3.18.2024

currently

I am...

Reading:  Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson

Listening toThe Secret Hours by Mick Herron

Loving:  when I got home from school today I took care of chores

Thinking:  I need to reorganize my clothes--maybe go through them again for donations

Feeling:  I'm relaxing

Celebrating:  tomorrow is the first day of spring!

Grateful for:  I used my time wisely at school instead of procrastinating

Enjoying:  Sunday's self care was much-needed rest:  I didn't drag myself out of bed this morning

Weather:  it is 36° and light rain

A quote I want to share


3.17.2024

finished reading

I enjoyed this mystery and want to read more!  It's gritty but humorous.  The humor comes from the narrator's tone--his somewhat inept effort at being a serious detective's sidekick.  

From the publisher:
SHE PLANNED HER OWN FUNERAL. BUT DID SHE ARRANGE HER OWN MURDER?

New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes.

One bright spring morning in London, Diana Cowper – the wealthy mother of a famous actor - enters a funeral parlor. She is there to plan her own service.

Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home.

Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who’s as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes. He chooses Anthony Horowitz.

Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself a the center of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne is brusque, temperamental and annoying but even so his latest case with its many twists and turns proves irresistible. The writer and the detective form an unusual partnership. At the same time, it soon becomes clear that Hawthorne is hiding some dark secrets of his own.

A masterful and tricky mystery that springs many surprises, The Word is Murder is Anthony Horowitz at his very best.



#52bookclub prompt 47: self-insert by an author.

self-care sunday

I got a lot of sleep.  Just what I needed.

That is all.

a fave day

 

postsecret

 
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. I like to post one that speaks to me each week.

3.16.2024

saturday 9


Charlie Mops

Not familiar with this week's song? Hear it here.

 
1. This week's song is about a legend, Charlie Mops, the man who invented beer. Tell us about something you enjoy so much you could sing about it with the same enthusiasm the Salt Sea Pirates sing of beer.  BOOKS!

2.  The lyrics tell us beer goes well with breakfast, dinner and snacks. Think about what you dined on yesterday. What beverages did you have with your breakfast, your dinner, and your between-meal snack? orange juice, water, and water

3. "Charlie Mops" was chosen because it's an Irish drinking song and Sunday is St. Patrick's Day. Do you expect to raise a glass in honor of the day? unfortunately, alcohol and my prescription medicines don't play well together

4. Beer is not the only beverage often dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. In 1970, McDonald's introduced the Shamrock Shake, a milkshake made with a minty green syrup. If we were to go out for shakes right now, what flavor would you order? either a Shamrock Shake with Oreos or a chocolate shake or maybe even jamocha

5. Legend has it that wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns, who can be mischievous pranksters. Is there anyone you would like to avoid today? today I'm planning to be social!

6. For all our talk of green, it was not the original color of St. Patrick's Day. Through most of the 18th century, blue was worn across England and Ireland to honor St. Patrick. The Irish switched to green to express their independence from the English. Which color do wear more often: blue or green? probably green in all it's various shades

7. Today St. Patrick's Day is observed all over the world. In Tokyo, it's not a single day but a weekend celebration. When you think of Japan, what's the first thing that comes to mind? interestingly, I'm studying the rise of dictators just before WWII, so I thought of the question I'm challenging my students with:  Was Pearl Harbor inevitable? (or something along those lines)

8. One of the biggest parades each year in Buenos Aires is for St. Patrick's Day. Have you ever participated in a parade? an uncle had several vintage cars, including a Model A and he used to let us ride in parades with him--we'd toss candy

9. Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA, crowns a Miss St. Patrick's Day. Tell us about an event you recall from your college days. I am nostalgic for my study abroad in Ireland

finished reading

I've read a few novels by this author but somehow missed this one.  Its quirky characters are believable, relatable, and endearing.  I keep thinking of the word comeback and "snappy retort" was one of the first things that popped into my head.  Then I considered how snappy retorts sometimes come to me after needed, leaving me feeling tongue-tied at the moment.  And I thought of a comeback as "a return, " which also applies to the plot.  Getting lost in the word comeback is an example of how this book made me think.  It's a simple yet complex premise: events from childhood shape us in adulthood. 

From the publisher:
Caroline Jacobs is a wimp, someone who specializes in the suffering of tiny indignities in silence. And the big ones, too. But when the twinset-wearing president of the local Parent Teacher Organization steps out of line one too many times, Caroline musters the courage to assert herself. With a four-letter word, no less.

