Well Traveled, Well Read

As we approach the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year – on December 21, I thought it would be fun to feature some shorter works (essays, short stories, and one poetry recommendation). I find that shorter works are perfect for this time of year where the days are short and time between holiday demands is fleeting. Two of these recommendations are great on audio, so they may be the perfect selections to enjoy while wrapping presents or driving to visit family. One of these is pretty darn quirky, and I’m also including a collection of poetry, so if 2024 seems like a good time to branch out of your reading comfort zone, I have you covered. I am also featuring a guest blog review from my 10-year-old daughter who has a book suggestion for this category. Happy reading! The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is perfect for you mystery lovers who are looking for something appropriately sized for one sitting. I know a good thriller can suck me away from the wo

Aspen, Colorado has long been a family favorite destination. My husband’s grandfather went to high school in Aspen back before it was a ritzy ski destination, so my husband grew up spending summer weeks in Aspen on family vacations riding bikes up and down the trails and over to the now closed arcade in town. During our first year of marriage, he took me for my first trip, and I fell in love with the charming town and the scenery. When our daughter was old enough, we started taking her with us, and some of our favorite family memories are of our almost annual trips to Aspen. Over the years Aspen has become increasingly popular and pricey. As a result, one of our new favorite times to visit Aspen is during “shoulder season” when there are fewer crowds and more reasonable rental prices. This year we visited during our daughter’s October fall break, and it was perfect! If you plan to visit during shoulder season, it’s important to do your research ahead of time. Approximately half of th

I know many of you will be packing your bags this week to travel to spend time with families for Thanksgiving, so I bring you a list of ten terrific family dramas to help get you through the holidays. I also give you my holiday wish that your travels will be without delay, that your mothers don’t tell you that you are raising your children to be brats, that your brothers don’t bring scantily clad girlfriends to dinner, that your sisters don’t passively aggressively tell you how fat you have gotten, that your children don’t tell your hosts that their food is disgusting, and really that you make it through the week without tears. My holidays will be spent at home this year, and I am hopeful for some relaxing reading days, some fun times cooking with my daughter, some new movies with my husband, and a lovely meal with the extended family. Happy reading!         Commonwealth by Ann Patchett One chance encounter at a christening party changes the course of two families, and Commonwealt

As a special Halloween treat, I'm excited to introduce my first guest blogger for this week's blog post. I hope you all enjoy my husband's post on scary movies as much as I did! Read his post below!  

Last month I traveled to Boston for the wedding of one of my dearest and oldest friends. I saw almost nothing of Boston in between delayed flights, the Friday night dinner, the Saturday ceremony, and the evening reception, but I had precious moments with two of my closest friends and their families. It has been years since the days where most of my travel days were devoted to attending out of town weddings and bachelorette parties. Those were always frenzied reunions with old friends or family, and while my husband and I found ourselves zipping around the country, we rarely had much time to explore the destinations we landed in for those celebrations. For anyone else packing a bag for a wedding weekend, I have six suggestions for you!   The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory is 100% wedding fun with more than a little smut rolled in. When political savant Alexa Monroe gets trapped in a hotel elevator with dreamy doctor extraordinaire Drew Nichols, the last thing she’s expecting is a l

October 1-7, 2023, is Banned Books Week in the United States, and book banning is currently on the rise. In the 2022-23 school year, PEN America recorded 3,362 instances of books banned. This number represents a 33% increase from the 2021-22 school year. Over 40% of all book bans occurred in Florida school districts, but my home state of Texas had the second greatest number of book bans with almost 19% of the total book bans in this country. The majority of banned books are written by women, people of color, or LGBTQ authors, and PEN America notes that many of the new entries on the banned books lists include books about physical abuse, health and well-being, and grief and loss. I am a believer that knowledge is power, so no matter what your take is on banned books, I hope you will join me this week in thinking about this topic. If you are inclined, choose a book on the banned books list to read on your own. If you are a parent of a school-aged child, make a plan for how you will han

Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month by expanding your reading list this month to include Hispanic writers representing a variety of countries. Following is my suggested reading list:  The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis is the story of a young woman who leaves Italy in the early 1910s for a new husband and a new home in Argentina . When she arrives in Buenos Aires after a long journey, she learns her husband has been killed, and she is instantly a woman alone in a new country with no financial resources. She is soon moved by the music of her new home and the tango in particular. This is a novel about finding your passion and fighting the odds to pursue that passion. I rated this four stars on Goodreads. Find it here:  The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis | Goodreads . The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is a family saga and a love story spanning decades and generations set against the backdrop of post-colonial political struggles in Chile . This is one of the