Mountains, lakes, and Shakespeare: My Oregon vacation

Posted in Family & Life by

There’s nothing like a summer road trip to bring me joy! I’m back after a ten-day getaway through Northern California to the Oregon-Washington border and back again — a total of approximately 1450 miles — and thought I’d share some highlights.

Days 1 – 2: Mount Shasta:

Driving about 5 hours north from San Francisco, our first destination was Mount Shasta, a cute outdoorsy town at the foot of (you guessed it) Mount Shasta! The mountain is easily visible (i.e., unavoidable) from highway 5, but this was the first time we’d ever stopped to explore.

A small but fun main street (with a party atmosphere for the 4th of July) features shops, craft beer, and restaurants. Our favorite food experience was a nursery (gardens, not babies) next to our hotel with a pizza kitchen/beer garden in the evenings.

We drove up Mount Shasta to a turnaround point at about 6000 feet, with stops at viewpoints and a couple of short hikes. Beautiful views everywhere we looked!

Days 3 – 4: Ashland, Oregon:

One of my very favorite places! This was our third time visiting Ashland — a fantastic destination for so many reasons, especially the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The town of Ashland offers a funky mix of boutiques, bookshops, everything from takeout windows to fine dining, and a beautiful park right in the midst of it all.

My highlights (of course) were the two plays we saw. First, in a smaller indoor theater, a gorgeous production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

Beautiful lighting, sets, and production design, an incredibly talented cast, and terrific costumes brought this play to glorious life. Loved it! (Read more about the production, here)

The following evening, we saw The Taming of the Shrew in the large, open-air Elizabethan Theater. What a blast! Funny and creative, bawdy, and absolutely engaging. I wasn’t sure that I liked the play when I read it — but experiencing a modern director’s take on the story made me see it in a whole new light.

Check out the very fun trailer:

… or read more about the production, here.

Days 5 – 6: Bend, Oregon via Crater Lake National Park:

Departing Ashland, we drove to Crater Lake National Park, about 2 hours away via twisty back roads. After a very pretty drive, we took in the breathtaking views. We’d been there once before, over ten years ago, and had very overcast weather the whole time. This time around, the skies were clear and the lake’s stunning shades of blue were on full display. We enjoyed a short-ish hike along the rim, had a picnic lunch, drove the perimeter a bit more, then headed on for another 2 hours drive to Bend.

Bend is a town (well, probably more of a city) of about 100,000 people, located along the Deschutes River. The river flows through the center of everything and is surrounded by beautifully maintained parks and walking trails. We did a couple of great walks through town and along the river, and enjoyed our stay in a cute cabin-style motel.

With one full day in the area, we drove to Mt. Bachelor — a winter ski resort open for hiking and mountain biking in the summer. We took the chairlift up to the top, then walked a 4.5 mile trail back down. My husband and I agree — this was our favorite hike of the trip!

We wrapped up our stay in Bend with more picnicking, neighborhood walks, and another stroll along a river path.

Days 7 – 8: Hood River, Oregon:

Our northernmost destination in Oregon! A nice drive led us to the Columbia River Gorge, starting at The Dalles eastward along the river, then working our way west to the town of Hood River, with a few stops to take in the views along the way.

Our hotel in Hood River was situated right along the river. Not only did we have a great view from our balcony, but the property’s gardens offered lovely places to sit and take it all in as well. Our full day in the area was spent chasing waterfalls — simply amazing! One very tough hike was especially memorable: we didn’t quite realize until we were fully committed that it was a much steeper, intense climb than we’re used to! All the falls were gorgeous. What a day!

Day 9: Hood River to Vancouver, Washington:

Leaving Hood River, we drove through the area known as the “Fruit Loop” – a section of northern Oregon with tons of farms stands, shops, and wineries. We stopped at an amazing lavender farm, did a bit of sampling (yum, cherries) at an adorable farm store, and made a few other spontaneous stops before getting back on the road. Leaving that area, our next stop was the Timberline Lodge, an historic ski location on Mount Hood. And yes, there were people skiing on a small-ish patch of snow up on the ridge! In July!

From there, we continued onward to Vancouver, Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland. We stayed in a waterfront hotel and enjoyed the town’s waterfront park (despite very intense heat!). It was a nice, relaxing way to spend a night before two longer driving days

Day 10: Back to Ashland:

Another five-and-a-half hours of driving took us back to Ashland, where we had the chance to enjoy one more show! This time, we saw Emma, written by playwright Kate Hamill — an incredibly fun re-imagining of the Jane Austen novel. Such a great production, and as always, such a delight to be in the open-air Elizabethan Theater.

