I am the most unathletic person you will ever meet, and it has only gotten worse (much, much worse) as I’ve aged. I’m klutzy, overweight, under-muscled, and uncoordinated. And despite that – or more likely, because of that, I am a big sports fan. I watch baseball (Go METS!), football (Go DOLPHINS! [ok it’s yet another rebuilding year]), college football (Go HURRICANES!) and hockey (Go PANTHERS [and sometimes Islanders]). I’m not much of a basketball fan, but if the Miami Heat or NY Knicks are in the playoffs, I’ll watch. I’ve taken an interest in the NY Liberty (even though they play basketball!) and there is a brand new Women’s Pro Baseball League starting up this summer with 4 teams (NY, Boston, LA, and San Francisco) that I’m very excited about – go NY! The inaugural season starts on August 1st, 2026 (my mom’s birthday, and she would have loved this!)
I haven’t checked out any flag football games, but I am definitely intrigued, especially as the NFL is putting its full weight (and $$$) behind it. I hope that someday the NFL will be flag football, but I don’t know if that will happen in my lifetime. The injuries are horrific and never-ending, and sometimes it is really difficult to watch. I don’t know how parents can watch their kids play; it would absolutely gut me.
But the Olympics! Every two years (summer games, winter games), and I am here for it. Still not a big fan of curling (this is more my speed), but the skiing and snowboarding keep me glued to the TV, along with most of the other winter games. It’s the skating that truly has my heart. Figure skating! Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov took the Gold with his amazing performance (sorry, Malinin!) American Alysa Liu was just incredible, taking home the Gold with her flawless performance (even more remarkable considering she had retired from competing at 16!)
I also watched the ice dancing, speed skating, and, of course, hockey. The USA women’s hockey team was phenomenal! As were the men, and that’s not always a given. It was the first gold medal for men’s hockey since 1980. Mike Eruzione, the captain of the legendary 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team, met with the 2026 U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey team during these Olympics. His advice? Leave everything on the ice. (There is a new Netflix documentary about that season, Miracle: The Boys of ’80, and it is really good.)
It was poetic justice at the end – Canadian Sam Bennett high-sticked Jack Hughes, breaking a few teeth, in the third period, but Hughes got his revenge when he scored the “golden goal” in overtime to take the Gold medal. His bloody smile said it all!
I would be remiss if I didn’t add how moving it was when the Americans held up Johnny Gaudreau’s jersey when they won – he was known as Johnny Hockey, and he and his brother were killed last year after being hit by a drunk driver – their parents were there to celebrate as well.
When the American men’s hockey team won Olympic gold for the first time in 46 years, they paid tribute to the late Gaudreau brothers. Peter Kneffel / Picture alliance via Getty Images
I signed up for Peacock just for the Olympics, and while I will not be renewing that service, it was well worth it. I’m sorry it’s over now, but I’m looking forward to the summer games next! Swimming, diving, and my fave, gymnastics, not to mention baseball’s coming back, softball, skateboarding, and new this next time around, lacrosse and Flag Football. Equestrian is fun, and so are archery and beach volleyball (are they still making the women wear teeny-tiny uniforms? I’m so over that.) Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the Olympics, too!
Book News
If you’re always listening to an audiobook, you’re not alone
(Washington Post illustration; iStock)
As audiobook listening explodes in popularity, some users can’t do a mindless chore without pressing play.
The Washington Post has an “Optimist” newsletter, and I love it – I need some optimism in my life. The news is a nightmare, day after day after day, so I look for the light and wanted to share.
A card Leah Glickman sent to family and friends, designed by her father, Don Glickman, who died on Nov. 11. (Leah Glickman)
“I’m here buddy,” Hugh Pinneo, 18, said to the struggling dog as he rescued him. “You’re scared, I’m scared, too.”
Bernard, a dog struggling to stay afloat in a pond in Chesapeake, Virginia., before Hugh Pinneo, 18, rescued him. (Hugh Pinneo)
As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.
Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.
Information? Misinformation? Disinformation? Do you know what you are reading or seeing? When the government tells us we are not seeing what our own eyes are telling us we are seeing, when the official White House website takes down information they don’t like and puts up what basically amounts to propaganda, it is time to take a hard look at, well, what we are looking at. Let’s start with the trusty old Merriam-Webster dictionary and Thesaurus.com:
Information: Knowledge gained from investigation, study, or instruction Knowledge of a particular event or situation Synonyms: Data, Facts
Misinformation: Incorrect or misleading information Synonyms: inacurate, misconception
Disinformation: False information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth Synonyms: Treachery, propaganda, fake news
Information is good, but how do you know it when you see it? Is your uncle spreading misinformation or disinformation when he repeats what he heard on the news or on Facebook? Does it matter??
First things first: ask yourself, is this information reliable? Information is reliable when it is accurate and verifiable. How can you tell? It starts at the source. You want to find legitimate sources for information, like newspapers or journals. You access some journals online, but most are behind paywalls. This is where your library comes in – most public libraries have access to a variety of databases that they pay a lot of money for – take advantage of these, usually from the comfort of your web browser. You generally will need a library card to access these types of sources.
