Spring Side Quests | May 2026

Happy Monday. I hope your weekend was lovely! Matthew was on vacation last week so we were able to take a few side quests, including walking the beach of a local lake (still much too cold for wading) and visiting The Currier Museum of Art. We knew that we’d only have sun on Monday and Tuesday so we took care of the yard work and did our outdoor excursions then. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were very rainy days, so we planned our museum trip for Wednesday after finishing up a tiny bit of school.

And it’s a good thing the weather wasn’t luring us outside because Bronwyn fell ill on Thursday and her sick visit to the doctor on Friday confirmed that she has strep. I’m glad we had so much fun early in the week and were able to slow down considerably towards the end. The weekend was tough for her but she’s starting to seem more like herself.

Today’s post is just a little bit about our trip to the art museum and the books I finished this week. Spoiler alert: there’s a lot of Emma M. Lion talk!

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We made it to the museum on the first rainy day of the week. I wanted to make sure we saw this exhibit before it was over, Seeing Empire and Masking Violence, because it complements our current history study well. This exhibit focused on Dutch expansion in the Americas, so it’s a couple hundred years ahead of our current study of history, but that’s okay. We were still able to have some good conversations about how leaders try to control the narratives and justify their actions, a tale as old as time.

After finishing this exhibit, we did a quick wander to see a few of our favorites in the museum, visited the gift shop for a few cards and some art supplies for the kids, and then had lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Manchester. It was the perfect way to spend a rainy Wednesday.

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Reading

Last week I was a little whiny about how I was going to get my hands on the last three Emma M. Lion books. After a ton of hemming and hawing, I decided to sign up for Kindle Unlimited to finish the series and – eureka! – found that I had another free trial. So I’m continuing my Emma journey but am not looking forward to waiting for the ninth!

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The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
(Amazon | Bookshop)

“Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treasure of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors.”

I enjoyed so much about this book! Set in an Italian monastery in the 1300s, it was a combination of murder mystery and the history of the medieval church. Fascinating. So if you want to read pages and pages about what the “poverty of Christ” means, this book is probably for you. It was definitely for me because one of my biggest life questions is why people have different beliefs about the world despite living very similar lives. I think Eco had a similar question in mind when he wrote this book.

My goal is to write a Substack about this but it probably won’t be done by Wednesday. Perhaps next Wednesday?

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The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, vol 5 by Beth Brower
(Amazon | Bookshop)

“I’ve decided positivity is the Everest of virtues. You have to not only confront the dismal realities of life but choose, ofttimes, to blatantly ignore them.”

In this volume of Emma’s journals, Christmas is approaching St. Crispian’s and Emma has a new diversion: tracking the movement of their village ghost, The Roman. Her friendships continue to deepen and this reader is falling more and more for each of her gentlemen friends. They are divine and adore Emma fiercely.

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The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, vol 6 by Beth Brower
(Amazon | Bookshop)

“The idea that one could live in a world where a friend would invite you to go read in another’s library feels more dream than reality. It bodes well for my life’s prospects.”

In this sixth volume, Emma seeks respectable work and nearly dies of a hypothermia in a fountain. Emma’s pluck and wit carry her through a number of trials that are so fun to read about. I’ve said it several times, but I simply adore her.

This volume ends with a bang! I immediately started the seventh and am nearly finished with it.

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On Wednesday I published a new Substack about my current reading project, which I’ve dubbed The Oxford Project. I’d be honored if you clicked over, gave it a gander, and considered subscribing to my newsletter.

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This week is going to be busy so I’m not sure how much progress I’ll make on anything personal. I’ll be taking things one day at a time, hopefully with a book in my hand.

I hope you find time to do what you love this week. Take good care!