Erasure by Percival Everett

Erasure by Percival Everett

Read by Sean Crisden

8 hours, 16 minutes

Published January 2001 by University Press

Publisher's Summary:

Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Meanwhile, Monk struggles with real family tragedies-his aged mother is fast succumbing to Alzheimer's, and he still grapples with the reverberations of his father's suicide seven years before.

In his rage and despair, Monk dashes off a novel meant to be an indictment of Juanita Mae Jenkins's bestseller. He doesn't intend for My Pafology to be published, let alone taken seriously, but it is-under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh-and soon it becomes the Next Big Thing. How Monk deals with the personal and professional fallout galvanizes this audacious, hysterical, and quietly devastating novel.

My Thoughts: 

In December 2023, almost a year before I became aware of Percival Everett, this book was made into the film American History, starring Jeffrey Wright. It's one of those movies that I had every intention of watching (and still do), but had no idea until I began looking for more books by Everett (after loving his James last year) that Everett was the author behind that movie. Movie I want to see? Author I'm newly admiring? Heck, yes. 

This was a rare experience for me. While I thought Crisden did a terrific job reading the book, I also felt like I would have enjoyed this one had I picked up a physical copy of the book. I think. Because there is a part of this book where we read the book that Monk ends up writing and it's probably much better experienced by listening to it. Still, I think I would have paid better attention, felt more attached to the characters. And as much as Monk annoyed me, with his snobbish attitudes about literature, I did want to care about him. 

Despite his literary skill, it's not been a lucrative career; and with two siblings, a father, and a grandfather who are/were doctors, he's something of the black sheep of the family. Sister Lisa is a doctor at an abortion center and takes care of their aging mother until tragedy strikes. Monk's brother is an addict with a failing marriage (and an awakening to the fact that he's gay) and a busy career so he can't be counted on. Clearly Monk has to step up. 

Fortunately, that book he didn't mean to write has actually given him the fiscal comfort to be able to do that. The problem is that Monk hates the book, doesn't want to have anything more to do with it. But the public is eating it up and the critics love it. Stagg R. Leigh is in big demand and Monk has to decide how whether or not it's time to fess up and risk losing continuing income from the book, or to take on Leigh's persona and dig in. 

It's an excellent satire that I imagine has an even bigger impact on those who live that life, who understands the line that Monk is walking as he writes about something he actually knows nothing about. Is Monk empathetic to the plight of his characters or has he written an exploitative work? This one certainly gave me a lot to think about. I just wish I had read it, rather than listening to it. I think. 

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

384 pages

Published July 2024 by Holt, Henry and Company, Inc. 

Publisher's Summary: 

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

My Thoughts: 

When the publisher says that Phoebe is at rock bottom, what they mean to say is that Phoebe has abruptly left her home and her job to travel to the Cornwall Inn to commit suicide. When she arrives, she discovers that the rest of the hotel has been taken over by a wedding party...and a bride who discovers Phoebe's plan and insists that Phoebe cannot do what she's come to do. Not because Lila is empathetic and longs to save a life. Nope, it's because Lila absolutely cannot abide the idea of having her wedding week ruined by such a thing. 

That's a hell of a way to start a book and I couldn't imagine where things were going to go from there. And I would really, really love to tell you what happens next. I raced through the book as Espach introduced us to the various wedding people, including bride Lila and groom Gary and as she looked back at what had brought Phoebe to this low point in her life. As I met most of the wedding people, my first instinct was that these characters were stereotypes, but none of them ended up that way; each of them got enough background and room in the book to show us who they really are. 

The Wedding People runs the gamut of emotions - from the tough beginning to humor, from sadness to frustration. It's more complex than it appears, but moves along a quick enough pace to keep things light. The ending could have been cliche. Did Espach lay out where things were going? Yes, but when it came time to conclude the book, it happened in a very realistic and more believable way. For me, this one was well worth the hype. 

Life: It Goes On - February 23

Happy sunny Sunday from Omaha, where it's finally warming up! What a weird week it's been. Monday we had snow that made getting around a mess, then more snow early Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Top that with temps that didn't get out of single digits for more than a week. We huddled down and hardly left the house (except to go to work - why didn't I just work from home?!). 

