Nine Perfect Strangers, by Liane Moriarty

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Thistle

Last book of 2018!

Nine people attend a 10-day health and wellness retreat run by a fanatical woman determined to make permanent improvements in all her guests. That’s the general premise of the book, with chapters narrated by each of the nine guests, plus the three primary employees of the retreat. Frances is the main narrator, a 52-year-old romance writer with back pain and heartache. She treats life as one big (mostly-fun) story and enjoys figuring out backstories for all her fellow guests. I’m not going to go through each of the other characters, but they all have interesting stories and perspectives, and their lives collide in what will end up being a very memorable week.

This book was fascinating. I always worry going into Moriarty’s books after that one bad experience, but so far I’ve mostly enjoyed them. This was the same. The book started off rather lighthearted, interesting, and funny, then took a bizarre twist into very very intense. There’s a lot of crazytown going on here, but I won’t say more and possibly reveal spoilers. I was spellbound through the second half of the book, couldn’t put it down. I’m not usually one to gawk slack-jawed at trainwrecks, but I couldn’t look away from this one.

And all the conclusions…you have a lot of guests here and a huge cast of characters, and they all need some wrap-up. It was handled very well, I thought. I felt satisfied, sad, giddy, and appalled by various endings. It felt exactly right, which was just what I needed to end the year’s reading!

Posted in 2018, Adult, Prose | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Entering the New Year

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Thistle

I can’t tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to 2019. You know how you sometimes keep writing the previous year on dates for a month or two into the new year? I’ve been writing “2019” on my dates since October. Heh. And we had a doozy of a new year’s eve to ring in 2019. My brother-in-law got engaged, my kids were all spending the night with friends or grandparents, and Jason and I got a date night to ourselves to snuggle up and watch a movie. I went to bed a few hours earlier than him (because really, you don’t stay up to midnight when you often wake up at 3am with insomnia!) and had a good night of sleep despite fireworks. I woke up to discover I’d hit a weight that I hadn’t seen since last June, and was only three pounds higher than my lowest weight of 2018. Progress!

Back when 2018 began, I bought a bag of river pebbles. For months, I put a pebble in a Ball jar for each happy moment I experienced. When Morrigan brought home the above frolicking-cats bowl for me from Japan, I transferred the pebbles there. The picture above represents all my happy moments in 2018. It was a tough year, but there were many good things. How many? I don’t know. I didn’t count. But the bowl was heavy, and I think that’s really what matters – the weight of those happy moments, comforting and full.

To bring in the new year, I began a new daily journal (my sixth since I began keeping one August 2013). These are Italian handcrafted journals from Barnes & Noble, with enough pages inside to last a bit more than a year. It just so happened that my last journal ended on December 31st (first time for that!) so I could begin entirely anew on January 1st.

I then started my first book of the year. This is one I’d looked forward to for months now and I was so happy to receive it from the library not long before December ended. I began Tuesday morning, before collecting my children from various sleepovers and taking the family out to see Into the Spider-Verse. It was AWESOME. We all loved it, and we got to come home to dinner and games with a family friend, which capped off the night perfectly. It really was the best way to enter the new year!

PS – I was really sad to watch the poor Seahawks lose to the frickin’ Cowboys of all teams last night. Though I’m really glad I was watching the wrong part of the replay when they showed the gruesome injury so I missed it. That whole bit was heartbreaking and scary.

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2019 Book Priorities

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Thistle

Every year I make a list of books that I’d like to get to during that year. These consist of books on my TBR or to-investigate list, plus any backlogged Audible queue and books being published throughout the year. The goal is to read or cull all the books on the list. This year, there are 26. I’m really excited about some of these. I definitely anticipate 2019 being a better year in reading than 2018!

