The Happiness Project

[I don't usually write such long book reviews, but this one got me thinking a lot! It was a great book club discussion book too since it seemed to inspire personal action and application from all of us, in one way or another.]

The Happiness Project is one of those one-year experiment books; in this one, the author, Gretchen Rubin, starts with a moment in which she wonders if she's really happy, or if she's just letting life pass by - and it spurs her year-long project of research and resolutions to build happiness. She keeps a resolution chart to stay on track and have a constant reminder of her goals, and she chooses a different category to work on each month, such as marriage, parenthood, money, leisure, work, attitude, and pursuing a passion.

Some of the tasks she works on each month are fairly simple and practical - "go to sleep earlier" in the vitality month, "remember birthdays" in the friendship month, "keep a gratitude journal" in the eternity month - and others are more lofty goals or real attempts at behavioral change - "quit nagging" in the marriage month, "don't gossip" in the friendship month, "stimulate the mind in new ways" in the mindfulness month. The resolutions are partly dos (doing things that she enjoys, broadening her horizons) and partly don'ts (stopping doing things that make her feel bad like nagging or criticizing), leading to her main definition/truth of happiness: "To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth."

And for her, it works. There are pitfalls along the way, but overall, through the tasks and the resolutions, she feels happier (of course, she doesn't have any scientific measure of this, but as Rubin says, it doesn't really matter: in part, you're happy if you think you're happy).

eating lately: whole 30 wrapup

I did it! A month of following the Whole30 program (actually turned into a Whole31, up until that [needed] glass of wine at the end of the day...), and I've got to say, it really was not all that hard. Despite having to devote more time to food prep (and dishes washing) than I'm used to, I found it easy to stick with and really never found myself counting down the days. You're eating real and tasty food - what's so hard about that? It definitely helps to think of the program in terms of what foods you can put into each meal that make your body healthier and taste delicious, rather than focusing on a list of things you "can't" have.

After finishing, I feel about the same as at the halfway point in terms of the upsides (good food, good nutrition, healthy thoughts), downsides (time and money), and neutrals (no change in body/energy) - overall, I'm happy I did the Whole30. However, I will say that it's a good thing I had my own psychological/nutritional reasons for taking it on, because as with my halfway update, I didn't really feel like it gave me the things people rave about - which is disappointing - like extra energy, clear head, easing of chronic issues, flattened stomach (ah, the vanity). No weight loss either, but then I was specifically trying to not lose anything. And also ate a LOT of almond butter, whoops.

The Whole30 founders are all about the non-scale victories though, and in the spirit of that, here are my victories from this last month:

Interrupting my unhealthy psychological relationship with food for a month - removing some of the choices that give me anxiety (or lead me to overexercise) might not be a long-term solution, but it was a relief to take a mental break from that for a month both by making certain foods not an option and by focusing on health-promoting foods and balanced diet. Any little changes this inspires is something, no matter what my crazy brain decides to revert to...

Making over my breakfast and lunch routines - I basically didn't eat real meals for breakfast/lunch before, and now I've got several go-tos that are healthy, delicious, and really quite easy. Those are some lasting habit changes I'm really happy about. (See the end of the post for some descriptions of what's in these photos.)

Coming up with some date ideas that aren't food related - don't get me wrong, going out to try a new restaurant is always going to be our favorite way to enjoy date night together, but it was nice to find a couple of different things to do this month, like going to a concert or going to play tennis, since going out for dinner is pretty well impossible on this program.

Trying zucchini noodles (finally!) - I'd been pinning recipes forever but hadn't actually gotten around to trying this spiralizing veggie thing... and now zoodles are the new favorite meal around here. Peter, who previously didn't like zucchini, says he could eat them "every other day."

Feeling accomplished - can't lie, it's kind of satisfying to say I stuck with the program with no cheats! And I feel proud that I did something for myself to get mentally and physically healthier.

Learning some new things in the kitchen - there's the spiralizing, but I also tried out an egg "tortilla" technique, finally made stuffed peppers for the first time, and incorporated some new items I hadn't cooked with before, like chicken thighs (random but true). Also discovered almond butter + apples - yum!

Becoming proficient at grilling - thanks to all the lunchtime Aidell's sausages and TJ's chili lime chicken burgers, I'm getting pretty good with the grill with no Peter assistance - which is saying something, as our grill's starter is broken, so you have to manually light the thing. I used to be terrified of it and singe the hair off my fingers every time, but now it's no problem.

Using up a few jars of spices - some of those things were OLD (maybe should have thrown them out?) and it feels like quite an accomplishment to be cooking enough interesting things to actually finish off some jars. It's nice getting slightly more comfortable with a dash of this and a dash of that, for a non-cook!

Feeling healthy - focusing on foods that make my body healthy for a month just has me feeling that I am what I eat. (Also, I'm a really good rule follower, so following rules about having to put a good amount of protein and healthy fat and lots of veggies on my plate has been a good way to get me to really do it.)

Resetting my palate - no added sugar or artificial sweeteners for a month really does start to adjust your taste buds. For a girl with a sweet tooth, to have raisins start to feel like a serious treat really says something. Going forward, I think I'll be able to enjoy sweet treats for what they are but not crave sugary sweetness so much - and things with artificial sweeteners really hold no appeal, taste-wise.

Taking the "wining" out of "wining and dining" for a while - not that I was overly excessive, but after a couple of months in which I had 2 beach vacations, work dinners, a wedding, and several date nights, it was kind of nice to just make alcohol a non-option for a month.

Starting to learn to listen to my body - it took a little adjusting to figure out what amounts of what to eat at meals, but finally I'm actually trying to pay attention to what my body is telling me it needs. And that's probably why I didn't lose any weight, even with cutting out ice cream and such... my body has probably been trying to communicate for a while that it needs a few more pounds on it to really be healthy... finally listening to it a bit more about what to put in and when ended up being more than before, since it needed that.

Drinking appropriate amounts of water - I've always been terrible about this, but this month I did way better at being hydrated. Partly because I wasn't drinking other things (i.e. Diet Coke/booze), but also because of the aforementioned learning to listen to my body. It's thirsty a lot!

Recovering better from workouts - though my nagging injuries are still there to some extent, I do think the Whole30 has helped my body recover better from workouts. I actually feel kind of stronger between weight lifting sessions, and I've been able to up my mileage all the way to 10k without my injured ankle feeling worse, whereas a month ago it would be super achy after even a couple of miles of running. This better recovery is probably in big part because I upped my protein so much, which helps those muscles rebuild better, and actually started incorporating post-workout meals like the program tells you to, so I was refueling much better. Also, the program philosophy finally helped me take on a better attitude toward recovery - which was to actually recover (radical, I know). On days off, I was better about actually letting my body rest and still putting good nutrition into it to aid that recovery, all thanks to the inspiration from reading some articles on the Whole9 site (this one too).

