tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76054567814839140212024-03-17T22:03:25.360-05:00Lit and LifeFor the Love of Books, Family and LifeLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.comBlogger2698125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-64224184427549930382024-03-17T12:06:00.001-05:002024-03-17T12:06:27.406-05:00Life: It Goes On - March 17<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0maDPlUqx9Dj8FExi8n67bz90rg_Rr5_FDwNUOnkj_XpAlKf8f2-payJIhnThlUBKQL9dmjjhcykP7E3VKRm19BCLZkhHVn2_LCzp8vsPklV6ZUSqbj1UqS64LVhPGYooP6yD-OlIp8IbslkUd5TlIpbgDHKWeKXnitBcq2MaBCQ3Z4HDZq2EAu3vzRtK/s1000/flat,750x,075,f-pad,750x1000,f8f8f8.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0maDPlUqx9Dj8FExi8n67bz90rg_Rr5_FDwNUOnkj_XpAlKf8f2-payJIhnThlUBKQL9dmjjhcykP7E3VKRm19BCLZkhHVn2_LCzp8vsPklV6ZUSqbj1UqS64LVhPGYooP6yD-OlIp8IbslkUd5TlIpbgDHKWeKXnitBcq2MaBCQ3Z4HDZq2EAu3vzRtK/s320/flat,750x,075,f-pad,750x1000,f8f8f8.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Happy Sunday and happy St. Patrick's Day! We went downtown for dinner last night and the crazies who celebrate by getting drunk were already getting a jump on today. There was a lot of whooping and hollering already going on at 8 p.m.! <p></p><p>It's been hard to believe that we were still in March, as nice as it's been lately; but for the next week, we're going to be reminded of that, with snow in the forecast again. Still, a girl can dream and I'll be heading off to buy new cushions for the patio furniture this week and I've created a shopping list for annuals and perennials. </p><p>Spent a lot of the week working to get my dad into his new home on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Thursday night he was admitted to the hospital, again. We're hoping that this admission is actually solving some of the problems that have been going on for a while now. </p><p><b>Last Week I:</b> </p><div><b>Listened To:</b> <i>Saturday Night at the Lakeside Club </i>by J. Ryan Stradal. Will finish this one today then I think I'll be starting Dani Shapiro's <i>Signal Fires</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Watched:</b> A lot of college basketball, a couple of episodes of <i>The Crown</i>, and a lot of cooking shows. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KBLMqE_MJmlQIwojmW4hCe0EzK9w1wwDZlT09-5sUIiLvxQQQlvAmYoO6ml1YLNOF1ZSQrJ_mck4dLmyVGsx8rvnOloVyjJfuM3TM_ttzu3rGZfL48fV4ce2XRPJaRgs2_k7BMEL9MhlMou1eN12uqiXYEsxJXcxm7NBLoPbpX-QMHRmoB9VC75ZpAFF/s5712/IMG_1399.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4284" data-original-width="5712" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KBLMqE_MJmlQIwojmW4hCe0EzK9w1wwDZlT09-5sUIiLvxQQQlvAmYoO6ml1YLNOF1ZSQrJ_mck4dLmyVGsx8rvnOloVyjJfuM3TM_ttzu3rGZfL48fV4ce2XRPJaRgs2_k7BMEL9MhlMou1eN12uqiXYEsxJXcxm7NBLoPbpX-QMHRmoB9VC75ZpAFF/s320/IMG_1399.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><b>Read:</b> Still bouncing between <i>Vanderbilt</i> and <i>Wandering Stars</i>. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> Shrimp scampi pasta, BLT salad, Rueben sandwiches. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Enjoyed:</b> Tuesday we went to see Disney's <i>The Lion King </i>and were so impressed with the staging, the costumes, and the puppetry. I do love musical theater! </div><div><br /></div><div>Last night we went out to our new favorite Mexican restaurant (it's no lie to say that I've been dreaming about their seafood combo since we went there the first time!) and followed up with drinks, laughs and lots of kvetching with friends at a local brew pub. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</b></div><div><b>
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<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Planning: </b>Plans are, as to be expected, a little up in the air at the moment. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><b>
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<b>Thinking About:</b> </b>What to tackle next for 40 Bags in 40 Days - just 14 days left! </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Feeling: </b>Honestly? Worn out. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>Already looking forward to an Easter weekend visit from my sister, her husband, their son and his wife. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>Are you celebrating St. Patrick's Day in any way? </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-17469131174687935952024-03-14T01:30:00.001-05:002024-03-14T01:30:00.140-05:00The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcBm7anusd5n5ou3k6KkOhotP6dgKhsXA5LvyqGZ-XJnt5hpsiun4EHM5rPyFwPvRpsbCSGd2HFMwOjf2cZAQe-p4gb2WMZx9Bgst3t0UjSkDudphCAYaQKhnAifi0aIGGLAs8lX_FhvCeByEYVg70_Vb28ynjn708R2RAfGfcGkubCJKZ8XvyHvQABRRp/s1000/35068465.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="662" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcBm7anusd5n5ou3k6KkOhotP6dgKhsXA5LvyqGZ-XJnt5hpsiun4EHM5rPyFwPvRpsbCSGd2HFMwOjf2cZAQe-p4gb2WMZx9Bgst3t0UjSkDudphCAYaQKhnAifi0aIGGLAs8lX_FhvCeByEYVg70_Vb28ynjn708R2RAfGfcGkubCJKZ8XvyHvQABRRp/w193-h291/35068465.jpg" width="193" /></a></div>The Last Romantics </i>by Tara Conklin</div><div style="text-align: left;">Read by Cassandra Campbell</div><div style="text-align: left;">12 hours, 14 minutes</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published February 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">In the spring of 1981, the young Skinner siblings — fierce Renee, dreamy Caroline, golden-boy Joe, and watchful Fiona — lose their father to a heart attack and their mother to a paralyzing depression, events that thrust them into a period they will later call “the Pause”. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the siblings navigate the dangers and resentments of the Pause to emerge fiercely loyal and deeply connected.</div>
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Two decades later, the Skinners find themselves again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices they've made and what, exactly, they will do for love.<br />
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Narrated nearly a century later by the youngest sibling, the renowned poet Fiona Skinner, The Last Romantics spans a lifetime. It's a story of sex and affection, sacrifice and selfishness, deeply held principles and dashed expectations, a lost engagement ring, a squandered baseball scholarship, unsupervised summers at the neighborhood pond, and an iconic book of love poems. But most of all, it is the story of Renee, Caroline, Joe, and Fiona: the ways they support each other, the ways they betray each other, and the ways they knit back together bonds they have fractured.<br /><div><br /></div><div><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div><i>The Last Romantics </i>is a book about the things that tie a family together and the things that tear them apart, which makes me very glad to have chosen it as one of this year's book club selections. There's a lot to discuss here, including both the strengths and the weaknesses (in my opinion, of course) of the book. Let's get those (again, in my opinion) weaknesses out of the way first. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Weaknesses: </b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Fiona works, for most of the book, for a climate watch group, which is all very well and good. Except that the book alternates between 100+-year-old Fiona telling a group of fans about her family history while outside it's clear that climate change has, indeed made a powerful impact on the Earth. Except that's not really touched on all that much and it doesn't really impact that story in any way. It could have been left out or incorporated more. </li><li>So the entire reason for Fiona to tell the audience her family's story is to explain to them who the "Luna" that appears in her most famous poem was to her family. We finally get to that point late in the book and then I felt like we got bogged down in that piece of the story. I wanted the story to be about the siblings and not veer off into Luna's story; and then I found the girls' obsession with finding Luna very strange and unlikely. </li></ul><div><b>The Strengths: </b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I do love me a good story about siblings - about their relationships with each other and about who each of them are in their own lives. </li><li>These are particularly strong characters. While Fiona is clearly the main character of the book, each of her siblings are well-developed and any one of them stands on their own. We can clearly see how the young child they were grew into the adults they became and how The Pause impacted that growth. </li><li>There are a lot of themes explored in the book and they never feel forced. </li><li>I very much liked the way Conklin tied up the book. You all know I enjoy a book that doesn't necessarily tie everything neatly with a bow at the end. </li></ul><div>I'm so looking forward to hearing what my book club members think of this one! </div></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-53118047708690479152024-03-12T01:30:00.001-05:002024-03-12T01:30:00.149-05:00Mansfield Park by Jane Austen<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ26v_HVDmE3yemV_MHzEiy8Pbge6DtmXVXrqQi5kPqTYtMYmY5AYFOmxO7dPI1kipmETaMsN3gcsPGmRcOUJu4g1Ocyt1hSMydVQT3Mn1tV6gKXWW-Cbzl4I64kMGirt25B-cZuy7SIPk40cqVrdZaxtMrVDd6CHKD855OROchZ0pqC3DcpcMDOnFoNfb/s349/315FE8CECE427E17B09818A7178A1E48193D31E1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="228" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ26v_HVDmE3yemV_MHzEiy8Pbge6DtmXVXrqQi5kPqTYtMYmY5AYFOmxO7dPI1kipmETaMsN3gcsPGmRcOUJu4g1Ocyt1hSMydVQT3Mn1tV6gKXWW-Cbzl4I64kMGirt25B-cZuy7SIPk40cqVrdZaxtMrVDd6CHKD855OROchZ0pqC3DcpcMDOnFoNfb/w172-h263/315FE8CECE427E17B09818A7178A1E48193D31E1.jpeg" width="172" /></a></div>Mansfield Park </i>by Jane Austen</div><div style="text-align: left;">First published in 1814</div><div style="text-align: left;">About 500 pages, depending on the edition</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I picked this for my book club's classic book for 2024. To say that it was not a hit would be a massive understatement. This is a well-read group of ladies and I have thrown a lot of different things at them over the years, but the lesson here is that 500 pages of early 19th century sensibility, with a lot of dialogue but not a lot of action, doesn't work for these ladies. But this book doesn't work for a lot of people for exactly the same reasons my book club didn't enjoy it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Fanny Price is not the same kind of heroine that Austen's readers are more familiar with - she is quiet, physically weak, and lets people run all over her. In her defense, she was thrown into a situation at ten-years-old where it was made clear to her that she was inferior to her cousins, entirely dependent on her uncle's largesse, likely suffered from indoor allergies, and was treated as little more than a servant by so many in her family. Her one and only true ally was cousin Edmund, a young man who grew up knowing that he would become a member of the clergy; the two of them, probably rightly so, tended to the higher ground. We do at least see Edmund nearly fall prey to Mary Crawford and Fanny finally stand up for herself when she refuses Henry Crawford, despite the risk to herself. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Austen isn't without social commentary in <i>Mansfield Park</i>. Because of the Bertram's holdings in Antigua, Austen does touch on slavery. We look at the huge imbalance of wealth and the cost to all involved. Fanny's family is so poor that they must send Fanny away to live elsewhere and her brother goes into the Navy at a very young age to earn his way while the Bertram girls grow up knowing that they will be required to marry well, regardless of warmth of affection or intelligence. Fanny's aunt Bertram is indolent while her Aunt Norris is forced to prove herself worthy of Sir Bertram's continuing support. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For me, <i>Mansfield Park </i>was a reread, but I will admit that it's a slow read. The satire is not as striking and there is not as much outright humor as there is in others of Austen's books. And the ending is, in my opinion, not quite up to snuff. We have spent hundreds of pages being shown what was happening in Fanny's world only to be told what happens and how we should feel about it. We are meant to dislike Henry Crawford very much in the end (although his character may have grown the most throughout the book, thanks to Fanny) and meant to believe that Fanny and Edmund were always meant to be together. But Austen could easily have let Henry become the man Fanny seemed to believe her was becoming (a man who sees a better way, much like Darcy in <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>). But Austen, who was writing in the time of broad Gothic romance, seemed to have preferred to steer away from that. It would have made a more interesting ending. Although, let's be honest, we would not have gotten to see Maria Bertram Rushworth get the ending she deserved. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-38067570058587635152024-03-10T17:00:00.002-05:002024-03-10T17:00:05.808-05:00Life: It Goes On - March 10<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TcpxWFgsRBwhRTPDKOgu1Ypt5Fv2TiNWtOrwbCKBKIo589jCDYHTlIL93aG_L7bSNxuWvi6VSoYKuy64F-o_EC9orVhYq7bQz7c4hF7YJOPeBjbRkIdu4Lt2ISZLKLWWaPwTwSkhjn4kOBc9EVr2z14Jd8vd_ylJWeOjNZUzsSZNSUG_NrtRtXuYvWjt/s258/Life_Spring.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="152" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TcpxWFgsRBwhRTPDKOgu1Ypt5Fv2TiNWtOrwbCKBKIo589jCDYHTlIL93aG_L7bSNxuWvi6VSoYKuy64F-o_EC9orVhYq7bQz7c4hF7YJOPeBjbRkIdu4Lt2ISZLKLWWaPwTwSkhjn4kOBc9EVr2z14Jd8vd_ylJWeOjNZUzsSZNSUG_NrtRtXuYvWjt/s1600/Life_Spring.jpg" width="152" /></a></div>Happy Sunday! What is it about Sundays for that past few months that they are almost always sunny as I'm typing these posts? Sunny and we're climbing back up into the warmth, after some chilly days and a little snow that reminded us that this is still Nebraska in March and we shouldn't be getting too eager for spring just yet. Of course, the arrival of daylight savings time makes it feel even more like spring is just around the corner. <p></p><p><b>Last Week I:</b> </p><div><b>Listened To:</b> I finished Tara Conklin's <i>The Last Romantics</i>. Nothing I had on hold was going to be ready for a couple of more weeks, so I had to find something to listen to in the interim. In classic Lisa fashion, I've checked out three audiobooks, at least one of which is go back unread when I run out of time. The question is, which if these should I listen to first? </div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXfIQ8RPLkUs2wWGwc0SBbtgakQRm2tyMOv4H9eSs1d6vY3oBQGjLjNLpIOPCnnRzEUKm7ipG0HAKO7b83_vpc-JC1oa3NH3HxkqDg1pEYw7AzR9YHc8MzCICDR-DbL-ozdYLYiXHxTJ_1R_oz4F_5XcNgmHzLdxPrXVtbddSv1Noh_awVs0A207JeTZdF/s3264/books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1641" data-original-width="3264" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXfIQ8RPLkUs2wWGwc0SBbtgakQRm2tyMOv4H9eSs1d6vY3oBQGjLjNLpIOPCnnRzEUKm7ipG0HAKO7b83_vpc-JC1oa3NH3HxkqDg1pEYw7AzR9YHc8MzCICDR-DbL-ozdYLYiXHxTJ_1R_oz4F_5XcNgmHzLdxPrXVtbddSv1Noh_awVs0A207JeTZdF/w561-h282/books.jpg" width="561" /></a></div><br />Watched:</b> Again, lots of basketball. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Read:</b> Still working on Anderson Cooper's <i>Vanderbilt</i>. Just haven't had much time (or ability to focus) to sit down and read. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> Bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin, the leftovers of which we've used to make Cuban sandwiches, and Monte Cristo sandwiches, the first time (but not the last!) I've ever had them. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Enjoyed:</b> My brother and sister-in-law made a last-minute, 36-hour trip up to see my dad and help get his things moved into his new assisted living apartment. Let me tell you, if you want something done, have my sister-in-law help. The woman is tireless, a real problem solver, and will do whatever needs to be done. There are a couple of small things still to be done and all of the things to hang on the walls, but his place otherwise went from empty on Friday at 4 p.m. to fully settled by 2 p.m. today. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</b></div><div><b>
