April in National Poetry Month, so for today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic, I’m going to do a poetic twist on That Artsy Reader Girl’s choice of “top ten books you’d be a fool not to read” and shout out novels in verse and books of poetry:

1. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds: Reynolds does a flawless job in this novel in verse (written for young adults, but which everyone should read) of composing the narrative between our protagonist, a teen in an elevator out to avenge his brother’s death, and all the people he’s known who’ve been shot.
2. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse: A work of historical fiction, this novel in verse focuses on a teen who was injured in the fire that killed her mother, who is grieving at the same time as the Oklahoma prairie on which she lives is dying from Dust Bowl storms.
3. Me: Moth by Amber McBride: A teen whose family was killed in a car crash and the abused boy next door embark upon a desperate roadtrip and, as with most literary roadtrips, find out more about themselves and each other than they expected to.
4. Booked by Kwame Brown: As with Long Way Down, this is one of those books I point to where the form allows you to things you might not be able to in prose. In this case, it’s a boy who loves soccer and coming to love books and whose narration mimics the tempo of a soccer match.
5. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson: In this memoir in verse, Woodson looks back on a childhood spent in New York City and South Carolina in the 1960s and ’70s and aspiring to be a writer.
6. If God Invented Baseball: Poems by E. Ethelbert Miller: A local poet and journalist of renown, Miller infuses these poems with his love of the game.
7. Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter: An homage to the Emily Dickinson poem, but with a twist, since it is not hope that perches in this family’s souls, but grief. And quite literally moves into their London flat, when a six-foot-tall crow shows up at the door to greet a poetry scholar and his two young sons in the quiet after everyone has left following the funeral of his wife/their mother.
8. Honest Engine by Kyle Dargan: Another D.C. poet, whose collection of poems runs the gamut from the State of the Union to sleep deprivation to a dozen or so poems about loved ones gone from this earth, with a surprising amount of science fiction fandom thrown in for good measure.
9. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan: On the first day of 5th grade, a teacher informs her students they’re going to write a poem every day in class. The novel shares a selection from each of the 18 students over the course of a tumultuous year of change and activism. Magnificently, Shovan succeeds in giving each kid enough of a distinct voice that you get so you can recognize a poem’s author without checking first.
10. The Complete Poems: 1927–1979 by Elizabeth Bishop: I would be remiss if I didn’t include the collected works by Bishop, one of my very favorite poets. Bishop loves to play with words and with traditional poetic forms. You probably read “One Art” long ago back in school. It’s worth revisiting now that you’re older, as are many of her other poems.

How about you? Do you have favorite poetry collections or novels in verse you’d recommend?

Apologies for disappearing. I was packing Wednesday for a trip to a funeral when I heard from Rudi that he’d broken his arm on a ski vacation and needed outpatient surgery. Honestly, while I knew what I wanted to write (and packed my laptop so I could do so), I just lacked the mental energy to get it done until I returned home tonight.

But the cats and I are reunited! Rudi is recovering and generally is in decent spirits! And I got to see my folks and my bff and some extended family!

So, to get us back on track, here are three beautiful things from before this past Friday:

1. While I was away for peak bloom, I still got myself down to the Potomac and to the Tidal Basin for just-prior-to-peak cherry blossoms. Lovely, as always. (It’s one of the things here that always lives up to the hype, even if I don’t always choose to brave the tourists down by the water.

2. Last Saturday, I had set up my volleyball net down on the Mall and about 10 of us were playing when we watched a mounted park police officer pass by. We noted it as unusual, but resumed play for a bit, but then I realized the officer had brought his golden-maned horse right up alongside the court. Honestly, I was expecting him to chase us away because we lacked a permit (technically you need one for any activity attracting 10 people or more), but he just said, “I think this is the first time my horse has seen a volleyball.” Clearly, everyone rushed over to pet the horse and then we had to wait a bit for the crowd that had gathered on & adjacent to the court to shift. Then, the officer asked us to gently hit a ball over the net so he could see if his horse reacted. “A helicopter could land 50 feet from here, and he wouldn’t blink. But if there’s a fire, he’s bolting. So it’s good to see how he responds.” The horse was fine with the ball, but failed to return it over the net.

3. A creatives networking group Rudi and I belong to usually holds its meetings early on Friday mornings, so I haven’t attended many recently. But they generally hold their anniversary celebrations in the evenings, and this year Rudi and I were both in town. We metro’ed over to the newish Latin American food hall, La Cosecha, ate some tasty Salvadoran papusas, and got to see an art show for free. It made for a very nice date night.

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

I read four books in February, three audiobooks and one in print:

A December to Remember by Jenny Bayliss

Eccentric curios shop dealer Augustus North of Rowan Thorp has died and left his three daughters an unusual bequest: They inherit his estate only if they complete two tasks as a unit. The three estranged women are unhappy about the plan, but each of them needs the money selling the property will bring. (more…)

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Wednesday was a gorgeously warm day, so I spent a good portion of the afternoon and evening outside. As I was talking with my mom on the phone, I caught the reflection of the sunset and moved to get a better angle. Wow!

2. Usually dinners when Rudi is away are a pretty hit-or-miss affair. Sometimes leftovers, sometimes bowls of cereal, and occasionally something easy I can cobble together on my own. Last Sunday’s fell into the latter category, but was a fresh baguette, microwavable fondue we bought earlier in the winter for just this occasion, and a glass (in a real wine glass!) of sparkling cider that’s been sitting unopened in the fridge for months.

3. Mulch is one of those scents, like fallen ginkgo fruit, that is mostly unpleasant. But it’s also so specifically of a moment in time that when I smell it, I’m immediately moved. Workers have been redoing beds all over the region this week in the lead-up to the warmer weather and cherry blossom crowds, and it’s hard to walk for far without the pointed odor of worked tree and planter boxes and front landscaping poking your brain and reminding you that spring is here.

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

So far, I have only read one of the books on my winter TBR list, despite the fact that I finished my 14th book of the year yesterday. I do not think I can read the other nine before spring arrives on Thursday, but I may sneak one more in. (I pulled several of them out so they’re in front of me to aid in that process.)

But, that said, I’m still going to make a list for spring that maybe I’ll ignore and maybe I’ll get to. But either way, what is a TBR list for but to strive to get to everything we want to read someday? Who’s to say it won’t be the coming season?

Here are ten of the books I hope to read before summer’s arrival, some of which I own and some of which will be library borrows:

1. Linda Holmes’ Back After This
2. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
3. Grace Lin’s The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon
4. Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey
5. A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
6. The Stargazers by Harriet Evans
7. Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
8. Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance
9. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
10. Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge

What’s on your seasonal reading plan for the next few months? Lighter, fluffier fare to fit into the smaller moments between being out and about? Or now that the weather is getting warmer, are you feeling like you can tackle some weightier tomes?

You can see what else folks have queued up at That Artsy Reader Girl.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Saturday was too windy to play volleyball outside, but that meant I had time to check out a new-to-me bakery (excellent croissant, mediocre chai) and have Rachel come over for a cuppa and to pick up the tea she had included with our annual order.

2. This week’s floral bounty included the magnolias and the first hyacinths.

3. This week’s lunar eclipse was kind of a dud with low clouds appearing just at totality, but there were some lovely sunsets to make up for it.

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