Life: It Goes On - July 22

Happy Wednesday! Why yes, yes I am only getting to this three days late. And no, no I did not get any reviews posted last week. In fact, I have 4 reviews to finish and 8 that need to be started. I've been reading, but I'm beginning to wonder if my desire to blog has run its course after 17 years. 17 years?! I never would have thought I'd be doing this for 17 years when I posted that first introductory post. But I do still want to put down my thoughts about the books I read - may just need a better way to do them. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished John Kenney's I See You've Called In Dead, George Orwell's 1984, and Marjan Kamali's The Stationery Shop. Today I started Elizabeth Gilbert's All The Way To The River, which I picked up because it was available while I'm waiting for one of my holds to come in. 

Watched: The last of the World Cup matches, but nothing remarkable since then. 

Read: I finished Elizabeth Strout's The Things We Never Say and George Saunders' Vigil. Tonight I'm starting Douglas Stuart's John of John. See - I told you I've been reading! 

Made: Ham and cheese wraps, pizzas, taco salads, nachos, and caprese pasta. 

Enjoyed: Lots of quiet time, got my hair done, went for ice cream and drinks with friends and Mini-him, and book club last night. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: I've put a plan into motion that's convinced the Big Guy to work on the basement with me and I'm so excited to get started on it with him. I started this weekend and am making slow, but real, progress. I'm not using any of the methods I've learned over the years, but I think it will work well for us. 

Thinking About: In a week we will no longer be empty nesters. It's only for a few months, but it's definitely going to take some adjusting to for all of us. 

Feeling: Work has me feeling like we've had 3 Mondays this week. 

Looking forward to: We're going to see The Odyssey at the IMAX on Saturday. 

Question of the week: Have you seen it? If so, did you reread it before you went (or read it for the first time)?

Life: It Goes On - July 13

Happy Monday! Gracious, did yesterday ever get away from me! In fact, the entire weekend did. Mini-him is getting ready to move "home" for a few months so we've been working to get a bedroom ready for him to use and he has started moving things in here and to storage. I used to think I would always be eager to have one of my ducklings move home. Turns out, I'm not that eager after all. But you do what you need to do to help a kid out and it's only for a couple of months so we'll deal with it. And it has helped me get more things out of the house, so it's a win in that way. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished John Green's Everything Is Tuberculosis and started John Kenney's I See You've Called In Dead. 

Watched: More soccer and Enola Holmes 3. 

Read: I finished Dolan Perkins-Valdez's Happy Land and started Elizabeth Strout's The Things We Never Say. 

Made: Lavosh pizza with Alfredo sauce, chicken, bacon, mushrooms, onion and mozzarella pearls. Delicious. Will I ever remember to make it again? Probably not. 

Enjoyed: Dinner out with the Big Guy at one of our favorite places and then movie night. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Work will continue on making room for Mini-him while I can still convince BG to get rid of things to make room. 

Thinking About: A couple of trips we're hoping to make in the next few weeks. 

Feeling: Lazy today. 

Looking forward to: Spa day, a.k.a. getting my hair done. 

Question of the week: I just noticed cobwebs in my office and now I can't remember the last time I cleaned the walls in here. How often do you clean your walls? Do you dust them or wash them down every time? 

Perfume: The Story of A Murderer by Patrick Suskind

Perfume: The Story of A Murderer by Patrick Suskind

Translated from German by John E. Woods

Read by Nigel Patterson

9 hours

Published February 2001 by Vintage (originally in German in 1985)

Publisher’s Summary: 

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity. 

My Thoughts: 

Some quick thoughts on a book that's been on my tbr for a very long time, but which I really did not enjoy.  I can't imagine what the description of the book was for me to have added it to my tbr, but it must not have been very detailed for me to have been interested in the book it ended up being. 

• I imagine this would be categorized as historical fiction, but there's definitely an element of horror to it. 
• While I didn't care for the book itself, I will say that Nigel Patterson's reading of it is excellent. 
• Suskind's writing is wonderfully descriptive and he's able to describe scents in a way that makes it possible for readers to actually imagine them. Unfortunately, the detailed descriptions are also very difficult to read when Suskind is writing about illness or murder. 
• The ending is just very weird. 
• I don't know anyone I would recommend this to; and, for me, it just became less and less something I wanted to read to the point I just wanted it to be done. Why did I not DNF it? Because I kept thinking it would turn into the book I thought I was going to get. 
• This was made into a movie in 2006, starring Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman. No surprise neither of them ever made a big deal of having starred in it and the reviews are not good. 

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Read by Juliet Stevenson

21 hours, 29 minutes

Published September 2014 by Riverhead Books

Publisher's Summary: 

It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa-a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants-life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances's life-or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.

Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters's finest achievement yet.

My Thoughts: 

I picked this one up after I'd read Water's 2009 The Little Stranger and 2002 Fingersmith. It has languished on my bookshelves for years now, so when I saw it was available in audiobook just when I was needing a book, I didn't hesitate. 

You may have noticed that this book is 21 and a half hours long which means, for me at least, that a book is really going to have to a lot going on to keep a reader's interest. But this book is a slow-burn of a novel that managed to hold my interest for all of that 21 and an half hours. 

The book is, essentially, three parts. The front end becomes a love story, the middle a shocking jolt, and the last part more of a crime story which left me very much wondering how Waters was going to keep her heroine out of trouble, whether or not Lilian was to be trusted, and whether or not Lilian and Frances' relationship could survive. 

Waters' writing is superb, as ever. She paints a vivid picture of life after the Great War, particularly what it was like for women who had lost their husbands and their means of life. Frances and her mother, despite their circumstances, still believe themselves to be above, in station, the Barbers, despite the fact that the Wrays could not survive without the money the Barbers pay them. Frances has been forced to do all of the housework, but hides it from the neighbors (who surely know what is happening). The Wrays initially are very uncomfortable with the interactions they are forced to have with the Barbers. Leonard is brash and flirtatious with Frances, making her very wary of him. But she grows closer and closer to Lilian, despite their statuses, and it reopens Frances' past relationship with another woman which disgraced the Wray family. 

I can't get too far into explaining what happens beyond that without giving away too much. Suffice to say that the relationship between Frances and Lilian causes trouble that will put them both in danger and tests that relationship. 

Hopefully I've given you enough to understand that this book will not be for everyone, particularly given some intimate scenes. For me, that wasn't an issue; this is simply a different love story, filled with yearning and hope. 

Life: It Goes On - July 5

Happy Sunday and happy day after the 4th of July! I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday weekend. I struggled with celebrating this year; but, in the end, celebrated what this country was founded on and what it could be. We've had a lot of clouds of late, including a 2" rainfall on Friday evening; but today is starting off sunny, which always gives me more energy to get things done. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: John Green's Everything Is Tuberculosis. 

Watched: So. Much. Soccer. 

Read: Still reading Happy Land, although I need to finish it pretty soon as I have 5, yes 5, books ready for pick up at the library. 

Made: Fettuccine carbonara, blt salad, and last night we bbq'd chicken thighs and I made homemade ice cream and chocolate sauce. This may be the first 4th in 20 years that I didn't make red velvet cake but since I always make it for Mini-him's bday in July, I've decided once a month is plenty. 

Enjoyed: A quick visit from Miss H during the week. Time with family yesterday and dinner and fireworks with friends last night. We didn't have to buy a single firework; we just sat in a neighbor's driveway and watched displays going off all around us. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: On working some more on the basement. I've made good progress last week which was an incentive to keep going. Now if I can just keep the Big Guy from pulling things back out of the donation pile, I'll make even better progress. 

Thinking About: A couple of trips we'd like to take this summer and maybe even a real vacation. 

Feeling: A little sad. I'm really missing my parents this weekend. They loved the Fourth of July. I've told you before about the neighborhood breakfast my parents started in 1976; this year was the 50th anniversary of that first breakfast and my dad had so hoped to be alive and able to go to it. 

Looking forward to: I think a quiet week. Although I haven't looked at the calendar yet, so I may well be forgetting something. 

Question of the week: How did you celebrate yesterday? 

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

272 pages

Published September 2022 by Little, Brown and Company

Publisher's Summary: 

“Go get lost somewhere, it always does you good.”

For Arthur Less, life is going surprisingly well: he is a moderately accomplished novelist in a steady relationship with his partner, Freddy Pelu. But nothing lasts: the death of an old lover and a sudden financial crisis has Less running away from his problems yet again as he accepts a series of literary gigs that send him on a zigzagging adventure across the US.

Less roves across the “Mild Mild West,” through the South and to his mid-Atlantic birthplace, with an ever-changing posse of writerly characters and his trusty duo – a human-like black pug, Dolly, and a rusty camper van nicknamed Rosina. He grows a handlebar mustache, ditches his signature gray suit, and disguises himself in the bolero-and-cowboy-hat costume of a true “Unitedstatesian”... with varying levels of success, as he continues to be mistaken for either a Dutchman, the wrong writer, or, worst of all, a “bad gay.”

We cannot, however, escape ourselves—even across deserts, bayous, and coastlines. From his estranged father and strained relationship with Freddy, to the reckoning he experiences in confronting his privilege, Arthur Less must eventually face his personal demons. With all of the irrepressible wit and musicality that made Less a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning, must-read breakout book, Less Is Lost is a profound and joyous novel about the enigma of life in America, the riddle of love, and the stories we tell along the way.

