Sunday Salon: Introducing The Week in Review

Hi, there! It's been awhile. I'm reading some, listening to audiobooks more, and writing reviews not at all. I've also been pondering some new ideas for this space I love. As I've shifted away from prize list reading to reading whatever strikes my fancy, I find I'm almost always reading books not yet out or books published in the last month. I love this impulsive reading, but when publishers ask you to hold reviews, there's been a disconnect between when I read the book and when the review posts. I don't want to stop doing reviews, but I do want to find a way to talk about things as I'm reading them. I do some of that on Twitter, but I want to find a way to carve out more of me in this space.

Thus, today I'm launching The Week in Review, which is inspired by Maris Kreizman's The Maris Review (you should subscribe to this Tiny Letter. It's awesome.) I like the idea of keeping track of books, tv, movies (in theory), articles I've read, food, and Hawthorne's antics. This week will also see the return of reviews. Some reviews will be in my traditional set-up, but I'm also playing around with different types of reviews.

What I Read This Week:

1. I finished Maestra on audio. It was a fun listen, but it reminded me Hawthorne is old enough I need to be more mindful of my audiobook choices. I do not need my 22-month old learning the c-word, which is used plentifully in that novel. Review to come.

2. I've been reading Marcia Clark's new novel Blood Defense. It's the first in a new series (and with a new publisher.) I loved her Rachel Knight series, so I had high hopes, and I like it, but I think I've been reading it for three weeks already. I pledge to finish it this weekend.
3. My current audiobook is The Assistants by Camille Parri. It's fun and sometimes funny. I'm over half-way through, and I keep wondering if it's just going to keep going at this pace. It's fine, but I hope it goes somewhere. And that I can finish before my library download of it expires in three days.

What I Watched This Week:
1. I hearby declare my love of The Bachelorette. I wasn't sold on this season, but this week's episodes were delightful. There was romance (that hot yoga date--swoon!), there was comedy, there was drama, and there was a two-on-one date, which provides the joy of leaving someone on a mountain and someone coming to awkwardly collect the luggage. I've been back on The Bachelor/Bachelorette bandwagon since they cast Iowan Chris Soules as The Bachelor, and I'm ready to publicly admit I like the show, even as I abhor so much of what is stands for. It's damn entertaining.
2. I started the six-part series The Vanishing Women on Investigation Discovery. As filmmaking, it's not very polished, but the story is fascinating: in the span of one year, six women disappeared from Chillicothe, Ohio (population 25,000). Four have been found dead. Two are still missing. The first episode went in depth into the disappearance of the fourth woman to go missing. It relies too heavily on unnecessary reenactments, but the story is a compelling and haunting mystery. I'll keep tuning in.

The Best Thing I Ate This Week:
A frosted sugar cookie (okay I had two) from The Bake Shoppe. A rare indulgence, but they are so, so good.

What I Avoided This Week:
The outside. It's that terrible time of year in Iowa when I don't want to go outside. It's too hot. And the ten-day forecast shows more of the same. I'm trying to embrace the heat more for Hawthorne's sake (although he seems to share my dislike of it), but it's going to be 98 today. That is too much.

What I'm Looking Forward to This Week:
1. A Tuesday off with Mr. Nomadreader and Hawthorne. To use the last of my vacation days by the end of June (as is required), I'm taking Tuesdays off so we have a day off together as a family. It's been delightful thus far this summer.
2. The last play of Stage West's season (we have season tickets) is Thursday night: Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally.
3. I bought Hawthorne a few new books in preparation for our trip for a family reunion next month. I hope some of these edge out the ones I'm a little bored of reading to him over and over again.

My Favorite Photo of Hawthorne This Week:
My phone tells me I only took videos and Snapchats. I'll work on that for next week. He turns 22 months old tomorrow (!)

Your turn: tell me something great you read, watched or ate this week

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