So though it's not a cure-all for my issues (and I've still got some to deal with), I'm glad I did it - I was forced to make over some meals and to pause my usual not-so-good approach to and attitudes about food/exercise/body image for the month. A "restrictive" type of program might not be good for everyone with these issues, but for me, it was helpful to remove some items/temptations from the mix in order to sort of mentally "make room" to finally fill myself up with the proteins and good fats, rather than spending my day thinking of calories as something to do battle with.

Going forward, I think I may end up eating pretty close to a paleo diet, with some modifications as well as some exceptions for eating out, celebrations, and the occasional ice cream treat. I hope that this experience will continue to help me think of food as fuel for my body, and that along with that attitude I'll better be able to eat less of the foods that don't make me healthy, yet enjoy treats for what they are on their special occasions, minus any anxieties or guilt. I'm on the road to more intentional eating, and I'm proud of myself for that.

If you're thinking of trying, I say go for it. There's really nothing to lose, and plenty to gain. If nothing else, more veggies and less sugar for a month, but I do really believe all the stories of people who have had chronic issues helped and have been reinvigorated by this program.

In closing, I'd like to thank:
...the Whole30 founders for having a program (and community with such great inspiration and resources) that was just what I needed to change up my approach to food right now.
...Peter for not thinking I'm crazy and being willing to try out any of my new recipes (and even really liking zucchini noodles).
...Aidell's for making chicken sausages, Tessemae's for making compliant ketchup, and Chipotle for making delicious carnitas when all else failed and I just could not cook.
...you all for being encouraging and being willing to have conversations about these issues with me, reminding us all we're not alone in our issues, whatever they may be.

Couldn't have done it without all of these!

p.s. I updated my Whole30 resources post with some additional recipes and products that I liked, and the photos in this post show some of my quickest go-to meals, often things that are easy to make in batches and reheat: bagged salad lettuce with taco meat, tomatoes, and guac; zoodles with Rao's marinara, Applegate farms chicken strips, and tomatoes; apples with almond butter; oven-baked fajitas; Aidell's chicken & apple sausage with Wholly Guacamole and grilled veggies; bagged salad lettuce with Trader Joe's chili lime chicken burger and guac; eggs scrambled with peppers and onions; zoodles with garlic sauteed shrimp; baked Italian sausage, potatoes, peppers and onions; ground pork, sweet potatoes, apples, and eggs with sunrise spice; Aidell's chicken sausage with sweet potato wedges and Tessemae's ketchup.

to read: May TBR

Last day of the month - which in my life always means logging on to Book of the Month to see if they released the new picks early, and now also means planning my next month's reading as well. I often read more than 5 books a month, but it's been fun to give myself a bit of direction with this lately for the first 5 picks.

I've been aiming at getting at least one backlist (i.e., older) title, which this month will be finally getting around to Prep, and also read at least one book that has been languishing on my physical shelf, which this month will be There Are No Grownups: A Mid-Life Coming-of-Age Story, by the author of Bringing Up Bebe. Also like to try to get in one YA or middle grade, which is going to be The Wild Robot Escapes since I didn't get to it in April as intended (but for good reason - we lent it to some friends in a book swap that was an all-around good thing for our book-devouring children!).

Then in addition for May I've got The Jetsetters lined up, since that's what Dana and I decided to do for our next blogger book club post, on June 7, and I'm also craving rom-com reads lately, so I figured I should finally pick up Well Met after hearing over and over how fun it is. A meet-cute at a Renaissance fair? Count me in.

As for how I did with my April selections, I'd say I did quite well even if I didn't love-love all of my picks. Anna K was the best of my 5 selections for the month - a retelling of Anna Karenina as a YA novel was just plain fun. The Lola Quartet was my backlist one, which was well done but not my favorite genre (literary noir), and The Lager Queen of Minnesota was a nice Midwestern ode, even if I wished it had more of a connected, linear plot. Unfortunately 99 Percent Mine was abandoned 15% in - just didn't like the main character's tone at all, when I thought I was supposed to be getting a fun romance. Oh well, now I know. And I should note that The Wild Robot Escapes would have happened if I'd had access to it, so I'm not counting that against myself - though I do expect this one to be a high rating for me, since I gave the first in the series 5 stars!

What are your reading plans for May? If you need any other recommendations, I have a whole archive!

Freddie at one month

Freddie is a month old already! It's fun to see how much he's changed and grown and somehow gotten even more cute over the last month, but also makes me a little sad because he's never going to be this tiny again... He is just such a delightfully snuggly little peanut, and we can't get enough of that part. (Would love to sleep more at night though.)

The first 2 weeks were a true honeymoon period with how much he slept and how little he cried, though the feeding every 2-3 hours kept me quite busy. All of his eating and snoozing paid off though, with great weight gain over the month - he was above birth weight already at his 5-day-old weigh-in with the pediatrician, and at his 3-month appointment he measured 8lbs, 9 oz - over 2 pounds above birth weight! With the pudgier cheeks and legs he’s looking more and more like Hendrik (he started out a full pound smaller at birth, so there was a little catching up to do in cheek pudge).

At 2 weeks there was a definite change with a bit more fussiness (some gassy tummy troubles is usually the main source), but also with more alert time. Weeks 3-4 brought much more focus with his eyes - now he actually looks at the stuff dangling from his car seat and above his changing table, and he really is into his Lovevery kit, especially the black & white cards - and maybe even some actual responses to seeing his people. Though I've got the bittersweet feelings about the fleeting tiny baby days, it's so rewarding to see him grow and start to get a little more interaction.

Still adjusting across the board to family-of-4 life in how to divide attention, have a 7-year-old who has been extra in my personal space lately, oh and have time for a spouse... but we've had some very fun bright spots with our new crew in enjoying family movie night (okay, Freddie slept through the whole thing) and several back yard bonfires. Being with my big boys and having my baby wrapped up against my chest in his little carrier, or going on walks or farmer's market outings with all of us - this is what powered me through the tough moments of pregnancy (not to mention labor & delivery), and cheesy as it is, I'm trying to make sure to create "sense memories" of noting the smells, touches, sights of it all.

Photos are from 10 days old and then one month - you can see how he's filling that onesie much more now. And for funsies, here are some of our fave products at this stage:

five things Friday: November's TBR edition

How to choose one's next read? It can be so hard when there are just so many good books! For me, usually first preference goes to whatever library hold has just come in, and if I don't have anything in that queue, then I go to my shelves to pick one of my (errr, many) unread books. But this month, I'm going to focus my selections a bit, for various reasons. Here's what's on tap:

Twice in a Blue Moon: this newest release from Christina Lauren looks like it'll be another fun one. And it will be the final book in my Modern Mrs. Darcy 2019 reading challenge (in the category of read 3 books by the same author), so I definitely want to get this one done this month, as it also means finishing the challenge, part of my 19 in 2019 goals.

