The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck

The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck (1976) was published posthumously. 

Like the rest of the Steinbeck audio pieces, I was able to increase to 1.20 which brought the very slow pace up to normal. 

I expected to love this book. I absolutely did not. 

In fact, I did not finish it. 

I listened to the first 3.5 hours and then stopped. 

I returned my copy to Audible for a credit refund. 

What I do love, on this same subject, is Mary Stewart’s collection. 

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

Note - in my summer of 2025 Steinbeck project, I am skipping The Gift. I marked off a short story already included in one of the collections I read.   Zapata is not available in audio. I, still, do not plan to read his nonfiction nor the rest of his short stories. 

Two more fiction novels to go! 

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck (1935) is very much in the same vein as The Cannery Row duo. 

Like the rest of the Steinbeck audio pieces, I was able to increase to 1.20 which brought the very slow pace up to normal. This helps immensely. 

I enjoyed the characters and the stories. 

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

Note - I am skipping The Gift. I marked off a short story already included in one of the collections I read. Three more fiction novels to go!  I, still, do not plan to read his nonfiction.

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (2024) was an elective read for me. I suspect I heard this title via Nicole Reed on Reeding Between the Lines podcast.

I was on the waiting list on Libby for quite a while, this book must be popular.

I enjoyed it. I thought it was clever. 

Lots of characters! Multiple timelines!  But I had no trouble keeping it all straight, I did not need a character nor notes.

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

Three tree stumps

Our next door neighbors had tree work done recently. Four trees were removed. Three of these were in danger of falling on their house. One was an eyesore. 

A tree guy ground down all their stumps. He did a beautiful job, cannot tell their trees were ever there. 

He ground down three stumps in our front wooded area too. 

Two of these stumps were a bit of a challenge. Our high school helper snd my husband had tried to dig them out, no luck. The lawn guys had tried to pry them out with machinery, no luck. This guy cut them out with a very strong round blade that goes down into the dirt. 

He did our yard on a day he was already coming to the neighbors. I paid him cash. I saved his name and number. 

Re-reseeding.

 July 25, 2025

Our front lawn was very uneven, I was afraid of falling or twisting an ankle. 

A crew came in and leveled the front yard, it took a full truck load of dirt. 

This (below) is what the yard looked like at the end of that day, leveled, seeded and strawed. 

My husband watered while I was gone. 

The backyard did well. I posted photos 8/7/25. 

The front yard did not do as well. 

Very little grass came in, and the weeds multiplied hugely because of all the watering. 

Sorry no weed picture. 

I checked with the yard guy who had leveled and seeded. And he said NOT to spray the weeds in such close proximity to the new grass. 

I realize the error of my ways. We had done no lawn treatments, spring 2025, because we were not sure when the yard guys were coming. I should have made them give me a date. I should have found out how to get rid of every weed before we seeded/watered. 

8/10/25

On this day, my husband and I pulled masses of weeds, stretching from the sidewalk to the middle of the yard. I pulled by hand, he used a three pronged rake. It was quite the job. We got 95% of the weeds removed. 

He raked up the old straw, there wasn’t much, you can see the small piles on the driveway. All the old straw was reused.

He mowed around the edges. 

This was all prep work for re-reseeding. 

This photo is the front area stripped bare. 

8/10/25

This second photo, below, is the area deweeded, reseeded and restrawed. All the seeded areas are where the dirt was filled in to even out the low spots. There were a lot of them.

My husband also overseeded the backyard on 8/10/25. He scattered grass seed among the baby grass. He reseeded/strawed all the bare spots. 

I helped where I could, but stayed away from the grass seed and straw, this is the time of year when my respiratory system is the most vulnerable. 

My husband was out working in the yard the entire day. And then he watered. 

I am on watering duty this week. All the hoses and sprinklers are in place. I just have to turn things on and off. We water at least twice a day. 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021) was on two of my “To Read” lists. 

This title was on Youngest’s 2024 book group list. She had read and recommended it to her group. It was their backup book last year. They did not read it as a group. 

It is also an assigned book for one of my book groups. My group meets in a few weeks.

Unusual for me, I started this book well in advance of my group’s meeting date. I knew starting early meant I would need to listen to the SuperSummary review just before my meeting. I am fine with that.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, in audio format, appears to only be available (in English) on Audible. It was not on Libby in audio/English, only Spanish and ebook. My husband is listening to it also, so it was a happy/willing Audible purchase. 

I was able to listen to Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir at 1.2 speed. Normal speed was too slow. 1.2 sounded normal. 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is an excellent book. Extremely well written, well edited, well read/recorded/audio, and very creative. 

The story is linear, with *flashbacks. 

*I took my time. I did not rush. I had to pay closer attention than usual as I listened. In audio format, the flashbacks were a bit sudden, not much pause between sections. 

There are very few characters. There is a clear main character who I liked. 

Project Hail Mary is science fiction with lots of science and math, but it is all very easy to understand. The science did not bother me at all, I took it in stride. I just let it flow over me. 

I did not stop to look up anything. I did not call youngest for explanations. 

Youngest read all three Weir books in paper form and loved them. She is a chemical engineer. Andy Weir is not an engineer. He is not even a college graduate. (This is surprising.)

But in Youngest’s opinion, the science/math/fact BASE is fairly correct in these books, then stretched/expanded to a science fiction level to tell the stories. Skill. 

It will be interesting to see what the rest of my group thinks. (I have some level of an engineering brain.)

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin (2023) is a recent book group assignment. This is the group middle and I attend together. 

This nonfiction audio book is read by the author, who did a good job writing and reading.

I enjoyed the book. Middle liked it too. 

This memoir is based in Detroit, Michigan. I am in Indiana and have been to Detroit several times. I also watched Rehab Addict with Nicole Curtis. So I could identify, a tiny bit, with the Detroit location. 

Middle’s best friend, from college, has a husband who grew up in Chinatown in Chicago. His parents owned a prominent business in their community. While far removed from me, that felt a tiny bit relatable as I read.

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

Grass seed progress, backyard

The landscape guys were here on 7/24/25 grading and seeding the backyard. 

I took these photos (below) today, showing the backyard progress. 

The utility box cover/planter is in each photo for reference.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal (2015) is my third read by this author. To the best of my knowledge I have now read all of his books (3).

I read these books out of order. The middle book was assigned for one of my book groups. Then I read the latest. I read the original/first book last. 

All three books had strong female characters and a good female “voice”. These were written by a male author.

This book, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, had none of the confusion of the first two books. There were a lot of characters, but they were clear and wrapped up by the end. Thank heavens, the timeline was much more linear, so the book was not confusing.

I enjoyed it. I recommended it to my husband.

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

J. Ryan Stradal was not listed on my normal website https://www.bookseriesinorder.com

I think these are all his books -

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books in April 2023

The Lager Queen of Minnesota, published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books in July 2019.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest, published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books in July 2015.

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal (2023) is my second read by this author. 

The first, The Lager Queen of Minnesota, was a book group assignment. My group liked this book. I liked this book. But those of us that listened, found character and timeline switches were confusing in audio format.

I started Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal on a long flight with patchy WiFi. 

The character and timeline changes were very confusing on this second title too. I very much needed a character list, but could not get one because of the poor inflight WiFi.

At my connection, I compiled a list. 

Here are the characters with no spoilers -

Betty:
The matriarch of the family, known for her ability to find the good in difficult situations. 

Florence:
Betty's daughter, who initially struggles with her mother's optimism and later navigates her own challenges with her daughter Mariel. 

Mariel:
Florence's daughter, who grapples with her complicated relationship with her mother. 

Julia:
Mariel's daughter.

In summary - I liked this book very much, but it was confusing in the beginning. Once I got into it and had good WiFi to get a character list, it was much better.

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

J. Ryan Stradal was not listed on my normal website https://www.bookseriesinorder.com

I think these are all his books -

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books in April 2023

The Lager Queen of Minnesota, published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books in July 2019.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest, published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books in July 2015.

StoryGraph charts for July 2025

All my reads for July 2025 were in English, Audio format.

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal (2019) was a book group assignment for me. I had not previously heard of the book or the author. 

I was very happy reading this book. The writing style and the characters reminded me of Elizabeth Strout in many ways, writing about regular people. 

There are three main characters and the chapters alternate between them. For some reason, it took me a minute to understand for the first couple switches. I am not sure if it was the writing or my brain. I quickly got into the swing of it. (Discussing this at my book group, we think the lack of chapter definition was an audio format problem.)

It was interesting to me that the author is male, the main characters are all women. He has a good female perspective/voice. (Others also commented on this at my group.)

I was able to increase the speed to 1.25 which helped move things along time wise. I like that feature with audio books. 

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

J. Ryan Stradal was not listed on my normal website https://www.bookseriesinorder.com

I think these are all his books -

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books in April 2023

The Lager Queen of Minnesota, published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books in July 2019.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest, published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books in July 2015.

Would I read the other two? Yes. I just checked out both of them on Libby. 

The curve of the large front wooded area, closest to the house

We have been working on the front wooded area at our house. This has been a two year process. It continues. Today’s post covers where I am to date.

Last year/2024, we (my husband and I) removed nine small trees from the front woods. Our next door neighbor, with the barking dogs, does not like anything hanging over the property line or near his house. And last year, I also cleaned up the edge of the ivy/lily of the valley, it was marching toward the barking dogs neighbor’s driveway.

I took these photos, late June 2025, showing the status of the front wooded area, the curve closest to our house. 

I took these photos on the day the high school boy was coming to help my husband remove the honeysuckle and one more small tree.

In June 2025 we also dug up tree starts from all over this wooded area. I think we removed about 70 tree starts. If you have a woods, tree starts are a natural thing. They have wooden stems and are anchored very firmly. It takes two people, one digs, one pulls. I dug 40-50 small ones, my husband pulled. Then the high school boy and my husband dug/pulled the rest that were bigger. They also dug grass patches that had started. Grass is a terrible problem if it gets started on the wrong place.

July 2025 my husband and I aggressively weeded the curved edge of the wooded area closest to the house.

We moved a few plants. He mulched. The definition of the curve is now lovely. I have more to do with the plants on the far corner. 

Next a lawn crew came and evened out our front yard. Years of tree roots had caused major lumps, bumps and holes. I was terrified of falling or twisting an ankle. They added a lot of dirt. They seeded. 

 

More photos to come, in another month or so, more work is coming to this area. 

What’s blooming