Then Friday my dad was sent to the emergency room where he spent about five hours. Sent home only to end up back in the ER when the staff where he lives couldn't waken him. Concerns then led them to transfer him to another hospital where he remains today. Needless to say, we've spent a lot of our past couple of days at hospitals and I'm about to head back to the hospital shortly. The good news is that he's doing much better and may get to go home as soon as this afternoon.  

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished The Hunter by Tana French and started The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields. Unfortunately for The Age of Desire, it's following up on what will probably be one of my favorite audiobooks of 2025 so I'm not sure I'm giving it a fair shake so far. 

Watched: The Voice, some basketball, but otherwise a lot of nonsense. Well, at least nonsense in my opinion but that has pushed me to read more than watch a lot of television, which is a good thing. 

Read: The Wizard of Oz for book club and then I started Liz Moore's The God of the Woods and Allegra Goodman's Isola. Both The God of the Woods and Isola have been getting big buzz, the first being a book Barack Obama is lauding and the second being a book that Reese Witherspoon has chosen for her book club to read. So far I'm enjoying both and hope to finish both by the end of the week. 

Made: Homemade mac and cheese, pizza, pork chops with Thai rice. I'm pretty excited to have received my first order from Rancho Gorda late last week and I'm looking forward to making beans this week. Can't decide which of these to start with. Go safe with pinto or try something we've never had before. Have you ever had Christmas lima beans or cranberry beans?

Enjoyed: In a week where we did very little, I've had to find my enjoyment in the small things. Curling up in "my" chair with a good book, comfort food, burrowing into a toasty warm bed. Miss H was also in town for a convention so we saw a little of her as she came and went, although she kept very late hours so we didn't see a lot of her. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Having lost a chunk of the weekend, a part of this week will be playing catch up, including hanging the new towel rack in our bathroom that was supposed to get done yesterday so that I can finally put that room back together. 

Thinking About: Dealing with elderly parents is not for the faint of heart and I certainly didn't understand that until I was in it. It's tough to get the call that we got on Friday, thinking that this might be it, even when you understand that your parent is ready. 

Feeling: My mood is so much better today now that we're getting both sunshine and warmth. If I were able to stay home today, I think I'd be motivated to get a lot done. 

Looking forward to: Book club was postponed due to the cold last week, so I'm looking forward to that this week. 

Question of the week: Who else is already planning their gardens? Have you started seeds? And what about all of the buzz to get rid of Daylight Savings Time - are you for or against that idea? You all know how much I love my long sunny evenings so you know where I stand on that issue! 

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

173 pages

Published 1900 

Summary: 

It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home by a cyclone. Upon her arrival in the magical world of Oz, she learns she cannot return home until she has destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West.

My Thoughts: 

I picked The Wizard of Oz as my book club's 2025 classic book because of all of the hype about Wicked, which is, of course, based on the book of the same name by Gregory Macguire and serves as something of a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. I used to read an abridged edition of the book to my daughter when she was growing up (it was one of her favorite books), but it's been a very long time since I read the full story (probably around the time I was 9, after having watched the movie on television one evening. Between the abridged version, the decades since I'd read the original, and the movie adaptation, I'd forgotten a lot about this book. 

Number one, they were silver slippers, not ruby. They never saw the Wicked Witch of the West until they were taken to her castle. Glinda didn't appear until the end of the book. And there was almost no buildup before the tornado - no farm hands, no Professor Marvel, and no Almira Gulch and her threats against Toto. But there were a lot more adventures on the way to the Emerald City, including a journey through a land entirely made of china, great ravines and rivers to cross, and new enemies and friends along the way. 

But I was delighted to find that much of the dialogue in the movie came straight from the book, particularly when the friends were with the Wizard. I found myself wishing that I'd found a copy of the full book to read to my daughter instead of the abridged edition. 

