March-April 2025 Top Ten

1.

NEW MUMFORD AND SONS ALBUM! This is not a drill. I’ve been listening to the new album, RUSHMERE, on repeat since it came out. It’s their first release in seven years.

2.

I’m really enjoying the album. It’s slow and thoughtful. This is my favorite song right now.

3.

We read Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by KJ Parker for book club in March. The book club was split on it, but I enjoyed it. It’s definitely got some unique elements.

4.

For April’s book club, we read Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky. It' was incredibly dull, but the content was pretty good. I wish I would have read it when I first started writing fiction, but it has some good practical reminders.

5.

I watched this video about cool trains in Japan.

6.

I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick to preview it for my six year old son. Some of the themes are a little heavy for him, but he loved looking at the photos (though some of them were a little intense).

7.

When I’m not listening to the Mumford and Sons album, I did listen to this a bit. It’s been perfect for the gray stormy days we’ve been having.

8.

Speaking of my kids, I read Raising Emotionally Strong Boys by David Thomas and Raising Worry-Free Girls by Sissy Goff. They were both super helpful and I’ll be returning to them often.

9.

I finally got to Billy Collins new poetry collection Water, Water. It was good, but it doesn’t beat his previous collection Sailing Alone Around the Room (which is a collection I recommend to people who say they don’t like poetry).

10.

I watched this video called Jazz for Cows, which is as good as it sounds. It feels like this is exactly what Youtube was made for.