Not So Quick End-of-2021 Update...

I don't have much of an excuse other than life really got away from me starting in October with the death of my father-in-law...whew. I kept my head above water just by doing what needed doing and unfortunately writing on my blog fell by the wayside. I am slowly crawling my way back into it! Yay me. 

But I have to pare down. I enjoy my Cat Thursday posts so I'll try to keep those going each week and then an end of week post...which may be every other week depending on the week. Something doable for a little while and then hopefully I'll get my groove back! lol.

We are looking forward to G's 13th birthday! What? I can't believe how time flies. He wants money to get a new game for his VR, something to physically open, and sushi for dinner. Can't complain about that. I even asked him if he wanted me to bake him a cake and he told me he'd rather have an ice cream cake...so I don't even have to do that! He is going to have a friend over for a sleepover and pizza. So I will bake him some birthday cupcakes!

Now onto my end of 2021 update...

I read 119 books in 2021. 

39 were children's/middle/young adult books. 

35 non-fiction books.

11 were classics (as well as modern).

39 were by non-white authors.

Over half were by women. 

I had a great reading year. I don't know if I'll read as much as I did last year. Only time will tell. 

Favorite reads: These are the ones that just stood out as I looked back over my list.

• The End of Everything: Astrophysically Speaking by Katie Mack. Her down-to-earth style of how the universe could literally end was fun and so fascinating. I love to get a few astronomy books in a year and this one was top.
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. Just what I needed for one of my first reads of the year. A haunting yet beautiful tale in the Alaskan frontier.
• The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James. The way she blended two time lines and how they finally meet was really quite something. Her bits of magic throughout are also haunting. 
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. A beautiful and lyrical memoir and combining all of this knowledge together to connect ourselves to each other, the earth, and everything else.
• Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell. I loved everything about this book from the big cults to the little ones...I'm looking at you CrossFit and Peleton...it combined my love of language and cults all in one.
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I loved this book so much. So much heart and humanity and sciencing the shit out of everything.
• The Memory Thief and the Secrets Behind How We Remember: A Medical Mystery by Lauren Aguirre. This one opened my mind up on how certain type of drugs can affect our memories and also philosophically memories literally make us who we are and without them who are we? Loved how she combined science and a real medical mystery to discuss it all.
• My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Grahame Jones. This was brutal, poignant, and so lovely. His sequel comes out this fall! Eeek!
• The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis. An open wound on how we didn't respond to the pandemic and he exposes the system and how it really is setup for failure. Brutal but needed.
• The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. I've been telling everyone to listen to this mind-blowing novel! Do it. The less you know the better.

Favorite Movies and TV shows: This one is really hard but I'll do my best...

• Free Guy: I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was...lots of philosophical stuff on free will and destiny and love.
• Black Widow: Loved everything. Funny and full of action.
• The Night House: Can Rebecca Hall do wrong? Well, maybe but this one was a knockout. Layers of grief, horror, all the stuff of nightmares.
• Midnight Mass on Netflix. So so creepy and quite the philosophical reversal. Loved it. It's one I'll rewatch yearly or close to it.
• Loki on Disney+. Disney is killing it with their TV shows from the marvel world.
• Luca. Hands down one of the best movies all year.
• Mare of Easttown on HBO was sooooo good.
• A Quiet Place II. Fantastic sequel. Can't wait for the final instalment!
• The Investigation: HBO docudrama on the investigation of Kim Wall's murder. Brilliant.
• Promising Young Woman: Brutal but I couldn't look away.
• Nomadland: Raw and just so human and beautiful. It's a must-see.
• Wolfwalkers: I lied this one is at the top or just under Luca.
• Sound of Metal. Brilliant performance by Riz Ahmed.
• Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised): Best documentary. It's on Hulu. Go watch it now.
• Mayday. Such a great film. Beautiful and haunting Indie.
• Ted Lasso on Apple. That is the feel-good TV series of a life-time.

That was a mouthful!

We all had a great Solstice, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. We met up with our friends in an Air Bnb for a few days to celebrate and see each other! It's been two years! They moved up to Washington a few years ago and so we've made an effort to get together at least once a year but then the pandemic... So it was great to see them again. The weather was terrible and the drive even worse but it was worth it. I think we'll try Spring or Fall instead next time!

Our snowed in status all week!
Playing games and getting crazy
Teenagers, anyone? lol

Books read in January:

Where the Dead Go to Die by Aaron Dries and Mark Allan Gunnells/ 2016/ 197 pages/ Kindle
Goodreads Summary:
There are monsters in this world. And they used to be us. Now it's time to euthanize to survive in a hospice where Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible.

Post-infection Chicago. Christmas.

Inside The Hospice, Emily and her fellow nurses do their rounds. Here, men and women live out their final days in comfort, segregated from society, and are then humanely terminated before fate turns them into marrow-craving monsters known as ‘Smilers.’ Outside these imposing walls, rabid protesters swarm with signs, caught up in the heat of their hatred.

Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. But in a world where mortality means nothing, where guns are drawn in fear and nobody seems safe anymore – at what cost will this pursuit come? And through it all, the soon to be dead remain silent, ever smiling. Such is their curse.

