Life: It Goes On - June 8

Happy Sunday! It's grey and rainy here this morning, the kind of morning that makes me want to crawl back into bed and sleep for a while longer. Given the week I have ahead of me, I might just do that! A little self-care, if you will. 

It's been a quiet week here, exactly what I was expecting, which has been really nice. Especially since I haven't been sleeping well, which means I've really been dragging. I can fall asleep in an instant, but I wake up repeatedly during the night. Saw the doctor on Friday and he's given me something that I hope will help with that; I'm so over not having any energy!

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. When I checked it out, I fully expected that a book that's 150 years old would be easy to renew so I didn't push to get through the 19 hours of it quickly. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I was unable to renew it because there are two people waiting. Guess I'm finishing that one up in print; fortunately, we have a copy. Next up: Dolly Alderton's Good Material. 

Watched: A lot of college baseball. We really enjoy getting to watch the teams that will be coming to Omaha for the College World Series in a couple of weeks. Friday night I watched Come From Away, a filmed version of the Broadway musical about the town of Gander, Newfoundland welcoming 7,000 people on 9-11-01, when all flights into the U.S. were grounded. Highly recommend it as both a musical and a great story. 

Read: That lack of sleep has also meant a lack of attention span. So I've read a little of this and a little of that. And by "a little," I really mean a little. I'm still working on Peter Graham's Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century, which I just found out was made into a movie years ago, starring Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey and directed by Peter Jackson. I also started Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Long Island Compromise.

Made: Whipped coffee and brown sugar, something a friend had introduced me to some time ago. I'd tried it then but not much enjoyed it. But I saw it again this week and they recommended using it a couple of different ways and now I might be addicted to it. I had a couple of mugs of it yesterday - all that caffeine and I slept better last night than I have all week! Could it be that I'll sleep better if I drink MORE caffeine during the day - lol?! 

Enjoyed: I took Friday off so I could have an extra quiet day before next week's work craziness. It wasn't entirely relaxing as I had my annual physical first thing in the morning, had to go to the DMV in the afternoon, and ended up working 3 hours from home. Still, it was nice to have some extra time to get things done and to just relax.

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: On getting the guest room ready for guests coming in a couple of weeks. BG and Mini-him putting a new ceiling fan up in that room yesterday so there's some cleanup to be done after that. Otherwise, it's going to be a quiet week. 

Thinking About: What's happening in our country, specifically Los Angeles. 

Feeling: Grateful to still have Miss H. Wednesday she was headed to St. Louis and spun out on the interstate and into the median in the pouring rain. She and her friend are sore but injured and her car has only minimal damage to the rear bumper. She was definitely being watched over by a higher power. 

Looking forward to: Things are starting to move forward on our kitchen renovation. I've decided to hold off on decisions on cabinet color and new hardware until after the counter and backsplash are installed so that I can really get a feel for what I want. 

Question of the week: Have you ever done a kitchen renovation? If so, shoot me your ideas on how to survive the mess and the inability to cook for a period of time. 

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

11 hours, 34 minutes

Read by Rebecca Lowman

Published February 2025 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover, sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie, he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. 

Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains, on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic and she can picture a happily ever after: Together they catch salmon, pick berries, and climb mountains so tall it’s as if they could touch the bright blue sky. But soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have ever imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.

My Thoughts: 

In 2021, I read Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child and was enchanted by it. I use the word "enchanted" because the book employed magical realism, something I generally struggle with, but which I loved in that book. Here again, Ivey uses magical realism to tell a story and, once again, I quickly accepted it as a necessity to tell a story that would have been less impactful without it. 

This time, it took a bit more willingness to suspend disbelief and I did have a harder time connecting to Birdie than I did the characters in The Snow Child. Life's been hard for Birdie; her mother walked out on her when she was a child and she's raising a child on her own; but it was hard for me to buy in to the idea that she was a good mother. Taking off to live with a man she hardly knew, in a remote place she had never been to seemed the height of irresponsibility to me even though I knew that she saw it as a fresh start and a chance to show Emaleen the life she had known as a child. 

The thing is, Arthur has a secret and is not at all who Birdie thinks he is. She misses all of the signs and ignores all of the warnings. Even when Birdie and Emaleen are flown to Arthur's cabin by his adopted father and Birdie sees how he lives, no warning bells seem to go off. Even so, for a while after the two arrive, things begin to go better. Arthur clearly cares about both of them and Birdie finds herself in love with him. He tries his hardest to be what they need. But, ultimately, it's not in his nature and Birdie's inability to accept that will cost them all. 

