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.

Consider Yourself Kissed (Jessica Stanley): This book was so good that she made me want to go lock myself somewhere and do nothing else but read her book. The writing is gorgeous. The story is relatable. Every character is lovely (except her dad). This book is like getting a hug. Go read it. Immediately.

Skipshock (Caroline O’Donoghue): Do you recognize the author’s name? Did you read The Rachel Incident? Same author, compleeeeeeeeeeetely different book. But if you liked her writing in that, you may like it in this, which I’m declaring is the new Hunger Games. No, they’re not making kids fight to the death, but it’s that kind of world building that makes you lose yourself in the story. This is brilliant. And I can’t wait for part two.

10 Marchfield Square (Nicola Whyte): If you liked The Maid by Nita Prose, you may also like this book. They felt very similar. And sweet. It’s a cozy mystery that feels like it operates outside a time period, if that makes sense.

The Matchmaker (Aisha Saeed): I’ve known Aisha since the BlogHer years, so I was thrilled to hear that she had written a book for adults because she is known for her middle grade fiction. This book is wonderful. A cozy thriller – as in more than a cozy mystery but less scary than a thriller, so perfect beach read because you’ll keep wanting one more chapter to figure the whole thing out. Plus there’s a little romance in there and plenty of weddings. Loved this book.

Death at the White Hart (Chris Chibnall): A new book by the creator of the television show Broadchurch, that feels very… Broadchurch-y. I didn’t love it in the beginning, but I’m glad I stuck with it because I really loved it by the end. I hope this becomes a series.

What did you read last month?

It will come with zero surprise when I say that I worry about the future. (Unless, I guess, this is your first time reading my blog.) I worry about my future. I worry about the twins’ future. I worry about all 8 billion people on the planet, especially because I thought there were only 7 billion until I Googled that fact. I still remember when our minds were all blown because we hit 6 billion, and that wasn’t that long ago.

Anyway.

I am deeply curious about this upcoming book, Could Should Might Don’t, because it does not contain the word “will” in the title. As in, “AI will take our jobs.” A lot of my anxiety comes from believing the “will” repeated over and over again, about all possibilities. Maybe people think that it makes them sound more confident to put it in the definitive, but unless we are in control of the outcome (“I will walk out of the room if you don’t stop singing R.E.O. Speedwagon”), we should probably use “could” or “might.”

I’ve been trying to remember other times when the future felt so deeply uncertain and scary, including after 9-11, the 2008 financial crisis, and the 2016 election. While difficult times followed all of those events, things rarely turned out as predicted.

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

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Reading an Atlantic article about sludge (gift link) raised my blood pressure. I had the sensation of being on hold, waiting to speak to a representative so I could cross something off my to-do list. Reading about how creating frustration is part of the plan; it’s not a glitch or a problem with the system but it’s the system itself to make it as difficult as possible for you to take care of a problem made me want to quit society and move to an island inhabited only by sheep.

Someone should make a database of sludge-free companies with excellent customer service when there is a problem. So far, the only one I can think of is Chewy.

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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.

Clearly, AI is on my mind, so I clicked on a New York Times quiz (gift link) to see how well a person could identify AI-created video content.

I was terrible at this. The 3 I got correct, I got correct by guessing. And that guessing was based on how many AI or non-AI options came before it — as in, if there were just two AI-created videos in a row, surely this one must be non-AI… right?

I am curious to hear if you do better with this. I find the whole thing worrisome more than exciting.

Josh and I lean more towards brick-and-mortar shopping, but there are a few things we buy online, usually ordering more than we need at the moment, so we won’t have to place another order for a few months. Last week, we submitted two such orders from two different businesses, and both orders arrived with chunks missing from the sides of the products.

Before you ask, there were no marks on the shipping boxes. They arrived without a dent. But when I opened the two boxes, one item in each box had a U-shaped hole on the side. In one case, it was hair gel that was now coating everything else in the box. In the other case, it was guinea pig baby food, which was luckily dry but had spilled out of its packaging inside the box.

In both cases, the company sent a replacement. (Though the AI bot suggested that we send back the oozing hair gel until Josh requested to speak to a human that said, “Uh, no, please DON’T send that through the mail.)

I sense that this is our future. Instead of human hands placing items in the box or even a human looking into the box to make sure the robot hands didn’t puncture the items, we will now receive packages of oozing gel and spilled-out guinea pig baby food — all in the name of technology. And companies will find it cheaper to replace the wasted items instead of employing a human to make sure the machine can do what the machine promises to do.

Call me frustrated.

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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:

• “Gewappnet” (Elaine ohne Kind)

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ builds off Middle Girl’s idea that now is not the time for accomplishments. She explains: “There is so much I need to do, but at the moment, surviving with some sanity intact is about all I can manage. Remembering to breathe. Treading water. And that’s okay.” Accomplishments are relative.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled celebrated her 40th wedding anniversary. It’s an enormous accomplishment always — choosing one another year after year. Congratulations!

The roundup to the Roundup: I’m not ready for the robot overlords. 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 4 – 11) 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.