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<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGMaYzEsn9-IHF56qKSJkTRniHuOIhR39h5xrNwSk8V_zwhiRJOyIwUuRBmimocEP_XBTNSOVkzlIOqK2P8VuWOYtsX-pRs6BgjcY7i0U_ewau8MZ2hwBSGH-IH9jzkgQa4fF_cUHsqrrlzYP6FO-H7-Asljm6aUaHj9ZxYH_vTsoF60jNXeyEVuLoo3pA/s736/7646427ab14263fa609dbbcaf70b8002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="736" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGMaYzEsn9-IHF56qKSJkTRniHuOIhR39h5xrNwSk8V_zwhiRJOyIwUuRBmimocEP_XBTNSOVkzlIOqK2P8VuWOYtsX-pRs6BgjcY7i0U_ewau8MZ2hwBSGH-IH9jzkgQa4fF_cUHsqrrlzYP6FO-H7-Asljm6aUaHj9ZxYH_vTsoF60jNXeyEVuLoo3pA/w203-h203/7646427ab14263fa609dbbcaf70b8002.jpg" width="203" /></a></div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Planning: </b>The first few days of this week will be all about getting my dad into the new place with meetings tomorrow, Tuesday and the move on Wednesday. Then it's back to continuing the decluttering of my house! I did get another load to the Goodwill on Friday. Every time I fill my car up again, I feel a weight lifted. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">
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<b style="font-weight: bold;">Thinking About: </b>A long weekend getaway. Or at least a quick trip to KC to see Miss H. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Feeling: </b>Tired - mentally and physically. Moving is not for the faint of heart, even when you have great help, a good plan, and you use movers (although they were supposed to unpack and then couldn't). </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>The Big Guy and I are off to see <i>The Lion King </i>on Tuesday. Not the best timing but it will be nice to do something that completely takes my mind off of the things that need to be done for a couple of hours. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>How do you feel about daylight savings time? If you hate it, is it just the change over or do you not like it for the entire time we're in it? I love the long evenings of sunshine so much, that I'm willing to have my sleep schedule disturbed a little for a few days to have those long days. </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-1849337073842083202024-03-07T01:30:00.001-06:002024-03-07T01:30:00.252-06:00Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond Productivity Culture by Jenny Odell<i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt7auJfQ9hxWJs-dxrRadfi6CkpsXKXXlbVfGCa9xt4jmmgPic0Vui99SlIz1KDUj9qoDmEmRCR20nWDUWFardgIacEuX5B1U3PnLj0hxtO1Z2c0zbRJG1sWOBCtwHRZOl4POXne6D2GtjAUI1-FQVr3f5UAPB764X0UkO85hToI_j6E1_pllKE4vEeUK-/s595/lf-2.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="391" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt7auJfQ9hxWJs-dxrRadfi6CkpsXKXXlbVfGCa9xt4jmmgPic0Vui99SlIz1KDUj9qoDmEmRCR20nWDUWFardgIacEuX5B1U3PnLj0hxtO1Z2c0zbRJG1sWOBCtwHRZOl4POXne6D2GtjAUI1-FQVr3f5UAPB764X0UkO85hToI_j6E1_pllKE4vEeUK-/w186-h283/lf-2.webp" width="186" /></a></div>Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond Productivity Culture</i> by Jenny Odell<div>Read by Kristen Sith</div><div>11 hours, 27 minutes</div><div>Published March 2023 by Random House Publishing Group</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Publisher's Summary: </b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">In her first book, </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">How to Do Nothing,</i><span style="background-color: white;"> Jenny Odell wrote about the importance of disconnecting from the “attention economy” to spend time in quiet contemplation. But what if you don’t have time to spend?</span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In order to answer this seemingly simple question, Odell took a deep dive into the fundamental structure of our society and found that the clock we live by was built for profit, not people. This is why our lives, even in leisure, have come to seem like a series of moments to be bought, sold, and processed ever more efficiently. Odell shows us how our painful relationship to time is inextricably connected not only to persisting social inequities but to the climate crisis, existential dread, and a lethal fatalism.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white;">This dazzling, subversive, and deeply hopeful book offers us different ways to experience time—inspired by pre-industrial cultures, ecological cues, and geological timescales—that can bring within reach a more humane, responsive way of living. As planet-bound animals, we live inside shortening and lengthening days alongside gardens growing, birds migrating, and cliffs eroding; the stretchy quality of waiting and desire; the way the present may suddenly feel marbled with childhood memory; the slow but sure procession of a pregnancy; the time it takes to heal from injuries. Odell urges us to become stewards of these different rhythms of life in which time is not reducible to standardized units and instead forms the very medium of possibility.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;" /><i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">Saving Time</i><span style="background-color: white;"> tugs at the seams of reality as we know it—the way we experience time itself—and rearranges it, imagining a world not centered on work, the office clock, or the profit motive. If we can “save” time by imagining a life, identity, and source of meaning outside these things, time might also save us.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;">We tend to think of time as a constant, an inexorable movement forward, marked by the clock or calendar as we know it and we live our lives accordingly. It's six a.m. so it's time to get out of bed, it's 5 p.m. so it's time to leave work, the show starts at 7 p.m., your appointment is at 10 a.m. It's Monday so we have to go to work, it's Sunday so some of us will be going to church. We all work on the same clock and calendar so we can agree what time we should be places, what day we'll go to dinner with friends, when our library books are due. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;">Except that we are also aware that even that way to mark time isn't always exact</span>. It's 11 a.m. as I'm writing this in Nebraska, but it's 8 a.m. where my son lives. Easter falls on a different Sunday every year; the official Memorial Day will fall on a different day of the week every sixth year but the day we observe it will be a different date from year to year; Thanksgiving will always be the last Thursday of November but the date will change. Each of us ages slightly differently, even if we were born at the exact same time, place, and date. </div><div><br /></div><div>Odell wants us to be aware that there are a lot of other ways to mark time, that time, as we mark it, has been largely dictated by economic factors and can impact different races differently, and that even climate change is impacting time. </div><div><br /></div><div>We have, in our culture, 4 seasons. But, while the official start of each of those seasons may be the same date every year, the reality is that the seasons begin at only approximately the same time every year. Other cultures have entirely different seasons; they might consider that spring has arrived here because the temperature and plant growth say it has, even though a set date has not arrived. </div><div><br /></div><div>We sell our time to employers, in exchange for the things we need to live. Employers have evolved ever greater ways to get more work out of us for as little cost to them as possible. In Amazon fulfillment centers, every task has a set amount of time for it to be completed and every moment of a worker's day is tracked. UPS has an exacting route for their trucks, maximizing right turns and traffic lights. Very few employers look at ways to increase productivity by creating down time within the work day.</div><div><br /></div><div>We've been convinced, by "experts" that there are ways we can more efficiently use our time outside of work, experts Odell calls "productivity bros." If you get up at five, instead of six, you can find time to exercise, for example. Never mind that you'll have to give up something on the other end of the day in order not to lose sleep. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even our so-called leisure time has become more structured and work like. This blog, for example. When I began it in 2013, I did it to track my reading and to connect with others. But the longer I did it, the more I got caught up in the idea that I needed to do things that would increase traffic to my blog; I felt like I needed to read at least two books a week so that I had plenty of reviews and have a new blog post up five-six times a week. My parents recognized it for the work it had become, but I insisted it was for fun because it was something I was choosing to do. Except that it wasn't fun any more; the blog had become a second job, a job that took up time I could have been doing things I'd have preferred to be doing. </div><div><br /></div><div>Odell presents so many different ways to view and think about time. So many, in fact, and so in depth, that it often became difficult for me to stay focused or understand how this all tied into the larger subject. What I was looking for, more than a way to see time differently, was a way to help myself quit marking time, find ways to ignore the clock, to fully relax and quite worrying so much about what needs to be done. I learned a lot in this book, but I didn't learn that. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-51821995415329519542024-03-05T01:30:00.000-06:002024-03-05T01:30:00.130-06:00Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living by Shauna Niequist <div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQXeThG5AdhzoR9EDg7O7AmZgz40Wnij9IBm-9su8Fp2_1umv_EwAiqfqFeu85X8q2i223n59RbtTv4XCsfejLqI_Xz2FHo6cdGEQW6-wjoo3-GVj2g7CgiRqNWmLoYq04JfK_BFj3wD1HtdTFLuuSGnnX2gvJEkP-GI1DjyJfBDj0Db1JAc84zhtZ_jtd/s595/lf.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="387" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQXeThG5AdhzoR9EDg7O7AmZgz40Wnij9IBm-9su8Fp2_1umv_EwAiqfqFeu85X8q2i223n59RbtTv4XCsfejLqI_Xz2FHo6cdGEQW6-wjoo3-GVj2g7CgiRqNWmLoYq04JfK_BFj3wD1HtdTFLuuSGnnX2gvJEkP-GI1DjyJfBDj0Db1JAc84zhtZ_jtd/w168-h258/lf.webp" width="168" /></a></div>Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living</i> by Shauna Niequist </div><div style="text-align: left;">Read by Shauna Niequist</div><div style="text-align: left;">4 hours, 44 minutes</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published August 2016 by Zondervan</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">A few years ago, Shauna found herself exhausted and isolated, her soul and body sick. She was tired of being tired and burned out on busy. It seemed like almost everyone she talked to was in the same boat: longing for connection, meaning, and depth, but settling for busy.</div>
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But then something changed. She decided to trade the hustle and bustle for grace, love, stillness, and play, and it changed everything. Shauna offers an honest account of what led her to begin this journey and a compelling vision for an entirely new way to live: soaked in rest, silence, simplicity, prayer, and connection with the people who matter most to us.<br />
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As you witness Shauna's journey, you'll be inspired to embark on one of your own. She gives you the encouragement you need to:<br />
<br />
Put an end to people-pleasing tendencies<br />
Embrace moments of simplicity, quiet, and stillness<br />
Accept that you are worthy of love, belonging, and joy<div><br />
Written in Shauna's warm and vulnerable style, this collection of essays focuses on the most important transformation in her life, and maybe yours too: leaving behind busyness and frantic living and rediscovering the person you were made to be. <i>Present Over Perfect</i> is a hand reaching out, pulling you free from the constant pressure to perform faster, push harder, and produce more while maintaining an exhausting image of perfection.<br />
<br /></div><div><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div>One of my coworkers is going through very similar situations with some family members as I have been going through with my dad and through the same work environment. We've had a lot of conversations about the mental, and even physical, toll it has taken on us. She is also a big reader so we often exchange book recommendations. I have never disagreed with her about any book she has recommended to me (although she was not a fan of <i>Lone Women</i>, which she learned about from me; but, in my defense, I told her I liked it but I did <u>not</u> recommend it as something she might like!). So when she came into work one day, excited about this book and already putting Niequist's recommendations into practice, I immediately requested it from the library. </div><div><br /></div><div>One thing I immediately realized was that Niequist leaned heavily into her religious beliefs through her journey. I am no longer what I would call "religious;" rather I would say that I am "spiritual." So I did have to adapt what Niequist was suggesting regarding prayer and turning things over to God into something that I could relate to and use in my own way. In some places, that was harder to do than others. Those of you who are religious will find that Niequist recommends what so many others have done - turn your life over to your god and believe that they will create that outcomes that are right for you. For me, that means acknowledging that some things are simply out of my hands and that my higher power will be there for me regardless of the outcome. </div><div><br /></div><div>Niequist has a lot of famous friends, Jen Hatmaker and Glennon Doyle among them. As I'm fans of both of those folks, their praise of Niequist makes me appreciate that her ideas might just work for me. Saying "no." Cancelling when you need to do so. Making your life easier.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'd like to tell you that, when I was finished, I stopped worrying about how clean or cluttered my house is and just decided that I would learn to live with what I could do with the time and energy that I have after I've done the things that have to be done. I haven't. But I have given myself permission to not do things simply out of guilt or a need to prove myself worthy of love and respect (ok, I'm doing that some of the time; it's a work in progress). One day that may mean the end of this blog. It's work to keep up and I'm not getting the interaction I used to get out of it (that's on me as much as anyone but it's a fact) which makes it less fun than it once was. I may even learn to say "no" to my kids one of these days.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-34008579804492733942024-03-03T12:17:00.004-06:002024-03-03T12:17:54.876-06:00Life: It Goes On - March 3<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG1cCsd7C8QkRg85CKNjg_fpzvTWoWPdXIfnWhc3LOryOzGJYcJRX8l_JRHIjeAByfHMAwihGLyDjbsXkMIZSc4h-6Nz5CNFq9998HPNZXAPr702a2d0PnqMkHT2yz0FDjUo6-KYyEQDcP6_GqKyEG4djLYfikXsYK3NcY1EjVVoqrf1WiKXfbajx2tzSs/s258/Life_Spring.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="152" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG1cCsd7C8QkRg85CKNjg_fpzvTWoWPdXIfnWhc3LOryOzGJYcJRX8l_JRHIjeAByfHMAwihGLyDjbsXkMIZSc4h-6Nz5CNFq9998HPNZXAPr702a2d0PnqMkHT2yz0FDjUo6-KYyEQDcP6_GqKyEG4djLYfikXsYK3NcY1EjVVoqrf1WiKXfbajx2tzSs/s1600/Life_Spring.jpg" width="152" /></a></div>Happy Sunday! What is it about Sundays that so often when I sit down to type this the sun is shining? To be fair, most days lately have been sunny...and warm! We had one very cold day last week but I can handle that as we move closer and closer to spring. My mind is already thinking about how I want to arrange furniture on the patio, what pieces I may get rid of, what pieces I may paint...and the flowers I want to plant, of course! I know that I should be living in the present but thinking about spring is the only way I survive winter. <p></p><p><b>Last Week I:</b> </p><div><b>Listened To:</b> Gretchen Rubin's <i>Life In Five Senses</i>. As so often happens to me when I listen to Rubin's podcast or read one of her books, I learn a lot and I'm inspired. I'm now pondering a project of my own to explore the five major senses. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Watched:</b> A lot of college and high school basketball (it's state tournament time here) and the final episode of <i>Ted Lasso</i>. The Big Guy and I are both so sad to be finished with it; it's so well written. But we've agreed that it's a series we'll probably rewatch. </div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINpBdcrsFq-90wb-JZ4Ic91Mk1g89wej68ah5L0L2o65MuKaxT-fDvj7KgsB1b-F22oe7BI0GNcKx89FpHhaaekvtJO1QGem6UBa-muR8EZ1qfRItAWNjcXcqhLPEZz47-3Ns11ntoU4HaUbgnw_pOdDGNMtp5PuisqOdBGOkiYXJOnlLUEgsmQ_dfw55/s640/Pete-and-Alice-in-Maine-Hardcover-9780063242661_6823441b-b5b1-418f-858a-b7811015debd.63fb4d2231ab5ae7d7a6043c89c84d83.jpeg.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINpBdcrsFq-90wb-JZ4Ic91Mk1g89wej68ah5L0L2o65MuKaxT-fDvj7KgsB1b-F22oe7BI0GNcKx89FpHhaaekvtJO1QGem6UBa-muR8EZ1qfRItAWNjcXcqhLPEZz47-3Ns11ntoU4HaUbgnw_pOdDGNMtp5PuisqOdBGOkiYXJOnlLUEgsmQ_dfw55/w265-h265/Pete-and-Alice-in-Maine-Hardcover-9780063242661_6823441b-b5b1-418f-858a-b7811015debd.63fb4d2231ab5ae7d7a6043c89c84d83.jpeg.webp" width="265" /></a></div>Read:</b> <i>Pete and Alice In Maine </i>by Caitlyn Shetterly. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> I cleaned out the refrigerator yesterday which resulted in BG and I making turkey enchiladas, smashed potatoes, and apple crisp. BG has been doing a lot of the grocery shopping in the past few years but he tends to pick up things we regularly use without checking to see if we actually need them. Hence, we end up with more apples that we could use in the next week, potatoes that need to be used soon, and two heads of broccoli (soup coming up this week!). </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Enjoyed:</b> Dinner out with friends to celebrate his birthday. BG and he have been friends since they were 14; they were dating when she introduced me to BG. Which is to say that we have been through a lot together and always have a lot to talk about. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</b></div><div><b>
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<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Planning: </b>More decluttering here and getting things moving to get my dad moved into assisted living in a couple of weeks. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><b>
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<b>Thinking About:</b> </b>Risking jinxing things and going ahead and taking down the winter decor and putting out the Easter things. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Feeling: </b>Like we might just have done a good job as parents. Last night Miss H sent me a screen shot off her phone of my three kids, Ms S, Ms C, and my nephew all having a FaceTime evening together. We may have done a lot of things wrong, but we did raise kids that are friends as adults and I'm convinced, now more than ever, that is vital to a happier life. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>My brother will be coming up some time in the next couple of weeks and my sister is coming for Easter. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>Are you looking forward to spring or are you a winter lover? </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-29962586338254654922024-02-29T01:30:00.001-06:002024-02-29T01:30:00.139-06:00Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist by Jennifer Wright<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Y59_JTVCl3OOH6ZX9xfmZ3Xi7FUcJmHvYwUEtpQaxdqrEs1OLJ2rh0UmyNuz1HyWpibQp19JXjHS2z0_n6snTIKL4Yq3A3oVNz6l1NdwmE37DmK4-tLxsuNZVjyG3fZLSVLI47gQ1QgRf8HLvhXCBBZQJikugvh1yi3Apvo-juW4Cx6ppfljU2XlBfFC/s595/lf-2.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="394" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Y59_JTVCl3OOH6ZX9xfmZ3Xi7FUcJmHvYwUEtpQaxdqrEs1OLJ2rh0UmyNuz1HyWpibQp19JXjHS2z0_n6snTIKL4Yq3A3oVNz6l1NdwmE37DmK4-tLxsuNZVjyG3fZLSVLI47gQ1QgRf8HLvhXCBBZQJikugvh1yi3Apvo-juW4Cx6ppfljU2XlBfFC/w165-h249/lf-2.webp" width="165" /></a></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist</i> by Jennifer Wright</div><div style="text-align: left;">Read by Mara Wilson</div><div style="text-align: left;">14 hours, 1 minute</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published February 2023 by Hachette Books</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">An industrious immigrant who built her business from the ground up, Madame Restell was a self-taught surgeon on the cutting edge of healthcare in pre-Gilded Age New York, and her bustling “boarding house” provided birth control, abortions, and medical assistance to thousands of women—rich and poor alike. As her practice expanded, her notoriety swelled, and Restell established her-self as a prime target for tabloids, threats, and lawsuits galore. But far from fading into the background, she defiantly flaunted her wealth, parading across the city in designer clothes, expensive jewelry, and bejeweled carriages, rubbing her success in the faces of the many politicians, publishers, fellow physicians, and religious figures determined to bring her down. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Unfortunately for Madame Restell, her rise to the top of her field coincided with “the greatest scam you’ve never heard about”—the campaign to curtail women’s power by restricting their access to both healthcare and careers of their own. Powerful, secular men—threatened by women’s burgeoning independence—were eager to declare abortion sinful, a position endorsed by newly-minted male MDs who longed to edge out their feminine competition and turn medicine into a standardized, male-only practice. By unraveling the misogynistic and misleading lies that put women’s lives in jeopardy, Wright simultaneously restores Restell to her rightful place in history and obliterates the faulty reasoning underlying the very foundation of what has since been dubbed the “pro-life” movement.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Thanks to my friend who shares The New York Times Book Review sections with me, which is where I first learned about this book. I had never heard of Madame Restell, a woman who rose from poverty to self-made millionaire, a woman who offered a service that polite society both frowned on but also found essential, a woman who frightened men by being unafraid of them and their rules. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Madame Restell was born Ann Trow in 1811, becoming a maid-of-all-work, a job that instilled in Ann a sympathy for servants that resulted in her treating her own servants far better than the average servants of the age and in a desire to help those servants in trouble. Ann was married at 16 and moved to the United States with her husband and toddler when she was 20. After her husband's death, Ann was forced to find a way to support herself. With so many women skilled at sewing and unwilling to turn to prostitution, young Ann befriended a man who compounded prescriptions. He taught her how to mix medications that would end pregnancies and may also have been the one who taught her to perform surgical abortions. Ann moved on to her own business, helped by her brother and second husband, Charles Lehman. They created the character of Madame Restell. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">No one seemed to find it at all ironic that, while they scorned Madame Restell and the service she provided, they also made her a very rich woman. Riches she was all too happy to flaunt, which may have resulted in the suffragette movement not standing up in the defense of the services she provided. Restell was forced to battle not only the police and public opinion, but also others who provided the same services. She became a master at advertising and using the press to fight her enemies. But she also spent time in both jail and the penitentiary. In 1878, Restell was arrested for the last time by Anthony Comstock, a man who managed to force his own Puritanical views on an entire country. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This one would be categorized as non-fiction, but it is by no means an unbiased work of non-fiction. To be far to Wright, it's hard not to side against male doctors who refused to adopt hand washing and fought against midwifery until they had all but wiped it out. It's hard not to side with woman being able to get a service they desperately need when they are raped by their employers, when they are impregnated by suiters who abandon them, when they simply cannot conceive of being pregnant for the eighth or ninth time. This in a day and age when "foundlings" weren't allowed in orphanages and were instead sent to almshouses where they were almost certain to die. Wright clearly admires her subject, and the work she did, while acknowledging her flaws. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In <i>Madame Restell</i>, we not only learn about a forgotten woman, but we also learn a great deal about the times in which she lived - society norms, religion, medicine. As always, I was drawn in by the opportunity to dig deeper into a part of history I didn't know all that much about. Wright provides all the background and research needed without overwhelming readers and shows us that, once again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Sadly, not much has changed since Madame Restell's time, other than the fact that an abortion, when legal, is a much safer procedure than it was 200 years ago. </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-23193109107866642552024-02-27T01:30:00.001-06:002024-02-27T01:30:00.129-06:00Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE6f8M4lRN4Q1K1DcezgsSCpqpOK56Vqbq7fvXIJMtRLq3UU9FGJiFwRJEtwNW7JN82ZgXlbUaHrL4ajVc4uDCeL4Qqlrs9ulmyWhaz_BZQgnDOJ8tZENuGqLRLpjIu_4RTEpbt4Yy8wOZ8_MsB3U8UCwFDIvGmeHRGwKawkwMIGl2ze1T0TjwtfzVQFAh/s595/lf.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="595" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE6f8M4lRN4Q1K1DcezgsSCpqpOK56Vqbq7fvXIJMtRLq3UU9FGJiFwRJEtwNW7JN82ZgXlbUaHrL4ajVc4uDCeL4Qqlrs9ulmyWhaz_BZQgnDOJ8tZENuGqLRLpjIu_4RTEpbt4Yy8wOZ8_MsB3U8UCwFDIvGmeHRGwKawkwMIGl2ze1T0TjwtfzVQFAh/w261-h261/lf.webp" width="261" /></a></div>Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune </i>by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe</div><div style="text-align: left;">Read by Anderson Cooper</div><div style="text-align: left;">8 hours, 18 minutes</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published September 2023 by HarperCollins Publishers</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The story of the Astors is a quintessentially American story-of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the Titanic, one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family's story. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In this unconventional, page-turning historical biography, #1 New York Times bestselling authors Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America-offering a window onto the making of America itself.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've been meaning to read Cooper's <i>Vanderbilt </i>for some time. It arrived in my audiobook inbox once, but I still had too long left on the book I was listening to at the time. It arrived in my library as a hold for me recently, but I'd accidentally requested it on CD. One day I'll get to it. In the meantime, I was able to get Cooper's follow up, <i>Astor</i>, which was inspired by the research he'd done into his own family history. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Astor family name is one which I've been familiar with for a long time. I knew a little something about the first John Jacob Astor; I'd heard of John Jacob Astor IV, who sank with the Titanic; and the name Brook Astor was familiar to me, having a vague recollection of the battle over her money after she died. But, as you know, I always love a book that teaches me more about a subject I'm only passingly familiar with - especially when that book is well researched and well written. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGuQT9v1lmDH4XrIePpR8CVttAd6peqEFsUlmYl0ajATpCPiAGhjhwFc4e3O7cIt5xDb7adEdQwa17OV0a6ecqjLXgDx_fubWbHwiYxZy__RpbBjchYoMKOoxoGPTXGMTLeMismP5SFVt_Y75-u1MPXt6xGZNJfyp9YdpiUppVFizbaOwCeBkMjx10DoUM/s268/220px-John_Jacob_Astor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="220" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGuQT9v1lmDH4XrIePpR8CVttAd6peqEFsUlmYl0ajATpCPiAGhjhwFc4e3O7cIt5xDb7adEdQwa17OV0a6ecqjLXgDx_fubWbHwiYxZy__RpbBjchYoMKOoxoGPTXGMTLeMismP5SFVt_Y75-u1MPXt6xGZNJfyp9YdpiUppVFizbaOwCeBkMjx10DoUM/w173-h211/220px-John_Jacob_Astor.jpg" width="173" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Jacob Astor I, c. 1794<br />by Gilbert Sullivan</td></tr></tbody></table>What I learned: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>John Jacob Astor started his fortune trapping and trading in beaver pelts. He was not, as you might expect from someone who grew from modest means to immense wealth, not above playing dirty and taking advantage of people. Astor's greatest wealth came from his ability to understand how valuable land around New York City would become; he even bought up land from Aaron Burr. </li><li>John Jacob Astor I wanted to create his own country, called Astoria, on the west coast. It never came to fruition; but the name Astoria became part of New York history when later family members used it, along with Waldorf (the town where JJA was born), to name hotels and a neighborhood in Queens. </li><li>Most of John Astor I's fortune passed down to his son William Backhouse Astor. William bought up even more land. On these lands, slum dwellings grew, greatly increasing the Astor fortune. </li><li>William's son, William Backhouse Jr, married Caroline Astor who became <u>the</u> arbiter of New York society for decades. I'm more familiar with William and Caroline than any other Astor due to having read books about the Vanderbilts, who had to overcome Carline to become accepted in NYC society. Junior was more interested in yachting and other women than in business. They were the parents of John "Jack" Jacob Astor IV. </li><li>William's grandson, William Waldorf Astor established himself in England but, because of an division between William and his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, he built the Waldorf Hotel next to John's house in order to dwarf it. Jack Astor convinced his mother to tear down their home and build the Astoria Hotel next to the Waldorf Hotel. Eventually the cousins reached a truce and created corridors between the hotels, creating the Waldorf-Astoria. </li><li>When Jack's son, William Vincent Astor, inherited his father's wealth, he set out to change the family's image, selling off their slum housing and becaming a great philanthropist (although not necessary a great person). When he died, he left all of his money to the Vincent Astor foundation and his third wife, Brooke. Brooke's son by her first marriage, Anthony, would eventually end up in jail for trying to cheat his mother out of her money in her later years, when she was battling Alzheimer's. Brooke lived to 105 and was the last of Astor to be prominent. </li></ul><div>Again and again throughout the book, Cooper finds ties to people and places in American history, which made the book all that much more interesting. There are several times when Cooper and Howe veer off to explore places or events, which, while interesting, were a distraction from the family history for me. And while Cooper does a fine job reading the book, I can't help but wonder if it would have been easier to keep track of who was who if I'd been physically reading the book (there are, after all, <u>a lot</u> of John Jacobs and William's in the book). Overall, through, I found it fascinating. The history of a family, the history of how a great fortune became so divided and so ill-used as to become inconsequential, the history of so much of the United States. And now I need to get my hands on <i>Vanderbilt</i> so I can see how that family managed to do much the same thing. </div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-68571727568895249292024-02-25T11:04:00.008-06:002024-02-25T11:04:47.244-06:00Life: It Goes On - February 25<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsKwosg5rfCnm0DXpkyHmRUI31K_T_2M0-xT02x6cBA8fAV2SzymS02eiAqwVqBCfpEAWZxHOkIVSYuocY2szoci1Qqa9gBabW69I6Yz74x0Vdl6JgOVDzXzVnFPNMzycrCa3rvWNPbMyNoD_-e4jc8xyaP82Odr2UCL-MkTJ1VwjODpTvncZ2z0H51ZI_/s258/Life_Spring.