Dear Sweet Pea: I adore all of Julie Murphy's books, so I will of course pick up anything new by her; this latest release is a middle grade one that looks like it will be wonderfully heartwarming. I pre-ordered, I love Julie Murphy so much, but now I need to stop getting distracted by other stuff (book nerd problems) and give it a read!

Nothing to See Here: this is my Book of the Month Club selection from last month, and I decided I probably better make myself actually pick them up before I'm allowed to get another one... I have read one other by Kevin Wilson (The Family Fang) before, and I found it so absurd yet so perfectly relatable at the same time, with the family interactions of these wacky people. Seems like this might be more of the same, and if so, should be an enjoyable ride.

I Miss You When I Blink: I've actually read this delightful book of essays already, but I'm going to re-read a few of them that I particularly loved, in preparation for this being my in-person bookclub selection for this month. If you're looking for something funny and relatable about the everyday challenges of woman- and wife- and motherhood, this is a great one.

Waiting for Tom Hanks: this rom-com is the next pick for my virtual bookclub with Dana, which will get posted on December 1, and it looks like it'll be cute and quick read. If you're interested, you can join us by posting in this format your review of the book - or just linking up any book-related post on that day, because we're up for book discussion of any kind!

I'm joining up with the TBR Mix & Mingle crew to share my reading plans for the month - and I'd love to hear about yours too!

gift grid: reads

For this year's final gift grid, I'm sharing suggestions for everyone in your life (him, her, them [friends, grandparents, etc], little mr, and little miss) for what they might like to READ. And I'm super excited about this one - I've categorized the selections into non-fiction, page turners, new releases, and picture books (i.e. super fun coffee table books), so there's really something for everyone.

for him: John Hodgman Vacationland | Fredrik Backman Beartown | Andy Weir Artemis | Benjamin Grant Overview | for her: Kelly Corrigan Glitter and Glue | Megan Abbott You Will Know Me | Gabrielle Zevin Young Jane Young | Gray Malin Beaches | for them: Gretchen Rubin The Four Tendencies | Paula Hawkins Into the Water | Celeste Ng Little Fires Everywhere | Pete Souza Obama: An Intimate Portrait | for the little mr: Matt Lamothe This Is How We Do It | Oliver Jeffers Stuck | Elizabeth Verdick Small Walt | Marc Martin Lots | for the little miss: Chelsea Clinton She Persisted | Mo Willems Knuffle Bunny | Adam Rubin Dragons Love Tacos 2 | Molly Idle Flora and the Flamingo

Anything I haven't read on here is on my to-read list, so I think these are ALL good ones! But if you're really unsure of what someone might enjoy (or whether they've already read it), other great gift options for books are book-of-the-month type of subscriptions. I've done Book-of-the-Month Club and like that a lot (especially if you find a good intro deal) for the ability to choose a great new release from their slate of 5 each month - but also to skip a month if you don't like one of the options or your to-read shelf is too full already (common book lady problem!). Even better is supporting a local bookstore, and so I also highly recommend the Shelf Subscription from The Bookshelf (bookstore I learned about via a favorite podcast, From the Front Porch). You pick a staffer whose reading taste is most like your own (or your giftee's), and they send you a surprise pick each month. Seriously fun mail day - I went with Annie's selections, and the 3 months I got did not at all disappoint (Young Jane Young, Heating & Cooling, The End We Start From).

AND. As a bonus, if you, still need ideas of great books to gift, here's a little recap of my top 10 reads of 2017 (in no particular order). Some overlap with the suggestions above, but there are so many good ones I read this year that I needed to make sure to get them all in...

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

These are listed in no particular order, because that's just much too hard to do, but I will say that The End We Start From, Dear Ijeawele, and This is How it Always Is are the books I gave 5 stars in 2017; the rest had 4.5 or 4. And as a bonus: my top two audiobooks, both highly recommended, are Lincoln in the Bardo and Modern Romance.

So, are you gifting books this year? What are your selections?!

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five things Friday: June TBR

While I've managed to find time for reading with some sick days at home, there hasn't been much time for writing, with the rest of my time taken up by Mr. Freddie - first with holding him for hours on end while he was feverish and a bit miserable, and then with playing and strolling with him when we were feeling better but still in our quarantine period. So the June reading list is arriving late, but I'm excited about my reading plans for the month (hopefully some of it will now happen at the beach!!):

Good variety of stuff for the month here... First, Seven Days in June is a well-reviewed romance with depth that I got on a Kindle deal a while back and have been saving for this month, because with a title like that, it just seemed right, of course. And also I'm always interested in one that is set in the publishing/writing world. 

Then I've got some contemporary fiction from the always-reliable Emma Straub with her new release, This Time Tomorrow, and then a bit of a genre crosser with Portrait of a Thief, which sounds like it will have elements of a thriller novel + immigrant identity/experience. I love books with an art history twist, and especially a heist so I'm very intrigued by this one. Speaking of thrill, the memoir Nowhere Girl sounds like one of those stranger-than-fiction type of life stories (the subtitle is A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood, so I feel like that says a lot...). It was well reviewed on Sarah's Bookshelves Live, so I'm intrigued and it's time to finally get around to it (another Kindle deal snag).

Finally, I'm hoping that Peter & Hendrik finish up their evening read-aloud of Hollowpox, the 3rd in the Nevermoor series, so that I can have a turn with it; I read the first installment of this fantasy middle grade series last summer and enjoyed it fine, but then I got around to picking up book #2 last month and now I am IN - what a fun and interesting read it was, and now I'm very eager to pick up #3!

And as for a recap of my May books: I read all of them and enjoyed to varying degrees - Olga Dies Dreaming joined my top reads of the year list so it was definitely my best of the month, aside from How to Find Your Way in the Dark, a 5-star read for me.