For more about the show, including director’s notes and production photos, see here.

The show, plus a pre-show dinner and a night at a sweet little inn, made a perfect final vacation night!

Day 11: Homeward bound

We wrapped up the trip with the long, uneventful drive back to San Francisco. It was good to get home, unpack, unwind, and sleep in our own bed!

And now, it’s time to dream up our next adventure!

Some highlights, for anyone interested in checking out these amazing destinations:

STAY:

EAT:

SEE & DO:

Book Review: The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

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Title: The Calamity Club
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Publication date: May 5, 2026
Length: 656 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

In 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, Prohibition is on the wane, and the Great Depression is tightening its grip. Poor and rich folks alike have fallen on hard times, even as the old social order remains. For women on the margins, the options are few and the price of dignity and self-determination is unbearably high.

Eleven-year-old Meg, one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. Birdie, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford on a mission to ask her social-climbing sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. And Charlie is a woman with a past, running low on luck but driven by fire, fury, and grit. When their fates converge, they come up with an audacious plan to take back control of their lives. Together, they form an unlikely sisterhood—but in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife, women’s freedom is fragile, and making an enemy can have dire consequences, will the price they pay for their outrageous risk-taking be too high?

The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—an epic testament to resilience, friendship, and the fierce, funny women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious—the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.

In Kathryn Stockett’s new — BIG — novel, it’s 1933 in Oxford, Mississippi, and even the wealthiest of families are seeing their homes and livelihoods slip away, while those who’ve never had much now have even less. Foreclosures and job losses are everywhere. The roads are lined with people who can’t pay their rents or taxes and have been forced out of their homes. In this setting, we meet remarkable characters who’ve had their own shares of misfortunes and yet remain determined to find a way through.

Meg is a very smart 11-year-old whose single mother went out to the store two years earlier and never returned. Since then, Meg has lived at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum for Girls (know simply as the Orphan), a dismal place filled with babies, toddlers, and big girls. Families looking to adopt are invited to attend View Days, where the little ones get snapped up instantly, but the big girls tend to find new homes only if they can prove useful. The Orphan is run by volunteer society ladies, headed by chairwoman Garnett Pittman, who rules the roost with an iron fist and who has an intense, particular dislike for Meg.

Meg is one of two point-of-view characters in The Calamity Club; the other is Birdie Calhoun, an unmarried 24-year-old from the Delta who comes to Oxford to beg her sister Frances — who married wealthy Rory Tartt without even inviting her family to the wedding — for the money needed to pay the back taxes on their mother and grandmother’s home. Frances lives in style at the grand Tartt mansion and tries hard to hide her poor background, and is none too pleased by Birdie’s arrival. However, as Birdie soon learns, even the Tartts are not immune to economic realities, and she soon finds herself with more than one family to save from utter ruin.

Meg and Birdie meet at the Orphan, where Frances volunteers and offers Birdie’s bookkeeping services in an effort to impress Garnett. Birdie is horrified to discover that Meg has been pulled out of school due to a perceived act of disrespect, and spends her days sitting in a moldy room with no distractions or social interactions. As the two spend time together, Birdie becomes determined to improve Meg’s living conditions, which becomes yet another uphill struggle as she also attempts to find money for her family and save Frances’s lovely, somewhat oblivious mother-in-law from losing everything she holds dear.

When Charlie — a woman with important connections to others in the story — shows up asking Birdie for help, she’s able to offer help herself around the Tartt household… and she also has a plan to pull all of them out of financial ruin. If you read any reviews or synopses of The Calamity Club, you’ll likely come across the details of this plan, but just in case…

SPOILERS AHEAD

Charlie’s plan is to open a “dime-a-dance” club at the Tartt estate, sure to attracting the hundreds of college boys arriving for a new school year in Oxford. Mrs. Tartt agrees to the plan, with nostalgia for the days when she and her late husband hosted glamorous dance parties on their back lawn. What Mrs. Tartt doesn’t realize (and what Birdie and Charlie struggle to hide from her) is that the dance club will be a front for a very different sort of club — one that’s likely to bring in much more money than dances ever could.

When you opened a brothel in a town with thirteen churches, surely it was natural to find peril in every move.

With Birdie handling the business end, Charlies brings in old acquaintances to offer the talent for the club, and with the help of a local woman who’s determined to attend medical school even when no one seems to want to admit female students, they’re up and running. Not without complications or very great risks, of course, but as the money starts piling up, there’s hope in sight for all of these women for the first time in years.