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="152" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsKwosg5rfCnm0DXpkyHmRUI31K_T_2M0-xT02x6cBA8fAV2SzymS02eiAqwVqBCfpEAWZxHOkIVSYuocY2szoci1Qqa9gBabW69I6Yz74x0Vdl6JgOVDzXzVnFPNMzycrCa3rvWNPbMyNoD_-e4jc8xyaP82Odr2UCL-MkTJ1VwjODpTvncZ2z0H51ZI_/s1600/Life_Spring.jpg" width="152" /></a></div>Happy Sunday! Even as it's hard to believe that February is almost over, it's also hard to believe that it's still February with weather that has been so unwinterlike (yep, just made up a word) almost all month. I have plants peeking their spears up out of ground that should still be far too cold for them to start growing; they are almost as big as they were in this photo I took a couple of years ago...well into March. <p></p><p><b>Last Week I:</b> </p><div><b>Listened To:</b> Finished <i>Mansfield Park </i>and then back to <i>Saving Time</i> by Jenny Odell. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Watched:</b> The penultimate episode of <i>Ted Lasso</i>. We have been spreading the final episodes out for weeks; we'll be so sad to be done with the series. We've both agreed that it's a series we would watch again...although there are always so many things that we've never watched that we'd like to get watched. Sort of like keeping a book that I think I'll reread and never do because there are so many other books that I haven't read yet. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Read:</b> <i>Pete and Alice In Maine</i> by Caitlyn Shetterly. This was recommend to me but I can't remember who it was that recommended it. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> I'm making rice pudding as I type this. My dad has been having stomach problems for several weeks and has now grown a little afraid to eat. I'm hoping that something that he loves (but that is also easy to digest) will appeal to him. I know I'm looking forward to eating some! </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Enjoyed:</b> Book club on Tuesday. We played a Jane Austen matching game (akin to Memory) but didn't bother to read the rules and then discovered that even the biggest Austen fans in the group couldn't remember who matched up with who in all of the books. Which turned out to be a lot of laughs, so it all worked out. </div><div><b>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</b></div><div><b>
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<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ASo_uCMUzIBV6EilDc9Al8DBCs9MZG_jlA9Qf_O_1sBVYdUQLzldzKwlD77BFDRUTyyjvfz1QTWf2t19tTtjhOSfP9Y1arf8CpR69XdVbTxB-gtLIM20h2jeYRgEKfMTHddkto4fuvh68-Un2z2MWoSfouys5mZRBK8EW8Q9I3U9-u8AmS_yAUEJelvS/s4032/IMG_6628.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ASo_uCMUzIBV6EilDc9Al8DBCs9MZG_jlA9Qf_O_1sBVYdUQLzldzKwlD77BFDRUTyyjvfz1QTWf2t19tTtjhOSfP9Y1arf8CpR69XdVbTxB-gtLIM20h2jeYRgEKfMTHddkto4fuvh68-Un2z2MWoSfouys5mZRBK8EW8Q9I3U9-u8AmS_yAUEJelvS/w152-h202/IMG_6628.jpeg" width="152" /></a></div>Planning: </b>Another run to the Goodwill. The decluttering and 40 Bags in 40 Days continue full force. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b><b><b><b>
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<b>Thinking About:</b> </b></b></b>I'll also be dropping off a big bag of clothes to the high school for them to use for plays - clothes that my mom had saved for more than 60 years, things other people wore at my parents wedding, my mom's going away outfit, etc. These things meant so much to her but my siblings and I have agreed that the clothes were her memories, not ours. I've been thinking a lot about that idea and what "things" I need to say goodbye to now so that they don't become a burden for my children some day. </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Feeling: </b>Worn down. I don't think I've been sleeping well, but I refuse to sleep with my Apple watch on because I'm a little afraid to find out just how bad it's been. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>Another quiet week. We have both Miss H's and Ms. S's bdays on Friday but, sadly, won't get to be with either of them to celebrate. Trying to figure out a way to celebrate from afar. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>If someone had something delivered to you, what would you rather have: balloons, flowers, or a meal? </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-37246006876516102322024-02-22T01:30:00.001-06:002024-02-22T01:30:00.140-06:00After Annie by Anna Quindlen<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnfY_lY-jNAhNZy-ZDcK5QwrbBzB-QZvMODxn6yGURXOO5G1QnkgnMm_k43XVa3j7n5SGpymHA-z4FFhDqRapBTzYbzu7q5jAMUQlPwGzvILg-zOKOIvxmmRmOw1sDnDNHnYQcEoA39_d5e0lL9xLMSFrqvZapqlhQK3LJh8lRB74ztcuf2coTUZvWoah/s500/9780593229804.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnfY_lY-jNAhNZy-ZDcK5QwrbBzB-QZvMODxn6yGURXOO5G1QnkgnMm_k43XVa3j7n5SGpymHA-z4FFhDqRapBTzYbzu7q5jAMUQlPwGzvILg-zOKOIvxmmRmOw1sDnDNHnYQcEoA39_d5e0lL9xLMSFrqvZapqlhQK3LJh8lRB74ztcuf2coTUZvWoah/w157-h238/9780593229804.jpg" width="157" /></a></div>After Annie </i>by Anna Quindlen</div><div style="text-align: left;">304 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published Random House Publishing Group</div><div style="text-align: left;">Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her children, and her closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the lynchpin of all their lives. Bill is overwhelmed without his beloved wife, and Annemarie wrestles with the bad habits her best friend had helped her overcome. And Ali, the eldest of Annie’s children, has to grow up overnight, to care for her younger brothers and even her father and to puzzle out for herself many of the mysteries of adult life. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Over the course of the next year what saves them all is Annie, ever-present in their minds, loving but not sentimental, caring but nobody’s fool, a voice in their heads that is funny and sharp and remarkably clear. The power she has given to those who loved her is the power to go on without her. The lesson they learn is that no one beloved is ever truly gone. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Written in Quindlen’s emotionally resonant voice and with her deep and generous understanding of people, After Annie is about hope, and about the unexpected power of adversity to change us in profound and indelible ways.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Quindlen is one of my favorite authors; even when I don't love one of her books, I still find plenty to like and think about it. So when I find that she's written a new book, I jump at the chance to read it. Without even looking to see what it's about. And, clearly, without paying much attention to the title. So it came as a surprise to me when Annie drops to the kitchen floor, dead of an aneurysm. I suppose I thought that this would be a family story, which it most certainly is. But it is primarily a book about grief and loss and how each person handles both in their own way and in their own time. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Quindlen is a master of making big themes feel intimate, personal, and real. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote>"Annie Brown died right before dinner. The mashed potatoes were still in the pot on the stove, the dented pot with the loose handle, but the meatloaf and the peas were already on the table. Two of the children were in their usual seats. Jamie tried to pick a piece of bacon off the top of the meatloaf, and Ali elbowed him."</blockquote><p> It turns out that Annie was everyone's anchor, as women so often are. Without his anchor, Bill looks to other people, who are all too willing to step up, to help him survive. Ali turns to her only real friend, only to find that her friend doesn't have the capacity to help. Ant rebels. Annemarie finds she doesn't know how to fight her addiction without Annie holding her accountable. Fortunately, there are people who offer real solace and reasons to fight hard to make a new life, while still honoring the person they lost. </p><p>For a short novel, Quindlen has packed a lot into this one. Not only are we dealing with death, grief, loss, parenting, marriage, and friendship, Quindlen is also addressing mental health, sexual assault, addiction, aging, and secrets. In lesser hands, it would be too much. It might be more here than Quindlen needed to include here; but, because she handles it all so well, it mostly worked for me. And I was so wrapped up in the characters, so invested in their finding their way to peace, that I was willing to overlook anything that might have been hard to forgive in a lesser work. I know there will be people who are not happy with the ending; but I was fine with it because I so badly wanted to this family to pull together and find a way forward. </p><p> </p></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-74751503182515415632024-02-20T01:30:00.001-06:002024-02-20T01:30:00.132-06:00Book of Fire by Christy Lefteri<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbElKyLkRFxms7n95Ombk3F0bh_gfiHvMC0UHkWi_h80SlZlV8iTc3ksYJ2cyL5YEalZqz6srwd-x5JQDrWH_7Pip8evOeBGTMAYyPyfqkY5YMx5UbNmQmZaFT2VvKc60PbQGKQqbb6IL9zB2qV3l2jwnfaJ0jyeHAxdBRS1LjJRHwyPEeqM1Dd-N7IoQG/s595/lf.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="396" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbElKyLkRFxms7n95Ombk3F0bh_gfiHvMC0UHkWi_h80SlZlV8iTc3ksYJ2cyL5YEalZqz6srwd-x5JQDrWH_7Pip8evOeBGTMAYyPyfqkY5YMx5UbNmQmZaFT2VvKc60PbQGKQqbb6IL9zB2qV3l2jwnfaJ0jyeHAxdBRS1LjJRHwyPEeqM1Dd-N7IoQG/w181-h272/lf.webp" width="181" /></a></div>Book of Fire </i>by Christy Lefteri</div><div style="text-align: left;">336 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published January 2024 by Random House Publishing Group</div><div style="text-align: left;">Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">In present-day Greece, deep in an ancient forest, lives a family: Irini, a musician, who teaches children to read and play music; her husband, Tasso, who paints pictures of the forest, his greatest muse; and Chara, their young daughter, whose name means joy. On the fateful day that will forever alter the trajectory of their lives, flames chase fleeing birds across the sky. The wildfire that will consume their home, and their lives as they know it, races toward them. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Months later, as the village tries to rebuild, Irini stumbles upon the man who started the fire, a land speculator who had intended only a small, controlled burn to clear forestland to build on but instead ignited a catastrophe. He is dying, although the cause is unclear, and in her anger at all he took from them, Irini makes a split-second decision that will haunt her. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As the local police investigate the suspicious death, Tasso mourns his father, who has not been seen since before the fire. Tasso’s hands were burnt in the flames, leaving him unable to paint, and he struggles to cope with the overwhelming loss of his artistic voice and his beloved forest. Only his young daughter, who wants to repair the damage that’s been done, gives him hope for the future.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I meant to get this written sooner, while the book was still fresh in my mind. Unfortunately, that didn't happen; and, since Netgalley won't let me highlight any more, it's hard to go back and grab specifics or refresh my memory. These are the highlights of what I recall:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Lefteri utilizes dual storylines here, one first-person account of the family after the fire, the other Irini's third-person recounting of the fire and its immediate aftermath. I liked the concept but, as with so many dual storyline novels, one feels more compelling than the other. </li><li>The parts describing the spread of the fire and Irini's and Chara's time in the water waiting for rescue are truly frightening. The fear, the exhaustion, the fight to survive are all vividly portrayed. </li><li>The present day storyline often felt repetitive; I think things could have been cleaned up to make that storyline tighter. </li><li>I always appreciate a novel where the ending is not a forgone conclusion. I did like the way this one ended, with not everything tied up neatly. </li><li>I appreciated that the bad guy was given some balance. </li><li>I really enjoyed learning some history of Greece, reading about Irini's family's immigrant experience, spending some time with the locals, and the way Lefteri used climate change to craft the rest of the story. </li></ul></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-7426534514257991842024-02-18T11:44:00.005-06:002024-02-18T11:44:37.941-06:00<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9JxK9OpuztuJ2mgJ83mxYEu4aaGsZQ4jXwPLM9eRHaZOcEkNXaF21UEZ6sEDeQtZjngwi0Zm03_lJIXTmpmV3CRZVrG5x9tqcHxR59uC63n_f4gvi9mjjjdOycdAV__HRlUwjtMQN_eHInYfPbmVHbSX-eDqsVvy_RnGnA7XEzNvau9KW5ysKqq3Xb9b/s217/winterlifeitgoeson.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="163" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9JxK9OpuztuJ2mgJ83mxYEu4aaGsZQ4jXwPLM9eRHaZOcEkNXaF21UEZ6sEDeQtZjngwi0Zm03_lJIXTmpmV3CRZVrG5x9tqcHxR59uC63n_f4gvi9mjjjdOycdAV__HRlUwjtMQN_eHInYfPbmVHbSX-eDqsVvy_RnGnA7XEzNvau9KW5ysKqq3Xb9b/s1600/winterlifeitgoeson.jpg" width="163" /></a></div>Happy Sunday! I hope it's as sunny there as it is here this morning - my day is always better when I can see the sun. I've had a very productive weekend; I took the day off Friday and have powered through getting a lot of decluttering done, laundry washed, and cleaning done. I'm feeling much lighter as I get rid of more and more things that don't need to live in my house any more, even if not all of it will show to the outside world. <p></p><div><b>Last Week I:</b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Listened To:</b> I finished Shauna Niequist's <i>Present Over Perfect </i>and started Jenny Odell's <i>Saving Time</i>. I seem to be on a real nonfiction bend of late. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Watched:</b> We finished <i>Daisy Jones and The Six </i>and both agreed we might have liked it better if we hadn't read the book first or if they had stuck more closely to it. I've also watched some more of <i>The Crown </i>and last night we watched Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan in <i>Maestro</i>. I can see why they were both nominated for Academy Awards but it definitely wasn't what I was expecting in a movie about Leonard Bernstein. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Read:</b> I'm reading <i>Mansfield Park </i>for book club and Tommy Orange's <i>Wandering Stars. </i>I keep feeling like I'm still not reading as much as I once did, but when I logged in everything I'd read or listened to so far this year, I find that I've already finished twelve books. I'm just listening more than I'm sitting down with a book. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBQ_ihS9XktpEid-N6Ko-27pr_zpQyxQjeEx74W3OlKkASysgkHdrLFgnXpfkHw_dxlzd-a-XxaHe78MZFFQTKkqUlBvYcEp24h2jaTxMPKWWoAXyDq66L3tSyTBPldar7ZrgKJPS_e76SZx072y8CGp2h3iJloeCpU2JETKrPdVXCBQakPx18Sb6Bq2v/s582/a59ebbf907ff8ede88c32772f4ca0914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="582" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBQ_ihS9XktpEid-N6Ko-27pr_zpQyxQjeEx74W3OlKkASysgkHdrLFgnXpfkHw_dxlzd-a-XxaHe78MZFFQTKkqUlBvYcEp24h2jaTxMPKWWoAXyDq66L3tSyTBPldar7ZrgKJPS_e76SZx072y8CGp2h3iJloeCpU2JETKrPdVXCBQakPx18Sb6Bq2v/w226-h226/a59ebbf907ff8ede88c32772f4ca0914.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> Homemade mac and cheese and chicken noodle soup. BG was out of town for a couple of nights and we've eaten out a couple of nights so not much cooking was going on here. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Enjoyed:</b> A visit from my uncle and BG and I went for a belated Valentine's Day dinner last night. We went to a place, Trini's, we've never been to before but that's been a staple in Omaha for more than forty years. It was so good - I'm really beating myself up that I've been missing it all of these years! </div><div><b>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------</b></div><div><b>