• The Murder Rule: I really love Dervla McTiernan's Cormac Reilley series, so I was excited to see she had a new book coming out - but a little worried that like Tana French's initial foray outside of the detective series I love her for, it might be a little disappointing to me. In this case, it was and it wasn't: while my general preference is for a detective procedural, this is a bit more of a psychological twister (but not crazy twisted) with a legal aspect - but in the end that combination ended up coming together for me. The book starts with Hannah transferring to a new law school in order to try to join their chapter of the Innocence Project and work on a particular high-profile murder appeal; it's clear that she has ulterior motives having to do with something in mom's past but unclear at first exactly what that's about. As her chapters alternate with diary entries from her mom's teenage years, it gradually becomes clear what the instigating event in her mom's past was, and what it has to do with the case that Hannah is trying to sabotage. It took me a little while to get into because I found Hannah and Laura both kind of unlikeable/annoying (partly as a rule follower I have trouble with stories about people being duplicitous!) but then the twist partway through the book got me both very interested and more sympathetic to Hannah, and I was hooked by the end. The latter part also had more of the legal investigative/courtroom type thriller than the psychological, and I was more interested in that part. So in the end, a solid read, and I can see a lot of people enjoying it. E-copy received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ★★★.5
• Friends and Strangers: J. Courtney Sullivan's writing is the kind of very readable East coast/dysfunctional family/motherhood character study that doesn't have tons and tons of plot but feels really relatable and somehow unputdownable. This one is about a new mom, Elisabeth, who has moved out of NYC to a suburban area, her husband's hometown, and is struggling with a bit of an identity crisis in all this change, and with not knowing anyone in her new neighborhood. To try to get back to her writing career she hires a babysitter from the local college. Sam is a good girl who comes from small-town Midwest roots, unlike a lot of the prep school elites who are her classmates. She seems really ready to grow up and have an established life, but she definitely still has some of the immaturity - in both carefree fun and also some shortsightedness - of a college student. I found it really fascinating to see the ways these characters quickly developed a close relationship, and how they perceived each other's lives with a rosy tint, which was colored by their own current hopes/dreams/frustrations - especially so because I have been on both ends of this, as a babysitter going to other women's homes in college, and now in motherhood coming full circle and hiring local college girls myself (and always wondering how OLD do they think I am?!). Lots of it (minus some of the racial issues, but still including issues of privilege and power dynamics) reminded me a lot of Such a Fun Age, with the mom/babysitter relationship, and some of the (occasionally squirm-inducing) connections that Elisabeth tries to have with Sam, in her loneliness and her attempt to reconnect with her younger years. Also reminded me of books like Meg Wolitzer's The Female Persuasion, with the female friendships and college-to-grown-up transitions - and also the very compulsively readable character-driven fiction. ★★★★
• Booked on a Feeling: a rom-com with a bookish title and setting is always something I'm game to check out. This one has the childhood friends-to-lovers trope, which I enjoy for how well the characters know each other's history and hopes and dreams, but there's a lot of angst about ruining a friendship that can get a bit tiresome to me. In this particular one I enjoyed the banter of the old friends + the checklist-loving protagonist and her project to help out a struggling indie bookstore while she's on leave from her law firm for a mental health break, and I also enjoyed all of the food and cooking references, particularly to all of the delicious-sounding Korean food their families make. An enjoyable read for entertainment, but not one that particularly stands out to me among the rom-coms I've read lately. E-copy received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ★★★
• Olga Dies Dreaming: at its core, this is a sibling story - a sister and brother of Puerto Rican heritage whose activist mom left them when they were teens to become a sort of fugitive revolutionary, and how this has shaped their lives and career paths as a wedding planner for the rich and a congressman and their sibling relationship. They're in their 40s now and haven't seen her since that time, and they just hear from her from time to time in letters critiquing their life choices. The characters are really well done - flawed for sure, but you can see where Olga and Prieto are coming from and still hope things turn out despite some of their iffy (and sometimes illegal!) choices and their self-destructive tendencies in romantic relationships... I loved the scenes with their larger family, the clear love for each other and strong connection to their area of Brooklyn; both the family relationships and the scene-setting felt vivid and real. And their mother, though physically absent in almost the entire story, is still this larger-than-life figure in their recollections of childhood moments and through her letters, which I thought was just one really well done aspect of the writing overall. What I liked even more than that about the writing: beyond being just a character-driven dysfunctional family story, there's actually a decent bit of plot pacing and suspense in the politics (you get some Russian mob types, some scheming wealthy people blackmailing congressman Prieto, even some FBI agents looking for info on their mom), all set against the backdrop of Hurricane Irma and the devastation it brought to the island. This all made the story extra engaging - though admittedly I was a bit confused at times regarding the Puerto Rican politics and US policies, a clear indicator of my own lack of knowledge. I'm still thinking about this one a couple of weeks after finishing, so my waffling on whether to put it at 5 stars may end up bumping it up! ★★★★.5
• The Verifiers: this is described as a contemporary, digital-age whodunit, and it was fun/intriguing/clever, for something a bit different in content and in tone from anything else I've been reading lately. Claudia Lin is a queer, Chinese-American 20-something (this all plays into the story) who gets a new job as a "verifier" for an online dating agency, checking into whether how people represent themselves on dating apps is accurate. When a new client goes missing, Claudia secretly goes against her employer to try to investigate - but it's hard to know what's fact and fiction when it comes to who people are behind their user names, and whether anything sinister is actually going on... The overall sort of modern/snarky tone and attitude of the protagonist and family issues and sleuthing actually reminded me a lot of Magic for Liars, so definitely recommend this one to fans of that one (see my review here); and while the tone is very different (not thrillery or romancey) it also reminded me a bit of books with a focus on online matchmaking apps like John Marrs' The One or even a little bit Christina Lauren's The Soulmate Equation. The mashup of (immigrant) family expectations drama + meta-mystery (as an amateur sleuth Claudia keeps thinking about what the star of her favorite cozy mystery series would do) + exploration of the online matchmaking concept and how the online age affects our personal/relationship choices made for an interesting read, though one I had to pay more attention to perhaps than I expected with a "fun" mystery to get what was going on. ★★★.5

What was your best book of May? Got any great beach/pool reads on the docket for June?

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5 things Friday: November TBR edition

October's not quite over yet, but I've finished all of the books on my TBR for the month, and in general it was so successful that I couldn't wait to come and report on them. Also got me excited for putting together a November list, since I did so well with my picks for this month... I ended dup with kind of a random mix for November, but it's all stuff on my shelf, and all stuff that has some orangey fall feels to the covers, so that seems like good enough reason for this lineup! 

For starters, I've got Wintering, a meditation on "the power of rest and retreat in difficult times," which has been on my list for a while after hearing such good reviews; as we go into the literal winter season in Michigan this definitely feels like the time to pick it up. 

Then I've got another feminist Greek mythology retelling, Elektra; I actually just read (and enjoyed) Ariadne by this author, and then this one ended up on my shelf because Hendrik noticed it at the library when he was there with Peter one day and suggested they bring it home for me because he thought I might like it too. Isn't that sweet?

