Curioussquared takes refuge in books in 2023, part 2

Hello everyone! I'm Natalie. I have participated in the challenge on and off over my almost 15 years (!!!) on LT, and consistently over the past several years.

I'm located in Seattle, where I live with my husband and dogs. I do most of my reading curled up on the couch with my retired racing greyhounds Otter and Kermit, or listening to audiobooks while doing chores and walking the dogs. I am lucky to work from home full-time in HR communications for a large retail corporation.

I read mostly fiction, with a heavy emphasis on fantasy and sci-fi, romance, YA fiction, general fiction/literature, a scattered mystery here and there, and the occasional non-fiction title.

I've been keeping track of my books read since 2008, and I have traditionally aimed for 100, but I think these days I'm usually hoping to hit 150. Last year I hit 200, which was an all-time high and surprising even to me.

Another typical reading goal for me is to prioritize books off my shelves. Last year I was slightly weighted toward library books and I'd like to shift that back this year. I have a separate thread I maintain in the ROOTs group, and in addition, I have a selection of books off my shelves I'd like to get to this year, which you can see in a post below.



Finally added a topper photo to my thread! Here are Otter and Kermit acting as my assistants in my home office.

I had over 30 new-to-me 5-star reads in 2022. I managed to trim it down to these favorites:

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
Faithful Place by Tana French
Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

Books read in 2023:

January
1. You Have a Match by Emma Lord (off my shelf)
2. Heartstopper vol. 3 by Alice Oseman (library)
3. The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun (library)
4. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (off my shelf)
5. Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (off my shelf)
6. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (off my shelf)
7. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (reread)
8. The Maid by Nita Prose (library)
9. The Jewel Thief by Jeannie Mobley (off my shelf)
10. Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer (off my shelf)
11. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (library)
12. A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (off my shelf)
13. Heartstopper vol. 4 by Alice Oseman (library)
14. This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron (off my shelf)
15. This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron (off my shelf)
16. Possession by A. S. Byatt (off my shelf)
17. Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera (library)
18. Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher (library)
19. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (off my shelf)
20. The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher (library)

February
21. Enna Burning by Shannon Hale (off my shelf)
22. Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey (off my shelf)
23. The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling (off my shelf)
24. Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers (off my shelf)
25. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (off my shelf)
26. Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson (reread)
27. Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson (off my shelf)
28. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (library)
29. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (off my shelf)
30. Everything For You by Chloe Liese (library)
31. The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (library)
32. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (off my shelf)
33. Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper (off my shelf)
34. The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells (off my shelf)
35. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (reread)
36. The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie (off my shelf)
37. Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf (off my shelf)
38. Broken Harbor by Tana French (off my shelf)
39. Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier (library)
40. Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulsen (library)

March
41. The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert (off my shelf)
42. Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell (off my shelf)
43. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami (off my shelf)
44. Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman (library)
45. An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole (library)
46. In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan (off my shelf)
47. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (library)
48. Othello by William Shakespeare (off my shelf)
49. All the Feels by Olivia Dade (library)
50. Healer and Witch by Nancy Werlin (library)
51. Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell (off my shelf)
52. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (off my shelf)
53. Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian (library)
54. Forest Mage by Robin Hobb (off my shelf)
55. Spare by Prince Harry (library)

Books read in 2023:

April

May

June

Books read in 2023:

July

August

September

Books read in 2023:

October

November

December

Last year, I identified a list of 61 books I own I wanted to get to in 2022, and I made it to 51 of them. This year, I'm being slightly less restrictive and still picking about ~40 books I want to read this year, but in some specific categories.



The first column on the left here is a stack of series continuations and sequels I own that I'd like to get to this year. From the top of the stack to the bottom, they are:

1. All the Weyrs of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
2. Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
3. The Time Garden by Edward Eager
4. The Dragon Republic by R. F. Kuang
5. The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos
6. The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
7. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske
8. Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore
9. Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell
10. Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor
11. Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
12. Rebel Sisters by Tochi Onyebuchi
13. Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
14. Broken Harbor by Tana French
15. Forest Mage by Robin Hobb
16. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

And not pictured because I have them on my Kindle or forgot to include them in the photo and am too lazy to take a new picture:

17. Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik
18. Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
19. In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
20. Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

The second column on the right are books I've owned for a while (some as far back as 15 years or so!) that it's high time I get to. In order from top to bottom:

21. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
22. Headlong by Michael Frayn
23. Sula by Toni Morrison
24. Possession by A. S. Byatt
25. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
26. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
27. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
28. A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
29. Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill
30. Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward

The final 10 books are books off my Kindle. I tend to neglect these owned digital books in favor of physical books, so I wanted to prioritize some this year.

31. Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
32. The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin
33. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
34. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
35. The Martian by Andy Weir
36. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
37. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
38. Hidden Figures by Margo Lee Shetterly
39. Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez
40. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

DONE: 14/40

Welcome to my thread #2! I'm still working on catching on on reviews of books I read while in Costa Rica and since getting home on Friday. Pics from the trip coming soon!

22 books read: Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Are you a coward or are you a librarian? Esther really wants to believe she's a librarian. In this near-future dystopian western, Esther flees the marriage her father has arranged for her after her best friend and secret, forbidden lover Beatriz is hanged in front of her for possession of restricted materials. She stows away in the librarians' wagon, hoping for the best once they find her. The head librarian is tempted to shoot Esther on sight, but relents when she learns what Esther is fleeing from. On the road with the librarians, Esther thought she knew what she was signing up for -- traveling between towns, distributing approved government materials. But the librarians are different than what she expected -- two of them, both women, appear to be in a relationship, and the third one, Cye, looks like a girl but dresses like a man and tells Esther to use "they/them" when she talks about them. Thrust into a new world that's not what she expected, Esther must quickly figure out who she is and who she wants to be -- because it seems like there are a lot more options than she was aware of.

I loved this! Wasn't sure what to expect from a queer dystopian western but I ate this up. Really fresh concept; I feel like it would work well as an HBO limited series or something. Not too long, not too short, just the perfect length. 4.5 stars.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread Natalie!

Happy new thread, Natalie. x

Happy new thread!! Looks like you are already making a dent in your lists/piles. : )

Welcome back! I saw your post about the scorpion - I'd have to burn the place to the ground after that, unfortunately.

Happy new one!

Happy new thread and welcome back!

Costa Rica sounded enchanting and I can't wait to see the pictures. And it's always so funny how you need a vacation after your vacation to right yourself again, huh? heh.

Thanks, everyone!

>14 ursula: LOL, Ursula. I was VERY glad it happened on our last night in CR.

>16 Ravenwoodwitch: Thanks, Angela! Yep, I love traveling, but it definitely takes it out of you! We had about 10 hours of actual flight time, but about 20 hours of transit time door to door and I think my neck and shoulder muscles are still mad about it.

Well, happy Monday all! I'm back to work and starting to dig myself out from my avalanche of emails. Hoping to take a few breaks today to finish my outstanding reviews, and also to get back to my walking and working routine. I'd also like to maybe fit a stretching routine in there somewhere and maybe a slightly more intense workout, like 20 minutes of hard elliptical or something -- my body is unhappy from the travelling and then lounging I did this weekend and could use a good reset. If I have time I'll post those promised Costa Rica photos!

I got a message that my engagement and wedding bands are ready to be picked up from the jeweler so need to reach out to schedule a time for that -- I had responded to the text they sent me but I'm not sure it went through. Also need to drop off an Amazon return at the nearest Whole Foods, and I still need to drop off all that extra Skelly prescription food to be donated to the greyhound rescue we got him from. Back to the everyday grind and errands, I guess!

On the reading front, I started The War That Saved My Life in print last night and had to force myself to put it down to sleep. I'm a few pages into Hidden Figures on Kindle, and about a quarter through Everything For You on audio. This is my first experience with Chloe Liese and so far I'm a fan!

Happy new thread! Ooh, I loved The War that Saved My Life!

Happy new thread, Natalie!

Looking forward to your vacation photo's, and so sorry about the scorpion...

>19 foggidawn: It's SO good so far, Foggi. I was very sleepy when I picked it up last night, intending to read just a few pages, but then I got through almost 100. Oops.

Hi Natalie - I'd been lurking on your first thread and decided the start of a new thread would be a good time to delurk and say hi.

Hi!

I also loved The War That Saved My Life. It was great on audio, as was the sequel.

Good luck with digging out at work!

>22 katiekrug: Hi Katie! Thanks for dropping in :) Oh, good to know that they're good on audio -- I might read the sequel that way since I don't have a print copy on hand.

I'll have to find your thread soon!

23 books read: The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

Years ago, Rhys Penhallow broke 19-year-old Vivi's witchy heart, and she and her cousin broke their biggest rule (Never mix magic with vodka) to lay a curse on him. Nothing really seems to happen, so they think nothing of it, but it did make her feel a little better. But now, Rhys is coming back to town, sent by his father to recharge the ley lines that lie beneath Graves Glen that were created by his family years ago. Vivi's dreading it, but figures it shouldn't be too hard to avoid him... until it's clear that something did happen when she cursed him all those years ago, and everything starts going terribly wrong. With no other choice, Vivi and Rhys must work together to right the curse -- and they're soon remembering what brought them together in the first place.

This was a fun concept, meh execution kind of book. It just never really clicked for me and I might have DNFed it had I not been literally reading it by the pool. My favorite part was the cat who started suddenly talking and would only ask for treats. If you're looking for a witchy romcom, I recommend Payback's a Witch instead. 3 stars.

24 books read: Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

The third book in the Wayfarers series tells the story of the Exodans -- the humans who left what remained of Earth years ago and ventured into the great unknown on the Exodus Fleet, where their descendants still live permanently today, with a few technological modifications. Record of a Spaceborn Few is told from several POVs, including a few lifelong Exodans of different ages and occupations, as well as a descendant of Exodans who left the fleet for a different planet years ago, and is now returning to discover his roots. The book is also told with a sort of framing device of the report of a Harmagian alien who comes to the fleet to study this race that many alien species consider to be rather backward.

I think I had seen a few reviews of this entry in the series that led me to believe it was less enjoyable than the first two books, or at least many people's least favorite in the series, so I went in with slightly lowered expectations. Maybe that helped me enjoy it more, or something, because I absolutely loved this book. It's hard to describe, and it's definitely a bit more fractured than the previous entries due to the many narrators, but it coalesced into a lovely story that I couldn't put down. 5 stars.

>25 curioussquared: I wanted more of an actual mystery, I think. If anyone can write a good cozy sci-fi mystery, it's Becky Chambers! I also wanted more of the Harmagian. I'm glad you loved it. :)

>26 libraryperilous: That's fair! And when I think about it, I think I'd still class it as my third favorite in the series out of the first three. But I still loved it :)

>27 curioussquared: The fourth one is my fav, and one of my all-time favorite novels. Slice of life! At an outskirts transit hub's mini-mart!

