Monday Things

I went camping with family at the end of last week and am a little behind in my reading. It was a great time. We floated down a lazy river, got lots of bug bites, and didn't keep much of a schedule - in the best way - so I'm fine with it.

In light of that, and while I catch up with my books, I wanted to try something different for the start of this week.

In my notes app I have a very long list of articles I want to read but have to save for later so my browser doesn't crash under the load of all the tabs I have open. I thought it would be fun to share some of them with you!

Even if you just skim these, it's interesting and might spark a new idea. I've found that these types of reads always make me think about things differently, even if I only get through 3 paragraphs.

Here's some for today:
News of the new James Bond has me very excited. I really enjoy this franchise now that I'm a grown person. Daniel Craig's movies have been a lot of ridiculous fun to watch and I'm really excited to see how they use this new actor to change things up. I think it could be a really great way to broaden and update the entire category these Bond films rule over. I hope with all my fingers crossed that this announcement is legit.

A great roundup of books to look forward to for the second half of the year. I love these types of lists and enjoy filling out the library holds with them when they get into the system. As it is already halfway through July and - as my daughter pointed out today - Halloween is only 3.5 months away, it's about to become the season for the "best of" lists to appear. I enjoy lists of this type a bit more though, because the anticipation of things to come is great. I'm looking forward to this one, this one, and this one.

This list is just fun to file away the next time you are adding a new furry companion to your home. I've also found that naming one's automobile or method of transport is quite fun, and this would be a great list of ideas to consider. Do you name your car? Right now ours is named Jarvis.

And if you're looking for more long form articles, here is an excellent roundup of 25 of some of the greatest that I'm working my way through. A spectacular list.

Finally, here's what I've been reading lately:
Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna, by Mario Giordano - this was a sheer delight of a story, the second in the Auntie Poldi adventures. Translated from Italian, these almost cozy mysteries follow Auntie Poldi as she gets involved in one thing after the other. I love this character and the writing is phenomenal and funny. It's a wonderful summer book that's just as great as I'd hoped, but I'm in a bit of a slump right now because I just want more Poldi!

Recursion, by Blake Crouch - I read this right before Auntie Poldi and it was so good! No wonder I'm in a bit of a rut with two of my most anticipated books of the year being so great back to back! Ugh. I can't handle how much fun Blake Crouch's writing is. This book is worth the hype. I wrote an entire post here about what to read after you finish Recursion, except it doesn't help me much since I wrote it and read everything I recommended already!

How Not to Die Alone, by Richard Roper - This was much more charming in the darkly humorous way I enjoy than I was initially expecting. Dealing with a character who has invented himself a family and is clearly trying to ignore some heavy feelings. For work, he has to go to the homes of people who have died alone, go through their things to see if they have any belongings of value or relations to notify, and then he arranges for their funerals if there is no family to notify. It's a sweet story that I enjoyed a lot.

Have you read anything interesting lately?