This week Ariel posited the same thing I did: Would this book work better if we weren’t reading it over 10 weeks?
Lake Huron is looking good, though.
Loved One Not Built for Slow Reading?
Category: Books
Loved One Postcard
Ariel reports that she’s increasingly annoyed by Elizabeth. (I was too, at that point.)
She also was pondering how we think we know someone, but someone else knows them differently in ways that highlight our intrinsic isolation.
Books Read in June 2026
Bolded means favorite
Grownup Fiction
Over Easy by Mimi Pond
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Wreck by Catherine Newman
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama and translated by Alison Watts
Enjoyable collection of interwoven short stores united by a unique librarian. I did find myself distracted by wondering what size clothing this “very large” woman wore. I’m guessing she’s a 16.
Grownup Nonfiction
You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong: How to Make Your Bowel Movements a Joy by Trisha Pasricha
Judging a Book
Those clever library workers have done it again with this book display.
What could they be getting at?
These are some gorgeous edges!
Loved One Postcard from Lake Michigan
The northernmost point of Lake Michigan sure is pretty.
Ariel observes that she likes how this story about grief often makes her forget that it’s a story about grief.
Well said!
Books Read in May 2026
Bolded means favorite
Young Adult Fiction
Six Truths and a Lie by Ream Shukairy
Fiction
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 6 by Beth Brower
Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
Not the one about household chores and mental load (I recommend that one, if you haven’t read it and have some chores/mental load things happening at your house) but instead both a friends/grief story and a murder mystery story.
The Goodreads average is quite low. I’m wondering if others also felt they were kind of dumb while reading this, as I did. I’m a golden retriever of reading though, I just amble along, despite not entirely getting it.
Nonfiction
DIY Thrift Flip: Sewing Techniques for Transforming Old Clothes into Fun, Wearable Fashions by April Yang, Coolirpa
The Handsewn Wardrobe: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own Clothes from Patternmaking to the Finishing Stitches by Louisa Owen Sonstroem
I don’t think hand sewing my wardrobe is in the cards for me right now, but if it ever is, I’m coming right back to this book. There is also pattern drafting info, and a healthy disclaimer that one need not either pattern draft or hand sew.
Lake Ontario Postcard re: Loved One
Unfortunately, Ariel didn’t list the chapters she was commenting on. I was reading those same chapters, so it mattered less as I was receiving them. But several months on…
At this point though, Ariel felt the book had a good beginning.
Books Read in April, 2026
*book group selection | bolded means favorite
The first full month where I am not in a book group.
Young Adult
*Devils Like Us by L.T. Thompson
Fiction
The Examiner by Janice Hallett
The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand
I enjoy when an entire community takes its turn at narration.
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 5 by Beth Brower
Miss Lion continues to delight.
Nonfiction
The Uncool by Cameron Crowe
Loved Clothes Last: How the Joy of Rewearing and Repairing Your Clothes Can Be a Revolutionary Act by Orsola de Castro
An excellent call to arms that will stick with me. As will the paperback’s shoddy design.
Books Read in March 2026
*read for book group | bolded means favorite
Picture Books
*Shabbat Shalom: Let’s Rest and Reset by Suzy Ultman
Middle Grade
*Where Only Storms Grow by Alyssa Colman
*Hungry Bones by Louise Hung
*Neshama by Marcella Pixley
*Tall Water by S.J. Sindu and Dion MBD
Young Adult
*The Rebel Girls of Rome by Jordyn Taylor
*He’s So Possessed with Me by Corey Liu
*Tall Water by S.J. Sindu and Dion MBD
Grownup Fiction
Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me by Mimi Pond
I would have liked more of Mimi Pond; her interludes drop off mid-book. But there is a lot to cover with six sisters, so I get it. I loved the color palette.
Books Read in February 2026
*Book group selection | bolded means favorite
Picture Books
*Croco by Azul López and Kit Maude, translator
*Many Things At Once by Veera Hiranandani and Nadia Alam
*Kaho’olawe: The True Story of an Island and Her People by Kamalani Hurley and Harinani Orme
Middle Grade
*D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. by Abby White
*Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan
Young Adult
*Under the Neon Lights by Arriel Vinson
*One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller
*Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories, Cynthia Leitich Smith, editor
*Silenced Voices: Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide by Pablo Leon
Young People’s Nonfiction
*Hick: The Trailblazing Journalist Who Captured Eleanor Roosevelt’s Heart by Sarah Miller
Grownup Nonfiction
Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton