Gage earned his purple belt in tae kwon do this week, a proud moment for me. He complains about having to go twice a week, but on Tuesday right before class he said he thought there was a belt test this week and he wanted to make sure he did it. While the notice was late, his taking the initiative was new. Jason and I don’t go in to his classes, so unless he tells us we have no idea what goes on there and with ADHD it’s a struggle for him to remember sometimes. So progress being made all around.
An English Bride in Scotland by Lynsay Sands. 3.5 stars, historical romance, 346 pages, 2013. This has a common enough plot, a Scottish laird must marry an English woman. There is a sweet heroine and kind hero and a bit of a mystery that provided a worthy bad guy to spice things up. Although there was also spice in the bedroom…and barn…and by the river… This was the first in a series I’m looking forward to reading more.
The Art of Sinning by Sabrina Jeffries. 3 stars, historical fiction, 400 pages, 2015. This English historical has an American artist in London wanting to use Lady Yvette as his muse. She’s more than willing. It’s spicy and there’s plenty of character setup for the next 4 books in the series. It was good, but I’m not sure I care enough to seek the rest out.
I don’t know why I’m on a romance bender, but I refuse to feel bad about it.
10 books read so far this year.
Currently Reading
Movies
Anyone But You, 2023. I had a morning to myself this week with no commitments and decided to go to the theater and watch something I couldn’t imagine my friends or husband wanting to see. I love romcoms and this one was solid. There was LOTS of skin. Have you ever gone to the movies by yourself? It’s been years since I’ve done this.I was the only one in the theater and that was pretty cool.
Love at First Sight, 2023. Every time I logged into Netflix it recommended this movie to me so when I woke up too early on Saturday and didn’t want to get out of bed I watched it. It’s a cute one about fate and finding someone to hold your hand through the tough times. I loved the growth of both characters and the quirkiness of the storytelling.
Streaming
I’ve read all of Harlan Coben’s books and have seen all of the adaptations. This was one of the better ones. As with all of Coben’s thrillers, twists abound and all is not as it seems. Eight episodes.
Plans for the Weekend
Well, it’s after 10 so the weekend is almost over, but I do have to take a breakfast casserole and 2 dozen muffins to Gage’s school for a special teachers breakfast in the morning and although the muffins are baked I still need to prep the casserole for morning. I best get to it!
Michelle Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various obstacles–the earned wisdom that helps her continue to “become.” She details her most valuable practices, like “starting kind,” “going high,” and assembling a “kitchen table” of trusted friends and mentors. With trademark humor, candor, and compassion, she also explores issues connected to race, gender, and visibility, encouraging readers to work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness. (from Goodreads)
Michelle’s memoir Becoming is one of my favorites. If you haven’t read it, you should. This book shares new stories, offers advice, and addresses the ‘go high’ vision and what it means.
It didn’t pack the same emotional punch of her first book, but there were parts I really loved. I loved the section on her relationship with Barack, especially that first trip to Hawaii to meet his family. I love her honesty and the way that she never puts him on a pedestal. Through her we see the real him. I love this quote, “Any long-term partnership really is an act of stubborn faith.” This spoke to me because I often speak of my own marriage this way.
The last few sections about how she was portrayed in right wing press and her now famous call to ‘Go High” were my favorites. We are so lucky to have had her as First Lady and to have her now encouraging us all to do the work. As many like to say, freedom isn’t free, and if we want a better country we have to be better citizens. I’m going to leave you with a few of the quotes I write in my journal.
“If you keep your children from feeling fear, you’re essentially keeping them from feeling competence.”
“We’re alone, each of us. That’s the ache of being human.”
“Any time we grip hands with another soul and recognize some piece of the story they’re trying to tell, we are acknowledging and affirming two truths at once: We’re lonely and yet we’re not alone.”
“Going high is not just about what happens on a single day, or a month, or inside one election cycle either. It happens over the course of a lifetime, the course of a generation, Going high is demonstrative, a commitment to showing your children, your friends, your colleagues, and your community what it takes to live with love and decency. Because in the end, at least in my experience, what you put out for others- whether it’s hope or hatred- will only create more of the same.”
After two snow days this week and bitter cold temps we went to the movie theater yesterday and saw Wonka! The magic was just what we all needed. We followed it up with Aladdin’s Lebanese food and our day was made.
Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger. 3.5 stars, thriller, 260 pages, 2023. I like Lisa Unger’s thrillers and this one was quick and satisfying. Madeline was a survivor of an attack, the same attack where she watched her best friend get murdered. Harley is a true crime podcaster and is looking into the 10 year old story. Not surprisingly, secrets are uncovered and danger abounds.
Simply Sinful by Carly Phillips. 2.5 stars. romance, 272 pages, 2000. I was looking for a quick satisfying romance, but this wasn’t it. Detecctive Kane McDermitt goes undercover to prove Kayla’s business is really a front for prostitution. He requests a date (through her business), sleeps with her on said date, and is then convinced she is innocent. Of course he was.
I’ve read 7 books so far this year.
Currently Reading
Nothing has changed from last week, except I’ll probably finish one of these today.
Movies
Wonka, 2022. Magic and chocolate fun for the whole family! I’m so glad that we saw it on the big screen.
Streaming
We finished up season 2 of Reacher on Amazon. We liked it even better than the first season.
Plans for the Weekend
I’ll share this because I’ll be puzzling some today and maybe it’s an idea that appeals to you. I belong to our local Buy Nothing group on Facebook. Neighbors offer each other things they no longer want or need. For the last few years I’ve offered up a puzzle exchange for the month of January, sort of a Little Free PUZZLE Library. When the weather was good I put them on our front porch shelves and as we’re snowed in I’ve moved them to a bin at the end of our driveway. I started with 7 puzzles that I’d done this year and was willing to part with and told people to come take, trade, or give. It’s been fun seeing the puzzles that have come in. The turnover is high, even a few weeks in.
Jack Reacher is an iconic character. Even if you’ve never read a book in the series (28 books and counting) you may have heard of the two Tom Cruise movies where he played the antihero and divided a rabid fanbase. For me, Tom Cruise is no Reacher. Jason and I just finished season 2 of the Amazon series, Reacher, where Alan Richson deftly plays the larger than life killing machine with his own moral code. The series is good.
Jack Reacher is an ex-military cop who is roaming the United States, seeing the country he barely knows after a lifetime (36 years) spent on military bases around the world. From one of my reviews, “Jack Reacher is a man’s man, but one that women are drawn to because of his sheer masculinity and unavailability. He is who he is, take him or leave him and that confidence and physical presence makes him a force to be reckoned with.”
Why should you be reading the Jack Reacher series? Because he’s alpha male dreamy. He isn’t held back by rules but is ruled by what is good and just and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty in the pursuit of justice. He’s a tall, commanding man who, if you count the number of women he’s charmed out of their clothes, knows his way around a woman’s body.
Read if you like – Drifters with a hero complex, larger than life characters who say as little as possible, justice being served no matter how many get hurt, and don’t mind lots of violence.
This year I want to make a concerted effort to volunteer more. My work for the local library Friends board takes about 4-6 hours a week on average. I don’t want to take time away from that because I love working with the donated books and book sales as well as running the Facebook page. I just want to make a little more time in my day to find new places that could use an extra hand. For the last two Fridays I’ve volunteered at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and helped Clevelanders shop for food that they need – for free! It’s rewarding and I’m happy to have met some very wonderful people and plan to continue helping out a few times a month. As the temperatures are freezing everywhere, I am constantly reminded to be thankful for our warm and cozy home that’s stocked with all the food we need and the books and puzzles that keep my heart purring like like a cat.
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith 4.5 stars, Thriller/Private Detective Mystery, 960 pages, 2023. Cormoran Strike series #7. Robin goes undercover to try and expose a cult. Cormoran deals with Charlotte, again. This series needs to be read in order. Start with Cuckoo’s Calling.
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood. 4.5 stars, YA Romance, 352 pages, 2023. I like Hazelwood’s romances and this one set in the chess world for teens was a lot of fun. The ‘couple is 18 & 20, one bisexual and one not having met anyone who has interested them in that way, and both hardwired for chess. This is her first YA romance and I appreciated the behind closed door sex scene.
The Miracle Seed by Martin Lemelman. 4.5 stars, Nonfiction Graphic Novel for Kids, 80 pages, 2023. What a hopeful book in such an uncertain time. This is the true life story of how 2 Israeli scientists brought the Judean Date Palm tree back to life after having been extinct for over 2000 years. (Here’s a link to a magazine article about it) Inspire the green thumb in your life with this inspiring story from Israel.
Currently Reading
Movies
Everything Everywhere All at Once, 2022. What in the world? This was a wacky, insane, and thoughtful movie about parallel universes. Jason and I agreed that we’ve never seen anything quite like it. Two hotdog thumbs up.
Plans for the Weekend
Any other Sunday my weekend would be over, but since tomorrow is MLK Jr. Day we get one more day to play. We have some friends coming over tomorrow to hang out and play games before Gage has an orthodontist appointment. I hope your three day weekend brings some good reading and fun!
Like most readers of Harry Potter, I love JK Rowling books and when I started seeing the reviews for this series I knew I’d have to give her a post HP chance to win me over. And she did. I love this series.
I love Cormoran Strike. I loved him in the first of the series and I’ve loved him in every one since. He’s smart, grumpy and a hero who came back to London after losing a foot in Afghanistan. He could have milked the media because of his being the (illegitimate) son of a famous rock star, but he chose, instead, to live a life of purpose. He’s a bit of a mess but an honest and earnest one. He and his partner Robin’s relationship is the heart and soul of this this series.
