February 7, 2025
home early, bball basics, and rose avenue bakery
posted by soe 1:20 am
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. D.C. was expecting icy weather last night, just as Rudi was supposed to be driving back from western New York. So, when we talked Tuesday, we agreed that if it was prudent, he’d stop along the way and come home today instead. Between the team wrapping its race early to get a jump on the storm, a slightly slower moving front than originally forecast, and temperatures that stayed warmer later, he was able to make it home earlier than expected and before what turned out just to be rain.
2. It has been a hot minute since I played basketball, but that’s what I signed up to coach this winter as my volunteer gig. It felt good to be able to demonstrate to the elementary school boys why it was they should learn how to do layups and not just take the jumpers that seem to have become the mainstay of today’s NBA.
3. Since it was so nice out after my morning volleyball game wrapped up Saturday, I decided to pedal home via the neighborhood just north of mine, where a bakery I’d enjoyed during the pandemic has moved to. Its line reminded me of going into New Haven for pizza or Italian ice when I was a kid, and it’s nice to see that people still have the patience to wait for tasty treats. (Also, the passionfruit doughnut was delicious!)
February 4, 2025
top ten 2024 releases i really meant to read
posted by soe 1:23 am
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Arty Reader Girl asks us to share the books that came out last year that we were excited to read — but then didn’t get to. Here are some of mine, all of which I hope make it onto this year’s finished list:
- Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance
- T.J. Klune’s Somewhere Beyond the Sea
- Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde
- 1000 Words by Jami Attenberg (In fairness, I did start this one and decided I was going to want my own copy, which I now have.)
- A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
- How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
- Amor Towles’ Table for Two
- The Briar Club by Kate Quinn (Currently reading and overdue back to the library)
- The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
- 50 Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott
How about you? Were there books that came out during 2024 you fully intended to read and then … life?
February 2, 2025
into the stacks: january 2025
posted by soe 1:45 am
January is often a high reading count for me, and this year is no exception, with six books already marked off in the done category.
Here are some reviews of what I read last month:
Aliya to the Infinite City by Laila Rifaat
A middle grade fantasy novel that I picked up at the Daunt Books mothership in London last year, Aliya to the Infinite City could reasonably be called an Egyptian Harry Potter — and, in fact, it’s impossible to avoid the comparison, which I suppose Rifaat knew, since she name-checks the series in the story. Aliya lives with her grandfather after her parents are killed in a fire when she was very young. They’ve always gotten along well, but he’s become increasingly erratic in his behavior of late. On her 11th birthday, Aliya learns first that her grandfather has been telling the world she was also dead — and then that she’s from a long line of time-travelers. She ends up in an alternate dimension of Egypt, where she must play catch-up on a lifetime of magical learning, overcome the trauma of her grandfather’s betrayal, and meet other wannabe time-traveling kids who’ve come from all eras of Egyptian history. Add to that, she must try to cope with the stress of poisonings of governmental officials (possibly linked to her roommate and/or house matron), cracks that keep appearing in the sky, and a necklace that once belonged to her mother and recently gifted to her by an anonymous benefactor, which seems to hold enormous — and likely forbidden — power.
Rifaat does have a knack for descriptions. The Infinite City and its residents come alive before your eyes, and you will constantly be hungry because of the feasting that goes on.
It was an okay story, and I would read another in the trilogy if it were to cross my path. But I don’t know if I’d seek it out. Recommended for someone who hasn’t read Harry Potter and might no longer choose to or to someone who wants another version of a magical orphan.
Personal print copy
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February 1, 2025
early february weekend to-do list
posted by soe 1:56 am
Rudi’s got a busy coaching week, so I’ll be on my own starting today. Let’s see how much of this baker’s dozen to-do list I can tackle:
- Play volleyball (My game is at the ridiculously early hour of 10:30, which is painful but doable. I am hopeful I will be ready early enough that I can catch the bus, rather than having to bike to the game.)
- Get rid of the compost
- Reach out to some friends
- Write a post about the books I read in January
- Hit both libraries
- Work on my journal
- Bake (Maybe bread, maybe cookies.)
- Read the book I started this week
- Send some cards
- Watch some of last year’s All Creatures, so Rudi and I can start the latest season this month
- Take 10 books from the bin of books I culled from my shelves to either the Arlington Library or a Little Free Library
- Find yarn for Sergio’s baby’s sweater in my stash
- Change the sheets
How about you? What are you hoping your weekend includes?
January 31, 2025
remembering, introductions, and bricks
posted by soe 1:35 am
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. My mother’s older brother died last weekend after a fall, a week short of his 78th birthday. When I was born, he drew up a complete astrological chart for me. He aspired to be a good uncle, giving me all sorts of fun gifts when I was a kid, including my first dictionary, my only football swag (a balaclava for the Miami Dolphins, the team he supported when he lived in Florida) a microscope, and a magic kit. He had a black dog named Telly, whom we all loved only slightly less than our own dog, Obe. He took my grandmother and me to New York City to see the ballet at Lincoln Center and my brother and me for ice cream when we spent the night with him and my aunt when I was in middle school.
Uncle David was having a challenging battle with Alzheimer’s, so ultimately this may have been the kindest death we could have hoped for, with my aunt and my cousins and my mom all getting to say goodbye.
2. After having to postpone multiple times because one or all three of us were sick, Sarah finally got to come over to meet the kittens. They took to her right away and were happy to be picked up and cuddled, which isn’t always the case, so it felt like the delay gave us the perfect moment in time.
3. Rudi and I went to see The Art of the Brick, a Lego exhibition by Nathan Sawaya. The pieces ranged from scale replicas of wild animals, sculptures, and interpretations of great art from around the world, including one of the heads from Easter Island, which required more than 75,000 Legos to complete.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?
January 28, 2025
top ten authors i discovered in 2024
posted by soe 2:40 am
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share the best new-to-us authors we read last year. In 2024, I read 52 books, which had 51 distinct authors/editors. Of those, 30 were either debut authors or authors whose work I hadn’t yet read. Here are the ten whose works I liked best:
- Carsten Henn: The Door-to-Door Bookstore
- Katya Balen: October, October
- Simon Van Booy: Sipsworth
- Karen Hesse: Out of the Dust
- Emily Habeck: Shark Heart
- Rufi Thorpe: Margo’s Got Money Troubles
- Valérie Perrin: Fresh Water for Flowers
- Nadi Reed Perez: The Afterlife of Mal Caldera
- E. Alix Harrow: The Ten Thousand Doors of January
- Sarah Hogle: Just Like Magic
Half of those are realistic fiction and half are speculative fiction/fantasy.
How about you? Which authors did you discover last year whom you would recommend?