Slavic peoples get their physical characteristics from potatoes, their smoldering inquietude from radishes, their seriousness from beets.

Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

That’s me! After too many books on pregnancy, birth, and child development in the past four years, I picked up Jitterbug Perfume to re-read it after 10 years. It felt surprising — characters somewhat familiar, but I’ve forgotten the twists of the plot. And delightful — my English has certainly improved over the past decades so fewer puns are lost on me.