Looks Like We Made It

Sunshine, rebirth, and my Weekly What

I’m a warm weather gal through and through. My favorite time of year is easily summer; a long stretch when I’m rarely missing the sun and don’t have to think about outerwear is my kind of season.

But this time of year, right now, this brief window of time just on the cusp of spring when things are visibly beginning to awaken outside is actually my favorite. There’s something special about the first brave plants reaching sunwards after a long winter, a hint of green creeping into long dead grass, and buds on trees with the promise of blooms to come. Nature is returning to life just as I too feel something of a rebirth after a long winter (no doubt fueled by a reunion with vitamin D.)

We had a stretch of unseasonably warm weather this week complete with plentiful sunshine and have been soaking it in, enjoying long walks, open windows, and lunches outside/deck naps (dependent on whether one is a two- or four-legged family member.) I’m dreaming of summer gardens and lazy weekends spent in my backyard with a book and all the good warm weather things ahead.

In the words of Barry Manilow: looks like we made it.

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Tell me:

• When is your favorite time of year?

• How’s the weather in your neck of the woods? (I’m in central Ohio.)

• Anything, let’s chat!

What I’m…

Reading

• Us Fools by Nora Lange. This is a sister story, but really it’s the story of Late Stage Capitalism and America as told through the story of two sisters coming of age in the 1980s Midwest during the farm crisis. The writing is sharp, raw, biting, intimate, and even darkly funny at times. There’s a lot of layers going on here and I was absolutely there for all of them.

Listening

• Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America by Jeff Hobbs. Reminiscent of Andrea Elliott’s Invisible Child, this book does an excellent job of showing just how precarious our hold on housing stability, how easy for a family to slip into homelessness.

• Dream State by Eric Puchner. Complimentary review copy provided by publisher. A story of friendship and choices involving a love triangle reverberating across 50 years and two generations set in Montana. I liked this story more and more as it built and layered upon itself. It’s something of a literary leaning family/friendship saga.

• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. Complimentary review copy provided by publisher. An intriguing blend of mystery and cli-fi opening with a woman washing ashore on a remote island inhabited only by a father and his three children. I flew through this at breakneck speed, I couldn’t put it down once I started.

• Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass by Sarah Jones. Narrative non-fiction exploring the gaps in the social safety net harshly exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s not just about a pandemic, it’s about an economic system which works best for a select few while the rest of us experience varying levels of exploitation at its alter. I have to say, this was a particularly difficult read in light of the renewed Trump administration.

• Embedded: Alternate Realities (NPR). The first episode in a quick, 3 part series (episodes are ~30 mins) about a reporter who makes a bet with his father lost down the rabbit hole of right wing conspiracies. Now a year later, they settle up on their bet and the reporter recounts the changes in their relationship and family over the course of the year. I think this single piece of reporting somehow manages to really strike the bone on something we’re all experiencing in one way or another as we contend with the alternate realities and radicalism tearing us apart.

• Plain English with Derek Thompson: The End of Reading (The Ringer). This is a surprisingly thoughtful discussion on what’s going on with reading, more specifically the decline of both reading as a practice and literacy scores of students as well as why reading is worth preserving. There are two interviews in the episode, the first with the writer of The Atlantic article The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books, which got a good bit of play in my Bookish circle late last year, the second with an academic diving into the data on reading and literacy.

Watching

• The Cider House Rules (Paramount+). I had to watch the movie adaptation after reading the book, of course! This is a solid movie that holds up more than a quarter century later (??!??!) but the book was better (forever and always 😘) I think this is a fairly true adaptation, which makes sense given the screenplay was written by John Irving himself. The story is whittled down to its core, which makes for a good movie, but loses a lot of the characterization, writing style, and perhaps unnecessary tidbits that will forever be seared into my brain, all which make the book something special. The solid story is still there and well told, but the movie lacks the flair of the book. Still a good watch!

• Love is Blind (Netflix). We’re coming up on the end of this season, just the finale and reunion left to go.

• The Hunger Games. We recently read the book, we’re actually well into Catching Fire now, so we needed to watch the film adaptation, of course! This movie holds up surprisingly well for being more than a decade old and does a good job of bringing the story to life.

Eating & Drinking

• The weather turned out warmer on Sunday than anticipated so we took advantage of the later light to grill BBQ Chicken that I served with this Bacon Ranch Potato Salad which I was able to pull together with things I already had on hand and turned out delicious.

• This Tuna Noodle Casserole is tasty and comes together quickly.

• I was still working on my kitchen refresh this week and needed quick, easy meals to get us through. These Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls totally fit the bill! The meal came together quickly and everyone enjoyed, leftovers are good too. I stirred in a cup of frozen corn at the end.

• The Best Easy Peanut Butter Pie IHO Pi Day

• A batch of these margaritas enjoyed on the deck was the best way to usher in the weekend.

Links + Loves

• Birth rates are declining in much of the world, including the U.S. This article looks at The End of Children (The New Yorker)

• I find The Great Gatsby interesting on many levels, the book itself, but also the cultural context, both in which it was written and in which it endures. No better time for a renewed interest in Gatsby as we teeter on the precipice of a new Gilded Age. The Great American Classic We’ve Been Misreading for 100 Years (Vox)

• I am forever interested in a late female coming of age story. This is an intriguing roundup: 7 Stories About Women Coming of Age in Their 30s and 40s (Electric Lit)

• Speaking of late coming of age, I also appreciated this look at middle aged friendship: ‘The Essential Ingredient is Openness’: Curtis Sittenfeld on the Deep Joy of Midlife Friendship (The Guardian) “The essential ingredient of middle-aged friendships, I believe, is openness. And the reality is that by the time you’re middle-aged, you inevitably have lots to be open about.”

• The deep dive into the rise of kosher salt I didn’t know I needed: The Great Salt Shake-Up (The Atlantic)

• Librarian Criminalization Bills Are Growing, But They’re Not New (Book Riot). An excellent overview of what’s going on with these bills, including a state-by-state breakdown.

• Speaking of margaritas, I got this citrus juicer/reamer last year and have been very happy with it. It makes quick work of juicing and I love that it catches the pulp and has a measuring cup base. I'm always reluctant to buy highly specific gadgets but I'm glad I did with this one.

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