I flaked on you last week with this post – sorry about that. Have you ever seen the meme that reads “Adulthood is saying ‘next week things will calm down’ over and over until you die”? That’s my vibe right now. And here’s how I know it’s really hectic: every year I set a goal on the Goodreads Reading Challenge and it’s always the same number: 104, which works out to exactly two books a week, and since I typically read between two and three books a week – sometimes more and sometimes less – that’s been about the right number for me. Knowing that summer and fall are my busiest seasons, I try to build a cushion early in the year, and it’s a good thing I did this year. I’ve been checking my progress periodically and it’s dropped from eight books ahead of schedule, to six, to four, and yesterday it said “You’re on track!” My reading pace has dropped so much that I’ve burned through my entire cushion. Ouch.

Things have been so frenetic that I can’t remember offhand what I was reading the week before last – and yes, I could go look it up but I’m not going to do that – so let’s just blow past that one and talk about last week. I’d been saving The Starless Sea for a long time and decided it seemed like a good book to read in November. It was definitely a chilly-season-appropriate choice (the action pretty much all takes place in January) but I bogged down in it. After loving The Night Circus, I had high hopes for this but found myself agreeing with my BFF, Rebecca, who had been a bit disappointed. The story just felt disjointed, and while I loved the wealth of creative detail at first, eventually even that got overwhelming and I was just ready to be done. Can’t win ’em all.

After The Starless Sea I was looking for something much shorter and quicker to read, and I had Things Fall Apart out from the library with a looming deadline (haven’t been in that situation in awhile!) so I turned to that and read it in almost one sitting. It’s a slim novel – my edition clocked in at 207 pages – but packs an outsized punch and I found it incredibly compelling. I finished it this morning over my coffee, so watch this space: full Classics Club post coming soon. Next up I’m planning to read the first installment of Iris Origo’s World War II diaries, A Chill in the Air, and am really looking forward to it; I expect it will be fascinating.

Another bluebird day on the trail yesterday, and I was so mad at myself for forgetting to charge my wildlife camera – because we saw TWO bald eagles and an adorable screech owl, and there I was with only my iPhone. Rookie mistake.

What are you reading this week?

First of all – happy Halloween, friends! I hope you have a fun evening ahead – whatever that looks like for you, whether it’s trick-or-treating with your anklebiters, answering the door and exclaiming over costumes (my favorite part of Halloween, and it’s the great tragedy of my life that nowhere I’ve lived in adulthood has been a big draw for trick-or-treaters…), takeout and a scary movie, you name it. I will be heading out trick-or-treating with Cleopatra and a cowboy this year.

It was another slow reading week – ’tis the season of my current state of life, I guess, although I keep holding out hope for more reading time. I had another busy workweek and found myself working past 8:00 p.m. on multiple nights this week (it happens – at least I like what I do these days!) and also hosted my friend Zan for an overnight visit on Wednesday. We stayed up way too late, drinking wine and chatting as hard as we could – we had months of life to catch up on – and absolutely zero regrets. And then the weekend was as busy as they always are; it was Marine Corps Marathon weekend and Nugget and I were each running – him in the kids’ mile on Saturday, and me in the Marine Corps 10K on Sunday. (Legs are sore today.)

All that’s to say: I am still plodding through Sylvia’s Lovers in hardcover and Lovely War on audio. I’m less than 100 pages from the end of Sylvia’s Lovers now, so I will definitely finish it this week – mark my words! Not tonight, because it’s Halloween and my tradition for the last few years has been to read Rainbow Rowell’s delightful graphic novel Pumpkinheads on Halloween night. But hopefully tomorrow evening, because on Wednesday I leave for a quick trip to Seattle and I am not bringing that doorstopper with me. I’d say I probably wouldn’t finish Lovely War (I still have over eight hours to go, even listening on 1.1 speed) but with two cross-country flights ahead of me this week I actually might. Watch this space!

The first post-pandemic running race – consider the band-aid ripped! I rode in the DC Bike Ride last year, so that was an in-person event, but I haven’t actually toed a running start line since pre-2020. It felt so good to be back, and Nugget got bit hard by the running bug on Saturday and is already begging me to find him another race. I don’t want him running 5Ks until he’s eight, but luckily there is a nearby Turkey Trot with a kids’ mile, so it’s now on my list to register us both.

What are you reading for Mischief Night?

Rather another slow reading week – oof. I suspect they’re going to be like this for awhile – at least another few weeks, if not longer. It was another busy one at work, and long days of working until after 8:00pm left me with very little energy to spare for anything else, including reading. This is going to be another busy week, but I have to find ways to balance it out a little better, so I’ll be working on that.

