Footnotes:: August

September adventures inside, too.

Crisp days have come to Berlin.

A few years ago, a student asked what I meant by “a crisp day.” She wondered if it had something to do with potatoes?

I won’t lie - this really did throw me for a moment until I connected crisps / potato chips to the adjective “crisp.” Amazing how similar words feel entirely separate in one’s native language, isn’t it?

“Oh!” I said. “Not at all like potatoes actually. It’s the sort of weather when you wake up to a bright blue sky but it’s cool in the morning, enough to want a jacket, enough to wrap your hands around the coffee mug to warm up. It feels like walking in fallen leaves, like biting into a perfect apple.”

She looked at me like I was losing it. But I suspect you know the kind of day I mean — today has been one of those.

I can count on one hand how many years I’ve been comfortable on my birthday (August 30, the day of northern hemisphere sweat). But this year, it’s looking CRISP, with the possibility of rain. The gifts are coming already, I tell you.

This is my favorite time of year. When the school supplies comes out and everyone wants a new notebook and a freshly sharpened pencil. When we all remember how fun it was to have a stack of new books, knowing that we’d learn something in the coming months that we didn’t yet know.

I feel that kind of autumn upon us.

Moments like these, the doorway moments between seasons, make anything feel possible. Whether the days are getting longer or shorter where you are, there is a sense of change, of transformation. Color breaks out, either in the leaves or on the blooms. We feel brighter alongside nature.

I’m thrilled to welcome you to an exciting September of treats here, but before that, my favorites from August.

Favorite August books:

• Middlemarch, George Eliot. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? 😆 I finished up the slow read with

  haley larsen, phd
  and was both sad for the book to end and happy not to have to lug that monster around any longer. I read this as a teenager and was surprised and how little I remembered. The slow read pace was the perfect way to enjoy this book, which felt quite contemporary, especially in its attitude toward gossip and the search for satisfying work to occupy oneself. It’s a classic for a reason.

• Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian. Part memoir, part nature and biology exploration, this book felt like I escaped into the woods alongside the author. Between the beautiful writing and all the scientific details about mushrooms and other creatures that have less PR than the cuddly types, I found this enchanting. I’m not trained in science beyond high school, so there were a few points when her knowledge vastly outstripped mine, but her enthusiasm kept me engaged all the way through the book. Such a treat.

• Consider Yourself Kissed, Jessica Stanley. This feels like an excellent back-to-school read, as it takes a romance from the happy summer phase into the more challenging bit that comes after. I enjoy a romance, but this one felt more like a human story, with the seams and tricky points on full display as a relationship struggles through the pandemic, many political crises, and the combining of families. Great characters and real heart abound.

• The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams. There’s nothing like a dictionary story to hook me. My stepmother recommended this book (thanks

  Anne Donahue
  !) closer to when it came out, and it’s taken me until now to get to it. Following a fictional character alongside the historical figures who created the Oxford English Dictionary, this book asks excellent questions about whose words get recorded and how we decide what aspects of a language are official or correct. Spanning the end of the nineteenth century up through the first world war, this novel pay special attention to the women who surrounded the process and those who contributed directly to the dictionary without receiving the same acknowledgement and compensation as the male staff. Another back to school treat of a read.

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You may have missed (I’ve been busy!)

I’ve teamed up with

Simon Haisell

and

Katherine May

this month, for a live and a guest post about back to school in Germany, respectively.

Simon Haisell and I had a great chat about A.S. Byatt, which is up for everyone to watch. Learn one of the books Simon will be doing a slow read of in 2026 (spoiler: it’s not Possession, but it IS A.S. Byatt — even more to look forward to!)

Weekend Journaling Prompt

Katherine invited me to write a guest post for the Clearing for last week, and it was so much fun. Everyone can read the article and paid members of Katherine’s also get the full journal prompt and a fun syllabus template I created.

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Other inspiring reads:

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• Love these two-card spreads for midlife from

  Claire Amritavani Brown
  . Nothing like a tarot pull to sort my brain out.

• Elissa Altman
  nails the human condition yet again. This one floored me.

• Chris Guillebeau
  shares an excellent reframe for keeping control of your time and energy as we speed into fall.

• If you enjoyed Pack Like a German,

  Annie Scott
  gives you the Eccentric Middle Age Packing Lady. I think these two packers need to be friends.

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Coming in September

I’m delighted to have several adventures to share for the coming month.

• Possession’s slow read begins on September 1. Reading schedule goes up this Wednesday, 27 August.

• Our members live this month will be a chat about Possession on 19 September.

• I’m traveling to the UK from 25 September to, among other excitement, take a sewing workshop with Merchant & Mills. I cannot wait to share what I learn there, nor the haul I will most certainly bring home from my first-ever in person trip to their shop.

• I’m testing out a few planner options as we edge toward the end of the year. Stay tuned for a compare and contrast review of all the systems I’ve tried so you can prepare for next year.

May your month be filled with joyous stationery and stories.

lots of love,
Caroline