Well – it’s Monday again. Whatever. Is my exhaustion and lack of motivation coming through the computer screen at you?

I was just chatting with a work teammate and we both agreed that for the first time in our respective lives, we’re burnt out but it’s not because of work. Work is definitely busy, but it’s general life stuff that has us grinding away right now. For my part, I really need some fun. I’ve been going hard on house projects and unpacking for months now without a break and I’m just… spent. Hence the mini reading slump I’ve been fighting off for most of the first half of September (not that you can tell from the gallery above).

So I spent the weekend doing basically nothing – not getting fresh air, as I’d hoped, but also not unpacking, as I should have done. Just sitting on the couch staring into space most of the time, and reading some. And yet somehow, miraculously, I finished five books last week – five. One, In Love with George Eliot, was an audiobook – and to be perfectly honest, I didn’t love it. The other four, I banged out over the second half of the week and the weekend. First, I finally finished The Hotel on Tuesday – for a book that was under 200 pages, it took me a long time to read. (Elizabeth Bowen, I will figure you out. Someday.) Then, needing something a little easier going, I picked up Letters to Michael: A Father Writes to His Son, 1945-1947, which I’d been saving for September as it seemed like such a good read for back-to-school season. It was, and I adored it and finished it the same day. Gentle, sweet, charming – just what the doctor ordered. Moving right along – I’ve been meaning to read My Turn to Make the Tea, Monica Dickens’ memoir of her time working as a junior reporter on a local newspaper just after World War II, and while it had its moments that reminded me it was published in 1951, I really enjoyed it – Dickens’ writing is sharp and funny; she definitely inherited the gift for humor from her great-grandfather Charles. I wrapped it up on Sunday morning, then read Slightly Foxed, issue 78 – the summer issue, and not a moment too soon as I’m expecting the fall issue any day now – the same day. Whew.

Still with me? If you can believe it – considering I was slumping hard over the past few weeks – that long list was just the books I finished last week. I’ve also got two on the go: The Fortnight in September, a re-read, which I’m listening to for the first time on audio. (The narrator is wonderful – I can already tell that I’m going to want to revisit this one via my earbuds every September.) And The Wheel Spins, which was last month’s BL Crime Classics publication and takes place in early September. I’ve just started it – only read the first chapter before bed last night – so no impressions to share as it’s too early pages to tell. But I’ve heard good things, so I’m excited to dig in. Assuming I have the energy after that blitz of reading – not to mention the work and life stuff that never seems to stop piling on.

Since all I did over the weekend was bum around the house, I don’t have a fun adventure picture to show you. Maybe next weekend? In the meantime, at least it’s hot fall beverage season. While I don’t like pumpkin spice, I never turn down a hot cider – and this is a cider chai latte from the cute local coffee shop on the ground floor of my office. Yes, PLEASE.

What are you reading this week?