I appreciated this one for having an utterly unique storyline, I did come to care very much about Emaleen...and Arthur, for that matter, and Rebecca Lowman's reading is excellent. So, even though I didn't fall in love with this book, I did enjoy it and it made for a nice break from my more conventional reads. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Read by Marin Ireland and Micheal Urie

11 hours 16 minutes

Published May 2022 by HarperCollins

Publisher's Summary: 

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late. 

My Thoughts: 

Another in the line of stories featuring older women, this one's been on my TBR since it came out three years ago. I finally got around to requesting it from the library and requested it in print and audio, figuring I'd go with whichever became available first. 

And then Shelby Van Pelt came to town (well, not MY town, but Council Bluffs, which is right across the river) so I bought a copy of the book and had it signed. Three days later, the audiobook became available. I had thought I'd make it a read/listen combination, but I was enjoying the reading so much that I just "read" the whole book that way. You can never go wrong with Marin Ireland and Micheal Urie did a wonderful job. 

If you ever get the chance to hear Shelby Van Pelt speak, I highly recommend it. The story of how she came to be a writer and how she came to write this particular book is so interesting. She is funny, and warm, and signed books and took pictures for easily an hour after she was done with the scheduled speaking. 

As for the book, it was, for me, one of those "right book, right time" reads. I would have been happy if no one else appeared in the book except Tova and Marcellus (who is such a fun character); but, of course, it would be hard to craft a book entirely around only two characters, especially when one of them can't speak. Tova is lonely, despite having a tight circle of friends, since her husband died. Erik was their only child, and as she gets older, it's becoming more and more apparent to her that there is no one who will care for her when her home gets to be too much for her. But Tova is not as alone as she thinks she is and she'll soon find that there is a lot left for her to look forward to in her life. 

I don't want to give too much away, other than to tell you that there are characters who aren't even mentioned in the summary who come to be very important to Tova. And while the story line is sweet and bittersweet, it's the characters in this one that really make this a book worth reading. 

Life: It Goes On - June 1

Happy Sunday! The sun is back this week, which makes me very happy. But also, it's 86 degrees right now; and while I'd much rather it were summer than winter, it's quite a jolt to go from the upper 60's/low 70's to almost 90.  

We've had quite a week. Tuesday and Wednesday my brother and sister-in-law spent the night, Friday Big Guy drummed with his old band at a nearish winery, and yesterday we ran down to Kansas City to spend some time with Miss H before she gets too busy to see us all of June. This week will be much quieter. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Black Woods, Blue Sky and started Great Expectations, which may turn into a read/listen combo. 

Watched: Friday evening I watched Wicked Little Letters, starring Olivia Coleman; last night I introduced Miss H to Practical Magic. 

Read: Amy Griffin's The Tell. Not sure what's up next. 

Made: Salads, charcuterie, nachos - summery food. This morning I taught Miss H how to blanch food; a very kind food Door Dashed her a lot of food and she was not going to get it all eaten before it spoiled. So we got spinach, carrots, broccoli into the freezer. We also frozen strawberries, grapes, and an entire bag of mandarin oranges. And now I'm thinking I should do the same at my house!

Enjoyed: Time with family - biological and family by choice. Miss H had dinner plans last night so BG and I joined the people we now call our Kansas City family as they celebrated the patriarch's birthday and Joe's of Kansas City. AND BG and I went to Barnes and Noble after dinner for some browsing and coffee, which we haven't done in far too long. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Miss H is going to be moving into a temporary situation in a couple of months so we brought some things home that we'll store for her. That means I need to find a home for them in the basement which will almost certainly lead to some decluttering down there that will bloom into a much larger project than it needs to be. 

Thinking About: The countertops are ordered, the tile is ordered, the work will begin in a few weeks. But I'm still not certain which colors the cabinets and walls will be or whether or not to get new hardware. The idea of remodeling rooms sounds great, but for some reason I didn't really comprehend how stressful it would be and how many decisions would have to be made. 

Feeling: Tired. Miss H gave up her bed so we'd have a better place to sleep (we've previously brought an air mattress or used the hide-a-bed) but I never sleep as well in another bed, even if it is comfortable. 

Looking forward to: That empty calendar. As much as I enjoyed the things we did this past week, I need a quiet week this week because next week I have a new employee starting and I'm going to come home exhausted from that every night. 

Question of the week: Every time I have an evening to myself (and the t.v.!), I spend far too much time trying to figure out what to watch. What's something you've watched recently that you'd recommend, especially something that's more female centric (a.k.a. something that I wouldn't need to save to watch with BG)?