Good Things List No.97: Southwest England, Travel Packing Wins, Book Reviews, and More
Good things to do, buy, read, and watch: a trip through southwest England, my packing and travel wins, eight book reviews, and more.
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Happy almost summer! June always seems like summer to me, no matter what the weather or that officially summer isn’t until the third week. As a kid it always meant summer and it’s hard to break that even after all the years!
Anyway, we spent half of May traveling (more on that below) and the other half trying to get a handle on all the garden things. But it was a great month where we got to see new things and then spend some wonderful family time when we returned. And now June (and summer…) beckons – and I’m ready for it!
Good Things List
2 Weeks in Southwest England
At the end of April we flew from Portland, Oregon to London (direct for the win!) and spent the next 14 days traveling throughout southwest England, starting and ending in London. This map from the Polar Steps app shows the general outline of our trip to give you an overall idea. (I used the app to record what we did each day- it was a good way to remember to take pictures of things to remember what we did, plus family could follow along if they wanted through a link.)
Bath, Oxford, Exeter, Boscastle
We started our trip in Bath for four days taking a bus from Heathrow after arriving. It was my FAVORITE. The whole city is a World Heritage Site and you get that with every step no matter where you are. I loved every minute of it. We stayed in an adorable Airbnb located in the basement level of an 1800s townhouse across from a lovely park and in walking distance to all the good stuff.
We rented a car on our last full day in Bath and took a day trip into Oxford to connect with a friend and it was fun to see the amazing buildings we’ve seen in lots of TV shows, as well as the blooming roses and wisteria.
From Bath we drove south through Exeter (that’s their cathedral Brian is standing in front of) before heading west to Boscastle in Cornwall (this was our Airbnb there – lovely host and nice area, but steep stairs to bathroom and bedroom). The rural countryside was gorgeous, but our favorite was hiking the South West Coast Path, a national trail that is over 600 miles long around the entire edge of southwest England. We spent time on it in various places, but the walk from Boscastle to Tintagel was the best for us – the beautiful weather and panoramic ocean views.
Cornwall, Dorset, Weymouth, London
While in Cornwall we took day trips from our Airbnb south along the coast, visiting a manor house (Pencarrow – loved the tour), surfing (Brian, lol), and going as far as Penzance to visit the beautiful gardens at St. Michael’s Mount, which is almost to the farthest point of England on the Atlantic.
We left our Cornwall Airbnb and drove southeast, making our way back towards London along the coast stopping in Dartmoor National Park to experience the moors and the quaint beach town of Weymouth for a couple days where we stayed in a cute historic flat (a couple blocks from the ocean, though not the most charming area). We returned our rental car and took the train over the countryside to London for the last days of our trip.
London was amazing – and tiring! So much walking to be able to see all we wanted to in our limited time there. Thankfully we missed the 95 degree heat wave they’ve had the past few weeks – the second week of May was gray, windy, and about 63 on a good day. Our city Airbnb (in Southwark) was just 2 blocks from a tube station one way and the Thames river the other so we could easily walk or ride to many major attractions – including a walk through Hyde Park’s Rose Garden, the Tower Bridge, and even a play at the Globe Theater (worth the price!). I had a lot of tea there, but only one “afternoon tea” (or high tea) because it’s not cheap, lol. It made for a lovely memory, though.
It was a lot of planning and a lot of pieces to keep juggling over a 16-day period, but in the end we had a blast and really feel like we got to see a lot of different parts of England, from small villages, to resort towns, to rural countryside and moors, to big city life. It was amazing.
Travel Win: Compression Cubes
I’ve been a packing cube fan for awhile, both for being able to cram more in them as well as for organization while traveling, but this compression set is a bit bigger than my other cubes and, crucially, has zippers you can use after packing to compress it down further. Two of the mid-size cubes fit side-by-side in my suitcase, right over my two pairs of pants and pair of shoes.
One cube held underwear, socks, leggings, etc. and the other held all my tops. Keeping them in the cubes made it so easy to keep organized as we moved through four Airbnb’s during our trip! (I only used the two medium size cubes and don’t see me ever using the largest one, though I do think I will use the smaller one for shorter trips – for the good price, though, I’m not worried that I didn’t use them all.)
Travel Win: Small Travelon Crossbody
This small anti-theft Travelon crossbody replaced my previous too-big crossbody bag and worked perfectly for me. It held my cards in the slots and lip balm, readers, and sunglasses in the main section with my phone on the outer pocket. (I find this brand to be one of the best with straps that can’t be cut and zippers with locks – they have other sizes if you need something bigger.) The smaller size also helped it fit more easily into my personal bag for the flight. It also converts to a sling-style bag or waist bag.
May Books Read
Villette, Charlotte Bronte. I had read that this book was a favorite of many people and was better than Jane Eyre. And while I can see the wonderful prose, the sly building of the story, and the unreliable narrator, I could only make it about 75% (it’s a loooong book) before I caved and read a synopsis of the rest. I found it so slooow and actually too psychological (though this is a point others love) and depressing for me (unrequited love, etc.). Just another example of not every book is for everybody. The most interesting parts to me were the descriptions on how people lived at that time (of course), and the shock of how little options a woman had without family – she is just alone traveling in the dark to places she doesn’t know looking for a way to live. Makes you glad to live as a woman now, for sure.
