July 26, 2025

Five Things to Tell You Vol. 34

lighthouses, Pedro Pascal, Nora Roberts, and more!

Well, hello there! So happy to see you today!

I’m at home for another weekend before heading out bright and early on Monday morning for the drive to my mom’s in Colorado ~ I can’t WAIT! The youngest and I are driving, picking up the middle and his girlfriend at the airport in Denver on Tuesday and continuing on to my mom’s in BV. We’ll spend several days there, and then head back to Denver on Friday to meet up with the oldest and her girlfriend, as well as my SIL and niece and nephew. We have a LOT planned, and I am excited to tell you all about it when I get back home!

Just a note: There will still be newsletters hitting your inbox on the regular schedule while I am away, but please be patient with me as I won’t be responding to emails or comments from Monday, July 28 - Monday, August 4. PLEASE do still chime in, though ~ I love reading what you have to say and I WILL reply!

Now, please settle in with your favorite snack and let’s dive in …

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Those of you who received the full version of Tuesday’s newsletter know just how lighthouse-heavy my trip along the shores of Lake Michigan was, and why I prioritized these two backlist titles recently.

I grabbed The Lightkeeper’s Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol from Kindle Unlimited in between Great Lakes island trips, and read it on a trip to Door County, Wisconsin where I viewed and toured numerous lighthouses. This was the PERFECT book to read on this vacation! I loved the multiple timelines and the mechanism the author used to share the historical part of the tale - a modern day teenager reading a historical journal entries to an older woman who can no longer see. The Lake Superior setting was perfect, and all of the lighthouse detail was amazing as I immersed myself in this topic both physically and in my reading.

And I bought The Light Keeper’s Legacy by Kathleen Ernst about the Pottawatomie Lighthouse on Rock Island AT the Pottawatomie Lighthouse on Rock Island. A more perfect situation could not have been created.

I read this cozy(ish) mystery immediately after returning home from that trip, and loved it! The 1980s setting was great (especially the Sue Grafton references!) and given the author's experience as a historian and in the role that her amateur detective serves in at Old World Wisconsin, I knew this book was historically accurate. I spoke to the volunteer docent at length while at the lighthouse, and the details in this book tie in 100% with what I learned from him. I loved reading about Chloe walking the same trail we just walked, and could picture her perfectly in all of the Rock and Washington Island settings.

This was definitely a case of perfect book, perfect time, and I'm so glad the lighthouse gift shop was selling this book!

This summer has really proven to be excellent for my movie attendance - and Pedro Pascal consumption! Last Sunday, we took an impromptu trip to Madison to visit with the oldest and go see Eddington at a theater there, since for some reason it wasn’t showing at our home theater on opening weekend.

This is a movie that had been on my radar for awhile, and that I had spent considerable time discussing with a friend and my oldest. I thought I knew what I was getting into, and when we brought a whole crew with us, I thought everyone knew what they were getting into. Turns out NONE of us really did - ha!

This was my initial guidance:

“If you're expecting another Midsommar, adjust your sights. This is a different breed-a dark comedy dressed in cowboy boots, where the jokes land like gut punches. The humor's bone-dry, the violence matter-of-fact, and the existential dread? Oh, it's there. Lurking in the background like a bad habit you can't quit.” (from some review somewhere???)

I so very appreciated the food for thought it provided about the intense and scary time of spring 2020, and I was certainly never bored the entire 2.5 hours. The entire group certainly had a lot to say about it and we all agreed it was an objectively good film, but varied in our degrees of actually liking it.

I recommend this to a wide audience with hesitation, though, because it’s long and WEIRD and there is intense graphic violence. In addition, the political / social commentary requires a very open mind and an ability to laugh at some absurdities not everyone agrees are absurdities. With all that being said, if you want a wild ride that you will NOT forget, give this one a shot (pun intended, you’ll see).

If you saw Eddington already, these are worth reading and present a variety of opinions on the film:

• ‘Eddington’ Review: Once Upon a Time in the Pandemic (NYT gift link)

• Ari Aster on ‘Edington’: It’s What the Country Felt Like to Me (NYT gift link)

• A Nasty, Cynical, and Eerily Accurate Look at All-Too-Recent History (The Atlantic gift link)

• The Problem(s) with Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ (NPR)

• ‘Eddington’ is a Lethally Self-Satisfied COVID Satire (The New Yorker)

When my entering-med-school niece texted me a few weeks ago that The Retrievals Season 2 podcast was now available AND that one of the main stories took place at a hospital right near her, and where she sometimes works, I listened to all four episodes straight through on the NYT Audio app.

Season 1 of the show focuses on women’s ignored pain and medication malpractice during egg retrieval at Yale Fertility Center, while Season 2 focuses on ignored pain and anaesthesia controversies / practices during C-sections.

You all know I love reading and listening to content about medicine, so this is right up my alley - and since my niece was at Yale during Season 1 and working near the setting of Season 2, AND planning to go into obstetrics, it has been a lot of fun to listen and discuss the show with her.

This podcast is not recommended (by me) for anyone going through fertility treatment, who is pregnant, or who has experienced past pregnancy trauma UNLESS you are someone who finds solace in knowing that others have experienced similar trauma.

I was absolutely delighted a bit ago to have this newsletter from Smart Romance pop into my inbox. Rena Rani always has insightful words on the genre, and this specific topic almost made me shout in glee because it is about one of my all-time favorite romance series: The Bride Quartet by Nora Roberts.

The piece is actually about Nora Roberts in general and how, essentially, she’s the OG in the genre and people need to start acknowledging that, but the piece focuses on this series as an example of her work.

I first experienced The Bride Quartet back around its release in 2009-2010, and the series has been on my list of favorites, and I have been recommending it, ever since. The Smart Romance piece made me realize that it was long past time to revisit the stories, so I dove back into Vision in White via audio.

I loved it just as much this time around! Soft and soothing and focused as much on the friends and the wedding planning business as the romance, THIS is what I’m always searching for in contemporary romance. Romance writers, I’ll take this over the over-the-top shenanigans and animosity so rampant in the genre today.

While I very much want to just listen to the rest of The Bride Quartet books immediately, I’m making myself wait ~ these will be the absolute perfect soothing audio experiences I will need during my first weeks back to full-time work in August.

And finally, it’s time to highlight August book releases I am excited about! This month’s list brings the annual shift and mix from light and frothy summer reads to heavier, more autumnal titles ~ I hope you find a few to put on hold or pre-order as well.

You can just tap on the image above or click through here to see all of the titles over on Bookshop. When you get there, remember to page through at the bottom, as there are two pages of titles this month.

Remember, this is not a list of ALL the books releasing in August 2025, just a list of the books I personally am excited about that I spent hours and hours curating over the last six months .

Want some new releases that are already on shelves? Take a look at my past months’ release lists!

That’s all for this week ~ thanks for reading! Please feel free to reply to this email or use the link below to leave a comment to chime in about any of these things, or to share one of your own things ♡

Thanks for stopping by!