There is a book on my TBR, and while I’m not sure I’ll read it, the concept is interesting: A person buys another person’s whole life. Their home, of course, but also their clothing, their furniture, their car, their belongings, their job, their friends, their family, their cat. All of it.

While parts of it are a tad unrealistic — you cannot control for your job accepting the person or people taking the new person in — the rest of it is entirely possible. The point, of course, is that you would live the other person’s life. Not toss out their stuff, keep the shell, and fill it with what you actually want. You would slip into their life and live it, as if you were them.

It’s something I used to always say to the kids when they were jealous about something. Sure, it would be lovely to have that part of that person’s life, but would you want the rest of it? Would you want their home and their parents and their siblings and their strengths and weaknesses?

I think the answer for most of us would be no. I can’t look at anyone on earth and think, “Yes, I would like to give up everything around me and slip into your life.”

Can you?

The children are home… for a few days. We went up early in the week to help them move from their college spaces, and drove back so they could spend a few weeks here before they trot off to their summer plans. I feel lucky that I get a few weeks with them. I feel sad that the long summers where they are here for months may be coming to an end.

But I’m trying to put off feeling sad about that and instead enjoy the time I do have while I have it.

See, progress.

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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…

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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:

• “Finally Doing Less” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

A heavy week.

My heart hurts for Dear John, who lost her brother-in-law to suicide four years after her husband took his life. There are no words, but please go over and give support.

Lastly, The Barreness writes about caregiving: “I am overtaxed, overwhelmed, over run with emotions and haggard,” which led into her birthday, which was literally a journey of emotions. I cried with her. That’s the power of words.

The roundup to the Roundup: Welcome home. 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 May 8 – 15) 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.

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 April.

A Deadly Education (Naomi Novik): Wow wow wow. This was incredible. I immediately started reading the second book in the trilogy. It hit the same spot as Rainbow Rowell’s Simon Snow books. Absolutely loved this world and cannot believe I waited this long to read the series.

A Good Person (Kirsten King): 3.5 rounded up. I’ve noticed a literary trend that now I can stop participating in. I really don’t like the recent slew of books I’ve read with unlikeable characters. People who are just terrible people, not good people in bad situations making bad choices. If you like this sort of thing, and I know many people do, this is a well-written book. But I’ve realized I don’t. So it’s well-written and part of that genre. If you’re into that, this is a good one.

Yesteryear (Caro Claire Burke): I’ll start out by saying this is great writing. Great storytelling. I don’t think I was the right reader for this book. Meaning, I think another person would find this book mind blowing. I did not. But I could see how other people will really like it, and there were plenty of moments that made me think. Glad I read it.

Good People (Patmeena Sabit): This is the best sort of book because I couldn’t stop talking about it with people, and I’m still thinking about it weeks later. It will challenge you and move you. You will walk away understanding how little we all know about situations we think we know with your heart a little more open. What an incredible book.

Kutchinsky’s Egg (Serena Kutchinsky): While I admittedly started skimming toward the end, I found the first half fascinating. It’s about the egg, but it’s also about assimilation, family relationships, and making your own mark on the world. I bet it would make a good audio book.

The Tainted Cup (Robert Jackson Bennett): I liked this very much. I’m not normally a fan of fantasy, but this one grew on me until I had to devour the remaining 150 pages. It’s a complex world, but you quickly grasp how everything works, and the mystery part is great. But the heart is the characters. Loved them. I’m pausing a bit before I start the next book in the series.

Go Gentle (Maria Semple): I adored this book. A pleasure to read. A pleasure to think so deeply. To feel so deeply. Thank you, Semple, for writing a great story.

What did you read last month?

The mark of a good purse book is that you can jump in and out of it, a few pages at a time, and you’ve read the book so many times that it doesn’t matter. You can always remember what was happening moments before. It should have characters you like to hang out with or a setting that you like to visit. It should not be too long, and if it is too long, then the publisher should have found a way to make it purse-size.

My purse book during college was really my backpack book: Crime and Punishment. (I know, I was a real hoot.) Other purse books include a now very smushed up copy of Good Omens, and an equally scuffed Dirk Gently.

I finally got a new A4-sized purse. I went with the Tom Bihn Side Hustle, which is the tiniest smidgen larger than a piece of paper.

It has a little book-holding space inside, so I decided to use it for a purse book. But what to get? The natural choice was The Magicians because I sometimes call it my bible. But there are three Magicians books—how could I choose which one? In the end, I went with One Day by David Nicholls. It always makes me happy and sad to read it, and I can jump in and out of it quickly. But mostly, I love Em and Dex so much that I thought it would always fill me with confidence to have a paper version of them with me.

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

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I skip the AI summaries at the top of Google Search because they’ve been wrong the vast majority of the times I spot-check the information. It recently told me that Go Gentle by Maria Semple “explores themes relating to the Middle East, including the journey of an Israeli and a Palestinian toward peace.” I had Googled her name to see her Wikipedia page, and I was a little surprised because I was 65% of the way through her book and nothing about the conflict had come up. A quick search of the e-book told me it wouldn’t come up, and I can report that it didn’t come up. So… thanks, Google, for more wrong information.

But this post has a ton of Google tricks to get you to better information. I especially like the verbatim mode, which took me first to Maria Semple’s website and then her Wikipedia page. No incorrect AI summary to jump over at all. Passing it along in case it is helpful to you, too.

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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.