1. A clown, a waitress, a teacher, a singer (I loved Linda Ronstadt), and, later, a long-haul trucker.

2. A homeschooling parent.

3. My 9-year-old self would be confused.

4. "The reason you have a stomachache every morning is the peanut butter toast and big glass of milk you always have for breakfast. You don't know what gluten and lactose are now, but trust me: it'll all make sense in 25 years."

5. ???
@DebbieGrillo @MinDea
#HumpDayPost

After many flights, I finally figured out that I can't concentrate on Classics or nonfiction while on a plane.

My daughter's been using my Kindle since the screen on hers went out, so I have a mix of her books and mine. First for me today is The Uninvited Guests, a title I learned about from Litsy!

And if that doesn't last me from one ocean to the other, I've got backups.

Today the caterpillar we watched become a chrysalis not long ago (see earlier post) emerged as a butterfly. She was one of three who emerged and flew off today. We reared purchased monarchs indoors for several years in Massachusetts, but this is our first time watching wild monarchs from egg to butterfly.

My kids didn't want to do our library's summer reading program, but that doesn't mean I couldn't participate. Ten books read earned me a tote bag, a bookmark, a few coupons, and a book. None of the offered books were particularly exciting to me, but I thought this one might be a good travel read this summer.

I'm not always sure if Moshfegh's books are great or if they just strike a satisfying chord in me. Either way, I enjoy following the paths twisting through her characters' minds. And McGlue's mind is especially twisted, so much so that even he tries to escape it.

"Why not just the breeze and the ocean? Why me?"

The bus from camp isn't here yet? No problem! I've got my book.

1. Taking a long-ish walk with my son.
2. I am so bad at picking favorites! It's a tie between Picos de Europa national park in Spain, Asheville, NC, and where I live now (San Diego).
3. Apple pie. Not that I'd turn down shortcake...
4. Yes. My daughter's home from camp, and we'll be cleaning house and getting everything in order to go out of town.
5. 👍

#friyayintro @howjessreads

1. Ocean
2. Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego, California. Or Sand Beach in Acadia National Park. Or Prince Edward Island National Park. Or 17 Mile Drive, Pebble Beach, CA. I clearly have trouble picking favorites.
3. Neither? DVDs from the library or Amazon Prime
4. Ladybird

#HumpDayPost @DebbieGrillo @MinDea

While there were certainly some lovely, powerful pieces to this novel, especially in the middle sections, overall I found it plodding and repetitive and unrealistic in the levels of achievement and wealth and the depths of friendship everyone seems to have. About 100 pages from the end, I found I no longer cared about the characters and trudged my way to the end mainly because I'd already invested 600+ pages.

Indulging in some afternoon reading. I dropped off my teenager for five days at camp, which is a good thing and I'm so proud of her independence and confidence, but it's also a little emotional for me. It's possible I should have picked a different book to read today. Luckily, my cat came to my aid. Nothing like a cat napping on my chest to put things in perspective.

I tore myself away from the tagged book for a bit of morning tidepooling. One of the perks of SoCal living. Now back to reading.

I've spent several years judging this book by its cover. Let's see what I think if I look at the pages inside.

In the world of this novel, some animals are "monsters," imbued with a beauty and persuasiveness that brings them great power. Fire is a human "monster" struggling to accept this power. I found this novel profoundly boring. I should have bailed halfway through, but I wanted to see how Cashore resolved a specific situation. Why in YA fantasy worlds are social structures just like ours only with magic? Now it's in the "back-to-the-library" basket.

Finished listening to this one while working out this morning. It's filled with interesting information about birds, discussion about the nature of intelligence and the (understandably) human lens through which we view it, and a somewhat dire warning about the effects of climate change on bird species. It's made me more aware of the avian dramas playing out in my neighborhood.

I'm not feeling the tagged book, and I've been distracting myself with the caterpillars in our backyard. Yesterday we watched the transition from caterpillar to chrysalis. It took about 3 min from J-shaped caterpillar to chrysalis, then a few more minutes to smooth itself into the classic chrysalis shape.

Now, we wait.

And I decide whether to finish this book or not. Is it worth seeing it to the end?

I looked into my mailbox this afternoon and said, "Huh. I wonder why I'm getting all this mail?" And then I remembered... it's #litsylove !!!

