Looking Back: Books

As I mentioned last week, I have been struggling a little bit to concentrate on books lately. However, I am happy to report two things. First of all, per Engie's recommendation, I started reading A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking. I am about two thirds of the way through it and so far, it is just what I needed! It is light and fun and easy and there are gingerbread men who come to life. I will report back when I am done, but I think the reading funk has been banished! 

Secondly, just because I have not had a lot of luck in March does not mean that the last quarter was all bad. Here are several books that I read during the first quarter of this year that I did enjoy! 

The Secret Book of Flora Lee by Patti Callahan Henry: In 1939 Hazel and her younger sister Flora are sent out of London to the country to live to escape the bombs. One day, while playing near the river, Flora vanishes and Hazel blames herself for her sister's death. Years later, Hazel is working at a publisher when she reads a manuscript of a story that only her and her sister would know. This makes her believe that maybe her sister is still alive after all. I enjoyed the story itself and the author's writing style, and was even surprised from time to time as the story progressed. 

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell: Unassuming Josie bumps into famous podcaster Alix in the bathroom of a local restaurant at their separate birthday celebrations. After that Alix runs into Josie several more times and eventually even agrees to interview Josie for her podcast. Of course Josie ends up being different than expected, and there are many twists and turns along the way before we find out what is really going on. This is another typical Jewell novel, but I mean that in a good way. Some of hers have been a little less exciting than others, but this one did not disappoint. 

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel: This is the story of two friends during WWII. When Elise becomes a target of the Nazis, she entrusts her daughter with her friend Juliette to care for until it is safe to send for her. When the war is finally over, she returns home to find Juliette's house reduced to rubble, Juliette nowhere to be found and no knowledge of what transpired during her daughter's final moments. She searches for years to find Juliette in order to get answers about her daughter so that she can have some closure in her life at last. 

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King: This is not your typical King horror novel; it is a thriller about murder and an ex-detective named Hodges who tries to solve the mystery of the killer and of course there are some twists and turns along the way. I was pleasantly surprised, as I was not sure what to expect after years of not reading a King novel (but I did read most or all of them back in the 90s!). 

Evil Eye by Etaf Rum: The tale of the expectations placed on Palestinian-American women, this is the story of Yara. She married the right guy, moved to the suburbs, had children and is doing everything right, as her culture expects. However, after her husband forbids her to go as a chaperone to a school trip, she begins to wonder if she really is happy, and if she is not, how she can be happier but not rock the boat with  her family. This seems impossible and is an interesting look into the struggles that some woman face even still.

The People We Keep by Allison Larkin: April leaves home early after a fight with her Dad and goes off to make her own way in the world. She moves from city to city trying to find her place in the world, and meets a lot of interesting people along the way. This is more of a character driven novel, which I am not always a big fan of, but I did find some of her trials and tribulations interesting and felt engaged with her throughout the story. 

Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker: This one got accolades from many of you, and I jumped on the bandwagon a little late, but I am glad that I jumped, as it did not disappoint! It is a story of a girl who goes missing and her family's struggles to find her. To do this, they agree to make a reality show about her disappearance in real time. The best part was that it was done in an interview style format, which really kept me engaged the entire time. It has an essence of Gone Girl, in that it keeps you guessing and tickles you a bit at the end. 

What was your favorite book over the last three months? Have you read any of the above and/or did you enjoy them? What is your favorite genre? 

Looking Back: Purging Progress Report Q1

I am a big fan of accountability. People who say that they are going to do something and then don't do it really get my goat. This can be a meetup, a big project, or even something as simple as (and this is a real example) picking up pastries for a client meeting. In this case the person attending the meeting said he was going to bring the client pastries. I spoke to the client before the meeting and talked up these pastries and then the person going to the meeting did not take the time to stop and get them after saying that he was going to, so now I look like I am not accountable. 

Listen, I don't live under a rock; I realize that stuff happens and sometimes we get waylaid, we get stuck in traffic or our priorities change. I am a realist; I get this. However, being a realist, I also try not to overpromise and underdeliver. In fact, I will often say no if I am unsure if I will be able to commit, which may make me a glass half full person in the eyes of some, but I guess I would rather disappoint people in the front end than at the last minute.

All of that blather is a lead in to my main point which is that earlier this year I talked about doing some purging and since we are now one quarter into this year, I am going to be accountable by doing a quick progress check and update. My three areas I wanted to work on for the first three months of they year were paperwork and files, go bag and kitchen/fridge/freezer. 

