Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. John, Nicole, and Juliet were in town and we got to spend a lot of time with them. We visited museums, hung out, ate, listened to music, and caught up with Michael, Julia, and Sarah for an indoor picnic.

2. I have been asked to water a couple plots of gardeners who are away for the holiday. I have decided that responsibility includes harvesting anything that ripens during that time (since it would otherwise be eaten by the local fauna).

3. Air conditioning, because today hit 102 on the thermometer and felt like 113.

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

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share the books being published before the end of the year that we’re most looking forward to. Here are mine:

1. Dark Reading Matter by Jasper Fforde
2. Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
3. Adversary to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
4. Tales from the Territory by Travis Baldree
5. We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman
6. Grim Tidings by B.K. Borinson
7. Anger Is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo
8. Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves
9. It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Murder by Ally Carter
10. Traitors’ Nest by Francis Hardinge

What’s coming out in the next six months that you’re excited to read?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Four of the guys and I pull off a well-played victory over the undefeated team at the top of our league. It cements our spot at number three and pumps us all up.

2. After a couple hours of playing volleyball on a hot Saturday afternoon, I drop my net off at home and continue down the street to the ice cream parlor, where they have my favorite flavor in. They warn me it will be a while until it’s next back.

3. Juliet has been at a dance camp in Maryland and we go up to watch her troupe’s performance. She’s one of the youngest kids, but holds her own in their modern performance, which reinterprets “The Pink Elephants on Parade” from Fantasia.

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

Over at That Artsy Reader Girl, it’s time for that favorite quarterly Top Ten Tuesday topic, the top books I hope to read this season. While I’ve done poorly with both my winter and spring lists, hope remains bright for a higher success rate for the summer:

1. Adversary to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
2. The Even-Handed Booksellers of Edinburgh by Garth Nix
3. Most Ardently Yours by Freya Sampson
4. Bump, Set, Sparks by Jennifer Moffatt
5. The Parisian Heist by Jo Piazza
6. After the Forest by Kell Woods
7. A Letter from the Lonesome Shore by Sylvie Cathrall
8. Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary by Stefan Fastis
9. The Impossible Garden of Clara Thorne by Summer N. England
10. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

How about you? What are you hoping to read this summer?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Our first beach day of the year

2. Ducklings at Constitution Gardens (safe from the bleaching next door)

3. A friend and I meet at the Dupont Circle fountain for an overdue catch-up.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Fireflies in the park

2. Frozen Persian mint lemonade on a scorching afternoon

3. Nearly a dozen of the girls I coached graduated from 8th grade, and almost half of them took part in the ceremony, including Sadie, who sang a solo

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