Sunday Coffee – Books Galore

Posted on June 23, 2019 by Thistle

Every December, I compile a list of “book priorities,” which includes all the books I want to read and/or try throughout the upcoming year. I pull the list from several sources: my audio queue, my physical and virtual TBR, my library hold list, anything in my “to investigate” list on GoodReads, and any books I want to read that will be published throughout the year. The list is usually between 20 and 30 books long, and by the midway point of the year, I’ve gone through a large chunk of them. For 2019, I had 26 books on the priorities list, and as of right now, there are 10 left. Of those 10, six have not been published and three are waiting for RIP season. Which really leaves only a single possibility on the list at present – and that means it’s time to make a new list, as I usually do around the midpoint of each year.

My mid-year priorities list is less formal than the one I create in December. I kind of think of it as a rollover list – whatever doesn’t get read/culled from it ends up as the next year’s priorities. It’s really just a way for me to drag all my various lists (Goodreads, Audible, library, etc) into one location so that I don’t forget about stuff that might be buried deep in a queue. These lists also get me excited about reading again, after a few months of slump in this year’s case. I have 22 books on the new list, not including the 10 still on the original. There’s LGBTQ+ graphic novels (Gender Queer, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness), non-European fantasty (David Mogo Godhunter, The Bird King, Soul of the Sword), new releases from authors I love (Leigh Bardugo, Rainbow Rowell, G. Willow Wilson, Maggie Stiefvater, Brandon Sanderson), and so much more. Unlike my original list from the year, I see a lot more reads and a lot fewer culls on this upcoming list, and that makes me happy. It’s been quite some time since I had a lot on my TBR that I was excited about!

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged | 3 Comments

The Alchemist’s Illusion, by Gigi Pandian (audio)

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Thistle

Zoe is looking to put down roots in Portland despite knowing that her circumstances – she’s a 300+ year old alchemist – make that a near-impossibility. It doesn’t help, however, when attention is drawn to her via newspaper photographs and a rich woman accusing her of murder outside an art gallery.

After the third volume of this series, The Elusive Elixir, I wasn’t sure if there would be more to the story. There seemed like there could be, but I saw no hint anywhere that Pandian was working on one. So imagine my surprise when I went randomly looking for possible audiobooks to spend credits on and discovered that this book released back in January. Of course I snatched it up and began listening immediately!

It was so great to revisit Zoe, Dorian, Max, and all the others. This was a fun new mystery and great further development of several characters. I was completely surprised by revelations, and if memory serves me correctly, that’s been pretty consistent across the series. I also noticed one small change for the better in this book – there wasn’t as much emphasis on recipes in the text. A few times in previous volumes, the narrative stopped while vegan dishes were described by their processes. In The Alchemist’s Illusion, there were still references to the food cooked – it’s an integral part of this cozy mystery series! – but the flow of the narrative wasn’t stopped by processes. I thought it flowed better for that change. (On another note, I do wonder if actual recipes are given after the novel in physical editions of these books, because that would be awesome…)

Performance: Julia Motyka as usual does an amazing job with the audio. I adore the way she reads this, and I think revisiting the characters in voice was as phenomenal as learning the next part of their stories. I do hope she continues to read the series as it publishes!!

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The Lying Game, by Ruth Ware

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Thistle

Nearly two decades ago, four girls became fast friends at a boarding school. They kept up the Lying Game, earning a reputation for deceit, and isolating themselves from the rest of the school. Their lies were mostly harmless…until they weren’t, until the lies became secrets they had to keep for the next two decades, when those secrets start to unravel…

This was an interesting thriller because it was less about the mystery (who did it) and more about the psychological impact of lies and secrecy. The characters were well-drawn, if a little typical, and the book was perfectly paced for a good afternoon read. This was my third read from Ruth Ware, and falls smack in between the other two (The Woman in Cabin 10, which I really disliked, and The Death of Mrs Westaway, which I really loved) in terms of enjoyment. Honestly, I think I read it too fast for it to make a long-lasting impression on me, but it was exactly what I needed when I read it, and I call that a win.

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Sunday Coffee – Enter Chaos

Posted on June 16, 2019 by Thistle

It’s no secret that I don’t do well on chaos. I thrive on organization, routine, and predictability. I don’t mind a bit of whimsy or change, but I don’t function well in environments that are pure chaos. The boys have been out of school for less than two weeks, and already, pure chaos is what I’ve got.

