Monday again – and the start of a busy week, after a busy weekend, that followed a previous busy week. There’s no rest for the wicked, is there? Unpacking continues to be a slow and laborious process; today our reusable moving boxes are being picked up, so getting them all emptied out and stacked up in the garage was the top priority and everything else – other house projects I wanted to do, and of course reading – took a backseat. I’m glad to report that we did finish with the reusable boxes and I rewarded myself with an hour on the couch reading Trollope.

Right, so about reading. The Thirty-First of June is on here because I actually turned the final page on Monday of last week. But in reality, the week’s reading was devoted to two books: The Last Chronicle of Barset – my final Classics Club Challenge read, WOW – in hardcover, and One Summer: America 1927 on audio. The Last Chronicle of Barset would’ve been a good winter read, as the action largely takes place between November and February, and it’s the darkest of the series. This would have been useful information to consider when I was deciding to save the final two Barsetshire novels to read during the summer as a treat. Whoops. Still really enjoying it, though – many, many characters from previous Barsetshire books make appearances and I’m holding out hope for a happy ending for at least some of them. I will report back.

And on audio, I’m a little more than a third of the way through One Summer and enjoying it immensely. This one certainly is a seasonally appropriate read, and every detail – from the main plotlines (for lack of a better word – this is nonfiction) to the many interesting little tangents Bryson just loves – has been so interesting. The audiobook is read by the author and wonderfully engaging; I am finding myself looking for excuses to run errands so I can listen more.

On deck for this coming week – more of the same. I’m not quite halfway through The Last Chronicle of Barset and even if I read one hundred pages a day (generally an achievable pace for me, but not always in a busy season) I won’t get through the book before next weekend. So I’m nowhere near ready to think about what’s next. And the same goes for One Summer. It’s a long book and the audiobook is a commitment, and even at nearly 40% of the way through I still have nine hours and change to go. (I’ll be down in the eights after camp pickup today…) Commutes and errands aren’t going to take me that long, so I’ll still be listening to One Summer this time next week – but that’s fine. I can already tell that this is one of those books which, long as it is, I’ll be sad to see end.

This past weekend wasn’t ALL work and no play. On Saturday we went to a Washington Nationals game – the tickets were Steve’s gift for Father’s Day, but we all like going to baseball games. This was a good one, too, at least for awhile. The Nats hit four home runs in three innings and were leading 8-0 when the skies opened up and sent all of the fans scurrying for cover. The rain was coming down in such buckets that they covered the field and called a rain delay, and we left. As it turns out, we saw all the best plays of the game in those three innings; they resumed some hours later and the Nats ended up winning 8-3. We all had fun, but Nugget was the happiest of all; he had the biggest grin and nearly jumped out of his seat at every home run. He’s already looking forward to his next baseball practice so he can tell his coach all the details of the game.

What are you reading this week?