Another way to find reliable sources is by Googling – but not on Google’s homepage. Instead, try Google Scholar. The resources there will be much more relevant and trustworthy than just doing an internet search. You can also get your news from television, but just be aware that there is a difference between investigative journalism, both in print or online or on TV, and opinion programming, like the programs on Fox News or MSNow. While they may appear to be news, they are the opinions of the television hosts or networks you are watching, often backed up by misinformation at best, and disinformation at worst.
Good investigative journalism will extensively reference primary sources – experts in the field, eyewitnesses, and interviews (not a rehashing of someone else’s interview). Websites that are usually trustworthy use .gov. .edu, or .org instead of .com, although our current administration is breaking those long-held norms. Beware of clickbait news and AI-generated webpages, misinformation or disinformation, and pictures. Large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are designed to provide answers in natural language, not to generate meaningful information. Understanding who created an information source, what audience it was created for, and for what purpose gives you context for how you should (or shouldn’t) use it.
The CRAAP Test is a widely used tool for evaluating information sources, standing for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose; developed by librarian Sarah Blakeslee, it helps users assess if information is timely, suitable, from a credible source, factually correct, and unbiased, making it a key strategy for media literacy and research.
The SIFT method is a quick, four-step strategy (Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace claims) for evaluating online information, developed by Mike Caulfield, to determine credibility by focusing on the source and context rather than just the content itself, helping users spot misinformation, bias, and agenda quickly.
The SMART Check is particularly helpful when evaluating news stories. Determine if your news source is SMART (Source, Motivation, Authority, Relevancy/Reliability; Two-Source Test) before believing what is reported.
I hope this helps you determine what to believe when getting your news.
Note: I put this together based on a video one of my brilliant co-workers, Kat, created for our students.
In Finland, kids learn from preschool how to tell fact from fiction online—a lesson for life. [Here in the U.S., university librarians struggle to make students understand the difference between information, misinformation, and disinformation, and why AI isn’t the best way to learn anything.]
Book News
(Illustration by Alexis Arnold/The Washington Post; iStock)
Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.
By Aaron Schaffer, Will Oremus and Nitasha Tiku
In early 2024, executives at artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic ramped up an ambitious project they sought to keep quiet. “Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world,” an internal planning document unsealed in legal filings last week said. “We don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.”
Dimitris Economou outside of the Chantilly Regional Library in Northern Virginia, where he returned the book. (Courtesy of Dimitris Economou)
Dimitris Economou recently found a copy of the children’s book “Harry the Dirty Dog” on his dad’s bookshelf in Greece and realized it had been taken out from a Virginia library decades earlier.
Food News
The latest salad I’m obsessed with! I found it because we were swimming in pears, thanks to a Harry & David gift that arrived much sooner than expected. I’ve made it twice in the past couple of weeks, and can’t wait to make it again! It’s gorgeous, and if you can get everything on your fork – radicchio, pear, blue cheese, pomegranate seed – it is a perfect, delicious bite. (Plus I got to use the walnut oil that languishes in the back of my fridge! But olive oil is a good substitute.)
Jessica Rader wipes tears from her eyes as she receives a refurbished car in 2023. Students in Louisa County High School’s automotive technology program did the repairs. (Andrew Woolfolk/Louisa County Public Schools)
“Kids who never met me cared about me enough to put hard work into a vehicle to make sure myself and my kids were safe,” said Jessica Rader.
Forewarned is forearmed:
As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.
Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.
Comments Off on BookBitch Diary: February 1, 2026 | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
This is the first year that I haven’t tried most of these recipes. The only one on the list that I love is the Porcini Ragu – that one is on repeat in my family, I make it about twice a month. (My husband hates chicken, so that eliminated probably half of these recipes.)
Takoyaki, an octopus, plays piano keys with its eight arms. (Mattias Krantz)
As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.
Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.
Comments Off on BookBitch Diary: January 1, 2026 | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
I put together a list of my favorite reads this year. I created a top ten list, followed by some honorable mentions. There were so many great books in 2025 – not to mention the older books I also read – that my honorable mentions may be longer than my top ten. Sorry (not sorry!)
(Courtesy of 99designs by Vista) via The Washington Post
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
— “The Lorax,” by Dr. Seuss
A corrupted children’s book can feel more jarring than a poisoned river hundreds of miles away.
That’s the impulse behind a sharp campaign launched by freelancers at 99designs, a graphic design platform. Their work draws attention to global warming and the UN Climate Conference taking place in Brazil.
This week, the firm released dystopian revisions of the iconic covers of six children’s stories as they might look in our ravaged future (details).
The Little Mermaid is swimming through a tire on a seabed littered with garbage. The only thing left of Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood is a single stump. And Mr. Badger and Ratty from “The Wind in the Willows” are wearing gas masks as they navigate a chemical swamp.
Patrick Llewellyn, CEO of 99designs, said in a statement, “By reimagining the children’s stories we all grew up with through a climate lens, they’ve created something that feels both familiar and urgent.”
Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins is my favorite poet, and here is one reason why.
Emilia D’Albero became the first ever American to win the Mondial du Fromage, a biennial event held in France and known in English as the Cheesemonger World Cup!
