Life: It Goes On - July 5

Happy Sunday and happy day after the 4th of July! I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday weekend. I struggled with celebrating this year; but, in the end, celebrated what this country was founded on and what it could be. We've had a lot of clouds of late, including a 2" rainfall on Friday evening; but today is starting off sunny, which always gives me more energy to get things done. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: John Green's Everything Is Tuberculosis. 

Watched: So. Much. Soccer. 

Read: Still reading Happy Land, although I need to finish it pretty soon as I have 5, yes 5, books ready for pick up at the library. 

Made: Fettuccine carbonara, blt salad, and last night we bbq'd chicken thighs and I made homemade ice cream and chocolate sauce. This may be the first 4th in 20 years that I didn't make red velvet cake but since I always make it for Mini-him's bday in July, I've decided once a month is plenty. 

Enjoyed: A quick visit from Miss H during the week. Time with family yesterday and dinner and fireworks with friends last night. We didn't have to buy a single firework; we just sat in a neighbor's driveway and watched displays going off all around us. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: On working some more on the basement. I've made good progress last week which was an incentive to keep going. Now if I can just keep the Big Guy from pulling things back out of the donation pile, I'll make even better progress. 

Thinking About: A couple of trips we'd like to take this summer and maybe even a real vacation. 

Feeling: A little sad. I'm really missing my parents this weekend. They loved the Fourth of July. I've told you before about the neighborhood breakfast my parents started in 1976; this year was the 50th anniversary of that first breakfast and my dad had so hoped to be alive and able to go to it. 

Looking forward to: I think a quiet week. Although I haven't looked at the calendar yet, so I may well be forgetting something. 

Question of the week: How did you celebrate yesterday? 

Run For The Hills by Kevin Wilson

For The Hills by Kevin Wilson

Read by Marin Ireland

7 hours, 22 minutes

Published May 2025 by HarperCollins

Publisher’s Summary: 

Ever since her dad left them twenty years ago, it’s been just Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. While it’s a bit lonely, she sometimes admits, and a less exciting life than what she imagined for herself, it’s mostly okay. Mostly.

Then one day Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half sister. Reuben—left behind by their dad thirty years ago—has hired a detective to track down their father and a string of other half siblings. And he wants Mad to leave her home and join him for the craziest kind of road trip imaginable to find them all.

As Mad and Rube—and eventually the others—share stories of their father, who behaved so differently in each life he created, they begin to question what he was looking for with every new incarnation. Who are they to one another? What kind of man will they find? And how will these new relationships change Mad’s previously solitary life on the farm?

Infused with deadpan wit, zany hijinks, and enormous heart, Run for the Hills is a sibling story like no other—a novel about a family forged under the most unlikely circumstances and united by hope in an unknown future.

My Thoughts: 

I read Kevin Wilson’s Nothing To See Here in 2020, having been convinced to read it, despite my belief that it was definitely not the kind of book I would enjoy. I was wrong. It was utterly unique and quirky, but also funny and full of heart. Needless to say, it took no convincing whatsoever to get me to read Run For The Hills, even before I knew what it was about. 

• Marin Ireland’s reading is fantastic, as always. 
• Maureen Corrigan on Wilson’s writing: ‘He'll start off with these goofy, almost sitcom-type contrived premises and from there create stories that knock you out with the force of their emotional truth.’She hit the nail on the head. The premise of this one is not quite as out there as was the premise of Nothing See Here, but it's still utterly unique. 
• I really grew to care about these characters, especially given that they are all carrying the scars of being the offspring of a man who just walked away from his life, and them, again and again. Each of them grows as the journey continues, but they always remain to who they were to begin with. 
• Wilson blends humor (that poor PT Cruiser takes the worst of it) and heart. He asks interesting questions. How would you react if someone came to you saying that they are your long lost sibling? What exactly is this patched together family going to do when they finally reach their father? How do you deal with facing a person who was supposed to love you forever, but walked away? Do you really want to know the answers he'll give once you find him? What becomes of this new family once their trip comes to an end? Are they really a family, just because they have the same father, a man each of them knows only vaguely? 

For the humor, the quirkiness, the realness of his characters, the questions that he raises, I won't hesitate to pick up Wilson's next book. Which I hope he's working on even as I type. 

The Usual Desire To Kill by Camilla Barnes

The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes

256 pages

Published April 2026 by Scribner

Publisher’s Summary: 

Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of decades-old food.

Miranda’s father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Miranda’s mother likes to bring conversation back to “the War,” although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of a visit, she reports “the usual desire to kill.”

