Spring Vibes

Some travel notes, spring reading ideas, and recent reads.

Some popular books with their Greek covers. Recognize any?

We loved Tiki boat ride in Thessaloniki - it is free, you just have to buy a drink!

Highly recommend Naousa, Paros.

A brief newsletter this month because I just returned from a wonderful trip to Greece with my family. My youngest has been studying abroad in Thessaloniki since January. We took our other two daughters with us to meet up with her and get a glimpse of a country none of us had ever visited. We all absolutely loved it - the food, the history, the beauty! We ended up taking eight flights on this trip, some long and some very short, but this gave me a lot of reading time. I will never stop enjoying sitting on airplanes and reading. Two standouts were Annie Hartnet’s new family road trip novel The Road to Tender Hearts and a beautiful epistolary novel The Correspondent (both out April 29th.)

If you are taking any trips this summer or fall, now is the time to plan out any reading you want to do around your travels. I recently came across A Well -Read Wanderer for travel-related book recommendations and of course, I always check The Strong Sense of Place podcast and website.

Seasonal Reading

Did I mention my sister and I are reading books that are anchored in the seasons this year? We found it surprisingly hard to find spring-adjacent books. We both enjoyed Sinister Spring, an excellent Agatha Christie short story collection, but other than the gorgeous cover, it did not feel that “springy.” If you are looking for a delightful spring read, it pays to stay with the classics. Here are four books that continue to delight over time:

1. Enchanted April - witty and fun, set in a Tuscan villa in April

2. The Secret Garden - beautiful prose for any age

3. I Capture the Castle - an epistolary novel that begins in March

4. A Room With a View - a pair of Englishwomen tour Italy one spring/summer

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I went down a rabbit hole on Etsy looking at paint by number kits featuring books and reading. There are so many, I had no idea this was even a thing. Here are a few favorites:

Bookish Links

• Another great deep dive into publishing by The Guardian. The article tackles the glut of books being published annually, the role of self-publishing in the industry, and record low earnings for authors.

• Here are some action steps to protect the effort to defund our libraries.

• Did you hear about the new Hunger Games book? Sunrise on the Reaping is a prequel and tells the origin story of Haymitch Abernathy. I tore through this book, but have mixed feelings overall. I am not going to write a review here but found this article helpful in providing some context and background. Note: there are spoilers.

• Favorite non-bookish hack of 2025: Store ripe avocados submerged in water in your refrigerator. They will last so long! My sources: Southern Living and, of course, Instagram. I buy the bags of mini-avocados at Trader Joes and they always seem to ripen all at once. This is a game changer. (It’s the little things in life that bring joy.)

Recent Reads

A back list mystery and two terrific non-fiction picks!

About seven years ago I read a mystery called Missing, Presumed. I don’t remember much of the plot but I do remember it was nuanced, the characters were well developed, and everyone who read this book also really enjoyed it. I recently discovered that there are three books in the series. I just finished the second, Persons Unknown, which is also excellent. This story hits close to home for our main protagonist Manon Bradshaw. A former lead investigator, Manon has now taken a desk job; she is well into a pregnancy and is also parenting an adopted teen (from the first book). Though things look fine on the surface, Manon is full of doubt about both her parenting skills and career prospects. When a man is murdered in a park near her home and her son becomes the main suspect, Manon inserts herself into the case. There are some other perspectives included in the novel and the multiple storylines come together well. I appreciate that the ending is not neat and tidy and the author is willing to let the reader navigate that. If you need a great back list mystery series, I highly recommend Susie Steiner’s Manon Bradshaw Series. [Published: 3/18; Pages: 352]

The Unclaimed is one of the most absorbing and well researched nonfiction books I have read in a while. The authors examine the issue of unclaimed bodies and how a growing number of people end up cremated and dumped in mass municipal graves. While this book could have stayed general and nonspecific, they focus on three people who end up at the Los Angeles Crematory in Boyle Heights. While this book is set in Los Angeles, the issues they are exploring are those faced by many communities today. What happens when someone dies and they either don’t have family to bury them, or the family is uninterested or unable to claim the body?

I love a book that can make me look deeper at the human experience and how we treat people in society. How we treat our dead is certainly an indicator of how we are doing. The writers weave policy and details about governmental bureaucracy in with the personal stories of both the decedents, their friends and family, and people who feel called to honor the unclaimed. I don’t know how this book got put on my radar but it was fascinating and well worth my time. [Published: 3/24; Pages: 336]

I wasn’t really interested in reading this book but at the prompting of one of my coworkers, I decided to try it. Wow, I am so glad I did. Everything is Tuberculosis is fascinating. Green takes on a huge subject I knew very little about. I thought of tuberculosis (TB) as something people died of in the 1800s or early 1900s. I imagined people laying in their bed wasting away and sanatoriums for people to rest and breathe fresh air. I had zero idea that TB is currently the leading cause of death from a single infectious disease worldwide. And John Green does something that is always so smart when tackling a big issue, he focuses on the small. He makes you care about an individual and that individual’s name is Henry. While sharing Henry’s journey, Green covers the past, current, and future of TB. He examines how TB has been portrayed and treated in both Western and developing countries. I will note, he does not go too deeply into the weeds regarding anything technical or scientific. While some people may fault him for this, I think it makes the book more approachable for a wider audience. I highly recommend this phenomenal book. It will expand your view of medical care in the world and possibly make you care about something you know too much about before. Thanks John Green. [Published: 3/25; Pages: 206]