made a trip to visit Sandy, a longtime friend from my longtime parenting board. In addition to a lovely hike in a forest preserve, good conversation over a delicious lunch, and a tour of the town, Sandy and I went into a local bookstore, and I purchased a copy of Mend!: A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto by Kate Sekules. I’m super into visible mending (I’m currently wearing two darned socks), and this was a local bookstore, so I wanted to support them. I’ve only read a bit of the book so far, but I love it already.

Bookish Things I Did in August 2023

…other than my trip to the bookstore, I can’t think of any… I organized some books around the house, does that count?

Current Podcast Love

Okay, I cannot say enough good things about Wilder, about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie, and the cultural impact of these things. If you grew up with the Little House books and have grappled with their meaning and cultural significance of them in any way, you need to listen to this podcast. It’s well-researched, well-narrated, fabulously produced, and incredibly thought-provoking. I’ve been enjoying it immensely on my walks home from dropping my daughter off at school and while I’ve been gardening and doing projects around the house.

I’m also filling in the gaps with Digging Up the Duggars. So close to being caught up! 

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

Currently on hold for a bit.

Real Life Stuff

So. 

Here we are.

School year has started, and my younger daughter is back at public school, in person. She’s one of two kids in her class still masking. I pick her up for lunch every day, and she has a car picnic while I read to her (hey, captive audience! Might as well make good use of that time).

So far, so good. *fingers crossed, knocking on every available wooden surface* Little bit of friend drama, but that’s to be expected in fourth grade. She’s had good days and bad, but she’s only asked to be homeschooled again once (our agreement was that she has to give it until at least December, to give it a fair chance). I think she’ll end up sticking it out.

I’m keeping busy. It’s been so hot here that my motivation has kind of been utter garbage, but I’m trying, and I think that’ll keep improving as the weather cools down (we’ve got another week or so of garbage temps, but then it’ll be a little better). I’ve been learning to play the mandolin (slowly!), I engaged in some visible mending and embroidered a shirt, I’ve been gardening, I’ve been brushing up on my French grammar and vocabulary, and I’ve definitely been reading. I’d like to find more purpose, though, but I’m not sure where I’m going with that, or what that would look like.

I’ve also been doing some volunteer gardening with a local sustainability/permaculture group, and it’s been beyond relaxing and rewarding. I’m meeting such amazing people, and I’m learning so much. I swear, if my body would let me, I could hang out in that garden all day, yanking weeds and listening to other people talk. If you’ve ever thought about engaging with a group like this local to you, I cannot recommend it highly enough. My anxiety drops to almost zero when I’m there. 

That’s about it for now. I’m going to continue on with my mental health break for a bit, until I feel ready to return. Stay safe, stay healthy; like half my Facebook feed has COVID right now, which is not great. Take care of yourselves, and others.

Wishing you all a beautiful September.

Arright, friends, here we are in July!!! Mid-summer, and it’s been a weird one.

Cold temperatures. Almost zero rain. So much smoke we’ve been stuck indoors several days with the worst air quality in the world (not an exaggeration, unfortunately). I don’t love that; that means zero nature walks for us and no reading out on the porch for me. Huge thumbs down on that one.

But I’m surviving (ISH; still not doing great), and at least there’s reading getting done, along with a few other projects, so. Yay for that?

Anyway.

Let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in June of 2023

1. Disobedience by Naomi Alderman (no review)

2. Mr. Perfect on Paper by Jean Meltzer

3. The Fifth Beatle by Vivek J. Tiwary (no review)

4. The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

5. The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan

6. Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan (no review; read out loud to my daughter)

7. Great Events of the 20th Century by Readers Digest Association (no review; read a few sections every night for months)

8. Living More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre

9. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

10. Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes (no review; read out loud to my daughter)

11. The Facemaker by Lindsey Fitzharris

12. Stolen by Elizabeth Gilpin

13. Testimony by Jon Ward (review to come)

14. The Evangelicals by Frances FitzGerald (no review; I’ll talk about this below)

15. We Carry Their Bones by Erin Kimmerle (review to come)

16. Only When It’s Us by Chloe Liese (review to come)

17. All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell (review to come)

I feel pretty good about this month! There’s been a lot of days of reading out on the porch, where the only noise is traffic from the highway and not my husband and daughter screeching and screaming as they run back and forth in front of me (OY). It’s why I love summer so much; I can escape the noise of the house. I’m a little behind in terms of posting, but really, not much! Another reason I love summer.