Paperwork and Files: The goal here was to throw away and/or reorganize old hard copy files and to update and organize my yearly electronic spreadsheets (address list, money pie list, account list etc.) Note that this gets less hard copy and more electronic as each year goes by, but I do still have hard copies of some of my home, car and medical related paperwork as well as some tax and financial items. 

How am I doing? Good! I did all of this and even went through some of my memento boxes where I keep old holiday cards and stuff and threw a lot of those away. I had a good time reliving some memories and in some cases only shuffled things around and then ended up keeping them anyway, but I do think that each year when I go through this kind of stuff I pare it down more and more. I used to keep all thank you notes and I finally threw them away after reading them one last time and taking a quick photo of any that were really sweet. I am really trying to adhere more to the "touch once" principal where instead of moving an item somewhere just to move it somewhere else, cut out the middle man and just put it where it is going to be for good (which is often the trash can!)

I love this card! (I did throw it away though)

What is next? I still have a lot of memento boxes (these are my Achilles heel), some of which are in the garage, and I need to go through them and either put them in an album or throw them away. They are not doing me any good in a box and speaking of the touch once principal, it is probably time for the final touch for some of these items. Also an extension to this category is electronic files, which I need to tidy up. For some reason before I had the cloud for photos, I saved them in several places (!) and I need to cull the duplicates. Unfortunately they do not have the same file name and so it is not as simple as just sorting and culling. I also have an ongoing task of unsubscribing and culling emails, which is something I do a few times each month. 

Go Bag: The goal here is to make sure all of the items, documents and information in my go bag are current and updated.

How am I doing? Good! This go bag is twofold - one is emergency supplies like food, candles, flashlight, etc. and the other is important docs like my passport, birth certificate, deed to my house etc. I also keep a list of all of my accounts in this folder so that if I have to leave in a hurry I will have everything in one place (this also doubles as my death list, which I will talk about in a later post). Most of this stuff is also electronic, but I do like to keep a hard copy as a backup. I updated all of the food that was close to expiration and made sure all of my batteries were in good shape and updated my folder, so I am all good here. I also started up my generator and charged my Caterpillar supercharger thingy so that they are ready if I need them. I hope that I never need to use any of this stuff, but I think it is good to be prepared just in case. (P.S. I could write an entire post about the Cat charger - it is awesome.)

What is next? The generator and Cat charger need to be started and charged once per quarter, but the other stuff is pretty much good to go unless there are any major changes. 

Kitchen/Fridge/Freezer: This involves throwing away expired items, and eating things in the freezer rather than buying more. One of my traits (faults? habits?) is that I do like to have a few extra cans of olives (or beans or tomatoes or...) laying around just in case I feel using them (I am not a fan of going to the store after I have run out; I would rather go before I need the item) so I have amassed a pretty good backup of certain items. I also like to purchase things when they are on sale rather than when I need them when I would have to pay a premium, but it is a delicate balance between being a smart shopper and being a hoarder. I am working on being more of the former than the latter! 

No more room! (Also, clearly I need to use more butter)

How am I doing? Good! In the first three months of the year, I spent approximately $575 on groceries and used up a lot of cans of olives! I cleaned out the fridge and freezer and took stock of what I have so that I can better plan my meals and grocery shopping trips. I also finally used those frozen peaches from my tree and made peach cobbler and lots of baked peach oatmeal! However, I did do one Costco run for meat (which was about a third of my grocery spending for the quarter) and caved a couple of times and bought items like tortilla chips just because they were on sale.

What is next? I will continue to do light grocery shopping and will try to use up pantry and freezer items for the next three months. I still have a lot of beans. One of my tasks for this quarter is also to go through my camping food and gear and prepare for summer trips, so I will take stock of the food I have (in a box in the garage) for that too and can probably consolidate some things. 

What is your take on accountability? How much do you spend on groceries each month? How are you doing on your goals so far this year? 

Looking Back: Books

After spending a lot of time reading in my backyard in 2020, the last year and change has felt like I have not really read very much. Of course, on a relative value scale that is not really fair; it's almost like comparing the price of the stock market now to March 23, 2020 and saying that the price has gone up a lot. I am still reading a lot just not as much as 2020! 

