Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

There was so much love for Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser on the interwebz that I finally caved and got it from the library. 

Etheldreda is a two-time widow. She lives with her daughters and her stepdaughter in a crumbling mansion with only a couple of incredibly loyal servants. Etheldreda believes in keeping up appearances because if her daughters can marry well, their problems will be solved. So when there's a ball to introduce people to the very eligible prince, she's pumped when all three girls get to go. But we soon learn all is not right with the kingdom. 

This is a take on the Cinderella tale from the POV of the stepmother. It was interesting, but really just made me think everyone in the story was terrible. Surely there are good people out there? One of the key features of Cinderella is that Cindy is truly kind and hardworking (I mean, at least in the Disney version I'm familiar with). In this book she's lazy and entitled and it feels like it's truly a different story. I mean, obviously the stepmother would have a different view of Cinderella than Cinderella herself, but the character is completely different. 

So. Hm.

It really is a good look at how, for most of human history, women's fates have been determined by the men in their lives. It's a look at the most genteel of survival. 

But, to be honest, Etheldreda isn't evil enough for me here. 3/5 stars

Lines of note:

One had to have a shell, or at least the projection of one, for protection. For the sake of presentability, all our lives were a performance. (page 7)

I had once heard a sculptor compare his children to marble. He said, like stone, their future shape lingers inside of them, waiting to be revealed. But I believed that children were paintings as much as they were sculptures. You shepherded the along from blank canvas: guiding and cajoling and teaching and begging and reprimanding and instructing and demanding pushing and prodding the finished art into a picture of your own making. A stone is just a stone until someone appears with a chisel. (page 62)

"Of course families are negotiated. We are all in negotiation. A marriage begins with negotiation and continues to be one. And that is if fortune smiles upon you! If you are not viewed as chattel, or property." (page 201)

There are far-fetched stories of headless men that wander, bodies that keep walking without skulls. But I've killed enough chickens to know: Sometimes a torso keeps going. The last pumps of the heart. The legs moving. The final stumble before the collapse. (page 247)

Things I've looked up:

girandole (page 58) - an ornamental branched candle holder, a convex wall mirror fitted with candle arms, or a cluster-style pendant earring featuring three dangling drops

solecism (page 202) -  a grammatical mistake in writing or speech, or a breach of good manners and social etiquette

austringer (page 204) - one who keeps goshawks

Hat mentions (why hats?):

large sun hat (page 47)

ridiculous hat (page 57)

sew a ribbon to a hat (page 119)

it is my hat (page 119)

unbecoming hat (page 119)

new hat (page 119)

ugliest, most regrettable hat (page 119)

do not need to concern yourself with the hat (page 119)

I do not think her hat is ugly (page 120)

the hat and veil and gloves (page 123)

I pulled my hat down (page 139) 

ribbons of her hat (page 151)

complimented your hat (page 152)

tipped his hat (page 154)

*****************

Okay, real talk. Do you think I'm not vibing with any of these books because of the time of year? Do you find yourself being harsher about books during certain seasons/times?

August 2026 Accountability Buddy

Saturday, August 1
Day off

Sunday, August 2
30-minute yoga for tired legs

Monday, August 3

30-minute conditioning yoga video at the student union during lunch - YOU GUYS. My arms and abs may never recover from this workout. 

Tuesday, August 4

35-minute full body - Sometimes you actually have to lift a weight. 

Wednesday, August 5

30-minute cardio with Fitness Blender - This was old skool for me. 

Thursday, August 6

30-minute continuous yoga flow - Oof. Tough one. 

Friday, August 7

15-minute stretch class at lunchtime*

30-minute posterior chain dumbbell workout

Saturday, August 8

40-minute yin yoga

I have been slowly chipping away at this ten best balance exercises to help with my bad leg and I finished it today. I'm going to keep trying to do one or two of these exercises a day. 

