Welcome to The Well-Read Week — a Sunday morning newsletter written for moms like you who love books and are trying to find the time to read them.
Hello!
This weekend we did our back-to-school shopping. Can you believe we’re entering our last week of summer? To my surprise, our school district recently announced a staggered start for incoming Kindergarten students, so my son will only attend one assigned day the first week of school. While I can appreciate the reasoning behind the decision and the opportunity for teachers to ease into the school year and have more one-on-one time to administer assessments, our school schedule was published all the way back in 2024. Working parents like me built our entire summer around that approved schedule: arranging childcare, coordinating vacation schedules with our employers, budgeting for coverage. Announcing a major change less than a month before school starts doesn't just create an inconvenience; it’s part of a pattern where the needs of working parents are treated as an afterthought in decisions that directly affect our ability to hold down jobs and keep our households running. It’s made me think a lot about how I can be more active as an advocate in our community, whether that’s taking on a leadership role in the PTO or the school improvement board or attending district-wide school board meetings to be sure the needs of families are built into the planning process from the start.
Two books that are filled with cozy magic:
🎧 The Someday Garden by Ashley Poston — A story about a grieving gardener who takes a summer job at the enchanting Lilymoor House and stumbles upon a secret garden with a mysterious man trapped inside.
📱 Maggie and Arthur’s Magic Moment by Leslie René — A cozy romantasy about quarrelling professors who have to set aside their differences to leverage their talents against a haunting magic called a “pall”.
Our local library branch has a new online booking system for study rooms. I was able to book a 3-hour block to study for a professional certification on Saturday morning. It was my first time using one of the study rooms, and it worked out perfectly!
This wildly hilarious and relatable story about the great NeeDoh hunt of 2026. Though we’ve had some of the holiday edition NeeDohs for years (they make great stocking stuffers), I did grab the last NiceCube off the shelf at Walgreens a few weeks ago.
Happy reading,
The Well-Read Week is curated by me (@overbookedmama), and delivered to your inbox on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I include affiliate links to my Bookshop.org shelves. While The Well-Read Week is currently a free perk of Overbooked Mama available to all subscribers, I hope you’ll consider buying me a coffee to keep me fueled while I write.
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