We are bummed that Season 2 of White Lotus is over. If I step back and think about it, it’s 7 hours of entertainment. That is a lot of entertainment. But these short seasons mean you get to know the characters, and the story is done. Unlike seasons long ago, which were usually 22 episodes long, and we moaned when the show went on hiatus over the summer.

I love when you find the moments when many people watch the same thing simultaneously. It doesn’t happen very often, but when I posted my outlandish White Lotus finale predictions on Facebook — which were fantastically wrong and which I repeated up until the last few minutes of the episode — people jumped in with their own predictions. It was fun to talk about a cultural moment and know other people were thinking about it, too.

I wish that happened more often. Kind of impossible with this many streaming services.

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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:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

Dear John writes about daily life, including setting up for Christmas. This post stuck with me for the ending, noting how her grief has changed from something that made her cry daily to a quiet acknowledgment of what needs to happen next. This paragraph expands the title’s meaning, reminding anyone currently experiencing grief that stages happen, tiny doors open, and you’ll arrive somewhere else in time.

Finding a Different Path recounts several positive medical interactions when asked if she has kids. It’s good reading on how to respond when someone answers your question. I particularly loved this part of a response: “She is very happy, so I am very happy.”

Lastly, Family Building with a Twist has a story about the last full moon of the year. She writes: “Full moons are culminations, completions and endings and letting go, which all sounds quite appropriate for this time of year. And sometimes like holidays themselves, there is a feeling of bittersweetness about so much sturm and drang, preparation, giddiness, excitement, and then… it’s over.”  I love this whole post about how things change yet keep going round and round.

The roundup to the Roundup: None of my White Lotus predictions came true. 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 December 9 – 16) 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 November.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Benjamin Stevenson): The best way I can describe this book is an Australian Knives Out crossed with Anthony Horowitz’s The Word Is Murder series. He often breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the reader. I’d even go as far as to say it had the humour and cleverness of a Richard Osman book. I bought this because it sounded interesting, and I’m so glad I did because it was, in a word, brilliant. So much fun.

One of the Girls (Lucy Clarke): This is the type of book where you don’t remember any details two weeks later, but you have a lot of fun while you read it. A totally enjoyable fluffy thriller that made me want to go to Greece more than spend time with the characters. It moved very quickly, with short chapters to give plenty of stopping places.

The Other Side of Night (Adam Hamdy): This is a “just trust me” book. I cannot tell you anything without spoiling it, and it was one of the most moving, beautiful, amazing books I’ve ever read. I immediately ran out and bought it in hardback after reading it as an e-book. It is a map for grief, much like All Our Wrong Todays is a map for grief and love. I will re-read this book many times. I feel so happy this story exists in the world.

The Bullet That Missed (Richard Osman): Is there anything more enjoyable than a Richard Osman book? Probably not. Each one is better than the last. Richard Osman writes a perfect book. I bought this book without looking at the synopsis, positive I would love it. And I’ll do it again for the fourth book.

The Missing of Clairdelune (Christelle Dabos): The second book in the Mirror Visitor series. It continues to amaze me, and the second book was even better than the first. It ends on an absolute cliffhanger, so I immediately launched into the third book in the series. It’s billed as the French Harry Potter, by which people mean that it’s written by a French author and contains something akin to magic.

What did you read last month?

So we do this thing maybe one or two times per year — usually the last beach trip of summer and again in the fall. We ask the people at an ice cream store we like to deep freeze ice cream to take home. You have to put in the order at least 48 hours ahead of time, and I leave reminders for myself to do it two days before we leave for the trip.

We’ve been doing it for so long that I don’t remember how we even knew to ask. We must have been in conversation with the owner and mentioned how much the ice cream encapsulates our time at the beach, and they suggested that we bring some back with us. I’m certain the owner is the person who gave us the cooler we use to bring it home.

It’s still rock solid when we get it in the house, but a day or two in our freezer brings it back to normal freezer temperatures. And then we can eat ice cream for several more weeks while we’re home.

I was thinking about this because we’re at the end of our fall ice cream stash. It’s something nice I do for future Melissa. And she’s really grateful to past Melissa for thinking of doing this.

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 found this list of busy levels. According to the author, there are seven levels, though it feels a little top-heavy. Like you go from manageable to elements of drowning early on. You hit capacity in the middle and then spend the following three levels getting progressively frantic.

My work hours spill into life hours, but that happens before I get to crushing commitments. And I’ve never hit unsustainable if the definition is being unable to eat and having a to-do list changing hour by hour.

I seem to skip over cracks in the facade.

Anyway, what do you think? I found it a curious depiction of activity.

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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 that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

This article was very timely because I showed the ChickieNob my Goodreads 2022 challenge, and I’m behind last year’s final tally by about 20 books. It doesn’t feel like I’m reading less, and the books I’m currently reading may be longer than those I read last year. I won’t know the final page tally until Goodreads tells me at the end of the year. I felt weirdly embarrassed about it.

But this spoke to me:

There is something about churning through books that induces envy and even admiration, never more than at this time of year when piles of finished tomes are splashed across social media. Bragging rights seem to go to those who have read lots of books and read them quickly – how many times have you seen someone boast about finishing 10 books in a year? What about five? But there is power in reading slowly, something the Chinese-American author Yiyun Li tells her creative writing students at Princeton University.

I like the idea of spending extra time immersed in a world or living with the characters. I’ve also been rotating through multiple books, reading a few at a time, so I’m picking up what I’m in the mood for at the moment.

I may read fewer books this year, but I savour stories. It’s nice to be handed a reason.