Don't you love it when a whole series rocks :)

>25 curioussquared: Skimmed your review because I like to go into these mostly blind and this is the next book in the series for me too. Glad to see the five stars though.

>28 libraryperilous: Ooh, I may need to get to it sooner rather than later... and yes, absolutely!

>29 MickyFine: Hope you love it, Micky!

25 books read: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Queen Sabran of Inys is the latest in a long line of queens who have ruled for nearly 1000 years, and tradition states that as long as a queen of Berethnet line is on the throne, the Nameless One, the horrible wyrm of old who was banished to the abyss almost 1000 years ago, will remain under control. Ead is from the South, a handmaiden of the Priory of the Orange Tree, sworn to destroy all wyrms, trained in sidon flame magic and warrior's arts and positioned as a lady's maid in Sabran's court to protect her -- on the off chance that the old bloodline tale is true. Tane is from the East, where water dragons are revered, and has trained all her life for the chance to join the Miduchi dragonriders. Three very different women will cross paths as the countdown ticks toward the end of the 1000 years -- and the Nameless One's return.

This book is hard to summarize -- it's chonky, and its strength is in its immersive worldbuilding and detail. I read most of it on the plane home, and it was the perfect choice of book for that -- something you can get totally lost in and not want to put down. I was surprised how quickly it went for 800+ pages. It helped that I think I actually enjoyed all the POVs equally, which doesn't usually happen to me. The first half almost felt like Game of Thrones lite in terms of the breadth of the world, cultures, and characters we got to experience. (I sent a text recommending it to my friend saying "it's like GOT but I actually care what's happening!"). I did have a few quibbles, especially toward the end. Feels weird to wish that something 800+ pages was longer, but the last quarter or so of the book felt super rushed to me, and like most of the conflicts sort of melted away. They were there, but each one was fairly easily solved. The final climactic action scene felt almost... passive, in a weird way. Maybe not quite epic enough? Not sure how to articulate it exactly. There was just a whole lot of build up in the first half, and then a whole lot of stuff happening in the second half all at once. The pacing just felt off -- it could definitely have been 2 or 3 books, honestly. So, not perfect, but I very much enjoyed the ride. 4.25 stars.

26 books read: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Elisabeth Scrivener has spent her whole life at the great library of Summershall -- first as a foundling, crawling among the shelves, and then as an apprentice, training to be a warden, sworn to protect the library's grimoires -- and people FROM the grimoires, if their magic goes bad and they transform into monstrous maleficts. One night, Elisabeth awakens to discover the whole library asleep, the director dead, and a class 8 malefict on the loose and on its way to the nearby village. She manages to defeat it, but she's imprisoned for her troubles and sent to the city, transported by notorious sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn. Elisabeth isn't sure what to make of Nathaniel, but he helps clear her name and sets her back on track to become the warden she's always wanted. But when things go horribly wrong and Elisabeth starts to realize how lucky she has been to grown up in a world where a woman's word is believed, Nathaniel -- and his demon companion Silas -- might be her only hope.

My second readthrough of this book, and I loved it even more this time, maybe? The Garth Nix influences were even more apparent knowing how much Rogerson took inspiration from him. If you love books, strong heroines, and a good fantasy novel, I think you'll like this book. 5 stars.

>32 curioussquared: I wasn't aware that she was influenced by Garth Nix at the time when I read it, but looking back, I can definitely see that!

>33 foggidawn: Right? It's super apparent in her book Vespertine, too, which I also loved.

27 books read: Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson

In this companion novella, Elisabeth and Nathaniel have been living at Thorn Manor for several months when suddenly, the wards go wild. Trapped in the manor, they must work together to figure out what set them off -- and how to unravel the problem in time to host the Midwinter Sorcerer's Ball. And Silas is being most unhelpful....

This was essentially a feel-good fan service epilogue and I enjoyed every minute of it. Lots of squeeing. Perfect Valentine's read. 4 stars.

28 books read: To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

This novella follows Ariadne and her three shipmates as they complete their scheduled survey of four potentially habitable worlds. They knew what they were giving up for the sake of science, and each said their goodbyes to family and friends they would never see again. But as their years-long survey grows closer to ending, something seems off with the news reports they've been receiving from Earth...

Not sure why, but this novella didn't quite hit the same for me as other Chambers books. There were still moments that captured me, but I didn't love and connect with these characters in the same way I did in her other books. 3.5 stars.

Finally caught up with reviews!

Happy Tuesday and happy Valentine's day! I didn't really do anything I said I was going to do yesterday except scrape through the workday, lol, and today will probably be the same. I forgot that work is hard, and I think I'm fighting off a cold. I do really want to get back to the walking in the hopes that I'll start sleeping a little better. Tim has some kind of bug and a major sore throat, so our Valentine's will be very low-key. Why does traveling mess us up so much?

Still reading all the same stuff and made progress in all three yesterday. May wrap up The War That Saved My Life today; Everything For You will probably take me another day or two and Hidden Figures I've only just made a dent.

Happy Wednesday! My prediction for yesterday was accurate -- I didn't do much aside from work and cooking dinner. I think Tim is finally on the upside of his cold so hopefully we'll be more alive this weekend. Dinner was teriyaki salmon, sauteed kale with sesame and oyster sauce, and coconut rice. I did reach out to a few handymen to see if I could get someone to repair our mailbox; someone ran into it months ago and broke the post and it's been hanging on by a wobbly thread ever since. The first quote we got was ridiculous so going to wait for the others to respond. I also finished The War That Saved My Life before bed. We watched an episode of Cunk on Earth with dinner and thought it was OK but probably best in small doses.

More work today. I'm still getting back into the swing of things but I feel like I'm finally getting my feet under me a little again. I could do without the number of meetings I have this week, though. Ending the day with picking up my rings and I'm excited to have them back :) Dinner will probably be some kind of chicken stir fry with bok choi and the leftover coconut rice.

Haven't started a new print book since I finished The War That Saved My Life; maybe something off my big stack up top next? Will probably finish up Everything For You today. No progress in Hidden Figures and I think it might get put on hold as I immediately checked out The War I Finally Won on Kindle upon finishing the first book.

We enjoyed Cunk on Earth, but watched it too quickly, so by the end, it was a bit much. I think you are right it is best in small doses.

>39 katiekrug: It's an interesting one -- I think I might find it a bit much as a whole and some of the jokes fall totally flat for me, but there were other moments that had me fully cackling. I had seen a few clips before watching the full episode and I think I might even prefer it in tiny bite size doses!

>40 curioussquared: - My husband definitely found it funnier than I did, but he's an easy laugh. I did appreciate the bits that had me howling, though.

29 books read: The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ada was born with a clubfoot and has spent her whole life trapped in the room she shares with her abusive Mam and little brother Jamie. All she knows of the world she has learned from looking through the window and tales Jamie has told her. But as WWII looms, Jamie tells her that other children in London are being evacuated, and Ada seizes her chance. Sent to the countryside, Ada's world explodes in size. She and Jamie are taken in by an initially reluctant single woman, Miss Smith, and slowly but surely they start to bloom as they both learn things about the world they never could have imagined. But Ada can't stop shaking the feeling that her new life is too good to last, even as Miss Smith contacts her Mam in the hopes of getting her approval for a surgery to fix Ada's foot.

This book swept me up and wouldn't let me go. Such a powerful story, and at least part of its strength is in Ada's voice, which truly carries the book. It's so rewarding to see her open up as the story goes on. I couldn't put it down and immediately downloaded book 2 on Kindle when I finished. 5 stars.

>42 curioussquared: I loved this one and its sequel: such a unique way to tell evacuees' stories.

>43 libraryperilous: It was so good!! I've been tempted to stop working all day and just pick up the sequel instead.

>42 curioussquared: Yes!! Such a good book! I'm so glad you loved it too.

>45 scaifea: So so good. I read almost half of the sequel last night, too :)

Happy Thursday! I had to get up extra early for a 7am meeting, boo. We ended up getting teriyaki last night so will probably have stir fry for dinner tonight. Got my rings back and the engagement band is fixed and they are more sparkly than I ever remember them being so I've been having fun staring at them :) Got another quote from someone to fix our mailbox and they have excellent reviews and came in at literally 1/3 the price of the other quote, so we'll probably go with this new company. I finished Everything For You while doing a few tasks I've been putting off around the house.

I'm in meetings almost all day today. After work I think my friend and I might go to Costco. As you can see I have a very big day planned, lol.

Still haven't started a new print book but I did bring A Restless Truth down to my nightstand, so intentions have been declared. Read a ton of The War I Finally Won before bed and loving it so far. Haven't started a new audiobook yet but I'm leaning toward Anne Frank, although I need to make sure I'm emotionally ready...

30 books read: Everything For You by Chloe Liese

Oliver Bergman is the LA Galaxy's rising star. Gavin Hayes is the team's grizzled captain, in the sunset of his career (at the ripe age of 34) after a storied career in the Premier League. When Oliver is promoted to team co-captain alongside Gavin, he couldn't be more pleased, but there's one problem -- Gavin HATES him, has since he joined the team, and Oliver just doesn't get why. Gavin was actually one of Oliver's heroes (and crushes) growing up, especially after Gavin came out publicly -- as a bi professional soccer player, Oliver didn't have many options for role models. Oh, and he and Gavin also happen to be next door neighbors. Gavin and Oliver may not like each other, but their coach makes it clear that they need to get along for the sake of the team, and the sake of both of their captaincies.

I first heard of this book in a Twitter thread during the world cup where someone noticed all of the, er, homoerotic ways soccer players like to celebrate their goals together on the field and wondered why nobody had written a m/m soccer player romance novel. Multiple people in the comments recommended this one and I'm glad they did! This is my first Chloe Liese but I'll probably read the rest of this series, too. I enjoyed her writing and characterizations; any misunderstandings in this book were because of each character's own internal problems they were working through and were believable. I love the backdrop of Oliver's family and am excited to read about some of the couples we meet in this book. 4 stars.

Happy Friday! Yesterday went by quickly what with almost all-day meetings. Ended the workday with a dog walk and then headed out to Costco with the bestie. Got home and cooked the chicken stir fry which came out great -- I took inspiration from this recipe: https://www.skinnytaste.com/garlic-ginger-chicken-stir-fry/. Poor Tim is still sick -- IDK what kind of hellish cold he picked up on our flight home but it really has its claws in him. Finished the day by barreling through the rest of The War I Finally Won.