Seven fiction; ten nonfiction; one graphic nonfiction. ELEVEN of these came from my TBR!!! Three were read for the 2023 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. Speaking of which…

Reading Challenge Updates

REGARD THIS BEAUTY!!!!!!!!!

The sole reason it’s not finished yet is that the book I’ve picked for that final category doesn’t come out until July, and I’m already on the waiting list at the library for it! I’ve really enjoyed doing this challenge, but I admit I’ll also be really glad to be done with it and continue to blast through my TBR. Phew! This has been a LOT of reading! If I have a chance, I’ll make a post specifically about this challenge when I finish it.

State of the Goodreads TBR

Last month, we left off at the happy number of 111 books; this month, we’re beginning at…

103 BOOKS!!!

I’m almost down to double digits, y’all!!!

Feeling pretty good about this.

Books I Acquired in June of 2023

It’s been used book sale heaven around here this month! Check out these gorgeous piles!

Some are for me, some are my daughter’s. I’m looking forward to diving into all of them! We’ve got another used book sale in July, but the big cram-everything-you-can-into-a-bag-for-$10 sales are done until next year, sigh.

Bookish Things I Did in June of 2023

Just the book sales!

Current Podcast Love

Still listening to Digging Up the Duggars while I do my volunteer work. At night, I’ve been listening to American History Tellers as I fall asleep at night. I really like this one. History is a good subject to listen to as I fall asleep; there’s no loud music, there’s no funny bits to get me laughing and NOT fall asleep, and I already know the outcome to everything, so it’s not anxiety-provoking. This one works well for me!

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

When we left off, I was reading a combination of O. Henry short stories and On the Road by Jack Kerouac (UGH; I’ll be glad to be done with this. Dude sucks), but I put those aside for a bit to tackle the scariest category in the 2023 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge: the longest book on your TBR. And that book, for me, was The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances FitzGerald, an absolute brick of a book at 638 pages of readable text (more if you count the notes and index, but I didn’t read those) and incredibly information-dense. To be entirely honest, without this challenge, I likely would’ve let this sit on my TBR for years, intimidating the hell out of me, until I finally deleted it in shame, but because of this challenge, I picked it up and read 25 pages per day, usually out on the porch. It wasn’t always easy; the book started off pretty slow for me, but it picked up when the timeline got to about the 1950’s, and I started to enjoy it then – but those daily 25 pages were a LOT. But I did it, I read the entire thing, I finished, and I’m feeling pretty proud of myself!

I’ll get back to O. Henry and Jack Kerouac (ugh), but there are a few parenting books I want to tackle this summer, so I’ll be using my time usually reserved for this project to wade through those.

Real Life Stuff

Oy, y’all. 

I’m not going to sugarcoat it; I’m struggling right now. Life is tough. There’s just so much going on, and I feel like I’m carrying a lot.

Still doing my best to figure out what the heck to do with my youngest for school. She NEEDS to be around other kids; that much is obvious. And to be honest, I think she learns better from people other than me. But she still has a LOT of anxiety about the pandemic; I took her to a play put on by the local two-year college at the library, and she really struggled at the beginning with all the other unmasked people in the room (we’re still masking), and in the building as a whole. She made it through, but she didn’t want to stay there and freaked out every time someone coughed or sniffled (and with the air quality being so poor here because of the smoke from the wildfires, there was a not-zero amount of that). I’m worried that if she goes back to school, she’s going to be so anxious and panicked that learning will be difficult. But she obviously misses being around other kids (and the homeschool group options around here kind of suck, so…). Do I send her back and just deal with her anxiety (and possibly getting sick; so many parents have had so many complaints about their kids just being sick all year long), or do I keep her home and protect her from illness but she ends up feral from not having adequate social interaction? WHICH PROBLEM DO I CHOOSE? 

My older kid has come out as transgender, and I love her forever and always no matter what. I’ll be referring to her as my daughter and she/her from here on out, so y’all know. It’s just other people that make this stressful; I wish this world were more understanding and accepting. Maybe do something kind for someone else today, to help make life a little easier for someone else, okay? 

I’m trying to take care of my mental health right now and am considering going to see a therapist as well. I’m dealing with a lot of stress, some of pandemic-related, some not, and I’m also trying to get out of the house a little more (not easy when you’re the only one wearing a mask in indoor situations, and not easy when I’m terrified of bringing home COVID again). I showed up to a local permaculture/sustainability group’s outdoor art event this month, and I’ll definitely go back again, because those are absolutely my kind of folks. It was a lot of fun. : )

Take care of yourself, friends, and be kind to one another. So many of us are carrying so much right now, and you can’t necessarily tell that just by looking at someone.

Wishing you all a lovely July!