If you were in the path of Hurricane Helene, I hope you are okay. I have family in Florida and South Carolina. They were all impacted in different ways - mostly power outages, lots of rain, and debris down on the ground. But they are safe and that's what matters most.

During the storm, we kept in touch on our family text strings. It put my mind at ease to know what was happening on the ground. After the storm cleared, my mom even shared pictures from her morning explorations. By sheer luck, the trees and limbs that came down in their area did not hit anything important.

How did you weather the storm?

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I’m about 50 pages from the end of Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan. This feels like the YA series that will not end. It's not bad, I'm just not flying through it as quickly as I usually do with YA. I'm used to devouring 50 pages in a night. With this book, I can barely manage 10. I think that is partly because I take so much time to stop and think about the characters. The "demons" look more like animals. When the author describes them, I always find myself stopping to visualize them in my head.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• Keeping time running in a war zone. [The Atlantic - gift link]

• I agree with this list except for the canned chicken. Canned chicken is great for chicken salad. [The Takeout]

• She deserved the purse. [WaPo - gift link]

• I love this and I might need to steal it as an idea. [The Atlantic - gift link]

• Our parents can surprise us. [Over the Influence]

• The business of reading romance. [Culture Study]

• I have never read Robert Caro. I really should. [The Daily]

• Henry V: Hero or villain? [Noble Blood]

• A look at different kinds of discipline for kids. [Raising Parents]

• Modern medieval warfare. [Atlas Obscura]

• Now that we have Max, we could stream Civil War. If you didn't know going into the movie that this centered on photojournalist characters, you might be disappointed. There is action but not nearly as much as the title implies. I thought the story was decent but kind of missed the mark on what the purpose of photojournalism actually is. The plot is also pretty uncreative - we were able to call all the major character deaths within the first five minutes. [Max]

• Because we watched Civil War, Max recommended a lot of political documentaries to us. One of those was Stopping the Steal. This covered the ins and outs of the Trump campaign's attempt to overturn the election resulted. I thought it was fascinating that the creators only interviewed Republicans or those who worked with Trump. [Max]

• Roasted sheet pan season is back! This week, I made a favorite: One Pan Garlic Ranch Chicken and Veggies. We use skinless chicken thighs and I skip the brown sugar step. Still delicious and much less fuss. Highly recommend buying the ranch seasoning in a multi-pack because you will want to make this again. [Damn Delicious]

• For my lunch meal prep, I made Tuscan Tomato Salad. It was simple but so good. The raw red onions sort of got pickled in the dressing which helps them lose their bite. Because of that, they ended up being my favorite bit. Stretched across three days, the serving was a bit skimpy. I'd either double the recipe or opt to only go for two servings out of this. [the kitchn]

A modern take on Make Way for Ducklings. [Bird Photographer of the Year]

When does blue turn into green? Is My Blue Your Blue let’s you compare to others to see what your cut-off blue to green color is.

I have to get fingerprinted as a part of my paperwork to volunteer at my kid’s school. I’ve undergone plenty of background checks, but this is the first one that requires fingerprinting.