Labor Day and aging...

There is an almost defunct town in the U.P. that celebrates Labor Day. It has been going on for at least 25 years. I think I have gone every year. The garage rock band of old friends of my husband played for the last time. Bittersweet. Age, cancer and diabetes has gotten to these people. They played and sang the same old songs so well. Our group are all in our late 60’s and 70’s. We really thought we would be the ones who stayed young forever. So many of us are gone. A younger crowd is taking over. In a good way. I guess.

I am always looking for a new good book and came across a NYT review of Maggie Brown and Other Stories by Peter Orner. The reviewer mentioned the nostalgia the stories evoked and recommended  a song, If We Were Vampires by Jason Isbell. He sings about not wanting to die because he loves his wife.  I get that. The song is good. I ordered the book.

I have a pile of books I am trying to get through. #TheWaterDancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates #netgalley
Is so good. I need to review it. Coates writing is brilliant, extraordinary. Half finished.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman is just good fun. Reading for entertainment. Lots of words. I finished
my book club read. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kinsolver. Second time I’ve read it. I can read her books over and over.
I am working on my Read Harder and Pop Sugar Challenges as well. Listening to a translation from Polish~Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. Man Booker International prize winner. It is an odd collection of random traveler stories. I like it. The reader is very good so that might be why I am so taken by the book. It satisfies the book written or translated by a woman for Read Harder.

I binge watched a series called Special on NetFlix about a man with cerebral palsy. Very good. I am slowly rewatching Schitt’s Creek. Too fast the first time through. I want to watch A Discovery of Witches and Dear White People if I can find the time. I went to three football games in one day this week. My granddaughters are cheerleading. A nephew playing. Listened to grandsons in Texas play on the radio. One of my babies is a Senior this year.

Reflections from a wicker chair on the porch...

Summer 2019 has been a busy one. Visitors from June11 til August 3. Including a camp out in Isabella for Aman Family Christmas in July. All ten Grands at various times. Azalea for nearly four weeks. The beach almost every day. Tea on the porch. I baked chocolate chip cookies, blueberry muffins and blueberry cheesecake bars as well as my banana cake. We celebrated our fiftieth wedding  anniversary with just our immediate family. Cade is turning 18 in a few days. The “four” Iris, Deve, Violet and Clay will all be 16 by 11/24. I love my family.

I am working on The Pop Sugar Challenge and The Read Harder Challenge for 2019. There are a few books I can’t get my head around. A business book, a litRPG book (what). I am broadening my horizons. I reread Flight Behavior by Barbara Kinsolver for a challenge and for the Nahma Book Club. It was even better than the first time around. Sometimes I like a reread of a book I loved because it is hard to pick really good books. My current read Pisces by Melissa Broder is inscrutable. Entertaining but what is it about??? Best books so far Flowers for Algernon, Where the Crawdads Sing and An American Marriage. I am in the middle of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. He has a way with words that I do appreciate.

I’ve seen a few movies, a little television. I loved only Poms with Diane Keaton and The Lion King out of several movies I didn’t really like. The only TV was Schitt’s Creek which is an exceptional family comedy. Funny and loving.

Reflections from the porch...

Christmas, like 2018, has come and gone. Only half of our kids made it this year. Our Floridians stayed home so Dad could work. Missed them. There was snow, snowmen, iceballs and skating. Cookies and so much food including chicken fried steak at camp. Movies. Mary Poppins and Holiday. Spider-Man and The Mule. Happy New Year. Welcome 2019. 

I read extraordinary books for my book challenges this past year. I enjoyed a reread of  Alas, Babylon

for The Nahma Bookclub. The Grapes Of Wrath hit me right in the heart. Of Mice and Men,too. Steinbeck’s writing is genius. I am filling out my book lists for The Read Harder Challenge and Pop Sugar. These lists really widen my horizons. I look forward to finding books as good as last years books. I am so disappointed by less than stellar writing. My current reads are George by Alex Gino, a middle grade book that has won a diversity award since 2009. The Best Bad Things by Katerina Carusco about an old west female detective. I am listening to To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedediah Jenkins a nonfiction account of a man’s bicycle ride from Oregon to Patagonia. So far so good for 2019. I get anxious knowing that there are so many good books out there I might miss. 

Reading on the couch behind the porch...

It is cold outside here in the Upper Peninsula. I wear a wool plaid scarf in the house.
I am finishing up my reading challenges. Read Harder, Pop Sugar and Advanced Pop Sugar. These challenges have really opened up my reading horizons. I have read amazing books this year that I might not have chosen without the prompts. #netgalley too. I have three books left. A book of social science~We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, A western~News of the World by Paulette Jules, A book published in the year you graduated high school~I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I’m reading all three right now. These are some of the best I’ve read. So, 2018 has been a good year in the books.

Sheets...

I just finished reading the delightful graphic novel, Sheets by Brenna Thummler. Beautiful
art. Lush coloring. Sensitive portrayal of a teen girl dealing with the loss of her mother.
She tries to save the family laundry with some help from other worldly friends. I have a connection with freshly laundered sheets. Reminds me of the smell of line dried laundry. #netgalley #Sheets #BrennaThummler

I am currently reading Ohio. Disturbing how current this story is. (netgalley)
Reading The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye. (Library) I don’t want to love Nordic Noir
but I do...

Saw Crazy Rich Asians movie with my daughter. 5 stars! Too much fun. I got up and danced
during end credits. My daughter might not go to the movies with me anymore.

No TV is interesting me at all. Not even preseason NFL.

Beach reads...

Summer 2018 has been booked solid. Company, camping, The Lion King at MSU, a friend’s 50th wedding anniversary, a cross country moving van drive (our daughter’s family), the beach and good books!
I read Love Letters to Jane’s World by Paige Braddock. A delightful revisit to a great comic. Jane and her friends are quirky and flawed. Stumbling through life with humor and a little angst.  #Love LetterstoJane’sWorld #netgalley

Reading on the porch...

                                          Barn and Silo near Texarkana,TX

I am reading to fulfill my book challenges for Pop Sugar and Read Harder. These book lists diversify
my reading. This month I have listened to Artemis by Andy Weir. An amazing future fic on the moon. Crime, an anti-hero with good friends and tension. Not quite The Martian but so very good.
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson satisfied the challenge, a book listed by a celebrity book club (Emma Watson). I loved how much she cared for her children and her partner. Extraordinary.
So #netgally in May.  Five Stars to Fredrik Backman’s sequel to Beartown. Us Against Them. The tender moments of love in ordinary lives. The kids suffer devastating violence and heartbreak. Kira and Peter grow apart in their grief. Hockey is central to this story but it is the people I will not forget. Bang. Bang. Bang. #fredrikbackman #usagainstthem

Saw Book Club with Dani and Joanie. We screamed and laughed out loud. 5 stars for fun!

So I am a little worried I am a book snob. I can’t read some authors. Just not enough content after reading Chris Cleave, Jesmyn Ward, Louise Erdrich, Annie Proulx, Anthony Doerr. You get my drift.
Then as I smugly scroll through Goodreads I get my comeuppance. I have read fifteen of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. The Raven Cycle Trilogy. Yeah. No snobbery here. I am actually blushing. My guiltiest pleasure. So. No.