Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share the cause of how we’ve added certain books to our physical TBR piles. I decided to focus on ten books I bought because I loved their author’s earlier work:

1. Threatened by Eliot Schrefer, because of Endangered
2. Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: and Other Adventures on the Way Back Home by Bailey White, because of Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living
3. The Blue Shoe: A Tale of Thievery, Villainy, Sorcery, and Shoes by Roderick Townley, because of The Great Good Thing
4. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, because of Eleanor & Park
5. Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo, because of Because of Winn-Dixie (and others)
6. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, because of Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths
7. Odes by Sharon Olds, because of The Dead and the Living
8. The Great Spring: Writing, Zen, and This Zigzag Life by Natalie Goldberg, because of Writing Down the Bones
9. The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson, because of A Walk in the Woods
10. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, because of Housekeeping

How often do you buy books from an author, perhaps without giving it your normal amount of consideration, simply because you loved one of their previous works?

I was out walking the other day, trying to get to the house where they have the Barbie party scene out front to see if the Barbies were socially distancing or if they were living a better life than the rest of us. But there were a group of neighbors hanging out in that vicinity, so I couldn’t get close enough for photos. (As best as I could tell from across the street, the Barbies were not socially distancing, but had taken to wearing masks, and at least two seemed to be boxing a coronavirus ball. I’ll ask Rudi to get us photos later.)

But I did get to see who lives near the Barbies. It turns out their neighbors, one block over and tucked into a tree box, are fairies!

No one seemed to be about.

But it also seems like fairies would be much better at social distancing than Barbies.

I’m sure they were just waiting for me to pass by.

Have you discovered anything new and exciting about your neighbors during this time of sheltering in place?

The upcoming week holds several friends’ birthdays, the start of Passover, and the Easter holidays. Which means I should get some things done this weekend to prepare:

• Send out some mail. I dug out my stationery box today, which makes that easier.
• Buy batteries. We’re out of AAs and AAAs and now have to rob Peter to pay Paul, gadget-wise.
• Make some calls. I’ve been okay about checking in with the folks I know in the hardest hit areas or who are in healthcare careers, but haven’t made phone calls.
• Pay some bills. I am lucky in that because I am still working full-time, I am still getting my usual paycheck. I know that’s not true of everyone, so I’m super grateful.
• Have a living room dance party. I am the only one excited by this, which means it often gets dropped off the list, despite it being low-hanging fruit.
• Bake something with my sourdough discard and/or the pie crusts I pulled out of the freezer last week. Rudi would probably be very excited if I finally turned that sugar pumpkin that’s been sitting around the Burrow since the fall into the pumpkin pie that he loves.
• Find my UFOs and my mending pile. Sort them, and figure out how to tackle one a couple mending projects a week.
• Read something. I’ve mentioned that I’m having trouble concentrating on paper books right now, but audiobooks seem to be okay. Rudi and I started listening to Good Omens earlier this evening
• Paint my nails.
• Sleep in.

What are you thinking about doing this weekend?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sourdough bread, made from my starter. Yes, it’s probably cheating a little bit to make it in the breadmaker, but at this point, whatever gets it turned into bread is a winner, in my mind. We ate warm slices as soon as the loaf was cool enough to cut and had it toasted for breakfast with butter and jam.

2. This week, in addition to accepting some paid part-time work with a local campaign he really believes in, Rudi has, with a friend, launched a nonprofit project, BikeMatch, that pairs local cyclists who are willing to donate bikes to people who need them during this crisis. In their first couple days, they’ve already heard from 50 people. I am super proud of him.

3. I painted my toenails. This weekend I’m going to do my fingernails.

How about you? What beautiful things have you been noticing in your world to help you deal with this?

This was rush hour on Rock Creek Parkway today.