Five for Friday, Edition #36: 2026 Has Not Been Awesome

I hit publish on my whole "2026 is all about fun" post and it was like I had challenged a very wrathful god. So what I'm going to do here is start with lighthearted bad stuff, pair it with something I'm grateful for, and that will warm you up for what's going to happen at the end of the post. That way, if you don't want to be depressed as fuck (and who wants to on a Friday?), you can bail early.

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Thing #1: I have been saying the word neologism wrong all my life.

Grateful thing #1: I recently learned how to say neologism correctly. Just kidding, I still say it incorrectly, but note that I know it's wrong.

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Thing #2: Our town recently switched garbage providers. So there was a thing where for a time we had bins for the old place and the new place and they told us to leave our old bins on the curb after the last pickup, which I assumed meant they'd be picked up soon after the last pickup. Well, our last pickup for recycling was December 18 and it was well into the new year before the bin was picked up. 

Now, maybe I could have let this go, but here's the deal. We can't leave our bins on the curb because the curb is sloped. That means we have to put it in the street. For more than three weeks DURING WINTER everyone had these stupid bins out on the street and plows were knocking them over and they were being blown from one end of the street to the next. I got increasingly shrill about this. 

Grateful thing #2: The bins have been removed. 

For weeks!!! Also, the city was supposed to pick up leaves. In November. Ahem.

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Thing #3: During lunch at work, I can only do two of the following things: yoga, eat, go for a walk. That's it. It's hard for me to figure out how to best allocate my time. Since I have to eat or the consequences may include passing out, it really means I choose between doing yoga/stretching or going for a walk. Oh, well. It's on me that I created yearly goals that are in conflict with one another.

Grateful thing #3: I have flexibility to do those three things during lunch.

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Thing #4: I'm worried about Hannah. She's refusing to jump into the car, she has a wart/mole/bump thing that is growing quickly, and tonight I pet her on her hind and she whimpered and tucked tail. I am going to call the vet to see if I can get her an appointment next week. 

Grateful thing #4: We can afford treatment for her if it's something bad. 

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Thing #5: Humphrey's person's cancer came back. He's starting chemo again. He had to have a discussion about where Humphrey will go if...well, you know what if.

Grateful thing #5: We can wrap Humphrey's person in care and compassion and help him through this. We can walk the dog, shovel the sidewalk, teach his classes, and make him food. So much gratitude that we have the resources and health to do this.

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What are you grateful for today?

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

I read New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson because it filled a Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompt. Is that a good enough reason? I guess we'll see. I listened to the audiobook, which was a full cast recording with nine narrators.  

In the year 2140, New York, along with most other coastal cities around the world, is under water. But New Yorkers are gonna stay in New York, so the residents adapted. Streets became canals. People get around using water taxis. We follow the residents of the Met Life Tower as they try to halt a hostile takeover over their cooperatively run building and solve a kidnapping. 

Look, I wanted this book to be something it wasn't. It was just a sort of boring mystery set in a cool setting. If the setting had played a larger role in the mystery (it boils down to corrupt politicians - like that couldn't be the case in 2026?) I might have liked it more. But the male POVs were very caveman and the women were Mary Sues. I just...can't. 

ALSO. Let's get to my my critique. This book posits that a couple of tween boys were able to recover a lost 1780 shipwreck in a single dive.  A shipwreck that is buried beneath the landfill of the Bronx. I rolled my eyes so hard in the back of my head. USING A DIVING BELL. I read books about dragons, I think Nancy Drew really does know everybody in River Falls and understands psychology better than any other human, and I don't usually stop to think about the logic of worlds. But this was too much for me. 

This nonsense is over 600 pages long, doesn't have a real ending, and doesn't really and seriously address the issue of climate change. Read it if you want, but you will also probably be disappointed. 3/5 stars

Lines of note:

Edith Wharton was born on the Square and later lived there. Herman Melville lived a block to the east and walked through the Square every day on his way to work on the docks of West Street, including during all of the six years when the Statue of Liberty's hand and torch stood there in the Square...One day he took his four-year-old granddaughter there to play in the park, sat down on a bench, and was looking at the torch so intently that he forget she was running around in the tulip beds and went back home without her. (Part II- C, timestamp 2:44:00)

Edith Wharton! Herman Melville! My ears perked at mentions of these two. Herman Melville's existence was a legitimate plot point of this book. Friends, we've come full circle. 

Things I looked up:

...like those tribes they thought were pygmies until the fed them properly in toddlerhood and turned out they were taller than the Dutch. (Part II - A, timestamp 2:15:23)

Probably this tribe?

The Woolworth building opened in 1913 and took the height crown away and after that the Met Life Tower became famous mostly for its four big clocks. (Part II - C, timestamp 2:39)

Woolworth Building

Met Life Tower

Hat mentions:

A thrust hat, stunning the prisoner. (Part III - E, timestamp 6:17:24)

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Would you want to live in a city that was underwater or would you try to move inland to drier areas? Are you worried about rising sea levels and coastal cities? 

Almost Wordless Wednesday - I Did A Thing

Before:

After:

Confidential to Nance:

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Note: The cards on my desk are a combo of sympathy and birthday cards and I can't bear to look at them. They've been on my desk for months. I'm going to leave them there until I decide what the proper course of action is. 

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What's the last cleaning project you did? Please brag here. I will compliment your housekeeping skillz. 

Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2026: The Plan

I'm back with the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge again this year. 

The theme this year is about gardens and plants, but some of the prompts seem like a real stretch to me (astronauts?). Oh, well. Who am I to criticize when one of the prompts is about my home state?

1. A book where gardening or a garden is central to the plot

All the Presidents' Gardens: Madison’s Cabbages to Kennedy’s Roses―How the White House Grounds Have Grown with America by Marta McDowell

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean 

5. A book about women astronauts

The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush

The Martian Contingency (Lady Astronaut #4) by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James & Wren James

The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes
The Dark Lord's Risk Assessor by Nikki Moyes

2. A book that features a platonic friendship between a man and woman

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren 

By This Wing: Letters by Celia Thaxter to Bradford Torrey about Birds at the Isles of Shoals, 1888 to 1894

3. A book you meant to read in 2025

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C. A. Fletcher - It's already loaded up on my Kindle. 

4. A book that starts with the letter "Z"

Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipović

Zoya by Danielle Steele 

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

6. A book with an overweight main character whose story isn't about losing weight

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

Puddin' by Julie Murphy

Sing Anyway by Anita Kelly

7. A book about a granny hobby

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini

8. A book about a sexless marriage

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxie Dara

Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang

The Bachelor's Valet by Arden Powell

9. A book with a "type C" character

Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman

10. A book about a horse or with a horse on the cover

Horse by Geraldine Brooks - I'll be honest, though, I'm just putting this here because everyone raves about it. It does not sound interesting to me. 

I just requested the Complete Arrows Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey. I know the magical beings Companions aren't really horses, but I think I could count it.

11. A book with a dad as the primary caregiver

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx 

Nosy Parker by Lesley Crewe

12. A book with "pop" or "sugar" in the title

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod (translated by Gerald R. Mettman)

The Way We All Became The Brady Bunch: How the Canceled Sitcom Became the Beloved Pop Culture Icon We Are Still Talking About Today by Kimberly Potts

13. A book featuring a character with a hidden past

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney

A Winter in New York by Josie Silver

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King

Maybe a Love Lettering reread?

14. A book set in Michigan or written by an author from Michigan (shoutout to the Library of Michigan's Michigan Notable Books series)

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

A Viola Shipman joint

The All-American by Susie Finkbeiner 

We Live Here: Detroit Eviction Defense and the Battle for Housing Justice by Jeffrey Wilson and Bambi Kramer

When Detroit Played the Numbers: Gambling's History and Cultural Impact on the Motor City by Felicia B. George 

15. A book about new beginnings

I think I could just slot in any romance novel I read here.

16. A book less than 260 pages

I'll just sort my books by length at the end of the year. Surely I'll have a short book on there.

17. A book about your favorite event in the Winter Olympics - Definitely a romance novel about ice skating here.

Life on the Edge by Jennifer Comeaux

Red Flags by Jens Lyon

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler

18. A love story that defies social boundaries

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

19. A book about teen angst

Maybe reread Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard

20. A book with a character who does Pilates or Lagree

Legacy by Nora Roberts

You Are Here by Eva Woods

21. A book about a bachelorette trip

The Bachelorette Party by Karen McCullah Lutz

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

22. A book about a book club

The Book that Matters Most by Ann Hood

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons

23. A book you were hoping would fit into a prompt but doesn't - I currently have a couple of books requested from the university library. I'd sort of hoped at least one would work.

The Island of Last Things by Emma Sloley

Dog Show: Poems by Billy Collins

24. A book about postpartum

The Nursery by Szilvia Molnar

Fault Lines by Emily Itami

Chouette by Claire Oshetsky

25. A book that explores influencer culture

Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

26. A book with a character who navigates infertility

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane

The Best Worst Thing by Lauren Okie

27. A book with a character who has curly hair

The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History by Karen Valby

Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser, Robyn Smith (Artist), Bex Glendining (Colorist), Kazimir Lee (Colorist)

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

28. A book about debt

The Limit by Kristen Landon

Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink by Louis Hyman

29. A book that takes place during harvesting season

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett - Much like Horse, I'm putting this here because it's on all the lists, but I don't really want to read it

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich 

Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard

30. A travel ghost story

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

Grave Sight (Harper Connelly #1) by Charlaine Harris 

Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan

31. A book that makes you feel FOMO

How to Giggle: A Guide to Taking Life Less Seriously by Hannah Berner, Paige DeSorbo

Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport That Wasn't Built for Us by Alison Mariella Désir

32. A book with an underwater civilization

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson 

Dark Life (Dark Life #2) by Kat Falls

33. A book about college

The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy

Dear Committee Members (Jason Fitger #1) by Julie Schumacher 

34. A book with a trans or nonbinary protagonist

Dreadnought (Nemesis #1) by April Daniels

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

35. A book that makes you want to travel to Italy - Look, nothing is going to make me want to do international travel. LOL.

The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

36. A book about a mob (fiction or nonfiction) - I probably won't do this one unless someone has an amazing suggestion. It's not my jam. 

37. A book about a pop star

XOXO (XOXO #1) by Axie Oh

Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston

Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie

38. A book with any type of fruit on the cover or in the title

Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell

Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez

The House Witch (The House Witch #1) by Delemhach

Aniana Del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez

Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley

39. A book with a character who runs a marathon

Today We Die a Little!: The Inimitable Emil Zátopek, the Greatest Olympic Runner of All Time by Richard Askwith

Run with the Wind by Shion Miura, translated by Yui Kajita 

Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon

40. A book outside your comfort zone

Well, let's just see what happens here, shall we? 

Advanced Prompts

41. A book in a different format than your usual: physical, audio, eBook

Ha ha! Little does PSRC know that I am a varied reader and read all of these!

42. A book inspired by a real song, album, band, or artist

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna

The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James - This would also be a great audiobook, I think. 

Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith 

43 & 44. Two books written by real-life partners or spouses (1 & 2) - I can't tell if this means read a book by one partner and then another book by the other partner or if it means two books from partner teams. I'm going with books written by partnered pairs. 

One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #3) by Ilona Andrews

A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

Lord of the Stars by Jean and Jeff Sutton

Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett

45. A book that features birding

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy 

The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love (Love's Academic #1) by India Holton

46. A sapphic comic

The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor

When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

Always Human by Ari North

47. A book told entirely through letters

Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke (it's actually Slack messages, but I think it counts)

I feel like this is a great opportunity to reread Love Letters: Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West

48. A book with a shadow daddy - Ugh. Hard pass.

49. A book with a mention of your zodiac sign

Should I read some Leo Tolstoy?

