Hot Takes on the NYT Best of the Century So Far List

Earlier this summer, the New York Times shared its "Best Books of the 21st Century So Far (gift link)". I love books and I love lists so I was excited to check it out. But I have to say my reaction to the list could be sort of summed up as a sad trombone "womp womp" kind of sound. I have read 27 books on the list but can't say I loved many of those 27. I should not be surprised because award-winning "high brow" types of books often don't work for me. Maybe I am not smart enough to enjoy them? Who knows. Others in my book club had more success with the list and I joked that it's probably because of their liberal arts college education. As an aside, I have a colleague who is always talking about the superiority of liberal arts colleges and I am 99% sure she knows that I did not go to a liberal arts college. 

I recognize I am very late to the party of talking about this list, but better late than never, right? Here are the 27 books I have read along with my quick thoughts/spicy takes on those books. I'll bold the ones I really liked. 

1. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - How was this number 1? I didn’t like this book and would have abandoned if I wasn't reading it for book club (sorry, NGS!!). 

2. The Known World by Edward P. Jones - This won the Pulitzer so unsurprisingly I did not care for it. In my goodreads review, I noted that I didn't care for the really large cast of characters and the non-linear timeline that moved backwards and forwards in a confusing manner.

3. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead - I liked this book but did not love it. 

4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - Meh. This is a dystopian novel which is a genre that I generally don't care for. 

5. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - I liked this one and gave it 4 stars (which seems like an inflated rating in hindsight) but didn't feel compelled to read any other books in the series. 

6. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - I loved this book and remember flagging so many of the passages. It's a beautiful and heartbreaking memoir about losing her husband and dealing with her daughter's health crisis. 

7. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - I loathed this book and gave it 1 star which is really saying something! It's dystopian and I remember long stretches of dialogue with no identifier to indicate who was talking. 

8. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - I really liked this book and learned so much about the dynamics between Japan and Korea which I was completely unaware of. 

9. Evicted by Matthew Desmond - I liked this book although "like" seems like the wrong adjective to use when the topic (housing stability) is very heartbreaking. 

10. Atonement by Ian McEwan - I didn't love this when I read it in 2007 but my tastes have changed so much that I don't trust 26yo Lisa's view of the book. I would consider re-reading this one. 

11. Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie - I really liked this book about a Nigerian immigrant living in the U.S. 

12. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward - I gave this book 4 stars so must have really liked it but I do not remember much about it - but I read it when Paul was about 7 months old so it's not surprising that I don't remember much about it.

13. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - I liked but didn't love this book.

14. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - I really liked this slim novel by an Irish author. 

15. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - Meh meh meh. Way too long. 

16. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - I loved this graphic memoir about growing up in Tehran during the Islamic revolution.

17. Trust by Hernan Diaz - This novel told in 4 parts was a very uneven reading experience for me - I nearly abandoned it during the first section but stuck around as people raved about the 4th section. It was good but not great IMO.

18. Runaway by Alice Munro - We read this for book club otherwise I wouldn't have picked it up. It was just ok (sorry, Nicole! I know how much you love Munro!).

19. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - Another 1 star book. 

20. The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai - I loved this book! It's about the AIDS epidemic in Chicago in the 80s. 

21. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - Another book that I adored. I flagged so many passages fo this book.

22. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid - I gave this 2 stars as I did not care for the detached writing style and the magical realism plot device. 

23. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - I adored this book about a male/female friendship. 

24. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - LOVED this book about a marriage disrupted by the wrongful imprisonment of the husband. 

25. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters - Infidelity featured prominently in this story line and that was the kiss of death for me. 

26. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - I liked this more than I like most dystopian novels but I didn't love it like others did and I've come to realize that St. John Mandel is just not for me. 

27. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - I have loved every Patchett book I have read - except this one which I gave 2 stars. I read it back in 2008 so I do give some side eye to 27 yo Lisa's opinions on books, but I remember disliking it so much that I can't bring myself to re-read it. How was this the most beloved book by Patchett? My favorite of her works is Commonwealth. 

Out of the 27 books I've read 11, were successful but I'd probably only include The Great Believers, Olive Kitteridge and An American Marriage on my list of the 10 best books of the 21st Century so far if by "best" we mean most impactful. Other books I would include on that list are

- Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

- And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Housseini

- This is How it Always is by Laurie Frankel

- When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi

- The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

- Tiny, Beautiful Things Cheryl Strayed

It’s also worth noting that of the 11 books I really liked, 10 were written by women. I have certainly noticed that books written by men are often less successful for me. I am not sure what the gender breakdown was for the NYT list but would venture to guess the majority were written by men. 