The Uncool, Cameron Crowe. I have been fascinated with Cameron Crowe’s story since I first heard about it when the movie Almost Famous came out years ago. How on earth could a 15 year old get interviews with popular musicians and have them published in magazines like Rolling Stone? As I found out from this memoir, it’s who you know and random events (which seems to be a theme with many memoirs I’ve read). In this case, Crowe’s sister was working on a local San Diego newspaper and randomly invited him to a meeting (why? who knows…). One thing led to another and he was interviewing anyone he could at all the concerts he usually went to – and most were up-and-coming musicians who’d go on to be big stars. His pieces got the attention of Rolling Stone, who didn’t know his age at the beginning. Some people mentored him, gave him breaks, etc. I’ve seriously read this same type of thing so many times that I understand the saying more of “it’s not how talented you are, it’s who you know” and to that I’d add “and random events line up.” It’s one of the reasons I like listening to memoirs, to think if this one thing hadn’t happened or had gone differently, we wouldn’t have this other great thing.
Buckeye, Patrick Ryan. This is a book I probably wouldn’t have read if not for it being featured on many online lists. Since it was on hold months at the library, I had forgotten what it was about and went into it blind (was “buckeye” because it was set in Ohio or something? Turns out – yes and no). It’s a historical fiction novel set in the 1940s through 40+ years of two families in a small town in Ohio (yes, it’s set there, but it’s also the nickname one of the kids gives the other) and how their lives intertwine and are forever altered by a wartime kiss and subsequent affair. I will say it was interesting with the different storylines and held my attention, but it wasn’t really the type of books I prefer. The characters aren’t very likable and seem selfish (but blame it on their upbringing, as if no one can change…) and I just didn’t relate to how the women thought, which when written by a male always takes me out of the story – I’m just like, he doesn’t get us, lol. Plus it’s just a kind of depressing story.
The Second Life of Muriel West, Amanda Skenmore. Full disclosure – I did not finish this after about the halfway mark. I just couldn’t handle the leprosy storyline (starting in the 1920s) and the treatment of the people with the disease at that time. The idea that the woman sent against her will and never seeing her kids again until they were grown – ugh. Even though I read in the synopsis that she meets someone there and marries again, and grows as a person, it doesn’t make up for it and I had to bale. It could’ve been my frame of mind and at a different time I would be able to finish, but I’ve learned after many years to be okay when a book just isn’t for me at the time.
Counterweights, Shannan Martin. Well. This isn’t sounding good – three books I did not finish this month (got about 75% through this one). I do have to say that the last book I read by this author didn’t sit well with me and I picked this up grudgingly because it was being highlighted by so many online. And I loved the idea of the title and totally believe it to be true: focus on the good things in life when other things get dark and hard (Brian and I are listening to a Corrie Ten Boom bio right now and it’s 100% the case with her and her sister in the Nazi camps!). But this book is WAY too political, like the author has a major grudge now that colors all her writing. And worse, it seems she’s abandon much of her faith which makes the counterwieghts she mentions seem hollow (she admits to not praying anymore – what? Prayer grounds me, I don’t know where I’d be without it – especially when I don’t feel like it). There are good things in here, though – feel free to make up your own mind if you choose to read it.
The Strength of the Few, James Islington. This is the sequel to The Will of The Many and Brian and I are listening to this series together. We both really enjoyed the continuing story and setting of this book, though I do have to say it was harder to follow than the first book. This one splits the world into 3 different ones where are hero, Vis, exists in each at the same time. This meant we had to keep track of not only the different characters in each, but also the different landscapes, things that could happen in them, and that Vis was a bit different in each (the main being he had lost his arm in 2 of them, but not in the third). We’d stop the book a lot to go through where he was and what was happening (I really wish every chapter had started with the name of the world – that would’ve made listening SO much easier!). But this does not take away from the fact that it was a good book and a good story – one that had us guessing and gasping in turns.
The Last Lady B, Eloisa James. From the cover art and blurb I thought this book would be a lighthearted historical romance – which it was, to a degree. But in the end I didn’t care for the first-person narration (so we never know what anyone else is thinking), the faux-gothic ghost elements, the seemingly forced humor, or that it was more open door than I had thought.
Platform Decay, Martha Wells. Ah, Martha Wells…maybe it’s just too much when you get really popular and the pressure is on? This is the latest in the Murderbot Diaries series which Brian and I have listened to together and have really loved (especially the first stories). But this left us bewildered – so much explaining of the world details, so many “emotion checks,” and an ending that literally stopped right when we thought the action would start, lol. Basically, it just seemed a bit boring to us – nothing much happened (they just traverse a space-world while trying to escape) and there wasn’t even a whole lot of interaction between Murderbot and his people (and no ART – it came in at the end which is why I thought something would finally be interesting!). Our least favorite of the series (though not all agree – some reviews think it’s the best, lol).
Watching
Remarkably Bright Creatures, Netflix. As one of the best books I read in 2023 I was happy to see this adaptation done well and with an amazing Sally Field in the lead. Of course they had to condense things and so change a few things, but the heart of the movie was the same – as well as the emotion.
That’s it for another addition of the Good Things List!
If you’d like to see more of what I’m enjoying, you can check out all the Good Things Lists here. I’d love to know what you think – if you’ve tried any of these or what you’d recommend. Leave a comment below with your thoughts!
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