What I Read: May 2026

5/1: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 1 (The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion #1) by Beth Brower  (library, 2019) - I know this is a beloved series, but I'm here to tell you that it was a real snooze. Not my type of book. 2.5/5 stars

5/2: Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell (library, 2025) - There's a dog. That will make any book better, won't it? 4/5 stars

5/7: Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn (library audiobook narrated by Nicol Zanzarella, 2019) - I stand by my original review. This might be my favorite romance novel ever. 5/5 stars

5/9: Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum, narrated by Shanna Tran (library, 2022) - Look, this book was boring, preachy, and made me sort of hate life. Don't read this. What a waste of a good premise. 2.5/5 stars

5/9: American Fantasy by Emma Straub (library, 2026) - This was so readable, but isn't a good book? Whatever, it was fun, I think? 3/5 stars

5/9: One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #3) by Ilona Andrews (library ebook, 2016) - I do find this series to be absolutely charming. There's a killer dog and a smart cat and werewolves and vampires and I think I'm just going to keep reading this series because I like it so much. It's not going to win a Pulitzer, but I don't need it to be a prize winner. 4/5 stars

5/13: On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandara Horowitz (library, 2013) - This is a good starter for someone who walks the same block over and over and over again (ahem) to look at things through a new lens. 4/5 stars

5/16: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (ebook I own, 2026) - I did not care for this It Book everyone else loves. But I would kill for a tell-all written by Leta Armstrong. 3/5 stars

5/16: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (library audiobook narrated by Bernadette Dunne, 1962) - I always want Jackson books to be slightly better. The writing is really good, but there's just something chilly about the writing that means I feel like the author's holding me at a distance. 3/5 stars

5/23: Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi (library, 2021) - I don't know. Memoir isn't for me. This girl grew up under Soviet-style socialism and Albania until the turbulent 1990s changed everything in the country. It just wasn't for me. 3/5 stars

5/26: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (library, 2023) - We read this for my IRL book club. I thought it was a pretty good read, although it wasn't particularly memorable. 4/5 stars

5/28: Platform Decay (Murderbot #8) by Martha Wells (library, 2026) - The early books in this series were such a joy for me. Murderbot was hysterical and there were a lot of lines that made me laugh out loud. As Murderbot develops relationships with humans, they are less sarcastic and misanthropic and I enjoy the series less and less. I'm probably going to stop reading here. 3/5 stars

5/31: The Appeal (The Appeal #1) by Janice Hallet (library, 2022) - Two first-year law students are digging through emails and other documents to try to figure out how a theater company is involved in a death. It was fast-paced, but I was super confused by the transition from the English version to the American (they used dollars for everything, but America was "across the pond" and it made everything kind of confusing). Enjoyable mystery, I thought. 4/5 stars

Total: 13 books (but at least two are really novellas)
Average star rating: 3.46/5 stars

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Did not finish:

Lake Effect by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney - I was listening on audiobook and, frankly, marriage in peril makes me exceedingly uncomfortable. This is a me problem, but I was raised in a family with domestic violence and when parents are fighting/cheating, I get suuuuuper anxious. DNF at 13%. 

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I'm ready to get slammed because I know Yesteryear and Emma Lion are super beloved. What is a book you don't love that everyone else does? 

May 2026 Photo A Day: Week Four

Saturday, May 23 - Look at this cat!! I can't stand the cuteness.

Sunday, May 24 - It was our anniversary. I forgot about the yearly photo until it was nearly bedtime. We took a selfie. It is horribly unflattering to both of us, but I guess in the interest of keeping this tradition alive, here's a terrible photo.

Monday, May 25 - Two photos that sort of touch on how weird it felt to be "celebrating" Memorial Day today. 

First up, $2.79 for a pint versus $1.50 for a pint is a difference that makes a difference in whether or not I'm going to buy these raspberries. WHAT'S THE PRICE, GROCERY STORE?

Then there's this. If there's never been a sadder execution of patriotism, I haven't seen it. Happy Memorial Day, America.

Tuesday, May 26 - My Tuesday night fitness class has ended for the summer, but we all walked over to our local ice cream stand for some sweet treats. 

Wednesday, May 27 - Tomorrow is our first registration event at work. It's a lot of work on our end and it meant we spent much of the afternoon in one of our academic buildings getting things ready. The theme: random animals. Also, the internet and phones went out for HOURS and we had no idea because we were busy cleaning, writing on whiteboards, and taking photos of random animals.

Thursday, May 28 - Zelda is basically allowed anywhere downstairs except for the table and stove/countertops. Anywhere else? Fine. Guess where I found her when I came out of the shower tonight?

