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Life
... And, suddenly, it's fall! It's my favorite season, and it always goes by too fast. Our weather has been mostly lovely since we returned from North Carolina (unseasonably so!); we only had two days this week when heat and humidity returned and we had to use the a/c. Now, we're back to 50's at night and 70's and dry during the day - ahhh!
Last week was a catch-up and recovery week at home for me. I went to Walgreen's last Tuesday (Senior Day!) and haven't left the house since then đŸ¤£. I really needed all this quiet time (and my husband was golfing a lot so plenty of solitude, too). I wrapped up Big Book Summer, set up my fall reading plans, caught up on videos and other people's Big Book Summer wrap-ups, and worked on weeding our gardens (after 5 weeks away, we came home to a mess!).
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| Nice to be home again! |
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| Making progress weeding! |
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| Ahhh ... so glad to be back on my couch! |
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| Relaxing Sunday morning on the screened porch |
Unfortunately, my quiet time at home ends tomorrow--I have nonstop appointments and meeting the rest of the week!
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Since I posted from the road last Monday, here are my videos from the past two weeks:
Box Office Tops & Flops - This was a unique and fascinating tag, about analyzing my top 5 and bottom 5 videos on my channel and discussing why they got so many (or few) views.
Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Blizzards ... Oh, My! An Extreme Weather Tag - This fun tag asks questions about my experiences with extreme weather and books that include extreme weather.
Big Book Summer Challenge 2025 Wrap-Up: Who Participated, What They Read, and My Own Big Book Summer! - The wrap-up from Big Book Summer, both generally for all participants, and which Big Books I enjoyed this summer (less than usual but some really outstanding books).
My Fall 2025 Reading Plans: R.I.P., Shorty September, and Book Cougar's Year of Reading Ghost Stories - I love fall! And I love fall reading! This year, I combined my usual season of reading darker books for R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) with Shorty September and the Book Cougar's podcast's Year of Reading Ghost Stories. Join the fun!
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My husband and I also enjoyed a quiet, at-home weekend! Saturday night, we watched the newly released movie, Thursday Murder Club on Netflix. Neither of us has read any of the novels (by Richard Osman) yet, but I know they have many fans. The movie adaptation was perfect for a relaxing evening: fun and entertaining, with an all-star cast. The four main characters are played by Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie. They all live in a beautiful retirement community (seriously, do places like this really exist? We visited many for my father-in-law and never saw anything this nice!). The first three, along with a woman named Penny, a former police investigator who is now in hospice, have formed the Thursday Murder Club to investigate cold cases. Their current case, from 15 years ago, involves a woman in a white dress who fell to her death out a window. They need some medical expertise, so they add Joyce (Celia's character), a former nurse, to their group. They are also concerned that one of the co-owners of their home wants to kick them all out and develop the land. Soon, a current-day murder that directly involves them all pulls their attention away from the cold case. It's a twisty cozy-style murder mystery (multiple murders, actually) set in a beautiful place, with outstanding actors in both the main and supporting roles. Lots of fun!
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I finally finished (after Big Book Summer ended) The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, a book I have wanted to read since its release in 2021. It's my neighborhood book group's pick for our September book. This intricate, moving novel is a complex retracing of a Black woman's (Ailey Pearl Garfield) 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, eventually mixing in other Native Americans, a girl stolen from Ghana and sold into slavery, a cruel slave master, and many others. Threads of the story start in the 1600's and in the 1970's and each moves forward, gradually filling in the blanks, as Ailey (born in 1973) grows up. Their story is full of tragedy (and some horrible abuse in multiple generations), though there is also joy, lots of love, and healing. The writing is beautiful (Jeffers is a poet), and the characters are vivid and engaging. It's absolutely compelling and immersive; I stayed up much too late many nights reading! It's a powerful narrative not just about this family but about America, and I'm so glad I finally had a chance to read this highly-acclaimed novel. I'm looking forward to discussing it.
Diving into quick reads for Shorty September (and R.I.P) is a fun change after 3+ months of reading Big Books! I'm currently reading Desert Places by Blake Crouch. My husband and I are big fans of Crouch's novels and TV shows (he's a screenwriter, too). We both love his sci fi thrillers, including Recursion, Upgrade, and my favorite, Dark Matter, which was adapted into an excellent TV series on Apple. He also helped adapt and co-create the TV series Wayward Pines and Good Behavior, based on his novels and novellas, which we also enjoyed. This is one of his earlier novels, a short thriller about a man named Andrew who writes thrillers about murderers and serial killers. He's just sent the last revisions of his latest book to his editor when he receives a strange and frightening letter. It tells him that there's a dead woman buried on his property who was killed with his own kitchen knife and has his blood on her. The letter writer says he will tell the police where to find the body and who the "killer" is, unless Andrew does exactly as he says. He also threatens Andrew's mother, with details that make Andrew know he's serious. What follows is a terrifying period of time in which Andrew ends up in a remote desert cabin with a serial killer. It's a great set-up and is loaded with tension and suspense. It's gets a bit gruesome for my taste at times, but I can't stop reading!
Alas, as I suspected, Libby took back The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese when I was only 60% of the way through (it's a BIG book). So, I dove into a short, spooky audio book perfect for all three of the reading events I'm enjoying this month! I listened to Dead Girl's Diary by K.R. Alexander (and yes, I already finished it!), a middle-grade ghost story. Twelve-year-old Kara has had visions of another girl her entire life. When someone leaves an old diary on her front porch, Kara realizes it belonged to the girl she sees in her visions, Elizabeth. Based on the diary, Kara discovers that Elizabeth died a suspicious death by drowning 12 years ago in a nearby town. Kara and her best friend take a bus there to investigate. This is a creepy story, full of both real and supernatural threats, with ghosts and haunted houses. I enjoyed it on audio. What a great way to kick off these fun fall reading events!
My husband, Ken is reading The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, a Booktopia author this year. I enjoyed this suspenseful literary thriller this spring. It’s about an author who steals the plot idea of one of his former students who died. The novel is a huge success, and he thinks he got away with it (though is going crazy worrying he’ll be found out) when he gets a message saying someone knows he’s a thief. Even when you think you have this book figured out, it keeps surprising you! It's super twisty, and I think Ken will enjoy it.
Our son, 31, finished rereading the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks, an old favorite of his, in preparation for the latest book. He is now reading the surprise 4th book, Night Angel Nemesis. He says it's phenomenal! He told me it's a great addition to the trilogy, develops the world more, and that the voice of the narrator is "insanely well done" (our son is not only enjoying fantasy novels but working on his own and studying the ones he reads). He says it's structured as a secondary character reading the journal of the main character's exploits and starts with a cliff-hanger where something bad happens to the main character. The narration later switched to the first-person, from the main character himself. That does sound really well done!
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What are you and your family reading this week?
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