The Calamity Club, at well over 600 pages, is a big doorstopper of a book, which may lead potential readers to hesitate about picking it up. I’m so glad I didn’t! Despite the length, it never lags, although it takes a good long while — more than half the book! — to get to the “club” part of the plot. I hadn’t read any detailed synopses prior to starting the book, and had no idea what was coming, and for me, this was just perfect. I enjoyed watching the story unfold without expectations, and found something to savor in each new turn of the plot.

The Calamity Club deals with many serious and disturbing topics, including eugenics and the forced sterilization of those considered “feebleminded” — which, according to the morality movement of the time, included unmarried woman having babies out of wedlock. The author provides historical context in her notes at the end, a chilling reminder of just how awful a society that dictates standards of women’s behavior can be.

The treatment of the orphans is very disturbing as well, and while Meg perseveres with gritty determination, it’s easy to see how these discarded girls have no one on their side and very little chance of ever finding a safe landing spot. Add to this the bleak landscape of the Depression, and the world of The Calamity Club can seem intensely dire — and yet, this is a book with joy and laughter as well.

It was stuffy in here and hot and prostitutes kept getting in my way, but it was nice to have the company while I cooked everybody breakfast.

Birdie is a wonderful character, and her narration offers a smart, sharp take on the world around her and the people in it. She’s remarkably kind and supportive, with a deeply ingrained instinct to protect the people she cares for — even her spoiled sister, who seems mainly unworthy of such devotion. The assorted women of the “club” each have their own backstory and reasons for being where they are, and I loved Virginia (the aspiring doctor) and Mrs. Tartt, among others.

The Calamity Club pulled me in right from the start, and I really only have minor quibbles. First, there’s the character of Garnett Pittman, who as the villain of the piece, veers on a cartoonish sort of bad-guy status. She’s so evil that her actions lose the element of surprise — we expect that she’ll do the worst thing in any given situation.

My additional quibbles are plot-related. While the ending wraps up all storylines, a few threads are left dangling or allowed to drift off. I would have liked more certainty about certain characters’ probable futures. More significantly, I expected something much more dire to unfold before the end — some sort of cataclysmic event or disaster or tragedy — and that just doesn’t happen. As I said, there’s a conclusion that ties it all together, but the big climactic moment I was expecting, based on a sense of looming peril, didn’t actually arrive.

Overall though, I truly enjoyed The Calamity Club. The setup — the time and place and historical context — is so well conveyed that it’s immediately compelling. The characters grab hold and make a reader care; I felt invested in their lives and needed to keep turning the pages to see what was in store for each of them.

Don’t be put off by the page count! While reading The Calamity Club does take a time commitment, it’s easy to get involved and feel totally immersed. With writing that offers snappy dialogue, compelling situations, and a plot that zips along, the 600+ pages fly by. The Calamity Club is a must-read for summer 2026.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

The Monday Check-In ~ 7/13/2026

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

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My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

Life.

I’m back! My husband and I got back yesterday afternoon from a 10-day road trip through Northern California and Oregon. We had an amazing time! … and I was too exhausted to do much more than throw together a very quick Monday post before heading to bed.

Coming soon: I’m planning to share some trip highlights (hint: lots of waterfalls and Shakespeare!)

A programming note:

I’ll also be away for four days later this week for a friend event… and will most likely be offline the entire time. So — I probably won’t be back to my normal blogging and blog-hopping routine until next week!

What did I read during the last (two) week(s)?

I managed to finish two books prior to hitting the road:

The Midnight Train by Matt Haig: Lovely book, lots of food for thought. My review is here.

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan: It’s always great to have a new Jenny Colgan book to kick off the summer reading season! My review is here.

While on my trip, I read just one book… but at over 600 pages, getting through it felt like quite an accomplishment!

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett: It took me the full length of my trip, but I finally finished! Very good book. I’ll aim to post a review later this week.

Pop culture & TV:

Absolutely nothing! Other than catching some World Cup highlights (more for my husband than for me), we didn’t have much screen time at all while we were away.

Fresh Catch:

Two new books!

The final volume of Heartstopper arrived! I can’t wait to get started.

While in Ashland, Oregon, we saw an amazing production of Emma — and I just had to buy a copy of the play script. Of course, it won’t compare to seeing it on stage, but I’m eager to read it anyway.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman: I don’t know how much time I’ll have to read in the next few days, but then I’ll be on a plane, and this seems like a great choice for in-flight reading.

Now playing via audiobook:

Julia at the Drive-In by Rainbow Rowell: A new Rainbow Rowell short story seems like the perfect listen for the first half of the week,

Ongoing reads:

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe: My book group’s classic read. We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 52%. Coming up this week: Volume 3, chapters 2 and 3.

Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words by John McWhorter: A really entertaining linguistics book! I do love this sort of thing. I’m taking a slow approach when it comes to this book, and haven’t touched it since before I went out of town. I’ve read 3 chapters so far. Progress: 56%.

What will you be reading this week?

So many books, so little time…

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Spell the Month in Books: July

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by

Spell the Month in Books is a monthly meme hosted by Jana at Reviews from the Stacks. To participate, find a book title that starts with each letter in the month’s name, make a list, share your link, and that’s it! You can share anytime by the end of the month. Some months have additional themes, but feel free to participate however you’d like!

It looks like themes haven’t been added for a while, so I’ll make up my own. For me, July represents spending time outdoors to enjoy gorgeous summer weather, so I searched for books with cover images that fit. (My J book is a hold-over from June… I couldn’t find anything with a summer/outdoor vibe that I liked better!)

A quick note: I’m traveling this week and trying to avoid screens and devices as much as possible! I’ll be pretty limited when it comes to replying to comments and doing some blog-hopping… and I’ll look forward to catching up once I’m back home!

Here are my JULY books:

J:

Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez

U:

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

L:

The Love Haters by Katherine Center


Y:

You Have a Match by Emma Lord


Happy July! Wishing everyone some terrific outdoor time this month.

If you spelled the month in books, please leave me a link to your post — I’d love to see it!

For your reading pleasure: Summer’s One Must Read Book 2026 (courtesy of Carol @ Reading Ladies)

Posted in Blogging, Book Reviews, The Reading Life by

I’m away on a mini-vacation and had planned to mostly be on a blogging break… but couldn’t resist popping back in to share a special summer treat.

Carol @ Reading Ladies Book Club organizes a wonderful collaboration post each year, bringing together a terrific mix of book bloggers to share their picks for essential summer reading.

I’d delighted to participate… and I’m delighted to reblog and share the post! Please do visit Carol’s original post, and check out all the contributors too.

So many great choices to add to our summer reading lists!

Summer’s One Must Read Book 2026 [Book Reviews] #Collaboration #MustReadBook #SummerReading #BookX #booksky #BookBlogger #booklist #readingrecommendations

Audiobook Review: Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan

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Title: Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages
Author: Jenny Colgan
Narrator: Eilidh Beaton
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: June 16, 2026
Print length: 352 pages
Audio length: 11 hours, 44 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased (audiobook); E-book ARC from the publisher/NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

EVERYONE IS SEARCHING FOR THEIR PERFECT HOUSE. BUT HOME IS REALLY WHERE THE HEART IS…

Janey Carter has a lot to be grateful for—a home by the sea in the Scottish isles, a job that she loves, two kids who have successfully launched, and a network of kind and supportive friends. But since her husband left, her confidence has taken a nosedive. And then, out of the blue, her thirty-year-old daughter Essie announces she’s moving back home. Janey loves Essie dearly, but she was never the easiest to live with, and Janie has been enjoying the empty nest life.

Yes, Essie Carter has just lost her job, can’t afford her rent in Edinburgh, and her boyfriend isn’t ready to commit. She hates to admit defeat and isn’t wild about moving back to the remote island community where she was raised. But maybe the sea air will clear her head?

No sooner is Essie back under her mother’s roof than an unusual opportunity pops up: the shabby and unloved Seaside Cottages next door come up for sale. Janey has some experience renovating the island’s famous stone fisherman’s cottages, Essie needs something to do, and they could both use a little Air B&B income to warm their pockets. Mother and daughter slowly bond over the shared challenge, which delivers some much-needed revelations for Essie, and offers Janey a surprise second chance at love as well.

If a house can be brought back to life, along with the community around it, then so can a heart …

Jenny Colgan’s books can be counted on to provide a lovely escape to a charming small town, humorous challenges as well as interesting relationship dynamics, and simply gorgeous landscapes — which may induce hallucinations of chucking it all and running away to a sweet little Scottish village on the northern coast!

In Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages, the heart of the story is a mother-daughter relationship that just as prickly now as when Essie was in her teens. Janey is a mid-50s audiologist who loves her job, loves her community, loves the tiny cottage she’s made her home, and loves her adult children… although a bit of distance is best. Essie, around 30, fled their small town of Carso as soon as she could, preferring a life in the business world, with posh social events and gorgeous clothes (and a gorgeous financier boyfriend) in Edinburgh. Essie has never gotten over her parents’ divorce, for which she mainly blames Janey… even though it was her father who cheated and ultimately left for another woman.