For the first quarter of 2022, I abandoned four books already (Cloud Cuckoo Land, Furiously Happy, The Man Who Ate Too Much and The House on Vesper Strands). All of them were audiobooks, so maybe it was a concentration or situation issue, but I gave all of them up before I even got half way. However, for every high there is a low etc. and there have been quite a few good ones as well! Here are some of my favorites from the last three months. 

Pony by R.J. Palacio: This is a YA novel by the author of Wonder. She creates characters that you can't help but love and sprinkles in a little adventure and some of the trials of growing up (in Wonder she tackles being disfigured and in Pony we meet the main character's invisible friend). I want to read more of her books! 

Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by Lisa Genova: If you have not read any of her books, you need to do it now. Genova has a PhD in neurology and writes about neurological diseases. I really enjoyed her book Still Alice, which is about early onset Alzheimer's. Her subjects are heartbreaking but fascinating at the same time. In Remember, she talks about how the brain stores memories and she reassures us the when we forget where we put our keys it may not be a slide into old age; we likely are just not paying attention! I have not read a book of hers yet that I do not like. 

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner: This was a very touching book about a woman in her twenties who loses her mother to cancer. She speaks of her mother's strength and how seeing this wane affected her. Upon finding about her mother's diagnosis, she begins to get in touch with her heritage and figure out more about her own identity overall. 

The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2) by Richard Osman: The four octogenarians from the Thursday Murder Club are at it again, they are off to solve a murder while simultaneously being helpful and thwarting the authorities. You never know what they might do. However, in the end, they get the job done but not without a lot of adventures along the way. 

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller: This book begins with a married woman with three kids cheating on her husband with a long time friend. The remainder of the book speaks to her struggle of what to do with her mixed feelings. It flashes back and forth and gives us some insight into her long time relationship with her friend, some of the trials they went through together and how this led to the subsequent relationship with her husband. 

Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan: I listened to this as an audio book and I enjoyed hearing the jokes in the author's own voice. It was a good mix of him making fun of himself for loving food, and some interesting observations about food. For example, he questions why a shiny orange piece of plasticy food became "American cheese." This book made me laugh out loud while running, like when he talks about being so full he couldn't button his pants, so he decided to have some cheese as a snack and when he realized he didn't really like it, he decided to finish it. I have been there! 

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins: By the author of A Girl on The Train, this is yet another murder mystery by Hawkins. However, she does well developing her characters and this book was no exception. We meet the murdered man's strange ex-lover who has a criminal background, his uptight aunt with a bone to pick and the kooky boat neighbor, and we are kept guessing as to whether it was one of them who offed him or not. 

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell: A young woman disappears in a small neighborhood and fingers start pointing at who done it. Was it the creepy 30 year old "kid" who lives with his aunt and visits strange internet forums? Was it the young woman's therapist, who is not quite as perfect as we once believed? You tell me! I mean, who doesn't love a thriller? 

The Last Widow (Will Trent, #9) by Karin Slaughter: Speaking of thrillers, here is another one! I have enjoyed the entertainment that this author has brought me over the years. The particular one is about a CDC employee who goes missing and a month later a bomb goes off near a hospital. Are the two things linked? And why? We will soon find out! This is a detective series where Will Trent and his partner Sara, a medical examiner, team up to save the day. Or will they? 

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land: College plans go out the window fast when the author finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. She tries to make it work with the father but eventually moves out and attempts to make a life for herself and her young daughter by cleaning houses. She tells her story from the point of the maid, whom for some people is invisible, while others are friendly toward her and even go out of their way to be kind. 

The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik: This book talks about the famous photographer Dorothea Lange and her move to the city of San Francisco back in the early 1900s. She starts off as a naïve girl and gets hardened through the people she meets, and the things she experiences, most notably the depression. 

Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams: The main character, Ruth, has not seen her twin sister in years, since her twin disappeared behind the iron curtain to Russia with her husband and children. Then out of the blue, she gets a postcard from her sister asking her to come and visit. She teams up with a counterintelligence agent and goes to Russia to get her sister out of trouble and finds adventures she never expected. 

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard: When Eve was 12 her parents and sister were murdered. Now she is older and she decides to write a book about it. The killer reads the book and thinks maybe he should finish what he started. It's a little strange as it's a story in a story, but in the end I was very satisfied with the way it wrapped up. 

Out of the thirteen books above, four are non-fiction, and yes, I am counting the Gaffigan book! Eleven were audio books, as I am not feeling as motivated to read when I am home in the evenings as I have been in the past. 

What has been your favorite book so far this year?