Sunday, August 9

Day off

Monday, August 10

30-minute yoga video in the student union during lunchtime

Tuesday, August 11

10-minute upper body workout

10-minute lower body workout

10-minute standing abs

Wednesday, August 12

45-minute yoga class at the community center after work

Thursday, August 13

30-minute yoga video in the student union during lunchtime

60-minute Zumba class after work

Friday, August 14

15-minute stretch class at lunchtime

Saturday, August 15

Day off

Sunday, August 16

30-minute upper body and abs

Monday, August 17

10-minute standing abs

20-minute evening yoga flow

Tuesday, August 18

Day off

Wednesday, August 19

45-minute yoga class at the student union after work

Thursday, August 20

10-minute quads and calves - I mean, maybe my form IS bad. This is mostly glutes in my world. Whoops. 

10-minute standing arms

10-minute Japanese walking

Ooof.

Friday, August 21 - Monday, August 24

Days off

Tuesday, August 25

15-minute stretch class at lunchtime

30-minute no repeat full body & abs

Wednesday, August 26

15-minute stretch class at lunchtime

45-minute yoga class at the community center after work

Thursday, August 27

30-minute yoga video in the student union during lunchtime

Friday, August 28

15-minute stretch class at lunchtime

Saturday, August 29

30-minute upper body and abs

Sunday, August 30

40-minute yoga flow

Monday, August 31

15-minute stretch class at lunchtime

****************

Total: 20/31 (64.5%) of days 30 minutes or more

Cardio/strength: 10 days

Yoga: 12 days

Short stretch classes at lunchtime: 6 days

****************

I am losing steam. Ha. It feels like my 80% goal for the year is slowly slipping away. Oh, well. Onward.

****************

There's a lot in here if you are me and you know what to look for. I went away for the weekend and while I considered it "time off," you would probably not if you considered how many miles we walked and how much I jumped at the concert. It's also just that the days are getting shorter and, as many of you know, I suffer from SAD and I am struggling these days. But I shall persevere and try to get through this.

****************

Do you find your motivation for working out slipping this time of year? Or do you find more time once the kids go back to school? 

Five for Friday, Edition #49

 1) My husband won a big award. I mean, technically he won two big awards, one at the university level and one at the college level, but the one at the college level was super meaningful. I was there when it was announced and he was so surprised and I was surprised at how quickly I welled up with tears. He's so good at what he does.

2) The first day of classes was Wednesday. There was a "threat to life safety" emergency issued at my campus, but we didn't know at the time was that it was not a true threat to life safety.  It was scary. Fortunately, I was not the adult in the room at the time - our associate deans started telling us what to do in our office space and I just did what I was told to do. I had a student in my office and I shut off the lights, closed and locked the door, and pulled down the blinds. It was terrifying. I mean, in the end, it was nothing, but there was a half hour or so there where I was frantically trying to find my husband. I just. I never want to go through that again.

And, honestly, the rumors going around this are astounding. Someone was acting erratically at the library and someone else thought they had a weapon. This was called in. It turns out that the maybe weapon was an umbrella. That's the end of the story. But the rumor mill is out of control. 

Now we're dealing with a flood of calls for students asking to move to online classes. Classes have started. Classes are at full capacity. This feels like a surreal nightmare. 

3) The dog was sick. Again. This time it was the living room rug. So if you come to my house and it smells like dog shit, YOU HAVE TO LET ME KNOW. We are officially nose blind to it at this point because the involvement in cleanup was real.

4) Labor Day is this weekend. I have been tasked with bringing salads. Let's be clear, I usually bring a lettuce salad, but I'm OUT ON LETTUCE RIGHT NOW. I'm going to bring green bean salad and grape salad and hope for the best. If anyone dares to call me out on the salad game, I will probably not handle it well.

I also added "mani/pedi" to the options of things to do over the weekend and a bunch of us are going to get our nails done on Saturday morning. I've already made the appointment and everything. I WILL BE THE COOL AUNT.