I love the narration by Robert Glenister. He became Strike for me so I’ve listened to all 7 books (so far) on audio. I totally recommend trying the first one and seeing if you like it.
Read if you like– well plotted thrillers, disability front and center, the possibility of a workplace romance, grouchy yet smart private detectives, big big books, or mysteries set in London.
I do think that you need to read these in order to appreciate them.
Check out my wall of books! These are the 334 books (minus one that I finished after I took this picture) that I read in 2023. I’ve seen a few bookstagrammers do this and I started planning at the beginning of December to get the books from the library that I needed (which was a lot!). You see there were loads of picture books, which came from homeschooling for half a year and from being a panelist for the Cybils Awards.
But, now we’ve turned the page to a new year with new goals and intentions. I’m not an organized person. I tend to get everything done either right away or at the very last minute and most everything else gets lost in the middle. So, I’ve got a list of daily goals, weekly goals, and monthly goals. It’s a lot, but I’m hoping to teach myself some of the skills that I always seem to struggle with. So far I’m 100% on my 9 daily goals and I’m over half done with my 11 monthly goals. I also have a weekly goal of blogging 3 times a week and that has clearly not gone as well. I’ll get there eventually.
Bookish Events
I went with a friend to my first Silent Book Club! This meet up was downtown at the Cleveland Public Library. It was fun, but not exactly silent, lol. The idea is that you take your book to a public place where other bookish people will do the same and you all sit together and read your books. Sort of a social, but not really, book club without the homework. There were 19 of us. It was intriguing enough to try again when they meet at a Barnes & Noble.
As a woman of a certain age, this was a quick book explaining what happens during perimenopause/menopause and some of the things you can do to keep yourself as healthy as possible. It’s an older book and didn’t go into great detail, but it was a nice overview.
A very quick introduction for elementary school kids at only 32 pages. Lots of nice photos and just enough information to get started with a study of Israel and what’s going on there now.
Movies
Jason and I actually made it to the theater! We both really liked The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, 2022. I haven’t read any of the Hunger Games books, but love the movies. This is the story of Coriolanus Snow way before we meet Katniss meets him. How does he become the man we know in the trilogy? I thought it was great although I had a question or two in spots. Have you seen it? What did you think?
Plans for the Weekend
When I get my to do list done today I’m hoping to visit you all! I miss checking in with you all. Do you have plans for the day?
That title is a bit misleading. I watched 49 movies this year and these are my 5 favorites. Only two of them came out in 2023.
I’d like to watch some really good movies in 2024, so please leave me a few of your favorites in the comments.
Peanut Butter Falcon, 2019 (Shia LaBouf, Zack Gottsagen. Dakota Fanning, John Hawkes, Bruce Dern, John Bernthal, Thomas Haden Church, Yelawolf) Grade A
Everyone deserves to be seen.
Air, 2023 (Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, Chris Messina) Grade A
Is MJ really MJ without his Jordans?
Joker, 2019 (Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy) Grade A
For many years I’ve been tracking the movies I watch by a monthly post with my 5 word move review and invite for others to join in. I linked it up to money for charity if people participated. I gave away $600 to charities top participants chose. It was fun. But over the years my blogging has become inconsistent and my own participation in the blogging community at large has dwindled. I hope that will change, but only time will tell. So, I’ll be discontinuing my 5 word movies reviews after this post.
There are $85 on the table so, if people post their 5 word review of any 15 of these movies or on any of the movies in the past (scroll through them here) I can dole out another $100 to charity as a last hurrah.
Leave the World Behind, 2023 (Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha’la, Kevin Bacon) Grade B+
Better start digging that bunker!
No Hard Feelings, 2023 (Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Natalie Morales, Matthew Broderick, Laura Benanti) Grade B
Somehow she had me rooting for her.
A Series of Unfortunate Events, 2004 (Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Timothy Spall, Catherine O’Hara, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep, Jude Law & many other familiar faces) Grade B
Best ending the Baudelaires will ever get.
The Out-Laws, 2023 (Adam Devine, Nina Dobev, Ellen Barkin, Pierce Brosnan) Grade C–
So many good books this year! You can find my picture book recs here, here, and here. My middle school recommendations here. My adult fiction 5 stars here.
Now for my nonfiction, graphic novel, and high school favorites.
These 4 boys were in high school when they beat college teams, including MIT, in a national robotics competition. It starts with telling you how they came to be in the US, how they found family in the robotics room, and where they are now 20 years later. Middle school/teens. Highly recommend for adults too.
