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 June.

The Last Murder at the End of the World (Stuart Turton): This is a book with A LOT of plot holes (as in, if x is true then y cannot be true, but the author asks us to also believe y is true – you know, science fiction math) but if you can get past those plot holes, there is an interesting story in there. And if nothing else, it was fun to imagine the world.

Lies and Weddings (Kevin Kwan): Kevin Kwan books are like a paper version of good champagne — festive, fun, bubbly. It’s not going to quench your thirst, but you’re going to have a lot of fun consuming it. It is the perfect beach read, except you need to be connected to wi-fi so you can look up all the real places and designers he names.

The Queen of Poisons (Robert Thorogood): I felt like the first Marlow Murders book was Thursday Murder Club-esque like a lite version of Richard Osman. This one felt lighter than that. It was still enjoyable. Still liked the main characters. Maybe it felt a little rushed? In any case, very solid cozy mystery.

Very Bad Company (Emma Rosenblum): Points off for choosing adtech as the topic but not understanding digital ads (I think we all cringe when we see someone get our job so wrong in a book), but extra points for every Churchill quote. That was such a brilliant character quirk. Every character was unique. It was White Lotus-level enjoyment of some truly terrible people. Cannot wait for her next book.

What did you read last month?

Along with needing a new planner, the company also discontinued the notebooks I use for my bullet journal and work notebook. The work notebook was harder to replace — there isn’t a lot out there exactly like it — so I drove around buying up all of the stock I could find in-store. This amounted to 14 notebooks. I go through one every 1.5 – 2 years. Would I work another 21 to 28 years? Totally possible that I will retire within that window. And if I work beyond that, I could always suck it up and deal with a different kind of notebook for my final years.

The bullet journal was easier to replace — a Moleskine is a similar notebook — but the truth was that replacing it was filling me with anxiety. I didn’t want something different. I wanted my paper strength and stay.

The company was selling the final stock online, and if I ordered 18 notebooks, I would get free shipping. I could have my exact notebook and never have to switch brands. I go through a bullet journal every 1.75 years. That’s 31.5 more years of bullet journaling. And I could probably stretch them out about 2 years at this point because I’m mostly balancing just my schedule vs. also remembering everything for the kids.

It was a lot of money to invest in paper notebooks, but it was also like buying a forever stamp. Yes, it was more money now, but over time, as notebook prices increase, I will likely save money by making this one-time big purchase instead of finding (and paying for) new notebooks one at a time.

But it was also strange to think about my life in notebooks. My work life in notebooks — as I see the stack dwindle down, it’s also my work years dwindling down. My personal life in notebooks — how much longer do I have to live when I’m down to a handful of notebooks? It was a little sobering.

But at least I only have to worry about the planner now.

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

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Along with the goose in the bottle, another mind-shifting thought is to take a step back whenever you’re upset and ask yourself, “Does this really matter?”

Some things matter. But we’re conditioned to react as if everything matters. And when you can take a step back and say, “Wait, does it really matter if I do X or get Y or feel Z?” you sometimes find that the answer is actually no. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change your world in any way beyond a tiny, temporary blip.

It was an interesting thought exercise when I felt myself panicking last week to ask myself: “Does this really matter?”

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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.

Our favourite Thai restaurant closed two weeks ago. We tried another one, and it was fine, though we’ll keep looking because it was like eating B- vegetarian Pad Thai after several decades of A+ vegetarian Pad Thai. It’s hard to be happy with B- Pad Thai when you know an A+ version existed.

Of course, Poppin stopped production on the planner, and TIGI stopped making my hair gel (though they replaced it with a product that feels identical). The last straw was the guinea pig’s Vitamin C is no longer sold.

I like sameness. I know some people like change and always want the best new product, but if I find something that works, I never want to update it. I just want the same thing again and again. Sometimes, I feel like the world is designed for people who like to go broad vs. people who like to go deep.

We just finished four seasons of Breeders, a show that I probably would have avoided if I hadn’t seen a scene from it before I read what it was about because the description made it sound kid-heavy. And it’s not really about parenting (a little bit, but not completely); it is all the stuff that happens in adulthood. It’s about a couple in their late 40s/early 50s, living in London, raising two kids, and seeing their parents, and it is really, really, really funny. Laugh aloud funny. And it gets pretty dark sometimes, too.

It was a bummer to get to the last episode, but ChickieNob and I have decided to rewatch from the beginning to spend time with our fictional London friends.

That’s my recommendation of the week. First episode is a little wobbly. Gets much better from the second episode and on.

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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.

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And now the blogs…

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:

• “Parenting Ourselves” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Grumpy Rumblings has a post about dyeing their hair, which I think about a lot. (My hair, not their hair.) What they did feels like something I could do. I know I wouldn’t have the patience to sit in the salon for hours, and I wouldn’t go back every few months, but if I could do it at home, I could see myself trying this. Plus, I loved reading all of the comments and seeing what other people did about dyeing.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ has a post about the book, The Otherhood (such a great name), and an interview about it. But I love this point: “Because whether we wanted children or not, whether it was a deliberate choice or not, we are all affected by pronatalism, by judgement, and by condescension.” No one is immune, regardless of your situation.

The roundup to the Roundup: Loved the show, Breeders. 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 July 5 – 12) 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.