Life: It Goes On - March 23

Happy Sunday! The sun is out but it's chilly and the wind is gusting - which I suppose is all fairly typical for March in Nebraska. As is the fact that Monday and Tuesday last week we ate dinner on the patio and then Wednesday we had a blizzard with 6" of snow. By this morning, all but the biggest piles of snow have completely melted. It's a strange month. But I can see spring from here so that's a good thing. Later this week, we'll get everything uncovered on the patio and begin moving things to their fair weather homes. Then I'll really be able to start envisioning my flower plan for the year. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: A couple of hours of Jennifer Niven's All The Bring Places, which has been on my TBR for a long time. But I quickly realized something that I've long suspected - I'm just generally not a fan of young adult books. Which is not to say they aren't great books; they just aren't books that appeal to me. So I moved on to Therese Anne Fowler's Z, which I'm loving. Next up is Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time. 

Watched: So much basketball. I LOVE March Madness - both the men's and women's tournaments! We had four teams from Nebraska make it to the NCAA tournament; sadly all four have been knocked out, but we certainly had fun cheering for them and it won't stop our watching the rest of the tournaments. 

Read: I finished Ruth Reichl's The Paris Novel for book club and then got back to Colum McCann's Twist. Tomorrow I'm picking up five books from the library - time to get ready physical books! 

Made: We spent most of the week grazing on leftovers from last weekend's festivities. I did make potato soup from the mashed potato leftovers and yesterday we made a chicken soup from the leftover rotisserie chicken. 

Enjoyed: Book club on Tuesday and last night we went out for Ruebens and basketball with friends. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: The other day I realized that I had missed the kick off of this year's 40 Bags In 40 Days so I'm working to get caught up on that. Lord knows I have plenty of areas that I still want to work on, which is crazy with as much as I work to keep us from living in a hoarder house. 

Thinking About: Ways to use up all of the lettuce I bought for last weekend that didn't get used. 

Feeling: Like my back might finally be starting to get better. Still can't sit for an extended period without having pain but we're getting there. I need to be back up to speed before it's planting season!

Looking forward to: I have nothing on my calendar for this week (not that we usually have a busy schedule!). 

Question of the week: What's your favorite salad? 

Abigail and Alexa Save The Wedding by Lian Dolan

Abigail and Alexa Save The Wedding by Lian Dolan

288 pages

Published May 2025

My copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 

Penelope and Chase make a lovely couple. She’s a bubbly Southern California girl with killer work ethic. Chase is smart and charming and has political aspirations. They’re planning a spectacular California wedding, wrapped in peonies and thousands of little white lights, soaked in custom cocktails and romantic hashtags. Everyone’s excited about Penny and Chase’s wedding­­­­­­—except their mothers.

The Mother of the Bride, suave Greek-born Alexa Diamandis, doesn’t understand why any woman would get married. Ever! Raised in Athens and now perfectly situated in sun-splashed Montecito, California, she raised Penny as single mother by choice, supported by Lord Simon Fox, her old college friend who just happens to be an English aristocrat, and a wealthy circle of lady friends who call themselves the Merry Widows.

The Mother of the Groom, Abigail Blakeman, is a garden club stalwart firmly planted in coastal Connecticut. She thinks the whole enterprise would be so much easier if the wedding was at their golf club. Especially because the Blakeman’s fortunes have taken a turn for the worse—not that you would ever know it by looking at Abigail. Keeping up appearances is exhausting, but it is everything.  

But when a sudden twist of fate calls them into action, these two very different women are forced to take over the wedding planning. Despite their differences, Alexa and Abigail charge in to save the day. How far will two moms go to make their children’s dream wedding a reality?

My Thoughts: 

This is Dolan's sixth novel and I've read them all. Her last, The Marriage Sabbatical, didn't work as well for me as her others, but I never considered that I was done with her writing and I'm glad I didn't. Abigail and Alexa brings Dolan back to what enchanted me with her writing in the first place. Dolan writes with a light touch, even when she's tackling some tougher subjects, her books are focused on her female characters and all of their relationships, and her locations always come alive. 

I love the way Dolan writes relationships between women: mothers and daughters, mothers and other mothers, and especially friend groups. In this book, Alexa, through her work, has earned a place in a friend group called The Widows; these women have formed their own family and will do anything to help family (and have the means to do so!). Abigail doesn't have that kind of friend group. She's spent her life trying to live a very particular kind of life and when finances chased her to the edges of that life, it meant that she had to give up the people she'd always spent time with and now feels friendless. Fortunately, as Abigail becomes more comfortable with who she is now, she also finds she has friends she can depend on when she needs them. And when Chase and Penelope call off the wedding, just as Alexa and Abigail begin to understand each other, they will both need all of their friends and connections to get the couple back together. 

In Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding, Dolan is back to California and I always feel like I'm getting a tour of the area by a friend who's lived there and loves it. Which is not to say that Connecticut and New York City don't always get their share of attention, but it's the Montecito area that's the star location of this one. 

Perhaps my favorite part of this book were the bridal columns (written by a friend of Abigail's) inserted throughout the book. As a person who is hoping to be a mother of the groom in the coming year, I actually found them to be packed with good information...and also really funny! 

Dolan's books are always the kinds of books that you know will have happy endings and when I pick them up, I pick them up looking forward to that. Characters I can cheer for, some quirkiness, all of the lovely details that make things come alive but never too many, and love (there is always love!) - Dolan never disappoints! 

Three Days In June by Anne Tyler

Three Days In June by Anne Tyler

176 pages

Published February 2025 by Knopf

My copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers.

My Thoughts: 

I've been a fan of Tyler's for more than forty years now. While the past couple of her books that I've read have not had that spark for me that her work once did, they still had more than enough to recommend them and to keep me reading. So I'm always going to be ready to pick up another of her books, which is why I was excited to find this one available. 

Guys, Tyler is back for me! 

This book is only 176 pages long but it has everything in it that I've come to expect and appreciate from Tyler. Not only that, the compactness of it might very well be what makes it work best. We get the full story of Gail's life as we travel through only three days of her life. 

Gail is a bit of a prickly person. She wasn't the greatest mother (which puts her kind of out of the loop when it comes to her own daughter's wedding) and she wasn't the greatest wife. And just on the eve of her daughter's wedding, she finds out that she's also not the greatest people person, which is one of the reasons she's just found herself out of a job. But in just 176 pages, we come to really understand Gail and hope that things will work out for her. Not only that, but Gail comes to really understand Gail, which might seem implausible in such a short time, but with everything that's happening in that period, it's entirely believable. 

 It is lovely to see Gail reminisce about why she fell in love with Max and to forgive herself. Although there's a big event at the center of the story, it's the intimate details and the mundane that give the book its heart, which is where Tyler is at her best.

Life: It Goes On - March 16

Happy Sunday! It was spring like all last week...until this weekend when we dropped back into the 40's. But at least the sun is shining and by this time of year, I know that the colder temps won't last long. I was pretty excited to look out my kitchen window the other day and see that my plants are starting to creep up from the ground! 

Running on fumes today. We've had company in town since Thursday to celebrate my dad's 90th birthday. The Missouri and Kansas contingents have all headed south and the northern contingent is off visiting friends so we have a little respite from having extra people around for a couple of hours. I love having my family around, but I'm so used to a quiet house (and such an introvert) that I need to have some down time by day four! Have taken advantage of the break to get laundry going, run the vacuum, and tidy up so I can head into this week without so much to do. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Katherine Center's How To Walk Away, listened to a couple of hours of Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places (before deciding to DNF it - just not for me) and started Therese Anne Fowler's Z, which I'm very much enjoying. 

Watched: Some college basketball but mostly my great niece and great nephews running around like crazy people. I'd forgotten how much energy little kids have! 

Read: I finished Lian Dolan's latest, Abigail and Alexa Save The Wedding, which was a lot of fun and gave me everything I've come to expect from Dolan's books. Today I'm starting Ruth Reichl's The Paris Novel, which I'll be racing through because I forgot that I have bookclub on Tuesday and it's this month's selection. 

Made: Marry Me Chicken Soup, lasagna, coffee cake, and yesterday my sister and I tag teamed to make pot roast with carrots and onions and mashed potatoes and gravy for my dad's party (his request). For a change, I took the advice of everyone who told me not to try to make the desserts myself and ordered pies (which my dad also requested, in lieu of birthday cake). 

Enjoyed: Family! My dad's facility had a great room that we could use for our party that held all 18 of us and opened on to a big patio so the kids could get out to run and play. My sister had done a lot to decorate and created a B-I-N-G-O game that all ages could play with a lot of prizes so we had fun with that. Almost everyone came to our house after to hang out and have supper, which was a little more relaxing, especially once I got a glass of wine in my hand!  

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Not a whole lot other than book club. For a bit last week, we thought we were going to end up having the party at our house so we raced to finish up a few small projects and do more cleaning, so I'm tired and may take it pretty easy this week. 

Thinking About: While we have been happy to have him with us for this long, we know that my dad is ready to be done. I used to think it was really great that my grandparents all lived to at least 90; but the older I get, the more I realize that's only a great thing if you're body still allows you to have a good quality of life. 

Feeling: Did I mention that I'm tired? 

Looking forward to: A quiet week. 

Question of the week: My dad prefers pie over cake so we had four different kinds of pie. Which would you have picked: strawberry rhubarb, lemon meringue, blackberry, or chocolate French silk?