Janey loves Essie, but Essie treats her with scorn and can’t really be bothered answering most of her texts. But as the story opens, Essie learns that her banking firm is relocating to Switzerland and she’s being let go. Sure, she had a well-paying job in finance, but she didn’t see this coming and has no savings. With housing in Edinburgh either impossible to find or exorbitantly priced, she can’t afford to stay — so full of dread and misery, she heads back to Carso, to her mom’s tiny cottage, to regroup and (hopefully) get back to a job and “real life” in Edinburgh as soon as humanly possible.

Meanwhile, Janey is slowly coming out of her shell socially. She has very good friends and is well liked and appreciated within the community, but she hasn’t dared dip her toes back into the dating pool since the divorce. She feels old and unattractive, and the dating apps aren’t exactly enticing. When she encounters a very nice man at a pub quiz, she’s interested in someone for the first time, and thanks to a pregnant dog in distress (and a very ungainly batch of puppies), Janey has a strangely quirky reason to interact with this man. Who wouldn’t want to bond over pupppies?

While Janey is delightful, Essie is hard to warm to. She returns to Carso full of despair and feeling hopeless, which she expresses through disdain of the of the town and absolute nastiness toward her mother. She loosens up eventually, once she gets involved in assisting a local with rehabbing the cottages next door — finding purpose and a potential romance along the way — but meanwhile, she can be a total pill.

There’s not exactly a ton of plot in Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages, but that’s okay. The setting, the tone, the characters — these are the reasons we pick up Jenny Colgan novels, after all! I enjoyed seeing the interwoven relationships within the community, and very much enjoyed Janey and her day to day life, as well as the slow dawning of a new romance for her.

I struggled with the mother-daughter relationship, not that it might not be realistic, but just that Essie’s behavior makes her so unlikeable for much of the story. I recognize that she lashes out at her mother because of her own traumas, but it’s just unpleasant to have to see, and made me less interested in following her through the chapters about her adjustment and transformation. (Then again, demographic-wise, I’m much more aligned with Janey than Essie. Perhaps a reader in Essie’s age range might feel more sympathetic toward her?)

It’s interesting to see how the author weaves economic challenges into the story. People in Carso can’t find housing, because outsiders keep scooping up properties and converting them to vacation rentals for people from the cities, who swoop in, don’t shop at or patronize local businesses, and drive rents sky-high for the people who actually live there. Essie experiences the same in Edinburgh, where she’s constantly exposed to the have/have-not divide and lives in a state of envy over all the gorgeous flats she’ll never be able to afford. While the overarching story is very much centered on the lives of the characters, much of the plot is informed by the financial challenges they experience and the interest in property — for both locals and the wealthy investors who see money rather than people when they look at Carso.

A note on the audiobook: Eilidh Beaton is wonderful. She narrates many of Jenny Colgan’s books, and has a talent for voicing an array of characters, adding just the right humorous touches, and evoking the feel of the place and its people.

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages is a sweet, light story about mothers and daughters, and about life in a changing community whose people are anxiously trying to hold onto the qualities that make their world so special. The storyline overall is gentle and entertaining. Don’t pick up this book expecting much in the way of action — but if you enjoy interesting characters, beautiful settings, and small town goings-on (and puppies!), this makes a lovely option for good escapist reading.

Note: Amazon and Goodreads indicate that this book is part of the Mure series. It’s not. There’s really no connection at all, other than a location that’s in the same general vicinity. This book does include characters from Close Knit and The Summer Skies, but only in passing — there’s no actual impact on the story here, so no need to read these novels in any particular order.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

Book Review: The Midnight Train by Matt Haig

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Title: The Midnight Train
Author: Matt Haig
Publisher: Viking
Publication date: May 26, 2026
Length: 296 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop?

No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to re-live the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were.

For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice.

Before he gave it all away.

He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything . . .

A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library.

As The Midnight Train opens, it’s 1974, and Wilbur and Maggie are on their honeymoon in Venice. They’re young, in love, and have their whole lives in front of them. They promise to love one another forever.

They talked and talked, as though a relationship was really just a conversation that never wants to end.

And then we readers turn the page. Wilbur is 81 years old, and it’s the day he dies. And we learn that he and Maggie have been divorced for years, although he still has their wedding photo on display in his house. He clearly still loves her. What went wrong?

