Through beautiful, engaging prose and a unique and striking setting, McConaghy tells a story that's both bleak and hopeful. As with her other recent novels, she addresses the reality of climate change while offering a way to keep our hope and humanity in the face of a changing world. I enjoyed this one quite a lot.

Photo: Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA

Audiowalking with the tagged while my younger kid is at tuba lesson. In addition to tons of students and parents at the university for orientation (is it seriously that time already?), I met up with this male monarch enjoying a snack. My external environment was quite different than the one in my ears.

For #TLT #ThreeListThursday, @dabbe requested three favorite movie soundtracks.

The ones I thought of first (minus season 1 of The Umbrella Academy, which isn't really a movie) were:

1) Hedwig and the Angry Inch
2) Sinners
3) O Brother, Where Art Thou?

I love Davies's reflective, introspective writing style and vivid settings. This novel follows the confusion and conflicting motivations of the main characters well. Reading it felt like I was being taken on a journey. I listened to the novel on audio, but based on prior experience, I suspect the effect would have been similar had I read it in print. And bonus: I learned more about the geography of India than I knew before.

We do not care that you think you shouldn't have to wait for us to cross the street. Pedestrians have the right of way even if you drive a Mercedes, Tesla, or any other "premium" vehicle. (We do care, however, if you hit us, and we will swear loudly at you to help prevent that from happening.)

#WDNCW #WeDoNotCareWednesday @dabbe

There are many ways I could read this novel, many clues I could (and did) highlight, many threads to pull. One thing I feel confident about is that it's about the parts that we play in our lives, the way that we sometimes continue to play the part even when it's not working anymore, the way that we get caught in our role and lose sight of who we are, if anyone, apart from it. There are other things here, but this one I'm pretty sure about.

This is a funny and emotional novel with characters whose deft, complex, and compassionate portrayals eclipse the statistical unlikelihood of them all existing at the same time in one small town. The story is certainly a vehicle for showing a variety of lives and perspectives of trans individuals, but it's also an enjoyable and touching story in itself. I didn't read anything about it before I started, so it was a total, delightful surprise.

Opinion question based on a real-life situation: There's a new book club you want to try out, but the book they're reading for the first meeting you can attend is one you disliked. Do you go to the meeting---with people you've never met before---for the book you disliked, or do you wait for next month and hope you like that book better?

Sleepy Silo is an excellent lap cat on this Sunday morning, but his contagious sleepiness isn't helping me lock in and finish this novel finally.

I love the way this novel plays with creator and creation, identity, responsibility to self and others, family (and all the pros and cons and compromises of family connections), perceived and actual ability...so many awesome themes. This novel does just what I want a novel to do: address big T Truth through story. And the last line is the reason I keep coming back to writing even as I worry that I can't/won't ever be able to do it well.

1) Family scavenger hunt in/around Balboa Park.
2) Family trip to Old Town for Venezuelan food and a Whaley House tour (made up for a missed field trip in 4th grade; kind of cheesy/touristy, but glad to have done it).
3) Lots of monarchs!
4) Baby doves fledged!
5) California king snake on spouse's walk home from work!
#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

My kids created a song challenge in which they give each other a time signature, a key signature, a duration, and 2 or more virtual instruments, and they each compose a song on their favorite DAW that meets those parameters. The Siren feels like someone gave Katherine St. John this kind of challenge but for novel writing. It feels like there's a laundry list of objects, events, themes, and even characters crammed into the story.

Mourning dove update:

This is a still from our makeshift nestcam. The one on the gate is one of the babies, who flew down to perch and was joined by a parent briefly before parent flew to the nest. Then the other baby flew down to the gate but kept landing on its sibling, so they both flew up to the parent in the nest for second breakfast.

Quite exciting times at our gate! I think this means they're more teens than babies, though.

We do not care that the prevailing philosophy is to bend the truth and make sweeping generalizations about those who disagree with us. We will not participate in the dehumanization of those who believe themselves our opponents, even if they do it to us. In fact, in our focus on maintaining our humanity, we reject the entire "us" vs "them" dichotomy.

(I was going to rant about perimenopause, but I chose a different direction.)

#WDNCW

We first heard "El Pueblo Unido" years ago when we were gifted this Inti-Illimani Historico anthology by some Chilean friends. My teen rediscovered it through friends two weeks ago and has been playing it daily on piano. It feels appropriate and moving at the moment.
https://open.spotify.com/track/5QZDNOt10nKcLvyPbrwYCp?si=Mb1DdPf4QEWzCCr7Kis5lw

#Tuesdaytunes @TieDyeDude

This has been on my TBR for quite a while, and I finally picked it up on the recommendation of my teen. While it drags a bit in the middle, I did enjoy the connections to Chinese and Japanese history as well as the conflict between the desire for power and revenge and maintaining one's humanity (a theme that seems timeless and especially relevant in the US at the moment, especially the warning against dehumanizing one's opponents).