Now to write back!

Thanks so much @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Lovesbooks87 and @Stacypatrice !

Berry-and-banana breakfast to go with my book (tagged).

“To distract from their inability or unwillingness to reform, eternity politicians instruct their citizens to experience elation and outrage at short intervals, drowning the future in the present.“

(And don't worry...this isn't a library book. I bought a copy specifically so I could underline and write in the margins.)

Picked up a new horror story. Hopefully it has a happy ending.

All done! Overall I enjoyed this one, but there were a few things that made it less-than-optimal. The reveal was a little slower than was comfortable and there were a couple of red herrings that irritated me. Or maybe I just didn't read closely enough. I do like the way Atkinson plays with identity and how we decide whom to trust and what to believe in. Is the meaninglessness of life depressing or freeing? (Rhetorical, but feel free to answer.)

1. Beverly Cleary's Ramona books.
2. I can't think of a single condiment I dislike.
3. Nope. All of my fears are totally logical.
4. Two, 1 sister and 1 brother
5. 👍

#friyayintro @howjessreads

1. Right now, my favorites are the ones in my yard: hibiscus and passionfruit.
2. Circe by Madeline Miller
3. Catastrophe
4. Not a huge poetry reader, but I like Rita Dove, Mary Oliver, Edna St Vincent Millay

#HumpDayPost @DebbieGrillo @MinDea

No matter how good the books I'm already reading are, the book I just picked up from the library is always the most tempting.

We have a couple dozen monarch butterfly caterpillars on the milkweed plant in our backyard. It must be feeling crowded to them because I found this one on a geranium on the other side of the patio. I started to move her back to the milkweed, but then I thought maybe she knows what she's doing better than I do.

"Final refuge of the uncommitted"? Ouch.

Audiobook fun: Washing kale, lettuce, and tomatoes from my garden while laughing about escaped domestic cockatoos teaching wild cockatoos to swear. (Then feeling disappointed moments later when the narrator said that monarchs mimic the coloration of the poisonous viceroy butterfly when it's the other way around. I need to get the book book and see if it's incorrect there, too.)

Finished while cooking split pea soup. This, along with Madeline Miller's Circe, was a valuable addition to my reading of The Odyssey, but it didn't really grab me. The link between the slain maids and the maidens of Artemis is intriguing, but it seems underdeveloped and academic. And while I'm not sure I fault Penelope for being snarky, I would hope that a few thousand years would provide equanimity of a sort.

I enjoyed Shteyngart's novel (flawed, often unlikable characters I found oddly endearing, interesting commentary about luck, privilege, and how some people have a safety net that can't seem to be destroyed while others have no safety net at all), but I wasn't sure Lake Success was an actual place until I read the side of the chick broth box.

Finished my coffee and finished my book. This one addressed some good questions about free will, deepfake videos, the nature of reality, and the ways in which we're complicit in creating our own limitations, but it left me wanting. I wrote a longer review on my blog, but this is the gist.

Secretary! Clear my schedule!

Too bad I don't have a secretary. Or a clear-able schedule.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. I've been reading The Odyssey (Emily Wilson's translation) and Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad at the same time as I've been listening to this one, and it's interesting to read the different versions of Penelope and Circe, Odysseus and Telemachus. Of the Circes, Miller's is my favorite. (BTW: Hooray for Libro.fm!)

Fighting a virus is a good excuse for an impromptu readathon. Although I suppose Atwood's Maddaddam trilogy would be more apt.

There's not much feminist thought that's really new to me, but I like how Beard puts together the ideas here. Women being like men isn't a long-term solution to gaining society's acceptance of women in power. What we need is a shift in how we define leadership. Or so I summarize. Helps explain why I bristle when people tell my teen Girl Scout that she can earn her Eagle Scout now instead of that Gold Award no one's heard of.

After a rough beginning that read like a hackneyed cop story (intentionally?), this novel drew me in enough to keep me reading until the end. I feel about the ending of Golden State like I feel about the ending of Vox. Things just start breaking down, narratively speaking, and weird things happen. Hex was like that, too. The authors start with a great dystopian idea and then seem unsure where it should lead.

Started Madeline Miller's Circe on audio this weekend. Perdita Weeks does a fabulous job narrating. I listened to it on a long walk, and 6.5 miles flew by.