This morning I had a few early meetings already, and then the guy who's fixing our mailbox is coming by in about half an hour, so I'll get him set up. No more meetings for the rest of the day (glorious!) and I think I'll try to do a good bit of treadmill walking today. I've been putting it off all week and then finally did some walking yesterday afternoon and BOOM, I got a million things done in like half an hour. It's comical how productive this thing makes me.

Still haven't started a new print book, but I'm back to Hidden Figures on my Kindle and started The Diary of a Young Girl on audio.

Checking in on the "new" thread, Natalie. Have a fantastic Friday!

31 books read: The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ada and Jamie are with Susan for good now, and the first thing they do is schedule Ada's surgery to fix her foot. After several months in hospital, Ada's nearly good as new -- but leaving the hospital isn't the only change in her life. Now that Susan's house was bombed, they're living in an old cottage on the Thornton's grounds, and while it's certainly generous of them, the cottage feels more like a dark cave than a cozy home. Then, to make matters worse, Lady Thornton moves into the cottage, too, when Thornton Hall is requisitioned by the government. And just when Ada thinks that's really as bad as it can get, Lord Thornton shows up with an unexpected guest: Ruth, a young German Jewish refugee, who Susan is to tutor in maths so she can get a place at Oxford. Ada and Jamie are instantly suspicious, and Lady Thornton treats Ruth horribly, but Susan insists that they must be nice. But Ada has so many other things to worry about -- how come she has to take care of a German now, too?

Loved this just as much as the first entry. It's still so rewarding to see Ada's slow but sure growth. This is a war story, but the real war is the backdrop to Ada's wars with herself. 5 stars.

>50 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! You, too :)

>48 curioussquared: - Added this one to my library list.

>51 curioussquared: - I was so pleased the sequel was just as good as the first when I read them last year.

>53 katiekrug: Nothing better than a good sequel :)

>42 curioussquared: and >51 curioussquared: So glad you loved these, Natalie! I've been thinking of rereading them, or perhaps listening to them. Have a good weekend!

>55 aktakukac: Hi Rachel! They were so good, I even recommended them to my best friend who doesn't typically go for middle grade. I think they'd be an excellent candidate for a reread! Hope your weekend is lovely as well.

Good morning and happy Saturday! I'm enjoying an extended lie in with the dogs while I have my coffee and bagel -- Otter is cuddled by my head and Kermit is lying on my feet. Ideal!

Yesterday we successfully got the mailbox fixed and new address numbers affixed to the house, so that's good! After work we ordered pizza and I puttered around the house doing some organizing before it arrived. I'm trying to get our house organized to a place where I think a bimonthly house cleaner could actually come in and help us maintain order and cleanliness. The basement just always becomes a dumping ground for stuff so I'm starting there; upstairs is more organized but also could use a good reorg. I watched the Love Is Blind season 3 after the altar episodes while Tim video gamed and then I finished the night folding laundry and listening to more Diary of a Young Girl.

Today there are a few open houses I wanted to go to but Tim is still really sick so it'll probably be a slow day instead. I'll work on the aforementioned organizing and some more general tidying. Will probably wrap up Diary of a Young Girl today. Started The Cloud Roads in bed with the dogs this morning and am enjoying it so far.

Happy new thread Natalie!

>57 curioussquared: Did you see the Organising/ Decluttering thread?

I'm sorry your husband is still not feeling well. That's the pits, especially on a weekend.

I have a cleaning lady come in every other week, but she only does part of the house because I haven't gotten control of certain parts :) She cleans the main living areas, kitchen, and the primary/guest bathroom, and even that much is such a help and keeps things from feeling overwhelming. And now I have more time to work on getting the other rooms decluttered and organized.

>58 humouress: Hi Nina! I did see the thread and skimmed it. I liked the discussion of 15 minutes a day -- keeps you more on top of things and helps make it feel like you're still making progress. I don't feel like I have toooo much stuff -- we've only lived here for 5 years, and I'm pretty good at getting rid of things, but I definitely get behind on just general tidying and then things start piling up and that's when I get overwhelmed.

>59 katiekrug: Ooh, that's a really good point, Katie. I never feel like we can get around to everything -- if one part of the house is clean, the rest of it is not. I should probably just start getting help now!

Happy Sunday! Had another lie-in with the dogs this morning. My favorite, especially after we were gone for a few weeks! I love having dogs who love sleeping in and cuddling.

Yesterday went about how I thought it would; did some tidying and listening and got a few errands done I've been putting off -- an Amazon return and dropping off all of Skelly's leftover prescription dog food to be donated to the greyhound rescue we got him from. The lady who is going to take the food to the kennel said there are a few dogs who will benefit from our donation which feels great ❤️ in the evening my friend came over and we exercised and then watched S3 E1 of All Creatures Great and Small. So good.

Today will probably be pretty similar to yesterday. I read more Cloud Roads in bed and am going to walk the dogs shortly, then I plan to do more tidying and organizing while listening to Etta and Otto and Russell and James. We're supposed to go to my grandma's birthday party tonight, but with Tim still so sick (he might be sneezing slightly less today, hard to tell) he definitely can't go and I'm worried about going even though I feel great just on the off chance I could get her sick since she's immunocompromised. So we'll probably both stay home and my friend might come over to exercise again.

Thank you for all your kind messages. They mean a lot to me.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/bf/24/ab/bf24ab62024eef308a210c6c9f06aab7.jpg

>61 curioussquared: It's so nice that you can help other rescue dogs.

Hope Tim feels better soon.

That's so wonderful that Skelly's food will help some of the dogs at the greyhound rescue. I remember putting up a post to give away Penny's food after she died. The woman who came to get it was so grateful, which made me feel good in such a bad time.

Hey Natalie :)

Hope Tim feels better soon.
I remember giving some of my cats supplies/special food away to relatives with pets when she died. It was a bittersweet thing (I was giving away the things that signaled she was here) but it did make me happy to know I was helping an animal get taken care of instead. Happy reading and good luck on the spring cleaning!

>63 humouress: >64 ursula: Right? Definitely a little bit of light in something otherwise so sad.

>65 Ravenwoodwitch: Thanks Angela! Skelly was on a whole slew of prescription diets (we basically had every single food option for his required diet since he became so picky) so it was all really expensive, not easy to just give away stuff, so I was glad that the greyhound rescue could take it and use it! There are still a few things of Skelly that are hanging around -- we still have a ton of his medications hanging out in the spot where we kept them. I'm not sure I'll try to give those away; seems more complicated.

I think I've been recovering pretty well from losing him, but last night I was hanging out with my friend with Otter and Kermit on the couch and I just had this sudden moment of "oh no, where's the third dog? Did we leave Skelly outside?" and that was rough.

>67 curioussquared: Oh yeah, I'm so sorry :( Those old habits make mourning all the harder.

Happy Monday! It's Presidents' Day and Tim has it off and I don't. Oh well -- I think we technically traded this for Juneteenth, which I prefer, but why can't we just have them all off? Lol. I think Tim is finally starting to feel better, which is good.

Yesterday I did some more tidying and got the guest bedroom in the basement all organized. In the evening my friend came over and we exercised again and then watched Marry Me with JLo and Owen Wilson. Did it make any sense? Absolutely not. Did I enjoy it? Very much. We ordered takeout from a Chinese noodle restaurant and it was delicious.

Today my only plans are work and hopefully putting something in the crockpot at lunch to take care of dinner.

Still reading The Cloud Roads in print and absolutely loving it; I just want to read all day instead of working. Started The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe on audio. Hidden Figures is still my Kindle pick but I haven't made any progress in it.

32 books read: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Anne Frank's account of living in the secret annex with her own family and another off an office building over two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

I never read this one in school and I'm honestly super mad about it. I wasn't sure this would hold up as an adult but I'm so, so glad I read it. The strength of Anne's diary is in her own unapologetic teenager-ness. She acts just as you would expect a 13-15 year old girl to act; she's boy-crazy, mad at her parents and sister, obsessed with movie stars, and convinced that nobody understands her. That's why I'm so annoyed I didn't have to read this in school; what could be a better way to really show modern teenagers the reality of the holocaust than presenting them with this eminently relatable girl who didn't survive it? I listened to the audio read by Selma Blair and she did a fantastic job. 5 stars.

33 books read: Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

One morning at the age of 83, Etta Vogel leaves her husband Otto at home and sets off a trek from Saskatchewan to Ontario to see the ocean. Etta has some kind of memory loss and only remembers her goal some of the time, but she keeps walking, armed with a rifle and some chocolate. Otto doesn't pursue her, and instead starts to learn to live by himself, helped by Etta's recipe cards. Their lifelong friend Russell does leave to pursue Etta, who is now accompanied by a coyote named James who speaks to her. As Etta continues her journey and becomes famous across Canada, with people tracking her journey and reporting sightings, the novel also jumps back and forward between the present and the past, covering Etta and Otto's meeting and Otto's military service.

I think this book was supposed to be whimsical and the jumpy, misty nature of the timeline probably was supposed to relate to Etta's memory loss; however, it just didn't work for me. I had difficulty following and difficulty caring about the characters, and I didn't like the ambiguous ending. There were some lovely bits, but as a whole I thought it was lacking. 3 stars.

You are dangerous, Natalie! I've picked up several book bullets on this thread alone, as well as the one you left off on my thread, and I'm delighted that you are liking some of my favorite books as you get to them (Miles, Maia, and more).

>71 curioussquared: - Oh, that's disappointing. I have it on audio. Guess I don't need to move it up the Listen Soon list!

Soup is in the crockpot, so that's one goal done for the day!

>72 ronincats: Hi Roni! Sorry, not sorry about the book bullets and I hope you enjoy them! I feel like I've had a pretty good reading year so far -- not too many bad eggs.

>73 katiekrug: YMMV! It might just be me. Most of the LT reviews are really positive so I was surprised I didn't enjoy it more.

Good morning! Busy day at work here. Going to try to make sure to get in some walking between all my meetings. No evening plans, but my friend might come over to exercise and then watch some Last of Us. No cooking today since we have plenty of soup left over and if my friend comes over we'll probably get takeout.

I still owe you guys Costa Rica pictures -- I promise they're coming at some point!

Currently reading: About halfway through The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe, which is... weird, and still a chapter or so into Hidden Figures. I spent all evening last night devouring The Cloud Roads so need to find a new main print book. I've been alternating between Bend Sinister and Exit Strategy at lunch at my desk.

