Hello, my dears. Memorial Day weekend and none of us can get together properly. These are odd times, aren’t they? Regardless, our hearts are heavy for those we’ve lost, that’s for sure.

It’s been a rather odd week. I’m feeling the intense need to remove anything from my life that isn’t serving me, to only have things around me that are beautiful and happy: soft and elegant fabrics, flowers, happiness. A need to purge the old, to declutter and clean and renew. But I’m too tired to do it. It’s been the month of deadline and Zoom, and you know how tired that can make you.

So I’m reading, instead. Yes, you heard me right. After last weekend’s debacle, I was finally able to let some of the chaos go and snuggle up with a good book. Or three. I read Hank Phillipi Ryan’s new one THE FIRST TO LIE, coming this summer, I read Julia Alvarez’s AFTERLIFE, a lovely, thoughtful elegy on grief and growth, and am well into Erik Larsen’s THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE (which is a masterpiece).  And I watched the entire Harry Potter series, and am listening to DRAGONFLY IN AMBER. And I’ve done the edges of a puzzle my BFF Laura Benedict sent me. (Um…puzzles are harder than I remember…)

It’s felt good to relax into story to address my lassitude this week, for sure. May is nearly over, and with it, many of my obligations. I have a month ahead of me that all I have to do is... well, edits and edits and a few online commitments, but it’s not nearly as busy as May, trust me. And that means... I’m going to take a sabbatical. Not right this moment, I think I’ll start the second week of June, when all my obligations are complete.

I missed my annual sabbatical this year because of COVID, and it feels rather odd to be planning to take one when that’s really the only way to communicate with so many of you, but I know you’ll forgive me a few weeks off. I’m going to crawl in a hole with the husband and the cats and exist for a little while.

I have been saving so many books for this moment. My TBR has grown so out of control! I really need to prune it back. Planning what to pleasure read isn’t my strong suit. I go with whatever strikes me at the moment. I have a couple of books that I agreed to blurb ages ago, and once they’re done, I have to decide where to go next. BEACH READ is definitely high on my list, as is CHOSEN ONES, STRAY, PRETTY THINGS, THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN, THE WIFE STALKER...

Well, that’s not such a bad list to start thinking about...

And what a wonderful problem to have! I do so appreciate all your thoughtful responses to last week’s yawp about not being able to relax enough to read. Granted, I finished a book and knocked 10 more things off my To Do list, but I think I needed to hear that it’s okay to chill out a bit. So thank you, friends. You really do feed my soul.

As ever, onward...

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That’s it from me. Have a lovely Memorial Day weekend, and I’ll see you next week!

Peace and hugs,
J.T.