February! Where did you go? G's Birthday and Life...

 I kind of checked out a bit in February. Between the winter blues, health issues, life, ugh...whatever. I just didn't get on here. Anyhoo, G had his 14th birthday last month! What? It is hard to realize how much time has passed and how little there is before he starts making his way in the world in one form or another. 

I just love G and who he is and who he's becoming! We found out about a new conveyer belt sushi place nearby and G said that is where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner. We haven't been to a place like this as a family since we moved back from Japan so it was a real treat! 

The next weekend we took him and a few of his friends to a trampoline place and they went crazy for hours!

The other big stuff is the storms...wow, and we didn't even get hit like other states...we have not had this much snow since 2007?!

I also attended Sundance online and attended one movie with the family at the end of January. I am so happy they allow for the hybrid model since the pandemic.

Also got out of the house to snow shoe with my friends! Gorgeous. 


Movies at Sundance I really liked:

Going Varsity in Mariachi: This was a fantastic documentary on a specific mariachi high school band in Texas. I had no idea this was a thing and it was amazing to watch these extremely talented young adults work hard and love on their mariachi culture. If you get a chance to see it, please do it!

The Amazing Maurice: We saw this one in-person as a family and with my friend and her family. It's based off of one of the Discworld books The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett. 

Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls: Was a weird gem! Kind of a horror-comedy but not scary at all. If you like weird probably soon-to-be cult-classic films this one's for you.
Fancy Dance and The Persian Version are honorable mentions.
Books Finished in February:
G agreed to do Battle of the Books with a group of his friends at school so I've been working through a few of them alongside him.

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen-
I really liked this simple yet powerful story about Hannah, a modern Jewish girl who is transported back in time during the Passover. What's to remember during the Passover? Turns out a lot. Hannah experiences first-hand what it was like to be captured brutally with her people and thrown into concentration camps. I'm truly amazed how she was able to capture full-fledged characters and the awful history of the Holocaust into such a short book for middle schoolers.

A Divided Nation by Jennifer Nielsen--
Gerta and her family live in East Berlin, controlled by Russia, in the early 60s. Her father and her brother Dominic are in West Berlin during the night that East Berlin began putting up wired fences and then eventually the Berlin Wall.
Nielsen gives us a peak into what life was like for those who were caught on the wrong side of the wall through Gerta and her brother Fitz. Neighbor turning against neighbor as the Stasi listens in and demands obedience.
It's a great introduction for kids into what that time was like and hopefully after reading it will want to learn more!

Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational by Michael Shermer--
I really enjoyed the deep-dive into the psychology of conspiracism, how it works, and which conspiracies actually turned out to be true, like the conspiracy that started World War I. He also gives a pretty detailed analysis of some of the common conspiracies of our time like JFK's assassination and 9/11. He also gives us a lesson on common cognitive biases and how we can think through them as much as possible. It's a great book to have on the reference shelf.

Persuasion by Jane Austen--
This is a reread for me...third time! It's my favorite Austen. It was her last book before she died and it shows. I really feel it's her most mature novel. Harvard Press has released big annotated hardbacks for each of her books over the last few years and I am working my way through them! Pride & Prejudice was last year and this year Persuasion started me off.
Lots of interesting details about archaic English words and phrases. Info on what the different carriages were and looked like. And analysis by various people on why Austen said what she said or what things might mean. A whole new worlds opened up to me about the aristocracy and the Navy. They also talked about her more religious side coming out in particular in this novel...maybe due to her declining health? All stuff I would have had no idea about otherwise.
It's time to re-watch all the Persuasion BBC versions....

Aru Shah and the City of Gold by Roshani Chokshi (Aru Shah #4)--
I read this one aloud to G. We're now on the final book 5!!!!
This is my favorite series. Great character development. Wacky fantasy plots and hijinks. Kids who don't know what they're doing but trying to pretend they do and are so anxious about every choice and action and yet they still get up and try and forgive and laugh and cry. I love it!
Currently Reading:

