Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us about the things that automatically make us want to read a book. I rarely will buy a book based just on these things (with a couple exceptions), but mostly these are things that will get them added to my TBR list or maybe my library request queue:

1. Written by favorite authors: Pretty much if J.K. Rowling, Barbara Kingsolver, Jasper Fforde, or Rainbow Rowell write a book, I will buy it with no further recommendation needed.
2. Heists. I love heists on the screen and on the page.
3. Set in places I’ve lived or places I’ve visited. With the latter, it’s because being able to picture a place intimately is a huge plus. With the former, it’s both because I love to see these couple places represented well and also a little bit because I want to catch an author out in what they’ve gotten wrong. I’ve put down books set in my D.C. neighborhood because they described the Dupont Circle fountain incorrectly or because they referred to M Street in Georgetown as being townhouses. (Rudi and I have mulled whether I could generously give this one to the author, and I have not given up the idea of returning to it, particularly as I bought my copy of the book and had it inscribed by the author.)
4. Epistolary novels. I love me some letter writers.
5. Found families. I love it when a disparate group of individuals comes together to take care of each other.
6. A personal recommendation from someone whose book opinions I tend to agree with: My folks are usually pretty good with what they recommend to me. My best friend, Karen, although we’ve both had some notable misses. My friend Amani, who early in our friendship let me tag along with her to a bookstore only to remark later that I was the first person who didn’t make her feel rushed in her favorite sections. Raidergirl3, because I think we value a lot of the same things in the books we like.
7. Feminism. I like strong women, or women who become strong through the course of the story.
8. Retellings — of fairy tales or classic stories. Updated takes. A change in point of view. Sherlock Holmes stories tend to particularly suck me in. And Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series falls a bit into this through the Bookworld bits.
9. Children’s stories in translation. They sometimes take me a while and oh my god I hated Bronze and Sunflower, but I always like to give them a shot.
10. Authors as main characters. Either featuring fictional authors, or fictionalizing real authors (such as Stephanie Barron’s series of mysteries with Jane Austen as the protagonist).

How about you? What automatically makes you want to read a book?

I really thought last week’s garden update would be my final one for the month, but the difference a single week makes is so singular, I had to show you!

My peas:

My spring onions are carrying on:

My daffodils, which contrary to my previous report are mini daffs and which have since grown to a normal height:

My crocus is a gorgeous stripey one:

My violets are still being a little shy, but I expect they’ll have found their confidence by next weekend. I transplanted a bunch more from the front of the garden to the back.

Today, I planted a bunch of seeds — chard and arugula and lettuce and the like. I didn’t have any spinach seeds to plant with me and I need to go through my master garden bag to see if they’ve gotten separated from their seasonal brethren or if I need to acquire a new packet.

Next week, I need to rake out the strawberry patch and dig out the back of the garden, where I usually plant herbs and a pepper or two. I moved our mint over, because we’re going to lay piping around the garden to help transport water and the spigot is in my plot. Our garden manager thinks I’ll be able to reclaim that territory once the piping is down, but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

This garden is how I judge that spring has well and truly arrived in my neighborhood every year.

It’s the first weekend where Rudi’s been home since early December! To celebrate, I hoping it includes:

• Attending our first baseball game of the season. We have tickets, I know where my Mets cap is, and my nails are painted orange and blue. I’m ready.
• Flying our kite. It’s the Kite Festival on the National Mall and weather, garden duties, or someone’s bum hip have kept us from going for the past several years. Rudi thinks we can figure out a way to secure it in a bag or something so we can leave it in the bike valet during the ballgame, because they’re certainly not going to let that into the ballpark.
• Getting to the garden. I didn’t make it down during the week, so I’d very much like to get some more seeds into the ground.
• Going to the farmers market. We’ll need milk. And I’m considering getting another dozen eggs because if I’m going to start making macarons, it needs egg whites. I should probably check my cookbook…
• Knitting. Second sock-land, here I come!
• Opening the window! I’ve had it open before now, but closed it when we had a cooler snap. Tomorrow it’s supposed to near 70.
• Checking out the cherry blossoms. That means dealing with tourists, which I’d like not to do, but…
• Spring cleaning — or at least making a start at it. Insects and flood waters discouraged anything but emergency measures last week. Now it’s time to start making a dent on our clutter.
• Reading. I finished a graphic novel and a picture book tonight and am looking forward to crossing something else off my list, as well, because the new Veronica Speedwell has arrived at my local branch and is waiting for me.
• Baking. Maybe the macarons if I have time on Sunday. But otherwise oatmeal scotchies, because I’d wanted to make them Tuesday in addition to the mint sticks, but I ran out of steam.
• Doing laundry. I have several weeks during April when I have multiple volleyball games a week, which means having sports bras clean becomes much more important. Probably I just need to buy another sports bra or two…
• Lounging, hopefully outside. Clearly this one is at odds with most of the others, but I’m still including it here as a goal.

How about you? What are you hoping to do this weekend?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I baked mint sticks to take to my bookclub and the librarian who runs it gushed over them. I left the tin for her to share with her colleagues, and Rudi and I nibbled on the edges I trimmed off for dessert.

2. A dapper fellow wearing a violet bowler hat and a matching pocket square was on the train one evening. In his lap — a tiny, metallic giraffe backpack.

3. Leaving the best for last — Rudi is home after ten days away. It’s been nice to have him here to talk with more than once a day and to help me deal with household things and to climb into bed next to him at the end of the day. Plus, it’s way easier to hold hands when you’re in the same zip code.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

On my way back from my book club, I stopped by a cafe to spend some time in the sun today. It felt glorious to be able to strip off my sweatshirt and sit outside comfortably. A pot of tea and a strawberry muffin didn’t hurt things, either.

I’m ready to start the second sock of that stripey pair. I made them extra long in the leg, but I’m about to hit baseball season, so mindless stockinette isn’t a problem.

I began On the Come Up by Angie Thomas. So far I’ve learned what a snapback is, which are baseball caps that have those very flat rims and leave the sticker on the brim and have rather perpendicular tops. I knew they were a thing; I just failed to realize they had a name. I don’t know why; I mean, everything has a name. So, a new thing.

I also started Ladee Hubbard’s The Talented Ribkins on audiobook. It’s about an otherwise ordinary family, where everyone has a superpower, like the ability to make maps of places they’ve never seen or to scale walls without aid of ropes. There’s hints of how these talents may have been useful in the Civil Rights movement, but the main character spent many years using his talent for a mobster, who now thinks he’s owed money.

All the other books are still on the go. Finishing things seems to be a problem these days — one I obviously need to address as due dates approach!

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what other folks are reading and knitting.