“Join Beef on his 30 minute 0.2 mile walk,” wrote the English bulldog’s owner, America Miranda.
As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.
Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.
Comments Off on BookBitch Diary: December 1, 2025 | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
Last month, my husband and I went to Portugal on vacation. Normally, flights from our closest airports involve layovers, usually somewhere in Europe. The first time we went, we spent a few hours at the airport in Paris. When my husband took my daughter last year, they almost missed their connecting flight in Amsterdam (due to horrendous lines at customs, and by “lines,” my daughter explained, they really meant a mosh pit of humanity. They literally had to run through the airport to catch their flight. I am not a runner, to say the least. I have bursitis in the hip that was replaced several years ago, arthritis in my other hip and one knee. I’m not running anywhere. So my husband and I decided to beat the system. We got a great deal on nonstop airfare from New York City to Lisbon, and made that our “layover”. Cheap fares from South Florida to New York are abundant, and this trip involved us visiting all three New York City airports! (We flew into JFK, out of Newark to Portugal, and back into JFK, then out of LaGuardia to home.)
We stayed over one night on the way to Portugal, and two nights on the way home. It worked out perfectly, and unless we get a great deal on nonstop airfare to Portugal from Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach (highly unlikely) then this will be the way we travel from now on. My son and his family are in Brooklyn and I consider spending time with them to be the highlight of any trip, so win-win!
We had a great time in Portugal, ate some amazing food, met really lovely people, hit several museums (World of Wine and the Chocolate Experience museums were highlights) did a tour and tasting at Cockburn’s Port house across the Douro River from Porto in Vila Nova de Gaia, and a guided tour through the Douro River valley that included stops at two wineries, a farm to table lunch at one of the wineries, and a boat ride down the Douro as well.
We had to meet our winery tour group at a theater in downtown Porto. My husband and I are annoyingly early for everything, and this was no exception. I thought we’d grab a coffee at the cafe that Google Maps showed nearby, but it was closed – it looked like it had closed years ago. Then we saw what looked like a cafe across the street, which turned out to be the restaurant of a hotel. We stopped in the lobby and asked if we could get some coffee, but they weren’t open yet. They asked what we wanted, and my husband asked for an espresso, and I asked for a cappuccino. They asked us to wait in the lobby, and a few minutes later gave us our coffees in to-go cups, which I had not seen before in Portugal. When we asked how much it was, they wouldn’t take any money! He wouldn’t even take a tip (it’s not really a tipping culture there.) They said they couldn’t ring us up because they weren’t open, so it was on the house. I could never imagine something like that happening in America. Yet one more reason to love Portugal!
We did get to visit the Bom de Jesus do Monde, but due to the language miscommunication, we were dropped off at the top. We got really lucky that day – every year, all the firefighters in Portugal visit there and they run up all 572 steps with full gear. It was really something to see! They come with their families, and it’s a big celebration. We even saw some firefighters from other countries, like France and Spain. Some of them were definitely slowing down as they reached the summit, but most just flew up those steps. They are all timed, and there are speeches and awards. We took the funicular back down, and that was really cool – it runs on water! This funicular has been running since 1882, and still functions exactly the same way it did back then.
The new AirPods Pro 3 came out a few days before our trip, so we snagged a pair. These are amazing – they have something called Live Translations, which translates in real time, like at the UN! For now, they only translate French, German, Spanish (from Spain, there are differences), and Brazilian Portuguese. Even though European Portuguese is slightly different, they worked really well, and it was an incredible gift to have that ability.
There were some foods we were really looking forward to having again – the Pastel de Nata (a delicious custard tart,) the Francesinha sandwich, and all the fresh fish. I had read about a famous Portuguese clam dish called Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato, which roughly translates to clams with spiced butter, and it was one of the best things I ever ate. I also wanted to try Caldo Verde, the green soup that Portugal is famous for. We tried to find a restaurant that was known for the soup, but struck out. Instead, we went to a Petisco, the Portuguese equivalent of a tapas restaurant, and one of the specials that night was the soup. It seemed like every table was getting it, too, for good reason; it was so delicious! We had the best Francesinha in Braga – it is a big sandwich layered with different meats, topped with a fried egg smothered in melty cheese and sitting in a (usually very spicy, too spicy for me -I’m a wimp) flavorful sauce, only this one had just a bit of heat – it was incredible!
Top row: our to-go coffee; pastel de nata; a park near our hotel in Braga. Middle row: checking into our hotel in Gaia; a sign I loved at a Green Fair we wandered into; port tasting; Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato. Bottom row: Francesinha sandwich, fresh fish and the grill cooking it in front of a fabulous restaurant in Gaia
We had such a great time. The people are so nice, the food is amazing (and cheap!) and the lifestyle is perfectly suited to retirement, my goal. I can’t wait to retire there, but it is still a couple of years down the road.
Our next trip will be in July to Sicily, the land of the Alesi family. My husband is having a big birthday, and when I asked if he wanted a party or something, he said he wanted to take this trip with the family. I’m thrilled that my son and his family will be joining us, and my daughter, but sadly, his two sisters declined. If you have any suggestions about places to stay, please share! We need a large house, preferably with a pool, within walking distance of the beach.
