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 September.

None of This Is True (Lisa Jewell): I know this author is super popular, but this was my first Lisa Jewell book. I loved the writing and the pacing; I wanted to keep going and going. But I was waiting for a big, amazing twist that never happened. So, I’ve adjusted expectations for future Jewell books because I will read many of them.

A Trick of the Light (Louise Penny): As I summed it up on GoodReads, there should be a word when your heart explodes while reading a book. That’s how I felt when Ruth said numb nuts at the end. It is always a good reading night when you spend time in Three Pines.

Reign (Katharine McGee): I almost didn’t read this book right now; I didn’t think I was in the mood. But the ChickieNob convinced me that literary fluff is exactly what you need when you’re down. And this is well-written, engaging literary fluff. Absolutely love the conclusion of this four-part series.

Okay Days (Jenny Mustard): This is a book that I will buy for many people in my life because it’s a simple story that carries deep wisdom. It is the smartest relationship/friendship advice I’ve seen in a while about how to know you’re choosing the right people to keep in your life.

Adelaide (Genevieve Wheeler): This was a solid book that I may have enjoyed more if I hadn’t read it right after Okay Days. You love all of the characters in Okay Days because they are all essentially good, flawed people. You do not love all of the people in Adelaide because some are truly awful people. It’s a novel that feels like non-fiction. Like I had to keep remembering that it was fiction because it read like a memoir. But it was an interesting read, and I’m glad a friend recommended it.

The Hike (Lucy Clarke): I liked the last Lucy Clarke book I read, but I really loved this one. It was a great, non-scary thriller about women taking a vacation together that goes horribly wrong. It was such a quick, engaging read, filled with great characters who felt so real.

What did you read last month?

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

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I recently heard about an app that sounds like a formalized version of old-school bulletin boards or blogs. You can search for health advice provided by experts and then expanded by people who have said health situation. So you get IVF advice from the doctor, and then people who are going through IVF can chime in and give experiential additions to the advice. (I don’t know if IVF is on there, but that’s the gist.)

So it already exists (combine your doctor’s advice or Mayo Clinic’s web page + blogs or answers on IVFC), but I still thought it was neatly packaged.

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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.

I have all of the old mixtapes that Josh and I made each other back at the beginning of our relationship. (Of course, I do. And I have VCR tapes, even though we have no way to play them.) I remember the anxiety I felt choosing songs: What they said about me, what messages he may glean from the lyrics, whether he’d like listening to the music while we took road trips.

One afternoon, I downloaded the songs from Apple Music and recreated the first two he made for me except for a few songs — A Juicy song called “Fuck You, I’m Cool” (which doesn’t even seem to be on the Internet at all) and a few Michelle Shocked tunes.

I meant to play them in the car when we drove back from dropping off the kids at college, but I was crying too hard and forgot the mixes existed until I saw them again on the phone days later. I guess I’ll save them for future road trips.

I’ve been quiet on social media — silent here about current events — because I don’t feel safe. I spent a short time on Facebook, reading the thoughts of people I thought of as friends, and I didn’t feel safe. I am grateful for Biden’s words, more grateful that he turned off comments so I could listen to him without subjecting myself to more hate, and I’ve removed myself from the online conversations. I am only holding them in real-time, offline, talking with friends and family.

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It’s Friday the 13th. I don’t know why I have a compulsion to always type that whenever the Roundup coincides with Friday the 13th. As you were.

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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:

• “Perfect Day to Say Goodbye” (Mrs. Spit… Still Spouting Off)
• “Gekommen und gegangen” (Elaine ohne Kind)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled has a Thanksgiving post (Canadian Thanksgiving!). After years when she couldn’t get together with family, she writes, “I’m grateful to be here. Grateful that our trip here went smoothly. Grateful that my parents (aged 82 and 84) are still hanging in there, and that I can spend some time with them.” The smallest things suddenly feel huge. And the feelings that come out of them are warm and squishy.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ has a post about being good with kids. I love reading as she unpacks her thoughts and finally comes to this realization: “Why should I feel that I need to prove anything, simply because I’ve suffered infertiity, or because I don’t have children? I don’t. Realising this today is liberating. I have nothing to prove.” Exactly.

The roundup to the Roundup: Hate gets me quiet. Friday the 13th. 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 October 6 – October 13) 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.

Having been on the Internet for a long time — like a long, long time (This blog is over 17 years old.) — I find it amusing when people discuss changes in Internet behaviour. Was social media more social in olden times? Sure – more people commented when they read on their computer instead of their mobile device. More people paused to answer questions on Facebook or retweet something they found amusing. Social media is definitely a little less social than before; we read more than we react.

But delurking week — that first week in January — has been around for 15+ years. We’ve been telling people that they’re not being social on social media since the beginning of social media. Things have changed fractionally. Social media was always more people reading than reacting because life offline was also more intaking than extending.

Think about how much information you gathered either through people telling you stories, or overhearing gossip, or reading it in the local paper. And then, think about how much outreach you did after taking in the information. Life isn’t quite as social as we think when you consider how many people observe, hear, and know something vs. reach out, ask, and take action.

Maybe it’s harder for new apps to catch on because we know exactly how things will be on the app before it begins because we’ve seen the trajectory before. It’s not the apps themselves, though certainly the easier you make it to use on the go, the more people will use it when they’re not really in a position to pause, reflect, and reach out.

For what it’s worth, it’s okay with me if you just want to read. If you saw I was upset about the twins, noted it, but had nothing you could add except a head nod I couldn’t see. I sensed the vibrations in the universe and appreciated them.