But about the reading I did do. I finished up Death on the Down Beat early in the week and absolutely loved it – such a fun format (I always enjoy an epistolary novel) and a great premise. I didn’t guess whodunit, and it was fun to be surprised. I’d thought I would finish it on Monday night (or even Monday morning over my coffee) but it took me until Tuesday; see above, crazy work week. Then I turned to Sylvia’s Lovers, another one off my Classics Club list and the final Elizabeth Gaskell novel I had yet to read (unless you count The Life of Charlotte Bronte, which was pretty heavily fictionalized… I haven’t read that yet, either). My edition is 460 pages, so I felt that was very doable over the course of a week. But again, crazy work week – and add that to a lot of dialect, and it’s a recipe for slow reading. I’m about a third of the way through now, and cherishing ambitions of finishing it up this week. For that to happen, I’ll have to find a way to balance out my energy levels a bit better. And finally, I started Lovely War on Audible – a World War I love story narrated by Greek gods, how can you go wrong? I’m about two hours into the audiobook and loving every minute.

This week – well, it all kind of depends on how week I do with grabbing a little time to myself around another busy work week plus all the usual demands of parenting. It would be great to finish up Sylvia’s Lovers and after I do, I have my eye on a Tove Jansson book set in October. Well, one thing at a time.

Saturday was a perfect bluebird fall day, just the hiking weather we love on a weekend!

Late post this morning, sorry about that! Just another (Mon)day in paradise – what can I say? The to-do list grows longer and time seems to fly faster and faster, with limited time for reading and even less time for writing about reading. But I still power through.

It was actually a pretty decent reading week, last week – pretty productive and very mysterious. I absolutely loved Death in Captivity, by Michael Gilbert, and found myself feverishly turning pages because I just had to find out what was going to happen, but at the same time dreading the last page because then it would be over and I would have to say goodbye to the characters. Next I moved on to Miss Pym Disposes, to which I’d been looking forward but which proved disappointing – the plot was slow and plodding, which wouldn’t have been a huge problem but for the casual racism displayed by many of the characters. (I will allow for a book being “of its time” and consider dated language as a drawback and a moment for reflection on social progress, but there was more of it than usual in this one and it was upsetting.) I’m not giving up on Josephine Tey, since I’ve loved her other books, but I may not return to this one for quite some time.

Finally picked up Death on the Down Beat, the latest release from British Library Crime Classics – and this is very exciting! My birthday was last week and as part of a great deal of spoiling, Steve got me a year’s membership to the British Library Crime Classics Subscription. New BL Crime Classics delivered to my door every month – does it get better than that? Death on the Down Beat was the October release and my first subscription book, and it came with a bookmark and some extra materials – a seating plan for the orchestra and a segment of score, both of which are relevant to the mystery of who shot a provincial orchestra conductor in the middle of a performance. Intrigued, aren’t you?! Bonus – this is an epistolary novel, which is one of my favorite formats. I have been flying through it and am about forty pages from the end, and still deliciously baffled.

Next up, I think I’ll probably turn back to my Classics Club list – I have my eye on Sylvia’s Lovers, which is the last Elizabeth Gaskell on the list. Watch this space!

Weekend hike at one of my favorite spots – I love a good wetland! The autumn colors were out in force and so beautiful.

What are you reading this week?

When we first moved to Old Town Alexandria in the summer of 2016, my one big wish for the neighborhood was a good general purpose indie bookstore. Don’t get me wrong; there were bookish riches to go around: we had a beautiful children’s bookshop (with a small but well curated adult section) just around the corner from us, a treasure trove of a used bookstore across the street, and a gorgeous public library branch all within walking distance. But a general indie was missing, and I thought it seemed like an opportunity. I wasn’t the only one who thought so; about a year before we moved out to the exurbs, Old Town Books opened – first in a beautiful, but small, pre-Revolutionary building down by the waterfront. More recently, the shop expanded to a bright and airy space a few blocks up from the river. Naturally, I was delighted. While I no longer live within walking distance of Old Town Books, I still consider it my home bookstore.

A few weeks ago, we had plans to drive back to Old Town to get the kids’ hair cut. (Yes, we drive 35 minutes for kids’ haircuts. We love their sweet stylist, Lety, that much.) As a reward for good behavior in the car and at the Hair Cuttery, I promised the kids a trip to Old Town Books. To be perfectly honest, they did not behave that well and really didn’t earn books. But a little bird – that is to say, Instagram – had whispered in my ear that there were signed copies of the new Elizabeth Strout to be had, and I wanted one.

The front of the store contains general fiction, classics, mysteries, literary fiction and more. I had no trouble at all locating the signed editions of Lucy by the Sea and immediately snatched one for myself. (There were six, so there was no rush. But I couldn’t leave anything to chance, could I? Also, if you’re local to DC or NoVA, there might still be copies available.)

