Kiss, Marry or Kill: 63 (travel edition)

I just got back from Switzerland. Here are the travel-related things I liked, one I LOVED SO HARD... and things I didn't use at all. (You can reference these for ANY trip!)

This is my weekly series for subscribers only, where I’ll share things that caught my eye this week in a fun and flirty way (kiss), a sustainable way (marry), or a not-so-good way (kill). And yes, this trendy game is technically “f***, marry, or kill” but we run a family-friendly-ish show around here.

Kiss (things I like right now)

📕 The Joe Ledger Series by Jonathan Maberry (←listened with my ears)

Remember a few summers back, when I listened to the entire Jack Carr The Terminal List series, narrated by the inimitable Ray Porter? I listened non-stop for months, two summers in a row, to the point where I couldn’t tolerate anyone but Porter in my ears.

Over the winter, I discovered another series narrated by Porter, in a very similar vein. Joe Ledger is an agent with the DMS (Department of Military Sciences), a clandestine government organization fighting some weird-ass threats to national security. Zombies, vampires, aliens… they exist not in a horror/science fiction way, but in a “the science behind these encounters is horrifying and also probably real somewhere” kind of way.

Ledger is similar to Reese in that he’s the baddest of the bad-asses. However, he’s got a fantastic sense of humor, an equally impressive and endearing team, and stories just out there enough to keep me enraptured. And, of course, RAY PORTER.

The series has full books interspersed with short novellas that embellish on the stories. The novellas aren’t available on audiobook, so I skipped them and just listened to the full books. The books are long, too—14 to 18 hours—which I loved. Plus I found many of them on Hoopla and Libby, letting me listen for free.

See the books in order here, and start with Patient Zero—which sucked me in SO hard.

🧳 Compression cubes that actually compress

When I bought my Monos suitcases (which I love, but did not use on this trip), I also bought their coordinated packing cubes. When I was practice-packing for Switzerland, I was struggling. I practically passed out trying to fully compress them, and most of the time one side of the cube just wouldn’t zip. I was super frustrated because I had my packing list down and didn’t want to compromise.