I'm listening to Don't Fear the Reaper (The Lake Witch Trilogy #2) by Stephen Graham Jones. I didn't realize this was going to be a trilogy after I read the first one My Heart Is a Chainsaw. It was so good. So I am lapping this one up. It's an all-star cast! Different voice for each character. It's a slasher series so not for the faint of heart...
Upstream by Mary Oliver. I read her memoir/essays in the mornings to give me a good boost. Can she write or can she write? I can't even imagine having a brain like hers and absorbing all that information and spitting it back out. Wow. This is my first dive into Oliver and it's not going to be my last!
Fourteen Talks by Fourteen: The Essential Conversations You Need to Have with Your Kids Before They Start High School by Michelle Icard. G isn't out of middle school yet so I have time....
The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman. I've been wanting to read this one for awhile. The Nineties were my formative years and it's time for the walking of the memory lane...
Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz. I'm over halfway now and I'm really enjoying her framing of the death of her beloved father and finding the love of her life, and now her wife.
Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality (Aruh Shah #5) by Roshani Chokshi. Final book, which is awesome and  also sad...
TV
DH and I have jumped on the bandwagon for The Last of Us. Never played the video game nor DH but everyone says it's pretty true to storyline. I'm loving it!
Picard is in its final season but everybody from TNG is back! Well, except for Wesley...I am loving every second of it. I'm also working my way through TNG. I'm on season six and halfway through the season the first season of DS9 premiered so I've challenged myself to rewatch that series alongside TNG. 

Poker Face (Peacock)--Natasha Lyonne is so good in this. Murder/mystery solve each week. New locales each week. New people she grows to care about...it's so different and yet familiar. I can't rave enough about this one.
Those are the highlights...whew.
March look ahead...
DH's birthday is this month. It's the big 5-0 and he is not looking forward to it but we're celebrating with friends anyway! There's St. Patrick's Day. And let's not forget it's the start of spring!!!! I am so excited to be done with this winter. It'll be miserable and cold for another month or so but still...
Also...we are planning to move in the next few months or so. We're frantically getting our house ready to put on the market. We're moving up in the world. We've been wanting a house for awhile now and even though we should've done it last year for the best bang for our buck with interest rates and all that...it is what it is. A lot of our time is going towards this goal. No crazy out of state move, thank goodness but we are excited to find something a bit closer to DH's work.
Bookwise...I hope to read a book or two by an Irish author like maybe Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan or a murder mystery by Dervla McTiernan...

Cat Thursday-- Bag O'Nails

 

Welcome to the weekly meme (hosted by Michelle at True Book Addict) that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats!

The Bag O'Nails is a tiny pub in Bristol, as old as the 19th century, and tourist attraction for travelers from as far away as Japan and Thailand. Why? It's for the cats! According to the article from Bristol Post:

When landlord Luke Daniels took over the Bag of Nails pub in Hotwells in 2012, he never thought it would become home to 14 felines, let alone a destination for cat tourists to visit in their droves. Bag of Nails on St George's Road started out as a traditional real ale boozer, and after Luke took in one of his friend's cats, Malcom, the feline residents grew over the years with as many as 24 at one time after the arrival of several litters.

What started as Bristol's best-kept secret exploded with a flurry of national media attention that stemmed from an article in the Bristol Evening Post in 2015. "From that moment onwards my life went completely mental for six months straight," Luke remembered. His phone was ringing non-stop with national papers all hoping to get the story.

Luke has been able to keep the pub going during the pandemic when the government allowed pubs to deliver beer door-to-door. It's been a boon to have people coming into see the cats and the half of the customers are there for company, food, and especially the beer.

Glad the cats and the pub are doing well! If I ever make it to Bristol, this will be on my list to visit!

Cat Thursday-- Groundhog Day!

 

 Welcome to the weekly meme (hosted by Michelle at True Book Addict) that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats!

2023 Reading Challenges

 Tis past that time of year to get up my reading challenges...The best kind of challenge for me is a short month or two with no prompts. I can then focus on mood reading. But I do like to think about what kinds of books I read and get some prompts to help me focus and diversify from time to time and reading challenges with prompts fit that bill.

Book Challenge by Erin 18.0 is a private Facebook bookclub hosted twice a year. Anyone can signup. First round is January through April. I tried to pick books I own so I can work on that TBR own pile this year a bit more.

