Life: It Goes On - January 8

Happy Sunday! I'm going to be brief today; I'm cleaning (and sterilizing) the house before my brother and sister-in-law arrive. It's been a week. The Big Guy hadn't been feeling well for five or six days so I finally convinced him to go to the doctor - adult RSV. He's finally past contagious state and (knock on wood) I managed to avoid catching it. So happy he's feeling better...and much less crabby! 

Last Week I: 

 Listened To: I'm listening to Nick Hornby's Funny Girl, which I'm really enjoying. Also, listened to Six on repeat because...well, you'll see in a bit. 

Watched: Football. I've got to tell you, what happened to Damar Hamlin had me really thinking about my love of the sport. 

Read: I hemmed; I hawed. I couldn't decide what to start the year with. And then I remembered that I have three books from the library that need to be read. So I'm now reading Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional by Isaac Fitzgerald, a book I found out about after watching Fitzgerald give his book recommendations for Christmas gifts on one of the morning "news" shows. 

Made: It's been a week of simple, basic eating for several reasons. Loaded baked potatoes, potato soup, soft shell tacos, pizza. 

Enjoyed: My birthday present from my dad - tickets to see Six. BG and I had dinner at one of our fave places and then went to the show. The emptiness in front of the theater? Deceiving. The show was sold out and the house was rocking by the time the show was over. It was so much fun!

This Week I’m:  

Planning: I have been the worst book club leader this past year and only just today finally got the reading list for this year put together and posted. And that's not the only place I've fallen behind in my blogging. So this week, I'm going to work on getting caught up on blogging. I used to enjoy it so much; but it's one of the things I lost my joy of doing in 2022. I'm going to get that back!

Thinking About: I was talking to a (young) coworker the other day and it occurred to me that I'm only 15 years from reaching the average life expectancy for a female in the United States. Fifteen years. That's not nearly long enough to do everything I still want to do. So there's my incentive to get back on track with my eating and to get up and move.

Feeling: A little cranky myself. I broke a tooth the other day and will need to have a crown put on. What a way to start off the year! At least that tooth already had a root canal so I don't have to pay for that and this isn't hurting. 

Looking forward to: I'm making supper at my dad's tonight. We'll be having ebelskivers, which I haven't made in far too long. 

Question of the week: Are you a fan of musical theater? If so, what's the last show you saw? 

Word Of The Year For 2023

 

Redemption

I hadn't even given much thought to what my word of the year would be for 2023 until Friday, when I was browsing Facebook and saw that Emmanuel Acho had chosen the word "redemption" as his word of 2023.  Acho defined "redemption" as the act of regaining or gaining possession of something. That didn't immediately grab my attention as a word I might consider. It was only after I read the reason he chose that word that it clicked with me as being a word I might choose. Acho said 2022 was the hardest year of his life; and that, in 2023, he will be fighting to redeem his joy, his peace, and his full emotional health. 

That's when the bell went off for me. I lost myself in 2022. I read less, I didn't refinish or paint one piece of furniture, I didn't spend evenings on the patio I'd worked so hard to make lovely. I spent far too much time mindlessly scrolling through Facebook and Instagram. We hardly traveled. There were a lot of reasons for this, not the least of which is an almost eleven month battle with back pain. 

In 2023, I am choosing to redeem my joy, my peace, and my emotional health. 

2022 Reading Recap

 

Yeah, yeah, I know most bloggers do their recaps in the final week of the year. But I never quite seem to have the time to do that. Plus, I'm usually scrambling to try to finish at least one book. So January 3 it is! 

In 2022, I finished 64 books, which is down some for me (and certainly no where near the 152 one of my book blogging friends read!). Still, considering that I felt like I was in a reading slump much of the year, that's not bad. 

And how does all of that break down? Here are some stats (although, again, nowhere near as well recorded as many of my blogging friends!): 

• Female authors - 46, male authors - 18. This is pretty normal for me. 
• Fiction - 50, nonfiction - 14. This might be a bit lower than my usual but kind of essential for me to back off the heavier stuff this year. 
• 42 of the books I read this year were checked out from the library, in print, ebooks, and audiobooks. 
• 15 of the books I read were through Netgalley, which is fewer than I often read but I was less inclined to put myself in a position where I was obligated to read books by a specific date. 
• 12 books were recommended to me by friends this year. 
• Only 1 book I read this year was set in Asia and only 4 in Africa. It's rare for me to have numbers that low. 
• Genres: 9 historical fiction, 19 literary fiction, 8 women's fiction, 12 mystery/thrillers, 3 science fiction, 1 book of poetry, 4 collections of essays, 5 memoirs, 6 books that included fantasy elements, 1 epistolary novel, 4 classics, and 1 collection of short stories.
• I read 8 books that addressed science in one way or another, 3 humorous books, 9 books that had elements of feminism, 2 books about grief, 6 books about family, 1 book about politics, and 13 books that addressed diversity. 