This emotional, political novel comes from two of horror’s freshest voices, and puts a new spin on an eternal topic: the undead. In the spirit of George A Romero meets Jack Ketchum, Where the Dead Go to Die it is an unforgettable epilogue to the zombie genre, one that will leave you shaken and questioning right from wrong…even when it’s the only right left.

It won't be long before that snow-speckled ground will be salted by blood.
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this take on the zombie genre...what if the incubation time took a really long time to "turn" people into actual brain-eating/wanna-eat-your-flesh creatures? This world it took them a little bit of time to realize this so a lot of almost-zombies died in the process, which upset their families, which in turn upset the politicians, etc. 
We join this world through Emily and her daughter and a special hospice facility where the turned go to live out their last days before they are "humanely killed" before they turn into the zombies we all know and "love." Lots of questions get brought up about what happens if we get too complacent about the monsters under our beds...? 
My only complaints are it was just too short. It really was a small slice into this world and I wanted more, more, and more. Also, the story takes place in the U.S. but the terms were British soooo...that also threw me out of the story. So I was left a bit disappointed overall. But I would still recommend it to anyone who loves a good zombie story. 

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey /2011/ 561 pages/ Paperback
Goodreads Summary:
Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
My Thoughts:
This is my third reading. And it is still as good as the other two times. Great start to space opera that is the world of The Expanse. The TV show on Prime is really great as well and the series and the books are both great and different in their own ways. So if you love sci-fi that is more on the dramatic side this one is for you.

Serafina and the Splintered Heart by Robert Beatty/ 2017/ 357 pages/ library
Goodreads Summary:
The storms are coming....

Something has happened to Serafina. She has awoken into a darkness she does not understand, scarred from a terrible battle, only to find that life at Biltmore Estate has changed in unimaginable ways. Old friends do unthinkable things and enemies seem all around.

A mysterious threat moves towards Biltmore, a force without a name, bringing with it violent storms and flooding that stands to uproot everything in its path. Serafina must uncover the truth about what has happened to her and find a way to harness her strange new powers before it's too late.

With only days to achieve the impossible, Serafina fights to reclaim herself as the Guardian of Biltmore, friend of Braeden, daughter of her Pa, and heroine of the Blue Ridge Mountains and all the folk and creatures that call it home.
My Thoughts:
This is the third book in the Serafina series. G and I have been reading them together and we both love them! Serafina and friend Braeden get into all sorts of troubles and this book is no different. Serafina's soul and body have been ripped into pieces by black magic and it's up to her, Braeden, and new friends and old foes to get her back together again and defeat the evil sorcerer. Beatty provides a haunting and beautiful background in the Blue Mountains at the turn of the 20th century. Great characters and mysteries abound. 

T: The Story of Testosterone and How it Dominates and Divides Us by Carole Hooven/ 2021/ 357 pages/ Scribd
Goodreads Summary:
Testosterone: Misunderstood. Mythologized. Controversial.

A Harvard evolutionary biologist debunks the myths and cultural stereotypes surrounding testosterone and reveals its far-reaching effects on gender and sexuality, sports, relationships, and many more aspects of our everyday lives.

The biological source of virility and masculinity has inspired fascination, investigation, and controversy since antiquity. From the eunuchs in the royal courts of ancient China to the booming market for “elixirs” of youth in nineteenth-century Europe, humans have been obsessed with identifying and manipulating what we now know as testosterone. And the trends show no signs of slowing down—the modern market for testosterone supplements is booming. Thanks to this history and the methods of modern science, today we have a rich body of research about testosterone’s effects in both men and women.

The science is clear: testosterone is a major, invisible player in our relationships, sex lives, athletic abilities, childhood play, gender transitions, parenting roles, violent crime, and so much more. But there is still a lot of pushback to the idea that it does, in fact, cause sex differences and significantly influence behavior.

Carole Hooven argues in T that acknowledging testosterone as a potent force in society doesn’t reinforce stifling gender norms or patriarchal values. Testosterone and evolution work together to produce a huge variety of human behavior, and that includes a multitude of ways to be masculine or feminine. Understanding the science sheds light on how we work and relate to one another, how we express anger and love, and how we can fight bias and problematic behavior to build a more fair society.
My Thoughts:
Loved this book. She's very clear and concise. She provides tons of science and the stories behind them. She doesn't have all the answers nor does she try to. But it's an open discussion with the science to begin. One of my favorite science books I've read in a long time.

Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition by Jane Austen and edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks/ 2010/ 442 pages/ Hardcover
Goodreads Summary:
'Vanity, not love, has been my folly'

When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.
My Thoughts:
Reading an annotated edition of Pride and Prejudice was pure joy! So many little insights into the culture and archaic words. And insight into what Austen might have meant with certain phrases or reasons why certain characters may have said or done certain things. Pure joy. This is one that will be reread time and again!
Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey/ 2012/ 595 pages/ Paperback

Goodreads Summary:
We are not alone.

On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.

In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .
My Thoughts:
This is the second book in The Expanse series and it's almost as good as the first! Lots of action and two new characters that I love! Yes.

Joining up with Deb from Readerbuzz and her Sunday Salon.