SUMMER OF 2020 COMING TO AN END

 Outside it is 96 degrees  the sky is a smoky gray that will turn orange when the sun begins to set.  We've had only a few days in the past month that being outside didn't leave you with smoke smelling hair and stinging eyes.

Currently the fires are in California but we have had a few big ones here in Nevada. The afternoon winds I used to complain about are not happening much, so the air just sits still, hot and thick.  If it weren't for the fact that so many people are being displaced and losing everything I would complain bitterly about this new pile-on to the pain of 2020.  But I just look forward to the very early mornings when the air is cooler and if I walk through the thick greenery of the Arboretum, the smoke doesn't sting so much.

The calendar says Fall starts in 2 weeks. I am not sure I am ready to give up on summer - the months of construction noise, dust and inconvenience on our street had finally come to an end right about the time the wildfire smoke descended.  While I enjoyed the effort of planting things and making the yard a bit nicer, the heat, noise and smoke reduced the pleasure.

As a newly retired person and on my own for the first time in 37 years -  it's all a big adjustment.  Having Covid-19 crush most normal life and cancel all the researched, well planned and hope filled ideas I had in place to start my life in a new place left a lot of hours to fill and not much to fill them with.

My routine has been to go walking at 8 then do errands or just head home to water and tend to my plants and stuff.  I take my protein drink outside with my book and enjoy the outdoors before it gets too hot - usually by 10 or 11 I am inside again.  

I have discovered these online surveys that "pay" in gift cards.  They get redundant but it is something to fill time and knocks down my Amazon habit.  (I generally have 5 books lined up to read on my Kindle.)  I also subscribed to the NY Times online.  Sooo much content!  

My son figured out why I couldn't watch stuff on my streaming channels and fixed it so I have been watching more movies and documentaries and less news.  I managed to make it through the two "conventions" but my mood has gone decidedly downhill in their aftermath.  

Some days I see that my easygoing, do whatever I feel like doing life is something others envy - even under these limiting circumstances.   I have enjoyed many of my days meandering through the hours.  I am now thinking I need to do some work - on myself.  I need to figure out my new life, my purpose,  my roles.  

Not sure how to go about it, though.  Any suggestions?

NOOK VS. BOOK

Excuse my poor photography - but I think the point is made.  I paid for and downloaded a book I already owned because I just couldn't read the small grey type for very long before my eyes gave out.

The good news - totally worth it - I am again loving the Margaret Atwood book, The Year of the Flood, leading up to her trilogy closing book MaddAddam.   I have book club tonight so I will have to read that selection before I get to read MaddAddam, but I am happy to have it waiting in the wings.

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.) What does it say about our little city that the most prevalent new businesses seem to be two of types:
 massage parlors  and academic tutoring.

2.)  I was disappointed when the book selected for our book club this month was a Jodi Picoult novel. I am a bit of a book snob - I admit it.  However,  though I am not finished with it yet and it may still disappoint, The Storyteller is a pretty good read.

The thing is, I am anxious to get back to re-reading the first two of the Margaret Atwood MaddAddam Trilogy - the third book just came out and all the reviewers suggested going back to the first two before embarking on this new one.  The first, Oryx and Crake, came out 10 years ago and I was amazed at how much of it I recalled when I re-read it last week.  When I finish the book club book, I'll read The Year of the Flood again and then dive into MaddAddam.  Just love Margaret Atwood.

3.)  I started my holiday shopping this weekend with a online session.  I didn't have much luck finding things I was thinking about for gifts - some companies I have shopped with in the past seem to be gone and prices seem to be a lot higher this year.

I read that the California economy is supposed to be nearly back to what it was 8 years ago.  It certainly hasn't happened in my house and the article didn't address the huge increase in the price of everything vs. the new lower wages we are living with. I make $4.00 an hour less now than I did 8 years ago and pay $800. more a month for health insurance. Then add in the higher cost of gas, groceries and even internet.

 I suppose statistically speaking,  people who made good money during this recession and are making even more money now will skew the numbers higher than the reality most of us live with.

4.)  Just got back from our date night. We skipped dance class and went to the gym then out to eat.  The moon is huge and bright, the temperature when we got to dinner was 68 degrees; we ate outside knowing it is probably the last week of this balmy fall weather...  Tomorrow we are off to Monterey to ride bikes with our Zac.

Hope everyone has a lovely fall weekend!

HOSTING BOOK CLUB

At about 7:15 I was thinking I would be writing a post called "I hosted book club but nobody came." I knew that attendance was going to be low, but since it was supposed to start at 7, I was getting worried that I would be the first hostess to have no club members turn up!

I ended up with 5 of the 18 members here.  We discussed the book "The Light Between Two Oceans" which was a tragic story but very worthy of discussion.  Beautifully written, too.

I tried to keep my food options light and easy - just

a veggie tray, some nuts and nibbles.  I made an ice cream and sorbet  bombe and some shortbread cookies for dessert. The bombe turned out beautifully and everyone really liked it.  It was perfect because I could make it a day ahead and just had to put out the food and drinks when I came home from work.

Tom and I cleaned the house on the weekend - he helped by waxing the laminate floors which turned out great.  I finally made my finished needlepoint into a pillow. That's the nice thing about entertaining - it stimulates housekeeping!

Book Club hosting done for the year, a clean house and  a long weekend coming up!  A nice end to the summer.

THAT NEW BOOK SMELL

Today I was reminded about my love for books - the physical entity of books.  I enjoy my Nook.  It allows my tired old eyes to be able to read longer and in low light, but today we received a book in the office and I just can't stop hefting it, running my fingers across the cover, inhaling the ink and flipping the pages.

I'd almost forgotten those pleasures.

NEW NOOK

Well, the battery change did not fix the Nook.  Tom isn't sure if it was his error or if the battery was the issue.  I bought a new one on Sunday and got everything back on and started reading a new book.  I thought about getting the less expensive non-color version, but I confess, my occasional Angry Birds game just would not be the same...

Also, this time I loaded in my e-mail info so I can use it when away from home.  I am getting ready to do a "medical tourism" trip next month and I want to be able to keep in touch.  If interested, you can read more on my Fitness, Food, Life blog.

DEAD NOOK

My Nook died.

The guy at Barnes and Nobel said it would cost $140. to get a new battery.  A new Nook costs $149.

I was pretty sad about the whole thing.

Tom said - we'll get a new battery.  I told him the guy at B&N said the reason it is so expensive to replace is the difficulty - thus high labor cost.

Tom snorted and  found YouTube vido showing how to do it and a site selling the battery for $40.

It's on the way.  To be continued...

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  Just did a little chair dance with sound effects when I saw that John Irving has a new novel coming out next month.  I so love his books.  This while I have a new Ann Tyler waiting for me in my Nook.  Oh the riches of the Spring publishing season!

2.)  Speaking of Spring.  I provide this public service reminder:  When you put on that first slathering of self tanner, remember to wash well with soap.  I was very tired that evening and suffered the oddly stained hands for several days.  My legs looked pretty good, though.

3.)   Thursday was Hilda's Sweet Sixteenth birthday - it cost me $100.00.  Not because she figured out how to shop online or order Pay Per View but because she was lonely and barking and our grouchy neighbor would rather call the police than close his windows ( she is in our house with all of ours closed)
or call us on our cell phones, which we have asked him to do.  One more reason to move...

4.)  Jen on the Edge enlightened me to the eBay way to snag current styles shoes at discounted prices.  I am watching for the black and white ballet flats of my desire to drop under $80.00.  I had no idea that people had current styles on eBay -  am losing my shoppers touch!

5.)  We had such a mild winter here that I keep forgetting that it isn't even May yet.  I have gotten so many warm weather projects done already.  I refurbished my BBQ with new innards and scrubbed off the grease and crud.  I have planted a lime tree, a hibiscus and several herbs and annuals.  This weekend I hope to untarp my mosaic area and get to work making this:

Except covered with colorful tiles!

YES, I AM AN ADULT FAN OF THE HUNGER GAMES BOOKS

Lifted from Google images.

The timing wasn't right for me to read the Harry Potter books with my kids, I couldn't be convinced to read the Twilight series but I read all 3 of the Hunger Games books within a week.  They are that good.  I am planning to see the movie.  My excitement got my youngest daughter weirded out.

