Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash

I love fall. To paraphrase a favorite literary heroine, I’m so glad I live in a world where there are autumns. My romantic, nostalgic, beauty-loving heart leans into this introspective turn of seasons. I savor every chance to get cozy with something soft, something warm, something tasty, and something good to read. All my favorite things.

Autumn seems an especially good season for casting down into my roots. Fulfilling a long-held dream, I’m finally delving into genealogy, exploring my family’s history and paying special attention to my mother’s line, of which we know so little. On Instagram, I’ve written a tiny bit about what I’m finding — or not, as the case may be. But the mystery of it is what keeps me engaged, and I am determined to unearth all I can about my people. Because, as they say, what is past is prologue.

Last month, on a fallishly rainy evening, I had the chance to travel to Browsers Bookshop in Olympia to see one of my favorite podcaster-bloggers, Anne Bogel, aka the Modern Mrs. Darcy. She signed her books for me (Reading People and I’d Rather Be Reading), and while I didn’t have the chance to snap a selfie with Anne, I did snap one with my daughter, who accompanied me.

As for books I’ve been reading, I dove into a few major titles this fall — books that have been winning the prizes and those everyone seems to be talking about. Among them were All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. While I certainly understand why they’ve won the awards and are the subject of the chatter, I found they weren’t so much my cup of tea. Oh well. On the plus side, the last book I read that I truly loved was Kate Morton’s The Lake House. It was my first Kate Morton novel, but fortunately for me, she has a lengthy backlist. I’ve already got two more of hers awaiting my attention on my TBR.

As already mentioned here on the blog, I’ve also been into audiobooks lately — big time, and I’m loving it. A couple of the more recent titles include A Man Called Ove and The Monuments Men. I tried The Brothers K, Born to Run, and The Turn of the Screw but abandoned these for one reason or another (too long, too gritty, and too dense, respectively). I’ve become a little addicted this medium for enjoying Agatha Christie mysteries, especially any narrated by either Emilia Fox or Hugh Fraser. These are short (8 hours or less) and consistently satisfying.

I’m also still doing a bit of running, trying to maintain, at least a little, the training I began last spring for my first half marathon with Team World Vision. I’m not running in such a big way these days, but I am enjoying an occasional 5k, such as this one with my favorite running buddy, i.e., my husband, for the Microsoft Walk-Run-Give campaign.

So that’s it for me. What are you into these autumn days?