If you’ve been thinking about trying out Audible, now is the perfect time – Amazon has an Audible Holiday Promotion! You get three months for $.99/month, and you can cancel at any time (and it’s easy to do). Check it out!
Here’s what you get:
Best-sellers & new releases: Choose one every month – from their entire catalog, yours to keep (Prime members get two with trial).
Thousands of included titles: Listen all you want to a growing collection of podcasts, audiobooks, and Audible Originals.
Exclusive deals and discounts: Save on all additional titles you want, plus access exclusive member sales and deals.
Mychal Threets, also known as Mychal the Librarian, on the set of the new “Reading Rainbow” series, holding one of the featured books, “No Cats In The Library,” by Lauren Emmons. (Embassy Row)
A cross-border landmark faces a restrictive new future
Whether you’re a seasoned baker or just starting out, these hacks and recipes will up your cake game.
This was such an interesting article! If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to open a restaurant, especially in an expensive, super-competitive city like New York, or ever dreamed of opening your own restaurant, check this out!
How Francine the cat, a staple at a Richmond Lowe’s, ended up 85 miles away in another state. (And how Lowe’s corporate really went above and beyond to find her! Consider me a Lowe’s fan for sure.)
The Denardo family had already driven for 2 hours when they stopped for gas, and saw that Ray Ray the cat had come with them.
As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.
Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.
Comments Off on BookBitch Diary: November 1, 2025 | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
Welcome to fall in Florida! Yes, we get pumpkins but no pumpkin patches. Not real ones, anyway. Some of the churches and schools create their own by bringing in truckloads of pumpkins and scattering them on the grass. They tend to charge a small fortune for them, too, as they use it as a fund raiser. We did that for years when my kids were little and were entrhalled with the pumpkin patch idea. Now that my kids are grown and my grandkids live in NY where they have real pumpkin patches, we generally pick up the biggest pumpkin we can find at Costco for anywhere from $6-8. Much better than the $25 and up we’ve paid in the past!
My husband loves carving pumpkins, and he has created some amazing jack-o-laterns!
Clockwise from top left: Daniel Tiger, Mickey Mouse, Classic, Grim Reaper, my grandson, Boo Cat
This month is a short but sweet diary entry, as I am in the midst of preparing for Rosh Hashanah and a trip to New York and then Portugal. We are spending the first night of Rosh Hashanah at home with my daughter, then flying to New York to spend the second night with my son and his family. The following day, we fly to Lisbon, then take the high-speed train to Braga for several days, where I hope to be able to see the Bom Jesus do Monte. There is a funicular to go up, then 573 steps to go down. This funicular is not like the one that crashed in Lisbon, although it is even older than that one. It is moved via water, so I’m excited to see that, too. I visited the rheumatologist yesterday and got a cortisone shot in my knee, so hopefully, I will be able to do it.
Bom Jesus do Monte
We are also going to the dentist for cleanings! We are planning to retire to Portugal, and after our first trip there, we are leaning towards living in Braga, so it seems like a good idea to check out the medical situation. We have heard great things about medical care there, and my husband had a really good experience at the dentist last year. He went for a checkup and cleaning, and part of the exam was a panoramic X-ray. He said they had the latest and greatest equipment, and he had the most thorough cleaning ever, including powerwashing out his mouth with some sort of solution he had never experienced before. They found a cavity and filled it, and told him he didn’t need all the additional work our dentist at home suggested. All of that for $110 – my dentist here gets $135 just for the cleaning, extra for X-rays, and certainly a lot more for a filling. I am also excited to check out the shopping, especially the mall and the outdoor markets.
Then we head to Porto for a few days. We are going on an all-day tour of some wineries along the Douro River, then taking a boat trip on the river. The next day, we are visiting a Port house in Gaia, an area on the river in Porto, for a tour, a tasting, and we get to see hoopers making barrels, which I’m very excited about. Then onto Lisbon, where we head back to New York for a couple of days to spend some more time with my family. There is a scheduled strike at the Lisbon airport the day we are leaving, so fingers crossed that we make that flight! Then, finally, home.
Hope you’re having a fun Labor Day! I am very glad to have the day, especially since I’m filling in for our Saturday librarian, so I will only have to work five days in a row instead of six. Yay Labor Day!
I hit a reading wall last week. As you all know, I read a lot, all the time. I usually have at least three books going at any time: the book I am reading during the day and into the evening, the book I am listening to, and another that I read when I go to bed. I generally read just a chapter or two in bed, so it takes a while to finish one of those books. Audiobooks have been great for me since my vision is going, and I’m glad I’ve finally found audiobooks that hold my attention. My daily reading includes the hour I am forced to take for lunch, so I get a lot of reading in. These are books that are generally not out yet; they are review copies or galleys, and depending on the book, I usually read 3-5 of these a week. But last week, every book I started, I put down again. I just couldn’t get into anything, and I blame Lucy Score!
I had stumbled upon the last book of her Blue Moon series, loved it, and went back and read the entire series. After that, nothing was appealing to me. I went to my library’s reading apps and found some older books by her that I hadn’t read, and that seemed to work. I read a standalone, Rock Bottom Girl, then I found the first book of the Benevolence series in Kindle Unlimited, and now I’m on the second book of that series. Reviews to follow!
