Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It was the last week for the 2nd graders’ volleyball program. There were tears and hugs.

2. It was sunny and warm last weekend and I got to sit outside both days and read.

3. I had gone to Adams Morgan to run some errands and passed by the restaurant we frequent after volleyball games during the summer. I texted John to say I was thinking of him, and not 30 seconds went by before my phone was ringing. “Where are you?! Stop walking!” He was out at a nearby bar celebrating a buddy’s birthday and came running outside to give me a hug.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I have been lazy with my sourdough starter and had let it hang out unfed in the fridge for a couple weeks. This week, I fed it and it perked right up.

2. I had an expiring birthday coupon with Asics, and the trail runners I like for outdoor volleyball were on clearance. I didn’t need new sneakers yet, but I will certainly need them at some point this year, so it’s nice to have a new pair ready to go as soon as my knees and hips tell me that the old pair should be retired. (This is my best advice for 40-somethings who want to remain active in sports: listen to your body and replace your equipment more often than you used to.)

3. I’d seen them on other people’s blogs, but hadn’t come across them in real life yet, so Saturday, I took a snack, knitting, and a book and walked to the park via the route most likely to reveal snowdrops. I didn’t even have to make it to the Quakers’ churchyard; two doors down from me had some gorgeous clusters growing in their front bed.

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

I put this summary off, thinking I’d get around to sharing 2025’s reads before writing up the books I completed during January. But if I wait any longer, I’ll be behind for this year as well. So, onward to the ten books I read last month (and here’s hoping March is a better month for wrapping up last year):

The Librarians by Sherry Thomas

Shortly after a young widow starts working at the library near her grandmother’s home, two patrons die in seemingly separate events. But it turns out they may not be, and the employees of the branch may or may not be good suspects for their demise. If you like your murders straightforward, this is going to rely on coincidence too much for you. If you like your characters to be realistic, again, probably not your cup of tea. If, however, you are happy to read your murder mysteries with your tongue in your cheek and not to consider the circumstances too closely, I’d joyfully endorse this workplace found-family mystery.

Paper. Library copy. (more…)

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I had a nice birthday last weekend. My friend Rebecca baked me cupcakes, my parents sent a cake, I got to talk with my BFF and others, and I had text messages from nearly everyone else. Plus, I slept in, bought myself books (including one from a new-to-me bookshop across town), ate a free ice cream cone, and had pizza for supper, in addition to watching The Princess Bride, reading, and knitting.

2. A former teammate was in town visiting her boyfriend, and we got to meet up for a late breakfast earlier this week. It was nice to catch up (and to eat cheesy grits).

3. Somehow, and I don’t even know how, I cast on too few stitches for my first pair of socks of 2026 — and I didn’t realize it until I was pretty much done working the heel. Yesterday, I put the sock on a circular needle so I could try it on before I began the foot, and it didn’t fit. But when I’d realized that 14×4≠64, I thought, “I bet it would work as a fingerless mitt,” and it does. So I only had to rip out the heel and then figure out steps for a mitt (since I haven’t made a pair in a decade), rather than rip the whole thing back. I hope to finish the first one tomorrow and immediately start on the second so I’ll have the pair knit in time for spring!

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

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is recommendations for armchair travelers:

1. Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence (British couple goes on vacation, falls in love with the region, and buys a fixer upper there. Hilarious to read about, but probably not to live through.)
2. The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (Girl and boy meet by chance in New York City and have an adventure.)
3. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (A widow moves her family to Corfu, Greece, in the late-1930s)
4. Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods (Middle-aged man and his out-of-shape buddy embark upon a hike of the Appalachian Trail)
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (No matter your opinion of Cathy and Heathcliff, you can’t deny the power of the moors)
6. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (A teen ends up bound to the Mayan god of death and must travel around Mexico to help free him—and her)
7. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (A forced proximity romance between a widow and an MLB pitcher trying to overcome the yips in a coastal town in Maine)
8. Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia (A treasure hunt through Boston)
9. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot (The fictionalized adventures of a vet in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s)
10. Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson (A woman finds a map to a secret city and travels to Belize to follow it)

Honestly, I feel like there are certain cities (New York, London, Paris…) that I could do individual lists for.

How about you? Are there books you’d recommend especially for the setting?

Three beautiful things from my previous week:

1. The frost on the upstairs bathroom screen at my parents’ resembles a hedgehog.

2. A friend is pregnant.

3. I overshot my intended destination by a metro stop and decided to right the problem on foot, rather than waiting for a train heading back the opposite direction. Since there were Girl Scouts outside selling cookies, clearly the universe meant for me to get off in Ballston instead of at my usual stop.

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