My Thoughts: 

I read and reviewed Greer's 2017 Less (review here), which won Greer the Pulitzer Prize and which I felt had a lot to teach me and which I really enjoyed. I wrote then that I had two of Greer's other books on my Nook (still haven't gotten to those), but that I feared they would not be able to live up to Less which was so very good. Unfortunately, this one didn't either, at least not for me. Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it; it was just always going to be tough to live up to the first book. 

This book finds Less crossing the country in a mad effort to try to earn enough money to pay back rent on the home he's been living in for more than a decade without any idea rent should have been paid. Less has been a successful writer so there is some demand for him, but he's struggling to write the next great book so off he goes, in part to earn money and in part to try to find the father that left him years ago. To say that for a smart man Less is often clueless is an understatement. So, of course, he finds himself in one ridiculous situation after another which give the book a lightness. But Less is also trying to find himself and what he wants for his future so there is plenty of weight to the book as well. 

While this one didn't pull me in as much as the first book, Greer's writing still impressed. You can't help but care about Arthur and hope that he finds what he needs. Maybe what this book has done is give me a lower bar for those books I already own to reach. And Greer's latest book, Villa Coco, which recently came out and which I'm waiting to get from my library. 

Life: It Goes On - June 29

Happy Monday evening! This past week was not an intentional break at all. Started last week with a nasty cold that turned into almost a week of sinus headache and I've been almost useless unless it absolutely had to get done. At least I did get some reading done, so there's that. 

The Last Two Weeks I: 

Listened To: M.L. Stedman's A Far-Flung Life and Susan Jane Gilman's Undress Me In The Temple of Heaven. Today I started John Green's Everything Is Tuberculosis. 

Watched: More soccer than I've watched in all the rest of my life combined. Also, The Penguin Lessons, starring Steve Coogan, which is based on a true story of the same name written by Tom Michell. Coogan plays Michell, who saves a penguin in Uruguay and then the penguin decides to bond to him. Michell ends up taking the penguin back to Argenitina, where he is teaching in the 1970's, and the penguin helps him become a better teacher and better person. We both really liked it a lot and would recommend it.

Read: I finished Peter Geye's A Lesser Light and Monica Wood's How To Read A Book. Yesterday I started Dolen Perkins-Valdez's latest, Happy Land. This is my fourth of Perkins-Valdez's books, having previously read Wench, Balm, and Take My Hand. 

Made: BLTs and blt salad, homemade Mac and cheese, stir fry, smoothies. Mostly easy, comfort food. It will be much more of the same this week, what with the heat wave we've just started. 

Enjoyed: Book club friends and I went to hear Lisa See promote her latest book, Daughters of The Sun and Moon. Learned a lot; she does a great job. We followed that with dinner and drinks and it was such good therapy. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Miss H is coming up tomorrow night to pick up a new car and will be spending the night and a chunk of Wednesday here so I've taken Wednesday off to spend with her and I'm hoping to get through some more of the things she's still got at my house. 

Thinking About: How to celebrate the Fourth. 

Feeling: Still lethargic but at least able to finally convince myself to get some things done. 

Looking forward to: See Planning. We haven't seen Miss H since Christmas! 

Question of the week: I feel like this has been a banner 12 months for books and I'm struggling to keep up with the ones I want to read. What's one book you've read in the past 12 months that you can't recommend enough? What's one you'd suggest I skip? 

Brother and Sister by Diane Keaton

Brother and Sister: A Memoir by Diane Keaton

Read by Diane Keaton

4 hours, 29 minutes

Published February 2020 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publisher’s Summary: 

When they were children in the suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1950s, Diane Keaton and her younger brother, Randy, were best friends and companions: they shared stories at night in their bunk beds; they swam, laughed, dressed up for Halloween. Their mother captured their American-dream childhoods in her diaries, and on camera. But as they grew up, Randy became troubled, then reclusive. By the time he reached adulthood, he was divorced, an alcoholic, a man who couldn't hold on to full-time work—his life a world away from his sister's, and from the rest of their family.

Now Diane is delving into the nuances of their shared, and separate, pasts to confront the difficult question of why and how Randy ended up living his life on "the other side of normal." In beautiful and fearless prose that's intertwined with photographs, journal entries, letters, and poetry—many of them Randy's own writing and art—this insightful memoir contemplates the inner workings of a family, the ties that hold it together, and the special bond between siblings even when they are pulled far apart. Here is a story about love and responsibility: about how, when we choose to reach out to the people we feel closest to—in moments of difficulty and loss—surprising things can happen. A story with universal echoes, Brother & Sister speaks across generations to families whose lives have been touched by the fragility and "otherness" of loved ones—and to brothers and sisters everywhere.