  1. Earth – Emile Zola
  2. The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi
  3. Early Riser – Jasper Fforde
  4. City of Broken Magic – Mirah Bolender
  5. Ghostland – Colin Dickey
  6. Poison Squad – Deborah Blum
  7. Rosmersholm – Henrik Ibsen
  8. City of Ghosts – Victoria Schwab
  9. Love a la Mode – Stephanie Kate Strohm
  10. Becoming – Michelle Obama
  11. The Christmas Hirelings – Mary Elizabeth Braddon
  12. Aspergirls – Rudy Simone
  13. The Girl in Times Square – Paullina Simons
  14. Song of Blood and Stone – L. Penelope
  15. The Kingdom of Copper – SA Chakraborty (Jan)
  16. The Vanishing Stair – Maureen Johnson (Jan)
  17. King of Scars – Leigh Bardugo (Jan)
  18. Children of Virtue and Vengeance – Tomi Adeyemi (March)
  19. The True Queen – Zen Cho (March)
  20. Internment – Samira Ahmed (March)
  21. The Bride Test – Helen Hoang (May)
  22. Better Than the Best Plan – Lauren Morrill (June)
  23. Grave Importance – Vivian Shaw (Aug)
  24. The Dragon Republic – RF Kuang (Aug)
  25. Starsight – Brandon Sanderson (Nov)
  26. The Starless Sea – Erin Morgenstern (Nov)

Have you read any of these? Recommendations or warnings would be welcome!

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2019 Goals

Posted on January 2, 2019 by Thistle

As discussed in December, I’ve decided to make my individual 2019 goals to all aim toward a specific end: to help me discover the person I am again, and to then become that person. I’ve split these goals into four chunks accordingly.

Health
General aims are to move toward a healthier weight/size; to become fitter, stronger, and more athletic; to improve nutrition; to improve sleep; and to reduce anxiety. I would like my external and internal selves to better align so that I feel more comfortable in my own skin.

  • Weight loss: As you might imagine, weight loss is high on my list. Since my body strongly resists change, my focus will be on eating and exercising in a way that should promote weight loss. Hopefully my body will relent, and if not, at least I’m treating myself right. Any true weight loss this year (not fluctuating in a maintenance range) would be awesome.
  • Work to be able to run a full 5K by year’s end (some of this will depend on if I can lose weight, so this will be a work-in-progress goal to be evaluated by my efforts, not results)
  • Participate in at least one official 5K
  • Average 3.5 fruits/veggies daily (2018 average: 3.1)
  • Average 10k steps per day (2018 average: 9437)
  • Increase total mileage (2018 total: 381 miles)
  • Increase total yoga workouts (2018 total: 181)
  • Complete 1000+ fitness minutes monthly, except in Jun, Jul, and Aug, which will be 750+ mins
  • Work with my doctor to monitor sleep medications for better sleep-management
  • Meditate on at least 50 days

Finances
The goal is to eventually balance our household expenses in a way to zero out debt and start saving again, while being able to live comfortably and help support our children while they transition to adulthood.

  • Strictly stick to a monthly budget to pay off as much credit card debt as possible, preferably all but at very minimum 50%
  • Continue to work weekly with our budget and find places to streamline/reduce
  • Balance budget-management with small splurges (dates, gifts, etc) to avoid an all-or-nothing mentality that will likely backfire
  • Help our kids apply for various forms of financial aid and scholarships
  • Shore up our (falling apart) deck and fences to help them last longer before needing replacement

Home
I would like to once again feel safe, loved, and comfortable in my own home, and additionally I’d like to connect more with friends, extended family, and my community.

  • Have one date night/day outside the house monthly
  • Do something special for our 20th anniversary in December
  • Host one social gathering quarterly at my house (excluding birthday parties or writing groups)
  • Have one group night or day out quarterly
  • Attend Siclovia, a local street festival that occurs twice-yearly
  • Visit 12 new-to-me locations in San Antonio
  • Finish xeriscaping our front yard

Purpose
Most of what I’ve lost over the last few years include my interests, future purpose/intentions, and long-term goals. I’d like to recover those this year, and test to see if some old interests are still valid.

  • Learn one new skill/lesson/hobby etc monthly (physical or intellectual). Can continue learning from previous months if more extensive. Note: This must be more than a passing TED Talk or article read on a subject. The goal is to discover ongoing interests and hobbies, particularly ones that might lead to a career after my kids leave home.
  • Watch as much of my movie backlist as possible
  • Read six classics, plays, or books of poetry
  • Edit Maldralith, one of my manuscripts
  • Complete monthly writing-related goals
  • Unless circumstances interfere, participate in NaNoWriMo
  • Explore options for returning to school

That’s a lot, but these are the things I really want to do this year. It’s a big year for me, turning 40, seeing my first son graduate high school then go off to college, Jason’s and my 20th anniversary, and a particular personal anniversary (30 years) on August 4th. It’s a big year, and I want it to be a great year as well. So aim big, right?

Do you have goals/resolutions for 2019? I’d love to hear them! Goal-making is one of my favorite activities ever!