And a few more contemporary fiction options: People Person, a family dramedy (smart and with heart, if her first novel, Queenie, is anything to go by); Maizy Chen's Last Chance, a middle grade read about an Asian American girl and her family's Chinese restaurant that I heard about on From the Front Porch; and then a grown-up story of an Asian American family and their restaurant located in the midwest that I coincidentally have on my shelf - this time a literary family drama with a touch of mystery, The Family Chao.

Excited to pick these up soon and report back in a month. Meanwhile, here's October's recap...

For October I chose my version of "spooky" - nothing scary, but still some seasonal feels with some fantasy and ghosts and such. And aside from one disappointment (and a BOTM again - really not doing well with them this year!), it was a most excellent reading month:

• The Change: okay, this one gets a bit bonkers by the end and has a way higher body count than I was expecting, but I could not put it down. Billed as "feminist revenge fantasy", it reads as juicy and gossipy, like the best of Liane Moriarty, but with a magical realism/fantastical twist: three women find that with middle life (i.e. menopause) comes unexpected empowering gifts. It's as if their rage has physical manifestations, like literally emanating heat enough to melt things and start fires. When a young woman in their wealthy coastal town is found dead and is written off by the police as an addict, these three women find each other and their gifts, coming together to figure out who the girl was and get justice for her - but finding that this is just the tip of the iceberg in missing girls, and the men who run things are doing nothing about it. I loved the mystery aspect, the friendship aspect, and the author's creativity in coming up with these women's newfound powers, along with how they use them to uncover the truth and bring their own form of justice. And while a wild ride of an unputdownable read, with that fun slightly snarky tone, there also was SO much to think about and unpack here - it's about when women are overlooked despite their skills and accomplishments, when they become invisible to the world (middle age, poor immigrants), how our lives are in some ways ruled by fear of what men could/might do to us, and what it could be like to be fully empowered to band together and do something about it. Content warning that there is some ick about men and underage girls (think Jeffrey Epstein type wealthy men behaving abhorrently); the tone made it not to depressing and horrible, but definitely some bad things happen to women in this story. All in all, I found it fascinating fun, though it almost goes off the rails at the end there - definitely a good way to channel your feminist rage for a few hours. ★★★★
• Unlikely Animals: A 5-star reading experience that felt fresh and unique, but also enjoyably familiar, as though it had mashed up my favorite elements of Goodbye, Vitamin (Rachel Khong), Nothing to See Here (Kevin Wilson), Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders), and Mostly Dead Things (Kristen Arnett). The result is a darkly comic, warm-hearted story narrated by the ghosts of a small-town cemetery as they observe a flailing 20-something return home to help care for her father, dying too young of dementia, and also make something of her own seemingly failed potential and family/friend relationships. It's a little weird and has a lot of elements going on (comedy bordering on silliness, tragedy, supernatural elements, family drama, small-town life and quirks and history, opioid epidemic, and hilarious 5th graders to name a few), but it all works - and it easily won me over thanks to the underlying feel that, as she mentioned in a great interview on Sarah's Bookshelves Live, Annie Hartnett writes from a place of understanding humans' difficulties and conflicts, but "just wanting everyone to be okay." ★★★★★
• The Fortunes of Jaded Women: here's my disappointer of the month - for a short book it just felt like it was a such a drawn-out family dramedy, I think partly because it was hard to know if it was actually supposed to be about the drama (and the immigrant, diaspora, prejudice, generational trauma etc. issues faced by a Vietnamese family in America) or if it was supposed to be about the comedy, which veered into the slapstick with the feuding 60-something sisters throwing oranges at each other and stuff like that, seeming like caricatures rather than characters to really get to know and root for. The contrast was just too much I guess? It made the characters a bit forgettable for me, rather than endearing. And unlike Unlikely Animals, the mix of "real" with the magical realism element just didn't work for me in this one. ★★.5
• Amari and the Night Brothers: my new favorite middle-grade fantasy series! I was just so sucked in and satisfied by this one and can't wait to read the next installment. It has a lot of my favorite elements of my recent fave, the Nevermoor series (strong female character, creative world-building that is easy to follow and get into and also has some clever delights to smile at, great story pacing, nicely dealing with some preteen/universal emotions and struggles), but I like even more the basis in the real world - and then having the protagonist come into this whole world of magic that she had no idea existed. It has the "chosen one" arc in the way of Harry Potter, where Amari is a seemingly average kid, but it turns out she was born with so much magic in her, nobody in the "other" world can quite believe it. She has to learn what this unseen world even is while fighting prejudice against magicians. That theme of prejudice was really well done - it drew on her life as a black kid in Atlanta and how she and her family are judged for their skin color or for living in the projects, and then how in the same way people fear what they don't know or what they think is "other" in the magic world, not giving her a chance when they learn she is a magician. I don't think you even need any more synopsis. Just know that if you like a school for magic type situation with a great protagonist, this is a must-read! ★★★★.5
• A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting: if you like recent Regency romances like the Bridgerton series or Bringing Down the Duke but find the steaminess to be a bit much (or distracting from the story, like I sometimes do) - here's a great suggestion! It's set in that time period and gives you the reluctant young duke who has to figure out his new duties and is also not interested in marriage, along with the young woman who needs to get married to secure a comfortable future for herself - and her four younger sisters. It draws on the themes of Jane Austen regarding the limited options/agency for women, the tension between marrying for security and marrying for love, and the tension/forbidden movement between social/economic classes - but it's more explicit in discussing these issues, through what the characters think and say. You also get a bit of interesting history of the period that Austen doesn't quite go into but just hints at - like what war were all of these regimental officers that Lydia Bennet is obsessed with actually fighting in? The story is predictable, but if you like a nod to Austen (without being a retelling) and you like the pluck of modern writing about the era like Bridgerton, it is oh so delightful. Note that if you need some steam, you might find this one boring, but for me it was a cute amount of chemistry and cheekiness; no bedroom scenes at all, but the banter is really all I need! ★★★★

reading lately: shiny and new

As mentioned when I shared my intended March reading list, I made a goal this year of reading at least 10 backlist books, because I know how easy it is for me to get distracted by the shiny and new things out there, whether it's from the library new releases shelf, Netgalley e-galleys that tempt me based on podcast buzz or knowledge of favorite authors, or that Book of the Month temptation email that arrives on the first of every month. Case in point, these 5 books that I've already read in 2020 before I managed to get to the first of my backlist pile... but sorry not sorry - because they were all worth it!