34 books read: The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Moon is a shapeshifter who can turn from a humanoid groundling into a great scaled, flying creature and has lived most of his life away from his own kind. He remembers his mother and his flightless siblings, but they were killed when he was very young, and after some futile attempts to find his people, he has flitted from groundling settlement to settlement, leaving when it's no longer safe. When his current settlement learns of his true form, they tie him up and leave him to die because he looks like the Fell, the horrible demonic beasts that threaten all races. Poisoned and unable to shift, Moon thinks he's done for -- until something like him but even larger swoops in and rescues him. His savior is Stone, and he's a Raksura -- and he says Moon is too. Stone asks Moon to come back to his home, the Indigo Cloud Court, and live among his own kind, since their court is looking for more warriors to join it. Moon is wary -- after he looked for his own kind for so long, this seems to good to be true. But he has nowhere ese to go, so he follows. Back at Indigo Cloud Court, Moon is soon embroiled in the court politics, and he starts to figure out that Stone may have omitted some important things. But Indigo Cloud Court may be in trouble, and Moon can't help but get involved in saving the closest thing to a family he's known for years.

Why did it take me so long to read this? I didn't expect to like it as much as I did -- I think I didn't like the cover, but I should have trusted in Martha Wells. This is such a unique world, full of different peoples. Moon gives me Murderbot vibes a little -- he's a lovable loner who's slow to trust but at heart a good person. Anyway, I couldn't put this one down, and look forward to continuing the series. 5 stars.

>76 curioussquared: I've checked this one out from the library but didn't get around to it (like you, I think the cover didn't quite work for me and I wasn't in a high fantasy mood). Happy to see your 5 stars for it though, that will nudge it up the list a bit.

>76 curioussquared: I read this as an e-book so I didn't focus on the cover, but I imagined the Raksura as dragons, or at least more dragon-like.

>77 MickyFine: Hope you enjoy it, Micky! Definitely not my favorite cover but the book itself made up for it :)

>78 humouress: Yeah, I'm trying to think if any of the descriptions in the book actually super matched up to the cover illustration or if they were more dragon-y. I THINK there was some language implying they were still pretty humanoid in their shifted forms, but who knows!

>79 curioussquared: I think there was - but I still prefer my imagined version, so I'm sticking with that :0)

>80 humouress: The gargoyle-esque guy on the cover is definitely at least partially what put me off, so I'm with you, lol.

Happy Wednesday! I have a few meetings this morning (done with one, another in a few minutes) and then my day will be broken up by a dentist appointment, boo. My teeth are generally OK, and I actually really like my current dentist -- she has been seeing Tim's whole family for 20+ years so I think I was sort of required to start seeing her when we got married. It helped that I was dissatisfied with my old dentist. But I'll still never enjoy going.

Last night Tim and I had leftovers and watched the first half of Wakanda Forever.

Finished rereading Exit Strategy before bed and should wrap up The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe on audio today. I'm trying to decide on my next print book -- I'm thinking Broken Harbor, A Restless Truth, or Ocean's Echo.

35 books read: Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Armed with knowledge from its visit to Milu, Murderbot heads to TranRollinHyfa to confront GrayCris and save Dr. Mensah.

It's Murderbot. It's five stars. I cry every time I read the bit at the end where Murderbot is rebuilding its memory and when it tries to identify Ratthi, the only thing it can find is a partial tag identifying him as "my human friend." 😭😭😭

Happy Thursday!

Yesterday after work I tidied the kitchen before putting chicken burrito bowls in the instant pot and then doing a quick Ring Fit Adventure workout while it was cooking. We watched the rest of Wakanda Forever while eating -- it was fine, not amazing, but certainly entertaining to watch. Went to bed around 10 and then made the bad decision of starting Broken Harbor which kept me up both because it's so compelling and also because it's unsettling.

Started today with an early-ish meeting, and will spend the rest of the day on a balance of some more urgent to-dos and some longer-term projects I've been neglecting. My friend will come over in the evening and we'll do a workout then probably watch some Last of Us with Tim -- we're behind!

Like I mentioned above, I started Broken Harbor in print. Finished The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe while cooking (review coming soon) and started Emerald Green on audio.

36 books read: The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie

Two years ago, Poe's love Call was killed by raiders on her first gold-hunting river voyage on a dredge ship. Grieving and deeply angry, she responds with invention, and designs an impermeable armor for the dredge ships made of ever moving sharp gears and metal pieces so the ships are impossible to climb. The outpost admiral is impressed with her design, and through her armor, Poe feels like she might actually get her revenge of killing as many raiders as possible. But now that her armor is ready, the admiral springs something unexpected on Poe: he wants HER to captain the armored ship's maiden voyage. A reluctant leader, Poe nevertheless feels things are going OK on their journey -- but someone keeps leaving threatening notes in her cabin. When it turns out that her armor might be less impermeable than she thought, Poe must do some quick calculations to figure out where her loyalties lie and what her values actually are -- all while processing an entirely different view of the world than the one she was raised with.

This book has an interesting concept and that's pretty much it. The worldbuilding is sketchy to the point of feeling like a fable more than a story. So many unanswered questions and promising ideas that never come to fruition because there's just not enough there. I think I was duped into buying this by the pretty cover; I haven't read anything else by Condie and won't be looking for more. 2.5 stars.

I know I promised Costa Rica pics SO long ago -- here are some highlights, finally!





These two are from the beach at our first hotel on the Caribbean side of the country.







Troop of Howler Monkeys, beach, and Capuchin grooming time in Cahuita National Park.



A not-shy-at-all coati who came right up to our shuttle to beg for some fruit!









Views of Lake Arenal, Arenal Volcano, and the surrounding area from the restaurant at the end of our Arenal National Park hike.





Sloths!!





Views on the way to and in Monteverde.





Views from BOTH pools at our hotel in Manuel Antonio.





Super bold, thieving capuchins at Manuel Antonio National Park.





Our iguana friend on the beach in Manuel Antonio National Park. He hung out with us for about half an hour, then we watched him compete for fruit with another male and a female.







Iguana and sloth companions at our final lunch at a beachfront restaurant.

Wow!! Thanks for sharing; those are fantastic!

What great photos!

Love the photos! Costa Rica is on our (current) short list for international trips...

Such great photos, Natalie. Looks like you two had an amazing time!

Great pics! Glad you had a good vacation.

So many great pictures, looks like an amazing time! Love the coati.

My kids have been to Costa Rica a couple of times (their father's girlfriend is from there) but I haven't ever been. I'd definitely like to see the sloths, coatis and iguanas.

Thank for sharing the pictures, Natalie!

I love all animals featured, and that your e-reader is on them twice :-)

Thanks, everyone! It was a fun trip and hard to narrow down photos even this much. Just a really beautiful country with so much to see!

>89 katiekrug: Hope you enjoy it if you go, Katie!

>92 ursula: I loved the coatis and agoutis -- didn't get any good pics of them but they were super cute. I was so surprised about how interactive the iguanas were! They were very curious and almost pests -- the one pictured in the restaurant was such a beggar. The sloths were cute but of course very high up in the trees so less up-close cute.

>93 FAMeulstee: It's not a vacation if I'm not reading a lot, Anita!

Happy Friday!

I moved a lot yesterday -- ended up at around 21,000 steps after walking during work, walking the dogs, and doing some dance exercise when my friend came over. We ordered takeout from our favorite Cuban restaurant (the one that catered our wedding! I had the scallop sandwich) and watched two episodes of The Last of Us. We've watched through Episode 5 now, so not quite caught up. Such a good show.

For some reason I slept poorly even though I was so active yesterday :( Today should be pretty quiet; I have one more meeting at noon and otherwise will be trying to buckle down and review a few documents that are in my court and get some work done on a few more long-term projects. No real plans for dinner. I'll either rummage around in the fridge and see what's available, or we might order or go out since Tim is finally feeling closer to better.

Didn't get a ton of reading done yesterday, but I'm making steady progress in Broken Harbor. It's good, like all Tana French books, but the protagonist this time is a really annoying character from the previous book and I think it's hard to write from the POV of an unsympathetic character. We'll see what she does with it. No progress in either Emerald Green or Hidden Figures.

Ooooh I just saw the photos. What a paradise! These are absolutely gorgeous.

I feel you on that unsympathetic protagonists. There's always a chance for redemption but it's so hard to get there when the person in question makes you wanna wring their neck.
This happens a couple times in Stephen King's books. He's great at making unlikable people that somehow work as likable protagonists but, occasionally, I couldn't give a YouKnowWhat about their future because they cross into being despicable.

Great shot of the coati! Thanks for letting us armchair travel through your photos. ;)

Great vacation pictures! My favorite is probably the one with the cow :)

Glad Tim is starting to feel a bit better. Happy Friday!

>96 Ravenwoodwitch: Thanks, Angela! You know, I've never read any Stephen King... I should fix that at some point. I'm not big into horror, but I do love The Shining movie.

>97 libraryperilous: Thanks, Diana! I was so charmed by the coatis.

>98 aktakukac: Thanks, Rachel! Happy Friday to you too :)

Really great photos Natalie, looks like it was a good holiday! Beautiful scenery and makes me all the more eager to get my next trip planned.

>86 curioussquared: Thanks for sharing the photos, Natalie. The very first one would be a brilliant topper, but all of them express what a great holiday you guys must have had.

Natalie, what incredible photos. Your happiness seems to jump off the message! Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Great photos! Looks like you had an awesome time.

>86 curioussquared: Oh great photos, Natalie! Thanks for sharing!

>99 curioussquared: If you want a recommendation, my advice is to start somewhere that isn't to his "formula". He's got some repeat tropes that are now kinda infamous at this point. Best summarized as: "alcoholic writer from Maine, a kid with supernatural powers, and an evil religious woman walk into a haunted house and meet a monster fueled by some societal evil. Cue the violence - of the supernatural and domestic persuasion - and the ending that many find disappointing."

I'd say start with Mr. Mercedes. It's less a horror novel and more a crime drama. The opening chapter is pretty horrific but the rest is quite engaging. And the ending wasn't a letdown this time! :D

>100 WhiteRaven.17: >101 PaulCranswick: >102 Whisper1: >103 figsfromthistle: >104 bell7: Thanks, everyone!

>105 Ravenwoodwitch: I'll keep that in mind, Angela!

Happy Monday!

I had a pretty good weekend. Friday was a low-key night in. On Saturday I helped my mom with her business and then went over to my grandma's house to get my hair cut and caught up with my aunt and grandma and grandpa. (My aunt was a hairdresser before she had kids and still cuts most of the family hair. My grandma needs someone who's not my grandpa with her most of the time these days and my mom and her siblings take turns staying with her, so it was a nice opportunity to catch up with all three of them.) I think I like the haircut, but it'll take me a bit to adjust to it -- I have bang-type things for the first time in a long time. Then Tim and I ordered Mexican food for dinner and watched the first four episodes of The Consultant, which is very entertaining but very weird so far. Sunday I read a lot and caught up on some house stuff and then my friend came over to exercise and we watched The Last of Us and had dinner. (We're still an episode behind, no spoilers!)

Today will be standard workday. I think Tim might be going to play Magic with his friends after work so I might have a night to myself. I'm thinking a Ring Fit Adventure workout and some reading, or maybe some Stardew Valley -- I've been having a craving lately.