My Thoughts: 

In the early years of their lives, Randy and Diane slept in the same room, sharing a bunk bed. When they moved into a new house, they no longer shared that room. Grown Keaton wonders if Randy's life would have been different had that not been separated so early, had he had a friend to confide in every night, had they not had other siblings. She ponders the "what-ifs" had Randy been raised differently. But she doesn't throw blame and she doesn't make excuses for his behavior or his troubles. Randy was blessed to have a family who cared so much and never stopped trying to help him. 

Keaton was candid and honest about how difficult Randy's mental health and addiction were on the family and on her She struggled to be honest about what was happening, to be caring. But she also found she needed to be tough when it was called for. 

As Diane's rose to fame, she had to also straddle Randy's descent. Fortunately, her rise allowed Randy to have the best care possible for the rest of his life, something she became well aware of being hard to find, even when you have money. In the end, Keaton is able to look back with humor at the things Randy did and be in awe of the way his brain worked and not entirely sad by the turn his life took and the toll it took on the family. 

It's so wonderful to hear Keaton's voice and I highly recommend the audiobook. But I know that I missed out on those photos, letters and art. I'm thinking a read/listen option is the way to go with this one! 

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Read by David Morris

13 hours, 12 minutes

Published November 2025 by Atria Books

Publisher's Summary: 

One spring morning, a stranger named Theo arrives in the small Southern city of Golden. He doesn't explain much about where he came from or why he's there—but when he visits the local coffeehouse, where pencil portraits of the people of Golden hang on the walls, he begins purchasing them, one at a time, and giving each portrait to the person depicted. In exchange, he asks only for the person's story. And so portrait by portrait, person by person, secrets are revealed, regrets are shared, and ordinary lives are profoundly altered.

A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is an unforgettable novel about the power of generosity, the importance of connection, and the quiet miracles that happen when we choose kindness and wonder.

My Thoughts: 

My book club does a book exchange every year at our Christmas party. This year, one of the women gave this book. I had never heard of it at that time, but a few weeks later I was hearing about it every where. Normally, you see me steering away from books that are all the rage; but because my friend seemed to have endorsed this one, I decided to give it a listen. 

• David Morris' reading is excellent. If you're one of the few people who haven't read this one yet, I highly recommend the audiobook option. 
• I was very much into the idea of this man wanting to gift the portraits and was really enjoying his interactions with each of the recipients. I loved that Theo met some wonderful people who he befriended, but also some others who were not so wonderful and some who were prickly.
• I was impressed with Levi's writing...except for his practice of overly describing the appearance of his characters. 
• At a certain point, this book moves away from the storyline of giving away the portraits and focuses more on the relationships Theo has made. Which is all well and good except that it felt like it happened abruptly. Perhaps Levi decided he had introduced enough characters to his story. 
• Something happens in the book, that I will not give away; but after that he feels like Levi reached the point where he decided he needed to tell not show and it seemed to me that the story began to drag on even as things began to tie up a little too tidily. 
• I did feel as though I was being emotionally manipulated at a certain point. 
• After all of that, did I like this one? Yes; and I would recommend it. I just didn't love it as much as so many others did. It would give book clubs a lot to talk about. 

Life: It Goes On - June 14

Happy Sunday! It's a beautiful day here in very busy Omaha. The College World Series kicked off on Friday, farmer's markets are in full swing, there's an outdoor art festival, and Wicked is in town this week. Which of those have we enjoyed this weekend? Not a darn one. 

Well, that's not entirely true. The Big Guy did go to a concert Friday night with a friend (he's always up for a concert!). By and large, though we steer clear of downtown this time of June, except the going down for maybe one game each year. Instead we've thrown windows open and spent a lot of time on the patio. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Sarah Waters' The Paying Guests and started M.L. Steadman's A Far-flung Life. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I'm going to get that finished before it's due back. By the time I get it again, I'll have forgotten what I already read!

Watched: The NBA finals, the College World Series, some World Cup, and the final episode of Emily In Paris. 

Read: Still plugging away on the Peter Guy book. It's really good so I can't figure out why I can't make myself pick it up more often. 

Made: Homemade ranch dressing with mayonnaise with lime juice and a restaurant packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. I really didn't believe those two ingredients could make that much difference, but they certainly did. 

Enjoyed: Girl therapy Friday evening. A.k.a. happy hour with a friend that started in a restaurant and ended on my patio. It was a rough week and that time Friday was just what the doctor ordered. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Despite the forecast for a nice week, I'm bound and determined to make a dent in our scary basement. I have a couple of days off of work this week that really gives me time to make a dent. 

Thinking About: How you are only as happy as your saddest child. 

Feeling: Like taking a nap. Even though I slept plenty last night. 

Looking forward to: Getting my hair done this week. 

Question of the week: It's a busy time of year for sports. Are you a fan of baseball, basketball or soccer?