This wry, propulsive story about an eccentric yet endearing family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them, is a glorious debut novel from a seasoned playwright with immense empathy and a flair for dialogue.

My Thoughts:

I recently went to pick up library holds that had come available and was surprised to find this title among my books. I had no recollection of requesting it, no idea who might have recommended it, and no idea why I would have requested a book about killing. I was only a few pages into the book when I became even more confused. This certainly didn’t feel like a book that was headed down the path of becoming a murder mystery. So, I did something I almost never do – I looked at the front flap to get the book description. And then I proceeded to race through this book. 

This is the story of how two people who should never have been together maneuver thru a long marriage and the effects that has on their children. Barnes explores marriage, sibling rivalry, truths behind shifting memories, and family secrets as well as examining the decisions people make in life, the long-term effects of those decisions, and how well one truly knows the people they love. 

One reviewer called it "tragicomic" and I think that's the perfect description. Barnes' writing is often witty and I found myself chucking frequently. But there is a sadness throughout that builds throughout the book. Miranda's father suffers the aftereffects of WWII and they both suffer the aftereffects of depression that followed it in England. That poverty has turned both parents into hoarders of a sort, which is both sad but also humorous in Barnes' hands. But life has hardened them as well. Which makes visiting them hard on Miranda, who writes to her sister, after one visit, that she left with "the usual desire to kill." 

I believe, in retrospect, that this book came to my attention via The New York Times Book Review and that I immediately requested it from my library just to avoid having to take the time to record it into my TBR list. I must say, it’s not a half bad way to get yourself to read something you might otherwise have put off. That would have been a terrible shame in the case of The Usual Desire To Kill. 

Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

The Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

512 pages

Published June 2024 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publisher’s Summary: 

Same As It Ever Was showcases the consummate style, signature wit, and profound emotional intelligence that made The Most Fun We Ever Had one of the most beloved novels of the past decade. Featuring a memorably messy family and the multifaceted marriage at its heart, Lombardo’s debut was dubbed “the literary love child of Jonathan Franzen and Anne Tyler” (The Guardian) and hailed as “ambitious and brilliantly written” (Washington Post). In this remarkable follow-up—another elegant and tumultuous story in the tradition of Elizabeth Strout, Ann Patchett, and Celeste Ng—Lombardo introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters, this time by way of her singularly complicated protagonist.

Julia Ames, after a youth marked by upheaval and emotional turbulence, has found herself on the placid plateau of mid-life. But Julia has never navigated the world with the equanimity of her current privileged class. Having nearly derailed herself several times, making desperate bids for the kind of connection that always felt inaccessible to her, she finally feels, at age fifty seven, that she has a firm handle on things.

She’s unprepared, though, for what comes next: a surprise announcement from her straight-arrow son, an impending separation from her spikey teenaged daughter, and a seductive resurgence of the past, all of which threaten to draw her back into the patterns that had previously kept her on a razor’s edge.

Same As It Ever Was traverses the rocky terrain of real life, —exploring new avenues of maternal ambivalence, intergenerational friendship, and the happenstantial cause-and-effect that governs us all. 

My Thoughts: 

I’m just going to honest up front about this one. Same As It Ever Was was a tough read for me, both in the content and in actual act of reading it. At over 500 pages, it was going to take a while for me to get through, even if it had really gripped me. It did not. I felt like I was slogging my way through mud. 

There wasn’t a single character in this book that I didn’t find annoying in some way by the time I was finished with it. I often found myself skimming, feeling like things were just being rehashed, and felt like the book could easily have been 100 pages shorter and still conveyed the messages that Lombardo intended. Had it all ended in a way that I found satisfactory, it would have redeemed itself to some extent. It did not. While I appreciate a book that doesn’t put a bow on it and everyone lives happily ever after, I wasn’t entirely sure that any of these characters was going to be truly happy ever. 

But Ron Charles, of The Washington Post, said of this book: 

“Lombardo’s witty, sympathetic take on motherhood exudes the sharp scent of fermented apple juice and a full diaper… Lombardo has such a fine eye for the weft and warp of a family’s fabric. She understands the chemistry of that special epoxy of irritation and affection that keeps a marriage glued together. One finishes Same As It Ever Was with the satisfaction of knowing this complicated woman well — and the poignant disappointment of having to say goodbye.”

Was this merely a case of the wrong book at the wrong time for me? Possibly. But I don’t think so. I think, for me, this was simply the wrong book. 