***

So, can we still be friends? What did you think of the NYT list? If your views differed greatly from mine, that is helpful info as I might be your anti-book twin meaning you might want to avoid books that I love! I felt that the NYT list that was crowd-sourced from readers was far a better list with more titles that had me nodding my head. 

The weekend highs/neutrals/lows

It was a hot and steamy weekend in these parts! I am not complaining - just stating the facts. I try not to complain about the heat because we suffer through so much cold weather which I loathe. I thought I’d recap the weekend a little differently and share the highs, neutrals, and lows. 

Highs:

- Phil took the boys to his mom’s on Saturday afternoon so I was alone in the house for 5 hours!! I did some meal prep, took a nap where I slept so deeply that I had a dream, read my book, and watched the Olympics. 

- The Olympics!! I really enjoyed the opening ceremonies and all of the coverage we watched throughout the weekend. I can get into nearly anything I watch and Paul has been really into the Olympics which is cute to see.

- We hit the pool at our neighborhood park on Saturday morning since it was already warm and humid! 

- Spending some time at the goose house (house in our neighborhood with costumed geese and lots of kids toys) on Sunday morning. 

- It was so hot and humid on Sunday afternoon so we went to the movies (Despicable Me 4). Movie theaters are so much more comfy than they were during my youth!

Neutrals:

- My long run (7.5 miles) on Sunday was neutral. It was hot and humid and I felt slow but I got it done. 

- My strength training workout on Saturday was also kind of neutral as well. I haven’t been doing strength training because of the flare in my hand but I decided to try an upper body workout. It was hard to grasp weights and I had to modify a few things but I got it done. I am glad I did it but it was also kind of defeating. 

Lows:

- This never-ending flare. I think it’s actually getting worse. But I can’t bear to increase my steroid dose and risk being even more irritable. I am so glad my injection is this week and hopefully the infusion on Tuesday helps as well. Of course I use this joint for nearly everything - eating, cutting things up, brushing my teeth, and the list goes on and on.

The impacted joint is the first knuckle on my right hand. Here’s a side-by-side which shows how swollen and puffy it is. Ouch. And yes I have the veiniest hands for some reason.

- Challenging kid behavior that tested my patience. It’s extra hard to handle that behavior when we do so many fun things during the weekend! They do not know how good they have it.

- I tweaked my back when I was carrying a flailing child to the car when they refused to leave the park on Saturday. I know they say ‘big kids, big problems’ but at least I won’t be dealing with flailing children? I hope? 

- Taco’s loudness is so overwhelming and over stimulating. I do not know where he gets this from as Phil and I are not loud people and I swear Paul was not this loud at this age. 

How was your weekend?

TGIF

Happy Friday! I wrapped up my 3rd straight week of travel and won’t travel again until mid-September! Cue the jazz hands!! Here is how my week shaped up.

A book I am reading this week is ‘Same as it ever was’ by Claire Lombardo. I loved her debut novel and am enjoying this one but wow it is long at well over 500 pages. It is firmly character-driven so if that is not your jam, skip this one. 

The high of my week was going for a short hike in Colorado as part of the offsite I attended. I use the word ‘hike’ loosely. It was more of a walk but it was wonderful to get some fresh air and move my body while connecting with colleagues.

Rocky Mountain views!

The low of my week was my flare. It just won’t quit and I am so tired of it. I wasn’t able to move my radiology injection appointment up but it’s next Thursday which is soonish. I also get another infusion next week so hopefully I feel better soon. I am so tired of being in pain and being on steroids. 

A show we are watching is still season 2 of Welcome to Wrexham. It’s taking us a long time to get through the series since we only watch one/night.

For workouts I did a 40 minute hike on Tuesday and did a lower body strength training workout in my hotel room on Thursday. I will run 3 miles today and then on Sunday I will do another 7.5 mile run. 

The best money spent was on my weekly Starbucks latte yesterday. It was a low spend week for me so that is all that stands out.