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<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Planning: </b>The decluttering will continue. I'll finish what Go Simplified calls the entertaining areas. In her world, all of your entertaining things are in a couple of rooms, whereas my tablecloth collection is hanging in a guest room closet so, of course, while I was in that closet, I started going through everything in it. Need to finish that part of the project today so I don't have too many things started at once. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><b>
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<b>Thinking About:</b> </b>My dad. He's not progressing as well as we had hoped and we may need to make some difficult decisions in the coming weeks. At the very least, I need to get some things in place sooner than I had planned. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Feeling: </b>More rested, thanks to that spur-of-the-moment decision to take Friday off. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>Book club this week. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>I am so looking forward to my leftovers from last night's dinner, but I know a lot of people don't take home the food they don't finish. What about you - do you enjoy leftovers from dinners out? </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-36410041425727251002024-02-13T01:30:00.001-06:002024-02-13T01:30:00.128-06:00California Golden by Melanie Benjamin<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbv3pE6OJsKu0LfL5cIcc-xBzC_bGf_AdxYpOnkI7e6WPBmmx3-Jxb1EQ2JR2UYhpsv5C0qvbl4IRLubWE9q3OmjwsAnnc2gRaeCjIs5257Tg1nvaxkGY93Ls0k9z4Eey-VEf5aHSi0nvn93z-cEgyZVjcPTp5FOhlh6G3LaKGncsbLSWroC9qKh4pH-f4/s466/lf-2.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="300" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbv3pE6OJsKu0LfL5cIcc-xBzC_bGf_AdxYpOnkI7e6WPBmmx3-Jxb1EQ2JR2UYhpsv5C0qvbl4IRLubWE9q3OmjwsAnnc2gRaeCjIs5257Tg1nvaxkGY93Ls0k9z4Eey-VEf5aHSi0nvn93z-cEgyZVjcPTp5FOhlh6G3LaKGncsbLSWroC9qKh4pH-f4/w172-h267/lf-2.webp" width="172" /></a></div>California Golden </i>by Melanie Benjamin</div><div style="text-align: left;">352 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published August 2023 by Random House Publishing Group</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Southern California, 1960s: endless sunny days surfing in Malibu, followed by glittering neon nights at Whisky a Go Go. In an era when women are expected to be housewives, Carol Donnelly breaks the mold as a legendary female surfer struggling to compete in a male-dominated sport—and her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, bear the weight of Carol’s unconventional lifestyle. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Donnelly sisters grow up enduring their mother’s absence—physically, when she’s at the beach, and emotionally, the rare times she’s at home. To escape questions about Carol’s whereabouts—and to chase her elusive affection—they cut school to spend their days in the surf. From her first time on a board, Mindy is a natural, but Ginger, two years younger, feels out of place in the water. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As they grow up and their lives diverge, Mindy and Ginger’s relationship ebbs and flows. Mindy finds herself swept up in celebrity, complete with beachside love affairs, parties at the Playboy Club, and a USO tour in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Ginger, desperate for a community of her own, is tugged into the dangerous counterculture of drugs and cults. But through it all, their sense of duty to each other survives, as the girls are forever connected by the emotional damage they carry from their unorthodox childhood.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>This is the 7th of Benjamin's books that I've read. What always intrigues me about her books is that she bases them on real women from the past, many of whom you'd be very familiar with, some you're only passingly familiar with, others you've never heard of but who hold an interesting place in history. California Golden is no exception - Carol Donnelly is loosely based on Marge Calhoun, considered the first female surfing champion. As always, the women are strong women, even when they aren't particularly likable. </li><li>While this one didn't measure up to others of Benjamin's books (an opinion echoed by my book club), it does offer plenty to think about: sexism, trauma, drug abuse, mental and physical abuse, complicated family relationships, stereotypes and the boxes that women have traditionally been pushed into. Carol was not a good mother, but then she had never wanted to be a mother and always felt that circumstances had trapped her into being one. Both girls grew up craving love and attention, to an extent that almost destroyed them. </li><li>Benjamin not only finds these interesting historical women, but she also researches the heck out of the places and time periods she writes about. Truly, I could feel the heat on my face, the sand under my feet, the chill of the water. Readers spend time in the nightclubs of the day, learn about the real history behind Gidget, travel to Hawaii and surfing tournaments, and even find themselves in Vietnam on an entertainment tour led by Johnny Grant, the one-time honorary mayor of Hollywood. </li><li>A quibble I often have with Benjamin's books is that they can be repetitive and over full of similes. In this book, that stood out more than usual for me. </li><li>While this wasn't a favorite for my book club, there was plenty to talk about and I'd recommend it on that basis. </li></ul></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-31923026143441837602024-02-11T17:29:00.004-06:002024-02-11T17:29:50.890-06:00Life: It Goes On - February 11<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVzsdn0ieHJaFGIaUHPHNqnC_DqczkXmsOhokhyN8i-YH1fG1nu6nHUXTzTEJrzHC6xVYsUOS9SaBEWOIADHNcq9KYdjddo_vRvz06E9Usrp5Z_YU5rwQgPn7KrDcoJUBGbq_WwGQUSZNrXh7vcDGsYtcp2bFZP3u_TX8mUYsOvlapa9TQTF20mHen7CC/s3264/IMG_3294.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVzsdn0ieHJaFGIaUHPHNqnC_DqczkXmsOhokhyN8i-YH1fG1nu6nHUXTzTEJrzHC6xVYsUOS9SaBEWOIADHNcq9KYdjddo_vRvz06E9Usrp5Z_YU5rwQgPn7KrDcoJUBGbq_WwGQUSZNrXh7vcDGsYtcp2bFZP3u_TX8mUYsOvlapa9TQTF20mHen7CC/w152-h203/IMG_3294.jpeg" width="152" /></a></div>Three years. That's how long ago I realized that life really does go on. I can't believe it's been three years since I got the call that my mom had died. It's been three years; the shock is gone, then pain is lessened. But I still think about her all of the time. This week, I saw a news story and thought that I needed to call her and make sure that she had seen it. She used to call me almost every day just after I sat down for my lunch break. Frequently, I was frustrated that I wasn't going to have some quiet time, some time to read. Occasionally, I let the call go to voice mail. One of the lessons I learned through her loss was to never, ever, let those phone calls go to voice mail. There is never anything that you're doing that is more important that taking the time to talk to the people you love. <div><br /></div><div><b>Last Week I:</b> </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Listened To:</b> I finished Anderson Cooper's <i>Astor</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Watched:</b> <i>Roman Holiday </i>with Aubrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck - her first movie and only Oscar. I love this time of year when TCM is playing only movies that won Academy Awards in some way. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Read: </b>I finished <i>After Annie </i>and continued my re-read of Jane Austen's <i>Mansfield Park </i>for book club this month. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> Honestly cannot remember a single meal we ate at home this week. Pretty sure The Big Guy prepared all of them. </div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmSJDme6vpbrrxL1xGXK9okjpTkyul_jMcJ7SOlHcaK0KySgoplvYVGUbwXfourZSVtUELZbCSGCoG4sOp8Y4zrpIKAQjUKE8fnL-TdGdE6Hs0IjImIjfJJJq11SNCdn6qUwDO4eCGSh3rv5F6Q_KVGWm9hKqJoNJ6p9KBl4IjH87KcTi6U3-3-FE9pLWK/s540/GBT6O-X98CJd_FlUM97PWy-cQCXbD5W8VLIiW8THx_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="540" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmSJDme6vpbrrxL1xGXK9okjpTkyul_jMcJ7SOlHcaK0KySgoplvYVGUbwXfourZSVtUELZbCSGCoG4sOp8Y4zrpIKAQjUKE8fnL-TdGdE6Hs0IjImIjfJJJq11SNCdn6qUwDO4eCGSh3rv5F6Q_KVGWm9hKqJoNJ6p9KBl4IjH87KcTi6U3-3-FE9pLWK/w223-h223/GBT6O-X98CJd_FlUM97PWy-cQCXbD5W8VLIiW8THx_k.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><br />Enjoyed:</b> A 24-ish hour visit to Kansas City to visit Miss H. It's the first time we've been to K.C. since the weekend she moved into her apartment three months ago. BG did all of the dad tasks that she needed done and I helped her hang some new shelves and picture frames. It was fun to just hang out and be with each other; but we did also manage to work in dinner at Waldo's Pizza. It may be my new favorite pizza place. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
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<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Planning: </b>Wednesday is the first day of 40 Bags in 40 Days. The Go Simplified Challenge continues and February's focus is entertaining spaces so that's where I'll start with 40 Bags. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaPN7rqS4TOkEevNKKNsKgh7vWP-3Lez9-RAwHUnaqnTM7mQiP2tAkuKyH5C4x1m4u4XrfDa6fiYPo0sJm-NoKnTSM60QoNq_8dY9ktFsYhwnZaaoMwiXtnjJ5qlF3Mj6HiZh0UH-5ff642q-BlFp4sk17xeEKoJ5gWhQqlN-c9uJrvjef3OEUbTRmuwBC/s900/ash-wed.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="900" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaPN7rqS4TOkEevNKKNsKgh7vWP-3Lez9-RAwHUnaqnTM7mQiP2tAkuKyH5C4x1m4u4XrfDa6fiYPo0sJm-NoKnTSM60QoNq_8dY9ktFsYhwnZaaoMwiXtnjJ5qlF3Mj6HiZh0UH-5ff642q-BlFp4sk17xeEKoJ5gWhQqlN-c9uJrvjef3OEUbTRmuwBC/w164-h164/ash-wed.png" width="164" /></a></div>I'm actually way behind in February as I had a vehicle full (and my Pilot holds quite a lot so that gives you an idea of how much I'm talking about) of stuff sitting in my dining room, waiting to be taken to the Goodwill. Realistically, I'd just have continued adding to the pile. But I just could not bear to put anything more in my dining room. Now that it's emptied out, I'll start filling that corner up again!</div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><b>
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<b>Thinking About:</b> </b>Spring. It's been so unseasonably warm here the past couple of weeks, with no end in sight, so garden planning has commenced. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Feeling: </b>Tired. We opted to sleep on an air mattress in Miss H's living room to give us more time to be together. Can someone please invent an air mattress that doesn't leak out air during the night? We weren't on the floor by this morning but we were only about 2/3 as high off the ground as we had been when we started and getting out of the bed was a challenge! </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>My uncle has to come to town this week so I'm looking forward to seeing him and enjoying dinner out together. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>Are you cheering for the Chiefs or 49'ers in the Super Bowl, just there for the ads, or couldn't care less? </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-49258866382756106302024-02-08T01:30:00.001-06:002024-02-08T01:30:00.249-06:00Chenneville: A Novel Murder, Loss, and Vengeance of by Paulette Jiles<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6uVJbJ4_lYP7v3nwJr4R3FzexCMoN4wYLXF2wouKhPy9T5UyWWTa9Zk1frdTmh7zmO-EmTVZk7Trq8Ruct5jH8Kr3DpK_XN1fLIwEEf_g4vbjjcc2-jaNNJAyea3MLqa6-rVQc5TmdDZ6uLkzUht-D-dgi6RHSPSzD5Tg8m0nBRzPbwwCoZ2d744O7JQ/s400/112975135.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6uVJbJ4_lYP7v3nwJr4R3FzexCMoN4wYLXF2wouKhPy9T5UyWWTa9Zk1frdTmh7zmO-EmTVZk7Trq8Ruct5jH8Kr3DpK_XN1fLIwEEf_g4vbjjcc2-jaNNJAyea3MLqa6-rVQc5TmdDZ6uLkzUht-D-dgi6RHSPSzD5Tg8m0nBRzPbwwCoZ2d744O7JQ/w183-h273/112975135.jpg" width="183" /></a></div>Chenneville: A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance </i>by Paulette Jiles</div><div style="text-align: left;">Read by Grover Gardner</div><div style="text-align: left;">11 hours, 49 minutes</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published September 2023 by HarperCollins Publishers</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His recovery took the better part of a year as he struggled to regain his senses and mobility. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John's beloved sister and her family had been brutally murdered. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Their killer goes by many names. He fought for the North in the late unpleasantness, and wore a badge in the name of the law. But the man John knows as A. J. Dodd is little more than a rabid animal, slaughtering without reason or remorse, needing to be put down. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Traveling through the unforgiving landscape of a shattered nation in the midst of Reconstruction, John braves winter storms and confronts desperate people in pursuit of his quarry. Untethered, single-minded in purpose, he will not be deterred. Not by the U.S. Marshal who threatens to arrest him for murder should he succeed. And not by Victoria Reavis, the telegraphist aiding him in his death-driven quest, yet hoping he'll choose to embrace a life with her instead. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And as he trails Dodd deep into Texas, John accepts that this final reckoning between them may cost him more than all he's already lost...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Question for you - has Paulette Jiles ever written a bad book? If she has, it's not one of the four I've read by her. Not only have I enjoyed all four of those books, this will, undoubtedly, the previous two that I've read since I began blogging have ended on my best-of lists in the years I read them. I feel certain this one will be there as well. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As with the other three Jiles' books I've read, this one is an odyssey. John returns from the war damaged and finds himself not caring about the land he has inherited. So when he finds out about his sister's murder, by a man named, among other things, Dodd, he determines that it will hunt down and kill her murderer, regardless of the cost to himself. As the book progresses, Dodd kills again, which puts John in the position of being both hunter and hunted. The one thing John has going for him is that he has plenty of money to buy things he needs along the way. That doesn't mean, however, that the journey will be easy - he loses his horse, is stranded in a blizzard, goes days with little to eat and almost no sleep, and falls farther and farther behind the man he is pursuing. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While the book is about John's pursuit, the emphasis is on the characters he meets along the way. Jiles gives us vignettes along the way as John makes stops. A couple of nights with the telegrapher who saves him in a blizzard, a night in the barn of a widow who has been tasked with safeguarding a supply of Confederate clothing and supplies, an evening with a group of soldiers tasked with keeping the peace in post-war Texas, a woman telegrapher who nurses John back to health when he falls ill. I loved the quiet moments as much as I enjoyed the tension of the pursuit and John's encounters with dangers along the way. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Jiles writing is poetic; she is a master at painting a picture, bringing her setting and time period to life. All of the books I've read have been set in Missouri and Texas; it's a part of the country and its place in history, that she is very familiar with. Her books are filled with the kinds of details that teach readers what life was like at in the 1860's without feeling as if she's merely throwing research at us. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm sure I would have loved reading this book in print (and would have saved a lot of quotes for you), but I can't recommend the audiobook version strongly enough. Grover Gardner was the perfect choice for this book. Whichever you choose, print or audio, I recommend that you definitely add this one to your (I'm sure already long) list of books to read. </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-51415514345604953502024-02-06T01:30:00.001-06:002024-02-06T01:30:00.148-06:00Children of God by Mary Doria Russell<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIv7fwt_Sy7IlFG8BkGVxa-lXQHE8iHOInZ9-7Pwe3GtkMylZaO3FZCvEY4d-Dvb-zfln9EJjUj1PcFEnsRt-soduHi_r3XiGbNpgmYqZTYiUu-BzpPla5r9htEhbvdYXHDnvhWpto2vOU3DmdZixwN9iS7IgcoEVXiIEB3GU2DC2yof2le5eROx_R_2l/s350/ECC85BF1F8C252EDE8038C4606F562DF9332B31D.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="224" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIv7fwt_Sy7IlFG8BkGVxa-lXQHE8iHOInZ9-7Pwe3GtkMylZaO3FZCvEY4d-Dvb-zfln9EJjUj1PcFEnsRt-soduHi_r3XiGbNpgmYqZTYiUu-BzpPla5r9htEhbvdYXHDnvhWpto2vOU3DmdZixwN9iS7IgcoEVXiIEB3GU2DC2yof2le5eROx_R_2l/w164-h256/ECC85BF1F8C252EDE8038C4606F562DF9332B31D.jpeg" width="164" /></a></div>Children of God </i>by Mary Doria Russell</div><div style="text-align: left;">Read by Anna Fields</div><div style="text-align: left;">17 hours, 57 minutes</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published 1998 by Villard</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The only member of the original mission to the planet Rakhat to return to Earth, Father Emilio Sandoz has barely begun to recover from his ordeal when the Society of Jesus calls upon him for help in preparing for another mission to Alpha Centauri. Despite his objections and fear, he cannot escape his past or the future. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Old friends, new discoveries and difficult questions await Emilio as he struggles for inner peace and understanding in a moral universe whose boundaries now extend beyond the solar system and whose future lies with children born in a faraway place.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Children of God </i>is Mary Doria Russell's sequel to 1996's <i>The Sparrow</i>, which I read in 2014 (<a href="https://litandlife.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-sparrow-by-mary-doria-russell.html" target="_blank">my review here</a>). I loved that book, it was a standout in a year of great reads. It broke my heart and I have never forgotten it. I had either never realized there was a sequel or forgotten all about it until a co-worker mentioned it a while back. I was eager to get back to find out what happened to Emilio Sandoz, who hasn't left my mind in 10 years. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>What didn't work for me: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Like <i>The Sparrow</i>, <i>Children of God</i> moves back and forth in time. For some reason, this time around that didn't really work for me. I felt like too much was revealed too soon. </li><li>Russell asks us to forgive characters in this one that we had grown to (let's be honest here) hate in <i>The Sparrow</i>. As a person, I understand that people are complicated and grow and change over time. As a reader, I often struggle with that. I had a hard time forgiving Supaari (the character who sold Emilio in <i>The Sparrow</i>) regardless of what we learn about him in this one and never could stop hating Hlavin Kitheri. </li><li>A lot of time was spent developing a relationship between Emilio and a woman on earth that he plans to marry, before he is kidnapped and returned to Rakhat. It was what helped Emilio heal but then Russell turns around and does a terrible thing to him again. Later, we're apparently meant to believe that it was God's plan that he return to Rakhat. Not a fan of a plan that causes so much pain.</li><li><i>The Sparrow </i>was very much centered around a few central characters, a family of sorts, <i>Children of God</i> is a much broader novel. There are a lot of characters in this one and, when listening especially, it's difficult to keep track of them and equally difficult to care about them. </li><li>Sorry, but I really didn't "get" the ending. And it felt a little bit like the whole book led to a point of "trust in God." </li></ul><div><b>What I liked: </b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Emilio Sandoz. He's perhaps an almost too good character, but he is not without depth of character. He struggles with forgiveness, faith, trust, and an ability to open himself back up again. </li><li>Although there are a lot of characters in this one and we don't necessarily get as in depth a look into them as we would with a smaller "cast," we do get to see the complexity of many of the characters. </li><li>Russell really explores how our intentions, even when meant for the best, can also go terribly awry or be misinterpreted. </li><li>Russell explores the universality of conflict, how important communication and compromise are, how vital forgiveness is. Even if I did have a problem with forgiveness of particular characters, I understand that, in order to find peace, forgiveness is essential. </li><li>As a person who struggles with faith and long ago gave up on organized religion, I appreciate that Russell puts organized religion, its methods, and intentions under a microscope. </li></ul><div>Would I recommend it? I've got such mixed feelings. I'm not sure <i>The Sparrow </i>needed a sequel. I'm not sure I gained anything by there being one, other than that Emilio finally found some peace. </div></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-75054595235808054032024-02-04T10:27:00.003-06:002024-02-04T10:27:20.638-06:00Life: It Goes On - February 4<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwYIuUmKHQvaYTuePYV8cStfCWNP9yItvIabhiMNaA3MoB__7ytITQmjoYna2Uejo55I7oFKdpPvJ8y7Nk4eqx0bABo-W_WMQhyphenhyphenIQ-sR9cJq69hX4GqfmWSmIH4DoR86_yJ1huOxO_paJnp4aV7VvtTcNTtdX5mjmmqEeJGvMN1Zq_8RuL0PUgZXwifQqc/s680/lifeitgoeson4.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="583" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwYIuUmKHQvaYTuePYV8cStfCWNP9yItvIabhiMNaA3MoB__7ytITQmjoYna2Uejo55I7oFKdpPvJ8y7Nk4eqx0bABo-W_WMQhyphenhyphenIQ-sR9cJq69hX4GqfmWSmIH4DoR86_yJ1huOxO_paJnp4aV7VvtTcNTtdX5mjmmqEeJGvMN1Zq_8RuL0PUgZXwifQqc/w217-h254/lifeitgoeson4.JPG" width="217" /></a></div>Happy Sunday! It's dreary here today and not as warm has it has been. But the temperatures remain above freezing, which I'm loving. <p></p><p>It's been quite a week for us. We went to visit my dad on Monday evening and discovered that he had clearly had some kind of event. We had him transported to the hospital where it was determined that he had had a mini-stroke. He was released back to the rehabilitation he had been in a couple of weeks ago. Not sure how long this stay will last. </p><p>The week before last, the movers came to my dad's apartment and packed and moved his things into storage until he can move to his new apartment. Tuesday The Big Guy and I went and cleared out the final things the movers wouldn't move. Even though my dad hadn't lived there that long, it had become his home. I felt a little bit like Sam at the end of <i>Cheers</i> as I turned off the lights and locked the door for the last time. </p><p><b>Last Week I:</b> </p><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifcrHfHLdE8-xZoGB47inxiKzo6B_xzPL5tARISx5Fdx5MhJXhl-qwB4cOcXsMG3GZtVxKPzilkfGozPvgzkOKLDL7sWE1-VVs6z9jVWpAwjg5YUmh_-80fnu3LRD-jll2AhPHsPHZqPxUqMKTTv0NJE6GjEF1C-gZ744jTalQD7MSEIhptyCRi6RU3Nn0/s400/112975135.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifcrHfHLdE8-xZoGB47inxiKzo6B_xzPL5tARISx5Fdx5MhJXhl-qwB4cOcXsMG3GZtVxKPzilkfGozPvgzkOKLDL7sWE1-VVs6z9jVWpAwjg5YUmh_-80fnu3LRD-jll2AhPHsPHZqPxUqMKTTv0NJE6GjEF1C-gZ744jTalQD7MSEIhptyCRi6RU3Nn0/w169-h253/112975135.jpg" width="169" /></a></div>Listened To:</b> I finished Paulette Jiles' <i>Chenneville </i>and started Anderson Cooper's <i>Astor</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Watched:</b> While I worked around the house yesterday (my sister was with my dad and afforded me the ability to get my house back in order), I "watched" movies about women discovering their power - <i>Thelma and Louise</i> and <i>Fried Green Tomatoes</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Read:</b> Still reading Anna Quindlen's <i>After Annie</i>. Wish I could get my Nook to work again because reading my Netgalley books on my phone is getting old. It's much less fun to read on such a tiny screen. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> Needless to say, having not been around much this week, not much cooking has gotten done. I did make tapioca pudding for my dad yesterday and today BG is roasting a chicken. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Enjoyed:</b> A visit with my sister, even if the reason for her visit wasn't for fun. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
</b>
<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Planning: </b><u>Maybe</u> this week I can get back on schedule with the decluttering. I want to start working on my dining room but it was packed with things from my dad's apartment that need to be moved to the new place, head to the Goodwill, or taken home by my sister or brother. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><b>
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<b>Thinking About:</b> </b>I <u>know</u> BG and I raised good people but it's always nice to see that in action. Mini-him really stepped up this week to help be with my dad while he was in the hospital. He was so caring, bringing him things to eat that he would be able to have and enjoy and so loving. I was so grateful to have him helping, as was my dad. I told Mini-him that he will never regret the time he gave this week to care for someone he loves. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vc6TEtmrdx2jN4ryiWJ1jQI5V6YWuUXWo1WTeMgDdfKyNIHoZ0OUlk_5ad0CVULdAnYcVS7Rl7O4tmtJnJY5T87pBP79rppVyjrwUs68T1zwDETHGpsk9v2ZvH1Tm7MC-N_fAP1XUH3FPkDG7WhASj9uampxjv3L2dxWN_ooHc-eqFgLGmBhVBUSxmU1/s1500/SOFM%202018%20900x600%20My%20Fair%20Lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vc6TEtmrdx2jN4ryiWJ1jQI5V6YWuUXWo1WTeMgDdfKyNIHoZ0OUlk_5ad0CVULdAnYcVS7Rl7O4tmtJnJY5T87pBP79rppVyjrwUs68T1zwDETHGpsk9v2ZvH1Tm7MC-N_fAP1XUH3FPkDG7WhASj9uampxjv3L2dxWN_ooHc-eqFgLGmBhVBUSxmU1/s320/SOFM%202018%20900x600%20My%20Fair%20Lady.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Feeling: </b>This is when I'm most grateful to my parents for raising children that get along (and that we have all been on the same page regarding my dad's care since my mom died). Thursday my sister arrived to lift the load off of The Big Guy's and my shoulders for a few days and my brother will soon arrive to do those duties for a while longer. I always know I have their full support, even from afar; but sometimes I really need them to be here physically and they always show up.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>A friend and I are going to see <i>My Fair Lady</i> in the theater this afternoon! </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>Who are the people you rely on when you most need support? </div>
<p></p>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-91052419656612453662024-01-28T17:23:00.002-06:002024-01-28T17:23:25.727-06:00Life: It Goes On - January 28<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheC8tsAk6DnG2CtQG0zeGwziJdNZ-Mtz7b3rw3l9xlQPjcjAhVi3Tak7Zz6fLLWQY1gOJd_EOOf2b4G5AR_z2Q-WWuOdDxPq0XFc-NtOpzRXgkDnNvwVYCVBgRlm6S49EiFmrsakHuJzhaAiA-I-hWM0X0EA408-Tz6Rw5m4Z2ZHROTMcTzI5knMbgOAj2/s680/lifeitgoeson4.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="583" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheC8tsAk6DnG2CtQG0zeGwziJdNZ-Mtz7b3rw3l9xlQPjcjAhVi3Tak7Zz6fLLWQY1gOJd_EOOf2b4G5AR_z2Q-WWuOdDxPq0XFc-NtOpzRXgkDnNvwVYCVBgRlm6S49EiFmrsakHuJzhaAiA-I-hWM0X0EA408-Tz6Rw5m4Z2ZHROTMcTzI5knMbgOAj2/w211-h246/lifeitgoeson4.JPG" width="211" /></a></div>Happy sunny Sunday! After a week of grey skies (although temps above freezing every day), we finally have the sun back this weekend...and the temps are climbing higher. I begin to think that I will survive winter. Although, as I type this, I can see out my window the neighbor girl out building snow men in her front yard and I'm reminded again how your attitude makes all the difference. <u>She</u> is loving winter because she can see the joy in being able to do things she can't do any other season. Children really do have a lot to teach us. <p></p><p>I'm super excited to see that my blog feed with Bloglovin' is finally working again. I've been struggling with it for months and have missed getting to read so many other people's blogs. It's kind of like telephone numbers - I have no idea what my daughter's telephone number is and wouldn't have a clue how to call her if I lost all the phone numbers in my phone and I can't recall how to find blogs without that feed reminding me where to find them.</p><p><b>Last Week I:</b> </p><div><b>Listened To:</b> Paulette Jiles' latest, <i>Chenneville</i>, which I am loving. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Watched:</b> Football, college basketball, <i>Ted Lasso</i>, <i>Daisy Jones and The Six</i>, and <i>Funny Girl</i> (needed something to turn on that I could listen to without necessarily watching while I worked around the house on Friday evening. </div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKQIMZMwbTyq8u4puB5mhjVKHaZcOWyHkecteQr1b6Au0p_V2zKgov6c-UR0NCQd7p9Cs2PzDWAL12X5xZmLasEaGpLuz8KW7mjBdsyfrqu8NQTIBi7fcPI7wj8lcD0V8STYoHTu7zh5Jv-I-NZoGwwQM6FYYjzPjFnlefzwAiYk61CoWlUdqr9SWk7Qu/s500/9780593229804.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKQIMZMwbTyq8u4puB5mhjVKHaZcOWyHkecteQr1b6Au0p_V2zKgov6c-UR0NCQd7p9Cs2PzDWAL12X5xZmLasEaGpLuz8KW7mjBdsyfrqu8NQTIBi7fcPI7wj8lcD0V8STYoHTu7zh5Jv-I-NZoGwwQM6FYYjzPjFnlefzwAiYk61CoWlUdqr9SWk7Qu/w157-h238/9780593229804.jpg" width="157" /></a></div>Read:</b> <i>After Annie</i> by Anna Quindlen. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> Guys, we ate leftovers from last week's cooking almost all week. So I didn't cook again until today, when I made dinner for The Big Guy's birthday: white chicken chili, cornbread cookies (an experiment after having them at dinner last night), and gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Enjoyed:</b> Dinner with old friends at a new-to-us place last night. Delicious - we will meet there again. Then Mini-him and Miss C joined us for birthday dinner today. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
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<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Planning: </b>It's time to focus on my house and get back to my decluttering. I've just got a little more to do in our bathrooms and I'll be through the Go Simplified's January challenge. Then we move on to what she calls "entertainment spaces." That will be the family room and dining room. Having just hushed my family room (thanks to Myquillen Smith's Cozy Minimalist challenge), that room shouldn't take too long as I was very deliberate about what went back in there. But the dining room? It's time to make some tough choices in there. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><b>