Upon dying, Wilbur is summoned to board a train — the Midnight Train — that takes him back through scenes from his life. To reach eternity, where he’ll exist forever and be reunited with everyone he’s ever cared about, he first has to revisit his life, getting off the train to witness significant moments, then reboarding as the train carries him onward. He can only observe, not change things — this is an opportunity to see all the places in his life where his decisions and actions set him on certain paths, and to understand where and how he might have chosen differently.

The incredibly annoying thing about being dead was that you got all your priorities in order, just when it was too late to do anything about them.

The journey is difficult. While Wilbur has the joy of seeing his first meetings with Maggie and how they fell in love, he also must revisit the most painful moments as well, when he lost important people in his life, responded from a place of fear, and made some crucially bad decisions. The further Wilbur travels, the more he wonders: Could he actually interact with his younger self? Knowing all the ways in which he failed, can he try to course-correct? And should he, if it means that he’ll be giving up eternity?

He had lived long enough to know that time and meaning were not shared out equally. Some personal eras were relatively empty. The temporal equivalent of air. And then you would come across a day—or even a minute—and it would have a whole decade’s worth of weight. It would be everything. It would have the power to change an entire life.

The Midnight Train is a moving look at what it means to live fully, and how working toward some unknowable future can mean not fully inhabiting the present. Wilbur is a well-meaning person who loves his wife devotedly, and yet lets the pain of past losses drive him in a way that brings financial success while losing what really matters along the way. Wilbur and Maggie start off so clearly meant for one another, with such brightness ahead of them. It’s painful to see them losing their connection, not through ill intent, but through distraction and ambition and a misdirected focus.

The magical elements of The Midnight Train work well as a conduit for Wilbur’s journey back through his own life. It doesn’t have to make perfect sense, and indeed, we’re told that each person experiences their journey in a way that’s personal to them. Traveling alongside Wilbur, we see the heartbreaking losses of his younger years and can understand the fear and guilt that stays with him, even as we wish for things to turn out differently.

The Midnight Train is a companion of sorts to the author’s 2020 novel, The Midnight Library. You don’t have to have read the first book to appreciate this one, although an important character from The Midnight Library plays a role here. Both books deal with themes related to finding meaning in life, but come at this theme from different angles. Each approach is fascinating — as the author states in his acknowledgments, the two books can be seen as being in conversation with one another.

I found The Midnight Train to be a fast, engaging read with an emotional core that feels true. Wilbur’s journey conveys profound messages about appreciating the life in front of us, but these messages never feel preachy or overly sentimental. There’s a beauty to Wilbur’s experiences and the wisdom that he finally finds at the end of his life. We’re left with a lovely sort of hope as we reach the final pages and see how his story turns out.

I highly recommend The Midnight Train. A lively writing style with humor mixed in alongside the sadness and seriousness make this a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience, and there are plenty of life lessons to be absorbed along the way — not to mention a love story that’s sweet and powerful.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2026

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2026.

So many to look forward! Plus all the other books already on my shelves that I still need to read! How will I ever keep up?

Here are ten books scheduled for release from July through December that I’m looking forward to:

  • The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian (8/4/2026)
  • Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher (8/25/2026)
  • Kiss Slay Replay by Rachel Harrison (9/1/2026)
  • Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (9/15/2026)
  • A Divided Duty (October Daye, #20) by Seanan McGuire (9/29/2026)
  • Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger (10/6/2026)
  • Dive Bar at the End of the Road by Kelley Armstrong (10/6/2026)
  • As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers (10/13/2026)
  • Eight Ways to Say I Love You by Amanda Elliot (10/27/2026)
  • Murmuration by TJ Klune (11/17/2026)

What upcoming new releases are you most excited for? Please share your TTT links!

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The Monday Check-In ~ 6/29/2026

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

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My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

Life.

Another busy week — but the sun finally came out over the weekend, and I was able to get outdoors to enjoy it.

My book group had a Zoom chat with author Marjan Kamali on Saturday, discussing her excellent novel The Lion Women of Tehran. She was very kind and gracious with her time, and the conversation was so interesting!

A programming note:

I’ll be away for about a week and a half starting later this week — my husband and I are heading out on a summer road trip to Ashland, Oregon, the Columbia River Gorge, and various points in between! I expect to mainly be offline while we’ll traveling (maybe some random check-ins here and there). We’ll be on the go every day, but I do hope to be able to unwind each evening with some quiet reading time!

What did I read during the last week?

The Children by Melissa Albert: Chilling, compelling, terrific fantasy/horror. My review is here.

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman: This book seems to have exploded on BookTok in the past year. I’m glad I decided to check it out — my review is here.

