This summer has been a whirlwind, as summers often are, this year made slightly more insane by trips to and from my parents' place in Maine, which means logging many hours in the car.

Thankfully, these are hours I don't regret because we've gotten memorable long summer weekends out of these trips, and Nora and Gabriel, thanks to my generous parents, have gotten a few full weeks in Maine and valuable time with their grandparents, even when I've had to come back home.

Adriana has become an expert road tripper along the way, although she's much more into frequent stops and much less into podcasts than I am.

We'll be headed back up this weekend for one more Maine adventure before we acknowledge some of the looming responsibilities ahead; school, a regular work schedule and not eating dessert every day (probably). There's a lot to think about in terms of scheduling and general logistics but I think that for this one last weekend I'm going to forget all that and concentrate on lobster and sitting poolside and trying to get my almost one-year-old into enticing interview radio shows as we cover all that familiar road once again.

As I mentioned when I listed my summer goals, the main thing with reading is that I used to do it all the time, but in recent years, I haven't done it as often as I'd like. People still think I do, asking me for book recommendations and recommending books to me, and I still list it as one of the top loves of my life, but in practice, I'm fading. And this summer I wanted to kick myself back into gear.

And I meant it. So, like I said, several weeks ago I picked up "TransAtlantic," - the book I have been reading for almost THE ENTIRETY of my youngest child's life - and decided it was time to re-engage. And guys, it was so good. It was getting even better than it had been. All the connections coming into place. All the character developments.

Then, one night when I was up at my family's place in Maine, I was nursing the baby one evening, got a little bored, and looked around for something - anything - within reach. That turned out to be the John Grisham novel, "The Confession," which, like all of his books, was immediately engaging and suspenseful, and I was hooked within minutes, tossing the beautiful "TransAtlantic" to the side, once again.

Then. A book club I'm part of decided we'd read the new Judy Blume novel "In the Unlikely Event," and so I sped-read that for the few days preceding the meeting.

And then also, J and I started watching the HBO documentary miniseries, "The Jinx." Have you guys seen that? Like, wait a second, his defense was that he chopped up that guy because he didn't want to alert anybody to his presence in Texas because he was being bullied by the law enforcement and media? And that was the easiest way to deal with that situation? Chop up a guy???

Anyway, point being, I'm not finishing books left and right, and I'm especially not finishing "TransAtlantic." But reading in general? Yes. Scouring the bookshelves for titles I can't wait to get my hands on? Yes! Thinking about buying other books, like Mindy Kaling's "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" because I am super into autobiographies by funny females, even though we have no space anywhere in this crowded house to put new books? That's right.

In other words: check.

Back and forth

Read: an update (actually, what will probably be one of a few updates)