Very little, it turns out. It was a slow reading week, as I was on vacation. That used to be the ideal time to read, but family vacation is too busy and active to provide much reading time.
Abigail Thomas’s A Three Dog Life is one of my favorite memoirs, and it was such a treat to reread it very slowly over the last month or so. It has a strong through line: the before and after of Thomas’s husband’s traumatic brain injury. He never fully recovered and lived in institutional care for the rest of his life, and Thomas writes eloquently of the strange loss of loving someone who is there but also gone. Still, I wouldn’t say that’s really what the book is about. It’s much more about memory, the minutiae of daily life, the way we find meaning and pleasure in routine (and dogs!). Ultimately, I would say the book is about how to live a good life.
My son and I just finished Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, and it was another read-aloud win. Of course he had to read it as soon as he saw the title. I really appreciate YA novels that have titles or covers that sell themselves to reluctant readers. It was a reread for me, and a novel that I blew through in my first reading, so I appreciated the opportunity to slow down and consider its craft more carefully. It’s a strong read-aloud with a good balance between action and interiority and really interesting and complex characters and relationships.
I read a few picture books but nothing very memorable or worth sharing. I am going to have to do a lot of reading over the next couple of weeks to catch up with #bookaday!
the dirigible plum 
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