Friday, May 29 - For the last two weeks, we've had to give Hannah this antibiotic that comes in a powder and is really bitter tasting. We have had to do this twice a day. It involves copious amounts of pumpkin and chicken HANDFED TO THE DOG. Today is the last day we have to do this. Now it will be a couple of weeks of once a day and then a couple of weeks of once every other day and then once every two days and then "as needed." 

I wish I could take a photo of Hannah's face as she eats this stuff. (I can't because my hands are covered in pumpkin.) She hates it so much. I haven't been to work on time in weeks because it's taking me twenty minutes to get her to eat two tablespoons of this what I can only imagine is a gross pumpkin mixture. Anyway, here's to only having to do it at dinnertime from now on! I can (maybe?) get to work on time. 

Saturday, May 30 - It's peony time!

Sunday, May 31 - Gratuitous photos of my girls. 

New Hannah habit: Doesn't want to be on a walk, but also doesn't want to come inside when we get to the house, so she just lays down on the driveway. 

Are you familiar with the rescue dog internet meme where they take photos of dogs before and after being told they were good. Here's Hannah's version.

Before:

After "you're such a good girl for eating that yucky pumpkin":

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What flowers are in bloom near you? Could you draw your favorite animal? 

Happy Birthday to Elisabeth!

In the early 1990s, there was a popular children's show in America called Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (entire episodes available on YouTube - is this legal? who knows?) and the a cappella group Rockapella provided the most amazing soundtrack. I was not really in the age group for Carmen Sandiego in the early 1990s, but even now, I'll sometimes start singing the theme song. 

So, when Elisabeth and her family started doing their gap year traveling across Europe, it shouldn't come to anyone's surprise that I regularly found myself singing that song to myself with alternate lyrics.

Today is Elisabeth's birthday. Where is she? What exciting adventure is she on? WHO KNOWS?

Elisabeth is our fearless Nova Scotian blogger (see her Top Twenty (er - Twenty Four) Favourite Things to See/Do in Nova Scotia post from my 20th Anniversary series if you haven't ever seen some of her gorgeous photos). She's the mother of two and she and her family are on an EPIC ADVENTURE. 

If you have not been to Elisabeth's blog, she's known for posts about her Top/Bottom Fives, Frugality, and inspiring Happy Things Friday posts. She's honest, but keeps it light and upbeat even as THERE'S YET ANOTHER SNOW DAY. 

Everyone head over to her blog and wish her a happy, happy day!

Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Tobia introduced me to the Read Around the World challenge in which you attempt to read a book from every country in the world. This isn't a priority for me, but I have started a list and every month or two I'll try to read something off it. Free by Lea Ypi is something that wouldn't have landed on my radar had it not been for this challenge. Lea Ypi was born in Albania, so I guess I decided to start at the top. 

 

Lea is a young teen living in Albania in a Soviet-style socialist nation. She takes everything at face value, so finds discussions about politics in her family confusing since everyone is seeming to talk in code. The early 1990s brought democratic elections and Albania attempting to form closer ties to the west. What happened was a rise in pyramid schemes and by 1997 there is a civil war that required international intervention. In Lea's life, she's attempting to finish high school while the sound of Kalashnikovs echoes through the city. Her mother and brother flee to Italy, leaving her with her father. Meanwhile, Lea's just a typical teenage girl, trying to figure out who she is and what she wants her life to look like, although the future looked bleak and hard to imagine.

I think I have been utterly ruined by fiction. I generally find memoir underwhelming. And this was the case in this book. The events Ypi went through are unimaginably harsh and scary, but I was still mostly underwhelmed. This is obviously a me issue. It was neither minute enough about the domestic details (what did their meals look like? how did they do laundry?) nor was her unreliable teenage narrator self detailed enough about the political environs to invest me in the outcome of national events. I mostly just read this book in a sort of trance, trying to figure out what was going on, even though I knew nothing about Albanian history and finally had resort to looking it up in Wikipedia to figure out what was going on. 

If you're into this sort of memoir, you'll like this. If not, you can probably skip it. 

3/5 stars

Lines of note:

In my family, everyone had a favourite revolution, just as everyone had a favourite summer fruit. My mother's favourite fruit was watermelon, and her favourite revolution was the English one. Mine were figs and Russian. My father emphasized that he was sympathetic to all our revolutions but his favourite was the one that had yet to take place. As to his favourite fruit, it was quince -  but it could choke you when it wasn't fully ripe, so he was often reluctant to indulge. (page 88-89)

There were a number of funny moments in this book and this whole fruit/revolution thing did make me chortle. 

Worrying was the default condition of his existence, a predicament as natural as beathing and sleeping. (page 190)

I felt personally attacked by this sentence. 