Pop culture & TV:

I finished my For All Mankind binge! I loved seasons 1 and 2, thought season 3 was pretty good, mostly felt that season 4 sucked, and then like season 5 better than season 4. I’m glad to be done at this point. Despite the letdown of the last two seasons, I still intend to watch the 6th and final season whenever it’s released (most likely 2027). Meanwhile, I plan to check out the spin-off series Star City, which covers the space race from the Soviet perspective. I posted an overview about my experiences watching For All Mankind — check it out, here.

And now that my binge is over, I’m looking forward to catching up on other shows I’ve been wanting to watch. So many options!

Fresh Catch:

I try not to give in to the temptations of Prime Day… but couldn’t resist when there was a significant price drop on a book that’s been on my wish list for a long time:

I read The Women soon after it came out via the library, and have been wanting a copy of my own ever since.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

The Midnight Train by Matt Haig: I got a signed copy of this book at an author event in early June, and I managed to get through about half over the weekend. Hoping to finish before we hit the road!

Now playing via audiobook:

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan: Jenny Colgan audiobooks are always such great entertainment! I’d hoped to finish over the weekend, but ran out of time. Now my goal is to finish before I leave on my trip… and I think I’ll (maybe) manage just in time. Fingers crossed…

Ongoing reads:

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe: My book group’s classic read. We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 46%. Coming up this week: Volume 2, chapters 10 and 11.

Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words by John McWhorter: A really entertaining linguistics book! I do love this sort of thing. I’m reading it in bits and pieces, and this week read the 2nd chapter (called “Poor Little You”). Progress: 46%.

What will you be reading this week?

So many books, so little time…

boy1

TV Time: For All Mankind; seasons 1 – 5

Posted in Pop Culture by

This week marks the end of my For All Mankind binge. Overall, this is a fascinating, absorbing (but sometimes maddening) show. With one season still to come (possibly in 2027), I’m glad that I took the time to dive in and watch seasons 1 – 5. Here’s my season by season breakdown of the show and my reactions to each.

Warning: Spoilers ahead! I won’t divulge specifics about plots twists, character fates, etc — but talking about the general premise for the show and each season is unavoidably spoilery. In fact, I had no idea what I was getting into when I started season 1, and loved the major twist… but I’d guess that anyone who’s aware of this show and has seen any of the trailers has at least some basic knowledge of what to expect.

Let’s jump right in.

SEASON 1

Setting: Earth and the Moon, 1970s

Here’s where I got my biggest and best surprise: Before starting this show, all I knew was that it was a series about the space race. Period. So imagine my surprise and delight to learn at the end of the very first episode that this is alternate history. It’s 1969, the world is watching the moon landing… and instead of hearing Neal Armstrong’s famous words while taking his first steps on the moon, we hear… Russian.

That’s right, in the world of For All Mankind, the Soviet Union gets to the moon first, a huge embarrassment for NASA, but also just the kick in the pants that the US needs to invest much more heavily in its own space program.

The season focuses on NASA’s moon program, ultimately landing astronauts on the moon and setting up the beginnings of a moon colony adjacent to a crater where ice has been discovered. To accelerate the program and keep up with the Russians, the astronaut corps accepts women, which is where the mix of characters becomes fascinating. We have the type of tough-guy fighter pilot astronauts we’d expect, but also daring women who’ve fought for the opportunity to fly and now go to space.

Season 1 does an excellent job of immersing us in the lives of the astronauts, their families on Earth, the scientists and dreamers of NASA, and an immigrant family who becomes involved with the space program as well. The personal elements add emotional weight to everything that happens. Absolutely fabulous characters.

The alternate history is fascinating. This is our world, but different. What does it mean for the greater society and political environment that the US lost the space race? We get news coverage and snapshots that show the impact, from an earlier end to the Vietnam War to the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment to Teddy Kennedy winning the 1972 presidential election.

Still, it’s the emotional beats (plus space adventures!) that make this season so incredibly powerful.

SEASON 2

Setting: Earth and the Moon, 1980s

As we’ll come to expect each season, we open with a time jump to the next decade. The Jamestown Colony on the moon is well established and has expanded from the tiny, claustrophobic unit of season 1. Astronauts rotate in and out of Jamestown as Apollo missions continue. The discovery of key minerals on the moon has changed life on Earth, and advances in technology bring private corporations into the business of space exploration. Meanwhile, the Cold War makes its mark on the moon, as territory is divided between the US and USSR, and a competition for resources leads to each country sending armed troops to the moon to protect their own interests.

The main characters from season 1 are back, older and some in positions of greater authority, with new family configurations and personal life complications. We’re so invested in these people by now that anything that goes wrong (and plenty does) feels personal.