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<b>Thinking About:</b> </b>Less than three weeks now until my dad is able to move into his new place and my brain is busy thinking about where to place furniture and where to hang all of his artwork and collectibles. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Feeling: </b>When the NFL teams I traditionally cheer for are done for the season, I start cheering for the Kansas City Chiefs and I'm excited to see them having just upset the Ravens. Although wouldn't it have been something if one brother one the college championship and the other had won the Super Bowl?</div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>A quiet week. I don't think there's a single thing scheduled on the calendar...not even books that need to be returned to the library. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>Twice in the last month I've had meals that included cheesy grits and I'm now a big fan. Are you? If so, how to you like them best?</div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-76046738050826279452024-01-23T01:30:00.001-06:002024-01-23T01:30:00.124-06:00Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih12cMZN7A3YQI9VR8Ald9_vHXhSSC0q1BQPSwj1DQC5wejddm-N_jgxiaEC8pr00upyppsa6HyMFlZb-r9RHJxLjj-zpWLRE66dyTxh81Z9PS4tJMANB3js5o-oDgca1ZFtKDo9T3kemOgRxMMD6GSNs0XeNXh31zqqn_3dgkpdBicB5zR8TvgwDX_VIS/s595/lf.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="394" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih12cMZN7A3YQI9VR8Ald9_vHXhSSC0q1BQPSwj1DQC5wejddm-N_jgxiaEC8pr00upyppsa6HyMFlZb-r9RHJxLjj-zpWLRE66dyTxh81Z9PS4tJMANB3js5o-oDgca1ZFtKDo9T3kemOgRxMMD6GSNs0XeNXh31zqqn_3dgkpdBicB5zR8TvgwDX_VIS/w165-h249/lf.webp" width="165" /></a></div>Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age </i>by Katherine May</div><div style="text-align: left;">Read by Rebecca Lee</div><div style="text-align: left;">5 hours, 8 minutes</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published February 2023 by Penguin Publishing Group </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her wonder what she was missing. Could there be a different way to relate to the world, one that would allow her to feel more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet? Might there be a way for all of us to move through life with curiosity and tenderness, sensitized to the subtle magic all around? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In <i>Enchantment</i>, May invites the reader to come with her on a journey to reawaken our innate sense of wonder and awe. With humor, candor, and warmth, she shares stories of her own struggles with work, family, and the aftereffects of pandemic, particularly feelings of overwhelm as the world rushes to reopen. Craving a different way to live, May begins to explore the restorative properties of the natural world, moving through the elements of earth, water, fire, and air and identifying the quiet traces of magic that can be found only when we look for them. Through deliberate attention and ritual, she unearths the potency and nourishment that come from quiet reconnection with our immediate environment. Blending lyricism and storytelling, sensitivity and empathy, <i>Enchantment</i> invites each of us to open the door to human experience in all its sensual complexity, and to find the beauty waiting for us there.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Three years ago I read Katherine May's <i><a href="https://litandlife.blogspot.com/2021/05/wintering-power-of-rest-and-retreat-in.html" target="_blank">Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times </a></i>and came away understanding better my need, both in general and at a time when we were just coming out of the worst of CoVid, to retreat from the world. I loved both May's personal story and the ideas she shared that could help others get through low times in their lives. So, as a person who deals with anxiety, I was eager to read this one. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>What I liked: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Once again May is incredibly open and honest about her struggles with mental illness. </li><li>I loved the idea of trying to regain the sense of awe of the natural world that she had as a child, as all children tend to have. It's one of the reasons I so enjoy sitting on my patio on a lovely June evening and waiting for the fire flies to appear, reminding me of the neighborhood children capturing them in mason jars. </li><li>I appreciated the push to look for the beauty in nature, even where it's not always so obvious. It's easy to be take nature for granted, to be so wrapped up in our own lives that we don't take the time to look around us. I'm always taken by the intricacy of bare tree branches against the blue sky in the winter, for example. </li><li>Rebecca Lee does a fine job as the reader. </li></ul><div><b>What didn't work for me: </b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>This is probably more on me than May, because I was expected to come away with specific ideas I could transfer to my own life, rather than just generalizations which was what I felt like I got. </li><li>This book felt much more specific to May and less relatable to other people. Well, at least to this person. It was a disappointment because I had such high hopes for it. </li></ul></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-86860211074746803112024-01-21T20:19:00.001-06:002024-01-21T20:19:06.070-06:00Life: It Goes On - January 21<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg39gzfEJm71hLz2huYJq7cqP9lnK1or1H-jtn9F4SjYL2q1x5lg6u6Oe88z-CWLgi6iZdGuUbsMN4bkaE44G-auUJtOZoE1XIsdCTz1KzeiG1ZTdY8xuVLKJnZ3kOe2bKsVzUGKNP8nG5QceytyCKPr3ZmX_DZfz5sJq4p53o7Igi4Cz0XgCJPKer9-k5c/s217/winterlifeitgoeson.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="163" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg39gzfEJm71hLz2huYJq7cqP9lnK1or1H-jtn9F4SjYL2q1x5lg6u6Oe88z-CWLgi6iZdGuUbsMN4bkaE44G-auUJtOZoE1XIsdCTz1KzeiG1ZTdY8xuVLKJnZ3kOe2bKsVzUGKNP8nG5QceytyCKPr3ZmX_DZfz5sJq4p53o7Igi4Cz0XgCJPKer9-k5c/s1600/winterlifeitgoeson.jpg" width="163" /></a></div>Happy Sunday from Omaha, where we appear to have survived the worst winter had to offer us. At least for the next week. It's been a rough couple of weeks which have seen us mostly hunkered down, trying to stay off terrible roads and out of the terrible cold. You all know me well enough to know that it was no skin off my nose to not leave the house for a couple of weekends, but The Big Guy can only be cooped up for so long before he has to get out of the house, so last evening we braved the last day temps in the negative numbers to go out to dinner to a new-to-us place. Was it worth it? No, no it was not. Other than BG was content to then come home and just stream some shows. <p></p><div><b>Last Week I:</b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Listened To:</b> I finished <i>Children of God </i>and started Paulette Jiles' <i>Chenneville</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Watched:</b> Football...lots of football. College basketball. Some <i>Daisy Jones and The Six, Ted Lasso, </i>and <i>Slow Horses</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Read:</b> Melanie Benjamin's latest, <i>California Golden</i> and <i>The Book of Fire. </i></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> A new recipe for chicken pot pie, a chicken pasta dish, lasagna, and cookie bars. And, once again, we have enough leftovers to last us well into this week. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Enjoyed:</b> Mini-him and Miss C came to lunch today before the four of us headed over to my dad's apartment to do some sorting and prepping for his move. We always enjoy spending time with the two of them. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
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<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Planning: </b>Finishing up prepping for my dad's move since the movers start packing on Thursday. And then I'm back to the working on decluttering my own home. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><b>
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<b>Thinking About:</b> </b>I rather impulsively reorganized and decluttered several kitchen cabinets yesterday and got rid of quite a few things, including 11 wine glasses. I still have more than 20. Why did I have so many wine glasses that it meant other things were housed in very inconvenient places? How many other things am I holding on to that mean other things that I would like to use more aren't easy to get to when I want them? </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Feeling: </b>Productive. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>Temperatures in the thirties this week with no snow in the forecast. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>Just out of curiousity, how many wine glasses do you have? </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-33272101227964217212024-01-18T01:30:00.001-06:002024-01-18T01:30:00.338-06:00What About Men? A Feminist Answers The Question by Caitlin Moran<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBHkwe9A6vcQQnjbj3FCuk_RQZb8xUSnkKSGLRnfLOuV8Ppv7Jqj1V1FhBbYkDOgPanKb-ZKJ4KcDSYdXxASwLwzg4FTgak-iSKU7J_z6N8Xg6YRc5D9v4qRp53OMeEZ9NH5_hKcuS2a-Rw2YGbWo_u6Nwl7Grn15om71LxtBoqC59OVNfbfJ6yBE_elEG/s595/lf-2.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="394" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBHkwe9A6vcQQnjbj3FCuk_RQZb8xUSnkKSGLRnfLOuV8Ppv7Jqj1V1FhBbYkDOgPanKb-ZKJ4KcDSYdXxASwLwzg4FTgak-iSKU7J_z6N8Xg6YRc5D9v4qRp53OMeEZ9NH5_hKcuS2a-Rw2YGbWo_u6Nwl7Grn15om71LxtBoqC59OVNfbfJ6yBE_elEG/w189-h285/lf-2.webp" width="189" /></a></div>What About Men? A Feminist Answers The Question </i>by Caitlin Moran</div><div style="text-align: left;">320 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published September 2023 by HarperCollins Publisher</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Like anyone who discusses the problems of girls and women in public, Caitlin Moran has often been confronted with the question: “But what about men?” And at first, tbh, she dgaf. Boys, and men, are fine, right? Feminism doesn’t need to worry about them.</div>
<br />
However, around the time she heard an angry young man saying he was “boycotting” International Women’ Day because “It's easier to be a woman than a man these days,” she started to wonder: are unhappy boys, and men, also making unhappy women? The statistics on male misery are grim: boys are falling behind in school, are at greater risk of depression, greater risk of suicide, and, most pertinently, are increasingly at risk from online misogynist radicalization. Will the Sixth Wave of feminism need to fix the men, if it wants to fix the women?<br />
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Moran began to investigate—talking to her husband, close male friends, and her daughters' friends: bringing up very difficult and candid topics, and receiving vulnerable and honest responses. So: what about men? Why do they only go to the doctor if their partner makes them? Why do they never discuss their penises with each other—but make endless jokes about their balls? What is porn doing for young men? Is sexual strangling a good hobby for young people to have? Are men ever allowed to be sad? Are they ever allowed to lose? Have Men's Rights Activists confused “power” with “empowerment”? Are Mid-Life Crises actually quite cool? And what’s the deal with Jordan Peterson’s lobster?<br />
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In this thoughtful, warm, provocative book, Moran opens a genuinely new debate about how to reboot masculinity for the twenty-first century, so that “straight white man” doesn’t automatically mean bad news—but also uses the opportunity to make a lot of jokes about testicles, and trousers. Because if men have neither learned to mine their deepest anxieties about masculinity for comedy, nor answered the question “What About Men?,” then it’s up to a busy woman to do it.<br /><div><br /></div><div><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div>I'm a huge fan of Moran (this is the fourth of her books that I've read). She's funny, smart, does the work to make sure she's getting it right, and is the feminist I wish I were. Which, of course, made me question why a feminist was writing a book about men (and I'm sure a lot of men might be wondering why <u>any</u> woman is writing a book about men). But, again, I know Moran to be someone who will have done the research to make sure she's coming from a point of knowledge, grounded in what she's learned. What she's learned, as it turns out, comes largely from doing the work of asking men the questions. </div><div><br /></div><div>I came away feeling like I'd learned an awfully lot from Moran, that I had a better understanding of what it's like to grow up as a man and the challenges that they face. There were parts where I didn't agree with Moran (I have been, after all, married to a man for 42 years and am the mother of two grown men so I have some knowledge on this subject of my own). </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/12/what-about-men-by-caitlin-moran-review-bantz-gone-bad" target="_blank">Stuart Jeffries, writing for The Guardian</a>, found a lot to dislike about this one (and he is, after all, actually a man). Moran, for example, writes that you will not find the kinds of self-help books for men, written by men, that you will find in any bookstore anywhere for women. Jeffries, on the other hand, points out what he says are two excellent books for men, written both authors that are both from the same town as Moran. And I have to agree with Jeffries when he writes, in response to Moran positing that the patriarchy is screwing over men as much as it is women: </div><div><blockquote>"The patriarchy does have its downsides for men, but its most terrible consequences such as raping, underpaying, genitally mutilating, harassing both at work and on the street are overwhelmingly things that men do to women. Or is there a memo I didn’t get?"</blockquote><p>I do have to agree that some of what Moran writes is pretty stereotypical - men dress boringly, to some extent to avoid being accused of being gay. All three of my guys do not fit Moran's thesis at all; all three of them care very much about what they wear, how it fits, and spend time considering what they will wear. </p><p>All of that aside, I think this is more of a book for women to read to try to learn more about men than one that men will pick up. That being the case, it may well provide women with the kinds of questions that can ask of their friends, husbands, significant others, and sons, that will open up conversations that certainly need to be had. Take, for example, the chapter about how harmful the ready access to pornography has been for men, particularly young men. It has rewired their brains to the point where a not insignificant percentage of them find actual sex lacking. And there is a chapter about what our young men can find out in the "manosphere," much of which is quite alarming. </p><p>Is this a book without faults? No. Would you be wise to take this as an opportunity to ask your guys some of the same questions? Yes. I wish I had read this book twenty years ago, when my oldest's male friends were in my house constantly. I wish I would have thought to ask the questions and address the issues that Moran raises here. There is no reason that some of the problems that young men (and, consequently, grown men) deal with can't be chipped away at, one person at a time. Take this as a starting point. </p><p><br /></p><p> </p></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-7071945416663619522024-01-16T01:30:00.001-06:002024-01-16T01:30:00.134-06:00The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hand <div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_sJBkTVDCVULYPVPOGIjKGrddcHz1HSDoPo0VHBEWVpNsk5NpOsNoRhbnQutRtbcLIK37gmsP-6dHqLk5hE0FYaMGR_3OqgeLHZcCRCsM6K_Ii_MBZugUiN5aJ6oPHS0LJdmnqolQUAadEjG0bNYS7A95a08gpnR2UVrapzVfyNl-U_Lut0Bgvuy-Usn/s350/2cb76e1029dcbeda7cdcb0a85d57817e67ca892f.