More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen

More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen

256 pages

Published February 2026 by Random House 

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

Publisher's Summary: 

No one knows you like your book club.

High school English teacher Polly Goodman can talk about everything and anything with the women in her book club, which is why they’ve become her closest friends and, along with her veterinarian husband, the bedrock of her life. Her students, her fraught relationship with her mother, her struggles with IVF—Polly’s book club friends have heard about it all.

But when they give Polly an ancestry test kit as a joke, the results match her with a stranger. It is clear to Polly that this match is a mistake, but still she cannot help but comb through her family history for answers. Then, when it seems that the book club circle of four will become three, Polly learns how friendships can change your life in the most profound ways.

Written with Anna Quindlen’s trademark warmth, humor, and insight into the power of love and hope, More Than Enough explores how we find ourselves again and again through the relationships that define us.

My Thoughts: 

I'm pretty sure I say this every time I read one of Quinlen's books, but it's true that she's one of my go-to authors. I haven't always loved one of her books; but they always given me plenty to think about and depth and there is always so much truth to them. This one falls into the category of not being one of Quindlen's books I loved, but also a book that I would recommend because there is so much to think about (and talk about, making it a good book club choice). 

While there is a lot going on in this one (infertility, mental health, friendship, death grief, dementia, family dynamics, and family secrets), there also isn't much of a plot, It's absolutely centered on its characters.  Some things feel a bit forced and some characters are a bit stereotyped (could Mark be any more perfect?). But most of those characters? I really liked them, even the ones that had sharper edges and the relationships between them. There's a gentleness to this story that I really enjoyed and an easy flow that pulled me along. 

Despite what I perceived as its flaws, this is a book I can easily recommend for those who enjoy character-driven novels and novels about relationships and what makes a family. 

Wreck by Catherine Newman

Read by Helen Laser

5 hours, 26 minutes

Published October 2025 by HarperCollins

Publisher’s Summary: 

If you loved Rocky and her family on vacation on Cape Cod, wait until you join them at home two years later. (And if this is your first meeting with this crew, get ready to laugh and cry—and relate.)
Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic, and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick and their daughter Willa, who's back home after college. Their son, Jamie, has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky’s widowed father, has moved in.

It all couldn’t be more ridiculously normal . . . until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them—and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won’t affect them at all.
With her signature wit and wisdom, Catherine Newman explores the hidden rules of family, the heavy weight of uncertainty, and the gnarly fact that people—no matter how much you love them—are not always exactly who you want them to be.

My Thoughts:

Apologies for no picture of the book. Blogger is not playing nice since I uploaded the most recent software update. I thought I had it figured out on Sunday, at least a work around; apparently not. 

“It’s like spending hours with the friend who sees your mess and loves you more for it.” - Alison Espach, Wedding People

Newman's Sandwich was one of my favorite books of 2024 so I was thrilled to see that she had written a follow up. While Wreck didn't quite measure up to Sandwich for me, it's still a wonderful read. Rocky is very much the same woman I so related to in that first book. This time it was all about living with anxiety - the constant worrying about everyone you care about, the constant concern about everything else happening in the world, and the constant thought that every medical symptom you have is definitely something more serious. 

Smart, quirky, sad – Newman knows what it’s like to live life with anxiety and how easy it is to lose yourself in it. This time, Rocky's anxiety is justified. 

The accident raises the question of how to separate a person you love from the work that their company (and, by extension, your loved one) does. And the weird rash that Rocky begins experiencing turns into one of the situations where medical experts remain baffled as more and more symptoms begin piling up. 

Add to that worry about Willa's crippling anxiety and Rocky's 92-year-old father's decision to move out of the guest room behind their house and back into his own home alone. I could just feel the weight of it all and how hard it would be to carry all of it. 

I highly recommend this one. But first, read Sandwich. And maybe talk your book club into reading both of them. 

Life: It Goes On - November 30

Happy Sunday! Belated Thanksgiving greetings to everyone who celebrates. This was our first holiday without my dad; and even though he hasn't been able to get to our house for holidays for the past year, it was so strange not to have to plan when we would visit him, think about what foods we would take him, and wish we could get him here. 

Our Novembers are usually very quiet, but with my dad's passing this month, the month has flown by. Not much reading has been done and almost no blogging. I'd like to say that December will be better, but I doubt it. There is still a lot to be done with my dad's estate and I haven't hardly begun Christmas shopping. Certainly wishing I was almost done, as I was last year at this time! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I didn't listen much last week, what with having Thursday and Friday off, but I am still listening to Liz Moore's The Unseen World.