Long Bright River
Mickey is a Philadelphia police officer whose beat covers a neighborhood that is , where her younger sister Kacey lives on the streets. Though they are currently estranged, she's always keeping an eye out for her sister while on patrol - and then she happens to go missing at the same time that a string of murders crops up in the area. It's both a page-turning police procedural and a moving tale of sisters with a difficult upbringing that examines their relationship, looks at how they went on such different paths, and shows what addiction can do to a family - as well as a vivid illustration of a time and place in an area of a city, such that Philadelphia and the current opioid epidemic really feels like a character too. This one has been a quite buzzed about new release on podcasts/blogs/Instagram, and it's one that definitely lived up to the hype for me. While it doesn't feel quite as psychologically dark as some of Tana French's work, this book definitely gave me a lot of the vibes I love in her work - a bit of grit, and a main character in the police/detective realm whose past and present get intertwined in their work, which can lead to questionable decisions yet excellent suspense. Really well written, really compulsive reading.
4.5/5 stars, grabbed from library express checkout (and now regret not having chosen as my Book of the Month Dec 2019 book)


Such a Fun Age
This is another very buzzed book - which happily also lived up to the hype for me - that is juicy good reading (I mean, some of the drama these characters create in their lives and relationships!) but also presents some really pointed social commentary and timely issues for consideration, especially regarding race and privilege. So it's great for discussion, but the issues are woven in to the characters' interactions such that you don't feel preached to while reading, but you can go along for an entertaining ride. In the story, Emira is a young 20s black woman who is still figuring out what she wants to do with her life post-college; for now, she is babysitter to Briar, the 2-year-old daughter of well-to-do white lady Alix Chamberlin and her husband Peter. After a race-motivated incident with a security guard at high-end grocery store near the Chamberlin's home while Emira was babysitting, Alix decides she's going to make things right by developing a sort of mentor relationship with Emira. This well-intentioned but also quite misguided attitude leads to some squirmy situations, but it also reflects back this same fundamental misunderstanding and misguidedness that many white people might have, and their discomfort with figuring out how to address issues of race and privilege in their daily lives. The book went places I didn't expect (again, in the way of juicy good reading) when it delved into Alix's backstory and Emira's relationship with her new boyfriend, and it was great. Loved the sweet relationship Emira and Briar had, and I also liked how I happened to read, in the same month, two very different books about very different parts of Philadelphia - it made for an interesting pairing with the different angles on life in this book's wealthy neighborhood vs. one greatly affected by the opioid epidemic in Long Bright River.
4.5/5 stars, received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review


Yes No Maybe So
Awkward high-schooler Jamie Goldberg is roped in to spending his summer vacation helping out in the Georgia state house election campaign that his cousin is managing - which is fine, as long as he doesn't actually have to talk to someone, which always gets him tongue-tied and flustered. Meanwhile, Maya is having a bummer of a summer with her parents on a trial separation and her best friend leaving her behind for college, so she's not too pleased to be pushed into political campaigning by her mom as well. But then when Maya and Jamie get paired as canvassing partners, things get a little more interesting. As they work together, encounter bigotry that hit close to home (Maya is Muslim and Jamie is Jewish), and grow in confidence and passion for making a difference through politics, they learn a lot from each other about standing up for themselves and others, about using their voices, and maybe about their unexpected feelings for each other.... This is the type of big-hearted YA (along the lines of Rainbow Rowell or Nicola Yoon or Julie Buxbaum) that just hits the spot sometimes - particularly when they throw in a bunch of stuff you're a sucker for, like characters who love Target and goldfish crackers. While it perhaps doesn't have the will stick with me forever feel that some others in this genre have, it's still just the right mix of exploring big issues of our time from the perspective of a teen (especially interesting here to think about the politics of this era from the perspective of kids who are affected by/understanding of these decisions but not quite old enough to actually vote, as well as high schoolers' experiences with racism/ethnocentrism), and lighthearted love story with good banter. Plus the feel-good idealism of these teenagers' politics is a balm for this Trump era.
3.5/5 stars, Book of the Month YA Feb 2020 pick


When We Were Vikings
Zelda is a 21-year-old Viking enthusiast who lives her life around a Viking code, aiming to be a legend in her own right: taking care of her "tribe", doing battle with those who intend them harm. As we see the world through her eyes, we view how her cognitive differences (which we eventually learn are due to fetal alcohol syndrome) influence how she interacts with the world and learning to be self-sufficient in it (from learning about love and sex, to dealing with traumas of the past, to figuring out how to interact in a workplace) and also how she handles things when her brother/caregiver gets in over his head with some questionable people as he tries to make enough money to keep them going. Zelda takes on saving him as her personal quest, and in the process she shows all of the people in her life how she can live beyond her label of being developmentally challenged. The blurbs on this one say it's for fans of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime or The Silver Linings Playbook; while I can see some echoes of both, what it reminded me most of was another of Matthew Quick's books, The Good Luck of Right Now (which if you haven't read, you should - 5 stars for me), with a similar tone of storytelling and with these protagonists who have their quirky obsessions, don't quite fit society's mold, and are on a quest to save their family, all the while really capturing the reader's heart. I admit I felt a little weird at times wondering about whether the (male) author is really capable of portraying the mind of a young woman with FAS (you know, all that American Dirt controversy and such), and I thought the constant references to her Viking obsession were a little overkill at times, but the overall message of resilience and the big-hearted feels sucked me in after 50-100 pages of getting to know Zelda, and I loved her and her story in the end.
4/5 stars, Book of the Month Jan 2020 pick


Pretty Things
Kind of liked reading this one without much knowledge of where it was going to go, so I'm not going to give too much plot summary other than: Nina's dream of avoiding following her mother's life of grifting and con games by getting a college degree falls apart when she finds herself under loads of student debt with a mother dying of cancer and in need of expensive treatments. With her boyfriend, Lachlan, she turns to Instagram to stalk filthy rich 20-somethings, seduce them, and "relieve" them of valuables. Eventually her sights land on major social media influencer Vanessa, a privileged young heiress who has just inherited her family's estate in Tahoe. While Nina and Lachlan come up with a con to finagle their way into Vanessa's life in order to take advantage of her wealth, the reader gets the backstory on just why Nina has a particular grudge against Vanessa, along with Vanessa's point of view about her difficult family and the present situation. While I did like how the same parts of the story were told from both Nina and Vanessa's points of view (so that you get two angles on the same situation, and it takes a while to decide which narrator you can trust), it sometimes felt a bit repetitive, so at first I wasn't sure this was going to be higher than a 3-star read for me - also because these characters weren't particularly likeable or sympathetic early on. Eventually they both really worked their way into my feelings though and I began to have more understanding of why they would be/act the way they are. So I really liked how in the end that provided some real depth, beyond just the twists and turns of the plot (which also turned out to be juicy), by exploring their histories and their psyches - makes it a good psychological thriller-lite that goes beyond "just" that. Also really liked the bit of art history mystery part (Nina's degree gives her expertise in this area, which facilitates her stealing/reselling of items) and the commentary on the facade/personas of social media influencers that Vanessa's character illustrates.
3.5/5 stars, received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review (publishes in April)


What new releases have you been tempted into picking up lately?