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2018 in Review

Posted on December 31, 2018 by Thistle

This was a difficult year for me. I really thought it was going to be a good one, and things did start by going really well. But so much fell apart. Two members of my family passed away, plus three friends, plus one of my teenage idols (Dolores O’Riordan). My house was under at least partial construction 75% of the year, and full construction for a third. We had to replace both our cars. The grief and stress tore apart my health and my intentions to get things done in 2018. Our money situation spiraled dangerously out of control. I got really, really sick for most of the year. And I completely lost sight of my focus and goals.

But it wasn’t all bad. My children in particular reached great milestones this year. Morrigan did so well on the SATs and his AP tests, earned a place on a trip to our sister city in Japan, got into his first choice college, decided to apply for the Air Force, and voted for the first time. Ambrose learned to drive and got his license, the first one in our family to do so, in addition to being inducted into the National Art Honor Society at school, doing a fantastic job on the PSAT, and earning money over the summer as an apprentice to our contractor. Laurence had his first girlfriend, acted in the spring play, attended an extra summer class to get ahead when he started high school this fall, also did fantastic on his PSAT, and became obsessed with football to a highly knowledgeable degree.

I thought I’d do a quick recap of some aspects of my year. Books have their own wrap-up, of course. But books honestly weren’t a big part of the year. I had the lowest reading number I’ve had since I began blogging (49 books) and my focus stayed mostly on other things.

Movies
I probably I saw more movies this year than the last decade combined! In theatre, I saw Darkest Hour, The Post, A Wrinkle in Time, Book Club, The Neverending Story, Adrift, The Incredibles 2, Crazy Rich Asians, A Simple Favor, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald, and Mary Poppins Returns. At home (recent releases only), I saw Forever My Girl, Murder on the Orient Express, The Greatest Showman, Coco, Leave No Trace, and Little Women. My favorite of the year, by far, was The Greatest Showman, which I wish I’d seen in theatre. I became obsessed with the soundtrack in particular. It was the only thing I listened to for months and it still makes me feel alive and joyous every time I hear it – a particular achievement during this awful year!!

Cats
We unexpectedly adopted two cats, Jojo and Atticus, bringing our household cat number up to five. Things haven’t been easy. The two factions (the three former cats vs the two newer cats) tend to catfight, literally. But Jojo in particular has made great strides from a traumatized terrified kitten to a mostly-loving, relatively-calm cat. And while the strain of having five of them is overwhelming at times, I adore all of them and am happy to have them in my life.

Health
I had a really rough year in health as well: a major change in medication, the loss/distortion of my sense of smell, an early entrance into perimenopause, and no progress toward rooting out the cause of my severe insomnia disorder despite many tests. Then there was of course the four months of construction through the summer that derailed and undid the progress I’d made in losing weight over the spring. It’s been a hard year, but I have to admit that in terms of taking care of myself, I’ve done far better than I would have expected given all that’s happened. I averaged 3.1 servings of fruits and vegetables daily (this is hard for me), had a step count average of 9440, and consistently cut my sugar, processed food, and eating out throughout the year. My health numbers (cholesterol, insulin, etc) have all improved as well. I exercised on 249 days (68% of the year), for a total of 221 hours (over 9 full days!). I walked/jogged 381 miles. I practiced yoga 181 times. The best part of this is that I’m back to a consistent fitness regimen, which will help tremendously in the coming year. Now let’s just hope for better health in all the other parts of my life and body in 2019!!

Goals
Quick recap of my 2018 goals. If I tally up general percentages on all of these (including zeroes), I’m left with about three-quarters completion this year. Given that the year was one unexpected catastrophe after another, I think I did as well as I was able.

Goals I completed this year: participated in a 5K; got four professional massages; walked 300+ miles; sold our WI house; paid off our credit card (even if this was later undone); finished my afghan; used/gave away my yarn surplus; avoided social media stress; went to five new-to-me places/events in town; visited the Cat Cafe; visited the local meat market; saw a movie in theatre; tried out a new TV show

Goals I didn’t complete this year: any meaningful weight loss; look for a therapist; visit the zoo; attend a Paint Your Pet night

Partial completion, plus goals that were optional: 750 fitness minutes per month (reached every month except June and August); consistent yoga (every month except through summer/construction); better nutrition (changed per what was happening); work to make the house/yard more comfortable (started but interrupted by construction); volunteer (optional, none); write (optional, a minimal amount)

Other
There were some lovely things to remember and celebrate from 2018, which I tried to record in each of my monthly wrap-ups.  The positives may not outweigh the overwhelming negatives of the year – really, not having a livable house situation for four months straight is just AWFUL, not to mention losing TWO family members back to back – but I still want to remember the things that made this year bearable.