The kids had their own business to attend to. Is this not the most inviting children’s section you’ve ever seen? They were under strict orders to choose one book and one book only, and not to ask me for a toy. (Usually I’m a softer touch than this, but they were real jerks all morning.)

Nugget chose Garlic and the Witch, and Peanut got The Cupcake Diaries. And I was, obviously, drawn in by this beautiful gift table. (I was able to resist the chocolate, but really should have grabbed a tin of tea. What was I thinking?) The cookbook section is back here too, and is always an extreme temptation.

See what I mean? I could have spent hours just browsing this shelf. The Half Baked Harvest cookbooks look stunning, and so does Simply Japanese. (Another PSA for local folks: there’s a new thirtieth anniversary edition of Marcella Hazan’s Classics of Italian Cooking on there! I would have grabbed it if I didn’t already own a copy, but I do, so it’s still there – more lucky you.)

My favorite section – the classics, of course! I do wish this section was bigger, but I wish that at every bookstore I visit. And I can always find something I want… this time, I grabbed that copy of A Bedside Companion for Book Lovers, but I’ve had my eye on the annotated classics and the gorgeous editions of Little Women and Pride and Prejudice pictured above, so – something for the next visit.

(I did buy that travel teacup, of course. And next time I go, I’m snagging the Shakespeare puzzle!)

The haul! Signed Lucy by the Sea, and The Bedside Companion for Book Lovers – plus that teacup – for me; The Cupcake Diaries for Peanut, and I can only assume Nugget already had Garlic and the Witch in his hot little hands.

It was a gloomy, rather chilly, day – so there was no sitting outside and reading at the charming red tables like we otherwise might have. But I always have to stop and look at the mural.

Neighborhood bookstores don’t get better than this!

What’s your home indie bookstore? Should I come visit?

Slooooooooooow reading week last week – my goodness. I spent the entire week over Invisible Man, only finishing it up on Sunday evening (late, nearly 9:00 p.m.!) and turning with great relief to the mystery novel that had been calling to me for days. I think there were three contributing factors that slowed down the reading speed:

• I really struggled to get through Invisible Man, largely – I think – because of the magical realism elements, which I can never quite get my arms around. I’m most comfortable reading in the realm of realism, but I can get on board with a completely fantastic realm (like Hogwarts, Narnia, Middle-earth, Fillory, etc.). Magical realism, though, always seems to flop for me – unless it’s really short, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold. At 577 pages, Invisible Man was a doorstopper and the magical realism elements were just rough. I did love the writing style, but I plodded through the book.
• Work has been especially hectic lately. I took on some new responsibilities recently and last week was the first week of that transition. It’s exciting stuff but definitely left me a bit spent by the end of the workday.
• I hosted my parents and their friends for dinner on Saturday and a fun day out on Sunday, and that ate into reading time a bit – between preparing for guests and then all the fun we had hiking at Great Falls Park and walking Embassy Row. No regrets!

I am hoping for a more productive reading week this week. To start, I’m really excited about Death in Captivity – a murder mystery set in an Italian POW camp during World War II, interwoven with a story of an escape plot. I’m only about fifty pages in (see above, just started it late yesterday evening) but it’s already so exciting and I’m enjoying it tremendously. I think I’ll still be in a mystery mood for a little bit longer, too – fall is always a good season for mystery reading, although really, every season is mystery season in my library – and I have my eye on a couple of Josephine Tey novels next. And then who knows – the bookshelves are my oyster.

This view never gets old!

What are you reading this week?

Busy week on the work and home front translates to slower week on the reading front. The recent standard pattern – slow and sporadic during the workweek, sustained and productive on the weekend – held true again, although this time the weekend was devoted to a tome. But one thing at a time.

I spent most of the workweek over The Lark, which was absolutely delightful, lovely and fun. And as has felt par for the course lately, very odd that it took almost a full week to finish, but I chalk that up to fitting it in around everything else during the week. I just don’t have the attention or the time reserves from Monday through Friday. But I did wrap this up early on the weekend and absolutely loved it. And a relaxing, restful read like The Lark set me up nicely to tackle a tome from my Classics Club list – Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. After devoting ample reading time to it over the weekend, I’m just about halfway through and feeling motivated. (Right away, I thought to myself, I can see how this book must have been a huge influence on Colson Whitehead – the magical realism elements are strong.) Not sure what’s next, since I still have a few hundred pages left to read in Invisible Man and I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but it will be something comforting, I think.

No Instagram photo this week! My weekend was nothing to write home about – rain, rain, more rain, and some errands.

What are you reading this week?

So, a decent reading week – got through a few books, and enjoyed them all, and you can’t ask for more than that. I’ve noticed a pattern recently: I’ll spend the entire workweek plodding through a book twenty pages at a time, and then rip through three in short order on the weekend. It’s funny how that changes; sometimes I read more during the week and less on the weekends, but right now that’s the structure of my days. Don’t know what to do with that – nothing, really – but it’s interesting to me.