My plans this weekend include watching the opening ceremony tonight!! I am so excited for the Olympics! We don’t have any other plans for the weekend. Phil might take one or both boys to his mom’s on Saturday which would mean I would get the house to myself! It looks like it will be a warm weekend so we’ll probably go to a pool on Sunday.

Bonus photo:

Another night, another popsicle. He loves them so much!

How was your week? Are you excited for the Olympics? I love watching gymnastics, swimming, diving and track and field! 

Weekend recap + big kid milestone!

It was a long weekend for me as I was off on Friday for my planned shouldless day. Here is how the weekend shaped up!

Friday am: Phil took the kids to school and I headed out for my 7.5 mile run shortly thereafter. It was a deliciously cool morning with low humidity so this run felt 100% better than last week’s. I ran over a minute/mile faster and felt great at the end. Last week I practically wanted to crawl home when I got to the 7 mile mark so I was relieved it went so much better. After my run, I showered, finished episode 9 of The Bear and then laid on the couch in a sort of comatose state until it was time to eat lunch before picking up Taco from daycare.

Friday pm: Taco and I headed to the zoo from daycare pick-up. We were there for over 3 hours. My favorite part was the bird show; his favorite part was the grizzly bears. We also enjoyed watching the penguins!

Everyone was very tired that night as Paul had a field trip at his summer program and Taco didn’t ride in the stroller much at the zoo so logged a lot of steps. There was some challenging overtired kid behavior so I breathed a sigh of relief when the kids were in bed. We watched one episode of Welcome to Wrexham and then I went to bed. 

Saturday am: I woke at 5:30 but managed to fall back asleep. I was stunned when I woke at 6:45 to find that both were still sleeping! Both boys were up shortly after that but it was such a treat to wake on my own - not by a child yelling for me or coming in our room! It was a nice morning so the boys and I walked/scooted up to the grocery store/SBUX. The boys had donuts and I had a green tea lemonade because it was too warm/muggy for a hot coffee (I can’t drink cold coffee drinks - coffee has to be hot for me!) 

Morning treats for all!

Then we walked to our neighborhood park. They boys had a blast. 

Saturday pm: After lunch Taco’s big boys bed frame was delivered by IKEA and I attempted to lay down for a bit while the boys got screen time and Phil mowed the lawn but Taco would not leave me alone. Not even Bluey would hold his attention. So we headed to the pool earlier than I had planned. There is a great pool in the city just SW of us (Edina). They have a massive kids section plus a 3 foot area that is corded off. Taco has been more interested in the water this summer so he will start swimming lessons this fall. 

The 3’ section.

Photo of the massive kids section from our last visit to the pool.

When we got home the adults enjoyed chili I had made in the crockpot (first crockpot meal in years but it worked well for a day when we were out and about so much) and the kids had eggs. And then during dessert, Paul lost his first tooth!! The tooth had been extremely loose for quite some time and it finally fell out! His adult tooth is pretty much fully in and he has another adult tooth that is coming in next to it. 

Sunday am: Paul was excited to wake up to his reward from the tooth fairy! When I lost a tooth as a child, we put the tooth in a cup of water and then in the morning the tooth was gone and there was a quarter in the cup. Well inflation has impacted the tooth fairy payout - she left Paul $5! I asked what he wanted to do with it and he said, ‘save it!!’ 

When Phil was up, I managed to get a 4 mile run in before the thunderstorms rolled in. I was glad my long run was behind me - had I done it that day I would have gotten soaked which is not fun. 

At the halfway point by Lake Harriet. This pic show how dang many freckles I have. I don’t love them but can’t do anything about them. I wear sunscreen every single day but there is no preventing them. 

Sunday pm: Phil finished the assembly of Taco’s bed. We still need to buy a mattress for the trundle bed. But I don’t see the boys have sleep overs together all that soon so we have plenty of time to order one.

The finished product! There are 2 drawers for bedding plus a trundle bed.

After that project was done, we went over to Phil’s friend’s house for a gathering of HS friends. They live in the lake and have a son who is Taco’s age. It was a beautiful afternoon so we soaked up the time outside. 

Now today I fly to Denver for some internal meetings so it will be a bit easier trip although I have evening plans both nights. So the days will be longer but less intense. After this trip I am done traveling until September! I haven’t had a month off from traveling since December/January so am very much looking forward to it! 

How was your weekend? Did/does the tooth fairy visit your house? How much did/does she leave?