1. Prime Number <1000: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

2. Book with an unusual narrator: Watership Down by Richard Adams

3. Title with 1st letter of your first name (H): Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

4. Heart or love in the title: The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

5. Set in small town or rural setting: The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

6. Goodreads award winner: (history & biography) The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold 

7. Black or white in the title: Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine by Olivia Campbell

8. Author with 3 names: The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky

9. Book set in Australia or by an Australian author: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

10. Freebie: The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

Build Your Library Reading Challenge 2023

I'm not sure exactly which books I'm going to read for this....I already know I'll never read 40 books for this. But I'm using it as a good way to diversify and get ideas for some more nonfiction and nature-related fiction.

I Read Horror Year-round Challenge 2023 hosted by Michelle at Castle Macabre

Not sure on this one quite yet...will update as I pick. There are various levels to pick from but I always go for bucks, even though I rarely complete this one.

Fairy-tale retelling:

Zombies, witches, vampires, or werewolves: Probably Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. I have not yet read this series and I've been meaning to for a long time now.

Book by BIPOC author: Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones. It has a tentative release date for this year! I'm hoping!

Title with dead, blood, or bone

Something by Poe

Set in the past: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Horrific cover

Folk horror

Winter theme or cover: Snow by Ronald Malfi

Black, red, or white cover: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Written by a woman: Darkly: Black History and America's Gothic Soul by Leila Taylor

Debut horror

1000 Books Before You Die--Banned Books 2023 Challenge hosted by Michelle at Gather Together and Read

First quarter is The Night Trilogy by Elie Wiesel. January will be Night. February is Dawn and March will finish with The Accident.

Second quarter will focus on Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Third quarter- The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I have already read this one. And while I liked it, I didn't love it enough to reread. So I plan on reading another of her books on my TBR.

Fourth quarter- Beloved by Toni Morrison. Also read this one a few years ago but I really enjoyed it and it's short so I plan on rereading.

I joined StoryGraph a couple of years ago. It's a great site to keep track of my personal reading challenges. They also host their own reading challenges every year. The one I joined is StoryGraph Reads the World 2023.

Argentina: Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrrica

Colombia: Either Love in the Time of Cholera or 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Cuba: Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire

Italy: From Scratch by Tembi Locke

Nigeria: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Norway: Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

Pakistan: Either The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood or The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

South Africa: Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Syria: Others Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

Trinidad & Tobago: Trinidad Noir: The Classics edited by Earl Lovelace & Robert Antoni

Whew! Should keep my reading interesting!

Happy New Year! End of Year Faves

 It was a lovely Christmas break. We all took time off, enjoyed each other's company, stayed in and watched movies, played games, put together puzzles, and ate too much food. It went by too fast but it was lovely.

Shadow and Nala got in on the Christmas spirit. And my friend Bethany stopped by on New Year's Eve for a game and fun times with my little family. We played an escape room game we got for Christmas and we survived and solved the puzzles! Whew. It was a fun way to ring in 2023!

Now on to looking back at some of my favorites from 2022. I didn't read as many books as I had hoped for but I still read some great ones last year...let's see...

My favorite series was The Expanse by James S.A. Correy. I'd been meaning to read the whole series for a few years and I finally did it last year! So worth the wait. It'll definitely be a reread eventually.

I reread my second favorite Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice and it was better than I remembered! I have plans on rereading my favorite Austen this year Persuasion.

I even delved into more romance this year due to Bridgerton's second season coming out. I listened to the first four books in like two weeks back in April. Pretty fun. I plan to get to the rest eventually probably spring/summer again.

I loved reading Six Crimson Crowns by Elizabeth Lim with G. It was a beautiful retelling that takes place in Japan's past. A love story and a family story all in one.

Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive by Philipp Dettmer was my favorite science read of the year. Simplish enough to grasp some basic concepts and the drawings are amazing and fun.

People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn was the memoir and culturally critical book that haunted me the most. It's a searing look into our society's narrative around Jews and their history.

TV: I loved Bridgerton season two, Wednesday, The Midnight Club, and Slow Horses.

Movies: So many but Fire of Love was my favorite documentary. Turning Red my favorite kid's movie. Banshees of Inisherin was a beautiful movie on grief and loneliness and friendship in a very small town. Everything Everywhere All at Once was one of the trippiest movies I've ever seen but also so visually stimulating and heartfelt. I was floored. Definitely my top movie for the year. Black Phone and The Innocents were definitely my top horror for the year as well.

Overall, it was a pretty good year. I can't complain. Looking forward to new books, movies, and travel!

