Hobonichi Launch Report: I LOVE the covers they revealed ~2 days ago by Kyohei Sakaguchi. Just wow!
(I also kind of love that they styled it with . . . a cassette tape? Are they . . . back?)
A&C went back! Well, C had orientation and A was volunteering at orientation. He seemed to have a decent day. He has two friends coming over from his old school and knows a couple of other kids from soccer, so I think that helped him feel pretty comfortable even though it was all new for him! I don’t have a good sense of what our daily/weekly rhythms will feel like yet, since dance hasn’t started up.
TODAY is a weird day (no one has school), but A/C have their first real day tomorrow. ANNNNND: I’m taking G to get her cast off! Super exciting. She still isn’t totally ‘done’ with her fracture-related stuff – there’s a screw by her elbow that will be removed in late Sept/early October (under anesthesia, but a super quick procedure).
Possible ambitious reading project: I kind of thought it might be interesting to try reading all of the books on the Booker Prize longlist over the next ~12 months (there are 13 of them, so ~1/month and one month to double up 2 shorter ones).
Question is: would I find them too esoteric and get annoyed halfway through? Kiley Reid was one of the judges and I love her work, so feeling like I could probably trust this group’s picks.
Call schedule 2026 was finally officially released and I’m at peace with it! I am covering Christmas week, which is sad but it was my turn to take a major holiday (and then I shouldn’t have to in 2027). The kids are finally old enough that Josh could probably take his “major holiday” call at the same time, which means if we wanted to travel for the second half of winter break, we still could (our nanny always takes off those two full weeks, so in prior years we could never both work at once).
The other upsides to taking Christmas: it’s usually a little bit quiet then, AND I’ll preserve vacation days which is good since we are planning a longer summer trip (Hawaii)! I’m also hoping to swap out a bunch of weekends, as I mentioned.
ONWARD: I’m a little bit sick but doing better today (ibuprofen helped and I feel like my immune system worked overtime last night). Let’s DO THIS, Q4!!!! Excited to do some of my own seasonal planning tomorrow.
20 Comments
oooooooh I could totally get on board with this reading project.
You’re the second one who mentioned a reading project today- Meredith on the Currently Reading podcast talked about having a reading project or quest. Hmm! Must ponder this!
My daughter went back to school yesterday and I’m feeling all the new Q4 vibes. hope you’re feeling better and get your planning session in!
I’d totally be up for a Booker read-along/chat. But my gut from your reading/discussing past favourites… you might find the Booker longlist too esoteric. I often do. The Women’s Prize is more my jam. Although this year, there are some choices that feel more current/accessible, Universality was very good, Audition was kind of delightfully weird, Love Forms looks good.
Have fun with the Booker List. Maybe commit to reading the first 5 chapters of each book, so if it’s too high brow for you taste you can move on without guilt? My personal goal is to read all the unread romance books on my bookshelf in the back half of the year (my buying has outpaced my reading, which is saying something since I average 10 books a month)
Oh gosh, I would be a hard pass on a Booker long list reading project, but I often do not like the award nominated/award winning books as they tend to be a bit more “high brow” than my reading tastes! Usually seeing that a book won the Booker or another notable prize is an indication that I should not read it – unless I have a recommendation from a person with similar tastes. But a reading project can be fun and expose you to books you otherwise wouldn’t have read. I used to do reading challenges but abandoned them several years ago as I wanted ultimate freedom to read what I wanted to read, outside of book club books.
I’m glad BTS has gone ok so far and that C has some familiar faces! Our youngest is starting a new PK program at P’s school so I’m bracing myself for that transition, although he tended to do pretty well with changes in teachers/classrooms at his daycare.
Cassettes really are back! I think about 5-7 years ago some indie artists started re-issuing them, sort of as a novelty. I don’t think they will take over from streaming, but people do collect them.