I had put Julie Soto’s last book on hold at my library. I loved her first couple of books, but the new one is a romantasy, a genre that has taken over the romance industry, but I am not a fan. I’ve read a couple, and since her last book made my best books of the year list last year, and this new one has hit the NY Times bestseller list and is blowing up everywhere, I decided to give it a try. Well, it came in for me the other day, and I read the first couple of pages and closed it. I may go back to it if it is still available, but I am finishing the second Benevolence book, and there is a third, so maybe after that I’ll try again.
Have any of you ever run into this type of situation? Where every book you pick up, you put down because it isn’t holding your attention? I think it happened this time because Lucy Score, and also, I was listening to a book that I didn’t like. But it was on the LibraryReads list, and had great reviews, so I kept plugging along. Finally, at about the 75% point of the book, I put it down and started another audiobook instead. Hopefully, I’ll go back and finish it. It seems kind of silly to get that far in a book and not finish.
This seems to happen to me once every few years or so, and sometimes I get out of it by rereading an old favorite or reading something completely out of my usual genres, like romantasy. But this time, neither of those worked, and I’m hoping that I will get through my obsession with Lucy Score and be able to move on. All suggestions welcome!
I love Disney World. I went to Disneyland for the first time when I was fourteen years old. I was about eighteen when I went to Disney World for the first time, and I’ve been many times over the years. It keeps getting more and more expensive. I’m not the only one who noticed – check out this opinion piece in the New York Times. I
t made me feel so sad to read this. In 2023, we took my grandson at Christmas; in fact, we went to the Magic Kingdom on a drizzly Christmas Day, and it was great. He was not quite three years old yet, and maybe he won’t remember it, I don’t know. Now his sister is almost that age, so maybe we’ll go back next year when they both can enjoy it. I’d better start saving now – one day in the park, staying off-site at an Airbnb, meals, etc., all add up to a ridiculous amount of money. But I want to create those memories for my grandchildren, so that’s my choice.
I found this recipe in the NY Times Cooking App, Prosciutto and Melon Salad. Now that is a classic pairing, but this salad took it further than just wrapping wedges of melon with prosciutto. It put it on a bed of arugula mixed with a bit of fresh basil, added some lemon juice and olive oil, and fresh mozzarella.
I am allergic to melon, but I have an amazing mango tree, and I thought the flavors would work together, so I tried that. I was right, it worked beautifully. Then I started reading some of the comments, one of my favorite things about the NYT Cooking app, and I saw someone recommended skipping the lemon and using balsamic vinegar instead. Since I love balsamic, especially with fresh mozzarella and basil, I tried it, and that was the winner for me. My mango tree has stopped producing, but peaches and nectarines are fantastic right now, so I pivoted. I’ve been making this salad probably once a week all summer. If you’re vegetarian, skip the prosciutto. If you’re vegan, skip the cheese, too. Enjoy!
Good News
As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.
Thanks to The New York Times for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.
Comments Off on BookBitch Diary: September 1, 2025 | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
There is a housing crisis in this country. Yes, that includes people who are unhoused due to unemployment, mental health issues, etc., but it also includes people who have good jobs and families who still may be unhoused or living in precarious situations. When I was a manager at Borders Books, I had two full-time employees who were homeless from time to time. That was more than 25 years ago, and it has only gotten worse since then.
I live in an area that has seasonal residents. The population swells from roughly October through April every year, from around 100,000 who live here all year round, to an additional 12,000 people during the season. That may not sound like much, but Boca Raton is not a huge city; it’s a suburb, and we can definitely feel the difference. There is tons more traffic, it’s hard to get reservations for popular restaurants, or to make appointments for doctors or even at the hair salon. The stores are more crowded, with long lines at the gas station or supermarket checkout. It’s not fun, and I always enjoy summer more, despite the heat and the hurricanes.
I grew up in New York, and not in a seasonal community, but we had good friends who lived year-round in the Hamptons, a very seasonal community. Many of our Boca Raton seasonal winter visitors move to the Hamptons, Fire Island, or the Catskills for the summer, or to the summer resorts in Massachusetts like Nantucket, Cape Cod, or Martha’s Vineyard, or back to Canada. The thing that most of the seasonal residents don’t think about is where the people who serve them live – the firefighters, the waiters, the librarians, the cops, even the small business owners who cannot afford seasonal pricing, with many being priced out of their neighborhoods.
It’s bad in Boca Raton. We bought our house in 1987, and we have no mortgage anymore. But the price of homeowners’ insurance is almost as much as my mortgage payment was, and the price of these homes has gone up tremendously. Yay for me when I sell, but if I had to buy my house now, or even rent my house now, I couldn’t afford it. It’s not even close. My husband and I would both have to work two jobs each to afford it. Some of my co-workers have 90-minute commutes each way to get to work because that’s how far they have to go for more reasonable housing prices. And even that’s not great, just a tiny bit better. The median home price in Boca Raton, Florida, is $682,500. There is no way a librarian and a retired engineer could afford that!
