July. At my house.

Get ready because this month was a wild one.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. A man wakes up in a spaceship all by himself and slowly remembers he’s supposed to be saving Earth from some kind of alien creature viral infection that is causing the opposite of global warming. I mean, that’s some kind of drama. But then he meets an actual alien who is trying to save his planet as well.

I enjoyed the book enough that I’d actually kind of like to see the movie.

The Taking of Jemima Boone by Matthew Pearl. This is the true story of how Jemima (daughter of the famous frontiersman Daniel Boone) and 2 of her friends were captured by a group of Cherokee and Shawnee warriors while the girls were looking for flowers to decorate their home.

I thought this was going to be the story of how clever these 3 girls were, using their wits and skill to leave a trail of clues for her dad and a group of rescuers to find them. But I was wrong.

This was a book about men fighting and bargaining and creating treaties that ended up being a load of hooey that ended in violence. The one thing I will say in favor of this book is that it did not leave you with a nice, tidy, wrapped up in a bow ending that made you feel like it all worked out. No sir. I closed this book feeling nauseous.

So I picked up Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser. Because a fairytale retelling was exactly what I needed. This one is Cinderella, told from the point of view of the stepmother who wouldn’t let Cinderella go to the ball.

I’m not going to spoil anything, but the scene where Cinderella gets out of the coach at the ball and her stepmother sees her… OMG it broke my heart a little. I will also say that the story took a turn there at the end and I suppose we needed a villain, but wow I did not see that coming.

All in all, this one was my favorite book this month.

The last book I read in July that’s worth mentioning was A Court of Thrones and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. I know. This is shocking to everyone who knows me. But this year I wanted to read epic, sweeping novels. Stories that couldn’t be finished in 300 pages. Stories that took thousands of pages and multiple volumes to work themselves out.

Because sometimes life takes time to work itself out.

All I will say about ACOTAR is that the plot has thickened. And I’m actually quite curious about what happens next.

Little House on the Prairie. Best thing I watched all month. By a mile. It inspired me to write this.

Surprisingly worst thing I watched? Singing in the Rain.

I mean the dancing was spectacularly entertaining, but the story line and the acting had me and my friend staring at each other every 5 minutes like…Whaaaaat are we watching?

But then we were too far in and we thought it had to get better. Or maybe we’d get used to it? But we were wrong. So wrong.

And whether they were taken there by force, unexpectedly woke up there, accidentally stumbled into a life they didn’t see coming, or made their own choice to go on the adventure, every single one of them had to figure out what to do next.

Which might explain the weird thing I decided to do next.

Listen, Singing in the Rain could have totally been the weird thing. But…

It turns out that July was also the month I decided it was a perfectly reasonable idea to invite complete strangers from around the world to join me LIVE on Substack to talk freely about one of the biggest life choices they’ve ever made (to leave one country and live in another) and tell us how it’s working out.

What’s awesome is that people were like, Sounds fun, I’m in!

And you’re invited to eavesdrop on the conversations about why and how and what happened after the plane landed.

Here’s what’s coming up in August:

• So you moved to France….Tell me more! (Friday, August 7)

• So you moved to Spain…Tell me more! (Friday, August 14)

• So you moved to Portugal…Tell me more! (Friday, August 21)

• So you moved to Italy…Tell me more! (Friday, August 28)

Can’t join us live? No problem. I’ll send the replay every Sunday.

And if you’ve ever found yourself wondering, “Okay...but what’s it really like to live in France?” Or Spain or Portugal or Italy…

Hit reply and tell me what you’d ask. I’ll see if I can get your question answered LIVE by our guests.

Your friend who had to be reminded that Daniel Boone was NOT The King of the Wild Frontier (that was Davy Crockett and now you have that song stuck in your head too,

Vivian

PS. Tell me about July at your house.

PPS. And if what you’ve been doing is looking around, thinking: “How am I supposed to fit a 5-bedroom house I’ve lived in for 25 years into 4 suitcases and a personal item that fits under the seat?” If that question has been keeping you up at night, I wrote a special email series for you called, “We Are Not Taking the Whole House With Us.”

Because one of the biggest parts of moving abroad happens long before you ever get on the plane. It has nothing to do with visas or taxes or whether you’ll be able to use your US phone number. It has everything to do with deciding what comes with you into your next life.

PPPS. If you could eavesdrop on one more “So You Moved to...” conversation, what country would you choose? I’m making a list. 😊