As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from January.

You Be Mother (Meg Mason): I own Sorrow and Bliss, but I haven’t read it yet, so this was my first Meg Mason book. It was a gorgeous, beautiful, heartbreaking book. You will love Abi and want her to win. Such a great piece on how we form family and what we mean to each other. And how people can let us down, and we can still find a way back to each other and trust again.

Mr. Wilder and Me (Jonathan Coe): I listened to the audio version while on trains, and I was sucked into the story despite never seeing any of the films mentioned in the book. Coe is an extraordinary writer, and the writing here is so subtle and clever. My only quibble is that I feel like he may have missed sides of Billy and Iz’s life that would have turned them from black and white to technicolour, but even black and white and even without ever seeing a Billy Wilder film, I loved this book.

The List of Suspicious Things (Jennie Godfrey): This book has been on my to-read list for a long time, and I bought it for myself now that it’s in paperback. I wish I had gotten it sooner. It will go down as one of the best books I read this year. I want to get it for everyone I know. I plan on re-reading this one a few more times this year — it was that good.

All Her Fault (Andrea Mara): Solid thriller with great pacing that (I think) is being turned into a tv show. It feels very tv show-y. I don’t usually read child endangerment thrillers, but I wanted to read an Andrea Mara book. And this one was so solid that I bought another one immediately after.

Strange Pictures (Uketsu): It was billed as a horror-mystery, but I can’t say that I was ever scared or challenged. It was neat how the stories fit together, but the answer to the mystery was usually delivered a page or so later, and the horror didn’t feel like traditional horror. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t know if I would read a second book like this.

What did you read last month?

Beyond some halfheartedly-watched cooking competitions ten years ago, I’ve never gotten into reality television competitions, but I had read about the Traitors, and when we walked past a billboard advertising the show while in Norwich, I asked everyone if we could try it the next night.

We were coming in mid-season, and I couldn’t connect with it. The people were overly enthusiastic about some pretty annoying tasks and overly dramatic in the face of non-danger. When we turned it off, I said that I didn’t need to give it a second chance.

But then I couldn’t stop thinking about it the next day, and when someone suggested we give it another try, we ended up watching another episode. And by that point, I was invested. I wanted to see who won.

When we got back to the US, we bought a year of Peacock so we could watch through past seasons while waiting for the current season to reach the US. Once again, I started out feeling pretty meh about the whole thing and then convinced Josh we should give up our afternoon plans and watch three episodes in a row. Plus a little of the next episode because we couldn’t end on the cliffhanger.

I’m unsure what appeals to me because I would never want to be on it myself. I wouldn’t want to be a faithful OR a traitor. Maybe it’s just interesting to watch truthful people have to convince people they are being truthful, sort of like the opposite of the Turing test, where humans would have to convince people of their humanness. Which, now that I think about it, is going on now as people are not using AI but are accused of using AI, and they have to prove a human wrote something.

We haven’t tried the US, Australian, or New Zealand versions yet, so we have many seasons to get through before we run out of Traitors episodes.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

There was a great essay written while I was away, and I just got a chance to read it. Catriona Innes puts the thesis in the title: “All my life, society has told us to be mothers. How can we break free from that conditioning?”

Describing it as conditioning drives the point home. “There are things we want, then there are things we don’t want and then there are the things we’re not sure we want, but are told we should.”

It’s really a great piece on the ache and the joy in her life.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Whenever we go anywhere far away — let’s say an airplane ride away — I feel the need to do all the things. See everything. Go everywhere. Check it all off the list in case we don’t have a chance to come back.

It’s an impossible task unless there are very few things you want to do in a place.

This past trip to the UK, I quickly became obsessed with trying to fit in a few days in Cornwall. If we were going to be in Cornwall, I wanted to also go out to the Isles of Scilly. And if we were doing all of that, we might as well slip into Wales. (Oh! And throw in Tintagel Castle on the way there.)

Josh kept saying, “Okay, but what are you taking out?” Nothing. That is what I am taking out. I am going to do everything we have planned, AND I’m going to somehow traverse several more areas.

We ended up not crushing several more places into a packed schedule, but it hurt my heart to be so close and miss out. Who knows how the world will change? What if I never get back there?

I get that is just life. Life is a series of things that are left undone.

Usually, when we go away, my parents babysit Beorn, but we both will be out of town at the same time, which means… Guinea Pig Roadtrip.

First, we had to confirm with the hotel that they would be fine if we brought Beorn. They were just thrilled to be asked vs. having us show up with a guinea pig, so they said yes. Next, we went out to get Beorn a bigger carrier.

His current carrier is perfect for car trips because he can’t move around a lot and get hurt, but he can’t sleep in it. So we got him a second carrier — meant for a small dog — and tricked it out with a new water bottle, food dishes, and a hay bowl. We placed him inside, and he walked around a bit, checking out the space and testing out the new water bottle before settling down inside the carrier for a FaceTime call with the Wolvog.

I hate being apart from him for even one day, so I’m kind of thrilled that we can bring him with us. I hope he likes the new carrier and the trip goes well so we can kick off a series of grand adventures. I have already Googled whether guinea pigs can travel to Canada. International pig!

*******

Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

*******

But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

Scientist on the Roof talks about walking the line between going bonkers for someone’s birthday vs. not doing enough. I struggle with finding this line or feeling like I’ve done enough to make the person feel special without depleting myself in the process.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix highlights “it’s the little things that are the big things” because she can finally unpack boxes she packed up years ago. I completely agree with this: “When you’re going through infertility or grief of any kind or debilitating stress of any kind, it massively affects your ability to function. It’s amazing that we can do anything at all.” Here is to getting things done when the energy (and space) returns.

The roundup to the Roundup: Guinea pig roadtrip. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between Jan 31 – Feb 7) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.