One might killed by a car, like my classmate Dritan, who was walking by the beach one evening and got run over by a young man teaching himself to drive his uncle's Audi. Or one might disappear without a trace, like Sokrat, Besa's father, who suffered from a limp and worked with a dinghy. Each night, he helped smuggle people to Italy, then returned to sleep in his bed, except for the night he didn't. And all sorts of small accidents could happen to you, like hitting a broken lamppost on a dark street while walking or falling into a manhole whose cover had just been stolen for its steel. Or one could be harassed all the way home by hungry stray dogs. Or it could be drunken men, or boys placing bets on how girls would respond to catcalling. (page 216)

I always look back fondly at the 1990s. In the US, there was no concern about war, the biggest scandal was Clarence Thomas and the Coke bottle and if Bill Clinton had indeed had sex with that woman. But reading this does make you realize that your position at birth is just an accident. 

Things I looked up:

"If" by Rudyard Kipling - Here's a link to this poem. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

fat top hat (page 76)

I liked the sun hat. (page )

cardboard hats (page 97)

bags with hats and kites (page 98)

worn a hat (page 126)

the hat was probably still hanging (page 126)

straw hat (page 201)

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Have you read a book by an Albanian author before? 

May 2026 Photo A Day: Week Three

Saturday, May 16 - It's too hot for Hannah. We are literally less than a block from our house and she just can't do it anymore. 

Sunday, May 17 - Anne and Birchie came over to visit! They bribed Hannah with chicken and we worked on a jigsaw puzzle. And Hannah and I are not as good at doggy selfies as Birchie is.

She looks so worried!

Monday, May 18 - For exciting reasons, I cannot attend my regular fitness class tomorrow after work. My fitness instructor holds a class at a neighboring town on Mondays, though, so I left work early and attended that one instead. There was a yellow goat at the park where we were throwing ourselves about.

Tuesday, May 19 - I went to an author event with Sarah and her friend Shannon at the Madison Public Library. It was so much fun!

Wednesday, May 20 - Listen, friends. An old dog does not want to go for a walk. An old dog wants to lay down in the sun. 

Photo credit: Dr. BB

Thursday, May 21 - THIS CAT. I can't tell you how much I want to squeeze her because of her cuteness. 

Photo credit: Dr. BB

Friday, May 22 - This area was underwater last month! I love how grumpy Hannah looks in all these photos. She's SO SERIOUS. I frequently wonder what it would be like to have a goofy dog. 

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When's the last time you were at the library? Took a picture of a dog?

Five for Friday #44: The Happy Things Edition

There will not be one unhappy item in this entire list. NOT ONE. You will not bring me down, 2026!

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1) Puzzling - Last weekend, Birchie and Anne came to see Hannah and Zelda hang out with me in my town. The most exciting thing I could offer them on a  rainy Sunday was to do a jigsaw puzzle on my dining room table. We did a bit of it and then my husband took over.

Tuesday morning

Wednesday morning

 Wednesday evening

Bonus puzzle photo: When I put puzzles away, I separate the edge pieces. Do you do that?

Thursday night

2) San photos - There is a lot of construction happening in my town. They're putting in fiber optic cables or something. That means there's a lot of digging and marking of where underground lines and pipes are located on the ground. Meanwhile, I keep spotting spray paint that reads SAN and immediately think of San. You're welcome for this little peek into my daily walks.

 

3) Book event - On Tuesday, I met with Sarah and her friend Shannon to go to an author Q&A with Caro Claire Burke, the author of Yesteryear. Then we went out to eat tacos! I didn't get home until ten, which is insane for a school night! It was so much fun.

4) Snail mail - I have been so remiss in thanking everyone for sending me snail mail! Postcards! Little notes of encouragement! I really appreciate it. And look what Tobia sent me! These little purple bracelets make me so happy. I wear them every single day.

5) Mystery book reveal - Dulcie sent me an email with the reveal of the mystery book from the giveaway I did a few weeks ago!

I've never even heard of that book!

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Anyone read Kitty Karr? Do you like jigsaw puzzles? What do you consider "late" on a worknight? 

Happy long weekend to my American friends. Happy regular weekend to my international peeps!

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

The current It Book of the Interwebs is Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.

We're introduced to Natalie, a tradwife influencer who lives with her husband and their children on an immaculate farm in Idaho. We quickly learn that the "flawless Christian mother" image Natalie shows the world is nearly the opposite. She has nannies, farm help, and her perfect marriage is a sham. Natalie knows if The Angry Women who read her blog are just jealous, but if they knew the truth, that jealously would no longer be there. 