Looking back over the year more closely:

January: Lots of illness in the family, but we also sold our WI house and (briefly) got out of credit card debt. Also, lots of yoga (and Yoga With Cats at the Cat Cafe).

February: Overwhelmingly sad with the death of my grandmother. Read my favorite book of the year, watched a lot of Olympics. We adopted Jojo.

March: Made great improvements in my health and started really losing weight for the first time in years. Replaced our roof with eventual catastrophic results.

April: Continued to do well in weight loss. We brought home and adopted Atticus, who immediately bonded with Jojo. Xeriscaping began on our front yard.

May: A hard month, as usual, where I spent a big portion of the month mourning and binge-watching TV. I discovered Lularoe.

June: Construction insanity revealed, as well as my uncle’s cancer. Entered months of no kitchen, no exercise, no time for anything but construction. Due to stress, I went a bit crazy with Lularoe.

July: Continued with construction insanity, plus my uncle passed away. Morrigan went to Japan.

August: Band camp. Construction finally finished up at the end of the month. School began again.

September: House exploded again, creating more construction nightmares. Jason’s car exploded. Jason and I went on our cruise.

October: Morrigan dominated the month with all his excellent milestones and achievements. Plus Halloween.

November: Full holiday mode and lots of time spent with extended family. The announcement of my sister’s third pregnancy. Actual fall weather.

December: Christmas. Anniversary. Football. Renewed determination in my health and wellness journey. Illness. Insane nutcrackers. More Christmas.

That about wraps the year up. I hope you all had a much better year than I did. Please send me all the good wishes that 2019 will be an awesome one. I need an awesome year. It’s been too long. And to you, happy new year, I send you all the good wishes too! Let’s make this next year awesome for all of us!

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Sunday Coffee – December in Review

Posted on December 30, 2018 by Thistle

Normally I’d wait until early January to do my final monthly wrap-up of 2018, but it feels better to get it done within the year and have as little as possible lingering come January 1st (I still have one book review to post). I’ll just update this post with the last two days of December info if anything changes.

Goals
More on these during tomorrow’s 2018 wrap-up.

Health
Staying healthy is hard around Christmas with all the family get-togethers and sweet treats and traditions. Weight loss was not expected this month. I did enjoy analyzing data to get an idea of what I could better do to lose. And I did do my best to follow my analysis and keep healthy despite all the Christmas stuff. Exercised on 28 days, for a total of 21 hours, including 18 yoga and 43 miles. I tracked my food every day, even through Christmas, and stayed mindful about what I was eating. And hey, I did actually manage to lose a little weight – 4.6 lbs!!! – and get the scale trending downward! It’s even better knowing that I maintained that loss all the way through my family’s multiple Christmas parties, then started right down again once they were over. Yay! I’m also happy to be ending 2018 slightly lighter than where I began it. I believe that’s the first time I’ve done that since 2013. It may only be by a few pounds, but it’s a change in the right direction!

(foggy morning walk in mid-December)

In other health issues, I had my brain MRI, which came out normal. My doctor concluded I probably have chronic sinusitis and gave me a three-week round of heavy-duty antibiotics that I’m in the middle of taking. If that doesn’t make a difference, I’m supposed to see an ENT next. I also got on Lunesta for sleep, which works really well, but now I’m arguing with my insurance company, who thinks I should only get 15 pills every 25 days. Sigh. Cold and flu season started here this month as well, which knocked out just about everyone in the family, some of us more than once. I’m so immunocompromised that I actually got the flu even though I had the flu shot. Figures. I hope 2019 will bring a clean bill of health after this antibiotic, and I won’t be sick most of the year like in 2018!!

Books
After months of book-slump, I actually got excited about reading again this month! I read several books I loved, with my favorite probably being Nine Perfect Strangers (review forthcoming).

Highlights of December
Christmas and my anniversary are of course the top highlights of my month. The rest are primarily related to Christmas traditions, but there are others of course. LOTS of highlights this month!!