Joining up with Deb from Readerbuzz and her Sunday Salon.

Merry, Happy Holidays-ukkah!

 December has been super busy but good busy. DH and I celebrated our 19th anniversary a week or so ago. We spent a night in Salt Lake City and ate Spanish tapas, drank Spanish wine, crashed an ugly sweater work party at our hotel's bar, and even met Buddy the Elf and Santa. Good times were had!

We celebrated the Winter Solstice up at the Red Butte Gardens on Saturday.

Wednesday was more Winter Solstice shenanigans to welcome back the Sun! I cooked up some stew, traditional wassail, G helped me make up solstice cookies, and we decorated paper lanterns and had them lit all night long on the longest night of the year. I love that feeling...waking up and knowing today's light is just a little bit longer than yesterday's! Welcome back, Sun!

Books

I'm in the middle of two or three right now but I did manage to finish off I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. That's a wild ride. I hope she writes another memoir in ten years and I hope it's full of more hope and healing. 

I'm almost done with Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer. My niece just read it and she wanted me to read it as well so we could talk about it.

The Battle for Christmas by Stephen Nissenbaum is an interesting read on the evolution of Christmas and its traditions in America. He uses a lot of primary sources from the time so we get a sense of time and place and people. I don't think I'll finish this one until after the New Year but finishing it I am. 

I also randomly picked up The Maid by Nita Prose. I'm almost halfway through. Quirky but also painful to see how she's taken advantage of. 

TV

DH and I finally finished of the second season of The Witcher! I just started the second season of Slow Horses on Apple TV. Such an excellent show with Gary Oldman.

Movies

We watched A Christmas Story and A Christmas Story: Christmas. We just saw Spirited on Apple with Will Farrell and Ryan Reynolds. Really cute. Elf was the other night. DH and I watched The Holiday again. One of our favorites every holiday season. I think we'll watch It's a Wonderful Life tonight or tomorrow. G has not seen this one yet. I'm hoping he'll appreciate it even if it's a little old school for him. And I've caught quite a few on Hallmark so far. I'm actually pretty impressed with some of them this year. Three Wise Men and a Baby was really good.

I'm also hoping to get in A Muppet Christmas Carol and A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott sometime this weekend! And a couple of holiday horrors too like Black Christmas, Krampus, or that new one Violent Night!

Baking-- I'm hoping to get a Christmas Swiss roll made, peanut butter cookies, more sugar cookies and frosting. Drinks--I've got buttered rum and coquito on the list.

May your Christmas be a safe and merry one!

Joining up with Deb from Readerbuzz and her Sunday Salon.

Cat Thursday-- Holiday Kitties

 Welcome to the weekly meme (hosted by Michelle at True Book Addict) that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats!

My cats have really cute lately. So here's a couple photos for your viewing pleasure.

Cat Thursday

 

 

 Welcome to the weekly meme (hosted by Michelle at True Book Addict) that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats!  

Holiday cat antics are the best or the worst...

2022 Yuletide Spirit Reading Challenge!

 Michelle over at Seasons of Reading is hosting her yearly holiday reading challenge: 2022 Yuletide Spirit. I don't usually signup for holiday challenges but I have at least two if not three I plan to get in this month so here I go...

Reading level challenges:

1. Candy Cane: Read 1 book.

2. Mistletoe: Read 2-4 books.

3. Christmas Tree: Read 5 or more books (the fanatic level!)

I planning on the Mistletoe level with at least 3 books. But hopefully more will be read!

1. The Battle for Christmas by Stephen Nissenbaum
2. Hark the Herald Angels Scream edited by Christopher Golden
3. The Afterlife by Holly Chase
4. I may try to reread A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. While technically not Christmas it still has that holiday spirit throughout the whole book. I've been meaning to reread it for years now...

Additional Levels

Fa la la la la Films: Watch holiday movies!!!! Yasss! So many new ones to see this December and old ones to revisit! Spirited on Apple TV and A Christmas Story: Christmas.

Visions of sugar plums: Read books with the wains and share what we read. My son is older now but every Xmas Eve we read a few children's Christmas books around the tree and eat pizza and cookies and cocoa.