Reading-wise, I finished Queen of the Tiles and Broken Harbor over the weekend -- reviews to come. I started In Other Lands in print last night and realized that I thought it was by Sarah Beth Durst this whole time when apparently Sarah Rees Brennan is a whole different person, oops. I'm also about 2/3 of the way through Emerald Green on audio.

37 books read: Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf

A year ago, at a weekend Scrabble tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Najwa's best friend Trina, the so-called Queen of the Tiles, collapsed on the Scrabble board, suddenly dead. Nobody knew why this otherwise healthy 16 year-old girl died out of the blue, and investigations turned up nothing. Najwa has spent the last year grieving, going to therapy for her panic attacks, trying to remember that day -- it's just a blank in her mind -- and mostly avoiding anything to do with Scrabble. But she can't deny that she loves the game, and she loves words, so now, a year later, she's back at the same tournament, determined to do well for Trina's sake. At first, things are hard. It's tough seeing the old crowd again, and she can feel people talking about her behind her back -- after all, she was Trina's best friend. But when Trina's Instagram account, which has been silent for a year, suddenly posts something new -- an image of a Scrabble rack that can be rearranged to spell REGICIDE -- things get serious. Najwa feels like she's competing against time to figure out what's going on -- and even while she works to solve the mystery, figure out who hacked Trina's account, and if there was foul play involved in her death, she's even more determined than ever to win the tournament and become the new queen of the tiles.

Yes, you heard that right -- Malaysian teen Scrabble tournament murder mystery! I picked this book up based solely on that description and I wasn't disappointed. Alkaf's writing is good and the concept and plot are fresh and interesting, and Najwa's grief feels well done and realistic. I was surprised by the reveal at the end, too. 4 stars.

38 books read: Broken Harbor by Tana French

Detective Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy has never been on Murder Squad to make friends -- he's there to solve cases, and after losing his top solve rate recently to another on the squad, he's determined to make the next one count. So when word comes in of a brutal murder of a family up in Brianstown, a new estate on the Irish Sea formerly known as Broken Harbor where Kennedy's family used to holiday when he was a kid, he's thrilled to land it and get a chance to prove once more that he's the best, even if he has to take his wet-behind-the-ears rookie partner, Ritchie Curran, with him. As the case unfolds and he and his team bring in a suspect who confesses, Kennedy can just anticipate the praise they'll get from the super. But something about their suspect is off, and there are still a few things niggling at Kennedy's brain -- not to mention that Ritchie won't let go of a line of inquiry that Kennedy already dismissed.

Tana French is definitely my favorite mystery author, and the first three Dublin Murder books totally broke me. This one was just as well written and had the same compelling effect on me -- reading these books always makes me uneasy and raises my heartrate so that I often have trouble putting them down. But unlike with the first three books, I just didn't quite... love this one as much? I think French's characters always feel super real because they're always very flawed, but you still root for them and like them. I was rooting for Scorcher, but I never liked him, which didn't mean the book wasn't great, but made it slightly less enjoyable for me. 4.5 stars.

>109 curioussquared: - That's the next one up for me in the series. So far, Faithful Place is my favorite...

>110 katiekrug: Faithful Place was SO good. I have trouble choosing between the first three because they're all so good. I think The Likeness honestly had a weaker mystery plot than Broken Harbor, but I thought the concept was a lot more unique and the characters more interesting. If I had to rank the first four.... probably Faithful Place, In the Woods, The Likeness, Broken Harbor, but don't make me sign anything :)

I've been trying very hard to focus on diminishing my TBR and not buy a lot of books, but ended up with two acquisitions today: The Seamstress of Sardinia, which was a gift from my grandma, and Valiant Ladies, which was a Kindle deal today.

>112 curioussquared: I swear the "To-Read" pile procreates on its own, lol. The seamstress book actually sounds like my cup of tea.

I find with new hair it helps me to look for new pins or clips to use to play with it. Or to try a new style. Maybe that'll help you? :)

>113 Ravenwoodwitch: Definitely! There's no way I acquired all these books on my own, right?

Agree on the hair! I had to get some new fabric headbands for working out since sweaty bangs are no bueno. I ordered a pack of some cute ones off of Amazon and I'm surprised how much I love them! I actually feel cute in them instead of like I'm headed to the gym, so that's a nice option when I have to be on camera for work but don't want to deal with hair in my face. I also didn't wash my hair last night and I'm actually liking how it falls better on the second day, which is interesting. I'm sure I'll figure out the style soon.

Happy Tuesday! Yesterday was exactly what I expected. I finished out the workday, walked the dogs, got a good workout in, and then played several hours of Stardew while Tim was at his Magic event. I FINALLY unlocked the ability to sleep overnight on Ginger Island right before going to bed so that will be a game changer. Had frozen pizza for dinner which meant pizza two nights in a row, but I couldn't be bothered to actually cook anything after my workout. Right before bed I realized I had dumped my laundry on said bed so that got quickly folded and I managed to finish up Emerald Green while folding.

Today will be more work, then my friend is coming over to exercise and we'll probably catch up on The Last of Us.

Currently reading: Didn't make any progress in In Other Lands before bed since I was folding laundry instead of reading. Read half of Garlic and the Vampire yesterday which is very cute and quick and expect I'll finish it today. Was unfortunately sleepless in the middle of the night and read a chapter of two of Hidden Figures on my Kindle in between tossing and turning. Started Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage on audio while walking the dogs this morning.

39 books read: Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier

In this conclusion to the trilogy, Gwen continues to navigate the intricacies of time travel and the Circle while also navigating her relationship with Gideon and learning the truth about her destiny.

I thought this was a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy! I liked that it feels like Gwen stays true to herself and acts like what she is -- a teenager -- the whole time. I also felt like the whole series didn't take itself too seriously, which was refreshing. I continued to enjoy Xemerius as a character and thought the ending fit the series well. 4 stars.

Oops, I blacked out and bought two more Kindle ebook deals: The Widow of Rose House and Fevered Star.

>116 curioussquared: I quite enjoyed that series as well. The movies are also excellent.

I squeezed one more book into February and am rather astonished that I read 20 books in the shortest month!



40 books read: Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulsen

Garlic lives with Witch Agnes and the other vegetable people, helping with the gardening and selling vegetables at the farmer's market. But when the vegetables notice the old vampire's castle, empty for years, has smoke coming from the chimneys, shy Garlic is deputized to go investigate since she has natural protection.

Very cute little graphic novel! Loved all the vegetable illustrations and their little community. A little too slight to merit the full five stars but definitely an easy 4.

>118 figsfromthistle: I need to find out where I can watch the movies, Anita!

>119 curioussquared: so, wait. vegetable people... selling veg at the market? O_O
I desperately need to know how that's a thing now. TO THE LIST!

Happy Wednesday! We had thai food last night and are all caught up on The Last of Us now aka Emotional Damage the TV show. I am super sore after a few days of good workouts. I was so tired after bad sleep yesterday and exercise that I passed out at 10pm.

More work today! I should be done with meetings by noon so will probably have some lunch and then do a lot of walking in the afternoon. No plans this evening, but I might do a little Ring Fit Adventure and either read or play Stardew. I have tilapia to cook and will decide on some sides at some point.

On the reading front, all I did yesterday was finish Garlic and the Vampire and listen to more Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Meant to read more In Other Lands but fell asleep before I even picked it up!

>121 Ravenwoodwitch: The book distinguishes between vegetables that have been made alive and turned into people, and normal vegetables, lol. I hope you like it -- it's very cute and the illustrations are lovely.

Can't go wrong with Thai food for dinner. We may be headed in that direction this evening...

The Last of Us is on our To-Watch list, but I am going to have to steel myself for it, I think!

I could probably eat Thai food every day, honestly. Tim and my best friend like it, but they aren't obsessed like I am :) I think you'll like The Last of Us! I am not really a horror fan but I am definitely a Pedro Pascal fan, and it's such a well done show that I think it has a broader appeal than a "horror" show normally would.

>122 curioussquared: The Last of Us now aka Emotional Damage the TV show. Very good description - we're all caught up as well and loving it. I'm not usually one for zombie films (I know it's not zombies but there's a definite similarity) but this is one I can cope with.

>126 SandDune: I feel the same way, Rhian! I had to be convinced to watch it (Pedro Pascal definitely helped) but now I'm a little obsessed.

Happy Thursday! Ended yesterday with a Ring Fit workout (I earned some new high-power exercises and was destroyed by the end of this workout, lol). Tim ended up cooking the fish with some sauteed veggies and roasted potatoes and then we watched the last four episodes of The Consultant. Not a perfect show but definitely really entertaining.

Lots of work to get done today! In the evening I'll walk the dogs and we might watch S3E1 of The Mandalorian. Need to figure out dinner; we have some ground turkey but I don't have a great use for it in mind. I will ponder...

On the reading front, I read a few pages of In Other Lands before bed last night, and listened to some Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki before work this morning.

Our go-to ground turkey meals are taco bowls, chili, and stuffed peppers. Kind of boring, but easy to throw together :)

Chili and meatloaf are our two top uses for ground turkey.

>129 katiekrug: Ooh, I think I have everything we need for taco bowls. Good call!

>130 MickyFine: For some reason I have never really been a meatloaf or chili person. I feel like they're such staple recipes but they never call my name.

Those capuchins are cheeky little buggers. I like the image of the iguana, but would not want to get close to it.

It looks like you had a wonderful holiday!!!

A little T. Kingfisher update

>132 Whisper1: The iguanas were surprisingly gentle, Linda!

>133 libraryperilous: I love this a lot! I follow her on Twitter and I feel like she is someone who is just really good at sharing her hobbies and passions in a delightful way that makes me interested even if I don't care about those hobbies or passions. Probably why I like her books.

OMG! I am WAY behind here! Love all your gorgeous fun pictures of your trip--stunning. And congrats on 20 books in the shortest month -- nicely done. Glad Tim is feeling better and I hope you enjoy your bangs soon. Oh, and lots of fun books. The Network Effect one jumped out at me (I really want to read whatever one I'm on next), and then Tanya French (I love her books!) and The Diary of Anne Frank, which I did read in HS and sorry you didn't. Okay, that's my attempt at catching up. I'll try to stay more current. ; )

>135 Berly: Hi Kim! Thanks for stopping by :) I am enjoying the bangs but they definitely take a little more styling effort to get them to lie how I want (the perils of curly hair) so on days like today where I roll out of bed for an early meeting, I have been turning to headbands :)

Oof, very glad it's Friday today. Otter woke me up at 4:30 am to go outside and I never really got back to sleep, so today is going to be a rough workday. Last night Tim ended up going out for dinner with his best friend and I was wiped, so I didn't end up cooking, froze the turkey, and scrounged around the kitchen for dinner. I walked the dogs, finished up the Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary, read a little, and then played a little Stardew Valley.