TGIF

It's Friday and I'm not working! Hooray! Today was meant to be a shouldless day but it's going to be a shoudless half day instead as Taco's daycare is closing at 12:30. The closure is for a very sad reason, though. One of the co-owners, who is 2 years younger than me, sadly passed away from breast cancer a couple of weeks ago and her memorial service is this afternoon. We got to know this co-owner so well as she filled in last winter when the director position was open. Taco ADORED her and she made drop-off so easy since Taco was happy to hang with her. We just saw her earlier this summer at a family event and while we suspected she had cancer since she has always worn a head covering, we had no idea she was so ill. 

A book I am reading this week is ‘Summer Romance' by Annabel Monaghan. This is my second book by this author and I am loving it. I opted to skip her 2023 release as it seemed like infidelity was featured in the plotline (a woman runs into her high school boyfriend while touring a wedding venue with her fiance). Folks, I am not here for infidelity plotlines unless they adequately show how much they can blow up someone's life (see Nicole's post from this week that includes books where infidelity is handled well). To be clear, to my knowledge I have never been cheated on so this doesn't stem from PTSD in my own life. But I've seen it in others' relationship and it is almost always terrible, plus as an enneagram 1 my thinking around cheating is black and white. *steps off soap box* But this novel does not feature infidelity and it's been a delightful read so far. I like that Monaghan's protagonists tend to be women in their 40s. 

The high of my week was my work trip! This time I traveled with another woman that I work with which rarely happens. We had so much fun at dinner and enjoyed wine at the airport bar on the flight out and again on our return. Our meeting also went really well so I am optimistic about the outcome of that meeting. And I was gone for barely 18 hours so it was a very quick trip. Quick trips can be tiring but I traveled last week and travel again next week so was glad I only had to miss one morning/bedtime.

The low of my week was losing power for the weekend for 36 hours. Our power went out at 1am on Saturday night during a huge, loud storm. It did not come back on until Monday afternoon. I still went for my 7 mile run on Sunday morning even though we had Florida-like conditions, I had only eaten a banana with peanut butter because that was the only GF breakfast-like food available (because I did not want to open the fridge to increase the chances that the food would go bad), and I did not have coffee (because no power). And then I came back from what was my worst run in many years to a warm, muggy house. We spent the afternoon at my MIL's suburban home so we could enjoy the A/C but we all slept in our guest room in the basement on Sunday night and wow that did not go well. Taco is so reliant on a white noise machine so getting him to fall asleep without one was A PROCESS. Plus I had to present on the national sales call on Monday which means I had to look camera-ready and presentable. I did a lot of fanning of my face with a book that morning to keep coolish so as not to sweat my make up off. Taco touched my skin that morning after I was showered and ready and asked if I had gone for a run…

A show we are watching is season 2 of Welcome to Wrexham. Admittedly we don't LOVE it, but it's good enough to keep watching. I like that the shows are 30 minutes long which is the sweet spot for me. I've also watched most of The Bear - I have 2 episodes left! I've heard mixed reviews but I am liking this season overall.

For workouts I ran 3 miles on Tuesday morning before work, did a lower body strength training workout on Wednesday in my hotel room, and I will do my long 7-7.5 miles this morning since it’s going to be nice and cool! I am nervous for this long run after how horrible the last one went. Hopefully being properly fueled and caffeinated plus cooler temps helps!!

The best money spent was on a water pik during Prime days. I kind of hate Prime days because of the consumerism vibe around those days kind of raises my hackles. And yet, one of the posts with the best deals prompted me to buy a water pik. So I am part of the problem. But I did get it for half off and I am hoping the addition of a water pik will make future cavities less likely (I've had 2 in the last year!). Plus flossing has been so painful due to the flare in my right pointer finger. I try to adjust how I floss so I don't use that figure but it's just awkward to floss using your thumb and middle fingers. 

My plans this weekend include not much! This morning I will take it easy after my run and either read or watch the last 2 episodes of the The Bear before picking Taco up from daycare around noon. It's going to be a beautiful day so we are going to the zoo for the afternoon. Paul got a solo trip to the zoo with me in June so I figured Taco should get one, too. I'm hoping to take the boys to the pool on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, I plan to run 4 miles and then we are going to Phil's friend's house on a lake in the afternoon for a gathering of high school friends. 

Bonus photo:

How cute is this flamingo in the Tampa airport? I did not get to see Stephany since I was there for about 18 hours (I literally flew in for 1 meeting but it was a BIG meeting).