  • getting my new Vivosport!
  • Empty Faces was so fun and creepy this month!
  • St. Nick’s day celebration with the boys
  • watching Pee-Wee’s Christmas Special with the boys and discovering that Morrigan’s girlfriend loved this silly show growing up
  • Morrigan passed the Air Force qualifying fitness test, so he can apply for a major ROTC scholarship for college
  • my boys moving the nutcrackers all around the Christmas tree and house like little Elves on the Shelves (even after the cats broke off two of their heads…they kept moving around…then they stole all the presents on Christmas morning!! –> )
  • Ambrose got an awesome 1370 on his PSAT, and Laurence as a freshman scored a fantastic 1056 (scores go up to 1520)
  • a candy-making party at my cousin’s house
  • a wonderful 5K with my friend Stephanie to help kids with disabilities
  • our traditional sugar-cookie making/decorating party
  • an early Christmas swap with my siblings since one of my sisters wouldn’t be here on Christmas proper
  • seeing TSO with Stephanie and her family
  • Laurence’s letter to Santa, which cracked us all up
  • the actual two days of Christmas: Christmas eve celebration with my extended family on my dad’s side, then Christmas eve at home, then Christmas morning at home, then Christmas morning at my mom’s house, then Christmas afternoon/evening at my dad’s house… (two days of parties!)
  • sitting around an outdoor fire pit with my dad and siblings (twice)
  • Christmas gifts from my lovely family and friends: beautiful cat bookends, retractible colored pens, liquid mirror markers, a window perch for the cats (ha!), Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, The Prince and the Dressmaker, a Mistborn allomantic table necklace, an elephant essential oil necklace, a hand-drawn Turkish bismillah for our bedroom wall, Lady Audley’s Secret, Superfight (a game), lots of fun socks, a Greatest Showman coffee mug, the Greatest Showman Reimagined album, and some gift cards that (naturally) I’ve already spent
  • the Seahawks got into the playoffs!
  • my brother-in-law got engaged!

(one part of my extended fam)

Forthcoming in 2019
There is of course a lot coming in 2019 and I’m not going to discuss it all here. Mostly I just want to say that I plan to switch my monthly wrap-up to a quarterly format. I really like looking back at my highlights of each month, but I think my other categories would be better discussed at a wider interval. Trial and error, I suppose. We’ll see how it goes in the new year.

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2018 in Books

Posted on December 28, 2018 by Thistle

This has been a very off reading year for me. I’ve read fewer books this year than any other year since I began blogging, and I barely remember half of what I read, including books I loved while reading. Back in 2017, I talked about what a great year it had been in books and how I worried that 2018 would be a lull year. Only a half-dozen books were being released that I was anticipating, and only two of those were guaranteed reads. I’d hoped to find new good stuff to read, and I did, but I admit that the year wasn’t stellar. Reading just wasn’t my top priority, and even the books I’d highly anticipated fell somewhat flat. Oh well. Hopefully 2019 will be loads better, yeah?

I’m going to start off this post with a few stats from the year before moving on to the End of Year Books Survey from The Perpetual Page Turner.

Total Books: 49
Rereads: 5
Abandoned after the 50% line: 6
Wish I’d abandoned: 9 (sheesh!)

Book Type: 44 fiction – 5 nonfiction
Fiction Type: 21 speculative – 23 realistic
Media: 23 text – 22 audio – 4 visual
Audience: 34 adult – 15 YA
Authors: 38 women – 11 men

New to me authors: 24
Most read authors: None stood out as “most” this year. Highest number was four but included two rereads, otherwise a few authors hit three books but that’s all.

Fun facts from the year: I read multiple books about historical figures or characters reimagined as women. This is also the first year in ages that I read more realistic than speculative fiction.

Best bookish experience: Meeting Robert Jordan Bennett at Pop-Con in February!

Best book-related discovery: The Great Courses lectures! I’ve listened to a few from Audible and have a ton more on my list to eventually get to. Lots of variety in subject matter and interests.

1. Best book you read in 2018?
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Usually I have a couple of favorites from a full year of reading, but this one stands above the rest by far.

2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t?
City of Brass

3. Most surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read?
Elantris. This is a reread, but the last time I read it, I felt like it was slow to begin, and this time, I was surprised by how it began with a bang and just kept running. It was a totally different experience the second time around.