Today I'll just be trying to make it through the workday and will probably pass out early. I would love a good night of sleep!

On the reading front: Wanted something easy to read yesterday and gorged on The Voting Booth, which was quick and enjoyable. Also listened to more Colorless Tsukuru (I'm about halfway through now) and read some In Other Lands before bed, which I'm enjoying but is going more slowly than I expected.

41 books read: The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert

Marva has spent high school getting involved in politics and campaigning for voting rights and her preferred candidates and now that it's 2020, she can't wait to vote in her very first election. Duke knows it's his civic duty to vote in his first election, especially since his it was his politically active older brother who was killed in a drive by shooting who got him preregistered when he was 16. But when Duke shows up to what he thinks is his polling place, he's told he's not on the list, and he's devastated. Luckily, Marva just cast her vote and watches as Duke is turned away -- and she's not going to let injustice happen on her watch. Together, Marva and Duke spend the day on a voting wild goose chase, determined that Duke will exercise his rights and even make it to his band's concert that night.

This was a quick, easy read that only took me about 2 hours to get through. I enjoyed it! Colbert handled a lot of difficult topics with a light hand -- from voting rights to grief and trauma to police brutality. There were bits that felt a little didactic, but overall I think it was done well and will appeal to politically inclined teens and maybe help get others interested in voting. 4 stars.

Happy Monday! I had a nice weekend and feel somewhat ready for the week if not excited about it, lol.

On Friday we watched S3E1 of The Mandalorian. I feel like this show kind of captures the goofiness of the original Star Wars movies in a way that makes me love it. And I love watching Pedro Pascal try his best to be a good father to his adoptive son.

Saturday we went to a few open houses. In the evening my friend came over and we exercised and then got Mexican food and watched Moonstruck, which I thought I had seen growing up but now I don't think I ever actually watched the whole thing because I would have remembered how weird it is, lol.

Sunday I exercised in the morning, then my friend and I went to our first meeting of a local Silent Book Club chapter: https://silentbook.club/. We both had a lot of fun! It was nice to be part of a community reading event and I think we're going to go to more meetings in the future. After that, we took the dogs for a walk, then Tim and I took my parents out to a fancy Chinese hot pot restaurant for a late celebration of my dad's 80th birthday.

Plans for today are work, hopefully with some walking and maybe a quick elliptical workout during the day, then pub trivia in the evening with my best friend, her coworker, and my cousin and his girlfriend, who are good at music so maybe we'll actually have a chance of doing well, lol.

On the reading front: I finished Scattered Showers on Saturday morning and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki on Saturday afternoon, then read Nick and Charlie on Sunday morning. Still working through In Other Lands (made some good progress at Silent Book Club) and am feeling more in the swing of it now. Read a little more of Hidden Figures and have now started An Extraordinary Union on audio.

42 books read: Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell

A collection of stories featuring some familiar characters and some brand new. I think anyone can read this, but Rowell's existing fans will be happiest. I had already read Midnights, Kindred Spirits, and If the Fates Allow in other formats, but I liked them just as much as I did the first time, especially Kindred Spirits. It was lovely to visit with Beth and Jennifer from Attachments, and Simon and Baz from the Carry On series, but my favorite story was Winter Songs for Summer, about a college romance with a music focus. My least favorite was The Prince and the Troll, which was a sort of fairy tale fable that just didn't work for me. The other new original story was In Waiting, which I liked but didn't love. 4 stars overall; I enjoyed the read but it felt pretty slight given that I had read almost half the content before. As a side note, the book itself is gorgeous, with sprayed edges, purple font, and a lovely ribbon bookmark.

43 books read: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

In high school, Tsukuru was part of a group of five inseparable friends. They did everything together, all five of them or smaller combinations. But then, after his first year of college, when he returned home and tried to get in touch to hang out, he was told in no uncertain terms that his friends no longer wished to speak with him or see him ever again. Hurting and set adrift, Tsukuru continued with his life at school in Tokyo and returned to his hometown of Nagoya as little as possible. He made it through a period of deep depression, got his degree, and began the career he had been working toward, building stations for a railway company. But he never forgot what his friends had done to him, and it affected him deeply into adulthood. Now in his late 30s and urged on by his girlfriend, Tsukuru decides to dig into what happened to him as a teenager and discover why his friends pushed him away.

This is a middling Murakami novel, not his best, not his worst. Some reviews described it almost as mundane, but I'm always captivated by his prose, even when it's describing the mundanity of life. This was definitely on the less weird side for him. 4 stars.

(My stats tell me this is only the third book I've read this year written by a man, lol. Not sure that says anything in particular, but I thought it was kind of funny.)

44 books read: Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

The end of the school year is approaching and Nick is excited to be going to the University of Leeds in the fall. Charlie is excited for him too, and he and Nick have already agreed they'll stay together long distance -- after all, they're different from most couples their age -- but he's so worried about being left behind, and everyone around him won't stop asking if they've really thought this whole long distance thing through. Without even really meaning to, Charlie starts pushing Nick away, and all of a sudden, it seems like their long distance relationship might be over before it's even begun.

This was fine. Read it if you're craving more Heartstopper content, but it felt a lot less cute than the graphic novels, especially since the whole novella is mostly one big argument between them. Definitely not required reading. 3.5 stars.

Happy Tuesday! For what might have been the first time ever, our team WON at trivia last night! First place out of 27 teams. It felt good! Now we have to go back next week to defend our title and use our gift card :)

Today will be boring -- just work and hopefully a workout in the evening. I didn't do my elliptical yesterday, but I did walk a lot and end the day with almost 18k steps, so that works for me :) Tonight I'll hopefully do Ring Fit Adventure. Dinner will probably be baked salmon and broccoli and either quinoa or rice, after which I'll probably read or play Stardew Valley, or watch some TV with Tim.

Didn't read much yesterday, but I made progress in An Extraordinary Union on audio and read about 20 pages of In Other Lands before passing out.

Congrats on the trivia victory! Always a nice feeling :)

The Silent Book Club sounds kind of fun.

Like Katie, I'm very impressed by your trivia victory!

>144 katiekrug: >145 MickyFine: Thanks, ladies! We've been going to this venue on and off for years and it felt great to finally win.

>143 curioussquared: Congratulations on winning at trivia! That's awesome.

>143 curioussquared: Congratulations on your trivia win, Natalie!
Good luck next week.

>143 curioussquared: As someone who sucks at general trivia I am uber impressed; well done!

Thanks, Ursula, Anita, and Angela!

Yesterday got weird with the case of the missing fish. I ordered salmon in the grocery order that Tim picked up and unloaded on Sunday, but Tim doesn't remember putting it away and it was nowhere to be found in the fridge, so no salmon for us last night and surprise Thai takeout instead. I did a Ring Fit Adventure workout like I hoped, but felt awful and moody afterward (isn't exercise supposed to give you endorphins and endorphins make you happy?) so we just decided to watch an episode of John Oliver and go to bed, but the episode wouldn't cast consistently to our Chromecast and kept pausing and loading and that just made me more annoyed. I slept badly and have definitely woken up still on the wrong side of the bed. I did a few need-to-do tasks before work (dishes, cleaning the bathroom vanity, and completing my 401(k) rollover from my last job) so I've at least started the day feeling productive. I only have two meetings today and while one is the normal weekly meeting that I facilitate, it's half an hour shorter than it usually is so at least there's that, and the other meeting is a town hall so I don't have to be on camera and will probably walk the whole time. Dinner will probably be a stir fry with ground turkey that I pulled out of the freezer when I realized the fish was AWOL.

On the reading front, I listened to a little bit of Extraordinary Union and read a little bit of In Other Lands, but not much progress made in either. Hoping to finish both up by Friday.

I look forward to hearing about whether the case of the missing fish gets resolved. Sounds worthy of Nancy Drew. :)

>150 curioussquared: Tim has to go back over what else he was doing on Sunday in order to uncover the mystery. Our maid once had frozen chinese bao and sponges for washing the dishes. She put the sponges in the freezer and the bao under the sink. If Tim was also playing golf he might find salmon wrapped around his sand wedge!

>151 MickyFine: I have literally scoured the fridge and freezer and it's nowhere. I even checked the car in case it got left in there somehow (thankfully it was not there and our car smells fine). I think the mystery is solved: the store left it out of our order and Tim didn't notice. Oh well.

>152 PaulCranswick: Lol! I wouldn't put it past him, Paul, as Tim can be very absentminded about things like this, but I think if the salmon was under the sink at this point something would be smelling very bad!

>153 curioussquared: That is a relief, I guess! Otherwise any change in wind direction would have had the both of you concerned!

Hi Natalie. I'm heading for the library tomorrow. I've added many of your reads to my list of those books I hope to bring home!

>51 curioussquared: I also very much liked The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

I'm wondering how you are doing.

Beautiful photos, thanks Natalie.

And well done on the trivia! I've attempted it once and was completely lost (I was with the Parents' Association and one of the ladies does trivia nights as a business, so she suggested we try it) but I wouldn't mind giving it another go with a team that knew what it was doing (although I probably wouldn't).

That's annoying that the fish was missing. Are you sure the dogs didn't have anything to do with it?...

ETA: and your comment on surprise Thai triggered the memory of this quote from the 'Abu Dhabi' episode of Cabin Pressure:

Arthur: Aha, my signature dish. Behold! Surprising Rice.
Douglas: Good lord!
Martin: What are those bits?
Arthur: Ah, you see, Skipper, if you don't mind me saying so, that question is entirely against the spirit of Surprising Rice.

>157 humouress: I love Cabin Pressure so much.

Sorry to hear the fish mystery has not been resolved, Natalie. I have to admit, I also wondered if the dogs may have been the culprits.

>155 PaulCranswick: Definitely, Paul!

>156 Whisper1: Hi, Linda! So good to see you. I hope your trip to the library was successful! I'm doing well and hope you are too :) I'll have to pay a visit to your thread soon.

>157 humouress: Thanks, Nina! My fondness for trivia started with watching Jeopardy! growing up, translated into playing quizbowl in college, and has now settled into enjoying pub quizzes as an adult. Lol, luckily our Thai food did not come with Surprising Rice! I need to try Cabin Pressure sometime.

>157 humouress: >158 MickyFine: The dogs could definitely have been guilty, but I would have expected to find some trace of the crime if they were responsible. They're more discerning than, say, a lab, and wouldn't have eaten whatever the fish was wrapped in (and if they had, we would have, er, found some kind of trace later). When Otter ate a whole stick of butter over the summer we only realized because we found the wrapper on the ground, lol.