Bath time shenanigans. Ignore the dingy water. Boy do the kids get dirty in the summer. And yes, the loud environment notification went off during this bath, as usual.

A beautiful Thursday night at the goose house!

How was your week? Do you have a water pik? If you are a runner, how do you bounce back from a epically bad training run? 

Taco at 3.5

I’m a little overdue in capturing who Taco is at 3.5 but better late than never! I recognize that these posts might be boring for others but it’s been a great way to capture my boys’ childhoods. I often go back and read them because the details can be very foggy but they are likely a snooze for others.

Taco continues to be our big-hearted snuggly little guy with BIG FEELINGS who gives the absolute best hugs. He needs so many hugs and kisses and squeezes before he leaves the house with Phil on the days I don’t do drop off. He is my stage 5 clinger that just can’t get close enough. He's the kid that will stroke my skin while I sing bedtime songs to him in the rocking chair. Can anyone say Oedipus complex? ;) 

Growth: He weighs about 33 pounds so is just a few pounds lighter than Paul. He mostly wears size 3T but definitely has a slim waist so needs elastic waist bands or the shorts will fall off. He has a very long torso so wears some 4T tops.

Likes:

- He is still obsessed with Mickey. He wears a Mickey shirt almost daily and has 2 different Mickey stuffies that he sleeps with.

Wearing one of Mickey shirts while playing with Mickey toys. He would prefer to only wear Mickey shirts.

- Popsicles are his favorite summer treat but he also loves ice cream. 

Note that he is wearing a Mickey shirt in this photo. I had to buy 3 Mickey shirts for the summer.

- He loves going to Starbucks for a cake pop. I love this tradition, too, as I get a latte typically.

- He is very into his stuffies. He sleeps with so many different stuffed animals. He also likes to take his stuffies places. 

Bear enjoyed a stroller ride to Starbucks.

Showing sock monkey the costumed geese

- He has gotten very into Paw Patrol lately. Chase and Marshall are his favorite pups. 

- He is very into pretend play which is a delight to observe.

Chef Taco at your service!

Dislikes:

- He still hates mornings. 

Eating: He’s a pretty good eater overall. He definitely eats way more things than Paul does. His favorite foods are yogurt, cottage cheese, Mac and cheese, Dino-shaped chicken, and pizza. He also loves all kinds of fruit but especially loves apples and blueberries. 

School: He has been happy at his daycare and has made some good friends. We love everything about his daycare EXCEPT THAT THEY HAVE A SANDBOX WHICH IS THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. We are not a daily bath family since the boys are prone to eczema and we are, well, kind of lazy but frequent baths are necessary since Taco basically rolls around in the sand like a dog, it seems. He loves to take his shoes off in the car and dump the sand out so we've learned to empty the sand from his shoes before he gets in the car. Phil and I joke about what dollar amount we would pay the daycare to remove the sandbox.

His daycare is a lot more play based which I feel is best at this age. Let them play and enjoy life - there will be a time for more academic focus when they are older in my opinion. His teachers are working on letter recognition with him but he just doesn’t seem to have any interest. We try at home too but he has a ‘shoulder shrug emoji’ attitude when we work on letter recognition. Paul was so interested in letters and numbers at this age but I am telling myself that each kid is different and he’ll take interest eventually. We are planning to enroll him at the school-based pre-K program in the fall of 2025 so we figure that program will probably be more academic focused and hopefully by then he'll have more interest in learning his letters. He's definitely more drawn to numbers, though, which isn't surprising given his finance nerd parents. He can count to 20 in English and Spanish and loves to count things. 

Potty training: He potty trained in April and it was pretty easy all in all. We waited until it was clear that he was ready so he took to it very fast! It is wonderful to be done with diapers! 

Sleep: He dropped his nap in June when he started to get up way too early and also fight bedtime. I miss his nap but bedtime is so much easier now and he's not waking before 6 anymore. Once he dropped his nap we got rid of his crib. We were able to pass it along to another family on the block that had a baby this spring so that worked out well. Taco is currently sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor but we orderedg him a bed with a trundle bed that will arrive this weekend. We did the same ‘mattress on the floor’ transition for Paul, too, and it seems to work well. Taco of course has Mickey bedding! 

Brother relationship: The boys mostly play pretty well together but there is of course some fighting over toys. They also like to wrestle which is not my favorite thing because someone always seems to end up crying. 

Bath time shenanigans. Bath time is LOUD. I often get a loud environment notification on my apple watch.

They loved going to Frog and Toad!

My 2 water babies!

It's kind of hard to believe that Taco is over 3.5 years old now but at the same time we also feel like we've felt every day of those 3.5 years if that makes sense? Time is weird. Most of my friends have much older kids and often tell me how I will miss these years. People told me I'd miss the baby years, too, though, and I honestly do not miss that stage. I enjoyed it for what it was and soaked up lots of cuddling and rocking of babies, but was nothing but happy when our kids exited that stage. But I seem to be fairly immune to nostalgia for whatever reason so time will tell if I miss the toddler stage. 

I do feel as though things are getting a little bit easier as Taco approaches age 4, though. So I'm soaking up his cuddles and desire to be as close to me as humanly possible while also recognizing that I seem to be best suited for parenting elementary-aged kiddos. 

TGIF

Hey hey - it’s Friday! This week flew by since I was traveling for part of it. Here is how the week shaped up!

A book I am reading this week is ‘Wavewalker’ by Suzanne Heywood. It’s my book club’s July read. It’s a memoir about a family’s around-the-world sailing adventure in the 1970s. I’m only a couple of chapters in and it’s clear there is some willful neglect of their children, plus the author’s note at the beginning made it clear that this is not a happy story, so it should be an interesting book.

The high of my week was feeling good about how my work trip went. I hadn’t traveled with this sales rep before and he has a reputation for being very good at his job. He was one of my former’s colleague’s favorite people to travel with so I had a feeling he’d be fun to spend time with. He asked me to come back in October so I must have done ok!

The low of my week was: continuing to deal with this stupid RA flare. My doctor reviewed the MRI and said it appears to be a flare. She doesn’t know why it’s not responding to the injections and oral steroids so the next course of action is to see a radiologist who can do an imaging-guided injection so they can more precisely target the impacted area of the joint. But the earliest I could get an appointment is August 1st!! I plan to call every couple of days to see if they have any cancellations. Hopefully they don’t get sick of hearing from me. I am so tired of dealing with this flare. I really hope my infusions prevent flares like this from happening again. Theoretically the infusions should help with this flare but I think the flare is so acute that even the infusions can’t remedy the flare.

A show I am watching is the latest season of The Bear. The ratings of this season aren’t as high as the other seasons but I am really enjoying it! Interestingly, the show is too intense for Phil. I’m usually the one bowing out in a show due to intensity but I guess I am a bit more immune to the intensity after years of waiting tables in college. 

For workouts I ran 3 miles on Monday morning before work and did a strength training workout in my hotel on Wednesday after a full day of 7 (!!!) client meetings. I really did not feel like working out after being ‘on’ from 7:40-5 that day but I told myself that if I packed workout clothes, I was going to use them! I will run again this morning. My plan is to run 7 miles on Saturday or Sunday.

The best money spent was on our 2023 family photo book! This is the latest I have completely a family photo book but at least it got done! Paul and I have been looking through old photo books (I started doing them in 2018 - the year Paul was born) so I am excited for our new one to arrive! 

My plans this weekend include not much! It’s going to be in the 90s here and humid so we will do something by the water each day. I will take the boys to the pool one afternoon and we will probably go to the beach with Phil when he swims on Sunday morning. But other than that, we don’t have any specific plans. 

Bonus photo:

The boys played My First Orchard Game (the best pre-K game ever!) pretty much independently!

How was your week? 

4th of July Recap

We had a nice 4th of July weekend up at my parents. The drive on Thursday was NOT good, though. Taco asked if we were almost there 5 minutes into a 2.75 hour drive… He was entertained by his iPad for about 30 minutes and then alternated between yelling very loudly and asking if we were there yet. Listening to Taylor Swift helped at times but it was not a great drive. We were all happy when we arrived at my parents. Had it not been 11:15 am, I would have otherwise helped myself to a glass of sav blanc but that seemed a bit aggressive. 

Taco was happy to dig into the toys of my childhood

It rained each day but we had dry periods each day. Phil helped Paul, Taco and my cousin’s son fish off the dock on Thursday. 

Friday was a nice for most of the day so the boys played in the sand and water quite a bit and my dad took us out on a pontoon ride. 