Something I hadn't realized when I'd read the book so very long ago was that, while it was written to appeal to children, it was heavily political. The silver slippers, for example, were a metaphor for the silver standard which was being replaced by the gold standard (the fiduciary backing metal); the yellow brick road symbolizes the dangerous path the gold standard placed the United States upon. The green of the Emerald City represented the color of paper money. The Emerald City itself represents Washington D.c. Each of the characters, from Dorothy to the Wicked Witches represents a class of people (or, in the case of the Cowardly Lion, one specific three-time presidential candidate from Nebraska, William Jennings Bryan). 

I learned all of this after having finished the book then wished I had time to reread it before my book club meeting, knowing what I know now. If you ever find yourself contemplating a reread of this classic, I highly recommend learning more before you go into it - it will give the book so much more depth. I did enjoy it without that knowledge, but I would have enjoyed it more had I learned more first. 

Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillen Smith

Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff

By Myquillen Smith

Read by Lisa Wright

3 hours, 50 minutes

Published October 2018 by Zondervan

Publisher's Summary: 

Writing for the hands-on woman who'd rather move her own furniture than hire a designer, Myquillyn Smith—author of the The Nesting Place—helps you think through every room in your house, one purposeful design decision at a time. With people, priorities, and purpose in mind, you can create a warm, inviting, and timeless home that transcends the latest trends and centers around your personal style.

You'll have the tools to create a home you're proud of in a way that honors your unique priorities, budget, and taste. And best of all, you can completely transform your home starting with furniture and décor that you already have!

In Cozy Minimalist Home, Smith helps you:

• Recognize your role as the curator of your home who makes smart, style-impacting design choices
• Know what to focus on and what not to worry about
• Discover the real secret to finding your unique style
• Find a sofa you won't hate tomorrow
• Deconstruct each room and re-create it step by step
• Create a pretty home with more style and less stuff
• Make your home look the way you've always hoped so you can use it the way you've always dreamed 
• Fall in love with the space you've created

Discover how creating a cozy minimalist home goes beyond pretty and sets the stage for the true connection, relationship, and rest that you deserve.

My Thoughts: 

Confession: I actually own this book in print (and, in my defense, I have actually read it), but I choose to listen to it to complement the work I've been doing around the house with the Cozy Minimalist community this year. I could have pulled it off of the shelf; but, at the time, I felt more confident that I'd get through it this way. Lesson I learned: a lot of what Smith has to say comes across just fine in an audiobook, but I missed the visual part of a book like this. 

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I am a cozy minimalist. I love the homes that have layers and layers of things that tell a story, where you can really learn who someone is by the things they choose to display in their homes. My heart is drawn to that. But my brain knows two things about me that stop my heart from having it's way: 1) I know I'm not going to dust all of that stuff regularly and I HATE knowing my house is dusty; and 2) my mood is much better if my brain is not overwhelmed by stuff. Maybe that makes me a super cozy minimalist? Someone who needs more cozy than the regular cozy minimalist, but who also doesn't want to have as much stuff as she does now? 

So I'm refreshing myself with the idea of cozy minimalism - having just the right amount of "stuff" to make your home work for you, feel comfortable, and look lovely; but doing it in a way that's very intentional so that everything works together. Smith is very adamant that when you're working on redecorating a room, you do it in the right order and make very deliberate choices. About room arrangement. About the size of rugs and decorative pieces. And about NOT choosing a paint color until AFTER you've decided on your big pieces of furniture and rugs. Why? Because there are thousands of paint colors to choose from and it's going to be easier to match your paint to the other things you've chosen, rather than trying to find a rug to match the color you've painted on the walls.  

Smith (or Nester, as she's known to those who follow her teachings) uses her own homes to teach her community these lessons. It's a style that's all her own, and it wouldn't be for me. But I recognize that by using her techniques, she's made a room that is lovely, cozy, and works for her family. And I'm confident that those same techniques will work for any of us. 

Life: It Goes On - February 16

Happy Sunday! Well, I let that week get away from me - I had books to review and just didn't get around to it. May end up doing mini-reviews before I forget what I've read. Because, people, I've been reading! And by reading, I mean actually picking up a books and turning the pages, not just listening to books as I drive. 