Not that I need any more on my list... while I have now indeed finished The Heart's Invisible Furies (the one sitting on my shelf for so long that prompted me to do this 10 backlist books challenge), I've also devoured a couple of other new releases as well - One of Us Is Next and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (can't help myself when it comes to YA mystery!), so I need to make myself get to the next backlist one now... I think that will be The Road Back to You and/or Prep.


Sharing on Show Us Your Books.

five things Friday: May favorites edition

Here's the most favorite thing about May: three-day weekend! But there were a lot of other fun things to remark on from the month too - here are five favorites:

binge watch: I'm a devotee of Anne of Green Gables and have watched the 1985 production many times, so there was a high bar for a new one - and while it didn't get overall amazing reviews (it is definitely a darker and grittier rendition), I loved the new Anne with an E on Netflix. Only problem was that I had other obligations and couldn't watch all 6 hours in one sitting...but I came as close as I could.

gift idea: everlasting blooms from Amaranthus Paper & Flora. I've been oogling them online for a long time, so I decided it was finally time to order - such a lovely Mother's Day gift for my mom and mother-in-law.

breakfast: I remembered how much I like hashes and have been back at making batches of these lately. Even as breakfast for dinner - since that's Hendrik's favorite.

re-wear: I posted this month about some favorite spring outfits, and I'm still really into the chambray + white. Can't wait to do the summer version with this one-shoulder number soon though!

activity: road biking! I got out a couple of times in April and did spinning classes all winter, but it's feeling so great to be moving outside, and to have the sunshine to go with it.


And now off to a beach holiday weekend, and then launching into my favorite month. (Duh, birthday month!)

reading lately: June roundup

The unintentional theme of this month's reading: revisiting authors I have enjoyed before. These authors made for a good reading month, with the new-to-me ones unfortunately being my two meh reads of the month. For July I'm actually planning to continue this "theme" partly as I got the new Taylor Jenkins Reid book for my birthday (+ the new Fredrik Backman as my BOTM birthday month freebie) and partly as I am not going to be able to wait much longer to continue in the Thursday Murder Club series - the 2nd one was my favorite book of June!

Literary/contemporary fiction

The Strange Case of Jane O.: When her son is only a few months old, Jane suffers from a couple of strange, amnesia type episodes that present a total mystery to the detectives who found her after she was missing for a few days, and also to the psychiatrist she comes to for help. Between this psychiatrist's case notes about his sessions with Jane, and Jane's journal in the form of letters to her son, Karen Thompson Walker again presents a character-driven yet unputdownable speculative mystery. What I really love about her books is that at the same time as being fascinating in their speculative fiction genre (real world with just one or two sci-fi type of tweaks) they are also insightful and real in their human emotions. She does that again here - with profound and also relatable reflections on motherhood through Jane's journal - and on top of it she gives the reader a super interesting twist on the "unreliable narrator" reading experience. What are we to make of Jane's account - is it an overwhelmed new mother with legitimate anxieties about the world "falling apart"? Is it mental illness or delusion speaking? Is she faking things? And then the psychiatrist's case notes too - can we trust everything here, or are there biases at play based on the warm feelings he has for Jane? And as he acknowledges, we all have our own version of events, with memory being an ephemeral and influenceable thing. All of this makes for an interesting puzzle-like reading experience and one that very much invites discussion on the themes of love, memory, identity, and fate. I'd say go in with only those details and see how it unfolds! ★★★★.25

Once There Were Wolves: After finding her new release (Wild Dark Shore) to be a 5-star read for me, I was eager to look into Charlotte McConaghy's backlist. This book, her sophomore novel, while quite different in setting and plot, definitely was immediately recognizable as being by the same authors, as it focused on themes of climate change and its affect on human life; scientific research/conservation; remote and rugged geographical setting; the wildness of the world, which humans erroneously think they can/have tamed; and the place human love and relationship have in this. In Once There Were Wolves, Inti Flynn leads a team of biologists who are re-introducing wolves to places they have gone extinct, in an effort to reinstate the natural ecosystem/regenerate the land, and the team arrives to a rugged and remote area of Scotland facing the resistance of the local sheep farmers, in addition to the tenuousness of this project of getting 14 wolves to survive and thrive in their new home. As the wolves settle in and the project seems to be going successfully, Inti also starts to settle a little, coming out of her protective shell and developing relationships with local community members. But then when tragedy strikes and a farmer is found dead, Inti knows the wolves will be blamed - and she is ready to do whatever it takes to prevent this. There's a little bit of a mystery/crime investigation element that drives the plot, in addition to great nature writing + eerie cli-fi vibes, as well as exploration of themes around love, grief, and connection in family (especially sisters, but also motherhood). Definitely a well-done story and intriguing plot even if I didn't find it quite as strongly developed/well written as Wild Dark Shore (it maybe felt a bit more "commercial" and Wild Dark Shore leaning more literary?). It was perhaps a bit related to the alternating "before" timeline in Once There Were Wolves that delves into the trauma that Inti and her twin Aggie went through that drove them to move from Alaska to Scotland for this project. That part sometimes felt a bit too drawn out or like it was leading the reader on; I thought the present-day storyline was the better part and couldn't put it down in the last 50 pages. ★★★★

Didn't You Use to Be Queenie B?: Regina is a former celebrity chef known as Queenie B who burned all her bridges and flamed out in a big way a decade ago, with ego and substance abuse issues galore. She's now in recovery and lives incognito, running a soup kitchen as a self-imposed way to atone for her past. Gale is an up-and-coming chef who is trying to maintain his own sobriety while he fights guilt over the death of a friend and while he tries to make ends meet in the low-paying start of working his way up to sous chef. He meets prickly Regina when he goes to her soup kitchen for a meal, and when he starts volunteering to help he starts to thaw her icy demeanor, while she starts to become an important mentor for him. But will her identity stay secret, and will they both stay on the straight-and-narrow when life is throwing a lot their way... I like a look behind-the-scenes of chef life (my favorite episode on Top Chef is often "restaurant week", when you see the ins-and-outs of launching a restaurant from concept to menu to opening night), so I liked that aspect of this book, but in general for me there was way too much "tell" (vs. "show") to the writing in terms of the characters' emotions and lessons learned; it made the whole thing feel too drawn out and unsubtle. It's light, heartwarming reading that's not a romance - rare to find - the slow plot and choppy/repetitive sentence structure just didn't quite work for me, though I managed to get invested just enough to stick it out to the end. However, if you liked Colton Gentry's Third Act, this one might be a hit for you - similar in the general second-chances themes, as well as this intermingling of grief, substance abuse, and recovery with working in a restaurant being part of that journey. ★★★