I feel lucky to live where I do, and I totally understand why Millennials and Gen-Xers are so resentful about home ownership. A former co-worker librarian is still living at home and waiting for her parents to move out so she can buy their house from them. She’s 40 years old! Even though she’s been living with her parents forever and is banking a lot of her paycheck, it’s still the only way she’ll be able to afford to buy. Another co-worker was looking for a house they could afford that was close enough to their aging parents to be helpful, yet still be somewhat affordable. He finally found something, but it took more than two years!
I’ve read all of Elin Hilderbrand’s books set on Nantucket, several of Nancy Thayer’s, and recently have been ripping through Pamela M. Kelley’s books that are set there. Kelley’s characters live there year-round, and I have often found myself wondering how these characters can afford it. It’s fiction, so I suspend my disbelief and just go with it, but really, how do they afford it? The New York Times doesn’t know, either…
Book News
This was a terrific discussion of the classic American novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Iit’s only about 40 minutes, and well worth your time if it’s been a while since you read it. I read it three times, all assigned; once in junior high, again in high school, and in a college lit class (from a reading list of dead white male authors, the usual of a late 1970s curriculum).
Titles banned, data deleted, the nation’s librarians sacked without explanation – Donald Trump’s war on books is a threat to democracy across the world, writes the head of Oxford University’s libraries
Love this show! It is one of two that I think of as just a nice place to spend a little time. An escape from reality. Phil genuinely loves food and people. (The other show that gives me that same sort of pleasure is Clarkson’s Farm.)
More on seasonal living, this time in the Hamptons
Good News
Unusual seasonal residents, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, have rented a home for the spring/summer season in Boca Raton. I personally haven’t spotted them anywhere, but I did see them on TV at a Panthers’ Stanley Cup playoff game. Swift has been making her presence known locally – in a very good way–
My kids came to visit and we had the best time – except for little Sylvie, who was teething and very uncomfortable the first few days of their visit. But then it looked like the tooth broke through, and she was her happy, giggly self again (except for depriving her parents of a single good night’s sleep!) We had a great time at the Museum of Science & Discovery, Splash Adventure Water Park, lunch at the Lazy Dog Cafe (highly recommend!), and just hanging out. Jonah and I baked Raspberry Streusel Muffins and a chocolate cake, and Jonah and Papa played with trains – he still loves all things train, from the subways in New York to Thomas & Friends to these electric trains.. We love spending time with them, and now I miss them so much!
As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.
Thanks to The New York Times for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.
Comments Off on BookBitch Diary: August 1, 2025 | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
As my regular readers know, I’ve been struggling with various eye issues for years now, and not surprisingly, my eyes are getting worse. It’s become exceedingly difficult for me to read a print book anymore. I am listening to more and more audiobooks and reading print exclusively on my Kindle or iPad.
I know there are other e-readers out there, and at one point, I had a Nook, which Barnes & Noble sold to compete with Kindle. My particular model has long since been discontinued and is no longer supported, but they have newer ones available now. Too late for me, I am firmly in camp Kindle.
I’ve had several Kindles over the years, and my most recent is a few years old. But it serves me well, has more than enough memory for my needs – I have over 8000 books on there! I actually have the Kids Paperwhite Kindle, and I’ll tell you why.
When my last Kindle slowed down enough to make me crazy waiting for the page to turn – it was probably only a second or two, but not instantaneous, which is what I was used to and wanted. This was in the summer of 2022, and Amazon had started its crazy summer sales, Prime Days. Wirecutter, the consumer reporting/testing arm of the New York Times, reported their picks for the Amazon summer sale, and that included a new e-reader, the Kids Paperwhite Kindle. It was the same Kindle as the adult version, but it came with a two-year warranty versus a one-year warranty, and it included the cover. (Mine is solid black, but now they have prettier ones.) It was on sale for $105, and at the time, it was the same price as the adult one, so it was a no-brainer for me. It is still working perfectly, and I couldn’t be happier with it.
A few weeks ago, I got an email from Amazon. They were introducing what they called “Recaps for books in series”:
Refresh your memory before you jump back in
If you’ve ever waited months — or years — for the next book in a series, only to realize when it comes out that you don’t remember what happened last, Recaps can help you pick up where you left off. You can now access short summaries on your Kindle device for thousands of best-selling titles in series you’ve purchased or borrowed.
To determine whether a series has Recaps available, look for “View Recaps” on the series page in your Kindle Library.
I think this is a truly inspired idea. Especially when there are long gaps between books in a series (looking at you, Alexis Daria!) For me, it’s just another reason to love my Kindle and keep on reading.
Note: Amazon Prime Days runs for four days this summer, July 8-11. I bet you can find a good deal on a Kindle (and lots of other things) then! If you’re not already a member, please use these links to sign up:
Prime for Young Adults: 6-month trial for $0! 18-24 year-olds and students enjoy full Prime benefits and 5% cash back*
Prime: Join Prime and elevate your Amazon experience. Free delivery, award-winning TV, exclusive deals, and more. Prime is only $14.99/month (plus tax). Cancel anytime.
Prime Access: Eligible government assistance recipients and income verified customers can access all of Prime for $6.99/month.
Book News
A false alarm delivers ridiculously hot firemen to romance writer Abby Jimenez’s book event!