As a result of the return, we now may be the only family on the block to own a 90s style boom box with a tape deck and CD player. Luckily, it doesn’t take up much space.
hope you’re feeling better soon! especiallt because back to school time is upon us. my 17 year old looked over my shoulder at my laptop as I was searching for “high schooler appropriate” planners. He said “Mom, don’t go TOO crazy with the back to school stuff”
I’m getting David Szalay’s book ASAP! It was on the NYT book review podcast episode Best of 2025 so far (so many good books on that list – it’s turned into a project for me lol)
I’m probably a bit different in that I really love and only exclusively read the types of books on the Booker List and similar (I’m fun at parties). I also don’t think the Booker List is the most intense/high brow list to choose from-but I just finished Stalingrad (see? So.much.fun**). That being said, I do think that a lot of them can feel like Work and I probably wouldn’t freely read all of them in a year if I had them on a list if that makes sense. Maybe start with 2 or 3 for a Quintile project and see how you feel?
Orbital, which came out last year was just magical. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it-it’s also a quicker read! I’m also rereading classics-Count of Monte Cristo (seriously SO thrilling), but that may not be what you’re looking for!
**I’m sure there will be people who would look at my reading habits and ascribe some not so flattering aspects to my personality, but I’ve made my peace with that 🙂
I don’t think anyone should be judged by their reading tastes — highbrow, lowbrow, calm, intense, a mix of everything, whatever! People like what they like 🙂 Part of the reason I kind of want to do this project is that I think I can handle some more ‘serious’ literature and want to see if I would enjoy it or not! But I agree with maybe starting with a few and seeing how it goes. (Though honestly – I am also pretty good at QUITTING a project if I find it doesn’t serve me. Ha!)
Fair enough! Although looking at the Booker List-it’s not as ‘high brow’ as it seems to be considered and has a good mix of all types. Wolf Hall (excellent-recommend the entire trilogy) won a few years back, and Life of Pi was nominated, as was Atonement (both of which were assigned reading in high school, so couldn’t have been that bad). The Man Booker list is the international one, and even that one isn’t so ‘esoteric’, it’s just foreign.
Not you at all, but this did bring up my feelings on when foreign literature is considered ‘high brow’ or ‘esoteric. I do think that foreign literature reads differently (this is a good thing!) and that can be considered inaccessible/highbrow/esoteric/insert adjective of choice.
ooh interesting point! I also think it reads differently and can feel more challenging to digest, but you’re right that “highbrow” isn’t necessarily the right descriptive term. (I also think it’s really good to read things from around the world / different perspectives and some years I am definitely better about this than others!)
The Man Booker doesn’t exist anymore. The Man Group used to sponsor the Booker but doesn’t anymore. There is the Booker Prize for books published in English and the International Booker Prize for books in translation. Both can have “foreign” books, in the sense that authors can be from anywhere in the world, not just the U.K.
I had literally *no idea* that the Booker list was deliberately “less intense/high brow,” I just knew that I tended to like books off the Booker list more than the Pulitzer winners lololol. Some of the titles on this list look interesting, but I totally agree that 2-3 might be a better place to start than 14…
PS — If you like Count of Monte Cristo, you should try Lonesome Dove and East of Eden. Also maybe Giovanni’s Room or Remains of the Day. A lot of the people I know who like CMC like these other ones too, so maybe you’ll be the same!
PPS — I also was wondering what happened to you! I remember you from when you were a wee MS1! What did you end up doing with your life!
Lonesome Dove gets a major shout out in The Correspondent and now I want to read it!
Thank you!! I need to put those on the list!! I did love Remains of the Day-so beautiful.
Also, wow, that’s so kind of you to remember! I ended up finishing my MSTP and am a 2nd year ID fellow on the East Coast (same place I did my residency-it was a LONG 3 years + clinical year). Doing the research piece now, and the original plans were to aim for a K, but…*gestures at everything*
I love the cover theme!!! I think I’ll get the pink sky one.
my current reading project is to finish all unread books on my shelf. a long way to go.
I don’t know that I ever thought about this before, but I had assumed that people with some sort of literary credentials were Booker prize judges. Sarah Jessica Parker is a judge tho? Does she have some sort of credentials I was previously unaware of? Wondering what all of this means, and also thinking that this explains A LOT about past longlist nominees and winners.
I was surprised to see her name on there too!! And I don’t know the others. But I did love Kiley Reid’s most recent book a lot!)
SJP had a publishing imprint (it published A Place foe Us for example) and is well known for being a big reader.
I had no idea and good to know! TY!