Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I got to see two of my cousins, Caroline and Élissa, this week and meet two of our family’s next generation, Izzy and Alfie.

2. The London Bookshop Crawl was so much fun and I had such a good time. I’ll put up a separate post on it later this week, but in the meantime, I’m sharing this photo of Bex and me. (Bex is the organizer of the Crawl and someone I’ve known online for ages.)

3. Fortnum and Mason, one of the U.K.’s preeminent department stores, has a shop and a “bar” at Heathrow. We’ve cleared security long before our gate has been announced, so we have elevenses in style. (Mine is tea and crumpets.)

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

Three beautiful things from my 50th-birthday week:

1. The weather in D.C. is lovely for February, so my pal Mario invites a small group out to play volleyball all afternoon.

2. Spring flowers are in full bloom in London, where I’m spending this week.

3. Friends of a friend of Rudi’s recommend we visit the Marylebone location of Daunt Books. I’d like to move in.

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

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday post from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share our favorite reads that contain “love” in the title. Here are mine:

1. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
2. Love Is a Mix Tape by Rob Shefffield
3. Beloved by Toni Morrison
4. The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough
5. My True Love Gave to Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins
6. Book Love by Debbie Tung
7. Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
8. Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern
9. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
10. Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love by Jared Reck

The History of Love was a five-star read, and the others all earned four. I recommend them all.

How about you? What “Love”-entitled books do you love?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The weather in D.C. has been very temperate, which means between Sunday and today, the neighborhood daffodils went from dressing gowns:

to ballgowns:

2. Chris and Julie treated me to supper as an early birthday celebration, since they’re out of town this week and I’m away next.

3. Susan and I had lunch this afternoon, and then because I was feeling all sorts of over-achieving, I returned some books to the library and wandered over to Georgetown in search of sun and shoes. (I found one, but not t’other.)

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

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time Is Short. Here are ten four+-star books that can be read in an afternoon (all of them well under 200 pages):

1. The 13 Clocks by James Thurber
2. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
3. A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
4. If God Invented Baseball: Poems by E. Ethelbert Miller
5. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
6. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
7. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
8. March: Book One by John Lewis
9. Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
10. For Every One by Jason Reynolds

How about you? Are there books you’d recommend grabbing if time is short and you just want to while away a few hours?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I had friends over for a game night. Exploding Kittens was lots of fun, as was the company.

2. As I was biking to my volleyball game Saturday morning, I realized the air was scented with pine. Turns out, I was following the truck that was collecting Christmas trees for composting.

3. The time between volunteering and volleyball was too short to go home, so I stopped at a cafe for a snack. Half a cream puff and a cup of Earl Grey later, I was refreshed and ready to play.

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