Many of you may have heard of Zion Clark, a short documentary on his life was number one on Netflix. He was born with no legs to a mother in jail with an unknown father. He got bounced around Ohio’s foster care system before finally being adopted at the age of 17. He made headlines in his senior year of high school when he started winning wrestling matches.
Zion grew up in the Canton/Massillon area, less than an hour from where I live so this was a local story for me. But even if it wasn’t I would’ve been so moved my his story and spirit. I think that all teens would benefit from reading such a powerful story of perseverance. And adults should read it too!
This was my first book of 2023 and there were my thoughts when I first posted about it on IG.
My first book of the year is also perfectly suited for today, January 6. On Tyranny, Graphic Edition: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Professor Timothy Snyder, illustrated by Nora Krug is an important read, especially as we reflect on this day 2 years ago when our democracy was under attack from within. Drawing in the histories of Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, and others, Snyder provides stark similarities to things happening in the United States.
An important read for every American, no matter your political leanings.
#10 “Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case. Post-truth is pre-racism”
I’ve posted more excerpts on my blog so I recommend clicking over there. Get your eyes on a copy and learn, dissect, and come away with a renewed sense of what it means to be a citizen of a functioning democracy and what that demands from us in return.
“Natural warmth has the power to heal all relationships-the relationship with ourselves as well as with people, animals, and all that we encounter every day of our lives.”
“We’re like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand in hopes of finding comfort. This running away from all that is unpleasant, this continual cycle of avoiding the present, is referred to as self-absorption, self-clinging, or ego.”
“We’re all looking for a permanent reference point, and it doesn’t exist. Everything is impermanent. Everything is always changing- fluid, unfixed, and open. Nothing is pin-down-able the way we’d like it to be. This is not actually bad news, but we all seem programmed for denial. We have absolutely no tolerance for uncertainty.”
Joan Chittister, a Benedictine sister, writes with such grace and wisdom about topics perfect for my meditative time. Vision, an understanding heart, humility, soul, holy indifference, gentleness of spirit, imagination, questioning, emotional stability, purity of heart, inclusion, and nature of the heroic in life are the chapters you’ll find.
I’ll leave you with a few quotes… “Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times.”
“We’re not here to suppress the gifts of others in order to make room for our own. We’re here to put all the gifts of humankind into the great pool of humanity so that, because of the gifts of each of us, we can all live better in the end.”
“There are too many people trying to get into Heaven who have yet to muster the amount of soul it takes to appreciate all the life there is on earth.”
“People who refuse to question all of the assumptions that underpin the way they live-on the grounds that to ask is a violation of faith-are people, ironically, who want cheap answers, not hard faith at all.”
“The societies we live in are increasingly making our minds ill, making it feel as though the way we live is engineered to make us unhappy. When Matt Haig developed panic disorder, anxiety, and depression as an adult, it took him a long time to work out the ways the external world could impact his mental health in both positive and negative ways. Notes on a Nervous Planet collects his observations, taking a look at how the various social, commercial and technological “advancements” that have created the world we now live in can actually hinder our happiness.” from Goodreads
I’m sure most of you have seen Humans of New York online. Brandon Stanton started taking photos of people in various cities along with a caption or story and his blog gained traction. By the time his camera found the humanity and exuberant essence of NYC, people were paying attention. And still are. This book was originally published in 2013. I loved every bit of it. The people, the quick story, the quote, the photos.
I can stare at these faces for days. In this over sized picture book, James & Other Apes, James Mollison exquisitely captures these 50 apes found in sanctuaries around the world. They are seen on all of their primate glory. The eyes are the window to the soul, after all. They are each identified by names with short bios at the end of the book.
The graphic biography all ‘ladies’ and the people who love them need to read. Even if you don’t read graphic novels you will want to get your eyes on this one.
I LOVED the art, but also the women included. I knew many, like Temple Grandin and Hedy Lamar, but there so many new names to me, like Agnodice, Clementine Delait the Bearded Lady, and Nazis Al Abid. I learned more about Margaret Hamilton and Mae Jemison.
This is a graphic bio of the time when she wrote Strangers on a Train and the lesbian thriller A Pinch of Salt under a pseudonym. A Pinch of Salt was later retitled Carol and is known for having the first happy ending gay characters had gotten in books.
Loved the book and recommend it. It was the Author’s Note at the beginning that hooked me. I left out more good stuff for brevity.
“This is a story I believe is worth telling. That being said, I want to be clear: The protagonist of this story is not a good person. She was deeply anti-Semitic, racist, and misogynistic, even by the standards of her time. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that many of her beliefs were nothing short of evil…
What a fun book this is! If you love Steve Martin’s humor and New Yorker covers you are going to get many chuckles at the mostly single panel funnies in this collection.
Interspersed amongst the rest is the story of Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, told in comic style, and how they came to put together this book. My favorite is when they were checking each other for ticks. It’s a great 20-30 minute read, sure to make you chuckle.
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