Happy Thursday! I'm feeling a lot better today. Nothing special planned -- normal work stuff. It's Otter's fourth Gotcha Day (FOUR YEARS???) so the dogs will probably get some special treats. I'd like to get some walking in and possibly a trip after work to do a little shopping. I have three in-person work events coming up over the next month and a half, the first one in less than two weeks, and surprise, I don't like any of my work clothes anymore! And who knows if they even still fit. I've been working in workout leggings and sweatshirts for three years at this point, lol. So I want to find at least a few new cute, comfortable, and vaguely trendy work outfits I feel good in. Yesterday I also realized that I was internalizing a lot of guilt about the house being a mess and that was also making me feel bad, so I reached out to a few house cleaners to finally get that set up, because it's something we can totally afford and I think would make both of us happier overall. One was able to come give a quote right away yesterday evening, and the other should be coming by to give a quote today. The house isn't where I'd like it to be in terms of organization yet, but I feel like if I wait until the house is ready we'll never start the cleaning service, lol. Ended up working later than intended so we had teriyaki last night; turkey stir fry will be tonight.

Still reading the same stuff; about 2/3 of the way through both An Extraordinary Union and In Other Lands.

>160 curioussquared: I had a similar moment when I got the second interview for my current job. I hated all my "nice interview clothes" and had lost some weight, and had to make an emergency shopping trip. I honestly think it's more important than it would seem on the surface level. If you like what you're wearing, you project that positivity and get more productive. And maybe with the cleaners it'll be the same thing; once things look better you'll get some fresh ideas for organization. Either way, I hope both of those go well.

And oh, four years; definitely worth a celebration!

>160 curioussquared: - Good on you for moving ahead on the house cleaner front! Mine just left, and the joy I feel as I walk through the freshly cleaned rooms is worth every penny.

>161 Ravenwoodwitch: I agree, Angela! This is also why I usually put on makeup when working from home if I have to be on camera for video calls. It's dumb, but I'm going to be more confident if I feel like I look good. I think the cleaners will help with organization just because I'll actually have more time to think about it instead of the standard cleaning tasks that take up a lot of my time currently.

>162 katiekrug: I'm excited to get it started, Katie!

Happy Friday! A task I was working on yesterday took the whole day instead of just the morning like I expected, so I need to buckle down on a few projects today. Luckily I don't have any meetings so lots of time to focus. Didn't make it out shopping last night and I'm not sure when I will -- maybe early next week or for a little bit on Sunday. The second cleaning company came by for a quote yesterday and while they were actually slightly cheaper, I felt like I vibed better with the folks from the first company and they also come with three people instead of one or two, so cleanings would be much faster. I'll probably contact them today to set up our first session. ETA: Finally made the turkey stir fry and we ate it while watching S1E1 of Outlander. I've seen the first season before but Tim hasn't. We finished the first episode and Tim promptly declared "This is not a show for me," lol, but it was worth a try.

Today Kermit has a quick vet appointment for a blood draw before his dental cleaning in a few weeks so I'll take him to that around 4:45. After that, my best friend is coming over for some workout and TV time.

I finished An Extraordinary Union while cooking last night and made more progress in In Other Lands before bed. The book is actually getting better and better as it goes on, it's just taking me a while to get through!

45 books read: An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole

Elle is a free Black woman with a photographic memory, able to recall every bit of every text she reads or conversation she hears. She used to hate her gift, but now, it's helping her be useful as a spy for the Union, posing as a mute slave in a Confederate senator's house and reporting information back to her spymaster, Mr. Pinkerton. When a Scotsman, Malcolm McCall, shows up at the house she works at in a Confederate uniform, she assumes he's just another white man here to flirt with the senator's daughter. But Malcolm's family fled Scotland when he was a child, and he knows what it's like to be persecuted -- which is why he's actually a Union spy for Pinkerton, too. At first, Elle is unwilling to trust Malcolm, especially when he shows signs of being interested in her romantically. But he proves himself again and again, and as they grow closer, Elle realizes that she and Malcolm must work together to turn the tide of the war.

I thought this was a really tough setting for a romance novel, but Cole pulled it off. There were obviously some difficult themes -- any book where your main character is a slave fighting for freedom, or at least posing as a slave, is going to be difficult to read at times, so that was tough to reconcile sometimes with the lighter tones and swept-off-your feet nature of a romance novel. But in a way, I think that made this book even more important. It was so lovely to watch as Elle blossomed from closed off and self-reliant to realizing she could rely on Malcolm, even a little bit, and even though that vulnerability could hurt her. And I think any book where a black woman working as a slave during the Civil War gets a Happily Ever After is a good one. 4 stars.

>165 curioussquared: I recognize the cover.

There's a woman on Youtube called Bernadette Banner who specializes in historical clothes for women that repainted a bunch of romance novel covers, and I think she did this one too.
It's here if you wanna see it; it's cool stuff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH3lvl0_JOU&ab_channel=BernadetteBanner

>165 curioussquared: I read An Extraordinary Union awhile back and remember enjoying it but for whatever reason didn't go back and read the sequels. Apparently parts of Elle's story was based on Mary Bowser, a real-life Union spy whose story is pretty amazing as well.

>166 Ravenwoodwitch: Oh cool! I'll have to check her out.

>167 bell7: I wasn't immediately moved to pick up the sequels either, Mary, but they'll be on my list for the future. I'll need to look into Mary Bowser!

Happy Monday!

I had a lovely weekend. Friday my friend came over and we exercised and watched the Pedro Pascal episode of Hot Ones and then an episode of Outlander. Saturday Tim and I went to look at some houses and then I went and got happy hour/early dinner with two of my old coworkers and one of the coworker's two young daughters to celebrate the other coworker's retirement. It was good to see them and the kids were very cute -- I'd never met the baby before so it was fun to see both of them. On Sunday I had brunch with a third old coworker (it was a toxic work environment -- yay consulting -- but I met a lot of great people there!) and then did some organizing around the house. The new cleaning service is coming next Saturday to do an initial deep clean so I have just this week to get the house enough in order that they can really clean effectively. In the evening my friend came over again and we exercised and then watched the last two episodes of The Last of Us. Holy crap! Episode 8 destroyed me (BABY GIRL! Weeping) and then Episode 9... I haven't played the game and didn't know this was how it was going to end, and neither did Tim or my friend, so we all just kind of sat there gaping at the TV. I've seen some criticisms from fans of the game that the show didn't portray Joel and Ellie's relationship as deep enough to justify Joel's actions, but it worked for me. Obviously what he did wasn't good, but I understand why he did it and how he got there. Anyway, I can't wait for season 2. Oh, we also watched some of the Oscars while waiting for Tim to start The Last of Us and I'm just so happy for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Such a good movie and so many deserving people. Ke Huy Quan made me cry.

Plenty to do at work today. Just made my to-do list and it is WAY longer than I would like. In the evening I might go to trivia again, but a few team members can't make it today so I'm going to check with the rest of the group to see if they still want to go. Honestly, I'd be OK not going since I had a busy weekend and lots to do today.

Finished In Other Lands and Lessons in Chemistry over the weekend and Othello this morning. Started Ocean's Echo as my new print book and All the Feels on audio. Still working through Hidden Figures on Kindle.

46 books read: In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

Elliot's life has never been great -- his father ignores him and has never shown him any sign of love, and as the weird, acerbic, too-smart redhead, he's been beaten up at school for years. So when he goes on a field trip and sees a wall that nobody else can see, he jumps at the chance to go to the Borderlands, the magical land on the other side of that wall, and starts attending magic school, AKA Border Camp. But magic school isn't all it's cracked up to be. First of all, the Borderlands might be full of mythical creatures like harpies and mermaids, but it turns out nobody can actually do magic. Second, Elliot enrolls in the council track at school since he's not into the whole warrior thing, but the jocks are definitely still prioritized in magic land. Third, nobody really likes him in the Borderlands, either -- except Serene, the most perfect, beautiful, talented, intelligent elf, who's breaking barriers by enrolling in both the council AND warrior tracks and being a woman (or rather, female elf) while she does it. For some reason, Serene likes Elliot, and Elliot will do anything to keep his new friend -- even make a reluctant truce with Luke Sunborn, resident warrior golden boy, while they help Serene find her feet and excel at both tracks. But soon, it's been years, and Elliot, Serene, and Luke are still hanging out all the time. Is what Elliot has with Luke still a truce?

This is a super fun send-up of your traditional portal fantasy and magic school book. Elliot isn't your traditional earthling who stumbles into a new situation and suddenly accepts everything; he sees a new world and immediately begins learning everything about it that he possibly can and asking how it works and why things are the way they are. I think this book probably loses a lot of readers in the first 100 pages. Elliot is annoying and there's no way around it. The beauty of it is Elliot's slow growth and maturation that occurs as the book goes on. Brennan does a great job of showing, not telling Elliot's growth, so that it almost sneaks up on you, and before you know it, you care about Elliot and are rooting for him to figure things out. The side characters are also great; I loved Serene and the elves' total reversal of traditional gender roles, and Luke and his family were lots of fun. 4.5 stars.

>170 curioussquared: Oh, that was a fun one! Glad you liked it.

47 books read: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant chemist -- except it's the 60s, and she's a woman, so almost nobody acknowledges it and she almost couldn't get a job at all. And then she meets Calvin, another brilliant chemist, who actually respects her and her work and lifts her up and supports her instead of putting her down. They start to build a life together, but things take an unexpected turn, and a few years later, Elizabeth, who never wanted children, finds herself a single mom to a brilliant daughter who needs a better job than the paltry lab tech work her company will give her. Which is how she somehow, reluctantly, ends up as the host of a TV cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth's scientific approach to cooking unexpectedly takes the country by storm. But as her show grows in popularity, her detractors grow in number, and even though Elizabeth really just wants another science job, she still can't get one. But times are changing, and long-buried secrets are starting to come out.

I had a hard time summarizing this book -- it's the kind of story that feels like it's more than the sum of its parts. Garmus's writing was endlessly compelling, and I found myself listening past my bedtime on Saturday night because I needed to know how it ended. It's funny and unputdownable despite some really horrifying moments, and I'll be on the lookout for what Garmus does next. 4.5 stars.

>171 foggidawn: Definitely! It took me a while to get through but it was well worth it in the end.

48 books read: Othello by William Shakespeare

The classic tragedy of love and jealousy. The BBC radio production I listened to was good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the Shakespeare productions I've listened to from LA TheatreWorks. 4 stars.

>172 curioussquared: That was an excellent read for me as well.

>169 curioussquared: Sounds like you had a great weekend catching up with old pals!