I looked into this phenomenon of adults reading young adult fiction and found that it adults are a really big part of the market.  Reasons cited are the crossover of many adult fiction writers to the genre (Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors but I have never read her YA fiction)  Other reasons cited are the stories themselves which are not so heavy with adult themes, the writing is good and according to historical writer Amanda Foremen  "A lot of adult literature is all art and no heart, But good Y.A. is like good television. There’s a freshness there; it’s engaging. Y.A. authors aren’t writing about middle-aged anomie or ­disappointed people.”


In The Hunger Games trilogy, the heroine isn't concerned with romance, though she is set up to have to choose between two guys who love her.  She is a strong but vulnerable, bossy, angry, naive, courageous girl made to grow up too fast. Fighting her own fears and disappointments in a corrupt world of the future.  Because she is so authentic, she draws people to her and becomes the reluctant  figurehead of a revolution.

She works hard to feed her family, is loyal to her friends, is defiant of a a corrupt government and manages to keep her clothes on, her integrity intact and to recover from the terrible events and betrayals she is put through.  She can be irritatingly indecisive, clueless about what is going on around her, angers easily and directs it without selfishly and when required to face self knowledge she is wont to hide in closets.  That is the hallmark of the YA focus of the book.  The younger set relates to her inner life struggles, the older readers see her core values and cheer her on.

THIS BOOK WORE ME OUT!

I spent the last week in a state of aggravation brought on by reading Stephen King's Under the Dome.  I don't frequently read King, but I so enjoyed 11/22/63, his book on time travellers trying to stop the Kennedy assassination  that I downloaded Dome.  In his notes at the end of the book, he wrote that he intended it to be "pedal to the metal" throughout.  It runs over 800 pages of anxiety inducing storytelling. 

Before that I read another book by Hillary Jordan; Mudbound was good storytelling but the 1940's southern racism and sexism got my hackles up. Before that I read The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips.  Full of Shakespearean lore and, yes, tragedy.

So now I need a rest.  My nerves are shot, but I can't go more than a day without a book to read.  I think I'll look for a nice book  - something with screen doors slamming, fireflies and peach cobbler.

 I saw the commercial for the Hunger Games movie and it intrigued me.  It looks a bit intense, so maybe not next,  but my question is:  has anyone read the series and it it worthwhile?

NOOK LOVE

I know I have written repeatedly (repetitively?) about my love for books.   I swore I wouldn't go to an eReader because my fantasy home has floor to ceiling shelves full of books, not electronic devices.  (Did you know there is a website  called Bookshelf Porn for people like me?)

 But now I am in trouble.   I have read 4 books on my Nook - and I am ruined for the printed page.  I am stunned to admit this.  On the brightly lit, large fonted Nook, I speed through books tirelessly.  When I picked up a paperback to read yesterday, I struggled after an hour or so.  Again tonight, I read a few pages and started squinting and wondering why it's printed in such pale ink.  I have to stop every few pages and rest my tired, old eyes.

This is such a bittersweet thing for me.  I was thrilled to read the 500 pages of Edgar Sawtelle quickly, effortlessly.  It was such a wonderfully different book.  I was excited to get to a Susan Isaacs book as a fun antidote to the sad ending of Edgar - after just 58 pages I found myself looking at the B&N site to see how much it would cost to download it onto my Nook. 

 I am such a goner.

LATEST FAVORITE BOOK

I just finished Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  The third book I bought on my Nook, at 352 pages I just flew through it.  It is smart, funny and set in a period of time I have not seen many books cover - the year 1938.

The depression was winding down, WWII hadn't begun.  Women had left their flapper personas behind and were making their way in the world, more independently than ever.  Set in New York, the story is about a woman reflecting back on that year, a turning point in her life,  the people she meets, the decisions she makes (and those that are made for her.)

It is a glamorous and gritty time about Manhattann long before Sex & the City - yet in a way, full of  the same sort of stories. 

NEVER SAY NEVER

It is too soon to tell if this is true love.  I know that I have loved books since I was old enough to climb the steps of the bookmobile and check out the maximum number of books each time.  I have fantasies of floor to ceiling bookshelves full of books and other special objects.  Ive been lugging boxes of books from home to home since I was in college and have many of them in storage waiting for those fantasy shelves.