Caroline's outburst has awakened something in her. Not just gumption, but a realization that the roots of her tirade can be traced back to something that happened to her as a teenager, when her best friend very publicly betrayed her. So, with a little bit of bravery, Caroline decides to go back to her home town and tell off her childhood friend. She busts her daughter out of school, and the two set off to deliver the perfect comeback...some twenty-five years later. But nothing goes as planned. Long buried secrets rise to the surface, and Caroline finds she has to face much more than one old, bad best friend.

The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs is an enchanting novel about the ways in which our childhood experiences reverberate through our lives. It's the story of a woman looking to fix her life through an act of bravery, and of a mother and daughter learning to understand one another. Deceptively simple and highly engaging, this latest novel by Matthew Dicks is perfect for those of us who were last to be picked at sports, and for everyone who is thrilled not to be in high school any more.

#52bookclub prompt 14: a grieving character.

3.14.2024

three on thursday


Thing one:  today is the day the time change is kicking my butt.  I struggled to get out of bed and couldn't shake my sleepiness at all.

Thing two:  I'm gearing up for an exceptionally busy weekend.

Thing three:  I get to start a new book tonight!

3.13.2024

finished reading

I'm not the biggest fan of re-reading books.  I originally read this book about six or so months ago and remembered that the linked stories share some characters, which works nicely here as a plot device.  Some of the stories I liked more than others.  But that's natural--just as some characters I like more than others.  I think my book group will have a LOT to discuss.

Here's my original reaction to the book plus the publisher's note:
This is a book about a book.  I love the premise that no two people experience a book the same way.  We follow a different character in each chapter--and they are linked by the shared experience of reading the book, Theo, written in the first section.  No two characters experience Theo the same way although it profoundly affects each.  Any of the vignettes could have been an entire book that I would have enjoyed.  I was fascinated by the collection of people: a publishing assistant, an actor, an artist, a free diver, a bookstore employee, an abandoned town caretaker, a homeless teenager, a coordinator, and a publishing agent.

The story of Theo is never revealed nor do we learn why the book has such a profound effect on each reader.

I loved it.

From the publisher:
One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s No Two Persons is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.”

That was the beauty of books, wasn’t it? They took you places you didn’t know you needed to go…

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.

Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways—and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.

#52bookclub prompt 7: at least four different POV.

wordless wednesday

 

3.12.2024

ten things tuesday

Ten random things rattling around my brain:

1)  I used the last of my "earned time off" (aka personal days) today so that I could facilitate a Library Board of Trustees workshop meeting.

2)  Facilitating a meeting of people with their own personal agenda or axe to grind is challenging.

3)  I'm more tired after this workshop than teaching all day. 

4)  Is Daylight Saving Time necessary?  Other than shocking my system twice a year?

5)  We had a scrumptious vegetarian lasagna catered at the workshop.  I should have taken some leftovers home.

6)  Big, fat, fluffy flakes of snow swirling outside my window.

7)  I get to start a new audiobook tonight.

8)  I made a casserole for dinner last night and have leftovers for tonight!  A definite win!

9)  Never in my teaching career have I used all of my personal days.  But I guess moving ate into them.

10) I need a sweater.  Or a blankey.

finished reading

A typical celebrity memoir is about glamorous tales.  This is about food!  Stanley relates stories of his upbringing that explain how food shaped his world, including the recipes.   His delightful anecdotes are filled with gatherings around a table.  And he uses meals as memories.  He openly discusses his battle with cancer and describes how his relationship with food has been forever altered.  His name-dropping is fun, I loved hearing about his celebrity network.  His audio narration makes it even better!

From the publisher:
From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen.

Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them.​

Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York; preparing for and shooting the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia; falling in love over dinner; and teaming up with his wife to create meals for a multitude of children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burned dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.

3.11.2024

currently

I am...

Reading:  Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson

Listening to:  Taste by Stanley Tucci and I will finish it this evening

Loving:  tomorrow I will be spending the majority of the day at the public library--it's a Board of Trustees workshop day and since I'm the Chair, I kinda need to be there--but the librarian invited me to spend the whole day there so I can see how things work

Thinking:  I may have forgotten to take care of a couple of details for my substitute tomorrow

Feeling:  excited for tomorrow!

Celebrating:  Reese's eggs

Grateful for:  hobbies

Enjoying:  I baked a delicious bruschetta chicken casserole

Weather:  it is 33° and cloudy

A quote I want to share