It's truly been winter here this week and we have at least another week of it to "look forward to." We got snow on Wednesday, sleet on Friday, more snow on Saturday AND today it's stupid cold. As you know, I'm not a fan; but maybe just wanting to hide inside and curl up actually be put me in the mood to read. It's so cold that, because the windows I'm usually looking out of when I type this are on the north side of the house, I haven't even opened the blinds today. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Erasure by Percival Everett and started The Hunter by Tana French. 

Watched: The Voice, the Super Bowl (spectacularly un-super), a couple of episodes of Only Murders In The Building, and Emilia Perez on Netflix. It's a movie that refuses to be put in any one genre, has some terrific acting, and tackles some big themes. 

Read: I finished Alison Espach's The Wedding People and started L. Frank Baum's beloved The Wizard of Oz, which is my book club's classic book for this year.

Made: Hamburger soup, steaks and baked potatoes for Valentine's Day, and right now I'm cooking some rice pudding and I'm about to start a loaf of Outback bread. I planned to make some sourdough bread but cannot get my starter to reactivate. Too cold in my house, I think. 

Enjoyed: My nephew and his wife were in Nebraska this weekend, visiting all of their grandparents, and we got to join them for lunch and drinks yesterday, along with Mini-me and Miss C. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: There's not a lot on the calendar this week, although Miss H will be staying with us this weekend while she's in town for a convention. I'm behind on my Go Simplified calendar for February so I'll probably try to catch up with that. The Big Guy will be so cranky as he watches me get rid of more and more! 

Thinking About: I've been trying to avoid the news while also staying informed, which means that I'm still constantly thinking about politics and what's happening in our country. 

Feeling: Unmotivated. After I quieted our bathroom almost two weeks ago, I decided I wanted to paint before I put everything back. But I have yet to get to that, which means there's a big painting I brought up for that room that's living in the bathtub, a basket of towels in our closet, and a towel rack leaning against the wall. Must. Paint. Today. 

Looking forward to: Book club on Tuesday, even if it does mean going out in the cold again. 

Question of the week: What are your favorite soups to make? I'm all about having a pot of soup simmering on the stove all day on these cold days! 

Life: It Goes On - February 9

Happy Sunday! I'm finally sitting down to the computer after returning home midafternoon from a trip to K.C. exhausted. Splurged on a really nice hotel while we were there (and it really is a lovely place), but the bed was so uncomfortable for a woman with a bad back. It was really the only low point of an otherwise great weekend. 

I've gotten bored watching the Super Bowl, which is something you'll rarely hear me say, even when I don't care who wins the game. You know how much I love football and I usually watch to the bitter end, savoring every last minute of the last game of the season. Did you watch and did you care who won? 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Myquillen Smith's Cozy Minimalist Home and Percival Everett's Erasure. I'm afraid that one's going to expire before I get it finished, though. Next up is Tana French's The Hunter. 

Watched: Some college basketball, some professional women's volleyball, and The Voice. 

Read: Thrity Umrigar's The Museum of Failure. Last night I started The Wedding People, by Alison Espach. 

Made: Creamy shrimp pasta with roasted tomatoes and spinach; the viral ditalini pasta recipe; and chipped beef on toast (one of the comfort foods we both grew up with). 

Enjoyed: To celebrate the Big Guy's milestone birthday, Mini-him, BG and I headed to K.C. for a celebratory weekend. Started with a brunch that Miss H made at her place (this is my girl who used to be a disaster in a kitchen!). Then we headed out - first stop was for coffee at The Roasterie, then on to Prospero's for some book shopping (all four of us left with at least one book), followed by chocolates at Christopher Elbow Chocolate, and then some record store shopping. Cleaned up for dinner at Third Street Social (delicious!) and then BG and I spent the night at The Raphael. This morning we met friends for brunch before heading home. It was a whirlwind but we had so much fun, so many laughs, and BG was completely surprised by it all.                                                                                                                                                        

This Week I’m:  

Planning: Last week's Cozy Minimalist community's room hushing was a bathroom. I did our primary bathroom (well, as much as I could without moving any of BG's things!); as has happened every time, this has resulted in me wanting to make some changes. This time I need to paint before I can make most of the changes I want to make. So that's up for this week first. 