I believe I have said the e-readers will never be for me.  I may be wrong.

Tom bought me a Nook Color for our anniversary.  I spent a few days checking it all out, reading the info about all the stuff I can do with it.  I was also reading the new Alice Hoffman book, The Dovekeepers, which runs about 400 pages.  I found myself squinting at the pages and having to put it aside when my eyes got tired.

So I went online and bought the download of the book.   At $14.99 it was about what I pay for  some paperbacks - and this was a new release. (In fact I was the first one to get it from the library!)   I pumped up the font size and got to the place I had left off.  I am so happy with it!  So easy to read and I get tired of sitting before my eyes get  tired.  I am going through the book at a rapid pace (it's really great, by the way) and so now I am thinking about my wish list of books for future downloads. 

I also ordered a couple of real, ink and paper books I know I will want to keep for when I get those shelves...

BOOKS

The closing of our  local Border's store was announced this week.  I will really miss it.  It is where I usually bought my book club selections, my coupon in hand.  About half the time I managed to find another book or two to take home, too.  Books are my splurge.  I keep trying to go to the library to be thrifty, but I still can't go without purchasing books pretty much every month.

I am a life long book lover.  I still have some of the Nancy Drews from my childhood.  The Edger Allen Poe book my aunt bought me when I was 12, eecummings poetry volumes I collected in high school and  the Jungian psychology of Robert Johnson I read in college.  I have lugged books up and down California and across 3 states when I have moved.  I still morn the loss of  a box of books that was pilfered during one move when someone saw the boxes on the sidewalk outside an apartment building and went through them, taking some choice volumes.

My dream home has rooms of floor to ceiling bookcases. 

When e-readers came out I had no interest.  As more and more people around me got them, I had some mild curiosity, but when I held one it knew it was not for me.  I love books - not just reading.  One woman in my book club said that if she really likes one of the books she reads on her Kindle, she buys a copy to keep!    That just seems so odd to me.  Other friends have told me that they never really know where they are in a book - they miss the placement of a bookmark and the glance that tells them how much more there is before they finish.

As my eyes get older, I sometimes get eyestrain and need brighter light to read by.  Sometimes I increase the font size on my computer and I appreciate the possibility of doing the same on an e-reader.  I can also see the benefit for travel when you would otherwise, perhaps, end up carrying several volumes.  Having one lightweight reader would be

nice in that circumstance. 

I know there are arguments on both sides about the greeness of paper and ink books versus e-books.  I would just miss bookstores so much and there are so few left that offer the pleasures of wandering through and discovering authors, subjects and stories which aren't on the current best seller lists. 

I sense that it is all going to go away so much faster than I am prepared for.  That my bookcases are going to be full of books that are considered as old fashioned as the typewriter I have in the back of the closet.

READING GONE WILD

I am a big reader.  I am not saying I am a reader of great taste and sophistication, just that I read a lot and all the time.  This past month or so I have been reading strangely.  I have been ordering books from Quality Paperback Book Club (QPB) at a great rate, I have been taking books out from the library and purchasing books from the local used book store.  I have also borrowed a few books from my sister and even bought a hardcover book (The Irresistible Henry House) which was our July book club selection.

The new thing is that when I have read about a book which interested me, on a blog or website, I have gone to my local library and put in a reservation on a returning copy.  I really haven't done this before.  So while I was reading David Guterson's "The Other", the copy of Anne Tyler's "Noah's Compass" came into the library.  So I put aside the first book, read the second , then picked up the first book again and finished it.  Then I started reading the other book I picked up from the library which was a book of wonderful short stories by Elizabeth Berg called "The Day I Ate Anything I Wanted".  I read it in a day! 

Then I zipped through "That Old Cape Magic" by Richard Russo.  It was good but not as good as "Empire Falls."  My sister loaned me "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese which I liked as soon as I started reading it, but 4 chapters in and I got the notice that "Mr. Peanut" by Adam Ross had come into the library.  I had read on a number of sites that it is the big summer beach read on the East Coast - so I am giving it a go.  I am not usually a reader of murder mysteries.

So I am interrupting "Stone" for "Peanut."  Then, I went to Costco, and found  Barbara Kingsolver's new book "The Lacuna" is out in paperback and I snatched it up!  So I have that to look forward to, in addition to "Homer and Langley" by EL Doctrow.