Usually I end the year by commenting on how I would like to read more of this kind of book or that, with scolding myself for not reading diversely enough or not reading enough classics, for simply not reading enough. I'm not going to do that this year. I read what I read and I'm going to do the same in 2023. I may, in fact, be even less deliberate about what I read and focus on reading what I'm in the mood to read. To redeem the joy of reading (more on that tomorrow!). 

The Surgeon's Daughter by Audrey Blake

The Surgeon's Daughter by Audrey Blake 

Read by Susan Lyons

13 hours, 24 minutes

Published May 2022 by Sourcebooks

Publisher's Summary: 

Women's work is a matter of life and death.

Nora Beady, the only female student at a prestigious medical school in Bologna, is a rarity. In the 19th century women are expected to remain at home and raise children, so her unconventional, indelicate ambitions to become a licensed surgeon offend the men around her.

Everything changes when she allies herself with Magdalena Morenco, the sole female doctor on-staff. Together the two women develop new techniques to improve a groundbreaking surgery: the Cesarean section. It's a highly dangerous procedure and the research is grueling, but even worse is the vitriolic response from men. Most don't trust the findings of women, and many can choose to deny their wives medical care.

Already facing resistance on all sides, Nora is shaken when she meets a patient who will die without the surgery. If the procedure is successful, her work could change the world. But a failure could cost everything: precious lives, Nora's career, and the role women will be allowed to play in medicine.

My Thoughts: 
This is Blake's follow up to The Girl In His Shadow (my review here). When last we left her, Nora Beady was boarding a ship, headed for Italy to study medicine, eager to be in a place where people allowed women to become doctors. 

Unfortunately for Nora, things aren't that easy (of course). It turns out that, while women are allowed to study medicine, the men still show them no respect and make life as difficult as possible for them. Although she finally begins to make friends and allies, Nora is eager to complete her studies early and return home. But the help she receives from a mentor puts her in an even more difficult situation, leaving her more eager than ever to complete her coursework and return home to Horace Croft, the man who raised her, and Daniel, the man she loves. 

But those men are facing their own battles. Horace has always raised hackles for his unorthodox methods and has made an enemy of the head of the hospital where he does paying work. When he decides to expand his own home to create his own hospital, he finds himself deep in financial trouble, trouble he can't get himself out of because of health issues. It's left to Daniel to try to save Horace's dream, the only home Nora remembers, and his own career. 

Like the first book, this one is loaded with high drama and as the troubles mounted, I begin to tire of yet another obstacle placed in the paths of our heroes. Because, let's be honest, we know how this is going to come out in the end, even if we can't imagine how Blake will possibly get us there. Still, I enjoyed the ride, appreciated female characters who fought back against those obstacles, and reading a book that read a little bit like a 19th-century medical thriller. 

Susan Lyons is again the reader and I quite enjoy her reading and her ability to give each of the characters a unique voice. Will there be another book in the series? It's almost certain. After all, Nora and Daniel have not married yet when we end this book and there are no end to the medical situations the group of doctors running the new hospital can battle. If I'm right, it's a given that I'll pick it up. 

Life: It Goes On - January 1

Happy New Year! How did you all celebrate the end of 2022 and the beginning of a new year? Mini-him came over and we all enjoyed a charcuterie meal (because you're allowed to do that on New Year's Eve, right?). Then the Big Guy and Mini-him and some of his friends for drinks and music. I stayed home and enjoyed the peace and quiet, started taking down Christmas, and watched the college football playoff games. BG arrived home just in time for us to pop some bubbly to celebrate the arrival of 2023 on the east coast and then finished the bottle off just as the clock chimed midnight here. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished The Surgeon's Daughter by Audrey Blake as my final book of 2022. My first audiobook of 2023 will be Nick Hornby's Funny Girl. 

Watched: Friday we joined BG's brother and sister-in-law for sandwiches and watched Glass Onion: a Knives Out Mystery. I think I'm safe in speaking for all of us when I saw that it was just as much fun as the original Knives Out movie, although far more action packed. One evening I also watched The Goldfinch, but wished I hadn't bothered. 

Read: Haven't picked up a book all week. Now to decide what book will be my first read of 2023. I have a few that I've started but never finished; but I prefer to kick off a new year with a fresh start. 

Made: We used the Christmas leftovers to create several meals last week - cheesy hash browns and potato soup turned into cheesy potato soup; navy beans and ham turned into ham and bean soup; and ham got added to fresh green beans and onions to turn a veggie dish into a main dish. This week we'll start having to think about our meals again!

Enjoyed: A short work week and another long weekend.

This Week I’m:  

Planning: On working on my 2023 planner. 

Thinking About: My word of the year for 2023. I'll be posting that later this week. 

Feeling: Happy to have Christmas down and put away so I can spend tomorrow reading and journaling. 

Looking forward to: I think we're going to get to see my brother and his wife this weekend, for at least a bit, as they travel to a wedding. 

Question of the week: Do you create resolutions for the new year or pick a word of the year?