What We're Reading, Listening to, and Watching This Week (9/13/2026)
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: The Court of Venus by Bel Banta. I look forward every evening to curling up in bed with this romantasy about two magicians with different skills, too many secrets, and undeniable chemistry. Finding themselves in danger, they form an alliance to figure out how to survive in a treacherous court. I’m pretty sure they’re going to make it.
Listening: As the days of roaring lawn equipment draw to a close, I’m savoring the quiet.
Watching: Reruns of The Great British Baking Show and the newest season of The Four Seasons.
Candice Huber / Membership:
Reading: I've been loving The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee. So far, I'm about halfway done, and it caught my attention immediately and has held it firmly. Lee is one of my favorite authors, and I can't wait to see how this story turns out!
-BER Months Plans: We are halfway through the first -BER month, and I have made myself a junk journal for the fall. This means that I took things like packing paper, junk mail envelopes, paper bags, scrapbook paper, and old magazines and made a journal out of it. I'm going to use the journal for keepsakes, thoughts, plans, and dreams for the Fall.
Cat Update: I think I've mentioned before that we are teaching our cats how to "talk" using buttons. It's been a really interesting journey so far! Mainly, our cat Evie uses various buttons for attention. "Play," "pets," and "now" all basically mean "play now" or "give me pets and then play now." She also hits the "all done" button to try to get us to stop what we're doing and pay attention to her. Recently, she hit the "help" button and I tried to figure out what she wanted. Turns out, she wanted me to open the window for her! She indeed needed help. It's exciting to see her using her words, and I can't wait to add more to her vocabulary!
Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: An Arrow in Flight by Mary Lavin, White Moss by Anna Nergaki, I finished Hauser's book Penelope's Bones, which was interesting if a little effusive for me. I would have preferred more dry facts and less imaginative reconstruction, although I think her picture of the lives of women in the era of the Trojan War is compelling. I adhere to what the historian Ann Wroe in her book A Fool and His Money calls "the careful use of imagination": "There remains what might be called the careful use of imagination. We are dealing in fact, not fiction; so there is much we can never reconstruct, including what the characters looked like, precisely how they dressed, how most of them talked, the rooms they lived in, their private thoughts. All this must remain unknown. Yet it is no offense to historical truth to describe such things as the blossoming of a pear tree, the stench of rotting meat, the heft of a building stone, or the breathlessness of a running man, if these things (as they do) come into the evidence," Hauser, who builds her image of the time on the foundation of the Iliad, leans a little too far away from "fact." Hers is a vivid picture of a complex, nuanced age, however. I won't forget it.
Listening:Gaining Ground by Joan Barfoot, I Made You Up Inside My Head by Marta Pérez-Carbonell.
Watching:Not much. It is the end of baseball season and the beginning of football season. Mom and dad are both fans of the Yankees and the Buffalo Bills. Me? I'm warming up to it all. I like watching Cody Bellinger's fielding. But mostly I find the games nice background noise for working.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: My daughter recently asked whether I wanted a book she'd found at an estate sale about the enormously influential American artist and collector Betty Parsons. I immediately responded, "How dare you! You know I just packed and unpacked all my books! I don't need any more! I'll pay you to overnight it."
Listening: A playlist someone made for me called "Clutter With a Purpose."
Watching: Ted Lasso, but I keep falling asleep, so it takes me about three days to watch a whole episode.
Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I am in the middle of about five books right now, between digital and paper copies. I have too many things I want to read!
Listening: London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe. His stuff is always so good.
Watching: I'm ashamed to say that I watched the entirety of the new season of Mormon Wives. I have regrets.