What we’re reading: Spring 2013 edition

May 13, 2013

It’s been too long since a reading update! As always, I’d love to know what you’re all reading as well.

What I’m reading: Lately, I’ve had a terrible habit of starting new books before finishing the last, so I read the following simultaneously:

Heads in Beds is written by a long-time employee in the hotel and tourism service industry, and is funny, entertaining, and educational. Give it a read if you’re in the travel business, but also if you just stay in a lot of hotels, or just want to learn how to eat everything in the minibar and not pay for a thing (yes, really).

One Tough Mother is the memoir of Gert Boyle, long-time president and now chairman of Columbia Sportswear. Her story, which starts with fleeing Germany in the 1930s, is fascinating and inspiring, plus she’s just damn funny. It’s a great read from a business point-of-view, but just as valuable if you want a few tips on how to achieve a well-lived life.

What the kids are reading:

Nate (13) is reading Ann Brashares’s My Name is Memory. She’s best-known for her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, but this is one of her grown-up offerings, and I loved it so much I pushed it on Nate. Thankfully, he’s liking it, too. It’s a poignant story of what the world would look like to someone who lives multiple lives over centuries of world history. It offers a unique world perspective, and is by turns remarkable, sad, desperate, and beautiful. The ending is, in my opinion, odd, so if anyone else has read, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Calvin (age 11) is reading The Maze Runner, which is a recommendation we’ve offered before, when Nate read it in middle school. Is Calvin, in 6th grade, ready for this book? It’s debatable, but he’s burned through all of the 6th grade recommended offerings, leaving him nowhere to go but up (and to more mature topics).

After watching Titanic for Retro Family Movie Night, Toby’s been obsessed with the event. (Not sure this is healthy, but what can you do?) He’s reading through Gordon Korman’s Titanic series for kids, and peppering us with Titanic facts as he goes.

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Happy Mother’s Day

May 10, 2013

to the mother of my mother. Without you (and the father of my mother, too), I wouldn’t be the lucky daughter I am, nor the fun, smart, loving, and wise parent I strive to be.

We miss you this Mother’s Day and every day.

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Brick by brick

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Record keeper

Sitting on the bottom shelf of the dining room bookcase are a row of fat, canvas-covered photo albums. They start at Nate’s birth, and dutifully carry on year after year, a line of brightly colored soldiers of family history. Some years, they’re scrapbooked meticulously. Others, they’re generated digitally from Kodak or Shutterfly. The most recent [...]

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