Mystery/thriller

Trust Her: In the follow up to Northern Spy, sisters Tessa and Marian have built a new life under new identities after escaping their role as MI5 informers in Northern Ireland, but they can't evade the IRA forever. They are drawn back into The Troubles as IRA operatives threaten their lives and their children's' lives, unless they find their old MI5 handler and try to turn him informant. This literary suspense/spy novel is full of character depth and emotion, at the same time the tension is super high with all of these potentially shifting loyalties; it's nearly impossible for Tessa to figure out who they can trust and how they can navigate the situation and protect their children at the same time - making this book hard to put down and a very quick read. I think Flynn Berry does such a good job of keeping this taut feeling the whole time as the reader is with Tessa in waiting for the other shoe to drop, and not having any idea of who is trustworthy as there are so many potential double agents in the picture - and yet in the midst of all of this Tessa still has such mundane things to deal with, the school dropoffs and time at the playground and meltdowns over mealtime pickiness. It's an extreme contrast of the juggle that motherhood is - the woman who has a past and responsibilities and conflicts outside of her child, and at the same time has to balance this with being that child and his focus on the present moment. Makes for some profound thoughts and also a more interesting/better read than your average spy thriller, as with Northern Spy. (Also it does not have the type of ick/torture that make me avoid most spy books, which I appreciate.) ★★★★.25

The Man Who Died Twice: Despite their great friendship, the Thursday Murder Club crew Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim are starting to find life at their retirement community a tad boring again after all of the excitement of the mysteries they solved in book one, when 2 new projects fall in their laps: the unfortunate attack on Ibrahim by some local hoodlums (and the version of revenge that his friends want to exact), and the return of some people from Elizabeth's MI-5 spy days, bringing with them a mystery caper with stolen diamonds and safe houses and international thugs. Somehow this was all even more delightful to read than book 1?! There's a lot going on, but the plot comes together, and it perfectly walks the line between being fun and zippy without being too zany. I adore each of the friends' individual personalities, and how they come together with such great banter, and as with the first book it's just delightfully amusing how get the best of unsuspecting law officials, etc. with their witty repartee, wearing down anyone who tries to converse with them, or they play on the invisibility of the elderly and/or the assumptions that people have about them to get stuff done in their own way. Some of the side characters from book 1 get bigger parts and a bit more character development, and I love them too, especially police officer Donna and contractor/tough guy Bogdan; adding them in makes it feel like the series can continue to be fresh and fun in book 3, and I can't wait to pick it up soon. If you liked this one, try Killers of a Certain Age - it has the "certain age" and more of the spy/assassin angle of that one, beyond just the amateur detective part. ★★★★.5

Historical fiction

Go As a River: I'm not a huge reader of straight-up historical fiction, but the time and location of this debut novel - beginning in 1950s rugged Colorado - felt like it would be different from settings I've read about before, and definitely a shake-up from what I've been reading lately. Unfortunately the "sweeping" and "epic" that the cover copy promises fell a little flat for me. The story follows Tori, a motherless teenager who is in charge of all of the "women's" work at her family's peach farm, who runs into an outsider arriving into town one day- after which their brief love affair changes the course of their lives forever. What felt "sweeping" to me was not something in a grand sense, but instead a sense that felt like we skipped over a bunch of character and relationship development, with very little dialogue and fairly big jumps in time. Most of all, this love between Wilson and Tori was supposed to be so grand, but the "instalove" part of it was so unconvincing to me, and their subsequent time together was barely fleshed out (and was such a minor part of the book) that it didn't seem like it was something that should set the course of the rest of the book. And all this buildup to what end? The nature writing was evocative, but the characters lacked depth in terms of feeling like I connected with them or at least that they could be real people, and the slow moving plot was a bit ho-hum for me. I know of some people who loved this one, and I can see how readers of historical fiction who don't mind slower plots would like it, but for me as a non-regular historical fiction reader, it didn't have enough pull to reel me in to the genre. ★★★

Now that we're halfway through the year I thought I'd put together a halfway top 10 - stay tuned next week to see if any of my June reads made it under the wire for that list...

five things Friday: most popular edition

I'm not planning to do any shopping myself in January (thought I would just jump right on that "no-buy month" goal I have on my 20 in 2020 list, along with the yoga month!), but I always find it fascinating on other blogs when they post readers' favorite (i.e. most-clicked) items - so I thought that in lieu of my own e-cart clicking, I would check out what your most popular picks for the last month were:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

And I must say, you all have great taste - because these most-clicked items are some of my very favorite things to wear lately. Not surprisingly (based on how many times I've posted about it), the sweater blazer was my most favorite clothing purchase of last year, and was included in my top outfits of the year too, so I'm also not surprised it came in as the most popular item with readers in the last month as well. The boots were a late 2019 purchase for me, but they might have ended up being my favorite footwear addition of the year, thanks to how comfortable and versatile they are (not to mention waterproof).

Plenty more sweater (and boot) weather left, so these will all get plenty more wear here - and I recommend them all if you're in the market for anything similar!

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currently

traveling: around the Midwest - to Chicago last weekend for my sister's residency graduation, which also included a bike ride along the lakeshore and a ladies' Michigan Ave shopping day. So fun (even if we didn't manage to track down this adorable donut truck at the end of our bike ride). Next up, Minneapolis for work later this month.

grilling: veggies, after I remembered this balsamic grilled summer vegetables with quinoa recipe I used to make a lot (one of my first in my Pinterest series!). Great way to celebrate the opening of the farmer's market for the season.

exploring: the Modern Mrs. Darcy 2018 summer reading guide. Aside from the obvious picks (sequel to Beartown released yesterday!), the ones I hadn't yet heard about and am most excited to check out are Convenience Store Woman and Visible Empire.

planting: dahlias that I hope will turn out as amazing as these farmer's market ones from last summer. (Actually, full disclosure: Peter's the one doing the planting and tending of the tubers given to us by a skilled dahlia grower at church, though Hendrik and I did assist by handing him items after he dug holes...)

playing: at the beach, as much as possible! Lake Michigan in the summer is just the best.

So that's the latest with me as we get started on my favorite month of the year. How about you? Hop over to see what my co-host for the month - Sarah of Total Basset Case - is up to, and then link up your post below!

Next month's will be a 4th of July linkup, with some prompts that will be fun for the holiday: celebrating, visiting, baking, wearing, and loving. Shelly of The Queen in Between will be co-hosting with me, and we hope you'll join us then.

An InLinkz Link-up