But one day Natalie wakes up and it's 1855. She's still married to Caleb, but her children, while familiar, are not her children. Her house has the same bones as the house she's used to, but there's no heating, no running water, and no modern electricity. Is this a hoax (a reality show?)? Is this some sort of paranormal, karmic retribution for Natalie's modern life? How can she get back to where she wants to be?

Spoilers:

Look, the hype machine really let me down here. The premise is so good, but the execution was lacking.

I figured out the "twist" as soon as she kept referring to her husband as Old Caleb and that she wasn't pregnant. I mean, I didn't know how it all went down, but I knew it was actually Future Natalie, not Time Travel Natalie. 

And because of that, I don't think the twist was earned. How did she forget that it was her idea to take all modern elements of the farmhouse, let alone all the effort that had to be done to change it? 

Okay, forget that. Maybe her being drugged is the answer. Let's discuss the bigger picture. 

I wanted this book to be a criticism of this whole tradwife/women shouldn't vote/men should be in charge of the household/societal move towards a version of religiosity that puts women in charge only in a domestic sphere/yay for patriarchy! movement. And maybe that's my fault. Based on the premise, that's what I assumed was going to happen.

Instead what I got was a suggestion that women are mentally ill? 

Natalie is a caricature of a type of woman - she's selfish, mean, and judgmental. I wanted her to be nuanced. I wanted her to be someone I could understand.  I mean, I wouldn't necessarily agree with her, but I wanted to understand. Instead, she was so nasty that I struggled really hard to get through the first third of the book. It's not that she's unlikeable that's the problem - it's that it's not clear why or how she got this way. She's a smart(ish) woman who gets into Harvard and meets a dude from a wealthy family and somehow this is how she turns out? 

And when it turns out that she's an addict (?) or mentally ill (?), it became clear that the author didn't want to actually engage with people who are part of this movement towards making The Handmaid's Tale a reality, but simply to excoriate them. Those people are sick. They belong in jail. 

There's no real acknowledgement that Natalie was a young woman suffering from postpartum depression/anxiety, whose husband was cheating on her, and who experienced domestic violence. There's no acknowledgement that the social anxiety might be a sign of other issues. There's no acknowledgement that Natalie herself was a victim of patriarchy, just more and more pointing out of how mean she was. And since the book is told from Natalie's perspective, maybe that's okay. The people around her wouldn't have acknowledged it. But people comment on how bad she looks - why don't they ever try to get her help?

That's not what I wanted. I don't want to be told women are sick or addicted. I don't want to be told that women are villainous and cruel. I want an examination of the true villain here. Who's the true villain? I don't know. Patriarchy? Technology? Religious institutions? The two party system in the United States? Innate human nature that means appearance is all that matters? I would have liked more than just "woman is drugged" and "woman is bad." I wanted some sort of thematic examination of larger cultural elements at play than handwaving "Natalie ignores politics and what is happening in front of her own eyes." 

It goes right to the end. The woman is punished and who the hell knows what happens to the husband who was equally culpable? Men don't deserve consequences, clearly. 

I did go to a Q&A event with the author on Tuesday and it seems like the author is just not interested in these larger structural conversations, or at least, she was okay letting it go when her editors suggested that long explanatory passages were not necessary in fiction. Burke is mostly interested in power and power hierarchies and how Natalie grapples with her own identity as an ambitious woman in a world that expects women to be beautiful mothers and homemakers who don't think particularly hard. And if you view the book from that lens, it sort of meets the mark. But if you're going to delve into hard topics, I think it does a disservice to do them superficially. 

Excellent premise, but this one was a miss for me. 

3/5 stars

Lines of note:

That’s the thing about being a mother and a wife and an influencer, all at the same time: it’s basically like breastfeeding three babies simultaneously. Like seducing three lovers at once. (location 155)

Gross.

This is a completely obvious notion, when you take a moment to really think about it, but most people don’t take a moment to really think about anything. Most people are morons. (location 223)

See how mean she is?

There comes a point in every marriage when a woman realizes that the man she married is a freak. This is inevitable. It cannot be avoided. (location 2018)

NONONONO. This is not true. 

Hat mentions (why hats?)

cowboy hat(s) (location 322, 3274, 5351)

 tipped his hat (location 336)

throws his hat to the ground (location 663)

she crocheted baby sweaters, socks, and hats (location 711)

 tips off his cowboy hat (location 1349)

 wide-brimmed hat (location 3016, 3027)

grabs his hat to keep it from flying away (location 3243)

sewing little hats (location 3420)

work on these hats (location 3452)

“And you’ve been sewing hats for chickens,” she spits back. (location 3458)

setting his hat onto the hook (location 3476)

custom hats (location 4705)

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For those of you who read this book, do you think I'm off base here? I'm pretty sure lots of you do, based on the rave reviews I've been reading.