Oh!  And I am a big fan of Larry McMurtry.  I read the third of the books about Duane, he was Jacy's boyfriend in "The Last Picture Show."  Anyway, there have been 3 more books following him through his life in his small Texas Town, and "Rhino Ranch" was the final book.  Now I want to go back and re-read all of them...when I have time.

Read anything good lately?

LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER

It has been an uneventful weekend. A bit lazy in fact. I have drifted from a bit of gardening in the cooler part of the day to a little housekeeping. Some reading of my new book club selection "The Irresistible Henry House" which is pretty irresistible.

I have almost finished a new mosaic pot which is an homage to the new stripy umbrella for my mosaic area. In fact I sat right there, under the umbrella to read my book, iced tea at my side for an hour or so yesterday. Anyway, you can't see it well in this picture, but there is a purple stripe and a creamy yellow and the green in the umbrella isn't quite as foresty as the one I am using on the pot, but that's what make it an "homage" I suppose! I will grout it black and plant it later in the week.

Ally spent the weekend in Tahoe with friends and Tom has been either riding or working on his bikes. I had to go rescue him this morning when he had a break down while riding many miles from home, he wasn't hurt, unlike some of the riders on the Tour de France which we have been watching a bit.

I finally watched "It's Complicated" last night. I am probably the last woman in my age group to see it - it was fun, but so much of it had been revealed in the previews and promotional clips that very little was a surprise. That is the problem with waiting so long to see things. I promised Ally that I would save "Nine" to watch with her when she gets home. Which should be about 3 hours from now...

Hope the long weekend was as restful or activity filled as you wished!

A PAGE TURNER

This is not going to be a book review. I am not even finished with the book. In fact, In a way, I am trying to avoid finishing the book.

Have you ever waited 14 years for an author to write another book and then it comes out and while you are reading it you realize that when you are done reading, it may be a very long time until there is another one to read - so you want to slow down and savor the experience even more, except that it is so good that you keep staying up late at night to read just a little more before bed?

That is my experience with South of Broad by Pat Conroy. Loving it, don't want it to end.

BOOK CLUB - MY TURN

I hosted book club last week. Which required me to clean my house with more attention to detail than usual. I mean, it just gets dirty again, right?

So I hauled in the step stool, climbed up and cleaned the glass shelves, washed some of the windows and went after all the cob webs - what is it about Spring and spiders? No sooner do I knock down the webs than more are spun...

I stopped at a farm stand on the way home from Montery and bought a flat of strawberries, so I made chocolate dipped strawberries to serve. The berries were huge! I piled them on a cake stand - they looked amazing! I ate one. I had more than enough to serve each member a Strawberry Bellini when they arrived.

I also made asparagus with thinly sliced ham rolled around them, and roasted for about 15 minutes. Very tasty and low cal. I had some hummus with pita chips and veggies and little pumpernickel bread pieces with dilled cream cheese and a slice of smoked salmon.

The food was a hit - the book, not so much. I had chosen "The Little Giant of Aberdeen County" because the writing had been compared with that of Alice Hoffman, one of my favorite writers. The book was okay. Next time I will pick a book I have read, like "Little Bee" which was very touching and sad.

This month we are reading "Look Again" by a Penn grad who teaches at the Law School. Appropriate for my trip there!

FORGIVENESS IS A PLACE TO LIVE

"She will try to help an author who detests her, because of the home she wants to build inside herself, because of how she wants to live. In the end, to forgive, to tell the truth, to honor what is worthy of admiration, hurts less than the alternative." Elizabeth Berg , from her novel " home safe"

I finished this book a few days ago but this passage kept coming back to me. I really understood what she was saying about forgiveness versus carrying a grudge or seeking revenge. It is about what I want to reside in me. I don't want hurt and anger and hate there.

I want a clean slate; ready to be filled up by every new day. I want to hold on to what is useful and hopeful and loving. Take that into the next day and the next and make my life better and make the lives of my family better and then lives of other people better.

ROOMS FULL OF BOOKS

Mrs G. posted about book reading and book banning today. It just got me all stirred up about my love for books and reading. I have a little picture file of rooms I would love to live in. These are some of them.