5. Best series you started in 2018? Best sequel? Best series ender?
Started: Strange Practice
Sequel: The Hollow of Fear
Ender: Wires and Nerve: Gone Rogue

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2017?
Probably Vivian Shaw, though it’s hard to tell since I’ve only read one series from her

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
The Kiss Quotient (romance)

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Do Not Become Alarmed; Skyward

9. Book you read in 2018 that you are most likely to reread next year?
Excluding books I’ll probably reread to catch up before reading their sequels: The Muse of Nightmares

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2018?

11. Most memorable character of 2018?
Clef, the sentient key in Foundryside; Eleanor Oliphant; and many of the characters from Skyward (M-Bot, Doomslug, Quirk…)

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2018?
I’ll Be Your Blue Sky

13. Most thought-provoking/life-changing book of 2018?
Not technically a book, but I listened to a Great Courses series of lectures by Robert Sapolsky called Stress and Your Body, which was incredibly thought-provoking and helped me to understand a lot about anxiety, depression, and the biological underpinnings of sociological and individual problems in general.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited until 2018 to finally read?
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – I had no interest in this book when everyone was raving about it, and I was totally wrong to dismiss it!

15. Favorite passage/quote from a book you read in 2018? 

“Do not dash if you only have the strength to walk, and do not waste your time pushing on the walls that will not give. More importantly, don’t shove where a pat would be sufficient.” — Elantris

16. Shortest & longest books you read in 2018?
Shortest book: White Sand Vol 2 (160 pgs)
Longest book: The Poppy War (527 pgs)
Shortest audio: Night of Cake and Puppets (2:46)
Longest audio: Oathbringer (55:02)

19. Favorite non-romantic relationship of the year?
Stephen Greaves and Samrina Khan from The Boy on the Bridge (non-family mother-son relationship); Eleanor Oliphant and Raymond Gibbons (coworkers)

20. Favorite book you read in 2018 from an author you’ve read previously?
The Death of Mrs. Westaway, which is awesome since I didn’t like the first book I read by this author

23. Best 2018 debut you read?
Best debut read in 2018: Strange Practice
Best debut read and published in 2018: Children of Blood and Bone

24. Best world-building/most vivid setting you read this year?
Children of Blood and Bone; Skyward

25. Book that put a smile on your face/was the most FUN to read?
The Prince and the Dressmaker, The Kiss Quotient

27. Hidden gem of the year?
Consider the Fork

29. Most unique book you read in 2018?
Foundryside

So that was my year in books – how was yours?

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The Winters, by Lisa Gabriele

Posted on December 27, 2018 by Thistle

Getting in a last quick mini-review before the year ends! This book is a retelling of Rebecca updated to modern times and with a stepdaughter, Dani, instead of a Mrs Danvers. Rebecca was of course a loose retelling of Jane Eyre, so the cycle continues! The book was enjoyable, and I liked how much of the original Rebecca that Gabriele tried to capture, without trying to just retell the entire story verbatim. The only thing that didn’t wholly translate over was the gothic atmosphere of the original. I would not consider this one a RIP book, just an ominous warning tale of the woman who couldn’t tell what she was getting into before it was too late. So as far as the three books go, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as either of the classics it was built on, but it was a fun, light mystery to end 2018.

PS – Now I want to reread Rebecca! It’s been over nine years now! I think this will be a project for RIP next fall.

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Sunday Coffee – Anniversary and Christmas

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Thistle

It has been a fun week (minus the awful illness that went through our family mid-week – I’m trying to focus on the positives!). First off, it was Jason’s and my 19th anniversary yesterday. I bought us tickets to see Mary Poppins Returns at Alamo Drafthouse for lunch. He likes Mary Poppins and I like the Drafthouse, so it was a good crossing point between our very different enjoyments. He said the movie was great. I said…eh, it had its moments. That’s about the best you were going to get from me, haha. But it was a fun date. Afterwards, we had some cookies and milk at home, and got the house ready for my siblings to all come over for a gift exchange since not everyone will be here on Christmas itself. The whole day was low-key and exactly what we needed right now, especially with everyone getting over illnesses.

There were also a lot of other busy-busy Christmas-related things this week: a candy-making party at my cousin’s house; a Christmas-cookie-making party at our house; watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer; fireside night at my dad’s house; and this afternoon I’m attending a Tran-Siberian Orchestra concert with Stephanie and her family.

I’m taking the few days off the blog until it’s time for end-of-year wrap-ups. The boys are off of school and we’re all about to start into our multi-Christmas party mode. I’ll likely still be on Instagram since this is about my favorite time of year, but the blog can hold its own for a bit. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and all that jazz, everyone! See y’all soon!

