For Your Weekend

At the end of this holiday week, here are a few things that we are loving around here.. . And one thing that we LOATHE.  I hope that you find a lot to love in this little list, and stay FAR AWAY from the loathsome. 

Things to LOVE, LOVE. LOVE

Some Writer!  The Story of E.B. White by Melissa Sweet
After I wrote about our family's E.B. White deep dive, so many people were in touch about this book!  Let me say, it is a lovely, delightful treasure.  Compiled in a scrapbook style, it includes illustrations, letters, primary sources, and many anecdotes and vignettes about E.B White and his writing life.  Perfect for curling up and reading.

The internet writing of Sarah Bessey. 

Bessey is one of the best writers on the internet, in my opinion.  I love her calm, faithful presence and her encouraging words to writers and creators of all stripes.  These two essays are my favorites: (click the title to follow the link)
Keep Not Quitting 
12 Best Practices for Finding Time, Energy, and Inspiration to Write

Truth’s Table podcast
I’ve only listed to the Gender Apartheid episode thus far, but I really like these women’s smarts, perspectives, credentials, and voices.  I will be spending time pulling up to this table.  

Pantsuit Politics podcast, featuring Sarah from the left and Beth from the right.  Like their tagline promises, there’s no shouting, no insults, only nuance, and the conversation this week about the lecturing tendencies of the left really made me think.  HARD. (CLICK HERE to read the article at length).  I learn so much from these ladies.  Hope you take a listen.

Manuel, Lin-Manuel and McCarter, Jeremy.  Hamilton:  The Revolution.

All things Hamilton. 

We are OBSESSED.  SHOUT OUT to GRAMMY who sent us all to see it in Chicago!  (And a gold star to anyone who guesses which child ALWAYS sings Burr’s parts.  Ahem).  We are reading the book.  We are singing the songs.  We are watching Hamilton’s America over and over.    It continues to teach, astound, and delight, and I no longer have any independent thoughts.  I only have Hamilton lyrics.  Thanks, Lin-Manuel!  

Simply Tuesday coloring book by Emily P. Freeman

Focusing on coloring is the only way I can be in the same room with my boys when they watch shoot ‘em up movies.  Like Hacksaw Ridge.  They watch.  I color.  We’re together, but not.  It’s perfect. 

Now.  

The thing to LOATHE.
DRUM ROLL PLEASE. . . . .

Summer colds.  

Photo by elizabeth lies on Unsplash

Summer colds are the absolute WORST.  THE.  WORST.  All of the things that make you feel better when you have a cold. . .snuggling under one million blankets next to a roaring fire after a hot bath, sipping on tea with lemon and honey. . .are just THE WORST when it is 90+ degrees outside and everyone is heading to the pool smelling like pina coladas, sunscreen, and freshly cut grass.  Summer colds equal world class PITY PARTY.  You can’t breathe.  Or taste all the yummy food.  You are hot inside and hot outside.  Your nose is both sunburned AND chapped.  Unacceptable!

Here’s how I am trying to nurse myself and those infected in my house back to health:

My Friend Kelli’s BANISH SUMMER COLDS FOREVER Bath Blend:

2 cups Epsom salts
1 cup baking soda
15 drops of your favorite essential oil (I like eucalyptus)

Add 1 cup of Epsom salt to a mixing bowl.  Drop in the essential oils.  Mix.  Add the baking soda and the remaining Epsom salt and blend well.  
Add to a STEAMING hot bath and let the HEALING BEGIN!

IT HELPS.  After two baths, I actually got dressed today.  PROGRESS!

E.B. White agrees with me about colds.  They prevent him from eating olives.  THE NERVE OF COLDS, ANYWAY.

Sweet, M.  Some Writer!  The Story of E.B. White.

Stay healthy, hydrated, and happy, friends!  And may you not need the Epsom salt and baking soda bath until winter. 
Happy weekend!

My Beach (Book!) Bag

Editor’s Note:  Books chosen to review or recommend are not based on endorsements.  I purchase my own books with cold, hard cash or find them for FREE through my dear old local public library.  I write about books that I like and believe that others might like also.  If you would like to purchase a book that I have recommended, please consider using the affiliate link provided.  Just click on the picture or the title and VOILA!  There it is, waiting for you!

Friends!  The time has come!  The season is upon us. . .

the SUMMER READING season! 

Reading all day!  Reading all night!  Reading by water, reading under trees, reading in cozy corners of lovely air conditioned spaces!

It’s time for us to find our lovely reading rabbit holes and DIVE RIGHT IN.    

Here are some of my Summer TBR’s. . .

These books will travel with me throughout this holiday weekend.  A little bit of this, and a little bit of that. . . books that will make you think and books that are palate cleansers for your brain.

You in?