5) Updated on seasonal SAD: It's already bad. I'm walking Hannah in the dark 2/3 daily walks again. I am chronically tired. I am very much liable to start crying if you ask me a single even slightly controversial question. I am looking forward to Labor Day, but as soon as someone asks me how the start of the semester is going, I'm nervous I might just break down. 

I decided on my birthday in mid-August that I was going to reset. It's been a tough couple of years in the old Gimbalsh household and I was determined that things were going to turn around. But the days get shorter, there's unbloggable things happening at work, and then this week happened with the dog and the active threat to life alert and the news of the world. And it has been (counts days) seventeen days since I decided to reset and I think I'm in a worse place than I was before. 

So if all I'm writing about is books and what I ate for dinner, please give me some grace. I am trying to keep it together. 

Happy Labor Day to those who celebrate. For the rest of the world, happy weekend!

What I Read: August 2026

Listen, the reading was happening this month and it was good, but not great.

August 1: Dungeon Crawler Carl (DCC #1) by Matt Dinniman (audiobook narrated by Jeff Hays, 2020) - I relistened to this one because the local bookstore does DCC events regularly and I felt like I had forgotten half of the book. Still 4/5 stars for me. 

August 7: Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson (library ebook, 2023) - Book club pick for the month. Meh. 3/5 stars

August 8: Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register by Ann Larson (book I own, 2026)  - Should be required reading, especially for anyone who has avoided working retail jobs. 4/5 stars

August 13: The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden (library audiobook narrated by Michael Crouch, January LaVoy, author note read by the author, 2024) - Super interesting, although what I really wanted was a book about the Halifax explosion rather than WWI. 4/5 stars

August 15: Homebound by Portia Elan (library, 2026) - Strong start, but the ending left me wanting something more. 3/5 stars

August 16: Carl's Doomsday Scenario (Dungeon Crawler Carl #2) by Matt Dinniman (owned ebook, 2021) - Carl, Donut, and Mongo continue their marauding ways through the dungeon. It's fun. This floor had a circus theme if that entices anyone to read it. 4/5 stars

August 18: Strange Pictures by Uketsu (library, 2022, translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion) - Multi-part mystery you might be able to solve by looking carefully at the pictures! Very clever and fun. Here's a quote that might strike some of you as hysterical.

He felt...nostalgic, rather than nervous. Once, there had been so many blogs like this.

Ah, blogs. The concept now almost seemed quaint. (page 14)

We're all quaint! 4/5 stars

August 24: A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan (library ebook, 2025) - What a delightful debut! 4/5 stars

August 30: Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb (library, 2024) - Fine. Just fine. 3/5 stars

August 31: Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman (library audiobook narrated by Steve West, 2012) - I don't know, friends. Genre mashup that I don't think I'm smart enough for. 2.5/5 stars

Total:10 books

Average star rating: 3.55/5 stars

********************

Did you read a 5/5 in August? What was it? I need something REALLY GOOD. (For all you recommending Whistler, I have to admit I'm 10% in to the audiobook and considering DNFing it. Does it get better? It has to get better, right?)

Between Two Fires by Christopher Beuhlman

Someone talked about Between Two Fires on Books Unbound and I got the audiobook, which is narrated by Steve West. 

Hm. Let's talk about this book and work out my feelings on the fly, shall we?

It's 1348. Lucifer and other fallen angels (?) have declared war on Heaven by starting the Black Death on Earth? There are going to be a lot of question marks in this recap. Thomas is an excommunicated knight who stumbles upon a priest and a girl named Delphine who can see angels, dream in premonitions, and whose body is occasionally overtaken by God(?). 

Sometimes I read a book and it makes me think that maybe I'm not a good reader. Maybe I don't truly understand things. This was one of those books. 

Look, this is a genre mashup. I guess I was under the impression it was historical fiction, but it really turned out to be a supernatural/horror/historical fiction combo. I was utterly befuddled by the fallen angel framing because it was whiplash to go from those scenes to ones with Thomas and Delphine trying to find something to eat and stumbling upon dead bodies in barns. 