This week was graduation, then finding out that Jason’s parents’ RV can’t be fixed for a week or two, then Morrigan’s oral surgery. Some days we had people over. Some days I played chauffeur and drove kids back and forth between places. Some days I was on constant nurse duty. Exercise routines – yeah right! Eating schedules? Nope. Paperwork and errands? Postponed. My desk looks like something exploded onto it. My email is overflowing. The living room is currently functioning as Morrigan’s bedroom. Nothing is where it belongs, and most days I’m avoiding my computer, my desk, and almost every part of the house.

So I tell myself: This is temporary. Tomorrow, Laurence starts summer school, which will put a bit of organized routine back in our days. Jason’s surgery is scheduled, so I know which weeks I’ll be a nurse/single mom, and can plan for them. Starting in mid-July, there are no more medical procedures upcoming, and we have about a month of summer-normal until it’s time for school to start again. I have about a month of chaos to make it through. I can do this.

Lists are my friends. Lists will get me through this without cracking. Plus coffee. Fingers crossed, everyone!

PS – Morrigan’s oral surgery went swimmingly and he’s pretty much back to normal already.

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Shadow of the Fox, by Julie Kagawa (audio)

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Thistle

From GoodReads: One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos. Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.

I received this audiobook via the Sync YA summer program. For the most part, I enjoyed the story. I always love, in particular, when fantasy novels depart from the traditional American/British/French settings and cultures. Yumeko was an interesting character. In part, she’s a well-used trope, a naive girl who has some reason to know nothing about the outside world, and thus learns about the outside world alongside the reader. Despite this being a trope, however, Kagawa’s approach to Yumeko’s journey feels different, as her journey is paired with a set of adventures that read more like parables or fairy tales than simple “learn about the world” moments. It was an interesting way to tell the story, and Yumeko herself was endearing and wonderful.

There were a few things I disliked about the book as well. There’s a long section in the middle that feels too repetitive: travel, adventure, pick up a new member for the group, travel, adventure, pickup a new member…etc. I also thought that for a seasoned warrior for the Shadow Clan, Tatsumi is extremely naive and blind through a big chunk of the story. It’s a quality that makes him interesting but also slightly stretching believability. Lastly, the audio narration (read by Joy Osmanski, Emily Woo Zeller, and Brian Nishii) was not my favorite, as they often used exaggerated accents, inflections, and styles common in YA audiobooks.

However, despite the small negatives, I’m definitely going to be reading the next book. Shadow of the Fox ended on a perfect note – just enough cliffhanger and new information introduced to completely hook me! Soul of the Sword (book 2) is supposed to release later this month, and I can’t wait!!

Posted in 2019, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Um…Tuesday Coffee? Graduation!

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Thistle

I meant to post Sunday, but life went from the planned “busy” to the unplanned “insanity” over the weekend:

Jason’s parents were due to arrive either Wednesday evening or on Thursday. They were driving down in their RV, which they just purchased used, which may not have been the best choice as first their a/c went out in Oklahoma and caused the first delay (now they should arrive Friday), and then their brakes went out about an hour north of San Antonio and left them stranded on the side of the road. Jason had come home from work an hour early to help us with all the baking, prepping, shopping, and decorating we were doing for the next day’s events. He immediately had to go out in Friday rush hour traffic to go pick up his mother. The hour-long trip took two hours re: rush hour, and Jason’s dad had to stay on the side of the road while he waited for a specialty tow truck. Then when that finally arrived, the RV was carted off to New Braunsfels to a place that claimed to fix RVs…until the RV actually arrived around 10pm. Grandpa had to park the RV in a lot and then Jason had to drive another hour north to get him and bring him back to San Antonio, finally getting home around midnight. And of course, Grandpa had to drive back to New Braunsfels between the two events on Saturday to move the RV to another dealership to fix.

In the meantime, my mom called to tell me that my almost-91-year-old grandpa was in the hospital with a septic gallbladder, and my family was doing hospital rotations to be with him and my grandma, so no one knew who would be where the next day during the grad party. (No new news on this yet, and with all the crazy I haven’t been able to go see him yet. Hopefully soon.)

(piping credit: Ambrose!)

Saturday at least ran mostly smoothly. Morrigan had decided to get baptized into the LDS church, which happened Saturday morning. Then we had about an hour or so to get ready for his graduation party (hence all the prep work the day before) while Jason’s dad went up to deal with the RV. We did all the last minute prep and were ready when guests started to arrive. The party went smoothly. People seemed to enjoy it. There wasn’t a lot of cleanup. That’s about the best I could hope for! Afterwards, we all went out to eat and then crashed out early.