CONTEMPORARY FICTION

The Book that Matters Most by Ann Hood

I am excited to escape into this tale of Ava,  a woman whose marriage has fallen apart, whose kids are up and out of the house, and, without warning, she finds herself at loose ends.  Searching for connection and community, she joins a book group whose aim is to identify and reread the books that have mattered most to the members throughout their lives.  Through this, Ava explores her past and finds healing for the future.  No doubt a plucky heroine!

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

This book was released a few years ago, and for reasons unknown, has been languishing on my shelf.  Well, it shall languish no longer!  This is the story of one couple’s relationship evolution over twenty-four year’s time, and explores the notions of “marriage, creativity, power, and perception” (book jacket).  Sounds right up my alley.

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

Mbue’s novel was my BOTM pick this spring, has been recommended by several friends and trusted sources, and was just announced as Oprah’s newest Book Club choice.  I am looking forward to spending time in the world of Jende Jonga, an immigrant who works as a driver for a Lehman Brothers exec right before the collapse of the firm.  The novel explores the relationships between class, race, cultures, and marriage within two families, both of whom are chasing the American dream. 

CLASSIC FICTION (and an escapist reread)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I stumbled upon this gorgeous edition of one of my favorite childhood books at my (new to me) local independent bookstore, and IT HAD TO LIVE IN MY HOUSE WITH ME FOREVER AND EVER.  Even the endpapers are gorgeous!  I loved spending childhood summers with the Marsh girls, huddled in a corner in my room, tired and happy after spending the afternoon at the pool.  If you haven’t spent time with Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth, I hope you will consider making their acquaintance.  

NONFICTION

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

So many readers I love and respect have metaphorically placed this slim book into my hands, and I am looking forward to reading Coates’ letter to his adolescent son about race, slavery, segregation, all within the context of American history.  Coates, a memoirist and national correspondent for The Atlantic, brings both his reporting prowess and personal experiences to create an informative and compelling commentary on race in America.  Important reading, and I can’t wait.  

The Story of Charlotte’s Web:  E.B. White’s Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic by Michael Sims

My seven-year old and I enjoyed reading Charlotte’s Web aloud this spring, and after it was finished, we were NOT.  We had so many questions about E.B. White!  What was his writing process, how did he create this story, how did he find his ideas, what he was like, and was there a REAL Charlotte?  I am in the middle of this book now, and am finding Andy, as he was known, to be a fascinating person and even a better writer.  Did you know, for instance, that he was a long-time contributor to The New Yorker?  Or that he brought a spider’s egg sack from his country farm back to his home in New York City, because he just HAD to see the spiders emerge?  Sims’s book has answered many of my curious boy’s questions, and has been inspiring to me as writer and a human.  And, beyond that, I am always a sucker for a good biography.

NONFICTION:  The Creative Life

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

This is a necessary reread to give this girl a long overdue kick in the pants.  Applicable for writers, creatives, or anyone that just wants to get something done, Lamott weaves sensible advice within poignant and hilarious stories that makes you feel less alone in your work, whatever that work may be.  For this go-around, I am enjoying this book on Audible, which helps the Anne's wisdom to wash over me in a completely new way.  Highly recommend.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Another necessary reread for me this summer.  Like Lamott, Pressfield gives creatives much needed encouragement with force, passion, and plainspoken candor.  He addresses the resistance that artists of all kinds face, and discusses how to, basically, get over yourself and get your work done.  I always find myself returning to Pressfield when I am facing daunting new projects, as I am this summer.  A must read.

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

McKeown’s book helps busy people make the best use of their time by identifying the work that ONLY THEY can do, and helping them craft a way to be rid of the excess.  What is essential for you to do, what balls can be dropped, and how can the rest be shifted?  I know how to do EXACTLY NONE of that, so I need to spend some time figuring out what in my work life is essential.  I’ll keep you posted.  

HUMOR

Theft by Finding:  Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris

David Sedaris is hilarious.  He is irreverent.  He is inappropriate.  He is wildly funny and cringy and so smart and astute in his observations of human nature.  The wildly entertaining tales of his quirky, unconventional family will have you guffawing.  Quite simply, he make me roar.  I will love listening to his latest on Audible.  

FOR THE KIDS

Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary

The littles and I spend a great deal of time in the car, and Ramona has been our constant companion this summer.  We have enjoyed the Audible version, narrated by the incomparable Stockard Channing, and have enjoyed watching Ramona’s scrapes, misunderstandings, and realizations about what it means to grow up.  Our favorite book so far has been Ramona and Her Father, when Ramona and Beezus forge a two-girl campaign to stop her father from smoking.  Spending time with the Quimby’s during all of our travels hither and yon has been a delight.  

***
My dear readers, I wish you the happiest of happy holiday weekends, with books and laughter and joy galore.  Fire up your e-reader.  Go to your local independent bookstore.  Let Amazon Prime bring you a treasure in two days or less.  Give yourself the gift of stories!  Keep me posted on which reading rabbit holes ensnare you.

Happy reading!