A “book boyfriend” — a literary hunk you pine for in real life — has been around for centuries. But today’s readers have taken this fantasy to a new level.
The “book boyfriend” phenomenon seems to reflect strain in heterosexual dating dynamics: Men are from Mars, women are conducting emotional affairs with fictional astronauts. (Illustration by Amber Day/for The Washington Post)
Former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden speaks out on her firing by Trump
The university where I work offers a hospitality degree, has a beautiful teaching kitchen, and a professor who is also a chef. He has been using ChatGPT for recipe creation with his students since it first became available. I got to work with him in the spring semester of 2024 on presenting a cooking class for students who were using the food pantry that I started at my university.
To be honest, ChatGPT wasn’t impressive. He would plug in a list of ingredients and ask ChatGPT to create a recipe. It didn’t seem to matter what sort of ingredients he included, ChatGPT almost always suggested using every single ingredient in a salad. I introduced him to another AI, Perplexity, and that seemed to work a little better. It natively understood that not every single ingredient needed to be included in the recipe, and the recipes made a bit more sense.
Here we are, 18 months later, and ChatGPT has improved considerably. Pete Wells of The New York Times followed up with some serious chefs who are using ChatGPT as their favorite kitchen tool – a very interesting article!
Cuban Crunch Wrap
I’ve never had one, but Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap Supreme has become one of the chain’s most successful innovations. The NY Times offered a way to make a custom one at home that they called the Crunchy Queso Wrap, and that certainly appealed to me. I tried their version, subbing in some leftover Cuban pork that I had made for the ground beef, and it was a hit with my family!
I probably should try the original, though. I haven’t been to a Taco Bell in years – definitely pre-pandemic*, and probably years before that. There is one just a few miles from my house though, so the Crunchwrap awaits me.
*I’ve noticed I tend to look back in time as the pre-pandemic (or post-pandemic) years. It definitely made a strong dividing line in my mind. Anyone else notice themselves doing this? Or am I just weird???
The James Beard Awards
ICYMI: We Need to Talk About Trader Joe’s won the James Beard Award for “Feature Reporting.” It really changed the way I think about TJs. I posted a link to this article last May, but it’s worth reposting here again.
2025 James Beard Foundation Book Award Winners
The Book Awards recognize cookbooks and other nonfiction food- or beverage-related books that were published in the U.S. in 2024. Books from foreign publishers must bear a 2024 U.S. copyright date and/or must have been distributed in the U.S. during 2024.
Baking and Desserts Sift: The Elements of Great Baking byNicola Lamb Beverage with Recipes The Bartender’s Pantry: A Beverage Handbook for the Universal Bar by Emma Janzen, Jim Meehan, and Bart Sasso Beverage without Recipes Sake: The Art and Craft of Japan’s National Drink by Yoshiko Ueno-Müller Bread Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking by Richard Hart, Henrietta Lovell, and Laurie Woolever Food Issues and Advocacy Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch by Andrea Freeman General Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shareable, Everyday Recipes: A Cookbook by Carolina Gelen International The Balkan Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of the Balkans by Irina Janakievska Literary Writing Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley Professional and Restaurant Convivir: Modern Mexican Cuisine in California’s Wine Country by Rogelio Garcia and Andréa Lawson Gray Reference, History, and Scholarship & Visuals (2 awards for this self-published book!) McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches by Gary He Single Subject Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking (More than 60 Recipes Featuring Gochujang, Doenjang, and Ganjang) by Nadia Cho, Mingoo Kang, and Joshua David Stein U.S. Foodways Our South: Black Food Through My Lens by Ashleigh Shanti Vegetable-Focused Cooking Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking: Vegan Recipes, Tips, and Techniques by Joe Yonan Emerging Voice Bodega Bakes: Recipes for Sweets and Treats Inspired by My Corner Store by Paola Velez Cookbook Hall of Fame Rose Levy Beranbaum This one really meant a lot to me – I’ve been a Beranbaum fan since I worked for Borders back in the 1990s! Not that long ago, I started weeding (cleaning out) my cookbook collection. It was starting to take over my house. I got it down to 200 or so of my favorite cookbooks.. Now I am considering moving to Portugal when I retire, and the books just can’t come along. I’ve gotten it down to about fifty cookbooks or so, and The Pie Bible, The Cake Bible, and The Bread Bible, all by Beranbaum, are still here. I will probably move these with me, or maybe I’ll just buy the Kindle versions. Did you know you can add your own notes to a Kindle?!
Good News
My hair stylist’s daughter is a pilot on the Goodyear Blimp, one of only eleven! The NYT did a great piece on the 100th anniversary of the Blimp. There are some great photos and videos within the article, including one of all the pilots (she’s bottom left in that photo.)
Last month, I wrote about how baseball and other sports have become more and more expensive to watch on TV, not to mention in person. I’m not the only one who noticed:
As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.
Thanks to The New York Times for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.
With all the turmoil in this country, I’ve been avoiding the news as much as possible. I still subscribe to a couple of newspapers, but just read the headlines, for the most part. My husband and I used to watch MSNBC quite a bit, but it upsets me, so we are not watching that much anymore. Considering their devastatingly low ratings, we are not the only ones.
Instead of the news, we are watching baseball.