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="227" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_sJBkTVDCVULYPVPOGIjKGrddcHz1HSDoPo0VHBEWVpNsk5NpOsNoRhbnQutRtbcLIK37gmsP-6dHqLk5hE0FYaMGR_3OqgeLHZcCRCsM6K_Ii_MBZugUiN5aJ6oPHS0LJdmnqolQUAadEjG0bNYS7A95a08gpnR2UVrapzVfyNl-U_Lut0Bgvuy-Usn/w157-h241/2cb76e1029dcbeda7cdcb0a85d57817e67ca892f.jpg" width="157" /></a></div>The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street </i>by Helene Hanff</div><div style="text-align: left;">137 pages </div><div style="text-align: left;">Published March 1973 by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">When devoted Anglophile Helene Hanff is invited to London for the English publication of 84, Charing Cross Road—in which she shares two decades of correspondence with Frank Doel, a British bookseller who became a dear friend—she can hardly believe her luck. Frank is no longer alive, but his widow and daughter, along with enthusiastic British fans from all walks of life, embrace Helene as an honored guest. Eager hosts, including a famous actress and a retired colonel, sweep her up in a whirlwind of plays and dinners, trips to Harrod’s, and wild jaunts to their favorite corners of the countryside. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A New Yorker who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, Helene Hanff delivers an outsider’s funny yet fabulous portrait of idiosyncratic Britain at its best. And whether she is walking across the Oxford University courtyard where John Donne used to tread, visiting Windsor Castle, or telling a British barman how to make a real American martini, Helene always wears her heart on her sleeve. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is not only a witty account of two different worlds colliding but also a love letter to England and its literary heritage—and a celebration of the written word’s power to sustain us, transport us, and unite us.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I <u>knew</u> I was forgetting a book when I did my mini-reviews the last week of December, trying to finish reviewing all of the books that I had read in 2023. Maybe this one just demanded to have its own review. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It took me fifty years to finally read Helene Hanff's most famous work, <i>84, Charing Cross Road</i>. I was charmed, as millions of others have been; but it didn't occur to me to find anything else Hanff had written. Last year, when this book was brought to my attention, I was delighted to discover it and get a chance to read more of Hanff's work. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHqKJvONjPkfiWvzqhjY3IRnEg8dFzatqv0LIRV2pG8MGrW4xkdy_EffosLA77d02OiWLBNbq1O_SfApdtECNgjpsnUPMJqPZPySqxwgLdUOy0747CD-6DH6Q28yHMEh718WJvmH2SIVT-8QBWM01YFGukK0tYGzsJeuJK8NVNzatsnVOo3qag8V98En1/s2048/licensed-image.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1436" data-original-width="2048" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHqKJvONjPkfiWvzqhjY3IRnEg8dFzatqv0LIRV2pG8MGrW4xkdy_EffosLA77d02OiWLBNbq1O_SfApdtECNgjpsnUPMJqPZPySqxwgLdUOy0747CD-6DH6Q28yHMEh718WJvmH2SIVT-8QBWM01YFGukK0tYGzsJeuJK8NVNzatsnVOo3qag8V98En1/s320/licensed-image.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Whilst <i>84, Charing Cross Road</i> is entirely an epistolary work, composed of letters primarily between Hanff and London bookseller Frank Dole, <i>The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street </i>is Hanff's memoir of fulfilling her dream to travel to London, a diary she was encouraged to write by a friend. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Although Frank died three years before Hanff was finally able to make the trip (and Marks and Co was no longer in business), her correspondence with Frank had led her to correspond with his wife, his daughter, and other employees of Marks & Co. Not only that, but the success of <i>84, Charing Cross Road</i> and led Hanff to "meet" many other people in England who wanted the chance to meet her and show her the country. So, when she finally arrived, she was flooded with people who wanted to take her to dinner, to show her the sites, to ensure that she saw all that she longed to see, not necessarily just the touristy things. Their generosity allowed Hanff to stay in England longer than she had thought her money would last. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Hanff was an interesting lady; she was a bit of a recluse who also seemed to attract people to her. More than one of the people she met in England arranged to meet up with her again and to take her on outings outside of London. She was unfashionable when it came to her clothes, but liked to make sure her hair was just so. She was witty, intelligent and had strong and often unusual opinions.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote>"I despair of ever getting it through anybody's head I am not interested in bookshops, I am interested in what's written in the books. I don't want to browse in bookshops, I browse in libraries, where you can take a book home and read it, and if you like it you go to a bookshop and buy it."</blockquote><p> Once again I come away from Hanff's book thinking that she was a woman I would very much have enjoyed getting to know. This one will make you long to do a better job of chronicling your own travels; London comes alive in Hanff's capable hands, as do the people she met. When I finished <i>84, Charing Cross Road</i>, I suggested that it was a book I would definitely read again. When I do, I'll reread this one as well. </p><blockquote> </blockquote></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-59026597378082932412024-01-14T11:01:00.003-06:002024-01-14T11:01:21.399-06:00Life: It Goes On - January 14<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR9jL6XZm3TZkHiUnybL_wzuwnOXoYpqUiIARhSn5mztOL4LZCmexngRjvGI3DCdgjTB__RrwBt97MvH925nVNbeEjm4soHhWleXlGvebRWewxi7VRG8P5N7Qazqrzf_sSAxxOOGCUa-oQRTid0OKmEKc1NN40iO9pVG-0LIegcXoW3aEFIW60oR_PyiaH/s217/winterlifeitgoeson.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="163" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR9jL6XZm3TZkHiUnybL_wzuwnOXoYpqUiIARhSn5mztOL4LZCmexngRjvGI3DCdgjTB__RrwBt97MvH925nVNbeEjm4soHhWleXlGvebRWewxi7VRG8P5N7Qazqrzf_sSAxxOOGCUa-oQRTid0OKmEKc1NN40iO9pVG-0LIegcXoW3aEFIW60oR_PyiaH/s1600/winterlifeitgoeson.jpg" width="163" /></a></div>Happy Sunday from arctic Nebraska! I know the Rodger's and Hammerstein song says that the wind goes sweeping down the plain in Oklahoma; but let me tell you, it's been sweeping through all of the plains the past couple of days, making already frigid temps that much worse. We'd had almost no winter weather at all until Christmas Day, but it's definitely here now. We've had about 14" of snow this week. Fortunately, it was warm enough last Monday that the snow was melting as fast as it fell so what's left is not 14" deep...except where the wind has created giant snowdrifts, some several feet tall. I haven't left the house since Thursday; I'm <u>not</u> looking forward to going outside in a couple of hours! <p></p><p><b>Last Week I:</b> </p><div><b>Listened To:</b> I'm back to Mary Doria Russell's <i>Children of God</i>. I had such high hopes for it, having loved <i>The Sparrow</i>, but this one bounces around all over the place, making it hard for me to settle into it. </div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRuhlbK5KbUeNfFUqfmXGpq_UyYoSk4WfhPAuu-5ReM4wLyzDLRyXitNz_w-GWH_HFqwSvgUGOIkdGV3OpleY3PKpxsy7D-I8N_IMOy08IaaXFBxkt6Q5Uj9UOuAzTHLs09IdHlRm9h8x6TkBGA12L4-blqtLy5lAHKpMvdBYhbN2b8_de4sfukvZsQFHg/s1875/the-crown-102623-2-8f8c20770aa24fc7a4a9b1ad7531998b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1875" data-original-width="1500" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRuhlbK5KbUeNfFUqfmXGpq_UyYoSk4WfhPAuu-5ReM4wLyzDLRyXitNz_w-GWH_HFqwSvgUGOIkdGV3OpleY3PKpxsy7D-I8N_IMOy08IaaXFBxkt6Q5Uj9UOuAzTHLs09IdHlRm9h8x6TkBGA12L4-blqtLy5lAHKpMvdBYhbN2b8_de4sfukvZsQFHg/w159-h198/the-crown-102623-2-8f8c20770aa24fc7a4a9b1ad7531998b.jpg" width="159" /></a></div><br />Watched:</b> Football, college football, the first episode of season 6 of <i>The Crown</i>, and the first episode of <i>Northern Exposure </i>(a show, set in Alaska, that we loved when it first aired in the 1990's). Of course it comes out on Amazon Prime now...we just bought the DVD set for our Alaskan kids. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Read:</b> Caitlin Moran's latest, <i>What About Men</i> (Moran always makes me laugh AND gives me a lot to think about) and I started Melanie Benjamin's latest, <i>California Golden</i>, this month's book club book. I think I've read all of Benjamin's books and I'm always impressed by the variety of stories she finds to tell. Have you seen the trailer for <i>Feud: Capote vs. the Swans</i>? It's based on a different book but I'm looking forward to seeing it, having read Benjamin's <i>The Swans of Fifth Avenue</i>. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8lgVQMn4trlrqcDwlH1QfU24dvhT9RzhcwfKXiRmp96JrTvKnwuvkqa1nUl0niCGnHBKWpLVCxIaxLb8sok0Rn-yAbjfLRZ-E1tz3CO4hrJ5MF9TRX2DL7tlR8sn0vwCgxOUh9ghQX9E_yb4lpaj1LYINL6-Nf_RB_3bwJVmEg29qn_fZZvMQeKHPcLBp/s4032/IMG_6506.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8lgVQMn4trlrqcDwlH1QfU24dvhT9RzhcwfKXiRmp96JrTvKnwuvkqa1nUl0niCGnHBKWpLVCxIaxLb8sok0Rn-yAbjfLRZ-E1tz3CO4hrJ5MF9TRX2DL7tlR8sn0vwCgxOUh9ghQX9E_yb4lpaj1LYINL6-Nf_RB_3bwJVmEg29qn_fZZvMQeKHPcLBp/w138-h183/IMG_6506.jpeg" width="138" /></a></div><b>
</b> <b>Made:</b> Apparently all it took to get me cooking again was a good cold snap. Friday I made two soups: ham and potato (possibly the best potato soup I've ever made) and turkey and noodle (which we will have today for the first time). Yesterday I used up a couple of sweet potatoes to try a recipe I found on Instagram; it's definitely one we'll do again, although it's a little tedious to make. While that was cooking, we tossed in a couple more sweet potatoes and those will get turned into sweet potato soup today, something we've never tried before. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Enjoyed:</b> Because of the weather, I opted to work from home on Friday. Except that the internet was hit and miss. So I only ended up working a couple of hours and got most of the day as an unexpected day off. I love days like those. I decided to take full advantage of the time to get a lot of little things done. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
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<b>This Week I’m:</b><b> </b> </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Planning: </b>We have pretty well locked down plans for my dad's move to his new place. Now it'a a matter of sorting through his things to decide what's going to make the move so I'll be going over to his current apartment a couple of times this week to get those decisions made. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b style="font-weight: bold;"><b>
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<b>Thinking About:</b> </b>Remember last week, when I hushed my family room? I'll be honest, the emptiness of the room made me a little twitchy. But it was a great chance to really rethink what was in there (although it took me a stupid amount of time to get it put back together again!). Now I'm thinking about what room to do next, which room I'd most like to refresh. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: bold;">Feeling: </b>Much more relaxed, now that we have a plan in place for my dad. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Looking forward to: </b>Book club on Tuesday. And also April, because I'm already over winter. </div><div><b><b><b><b><br /></b></b></b></b></div><div>
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Question of the week: </b>If you found yourself with an unexpected day off, how would you choose to use it? Would you take advantage of it to knock off chores you haven't had time for or would you use it as a day to just relax, to read a book, watch a Netflix series, paint a watercolor? <br /></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605456781483914021.post-14169729772794290362024-01-09T01:30:00.001-06:002024-01-09T01:30:00.143-06:00The Measure by Nikki Erlick <div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVC8SO1GzEAWCDL5G2God92-m_xjwMH-sDK_XpfbcMZpR_PECjUaaF5bLKHEpqVL-ngGnxlHqzAchYsUW0RuIk4TCIWRQxXhYrZGrV1X-EWJ4roOSbaULYjfMM98pVZVJ_M2dpO7ReB0l49EsDuNlW_YFQ0VmA-MzZ2jU1YynLFqfmQnQZpU6CMkP60dCr/s595/lf.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="394" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVC8SO1GzEAWCDL5G2God92-m_xjwMH-sDK_XpfbcMZpR_PECjUaaF5bLKHEpqVL-ngGnxlHqzAchYsUW0RuIk4TCIWRQxXhYrZGrV1X-EWJ4roOSbaULYjfMM98pVZVJ_M2dpO7ReB0l49EsDuNlW_YFQ0VmA-MzZ2jU1YynLFqfmQnQZpU6CMkP60dCr/w173-h261/lf.webp" width="173" /></a></div>The Measure </i>by Nikki Erlick </div><div style="text-align: left;">Read by Julia Whelan</div><div style="text-align: left;">10 hours, 57 minutes</div><div style="text-align: left;">Published June 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Publisher's Summary: </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.</div>
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It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out.<br />
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But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.<br />
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From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?<br />
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As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they'll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?<br />
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The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn't have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.<br />
<div><br /></div><div><b>My Thoughts: </b></div><div><i>The Measure </i>was recommended to me by my aunt (and another aunt and two uncles!). I originally started it in 2023 but didn't get it finished so restarted it when it became available, making it the first book I read in 2024. Let's start with what didn't work so we can finish with the good stuff, shall we? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>What Didn't Work for Me:</b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I'm sorry to say that I didn't really find myself emotionally attached to any of the characters, possibly due to the relatively large number of them (there are far more than eight, as the summary would suggest). </li><li>I felt like Erlick worked too hard to make her cast of characters diverse. Black character? Check. Gay couple? Check. Evil politician to contrast to empathetic characters? Check. </li><li>The ending felt rushed to me, even though I understood why Erlick skipped big periods of time at the end. </li></ul><div><b>What I Worked for Me: </b></div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>This book is genre defying. Is it science fiction? Not really. Is it dystopian? No. Is it magical realism? I wouldn't say so. I like a book that can't be pigeonholed. </li><li>Why can't it be genre defined? Because it's a unique way to write about ideas that we think about all of the time. </li><li>This one would make a great book club selection and I'm pondering whether or not to move it into my club's 2024 line up. There is so much to discuss! How would you live your life if you knew you had decades ahead of you? Would you take risks, knowing that you couldn't be killed? Would you take better care of your body, knowing it needed to take you into your 80's? Would you commit to someone who had a short-string? And what if you were a short-stringer? Would you quit your job and do all of the things you thought you had a long life to do? Would you have children, knowing you wouldn't be there for them for very long? Do you end your own life to avoid a potentially painful end? And what of society? How would people treat each other if they knew? And would you want to know?</li><li>At first I was annoyed that we were never going to find out where the strings came from. But I realized that where they came from was not the point. How they impacted lives was. </li><li>Clearly, this book made me think and you know that I'm always going to like a book that does that. </li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05554217416500328610noreply@blogger.com0