Bluebird Books

Dear Audiobooks, I just wanted to write you a little note to tell you that I love you.  calm smile, a glass of whiskey, eyes closed, Ron knows what's what You make chores and exercise so much better.  Instead of trudging into the laundry room faced with folding six loads of towels and kids' clothes, I practically prance in there and am left feeling sad when the final sock is matched.  Time spent in the car used to be an endless changing of channels to find a song that fit the ven diagram of songs I like and songs the kids can listen to.  Now my children remind me that we need to finish our audiobook and drives are spent getting smarter and building connection.  You make me a better parent, audiobooks.   When I go through difficult times and long silences are just too much, you help me navigate quiet times in the way I used to as a kid: with bedtime stories and stories to fill up the spaces when I just don't want to think about the stress of life.  These esc

I've read a few books this summer and since I'm about at the halfway point I thought it would be a good time to look back to see what I've liked and what I didn't and consider what books I will read in the next month and a half to round out my summer reading.  #mood I've read thrillers that are fun, series that I love, and books that have surprised me in both the best and worst ways.  As I perused my list I thought about what would make a book "the best" to me at any given moment.  Well, it should be something that resonated.  For me, the best books are books I think about for a long time afterward.  My reading experience matters too.  Did I connect with the characters and themes?  Did it feel like I was immersed in the world of my book or was it hard to break into?  Could I set it down and forget about it or was I actually frustrated with my real life for getting in the way of my reading?  After considering these questions while looking at m

A few months ago I read You're Wearing That by Deborah Tannen, a famous linguistic professor and researcher.  At the time I thought it was kind of long and overly technical in parts and overly anecdotal in other parts.  I would probably still say the same thing if we were chatting over coffee about it, but then I would tell you all the things I learned from it. It's a book that sits with you and makes you think.  You read it and then you see it play out in all of your interactions and you think, "Wow, it's so obvious, now that I know what to look for." Some things I took away: 1.  "The double meaning of connection and control" Tannen talks about how speech that's intended to build connection can also feel like speech that's intended to control.  There are messages (the obvious meaning) and metamessages (meaning that is taken from the tone, when, and why something is said) that impact the course of our conversations and these can be ver

It's summertime in these parts.  We've had lazy days, days at the beach, visits from family, visited family.  There are a few things we still want to do and a vacation on the horizon.  But the next couple of weeks I feel like I will be walking on a tightrope, dangerously close to falling into the abyss of chaos that my life can become with four kids and little routine.  This weekend we spent time in Harper's Ferry, WV.  It was a fun overnight trip that included fighting, sniping, laughing, complaining, kindness, and grumpiness.  Though those things sound like they can't coexist, the more I'm a mom, the more I realize they do more often than not.  As usual, I packed three books because you never know what you'll want to read at any given moment.  I ignored my book club book in favor of the next book in the Louise Penny series when I got some time to read while the kids were in the pool after a day hiking and visiting historic sites in 90% humidity. 

June is over and July is here!  Long, lazy summer days have me in their grip and I am v. happy about this.  Naps are my life and we spend an inordinate amount of time at the pool.  School ended in a haze and we were just so done with it.  Now we have a flexible routine and lots of reading time.   actual footage of me every day at 2pm I was prepared for June being a terrible reading month but it was actually pretty good.  I read six books.  Call it escapism if you must...because that's what it was.   Here we go: 1.  The Goldfinch .  I wanted to finish this one in May but it ended up being June.  It was a complicated book.  I think I felt every single emotion towards Theo, Hobie, Pippa, and Boris.  There were parts I absolutely hated and there were parts I couldn't stop thinking about.  Tartt is an artist with language, even in those hated parts.   This is a journey story about Theo.  He meets an unlikely cast of characters as he experiences mundane and extraordinary