Anyway, after plodding through September Moon all week, I finished it up on Friday evening and then immediately ripped through Just William in two sittings. I was done with Just William in time to take a new book, The Lark, in my tote bag for the kids’ swim lessons on Saturday, so it really did fly by. Just William and The Lark are both delightful, but now I’m back in that weekday pattern of reading a little here and a little there. Well, I’ll get there eventually. When I finish The Lark, I have my eye on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

Then, finally, still enjoying having more time for audiobooks now that I’ve got my podcatcher in shape, I finished up The Pale Horse on Sunday while running errands. I’ve heard that it’s one of Christie’s weakest mysteries, and that may be true, but I still really liked it. The solution was a total surprise to me, which is always fun. It’ll be a minute before I get to another audiobook, because I’m working my way through the final set of podcast back episodes that I still have (The Slightly Foxed Podcast) and then planning to listen to a dramatization of Persuasion as a birthday treat to myself (that one’s on Audible, but I don’t count the dramatizations as audiobooks).

We went apple picking this weekend! That’s a must-do fall activity for me. We always wait too long, but this year it seems we timed it well, because there were four varieties still picking and plenty of apples on the trees. Pies ahoy!

What are you reading this week?

Well! Surprisingly productive reading week, if I do say so myself (and I do). Last week, I was out of town on a business trip to Nashville – a gathering with my team. We periodically get together for weeklong offsites where we spend most of our time working in collaboration and setting the world to rights, and devote evenings to eating good food and going out. These are such busy, packed weeks that I never get much reading done and I didn’t expect this one to be any different. Apparently it was, though, for a couple of reasons:

• Two of the books you see here are audiobooks! Now that I have finally almost cleaned out my podcatcher (that was a project and a half) I can sprinkle in audiobooks, which is so much fun. I finished listening to Mr Mulliner Speaking (read by the incomparable Jonathan Cecil) while getting ready for work in Nashville. And I started The Pale Horse yesterday – feels like a good choice for the beginning of spooky season.
• I was almost done with Ruth at the start of the week, and finished it up over two sittings once I got home.

As for the rest of the books here, I peppered Amanda Lovelace’s insightful poems into my week (definitely need to do that more) and started September Moon – I have the edition pictured above, isn’t it pretty? I’ve read all three volumes of John Moore’s memoirs (published by Slightly Foxed Editions) and loved them, so I’m excited about this. I will say that there has been some dated language, which is always a shame when that happens.

Anyway, lots to do this week – catching up at work and at home after a week of business travel, plus we already have multiple plans on the calendar for next weekend – so I expect reading time to be limited and I’m not sure what’s next after September Moon. Something quick and fun, most likely, and befitting a jam-packed week.

Before work meetings got going in earnest last Monday, I checked off a bucket list item and visited the famous Parnassus Books in Nashville! It was a gorgeous store and I left with an excellent haul.

Also, a bonus picture:

Paddling with friends, always a fun way to spend a weekend day! We met up with some of our neighbors for a paddle on Lake Burke on Saturday. They were in a canoe and we had our kayaks. The best!

Happy week, friends! What are you reading?

Another week of reading in the books! (See what I did there? You see it, right?) It was a slow one – given over entirely to Ruth, by Elizabeth Gaskell, once I finished up Nella Last’s War last Monday. I’m really making a concerted push to finish up my Classics Club Challenge list before my self-imposed deadline of July 23, 2023. Twelve books to go – not including the partially finished Ruth – and I’m down to a lot of doorstoppers and books I’ve been avoiding. Time to get cracking.

Ruth is good but I’ve been finding it hard to settle down to it, for various reasons. I’ve been locked on news coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death, devoting time my Peloton every day, and a bit overwhelmed at work – all of which combines into a recipe for limited reading time and attention. And now I’m on my way to Nashville for the week (for work, and there won’t be much downtime, but I think I’ve found enough of a break in the schedule to go to Parnassus Books, so watch this space!). To be honest, I’m not excited about the trip: I always love seeing my teammates, and I’ve never been to Nashville so I’m stoked to check it out, but I’ve been traveling so much this summer that I kind of just want to stay home. Well, this is the last trip for awhile, so once it’s over I can settle into autumn in NoVA. I haven’t decided if I’ll be bringing any books with me to Nashville – we’re going to be booked almost wall-to-wall with team-building activities and meetings, and I might just rely on audible and whatever haul I pick up at Parnassus to get me through. We’ll see – it may be a game-time decision.

Going to miss this little ball of energy while I’m away on business all week. Do you like his new goalie gloves?

What are you reading this week?