November...Being Grateful

Ever since I got back from vacation for Fall Break back in October, I have been plagued with one illness or another. My son gave something to me and I felt terrible the last day of vacation on our drive home and that turned into a major sinus infection...I thought I was starting to get through it and decided to finally get our flu shots...maybe it's coincidence...but within a few days I got all the flu-like symptoms and have been lying in bed for the last week. It's amazing what a few weeks of ill health will do to a person. I haven't been really all that ill since before the pandemic. It's made me really appreciate the health I had before I got sick and what I can look forward to once I start feeling better.

It really sets me back for holiday plans and excursions and goals I'd been working on...all need to be replanned, gotten rid of, or moved to a much later date. It's exhausting.

That's life, though, plans and life just can change in an instant. Without times like these it is harder to appreciate the good health that we have or the good times that are here. 

Finally, feeling better. Probably the best I've felt since October 15th! I am truly grateful for antibiotics, humidifiers, cough drops, mindless holiday baking shows, and a family that kept going...

Made it out before my flu hit with my dear friend Steph to celebrate her birthday right before Thanksgiving.

Books read in November...I'm surprised I made it through these, tbh.

The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars by Meghan Daum

An interesting look at some of the ways the culture wars have affected people in journalism. It wandered a bit but it was a worthwhile read.

The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith

I've been wanting to read these for awhile and decided this was as good a time as any. Not my most favorite start to the series by any means but I'll read the next one just to see how the characters evolve and interact with one another.

The Last Wish (The Witcher #.5) by Andrzej Sapkowski

These are a conglomeration of stories about the Witcher Geralt. I've been watching the Netflix series and decided it was time to read the source material! I liked this a lot better than I thought I would. So much of the stories are reimagined Grimm's fairytales...Beauty and the Beast...Rumpelstiltskin. It kind of makes me wonder of Sapkowski wrote the series as a bit of satire or parody on the fantasy and fairytale genre. A bit tongue and cheek, as they say.

The short stories give us some insight into Geralt's world of misfits and magic. We also learn a bit more about Yennefer and how her and Geralt meet and how they become so intertwined. And yes we see a lot of Dandelion, Geralt's infamous bard. It's just good fun. I don't know how else to describe it. 

TV

All the holiday baking shows, of course! The Great British Baking Show was fantastic and something I look forward to every year and their holiday special they do with actors is a riot.

1899 on Netflix was also really fantastic. Be prepared to have more questions by the end than answers but it's quite a mystery and I can't wait till season 2.

White Lotus' second season on HBO has been very engrossing. Loving this season's take. And let's not forget the wrap-up season of The Vow on season two on the wellness cult Nexium and the prosecution and conviction of its leader Keith Raniere. So good and disturbing.

Magpie Murders on PBS was a great adaptation from Anthony Horowitz' novel. Fun, fun, fun.

Movies

I'm not going to lie...I watched a lot of movies this last month...I didn't have much energy for the other important things at night...so yeah.

But my favorites were Bodies, Bodies, Bodies; Smile; Fall; and for the holidays the winner was The Noel Diary on Netflix. I actually kind of teared up a bit...

And over the Thanksgiving weekend we watched all of the Harry Potter movies as a family! It's almost a family tradition. Loved it.

I am looking forward to watching all the holiday movies of old with my family and then the weird sequels and or the new adaptation of that timeless classic...A Christmas Story followed by its sequel on HBO and the new Spirited, A Christmas Carol adaptation, with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell on Apple TV. 

We're going to show G "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time. I've been saying that almost every year but there are a lot of good ones and it seems this one never popped up. But it's a goal!

The Holiday with Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Cameron Diaz are DH's and I's favorite as well this time of year. Can't forget Elf either. G will also watch a few holiday horror movies with me like Krampus.

I'm also looking forward to our 19th wedding anniversary! Wowser. Nothing fancy, but we're heading up to downtown Salt Lake for a night, eat some dinner, and spend a nice time together. Hopefully catch some holiday lights up there as well.

Happy holidays!

Joining up with Deb from Readerbuzz and her Sunday Salon.

Cat Thursday-Thanksgiving Kitties

 

 Welcome to the weekly meme (hosted by Michelle at True Book Addict) that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats!  

Day after Thanksgiving kitties. Couldn't resist sharing their cuteness. Shadow also had some tooth surgery earlier this week but she's doing great now. Hard to see the kitty babies hurting. So very grateful they are both doing well this week!