Paul and his namesake, Papa Paul 

This bucket is meant for washing off feet but Taco decided to make it his own little bathtub

My parents hosted a very large family party on Saturday with 50+ people. There is a big bean bag tournament which I passed on this year since my hand still hurts quite a bit. It was a gorgeous afternoon until the wind picked up and a big thunderstorm moved in. Everyone moved into the garage so it didn’t hamper things too much. 

Most of the kids at the party were much older than my boys. But Paul was happy to follow his cousin Matt around like a little puppy dog. He is so obsessed with Matt and has been for a very long time. 

How it started..

Matt was 10 and Paul was around 4 months old

How it’s going… 

Now Matt is 16 and has his license but he still has a special connection with Paul! 

We drove home on Sunday morning so we could get groceries, do laundry and prep for the week. 

I fly to Michigan this afternoon for a 2-night trip. July will be a bit of a whirlwind as I travel 3 weeks in a row. So much for a quiet July! Next week’s trip is just one night so at least that is a short one. The results of my MRI came back on Wednesday so I am hoping to hear from my doctor about next steps today. 

How was your weekend? 

What We Read in June

First off, Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends! 

Now onto the topic at hand - reading! I lucked out and had an incredible month of reading. There was only one sort of disappointing read. Most of what I read I rated 4 or even 5 stars! I read 9 books in June, bringing my 2024 total to 52. I don’t set a goal for number of books read as I don’t want to ever focus on quantity over quality. Last year I read just below 100, the previous years I read over 100. We will see where this year shakes out! I have included children’s books that I read out loud to Paul in the total but I spend hours reading them so figure they should count, too. 

Best of the best:

After Annie is Anna Quindlen’s latest character-driven novel. It’s about a family grieving the sudden loss of their young matriarch. I didn’t love this as much as Every Last One but it was still a very good 4-star book. The Wives was raved about on Sarah’s Bookshelves Live and lived up to the hype (I gave it 5 stars). It’s a memoir written by the wife of a man who enlists in a special ops unit of the army. I gifted this to my sister as part of a gift to acknowledge her family’s cross country move. I can’t wait for her to read it so we can discuss it, hopefully in person! It gave me better insight into what her life has been like (her husband is in the military.) I gave it 5 stars. Real Americans was also raved about by Sarah but her co-hosts did not care for it. This was another 5-star read for me. It’s a multi-generational novel about a family that flees from China. I thought it was so well done. This is another character-driven novel. The last 2 books, Yours Truly and Just For the Summer were my first foray into local author Abby Jimenez’s catalog of work. Both books are set in the Minneapolis area which made them extra delightful for me to read. I really enjoyed both and they filled my need for something lighter with a happy ending. I think I preferred Yours Truly but both were great.

Other mostly great reads:

Colton Gentry’s Third Act is a romance novel about a country music star that speaks out about gun control after losing his best friend to a mass shooting at a musical festival, putting an end to his career as a country musician due to the backlash. I really liked this but not as much as Jimenez’s. The People We Keep was an excellent book about a young teen in a situation of neglect that goes out on her own after a conflict with her father. It’s a found family kind of novel. The Secret Book of Flora Lea is a historical novel about the children that were sent into the countryside of England during WWII. A child goes missing and this book is about the sibling’s search for the missing child as an adult. I liked it but historical fiction hasn’t worked as well for me lately. River East, River West was my least favorite read of the month. It was another rec from Sarah’s Bookshelves Live so not all of her picks work for me. It’s set in Shanghai and is told by dual narrators. It’s sort of a coming-of-age story which are hit or miss for me. I didn’t like the mother or daughter in this story so that made it harder for me to enjoy this book. 

The boys’ reads:

Paul and I have not been reading together as much lately because he would rather read graphic novels on his own. Below he is reading a Geronimo Stilton book at the library. It’s fun to see his love of reading take off but I would like to get back to reading some chapter books together! 

We did finish the 3rd Paddington novel that we were gifted at my baby shower. These were very delightful reads! 

Taco is mostly into picture books but will still pick out board books at bedtime occasionally. Board books are far shorter so it’s not the worst thing when that happens. Ha. So we will keep his board books out for now but I think I will winnow down the collection to our favorites and find a new home for the ones he isn’t drawn to. The picture book we read the most in June was The Gruffalo which is a favorite of mine, too!

Did you read anything great in June?