When He Was WIcked by Julia Quinn

I have really enjoyed the format of this series of linked romance novels that Netflix has made into a very popular Regency series. The formula is different each time and this one is a pretty classic love triangle. Francesca is the 6th Bridgerton child, and she was married to John, a man who lived a quiet life that she loved. Sadly, she lost her husband, the love of her life, after only two years of marriage. When her husband’s cousin, Michael, isolates himself in India, she feels as if she has nothing left. But Michael only left because he has a secret to hide: he’s been in love with Francesca from the first moment he saw her. As he returns to London, he must face his love for Francesca to find out once and for all if it could ever work, and if he’d ever not feel guilty about loving his dead cousin’s wife. Michael, who inherits John's title as well, does return to face the music, and it goes very much as you would expect. There is a lot more agency for Francesca than any of her sisters had an opportunity show their future husbands before they married--she has run her late husband's estates and they have thrived under her leadership--only Penelope, her sister-in-law, had a chance to shine her light before marriage and have a spouse who loved that about them. That is how you know this is a work of fiction, I am very sad to say. The American right in 2025 is populated by men who want women to shut up, stay home, and do as they say. Francesca is not that kind of woman.

The Gelman Collection, Museo de Arte Moderno de México, Mexico City

The Gelman Art Collection is take your breath away amazing to behold. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. More on this museum later, but man oh man this is worth the trip to see. Here is a bit about the reason it hasn’t been available for public viewing: For the first time in 20 years, the Gelman Collection, perhaps the best private collection of modern Mexican art, is on view at the Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM) in Mexico City. The 68 objects that make up the temporary exhibition have been locked away since the death of Natasha Gelman in 1998. In the intervening decades the collection has become the stuff of legend here in Mexico, with whispers of the murder in 2013 of the notary who witnessed Natasha’s contested will; suits and countersuits over the means by which an elderly and diminished Mrs Gelman came to leave her Riveras, Kahlos, Tamayos and Izquierdos to a relatively unknown curator in New York named Robert Littman; and the disappearance of a large group of pre-Columbian treasures from the Gelman apartment in New York, whereabouts still unknown.

We were lucky to see the Chester Dale Collection of largely Impressionist Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Diego Rivera painted his portrait as well) years ago and this gives me the same feeling of awe. The Gelman’s lived with these treasures.

The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty

This author has a number of books written that are well known, and I am not entirely sure why I chose this one as a starting point with her. The main character is a hypnotherapist named Ellen who has a bit of a sparse and unfulfilling dating life. She’s finally given in and decided to try internet dating and she finds Patrick. His first wife died of cancer years back, he has a son (she has some hesitation about parenthood and it turns out she likes it) and he seems almost perfect. Except for one thing. Patrick has stalker. A former live-in girlfriend, Saskia, who hasn’t been able to let go. She’s not violent, but she spends a lot of the time just in the background watching. So it is creepy, and I kept waiting for it to escalate, but that is not where this is going. There is alot to unpack here about what love and loss is, and while the whole stalking thing had me on the edge of my chair in a bad way, which detracted from my enjoyment--I am not into thrillers, even less so now than ever before--there is a lot of good material here. There is also, as a side note, a lot of good information about hypnosis. One of my favorite therapists has been doing additional training in it, and this book gets it right.

This Is A Gardening Show (2026)

These are six short segments on gardening and the natural world. They feature children, they could be watched with children, and the language is at a sixth grade level, and they are hosted by a comic (Zach Galifianakis) so they aim to not just educate but to also entertain. Each episode opens with intentionally silly interviews with elementary aged children, and after that, Galifianakis marches off to meet an expert. This is where the meat of the gardening information happens. He visits a sun-dappled tomato farm and learns about the types of tomatoes that are most likely to survive the climate crisis. He goes to an apple orchard and learns about how to grow and nurture apples. He meets a composting expert, who is filled with such joy about her job that it’s hard not to hang on her every word. There is a lot of How To and Why here, but hidden in plain sight is the warning. Time and time again, Galifianakis states that “the future is agrarian”, because humankind cannot possibly maintain its unsustainable march of consumption unless it learns to grow its own food. It’s clearly a cause he passionately believes in, but he knows how to force you to listen. You show them how much fun it is, and how rewarding it can be to eat things that you grew yourself. And he is not aiming it at adults--he is seducing the kids.

The Pelican Brief by John Grisham

I read this for a Goodreads challeng--I picked it because I had just read a trio of Grisham books that came much later than this one (which was written in the early 1990's) and enjoyed them. The thing I didn't expect was that I would find it so relevant to the politics of 2026. So much corruption, so much graft and so much doing whatever they want. The grifters and the murderers have close ties with the President. SOund familiar? Apparently it is not new--Grisham wrote the play book and others are following it. Here's what happens. One morning America learns two Supreme Court justices have been murdered the previous night. Justice Rosenberg and Justice Jensen are different--one is reliably liberal and you could see the conservative president replacing him with someone who would shift the balance of the court, but the other is not, he is more likely to lean right, and the question arises who would have killed both of them. Law professor Thomas Callahan is heartbroken, but his brilliant student Darby Shaw sees the whole situation as a big puzzle. She starts preparing a legal brief (later to be called the Pelican Brief and you'll find out why) trying to find out who was behind the murders. Someone has to get advantage out of the deaths, and she studied an enormous amount of cases before she untangled the web of who is to gain. Darby gives her legal brief to Thomas, who then gives it to his llife long FBI friend, who spreads it widely. But the bried ends up ruffling feathers, the president squashes the investigation, but after Thomas is killed and Darby is on the run. This is more thriller than legal thriller, but it is well written, keeps the momentum up to the end, and again, it seems all too plausible.

Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico

We had the taco omakase at Pujol, Chef/owner Enrique Olvera’s seminal dining room that has long stood as one of the country’s most famous addresses. This breezy, contemporary space is a constant hive of activity, thanks to the 95 elegant servers who circulate throughout the equallyelegant space. In the introduction we were asked about insects 🐜. Our neighbors said no, then, well if you can’t see them, maybe? No, he was quite clear, you can see them. We started and ended in the garden—which is brilliant from a table management focus but also it is such a pleasant spot.

A foodie friend asked:How did you enjoy? The restaurant creates a ton of buzz! I replied that we were glad we went but it a one and done for us. The food is impeccably prepared, some exceptional flavor bombs and like nothing we have had before. It is always a win when you have an experience like no other. It is next level, but next time? More taco stands, less fine dining

To Sir Phillip With Love by Julia Quinn

I am gradually working my way through the Bridgerton ouevre and this is Eloise's story--she is my favorite of the siblings (which is not so fair to Hyacinth and Gregory as they are just children in the Netflix adaptation that I have watched to date). She waves off all suitors and is settled into her role as a spinster at the ripe old age of 28, in part because her closest friend is in her shoes. Then suddenly that all changes when Penelope quite suddenly gets married, and to her brother Colin, no less. On top of that it is revealed that she has been Lady Whistledown the whole time, and lo and behold, it is done so masterfully that she is not shunned as a result. All of this is too much for Eloise, and when her distant cousin's widower starts up a correspondence, she dives in with both feet. A year into it he proposes that they marry, and quite uncharacteristically she steals away in the night and goes to check out Sir Phillip, the botanist. There is a little bit of the Beauty and the Beast about it--Phillip is handsome but brooding and gruff, and Eloise is enchanting. Phillip's first wife was not a love match and she died of melancholy, leaving young twin children to basically fend for themselves because their father is afraid to parent them. Shall we say that it all works out in the end, with an inevitable Bridgerton brother intervention and an equally inevitable happy ending.

Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)

It turns out that I am not much for spectagular CGI pomp and circumstance, and that I need less in the way of family dramas and more in the way of a story, even for a movie that is all about the visual. I read several reviews, and I can see that I am in the minority when it comes to this, and while I thought the first movie was good and also visually stunning, I am not one for dragging the story out, and there seemed to be a lot of that her. For example, while this is the final installment in a trilogy, it would surprise me not if there was another one in the works. So why did I even bother? That is an excellent question, and it is really a matter of filling out my bingo card--there were only four movies that were nominated for the 2026 Oscars that I had not seen (Cutting Though Rocks, Children No More, and THe Ugle Stepsister remain), and it was available on a long flight that got me to the table, and while I am not sorry I saw it, it probably deserved the win in Visual Effects (although a little sad about that), and no, I would not seek out another, but would probably watch if it were again nominated--which is how I ended up seeing the first two. My favorite for visual effects was Sinners, with The Lost Bus as my second choice. So in summary, if you like lush visuals with lots of action, this is a good one.

The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

This book has three perspectives--one is keeping true to the traditions of your culture as a way to re-anchor yourself, the second is incorporating American Indian values of respecting the earth, our only potential home, in the era of climate change butting heads with corporate greed, and the last is an interesting way to portray the effects of generational trauma. These elements weave together in the story of Rosalie Iron Wing, a Dakhóta woman whom we first meet during a major turning point in her life. Wilson, who is herself Dakhóta, composes a narrative that moves back and forth in time, filling in Rosalie’s backstory and family history. During these movements through time, we meet Marie Blackbird, Rosalie’s great-great-grandmother. Marie describes running from US Indian Agents who, among other things, took children away from their families and placed them in boarding schools to convert them to Christianity. Rosalie is, body and mind, a product of the transgressions and violations her family and the Dakhóta have endured, from the loss of their lands to the loss of their traditional food and their children. This book asserts that much of the past does not go away, but continues to exist in the present. It details the way history runs through the bloodstream, through the DNA, through the bones, through the water, and through the land, affecting every life that steps forward into the present. We primarily experience this idea through the eyes of the Dakhóta, but during one scene, Rosalie’s white husband, John, takes her to see a monument commemorating the Sioux Indian War of 1862, one of the many events that transformed and devastated Rosalie’s family—but also John’s family. I did not like the time travel in this, skipping between times throughout the book--I find it a little dizzying, especially when it is all over the place and not just two time periods, but overall would recommend.

Taquería El Jarocho, Mexico City, Mexico

This is a Michelin Bib Gourmand taqueria--where it is important to note that while they open at 9:30, they do not start serving off their more extensive menu until later in the morning. But you can always have tacos!

El Jarocho has eighty years of history backing it up, and has been run by three generations of the same family. It was originally a tortilleria, and they're known for their guisado-style tacos, offering a wide variety of proteins and vegetables stewed in a number of different ways. And don't skip their campechano taco with chopped steak and topped with crispy chicharron--that was Joel's favorite--mine was the mile verde tacos. Fresh tortillas are made in-house.