At about two-thirds of the way through, I literally gave up trying to figure out what was going on and just rolled with it. Oh, there's a demon inhabiting the pope? Sure. There's a demon in the clouds? Fine. Delphine is really Jesus? FINE, IT IS SO. 

I mean. Whatever. Creepy book. Lots of straw hats. 2.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Hucksters of every stripe had tried to profit from the disease, especially in the early days, before they too sickened or grew afraid. (Chapter 18)

I immediately thought of the people hoarding toilet paper at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. 

Thing I looked up:

...Nearly 200 girls in Picardy to be deflowered by the troubadour [there's a name here, but I am not great with French] who was keeping count, if not naming names, in his verses (Chapter 29)

I can't figure out who this is. If I had a paper copy, I could look at the name. Alas, I have only the audio. 

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

straw hat(s) (Chapter 1 x2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 11, Chapter 14, Chapter 16, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 43)

fanning himself with his hat (Chapter 3)

his hat blew off him (Chapter 5)

refined hat (Chapter 9)

hat in his hands (Chapter 9, Chapter 10)

sweating in a hat made from no less than three foxes (Chapter 11)

grumbled from his hat (Chapter 16)

peeked from under the hat (Chapter 16)

replaced the hat (Chapter 16)

took the spoon of ram's horn from his hat (Chapter 20)

mermaid's ribs for a hat (Chapter 22)

wide red hats (Chapter 30)

take his hat (Chapter 30)

not until the hat's off (Chapter 30)

cardinal's hat (Chapter 36)

get your hat (Chapter 37)

cows and mantles and hats of many colors (Chapter 38)

yellow hats (Chapter 38)

removed the hats (Chapter 38)

*******************

Does this sound like something you'd want to read? I'm pretty sure I'm not the audience for this one!

Tress of the Emerald Sea (Hoid's Travails #1) by Brandon Sanderson

This month we read Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson for my IRL book club.

Brandon Sanderson (I listen to a podcast where they call him Brando Sando and I don't know why, but it tickles me in just the right place)  is the author of a lot of books set in his expanded fantasy world of  Cosmere. Tress of the Emerald Sea is a standalone book set in this world. 

Okay, here's the deal. Tress lives on an isolated island. When her beloved, Charlie, the duke's son, is captured by the Sorceress in the Midnight Sea, Tress decides to go after him. The seas in this place are dangerous, though. They are created by spores (not water) that rain down from the twelve different moons of the planet. The spores are unstable, reacting to water in an explosive way.  However, ships sail these seas. 

She befriends a talking rat named Huck and manages to be a perfect sailor who eventually worms her way into the heart of all the crew onboard the pirate ship the Crow's Song, which is naturally captained by Crow, a spore-eater. Can Tress save Charlie? Can Tress save herself?

Look, did some of this backstory bore you? Oh, good, I'm not alone. 

The book is told from the POV of Hoid, the cabin boy who is under a curse placed on him by the Sorceress that makes most of what he says nonsense. And why did Brando Sando need to have a dude intermediary? Because Brando Sando is not a good enough writer to write female characters. It is my big beef with this book. Because Hoid is not reliable (he's under a curse placed on him by the Sorceress), how does he know what Tress is thinking or doing? He doesn't. So Tress becomes one-dimensional and we spend too long trying to figure out if what Hoid is saying is at all important. 

But something happened at the end that I did not expect and I felt REALLY DUMB because it was sort of obvious in retrospect, but it made me reevaluate my stance on Sanderson's writing - that stance being that he's a plodding author whose dialogue is clunky and his sentence structure is a crime against humanity. However, maybe I'm wrong? The ending of this book tells me that I'm wrong. Maybe. Actually, no. He's still not a great writer, but he's great at plot. That's fair, right?

Also, this book has so many preachy moments in it. I don't need that. 

Eh.  This was going to be 2/5 stars, but I bumped it to 3/5 stars because the ENDING. It really got me. 