Thinking About: How blessed I am. 

Feeling: So tired. 

Looking forward to: We do not go out to celebrate Valentine's Day. Instead we have a really good candlelit dinner at home and I pull out the china and the crystal. Haven't decided on the menu yet. 

Question of the week: The halftime show of the Super Bowl made me realize that while I am familiar with who Kendrick Lamar is, I don't know any of his music. That being the case, I have no opinion about the show. But, predictably, a lot of people who don't know his music did which brings to mind the old adage "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." There's no way to please everyone. If you got to make the decision about who should perform the halftime show, who would you choose? 

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Read by Andy Arndt

8 hours, 56 minutes

Published January 2024 by Farrar, Straus, Giroux

Publisher's Summary: 

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings. 

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.

My Thoughts: 

One of the best parts of being part of a family of readers is that they make another great source of book recommendations. In this case, Beautyland was recommended to me by Mini-me. As much as I like to think of myself as reading somewhat diversely, Mini-me puts me to shame. They read everything manga, sci-fi, fantasy, nonfiction, literary fiction. Beautyland is billed as science fiction, what with Adina being an alien communicating with her home planet. But this book can't be so narrowly defined; it reads much more like literary fiction to me. 

Adina "activates" when she is four-years-old, at the moment her head hits the concrete after she is pushed by the father she won't see again until she is an adult. That night she "wakes up" in a classroom with otherworldly teachers who tell her that her mission is to find out if Earth is a planet where others from her planet can survive when their dying planet is no longer viable. When her mother brings home a fax machine from a neighbor's trash and puts it in Adina's room, Adina discovers that if she sends a fax, she will get a reply she believes is coming from her handlers. She begins regularly sending them her impressions of our planet, the humans who inhabit it, and her own life. 

"I require speech lessons and corrective lenses and most likely teeth braces. I am an expensive extra­terrestrial."

‘‘The ego of the human male is by far the most dangerous aspect of human society.’’ 

 ‘‘Death’s biggest surprise is that it does not end the conversation.’’ 

Her observations are often spot on, often touching, and frequently amusing. Often equally amusing are the responses she receives.  

Adina is young, but wise enough never to mention the nightly lessons she will have in the coming years or that fact that she is from another planet that can't be seen. Still others can plainly see that Adina is unusual. It's that very fact that makes her a character that will stay with me for a very long time. While almost all reviewers refer to this as a work of science-fiction, I'm still unsure. Was Adina an alien being or a woman whose brain was rewired by trauma that left her with a unique life experience and take on the world around her? Beautyland works either way, and maybe the fact that I was left wondering made it all that much more impressive. 

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult 

544 pages

Published August 2024 by Random House Publishing Group

Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley

Publisher's Summary:

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.

My Thoughts: 

Until a little over six years ago I had never read one of Picoult's books. I have now read five of them. My previous reluctant had mostly to do with my reluctance to read books that dealt with the latest "hot" topic. And while the main theme of this book, feminism, is certainly a hot topic, it is also a theme that resonates through the centuries which is the very reason this book is written in dual timelines. 

I have a tough time with dual time lines. I understand why authors utilize a modern timeline to help readers see the importance of stories set in the past. In this case, Picoult uses the story set in the present to introduce ideas to the reader that there's another person who plays into the idea that William Shakespeare was not the author of the works attributed to him. In fact, at least one of the true authors of the works may well have been a woman. Emilia Bassano was a real person who lived in the time of Shakespeare. The fact of the matter is that Bassano had skills and life experiences that Shakespeare did not, skills and life experiences that would have allowed her to write about the Danish court or life in Italy. 

Inevitably for me, one story nearly always outshines the other. Generally that's the story set in the past and this book was no exception, as difficult as it was to read. While this is a work of fiction, Picoult has crafted it around the known details of Bassano's life and the realities of women of the time. Picoult's vision of Bassano's life is a tough read. She is sold into becoming a courtesan at age 13. When she becomes pregnant, she is sold to a man who will horribly abuse her for decades and drink away everything they have, she will never be able to be with the man she truly loves, and her writing will only find an audience through a man who underpays her for her work. 