Watched: The usual college football, basketball, and volleyball and pro football. We did, last night, watch The Ballad of Wallis Island, which we both really enjoyed. It's a quiet, British film that you will have to pay attention to, but we recommend it. 

Read: Not a thing. Haven't been able to settle on a book. 

Made: ALL of the Thanksgiving things, including my first attempt at sweet potato pie. Also made cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins for our breakfasts. Haven't made a single thing since Thursday as we are still grazing on leftovers, even though I sent home a mountain of food with people. 

Enjoyed: Thursday we had Mini-him and Miss C, Miss C's parents, Miss H and her boyfriend for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a lovely day. I had things pretty well planned ahead of the meal and didn't rush to get everything cleaned up after so we had plenty of time to just sit and chat after. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Christmas decor will go up this week and I need to get a good start on my shopping. 

Thinking About: I'm hoping to find more experiences to give as gifts this year, rather than things, so I'm spending a lot of time thinking about what kinds of things my family would like to do. 

Feeling: We've had a very relaxing past couple of days and I find that I really needed that. 

Looking forward to: Getting my hair done this week! 

Question of the week: How did you celebrate your Thanksgiving? 

Life: It Goes On - November 11

Life - it goes on.

Four and a half years ago, I started a post with those same words. That was my first post after my mom died. Today I start them again, one week after my dad died. 

I grew up a daddy's girl. As he walked home from the high school he taught at, I'd run down the sidewalk to greet him when I was little. For more than a decade before I got married, my dad and I would go to see the University of Nebraska music department's performance of Handel's Messiah. It was our thing; no one else was ever invited. Even as I went through my gawky years, my dad always told me that I was pretty and the last time I saw him, he was telling me I was going to be the prettiest woman at the event I was headed off to. He was always my biggest cheerleader. 

When my mom died, I made it my responsibility to take care of him as he navigated life as a widower, left his home of 55 years, and battled increasing failures of his body. He and I have spent a lot of time together in these past four and a half years, as I tried to pay him back for all he has done for me. He was ready to let go, to be reunited with my mom. But me? I wish I had more time with him. 

Life: It Goes On - October 26

Happy Sunday! Not sure what happened to last week. We were in Missouri last weekend and didn't get home until early evening Sunday, but I started a post on Monday that just never got finished. Then no reviews got written, either. I'm reading, just not blogging. Hence, I'm way behind on reviews. I'm going to try to remedy that the next couple of weeks, but reviews will probably be pretty short. 

The Last Couple of Weeks I: 

Listened To: The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne, started Jason Mott's People Like Us (but gave up on that one, for the time being), and then started Jean Kwok's Searching For Sylvie Lee. 

Watched: It's that time of year: MLB playoffs, lots of football, lots of college women's volleyball.

Read: I finished Barbara Comyns' Our Spoons Came From Woolworths and I'm about two-thirds of the way through by Jessica Guerreri. When I'm finished with it, I picked up Mrs. Quinn's Rise To Fame by Olivia Ford on Thursday so I'll start that. 

Made: The viral ramen French onion soup, which I added portobello mushrooms to for some protein. It was surprisingly good and so quick and easy to make. It's definitely something we'll make again. But it's got me jonesing for real French onion soup so I picked up the ingredients to make that this coming week. Also made Miss H's favorite "goulash" recipe, but don't tell her that. 

With my brother and sister-in-law
at Logboat Brewing. 

Enjoyed: Time last weekend with my brother and his whole family (always fun to see how much the great-nieces and -nephews have grown since we last saw them; book club on Tuesday; dinner last night with friends; and getting a date set for Mini-him's and Miss C's wedding. Somehow having a date makes it feel more real and has us shopping for pre-nuptial dinner locations already. To be honest, that's kind of an excuse to eat out more often for the next few weeks while we try to find the perfect place!

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Besides doing spring cleaning, I'm prone to doing fall cleaning as well (inside and out) and I'm deep into that this weekend and will continue into the next week. As nice as our weather has been, we still haven't had to clean up gardens and pots yet, but it's time to do that. That means there are already herbs and flower seeds drying and final crops to handle. 

Thinking About: Ways to distract myself from politics and what's happening in our country. 

Feeling: I slept ten and a half hours last night so I'm feeling very rested today! 

Looking forward to: My birthday, my hair appointment, our anniversary, and a wedding are all this week. 

Question of the week: Do you do fall cleaning as well?