Honestly, I was on the edge of my seat throughout this season, and the finale left me more emotionally wrung out than anything else I remember watching in recent years. No spoilers about what happens… but it’s intense, to say the very least.

SEASON 3

Setting: Earth and Mars, 1990s

Another ten years have passed, and the US, the USSR, and private company Helios are in a three-way race to be the first to Mars. Some intense space scenes open the season, which feels like tradition at this point. We also open with the expected montage of news clippings, showing us in super-fast speed what’s happened since we last checked in. Politically, Gary Hart is President, following the presidency of Ronald Reagan; culturally, one piece I loved is learning that John Lennon survived an assassination attempt. Space exploration and the technological advances that it has provided have led to demonstrations on Earth, as coal and other former industries have become obsolete, leading to mass unemployment. While there’s excitement about reaching Mars, a growing segment of the population demands that Earth’s needs come first, and the protests threaten to turn violent.

On Mars, there’s an initial settlement of astronauts and cosmonauts as the US and USSR are forced to share resources in order to survive. The interpersonal dynamics are outstanding, and the drama ratchets higher and higher as significant dangers loom. Again, can’t get too specific without spoilers, but the season ends with shocking events, some joyous and some tragic.

SEASON 4

Setting: Mars (mostly), 2000s

Here’s where the show starts to lose me a bit. Yes, we get the opening new montage, learning that Al Gore is President, Bill Clinton is a political has-been (having never made it to the presidency in the wake of scandals), and gay marriage is the law of the land. But the show’s focus on space exploration has given way, perhaps inevitably, to storylines about living on Mars. It’s less alternate history, and much more standard sci-fi fare — shades of both Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse, in terms of showing off-planet human society and living conditions.

While some of the original characters are still around, 30 years have passed since the first season, and much of the focus has shifted to new characters, including family members of some of the originals. For at least one of the O.G. characters, there’s a personality change that seems unsupported by everything we formerly knew about this person, and I didn’t like it.

Mostly, though, the problem with season 4 is that the focus is mainly on labor unrest and social stratification, and not the challenges of continued space exploration. The workers want rights, better wages, and living conditions. The powers that be want to exploit every resource Mars has to offer for the benefit of Earth, even if it means that the Mars colony becomes irrelevant. Add to that the introduction of someone intended to become a new lead who I found unappealing (and whose storyline, mainly about smuggling, did not show him in a particularly good light), and we end up with a season with not enough space drama and too much emphasis on class and economic struggles.

SEASON 5

Setting: Mars (mostly) and Titan, 2010s

Another 10 year time jump! And now we see how much has changed on Mars. The news from Earth is not that interesting — what matters is that Mars is mining iridium, incredibly valuable on Earth, and that the combined Earth powers (known as the M-6) want to exploit it even further, even if it means that the “Marsies” (the hundreds of workers who live on Mars, along with their families) may see their way of life destroyed.

The last of the O.G. characters fade away, and the next generations and newer characters are firmly in the lead. Armed conflict between the M-6 and the Marsies becomes inevitable, and we see the terrible devastation when things come to a head.

Season 5 is better than season 4… but overall, I think the show has lost the power of its first three seasons, which played up the awe of seeing the space programs develop and the incredible dedication of the people involved. By seasons 4 and 5, the show is just too similar in feel to other sci-fi franchises — yes, with differences, but essentially, it’s become a show about human life on other planets. It’s moved so far beyond our reality that it’s lost the element of surprise and delight that come from seeing alternate versions of our own history. Yes, it’s entertaining, but somehow less special. (And it doesn’t help that one of the lead characters is a total dud, but maybe I’m in the minority on that issue).

Looking ahead: Season 6

Setting: Presumably, Mars and Titan, 2020s… ??

Not much is known yet about season 6, other than that it will be the final season for the series — which makes sense, as it brings the timeline more or less into alignment with ours. Despite the letdown of the last two seasons, I will absolutely want to see how it all wraps up!

Do I recommend For All Mankind?

Overall, yes. The first few seasons are (excuse the pun) stellar. I loved the presentation, the storytelling, and the characters, was on the edge of my seat for so many of the episodes, and felt totally invested every step of the way. The same was not true while watching seasons 4 and 5 — but even so, I was interested enough to see how the various conflicts played out, and still want to know what’s next.

The show has a terrific, talented cast and many, many breathtaking space sequences and moments of exhilaration and terror. The alternate history (particularly during seasons 1 – 3) make for a fascinating speculative look at all the “what ifs” of our own world and how small alterations might have huge impacts.