The Anti-Prime Sale from bookshop.org came at the perfect time to order the tagged for my dad's birthday! If you'd like free shipping and to support local bookstores, head over to http://bookshop.org for books, games, stationery...all the good bookstore stuff!

Mourning dove update:
More mature feathers, lots of wing exercises, more time without parents at the nest. They grow up so fast!

In the top picture you can see the plastic bird spikes on top of which the nest is built, which I find quite amusing and kind of inspiring.

My family (spouse, kids, me) have been meeting up every evening for nearly 15 years to each share 1 thing we're grateful for, 1 thing we're sorry about, and 1 thing we intend for the next day. Recently we've added 1 thing we learned that day and an excerpt from the tagged. It's been helping all of us to reflect, like the Stoics, on what is in our control vs what isn't and to try to put our energy into the former.
#mentalhealthmonday @Kerrbearlib

This is a fun departure from Christie's usual formula. The way it's told builds the sense of menace and mystery in a way that doesn't happen with some of the more formulaic novels. I especially enjoyed observing my evolving feelings about Mike Rogers.

Photo: Moon over football fields, Canton, Ohio, 2025.

June's #WeeklyFavorites, at long last. Traveling threw me off, and I didn't finish any books between the 7th and 14th, so here's a cardinal for that spot. I think my favorite of these was the tagged.

@Read4life

Can holder snipping
As I was taught in 4th grade:
Conditioning works.

Every time I try to tell myself I don't have to anymore, I think of sea turtles. For 40 years and counting. Thank you, Weekly Reader.

#haikuaday #haikuhive

At first, this feels like particularly richly written historical fiction about a period I've always had trouble visualizing. Then it turns into something trippy that transcends time and plays with what-ifs in a very fun way. I think there are some lessons here for any would-be "ruler of the world." And now I want to visit Mexico City.

Photo: Statue of a different Castilian soldier (El Cid), San Diego, California.

Bathroom grime abounds.
Wait for someone else to clean.
Then...do it myself.

Story of my life.

#haikuaday #haikuhive

Photo: El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, California, 2025. Instead of a photo of a bathroom.

I introduced my kids (teen and adult) to Utah Phillips today, this album and Fellow Workers. I forgot how much I love his storytelling. https://open.spotify.com/album/2IqT02ArTZ3Pd3PH9LQ2nU?si=xeNMakznTEuZich4ErldfQ

#4thofJuly #Playlist @dabbe

For the 249th US Independence Day, a quote from Mark Twain's essay, “The Czar's Soliloquy,“ published in The North American Review, March 1905:

“The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.“

For the full essay, which says a lot more: https://archive.org/details/jstor-25105366/page/n1/mode/2up

Taking some liberties with the syllable pattern today.

Today's compliment:
"I'm not embarrassed by
anything you wear, Mom."

High praise from my almost-16-year-old.

#haikuaday #haikuhive

Photo: Yellow Warbler at Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan, 2025.

Mourning Dove Update:

We were wrong...she actually has TWO babies!

I set up a Ring camera to be a nest cam because I wanted to see how Mom is eating, but so far she's not left and no one has visited (or at least no non-human has triggered the motion sensor).

We do not care that our compression shorts sausage our thighs and that the sweat pattern on them looks like we've been having continence issues. You prevent chafing your way, we'll prevent chafing ours.

#wdncw #wedonotcarewednesday @dabbe

Audiobook audition recording day can be interesting, especially when it's for a horror novel.

Kids hear Mom yelling.
Check the door. Yep, it's okay:
She's just recording.

#haikuhive #haikuaday

@dabbe @TheBookHippie @DebInHawaii @lil1inblue @Kristy_K @julieclair @BooksandCoffee4Me @bellabella @AnnCrystal @Reggie @jdiehr @vivastory @CBee @Mimi28 @Jari-chan @Itchyfeetreader @Susanita @kelly7990 @JenLovesJT47

The blurb describes this as “mystery horror,“ and I don't think it's a spoiler to say that it struck me as more one than the other. The writing often feels stilted and overly simplistic, but it's difficult to know if that's how the author writes or how the translator translates. I do really enjoy the premise, and it's a quick read with some fun puzzle-solving elements, although it reads to me more like a sketch of an idea than a novel. #BuddyRead

Spotify set me up with an "Angry Running List," which taught me that I still enjoy Rage Against the Machine as much or more than I did in my feisty 20s, but now I cry at the lyrics.

It also taught me that, despite my conviction to the contrary, I apparently don't hate ALL Foo Fighters songs.

#tuesdaytunes @TieDyeDude

And that's a wrap for June's #bookspinbingo! I flirted with that one bingo but didn‘t quite get it. Nor did I read my #bookspin or #doublespin titles. Luckily the stakes are pretty low.