My husband and I both grew up on Long Island, New York, and were Mets fans. When Florida got the Marlins baseball team, we switched allegiance to our local team. We went to many games, opening days, and my husband even got to go to game seven of the first World Series they won in 1997. After that win, the owner of the team sold off the players piecemeal, and they basically had to start rebuilding after that. They did, and they won another World Series in 2003. But then the same thing happened, and thoroughly disgusted, we gave up on the Marlins.
We didn’t watch any baseball for years. Then last year, we started watching as the Mets made it to the playoffs. Long-time Mets fans have been long-suffering Mets fans, but we grew up with the Miracle Mets! My husband even snuck into their first World Series winning game. He was a kid, and a bunch of them cut school, and some guy helped lift them over the fence – the olden days, way before security got so tight. They didn’t have seats, so they wandered the stadium, and it is one of his most cherished memories.
Because we haven’t watched baseball in so long, we didn’t realize how difficult, or rather expensive, it is to watch. Even the local team isn’t available on any local channels, unlike football, which televises all local games on local TV channels, Fox, or CBS. But baseball has streaming services, at least for the Marlins and the Mets. They are different services, so you get your local streaming service to watch the home team.
Being that we are in Florida and not in NY, and we didn’t care about the Marlins but very much cared about the Mets, we tried to find ways to watch. After a lot of research, I found about 8 games that we could watch without subscribing to another streaming service. But it was frustrating, so I finally talked my husband into signing up for the MLB app. It’s expensive, but not much more than a nice dinner out! He caved, and we’ve been watching almost every night – they play a lot of games in baseball! It makes me happy.
We even went up to Port St. Lucie for a couple of pre-season games, and that was a lot of fun. I much prefer pre-season and minor league games. It’s more relaxed, the stadiums are much smaller and more intimate, and it’s way less expensive. We had a nice weekend, saw the Mets beat the Nationals and the Marlins, and hope to go again next year.
We’ve also been watching the Florida Panthers – they are fighting their way back to hopefully another Stanley Cup, but Toronto wasn’t making it easy on them, until their last game. On the other hand, the Carolina Hurricanes did make it look easy for the Panthers, at least until game 4. Now it is looking good for the Panthers, and luckily those games are televised on stations we can watch; TBS, TNT, and ESPN so far. Stanley Cup is up next! Can they do it again??
Panthers game, 2013
I grew up an Islanders fan. They built the stadium when I was a kid, and one of my friends even babysat for one of the players! My stepmother’s brother had season tickets, and I got to go to a couple of games that way. My father-in-law worked security at Madison Square Garden, home of the Rangers, and my husband got to go to many games and sit in the press box. Things would get tense around my house when the Rangers and Islanders played each other! I always kid around and say the Florida Panthers saved my marriage – we became Panthers fans when they started that franchise, and while we both still root for our NY home teams, we rally around the Panthers when they are playing. We’ve gone to many games over the years, but the better they play, the more expensive the tickets become, so we’ve just been watching on TV for the past couple of years. We’re hoping they go all the way again this year.
Book News
Food News
If you are not familiar with Marcella Hazan, think of her as the Italian Julia Child. Her recipes are wonderful, especially her basic tomato sauce (3 ingredients – canned tomatoes, butter, onion) and her Bolognese sauce, which takes many hours and is incredibly rich and delicious, and especially good in lasagna. She became well known back in the 1980s with her “Engagement Chicken” recipe, which my chicken-hating husband calls “Divorce Chicken”! Anyway, I loved this article about her by Pete Wells (and can’t wait to see the new documentary about her!)
I thought there was some really great advice in this article, and wanted to share. Hope you find it as useful as I did.
Other News
I was so happy to go to New York for Memorial Day weekend! I haven’t seen my grandchildren in far too long, and honestly, it just kills me that we are so far away. Unless we win the lottery, we will never be able to afford to live near them in Brooklyn, NY, or anywhere close enough to make a difference. This was the first time in years that we all got to go – me, my husband, and my daughter.
For the past few years, we couldn’t leave our aging kitty home alone. He wasn’t dealing well with strangers, or even friends and family he’d known for years, and we didn’t want to stress him out. We used to leave him alone for up to 3 days with plenty of food and water, and he was content, if not happy. But the last time we tried that, he was miserable (we have cameras). He clung to me for days afterwards, and we knew that it was no longer an option.
Since Loki passed away in February, this is the first trip we’ve all taken together. Originally, my daughter and I were going to go, and my husband was going to stay home with Loki. But after he passed, I checked and miraculously, there were still seats available on our flight, and he ended up paying about $10 less than I did! I was even able to get three seats together. I figured the universe owed us that, and I was most grateful it worked out. I’m sorry to say my granddaughter was fighting a bad summer cold and wanted no part of us. On our last day there, her fever broke, and she started feeling more like herself, so we got to see Sylvie in action! I read my grandson all the books I’ve gotten for him this past year, and kudos to my son and daughter-in-law for letting him know that I did. He’s four years old now, and loves playing games – he exhausted all of us playing hide-and-seek! As always, it was too short a trip, but I’m so happy I got to see my family again!
Posted by Stacy Alesi 
Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™ 