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Life
I'm Back!
After 37 days on the road with our camper, 6000+ miles, 13 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces, 7 national park properties (U.S. and Canada), and many state parks, we returned home last Wednesday night.
It was an amazing trip, and we saw and experienced so many incredible places. The grandeur and natural beauty were quite literally breathtaking and filled us with awe. We enjoyed towering mountains, thick forests, peaceful lakes and waterfront campsites, thundering rivers and waterfalls, gorgeous rock formations, and so much wildlife!
I posted a few select photos in some Monday posts here (the first few days of the trip, the next few weeks, and the final week). After that post last week, we stayed with old friends (almost 40 years of friendship) in Cleveland for a couple of nights. It was wonderful to see them again, and while my husband finally got to golf, my friend and I and her daughter went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was wonderful to see them again, reconnect, catch-up, reminisce, and laugh together! There's nothing like good friends and shared history.
The best way to see highlights of our trip is through the videos on my YouTube channel, both Shorts (1-3 minutes) and longer vlogs. It’s impossible to capture the stunning beauty and grandeur of these unique places in photos, but videos do a better job. You get a better idea of the stunning beauty we saw (and get to see some bears and other wildlife up close). Here the full playlist of videos from our trip, including both vlogs and shorts, so you can choose which places you'd like to see more of.
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Besides all the travel videos, I got back in the swing of things with a catch-up reading video last week -
Currently Reading: July Reading Wrap-Up & Friday Reads: Includes a quick recap of what we read while we were away, what my husband and I are currently reading and listening to, and updates on Big Book Summer, YA'ugust, and Summer Book Bingo.
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Nobody - After lots of exhausting unpacking and laundry in horrible heat (why is it so hot and humid here?!), my husband and I relaxed Saturday evening with a movie. We'd been seeing interviews with Bob Odenkirk about his new action movie, Nobody 2, and since we never saw the first one, we decided to catch up. He plays an average guy, in a boring job, stuck in a routine (aka rut) who has a wife and two kids. There are hints that he maybe has a secret past. When his house gets robbed and he takes revenge, the bad guys (some REALLY bad guys) come after his family, and we find out who he really is/was. My husband described it as John Wick meets Home Alone, and that's a pretty apt description! I didn't watch the movie when it first came out because I thought it looked too violent for my taste. And it is ... though it was also pretty entertaining, since it has a sense of humor, and we both like Odenkirk.
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Remember that Big Book Summer runs until September 1, so you can still squeeze in a 400+ page book to join the fun! Details at the link.
I finished reading Thunderhead by Neal Schusterman, book 2 in his Arc of a Scythe trilogy, for both Big Book Summer and YA'ugust (an event hosted on Booktube that anyone can join). He's a favorite author in our family. This is an outstanding dystopian series, set over 200 years in the future, where death has been eradicated with technology. Some people are trained as scythes, to kill others in a humane way to control population growth, according to old "mortal time" actuarial data. The AI that rules this world is known as the Thunderhead. In the first book, Scythe (my review at the link), two sixteen-year-olds named Citra and Rowan are chosen to be scythe apprentices and trained. Here, corruption among the scythes has worsened, and Citra and Rowan each have very different approaches to addressing it. While the Thunderhead is unable to interfere with scythes in any way, it has its own plan to curb the growing corruption and save humankind. It's another excellent, unique, and suspenseful novel, though the parallels to our own world are disturbing (as the best dystopian works are). I talk more about the novel in this 3-minute video.
Now, I have started reading The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, a book I have wanted to read since its release in 2021. In fact, it was THE hot book of Big Book Summer a few years ago. At 816 pages, it definitely qualifies! It's my neighborhood book group's pick for our September book. It's excellent so far, a complex retracing of a woman's heritage and ancestors, starting with a Creek woman in the 1600's, a mixed-race Black man, and a Scottish immigrant in what will become Georgia. So far, there are threads of the story that started in the 1600's and in the 1970's that are each moving forward and gradually filling in the blanks. The writing is beautiful (Jeffers is a poet), and the characters are vivid and engaging. I'm enjoying it so far. I'm pretty certain I won't finish it by September 1, to count for Big Book Summer, but I'm glad to finally be reading this highly acclaimed novel.
My husband is almost finished with The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis, a book I enjoyed back in May. It's about a young woman named Francie who is kidnapped by an alien (in a car, not a spaceship), while in Roswell, NM, for the alien-themed wedding of her college roommate. It is somewhat farcical but also has plenty of heart and a lot of suspense. It's just a fun read! Here's my 2-minute review.
On audio, I am still listening to The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky! I started it at the beginning of June, and I am (finally) up to the epilogue. It's essentially a murder mystery and courtroom drama (though the murder doesn't occur until about 2/3 of the way through, so it's a long set-up). Readers know that the accused brother did not actually kill their father but not who the real killer is. I, unfortunately, saw a spoiler at the very beginning while trying to get the characters' names straight, though I'm still curious to see how that information will be revealed to the reader. It's very long, very dense, and has lots of tangents (to build the characters), but I'm glad to have finally read a Dostoevsky novel. I would have finished it a month ago if not for our trip, when I didn't have any audio time to myself.
My husband and I finished our trip but not (yet) our last audio, 61 Hours by Lee Child, one of the older novels in the Jack Reacher series. My husband has read the whole series but didn't remember the details. I can see why he likes this series: it has a sort of subtle, snarky sense of humor that makes it very entertaining. Plus, I like the main character from watching the Reacher TV series. Believe it or not, we leave again in a week and a half, for a trip to North Carolina for a family event, so we'll finish it then.
We talked to our son this weekend on his 31st birthday (how is that possible??). He has finally finished rereading the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks, an old favorite of his, in preparation for the latest book. He finished rereading book 1, The Way of Shadows; book 2, The Shadow's Way; and finally, book 3, Beyond the Shadows. He is now ready to read the surprise 4th book (it was supposed to be a trilogy), Night Angel Nemesis.
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What are you and your family reading this week?
Finally, yesterday afternoon, we had to reluctantly leave the beautiful, cool north country to return to “civilization.” So far, it’s too hot, too humid, has too much traffic, and is much too people-y!
Yesterday, we finished listening to Blood Lure by Nevada Barr, set in Glacier National Park (another author we both enjoy). Today, we started listening to 61 Hours by Lee Child, a Jack Reacher novel set in South Dakota. This is my husband’s all-time favorite series. 
I finished reading The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy and loved it! This novel has everything: family drama, a propulsive plot, gorgeous nature writing, a sense of humor, and deep emotional resonance. Conroy’s writing is beautiful and wow, can he tell a story! Here’s 
Here’s what my husband is reading (he’s such a good sport with all my blogging and YouTube activities!). 
Together, we are listening to Blood Lure by Nevada Barr. We love her novels about national park ranger Anna Pigeon, and this one is set in Glacier National Park!