Thanks as always for hosting, @TheAromaofBooks !

Jumping into the #haikuaday #haikuhive for July.

I was really moved by an article from Alta Journal I got in my email today by the author of the tagged book. It brought a lot of things together for me. It's a weird combination of banal and cryptic in haiku form, but I hope to blog about it once it percolates a little more.

Not book related, but I was excited to post an update about the nesting mourning dove I mentioned last Friday in my #5JoysFriday: Mama dove has a baby!

We greet her quietly whenever we use the gate, and she seems comfortable enough with us, so hopefully, she will remain safe and happy there until baby can grow up strong and healthy!

(And doesn't she have gorgeous eyeliner?)

Okay, I'm ready(ish) for July! Although I'm already eyeing off-list books to read. But that's what free spaces are for, right?

@TheAromaofBooks #bookspin

I meant to read this one next month, but I picked it up and it just pulled me in. There are two things I dislike about this one. First, there's a big in-world inconsistency that I can't get past, and then there's the somewhat saccharin message, although I like how it ends, plot-wise. Those things aside, though, I quite enjoyed reading this fun and creative novel. #tob25longlist

Playing around with mocktails to enjoy while reading. Today I'm reading about a magical, husband-producing attic while drinking the "Apero Spritz" by AF out of Laguna Beach (and maybe originally New Zealand). A little too orangey (reminds me a little of Orange Crush), but the bitterness is nice, and it otherwise replicates an aperol spritz well.

Thanks for the tag, @Sace !

1) The exclamation point after "DETROIT" on this shop in the airport.
2) Watching my city as our plane lands.
3) Ocean hike with a close friend visiting from across the country.
4) Urban hike (featuring ducks) with that same friend.
5) The silly mourning dove who built a nest on top of the bird spikes at the gate to our yard.

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

Immersive, as all of the Southern Reach books have been, and confusing, but perhaps less so than the third book, this fourth book of the trilogy doesn't really do it for me. Maybe I should have re-read the first three before reading this one. Or maybe a trilogy by definition doesn't need a fourth book. That said, Bronson Pinchot does a fantastic job on the narration, especially with the f-bomb-laden last section. #tob25longlist

In an effort to get myself more enthused for the ToB Summer Bracket (reading Absolution isn't helping), I have created a challenge on The Storygraph. Search “Tournament of Books Summer Bracket 2025“ if you'd like to join.

The Opening Round starts 7 July, but I've left the dates on the challenge blank so you can read the books at any time and have them count.

#tobsummerbracket2025 #toblonglist

We do not care that we didn't use the lint roller before leaving the house so we went grocery shopping with cat fur all over our shirt.

We also do not care if our parents and/or in-laws are irritated that we didn't do the thing they implied we should do but refused to give us a direct answer about whether they actually wanted us to do.

#WDNCW #WeDoNotCareWednesday
@dabbe

This novel is a bit of a mood. My teen, leaning over my shoulder, noted the similarity in format to James Joyce's Ulysses, and with the number of literary references in it, I lean towards the opinion that this is intentional. And if so, that suggests there may be another literary/mythological parallel to the novel as a whole that I'm just not catching. All this to say, I might not have read this as closely as it deserves, but I still enjoyed it.

Made excellent progress on the tagged during the flight home yesterday, although I'm 90% done and am still not sure where it's headed.

I'm feeling so many conflicting things today: happy to be home, that a friend is coming to visit for a few days, and that the weather is so beautiful, but also concern and consternation about world events and relationships with aging parents and extended family. And preemptive exhaustion from post-trip chores.

I listened to this bit by bit on a series of drives across Ohio and Michigan with my family. On a road trip is a great way to listen to Kevin Wilson (this is our third), and the premise of this one in particular fits road trip listening well. Wilson's characters are so immediately engrossing, all of us were engaged, alternately moved and laughing as Wilson led us through the complicated nature of "family," via Marin Ireland's narration.

#5JoysFriday, Michigan edition.

From top middle, clockwise:
1) Butterflies!
2) Biking and hiking around an island.
3) Hiking up and down many dunes.
4) Hiking through wetlands.
5) Hiking up to views of glacier-carved lakes.
@DebinHawaii

Day 12 of a 14-day trip, and I am finally getting some substantial reading time in!

The Tournament of Books summer bracket has been announced for #CampToB25 : https://www.tournamentofbooks.com/welcome-to-the-summer-bracket

As expected, I've read most of these, so hopefully I remember them well enough to enjoy the match-ups.

Bookstore 3 of 3 for this trip: Brilliant Books in Traverse City, Michigan. Small but mighty! I overheard excellent book-related consultations with the friendly staff, and there was an old gumball machine repurposed to dispense D&D dice. Super cute!

Bookstore 2 of 3 for this trip: Horizon Books in Traverse City. Two floors of books, games, puzzles, cards, and a little café area.