I glanced at the last audio book on the shelf. The Total Money Makeover, the title read

December 2015

MYresolve not to think about the recent developments until the end of winter break lasted about two days.

I found myself in the local library, hunting for books about fertility, desperate to learn something — anything — my college biology classes hadn’t taught me. I gathered a small stack of books, covering everything from acupuncture to diets to meditation, and was just heading toward the checkout station when the library’s small audio book section caught my eye.

Might as well pick something out while I’m here, I thought, and walked over. Vacation would be over next week, and I had an hour-long commute to my teaching fellowship at a public high school. I’d been devouring audio books during the long commute, and had already listened my way through a large part of this section of the library.

I flipped past several titles I’d already finished, then passed over some recordings in German and Japanese. Frowning at the third volume of a fantasy series — the series looked cool, but I wasn’t going to start with the third book — I glanced at the last audio book on the shelf. The Total Money Makeover, the title read.

We pay off $1,080 in loans every month, I thought, remembering last week’s conversation with my husband. We could probably use a money makeover. I placed the audio book at the top of the stack, checked out, and headed home.