Blog All About It: Bloom

hosted by Herding Cats & Burning Soup

I missed last month's theme on sweet but I'm back this month with Bloom! I figured my flowers would be a great thing to showcase this month.

Blog All About It! Luck: The Witch Elm by Tana French

hosted by: Herding Cats & Burning Soup.

Basically there's a word each month and any time during the month you can blog about that word. In any way you want. Review, recipe, photos, stories, etc

 The Witch Elm.

This month due to St. Patrick's Day I chose to focus on reading something that took place in Ireland or was written by an Irish author. I decided on Tana French's new novel


Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life: he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden - and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

 The whole book is from Toby's point of view. In the beginning he's clueless. He feels he's been a pretty lucky guy and that he was born with the bit of luck that is rare. Life is good and always has been. Until his luck runs out when he's robbed at home and beaten and left for dead. As he heads back to his uncle's home the Ivy House to recover and take care of his uncle, he learns that his childhood has not been what he remembers. He discovers that maybe his luck wasn't something he could live without, like it's been something that been excised from him.

The mystery is when his cousin's son finds a skull in the witch elm in the backyard and the police are called in to find out who it is and whether they've been murdered. It's soon discovered to be an old friend from high school...but Toby's memories are gone after being beaten so badly in the head. Could he have committed the murder and if so why? Did he truly have a good relationship with his cousins Shannon and Ian?

I enjoyed the disillusion of Toby's memories and how lucky he was to be able to set aside bad memories and ideas until they caught up to him. He is a white and privileged man who got away with everything and didn't understand the consequences left in his wake.

But the story was overly long and Toby was not the best protagonist. It's a depressing end but fitting. And I do understand the human tale French was trying to tell but she lost me a bit in the end with some of the events and consequences. But the idea of luck and how we can create our own luck by our thoughts and actions was definitely an interesting idea and something to mull on.

Week-in-Review-- Blog All About It: Pink

Happy Valentine's Day! Ok, so it's two weeks too late. But since it's the month of all things Pink and Red I decided to use my week-in-review and my post for Blog All About It: Pink all together.

Blog All About It

I got come great cards from DH and my blogging friend Stacy! Thanks so much! Even G had a great time filling out his Valentines for school and creating a Shadow Valentine box.

G also had another ballroom competition. His school team did not make the final round for the next competition but they all did their best and had a great time! Couldn't be prouder!

I watched the Oscar's last night. I thought the idea of no host was going to go so wrong. But what a pleasant surprise...the show ran just slight over 3 hours and the presenters and winners were all spot-on. Olivia Colman was my absolute favorite....see...Favourite! I'm so punny. She won the Oscar's last night.

Then there are the dresses! I love me some Oscar red carpet fashion. Here are a few of my favorites last night:

Marina de Tavira

Letitia Wright

Kiki Lane

Charlize Theron

Regina King

BOOKS FINISHED: 

• The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty

BOOKS I'M CURRENTLY READING:

• And I Darken by Kiersten White
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
• Sense of Style: A Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America 
• If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

LISTENING TO: 

• The Witch Elm by Tana French

WATCHING: 

TV:

• Netflix: Black Earth Rising. I really enjoyed this one. The premise is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide seeks answers on why her adopted mother would prosecute the man who led the charge to end the genocide. There's more to it but the whole series brings up the world players involved and post-colonialism. It's a sobering TV show and I would only recommend it if you're up to the emotional roller coaster.

Movies:

• RBG-- A lovely documentary on Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• Isn't It Romantic-- A surprisingly funny and charming rom-com starring Rebel Wilson.
• Bohemian Rhapsody-- I loved Rami Malek's transformation and the music was a blast. Not the best biopic but overall an enjoyable experience.
• A Star is Born-- I loved Bradley Cooper and Lady GaGa. They had amazing chemistry and the music was beautiful. Well done!

Making: 

Since I am still recovering, I have not made a lot with my crochet needles or food for that matter. But I did manage a couple of Instant Pot meals for sloppy joes and an alfredo pasta dish. And even some quick chicken fajitas from the oven!

Looking Forward to:

Game night Saturday! We've officially found another family to play games with. We're all very excited about this. G gets along well with their son. It's the little things that keep you going.

Spring! We just got our water main fixed this morning. And now I can focus on what I want to do with my garden in the spring. It's just around the corner. Do I want to try a square-foot garden? Stay with the tomato plant and flowers, all three?! So many options.

Blog All About It: First

I was thinking what would be a great idea for this theme...I've seen quite a few fellow bloggers talk about their bloggiversarys and I've never really done that. Maybe once or twice over the time I've been blogging. But I thought it would be a fun trip down memory lane to look back at my very first blog post!

My Love of Language

Source: University of Florida Linguistics department

Isn't it amazing??!! Language! It's how we communicate with the world! We are the only species on the planet that are able to manipulate language, to think for ourselves. Every day we speak and think sentences that have never been thought of before or even spoken. Look at how we learn our first language; it seems so flawless. I wish we could all learn a second language like we learned our first! There are over 6,000 languages in the world and all of them different and unique.
I earned a degree in Linguistics due my love of language and thought that I would share some thoughts on language in my life and in the world at large. I will include references to check as well when I need to!
I learned Spanish when I spent about 18 months in Spain and the Canary Islands and when I returned home I decided to keep on studying it at school. One of the classes I elected to take was Introduction to Linguistics. I loved it! It was an amazing class and taught me so much about how language influences our lives. And thus began my studies and love of language (I ended up getting my degree in both Spanish and Linguistics). Not that I actually use these degrees at the moment...I may eventually get my Master's in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at the college level for adults. But since I still love it and am not in school anymore these blog entries will help me keep up on language and refresh what I've already learned! I hope you enjoy!

I posted this on May 5, 2009. Ta da! My official bloggiversary. I didn't even know. I had graduated from college two years earlier with my Linguistics degree still pretty fresh in my head. I definitely weaned off the language aspect and ended up with a book blog. But I'm ok with that. I still would like to share some interesting tidbits of language news. I also am still contemplating getting a Master's in TESOL but I honestly don't know yet!

It's been fun remembering my love of Linguistics and languages in general. I should really plan some more posts around that. Thanks for taking a ride through memory lane with me.

*part of the Blog All About It challenge

Blog All About It 2019

I only sign up for really small challenges officially on my blog. They're just too hard to keep track of with my blog and then I end up feeling guilty that I didn't do them... But I do print some off and try to do what I can. I love signing up for small seasonal one which I will continue to do throughout the year. But Velvet from vvb32 reads did a challenge last year called Blog All About It from Herding Cats and Burning Soup. You take a one-word prompt and do a blog post around it each month. That is doable! I need a little more imagination this year and this feels like a great way to do it. It's not a reading challenge; it's not weekly. So I feel like this is very doable.

2019 Prompts

Jan- First

Feb- Pink

Mar- Luck

April- Sweet

May- Bloom

June- Risk

July- Heat

Aug- Sky

Sept- Crunch

Oct- Shiver

Nov- Thankful

Dec- Twinkle