Sunday was a catch-up day for cleaning and paperwork, and of course prepping for Monday, which involved graduation practice and the actual Graduation event. Monday was a long, crowded, hot, chaotic day, but a lot of family showed up to watch Morrigan cross the stage, and we got some good photos afterwards. My favorite was of the boys together:

More photos available on my instagram.

After graduation, we spent nearly an hour in rush hour traffic (sigh) then had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, one of Morrigan’s favorites. Then it was home-and-crash-in-bed time! Today, Jason is back to work, and I need to go do all the chores and paperwork and errands that we’ve neglected for the last week before Morrigan’s oral surgery (wisdom teeth removal) tomorrow morning. Busy busy busy! See y’all soon!

Posted in Personal | Tagged | 4 Comments

The Bride Test, by Helen Hoang

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Thistle

Khai believes he has no feelings after a combination of his autism and his odd reactions to grief lead him to that logical conclusion. He’s irritated when his mother brings Esme over from Vietnam to be his potential bride, and sets her up in his house. Esme is on a mission to make a new home for her family back in Vietnam. Neither of them expect things to go exactly as they do…

Honestly, I could just take 90% of what I said about The Kiss Quotient and repeat it here. This was a delightful book, a fun romance, with brilliantly-written characters and a handful of cultural and political topics (autism, immigration, classism) mixed in to give it depth. I loved every minute of it and can’t wait to see what Hoang writes next.

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211 Days

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Thistle

November 5th to June 4th – seven months – 211 days. November 5th was my last binge. I made it to 100 days on February 13th, and it was the longest I’d gone without a binge since I began binge-eating that disastrous year in Boston (2014-2015). Of course, just because I’d made it 100 days didn’t mean I was going to end the streak! In mid-April, around day 160, I stopped keeping count. And yesterday, on a day that I’ve calculated to be Day 211, I binged.

Why? I haven’t got a clue. I said back in February that I tend to binge when I have a lot of anxiety, and it’s especially bad if that anxiety doesn’t have a source that I can pinpoint. The last few days have been filled with that generalized, source-less anxiety, so that I feel triggered without knowing why. I spent three days fighting the urge to binge before breaking down around mid-day. And so this morning, I feel simultaneously gross/shaky from all the consumption and calm because the urge to binge has passed. I still don’t know why, and can only make guesses.

Maybe it’s because this time last year I found out my uncle was dying, and a friend of mine also died, and my house was suddenly totaled in four rooms. Your amygdala stores those feelings and can trigger you on those days for years to come. Maybe it’s because on Sunday, I strained my upper back muscles during my workout, so that they’ve been tight and tense. Since they also get tight and tense when I’m under immense anxiety, maybe my f-ed up brain was misinterpreting those signals. Maybe it’s simply because with school ending, my routines will be upended, and on top of that, there have been multiple last-minute changes for days now, and stress about graduation and grad parties and the million things that will be happening this month…

Does it matter? Not really. I binged. 211 days is a long time, and now I start the count over. I made it all the way to June 4th before having my first binge of 2019, and who knows, maybe it’ll be the only one. Now, I just need to accept, recover, and start again, not dwell on the “why”s.

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May 2019 in Review

Posted on May 31, 2019 by Thistle

Hello! I’m still on break, but I wanted to pop in for my monthly review, particularly because May turned out to be a fairly good month! Tons happened, and almost all of it (except for one particular medical scare from Jason) has been positive. Advance warning – because so much happened and because I haven’t posted all month, this post will be LONG. Continue reading →

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Break

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Thistle

It’s no secret that I’ve barely been on my blog for the last two months. I’m hardly reading, not really writing/posting, not really looking at my feed reader, etc. I’m repeating the same things over and over, and I’m getting tired of doing so. With the summer coming up and a lot on my family’s plate both in scheduling and in health, I’m going to take some time away from blogging. I’ll probably still post month-in-reviews and maybe a book review here or there, but I’m officially taking away the pressure to post on a more regular basis. I’ve done this over the summers before and usually return invigorated by the end of August when my boys start in school again. Hopefully it’s the same this year. In the meantime, I plan to focus more on my feed reader and connecting with all of you, instead of spending my time trying to force out posts here when I’m not feeling it. See you all on the other side!

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment