Kermit performs his hit sing-along with vocalist Jim James of My Morning Jacket and drummer Janet Weiss, formerly of Sleater-Kinney, at this year’s Newport Folk Festival.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic at That Artsy Reader Girl concerns cover redesigns, which mostly doesn’t interest me, unless it has to do with the Harry Potter series, in which case then I mostly just want to own them all, but will not because I do not possess Belle and the Beast’s library.

So instead today I thought I’d share ten of the books I’m reading off and on again because that’s how I roll right now:

1. There There by Tommy Orange: I don’t love short story collections or connected novels, but this book has been getting rave reviews, so I’m working on it.
2. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston: I left the First Son and His Royal Highness in the midst of enjoying their relationship, but I know things are about to get hard for them, so I’ve resisted picking it back up again because I just want to skip to the happy ending.
3. Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: This is the book I’m reading most right now and I’ll likely finish the last section tomorrow because I’m down to three or so chapters left. Then I just have to wait for them to write another book. This pair writes my favorite alternating POV stories and I cannot believe no one has made a movie/tv series of The Illuminae Files yet.
4. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid: I got this audiobook out on cd, which means it’s currently living on my laptop. I have 16 hours of train rides coming in the next week, though, so there’s every possibility I could put a good dent in finishing it.
5. Naughty on Ice by Maia Chance: I put this aside for deadline reading and just need to get back to it. There’s probably less than two hours of reading left before it’s done.
6. The Big Kahuna by Janet Evanovich and Peter Evanovich: My audiobook copy will likely expire tomorrow before I finish listening to it, although I’m going to go put another dent in what remains while I wash today’s dishes. I’ve got holds on it at all three libraries I belong to, though, so hope to get another copy before too long.
7. Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart: I only like to take books that belong to me to the pool and I recently picked this up at my local Little Free Library. I’m 50 pages in so far, which is probably about half of what I made it through when I started it four years ago.
8. Calamity at the Continental Club by Colleen J. Shogun: I made it two chapters into this locally set mystery this weekend, but I’m not sure I’ll make it another two. I’m giving it one more chapter before I make a final call about proceeding or not.
9. The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan: This companion novel to The Bookshop on the Corner expired before I had a chance to finish listening to it and I want to know what happens before our characters get to their happy endings. (Unlike Red, White, and Royal Blue, they have not yet reached a stage where everyone seems happy, so I am motivated to return to them sooner.)
10. Early Riser by Jasper Fforde: This is another novel that just needs me to sit down with it for ninety minutes to finish it off. Seriously, I just need to get it done.

How about you? Are you a one-book-at-a-time kind of person? Or do you have masses of books going at once strewn about your home?

Here are three shots from my weekend:

That last one is not quite as in focus as I’d have liked, but it does clearly point out that autumn is on its way, no matter how slowly!

Well, we’ll go swimmin’ every day.
No time to work, just time to play.
If your folks complain just say,
“It’s summertime!”

               ~Thomas Earl “Tom” Jameson of The Jamies (DJ — and later Red Sox p.a. announcer — Sherman Feller was given half of the songwriting credit per his management contract with the group.)

Rudi is off playing bicycles this weekend, leaving Corey and me home alone. Corey has informed me that while he is happy to curl up next to me at night and holler at me whenever I walk into the kitchen, probably that’s the extent of his weekend plans. I’m going to try not to make it the extent of mine.

Laundry mountain is no longer in danger of smothering me in my sleep, but probably could use further attention, particularly as I’m traveling later in the week and might like to take clean clothes. Likewise, the living room is in danger of being declared a natural disaster site and I should probably stop trying to address that by smothering it from above.

I had plans to watch Wonder Woman outdoors tonight, but the threat of thunderstorms caused them to call it early — a disappointment, since it ended up with clear skies, but understandable. Instead, I took myself to the library to collect my holds, to the garden to water, to the pool to swim, and then back home to watch the season finale of Agents of SHIELD.

I might try to get over to Virginia tomorrow night to watch Norma Rae outdoors if the weather holds and I can figure out the travel logistics with Metro and bikeshare. Or there’s also a free modern Carmen adaptation at the Kennedy Center tomorrow evening, should I want someplace less complicated to visit.

I have some job search stuff to take care of over the weekend, as always these days.

I’d like to spend some time reading and some time knitting. I need to remember to water my houseplants. And I’ll need milk at the farmers market. Rudi suggested that if there was a deal to be had on bulk tomatoes that he’d be willing to tackle turning them into sauce when he gets back to town.

And as sleep should also be something I tackle this weekend, I’ll bid you a good night!

If it’s Thursday, it’s time to think back on three beautiful things from my past week:

1. After biking back from an early morning jaunt to Virginia, I stopped in Georgetown for a bit. Their Business Improvement District, as with many neighborhoods’, has worked hard to reclaim public spaces and make them inviting. Today I noticed they’d recently added a porch-style swing to the seating along the walk by the canal. I sat there with a cup of tea, rocking slowly, watching the dragonflies and damselflies flit amongst the cattails and the water slowly meander over grasses toward the Potomac. (They’re currently overhauling the canal, so have let it go wild during the process.)

2. We got to the movies on Tuesday to catch Yesterday, about a 20-something singer of little success who, after awakening following a freak worldwide blackout and a subsequent accident to find that no one else remembers who the Beatles (among other things) were, proceeds to record the songs as his own. Himesh Patel as Jack Malik does a great job with the material and with portraying the stresses of both fraudulently representing someone else’s work as your own (Why did you write a song about the USSR, which dissolved before you were born, for instance), and of the changes to your life when you suddenly hit it big after years of getting by. The music is a standout, and Rudi and I were not the only ones to find ourselves singing along in the theater over the closing credits.

3. A neighbor on the next block had a large, diseased tree cut down last Friday. Normally, I wouldn’t say this was a positive thing, but the fact is that there was a large warren of rats living underneath its roots and I’m glad not to have to hot-foot it past in the dark any more. (Like any city girl, I can cope with rats on their own just fine — they’re way more scared of you and just want to get away — but saw way too many cartoons as a kid to be comfortable with them ganging up.)

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?