Well hello there, happy Saturday!

I have mostly “let’s get it over with so we get closer to spring” attitude towards February, so YAY, it’s OVER! This week was a whirlwind, but I did manage to attend my Restorative Bliss yoga class on Wednesday evening which felt like a win. And this weekend is an at-home weekend with errands and starting to explore a new dress pattern and hopefully some baking for snacks for next week!

A few links for you

• Want to hear something infuriating and wild? Here’s a podcast episode for you …

• This was my favorite think piece of the week ~ I think I need to re-read it a few more times.

• This discussion about Wuthering Heights was exactly what I needed ~ a perfect mix of lighthearted and serious and also earnestly questioning the purpose of adaptations.

• The 8th grader sent me this album to listen to, which I immediately did. This song is weird and made me think of Phoebe from Friends.

• I started reading this book and will return to it again someday, but also am amused that I really upset some people by having it in my “Currently Reading” widget in my work email signature. Touched a nerve, perhaps?

And now, I have (finally) have BOOKS to share! I realized that I had built up quite a collection of recent reads, so here goes … in themed pairs, because that’s how I am.

Don’t be fooled by their tiny stature

I read Vigil by George Saunders as a buddy read with my oldest and whew, did it give us a lot to think and talk about. I listened to a lot of interviews with him after reading the book and my daughter attended a live event with him and I think I understand what the intent of this book is now? Very short, very not-straightforward.

On Nobody Famous by Kaitlyn Tiffany & Lizzie Plaugic was one of my purchases at the Grown Up Book Fair in January and I am so delighted with the shelftalker and bookseller who convinced me to grab it. I knew nothing about these writers or their essays, but was completely charmed by this collection. A tiny little delight about friends in New York City doing life things.

Women’s view of war

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater is one of the very rare World War II books that could still surprise me, with an utterly unique premise and setting and just the very lightest touch of magical realism. I’ll be thinking of this story set at a luxurious West Virginian hotel used for enemy diplomats for a long time. I love contemplating customer service, and this book had that as a major part of the storyline!

I had been telling myself that I had already read Home Front by Kristin Hannah, but upon listening to it via Libby, I realized that no way had I encountered it before because I would not have forgotten its impact. If you loved her newer title The Women, please go back and read this 2005 release. Incredibly powerful. The original cover does NOT convey the tone of this book ~ this one is much better.

Places I know so well

Wildwood by Amy Pease is the sequel to 2024’s Northwoods, and I was so happy to get to return to Northern Wisconsin and have more crimes to solve with Sheriff North and her deputy son Eli. I’m always happy for a book set in my state, and Pease knows it so well ~ I loved getting to meet her last year at a book festival! You do have to read Northwoods before this one.

The Way Out: A True Story of Survival in the Heart fo the Rockies by Devon O’Neil is at the tippy top of my most memorable and recommended books of 2026 already, and it’s almost impossible to convey how hard this one hit me. My mom recommended it, and she has personal connections to a lot of the people and places within this nonfiction story of tragedy in her own Colorado backyard (Buena Vista, Salida, Leadville). It’s both a riveting survival story, as well as a contemplation of the risks people take for an adrenaline rush and the ripple effects of tragedy in adventuring communities.

That’s all for today, my friends! I hope you are able to welcome March in with some reading and resting this weekend ~ it’s coming in like a lion over here, but remember, SPRING WILL ARRIVE …