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Abandoned Books of 2018

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Thistle

I cull tons of books from my potential read list every year, and don’t consider those “abandoned.” Only books that I put down after some serious investment fall into my abandoned list, and those books deserve some blog-time. Often, what makes them leavable for me might not bother someone else, and they might find their way into someone else’s hands if I give them little mini-reviews.

The Shadow of Once Was Lost by James Islington – I grabbed this book because I was interested in branching out into big fat fantasy books that weren’t from authors I already know. While this had an interesting story and great writing, it didn’t work for me because I could see a ton of influence from authors like Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, authors whose work I know pretty well. That made the book feel more like a reread than a first read for me, and I realized I wasn’t engaging with the story. If I’d read this years ago, I would have loved it, but timing made it not for me. I’m not discounting the possibility of returning to it sometime in the future for another attempt.

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova – I love reading books about this kind of magic (bruja witches), I struggled with the portrayal here. I believe this is a combination of two things. First, I spent years in close company with a family who believed they were descendants of this kind of magic culture, and still claimed trace abilities that diminished with each generation. Setting aside the truth of those claims, I got a specific idea of the way the culture works, and this book seemed a highly sensationalized version. Second, there was a lot of YA-formulaic storylines, including the inevitable “they hate each other but will fall in love” and “perky outsider friend who comes to the rescue.” Those sorts of things don’t work for me.

Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit – I believe I was actually 2/3rds through this book before abandoning it. At first, I loved it. Part one (of what I think would have been three) was awesome. Part two, not so much. It felt uneven, and I started to get bored. I kept going, thinking that things would perk up again in Part three, but they didn’t, and at that point, I didn’t feel like spending many more hours with the book. I got a great bit of information and new knowledge from the first part, and that’s good enough for me.

Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra – I tried to read this one three times, but there was something about it (not sure what) that made it so I couldn’t get into it. Maybe it was just too similar to another fantasy-set-in-the-desert that I read earlier this year, a book that ended up being just-okay for me. I didn’t want to keep reading and have the same blasé feelings about this one. I’m sure other people would like it though, especially given that the other one that didn’t work for me was a real winner for many folks too.

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy – I’m not sure what put this on my radar, but it was a thriller during RIP time, so I took a chance. Listened to about 2/3rds, all the while with a strong guess as to what the twist would end up being. Finally, I looked up some spoileriffic reviews on GoodReads, because the book itself wasn’t really holding my attention but I still wanted to know if my guess was right. And it was, so I went ahead and put the book away.

The Witch Elm by Tana French – I really tried with this one. It sounded like an interesting premise, but two things eventually made me abandon the book. The pacing was  very uneven. The actual mystery portion didn’t begin until a third of the way into the book, and there would be portions of lots-of-drama followed by tons of nothing. The book was more literary fiction than mystery, and that would have been fine except that I couldn’t stand the narrator, Toby. He’s a spoiled, entitled white male (upper middle class, blond, good-looking, cisgender, straight, able-bodied, etc) who thinks the problems of women, gay people, mentally handicapped people, disabled people, poor people, and those with mental health issues are nonexistent, exaggerated, or “their own fault.” He spends so much of his time making casual nasty statements about these groups – especially disabled and mentally handicapped people – that I just couldn’t read further. I know that this is a book about such white entitled men and that French was making some very specific statements. We’re not meant to like Toby, and her writing and characterization is excellent. But damn I couldn’t spend another second with that a-hole.

Not technically books, but worth a mention anyway:

Why You Are Who You Are: Investigations Into the Human Personality (Mark Leary) – I love this topic but the lectures themselves were way too simple/basic, probably because I studied advanced psychology and sociology in school. I was also not a fan of the lecturer’s speaking style, something that’s hard to get past in an audio setting.

Changing Body Composition Through Diet and Exercise (Michael Ormsbee) – This one had some interesting insights on nutrition and health, but it also made statements like this (paraphrased): “Many people recognize pasta, bread, and even potatoes as carbohydrates, but fruit is also a carbohydrate.” The mix of information taught in elementary school with advanced body science made the lectures uneven, and eventually the snippets of new-to-me insights weren’t enough to keep me wading through the rest. It didn’t help that the lecturer stated up front that most of the research was done on men and therefore may not apply to women anyway. Made me feel like perhaps I’m the wrong target market.

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