Lines of note:

Tress didn’t want to act suspicious, so she didn’t execute her plan at first. (location 1532)

Just. How did this make it through editing? SUSPICIOUSLY!!!

Hat mentions (why hats?):

He was wearing a traveling coat and even a hat. The duke considered hats improper wear except during travel. (location 371)

One figure in particular—standing right at the prow of the ship, wearing a hat with a tall black feather—looked ominous. (location 936)

With the black-plumed hat, their face was lost in shadow as the sun shone from near the horizon, silhouetting them. (location 945)

Captain Crow—judging by the plume in her hat—had harsh lines for a face, with tan skin and a scowl deep as the ocean. (location 987)

...wind blowing the black feather in her hat. (location 1269)

Her hat hung on a peg by the door...(location 2608)

She took her hat off the peg, went out the door, then locked it behind her. (location 2621)

the captain in her plumed hat (location 4089)

“Tell me…what is your opinion on tiny pirate hats?” (location 4481)

He’d been sitting there making a list of all the hats she owned. (location 4675)

She pulled on her hat, wavered for a moment, but then decided. (location 4896)

stolen Huck’s tiny pirate hat (location 5303)

Or, if trees won’t fit, maybe some paintings of dogs wearing hats. (location 5317)

The captain soon emerged onto the deck of the Two Cups sporting a long captain’s jacket and a hat with a plume. (location 5484)

Also, the only thing he was wearing was a tiny pirate hat. (location 5502)

******************

Have you ever read Brando Sando? Do you care about spores reacting to water? Do you even know what that means? 

Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb

I asked for a birding meet cute in a romance novel to fulfill a Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompt and Sarah immediately texted me about Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb. I got it from my library the next day. 

A few things. 

1) The cover is perfection.

2) Stephany left a comment about this book on that post I linked to above.

3) Stephany is right. 

Interesting characters: Celeste's exuberance and chaotic energy made me side-eye Dubb that maybe she has met me. Celeste feels real and maybe reflected back at me a bit too closely for comfort. But the male lead is dull as dishwater. Celeste needs a man with some spice. Fine. It's fine.

Believable conflict: You know what? Sure. Celeste is newly divorced and trying to figure out who she is without a partner dragging her down. John (man, it's even the most boring of names - sorry to all the Johns out there, but you might want to have a talk with your parents about why they couldn't be even the teeniest bit creative) has recently lost his job and isn't sure what to do for work. Celeste is A LOT and I can see why their situations and their personalities would create some classic uncommunication. 

Emotional tension: I think that's what this book was missing most. 

Happily ever after: Real talk. I feel like my husband could probably find a woman more suited to him, but I think he's hilarious and the smartest person in the world and I think he thrives with my enthusiasm and brashness. But I don't think these two (fictional characters - it's okay to talk about fictional characters like this, right?) are going to work out because they are not meant for each other. I think John is going to get frustrated with her real quick. 

Look, the meet cute is FABULOUS. Celeste is FABULOUS. But the book is meh. I look forward to future books from Dubb, though. Maybe she can figure out how to write a man who isn't a door mat. 

3/5 stars

Lines of note:

"We start with discovery, and we go from there." (page 24)

I liked this so much. YES! Let's discover and then ask questions. 

"If I ever need a reminder of why I'm single, I just think about how Andrea won't even make plans without checking Bridgette's calendar." (page 151)

What? Seriously. I look at our shared calendar before I make plans because that's what you do in a healthy relationship? If Dr. BB has plans and I'm going to make plans at the same time, we have to make sure someone is home to walk the dog, feed the cat, etc. This was such a crazy sentence. 

Thing I looked up:

Are birding contests a real thing? Yes. Also, WTF?

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

wide-brimmed straw hat (page 21)

worn baseball hat (page 54)

floppy hat (page 300, 303)

****************

Can we all agree to listen to Stephany about the quality of romance novels from here on out? Would you do a birding competition? Do you think birding competitions sound crazy? If you have a partner, do you consult their calendar before you make plans?