I can reread Rock with Me (With Me in Seattle #4) by Kristen Proby - The male protagonist is named Leo.

50. A book about Afrofuturism

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

War Girls (War Girls #1) by Tochi Onyebuchi

The Gilded Ones (Deathless #1) by Namina Forna

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Is anyone else doing this challenge this year? Did I miss an obvious choice for any of these that you were screaming at the computer?

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

First book review of 2026! Let's do this thing!

I read The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo because my husband read a description of it and insisted I would love it.

The first thing we do is meet Snow. 

I exist as either a small canid with thick fur, pointed ears, and neat black feet, or a young woman. Neither are safe forms in a world built by men. (page 2)

FOX PEOPLE!!

We learn that Snow is hunting for the man who paid the man who killed her child for her fur. She takes on the role of a caretaker to an elderly lady as part of her investigation. Meanwhile, in another city, we meet Bao, a man who can tell when people are lying because their words cause buzzing in his lips. He's investigating the death of a courtesan found frozen in the doorway of a restaurant. Then the plotlines slowly converge. We travel from China to Japan (time on a boat pleases me!), meet more foxes, and learn secrets. 

The book started slowly and it took me a hundred pages or so to really get into, but then I spent most of a Saturday curled up on the couch reading it and ignoring my to-do list and the dog nosing me for a walk. I wanted Bao to have a happy ending and I wanted to know all of Snow's secrets. 

There are some big problems. Consider the line where Snow describes herself. There is SO MUCH EXPOSITION in the fox scenes. Snow just can't but tell us everything we need to know instead of letting it come to us naturally in the world. There are also pretty graphic depictions of violence against women which I wasn't prepared for based on the tone of the rest of the novel, but it wasn't unrealistic. I don't know. There's just a part of me that wishes not every book had "normal men" threatening/enacting sexual violence. It gets exhausting. 

It was kind of exciting to read such a genre mashup, though. I put it down as fantasy on my spreadsheet, but it's a mystery novel with some historical fiction elements, too. That's fun. I like that Choo is taking risks and that a publisher took a chance on a book that isn't easily categorized. 

The ending was exciting and the book picked up the pace towards the end. Are you interested in Chinese folklore? The relationship between China and Japan in the early twentieth century? Fox people? Give it a try. 4/5 stars

Lines of note:

Revenge is a terrible dish to consume. It eats one from the inside out, no matter what the say about it being best served cold. As the Chinese saying goes, "When a gentleman takes his vengeance, ten years is not too late." But you and I know that chilled food inevitably leads to an upset stomach. (page 117)

Hope, of course, is the most painful thing in the universe. Clinging to a thin strand is the most agonizing way to live. (page 170-171)

Things I looked up:

drowning of the child emperor Antoku at the Battle of Dan-no-Ura (page 129)

Antoku - Emperor Antoku (1178 – 1185) was the 81st emperor of Japan. His reign spanned the years from 1180 through 1185. His death marked the end of the Heian period and the beginning of the Kamakura period

Battle of Dan-no-Ura  - During Antoku's reign, the Imperial House of Japan was involved in a bitter struggle between warring clans. Minamoto no Yoritomo with his cousin Minamoto no Yoshinaka, led a force from the Minamoto clan against the Taira, who controlled the emperor. During the climactic sea Battle of Dan-no-Ura in April 1185, Antoku's grandmother Taira no Tokiko took him and plunged with him into the water in the Shimonoseki Straits, drowning the child emperor rather than allowing him to be captured by the opposing forces.

Hat mentions (why hats?):

..wearing a straw coat worn by peasants to keep off the rain and a bamboo hat. (page 68)

She indicated a hat hanging on a peg in the hallway. (page 207)

The Manchu bannermen on the train wear hats trimmed with otter fur and thick quilted jackets. (page 216)

The police arrived wearing smart uniforms and uncomfortable-looking hats. (page 257)

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Does your spouse ever recommend books for you? Do you wish you could shapechange into a particular animal?

Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) Vote

It is the most wonderful time of year - CBBC time!

Previous CBBC books:
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
My Brilliant Friend 
I Capture the Castle
The Blue Castle

The Joy Luck Club

According to my non-existent editorial calendar, we're doing another round of Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) next month! I have winnowed down the book selection to three books and now you, my friends, are going to vote on what you think is the best option. How did I choose these books? Magic. It was by magic.

You do not have to be cool or a blogger to participate, although I'd argue you're cool just by being here. 

My criteria for adding a book to the vote is that it is written by a woman, someone has expressed interest in reading it for this purpose, and I want to read it. I have a list of books people have recommended to me, so if you have a request for future books, please don't hesitate to put it in the comments or drop me an email. 

Option #1
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin - Classic coming of age story where we follow Rebecca and her two spinster aunts. I suspect this book would fit in well with our CBBC readership. (184 pages, 1903)

Option #2
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit - Let's stay in that era. Kids and a fairy that grants wishes. What could be more fun? (237 pages, 1902)

Option #3
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - Nance suggested I read Wharton this year and who am I to deny Nance? She's an ENGLISH teacher. This is the winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize if that would sway you. New York society during the Golden Age. Who wants in? (293 pages, 1921) 

Those are the options. You can try to lobby fellow readers to your favorites in the comments, but your vote will be cast at this Google form. I am asking for you to rank order your choices from your most preferred to least preferred book. You do not actually need to be a blogger to participate in CBBC, but you should probably at least occasionally read this blog. I'll leave the form up until Wednesday, January 21 and then I'll tabulate the votes and post the schedule soon thereafter. 

What I Spent in 2025: Did You Know I Have Pets?

 

Tech (<1%) - I did need to pay for storage on the cloud. *sigh*

Donations (1%) - Okay, this is embarrassing. I can afford to do so much better. I already wrote a check to my alma mater to support low income students this year and will continue to make donations/send money regularly.

Miscellaneous (1.1%) - It's not too big of a category!

Fitness (1.3%) - Fitness classes and some new yoga equipment this year. I have no regrets. 

Entertainment (2.5%) - I have a Spotify subscription and this is occasional other fun outings. I think this is reasonable and will probable see this go up this year since my goals are MORE FUN.

Eating out (3.4%) - This isn't too bad. I don't actually eat out much. 

Cars (3.9%) - Gas, the occasional oil change. This is a bit misleading because we bought a new car in November and took out quite a bit from our savings for a down payment (basically, we'd been putting into savings what our car payment was when we paid off our VW and used that as a down payment).

Personal care (5%) - Remember how there was that study that said the average American woman spends $877 on her appearance every year? Hold my beer, average American woman. It takes a lot of money to look like this average Midwestern lady.

Clothing (5.6%) - I'm quite proud of this. I buy quality clothes and try to buy ethically, whatever that means. But I do have a job that requires me to dress professionally, so I did buy some clothes this year. 

Travel (5.8%) - Most of this was not fun travel, so the less we speak of it, the better.

Bills (6.5%) - I really only pay for home/car insurance and water/sewer.

Savings (6.8%) - Grr.

Gifts (8.1%) - Gift giving is my love language. I can't help it. 

Health (9.5%) - Between physical therapy, tortuous gynecological procedures, and my periodontist appointments, this added up quickly.

Pets (14.6%) - And this was a year with nothing major KNOCK ON ALL DAMN WOOD. (Last year, I spent over $10K on my girls, so I'm super duper okay with this number.)

Groceries (24.5%) - I mean, this is okay if you ask me. We have special dietary considerations and I rarely eat out, despite that 3.4% thing above. I also bake a lot and butter is expensive, yo. 

What was your greatest expenditure in 2025?