If there is anything cuter in the world than an eighteen-month-old, I don't know what it is.

And yet. They sure do keep you busy.

But because of that busy I've been listening to more books and I've got a new! (qualified) book recommendation for you.

I just finished listening to Dan Well's Partials. 

From Goodreads:

The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials--engineered organic beings identical to humans--has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out. Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what's left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she's not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them--connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.

 Well. Sounds kind of amazing, right? I mean Kira is definitely a tough cookie. And you know what I liked best about her? She doesn't assume because smart people have been working on a problem for a long time that she won't be able to solve it. Isn't that important? I mean, so what if people who have more experience, are older and are wiser or whatever have been working on a problem. That doesn't mean the young whipper-snapper won't be the person to think of the solution. I don't mean that to sound snarky: it is really what I enjoyed about her. A specific kind of fearlessness.

 Unfortunately, Kira and I aren't bound to be BFFs (which is a word my boys just learned on the bus. They crack me up sometimes). Kira is a well-drawn character. At least, she should be. And maybe for some people she is. But there was something missing for me. That extra little bit of humanity or common experience that takes a character from interesting to living. So I leave this to you. If you like sci fi and post-apocalyptic novels, you will likely enjoy this. Dan Well's is clearly an excellent writer. And he attended my alma mater, so I like him for that too.