I felt like both story lines could have been pared down considerably.  Melina's story got pulled in too many directions - a love story, a storyline involving her father, a misunderstanding that puts her into an impossible (but also unbelievable) situation, and a detour where Melina is the bad guy in a diversity battle.  Emilia's story sometimes felt a little repetitive and that Picoult had too many terrible things happen to her. 

But Emilia's story is well worth the read as is Melina's fight to bring Emilia's story to life. I highly recommend reading the Author's Notes and the References to Shakespeare at the back of the book, which I found terrifically interesting and gave me a greater appreciation for the ways that Picoult had managed to work into the story the works attributed to Shakespeare. 

Life: It Goes On - February 2

Happy Sunday! The neighbor's children are playing outside today and their son is wearing gym shorts. Mind you, I would not wear shorts today, it being only 53 degrees, but still. It does start to get a person thinking that spring can't be that far away, even if Punxsutawney Phill saw his shadow this morning. I'm prefer Michigan's Woody the Woodchuck, who predicted an early spring. 

Are you old enough to remember the show Bewitched and the character Gladys Kravitz?  That's kind of what I feel like when I'm sitting here at my desk, looking out the front windows, perhaps judging what the neighbors are doing. What age was I when I started to get cranky about someone who wasn't visiting me parking in front of my house? 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino, as recommended to me by Mini-me. I'm going to have to get more recommendations from them! Today I started Cozy Minimalist Home, a book I actually own in print and have read; but since I'm working on the room hushing with the group right now, I decided a reread might be a good idea. 

Watched: We finally saw Wicked last night. We both enjoyed it; thought the costumes, cinematography, and acting was good. But the Big Guy thought a lot of the songs were really dull, which I know is blasphemous to those who love the show. 

Read: I finished Jodi Picoult's By Any Other Name and highly recommend reading Picoult's notes at the end of the book. Yesterday I started Thirty Umrigar's latest, The Museum of Failures.

Made: For the most part, cleaning out the freezer remains the goal so we've been throwing together some kind of strange things. Except for the night that BG came home from Costco with mini-corn dogs so we had those for supper. Because we're grown adults who eat like children some days. 

Enjoyed: Tuesday was a milestone bday for BG so we went out to eat with friends. It also happened to be the 15th anniversary celebration for a local restaurant so we joined in that celebration. It was quite an event, with four courses, three wines from Italy introduced to us by their supplier and the owner of the vineyards where the wine is produced, and a visit to our table by the chef. Great food and a lot of fun. We even came home with a bottle of wine!

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Room hushing continues. Last week was the bedroom. For the most part, I really love my bedroom. But as soon as I cleared the surfaces, I could really see somethings that I wanted to do in there. So I've redone my gallery wall, switched chairs, redone the top of my dresser and bookcase, and reorganized the way my jewelry is stored/displayed. I'll join in again with whatever room is being done this week, but I'm also working on Go Simplified's calendar for working your way through your home. January was bathrooms; February is entertaining spaces (this week is china and silver - will this be the time I finally part with one of my sets of china?). 

Thinking About: Our cat had surgery on Friday. She came through just fine, but it's really gotten me thinking about what life will be like when she's gone. We likely won't get another pet. I won't miss cat hair everywhere, litter boxes, and all of the other gross cat things. But golly I'm going to miss having a sweet girl curled up at my feet while I sleep or want to be snuggled first thing in the morning. 

Feeling: I took a half day off Friday and will be off again tomorrow...just because. It feels so good to be at Sunday and not be spending any time today thinking about work tomorrow. 

Looking forward to: BG's bday celebration with family this weekend. We're not going to have the friends  with us that I was planning on, but I have a lot of fun things planned and he's going to be so surprised. 

Question of the week: How's your reading going so far this year? Even though I felt like I was reading more, I only managed to finish five books in January.