>175 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita! Yes, it was a nice weekend :)

Happy Tuesday! Work was fine yesterday. I've had some recurring issues with a stone bruise on my right foot and it started acting up yesterday :( I decided to do my walking during work anyway since it helps me focus and then I walked the dogs and by the end of the day I was limping around the house. Oops. I'll try to take it easy today. I was going to get some stuff done around the house, and I did do a little bit -- I organized our wildly messy entryway, putting away all shoes in the closet that don't get worn regularly so that only our most common everyday shoes are out on the rack, and doing the same with the coats that are hung in the entry. I also filled two shopping bags with to-donate shoes and one shopping bag of worn out shoes that can be recycled through the Threads bag in our Ridwell service. Tim was playing Magic with his friends last night, so after that I made myself some Trader Joe's frozen cauliflower gnocchi with spinach, parmesan, and feta, then settled in on the couch and watched FOUR episodes of Outlander, lol. I was going to fold laundry while I did it, but I totally forgot and just ended up playing games on my phone before going to bed.

Nothing exciting about work today. I might try to pop out to the library and the pharmacy during the day, and I might go to HomeGoods in the evening to look for some good new organizing baskets since I'm on such an organizing kick.

Didn't ready any Ocean's Echo yesterday but I made progress in All the Feels and read a few pages of Hidden Figures during lunch.

I hope your foot is feeling better, Natalie.

Yay for All the Feels!

>178 MickyFine: Thanks Micky! It's still a little tender but feeling OK when I'm wearing shoes with sufficient cushion, even though I was dumb and ended up walking on it a lot yesterday anyway. I'm just so bad at focusing at work when I'm not walking now! I did discover that standing on my acupressure mat seems to help it a lot, so I foresee a lot of that in my future. I'm about 3/4 though All the Feels and it's a lot of fun!

>177 curioussquared: Heyo, Natalie :)
Sorry to hear about your foot. Good to hear you managed to still get some organization done. I've been downsizing myself; there is something liberating about getting rid of stuff you have a minimal attachment to, or finding a new home for old stuff.

>180 Ravenwoodwitch: Hi Angela! Thanks for the sympathy :) Of course since I've been walking weirdly to avoid hurting the foot I triggered some kind of sciatica pain. Feeling very old right now, lol. Yes, organizing feels great! I wouldn't say my mom is a hoarder, but she's definitely really bad at getting rid of stuff, so I wasn't taught to offload things or downsize growing up and it's a skill I'm still teaching myself. I have several bags of to-donate things at the ready and more on the way!

Happy Wednesday! I forgot my friend was coming over last night to exercise, so didn't make it to HomeGoods but instead had a nice workout followed by Thai food and an episode of All Creatures Great and Small. Hopefully I'll get to HomeGoods tonight! I need some baskets, lol. Not much else going on! Just normal work stuff and continuing to tidy up in advance of our first deep cleaning session.

Read a little more Ocean's Echo before bed and am about 75% through All the Feels and really enjoying it.

Happy Thursday! Yesterday I worked later than I wanted so didn't get to HomeGoods; instead, I took the dogs on a long walk (the benefits of daylight savings -- it was still light out!) and cooked salmon, kale, broccolini, and quinoa for dinner. Two of the salmon fillets seemed to have gone a little off, so I added some frozen dumplings to the mix as well. We ate while watching S3E3 of The Mandalorian and then Tim played some computer games while I watched an episode of Outlander.

Today I really am going to try to get to HomeGoods, lol. That's my only goal.

On the reading front, I finished All the Feels while walking dogs and cooking yesterday and managed to make a good dent in Healer and Witch, too. Read more Ocean's Echo before bed -- I'm about 1/4 of the way through and really enjoying it.

49 books read: All the Feels by Olivia Dade

Alex Woodrow is one of the superstar actors of Gods of the Gates, and he's always been something of a loose cannon. When he gets in a public bar fight, the show's producers decide they've had enough, and suddenly he finds himself with a minder -- Lauren Clegg, a former ER clinician, which makes her extremely good at taking absolutely no shit. At first, Alex is furious, especially since he had a very good reason to get into the fight, even if he can't share it. But he finds himself oddly drawn to Lauren, and as they spend more time together -- first on set in Spain, then at Alex's home in LA -- their relationship starts to transform from professional to friendly. Lauren, who was expecting to be stuck with a stuck-up star, is surprised by Alex's well-hidden soft center. But as the two grow closer, they'll be faced with decisions to make as each is determined to protect the other and put themselves last.

This is technically a sequel to Spoiler Alert, but the stories actually happen pretty much simultaneously, which is kind of an interesting setup. I read Spoiler Alert a few years ago and liked but didn't love it -- this one I think I liked even more! Alex is goofy and endearing, and I thought both characters grew in really important, believable ways. 4 stars.

>184 curioussquared: Yay! This is definitely my favourite of the trilogy so I'm pleased to see you enjoyed it too. :)

I just started All the Feels on audio today!

Good luck with the HomeGoods run :) It's one of my favorite time- and money-sinks....

>185 MickyFine: It was a lot of fun, Micky! I have Ship Wrecked on hold now :)

>186 katiekrug: I hope you like it as much as I did, Katie! And same re: HomeGoods. I really do need some organizing baskets so I feel good about going, but who knows what else might find its way into my cart?? I was delighted but a little scared for my wallet when this location opened in 2021 -- it used to be a 40 minute drive, now it's 10 minutes.

Yay, Friday! Yesterday I did finally make it to HomeGoods and was good and only bought what I came for aside from a hilarious dog toy -- a furry ball shaped like a sloth head. I immediately regretted buying it when I got home because it has a particularly piercing squeaker and Otter was thoroughly testing it out, so that's what I get for straying from the plan! For dinner I had put some chicken noodle soup in the crockpot at lunch time, but Tim ended up going to dinner with his friend so I ate soup by myself, watched a few episodes of Outlander, and folded some laundry. Not a bad evening! I also cleared off my nightstand before bed so that's one more surface cleared before the cleaners come tomorrow morning. I foresee a lot more tidying tonight!

Finished Healer and Witch on audio yesterday and read more of Ocean's Echo which is getting better and better as Surit and Tennal get to know each other. Started Forest Mage on audio and am about an hour in; it should take me a while as it's 31 hours long!! I love Robin Hobb but I'm already feeling like this series needed some serious editing.

50 books read: Healer and Witch by Nancy Werlin

Sylvie has grown up learning the arts of her grandmother and mother, both healing women in 16th century France. Now 15, Sylvie has felt something blossom inside her recently -- something akin to actual magic healing powers. When her grandmother dies, Sylvie's mother is distraught, unmoving and empty for days. Sylvie tries to use her powers to take away her mother's grief -- but in doing so, she takes away her mother's memories of herself and her grandmother as well, so her own mother doesn't know her anymore. Horrified at what she's done, Sylvie sets off on a journey to find someone to teach her how to use her gift -- because clearly she can't go on as she is. Accompanied by Martin, the farrier's son, Sylvie's travels will take her farther than she could have imagined, and along the way, she'll have to learn who to trust and how to trust herself.

This is one of those books where I think it's a little hard to find an audience. It's classified as middle grade, but Sylvie is 15 and acts even older. I thought it started off slow and got better as it went, but felt more YA towards the second half. The book shifted in tone and picked up for me when the characters reached Lyon. Overall, I'm not sure who this would appeal to. I think story felt YA, but the writing felt middle grade, which puts it in a weird category. 3.5 stars.

>188 curioussquared: Sounds like a lovely solo evening. Think you'll make it through all of Outlander before the new season starts this summer? *enabling grin*

>190 MickyFine: Possibly! I'm surprised how quickly I'm getting through my rewatch of season 1, which I watched before I read any of the books. I do want to keep reading the books before each of the seasons and am planning on Drums of Autumn being my next print read. Do the seasons still match up pretty well with each of the books?

>191 curioussquared: For the most, part yes. Season 6 was shorter because of COVID restrictions (and although not an official reason, Caitriona Balfe's pregnancy was probably also a factor). The new season is supposed to be longer than usual to make up for it, so I assume it will include a few plots from book 6 and do all of book 7. They have announced that season 8 will be the last season and I'm mostly ok with that as the end of book 8 is a decent place to stop, IMO, since who knows when Diana Gabaldon will actually wrap up the series. :)

>191 curioussquared: Got it! Well, I imagine I'll make it through season 3 pretty quickly, and the rest will depend on how fast I read the books :)

>193 curioussquared: That said, I just realized that a pretty big plot thing from book 6 got moved to season 5 (and still makes sense there). I read a big chunk of the series very close together so plot points blur from one book to the next sometimes. :P

>194 MickyFine: Good to know!! Honestly, I read the books fairly far apart and I still confuse the timelines, lol.

Happy Monday all! Currently at the airport prior to boarding my flight to Phoenix for work. I'll be there through Wednesday afternoon, so probably will be less active here than usual. I'm hoping to get some reading done on my flight :)

It should be a good trip -- I get to meet a bunch of my coworkers in person for the first time, but I don't really have a presenting role, so it'll be a nice low stress way to meet people for the first time and ease back into some in-person stuff. I don't think I've traveled for work since January 2020!

We had the new cleaning service come for the first time on Saturday and they were excellent. The house is spotless and they paid so much more attention to detail than the last service we tried. Definitely will move forward with them for regular cleanings!

I made good progress in Forest Mage on audio (I'm about 60% through which means 12.5 hours still to go, lol) and I finished Ocean's Echo before bed last night -- review to come.

Good luck on the work trip! Glad to hear it should be relatively low stress.

Oh wow; have a safe trip!

yeah, sometimes I feel like audio books shouldn't even include the hour lengths (lol) just because it gets a bit overwhelming. But that could just be my brain.

Thanks, guys! So far so good. I was hoping to finagle leaving early tonight, but I'm stuck here until tomorrow due to a meeting I'm supposed to drop in on in the morning in order to meet some people. Oh well! I did move my flight home a few hours earlier, so that's good.

>198 Ravenwoodwitch: I like to know how long it is but yeah, those long ones can be super intimidating! I only have a week left to get through it and I haven't been listening while I've been traveling which stresses me out a little. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get through it.

51 books read: Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

Tennal is a reader, and a powerful one -- he can pick up on the surface thoughts and emotions of those around him, and he can read their minds if he wants to. Not that he would, since it's intrusive and illegal, but that's why readers are generally treated poorly and shunned by society. On the flip side, architects -- those who can write others, forcing them to obey a command -- are accepted and valued, especially in the military. Tennal has been living in the underworld, unwilling to conform to his military family's expectations, but when he finally goes too far, he's dragged back to his legislator aunt and he gets some shocking news: he's being conscripted into the army and being forced into a permanent mental sync bond with Surit Yeni, an architect lieutenant. Surit, meanwhile, isn't sure he wants to bond with a random reader, either -- but this career track will get his alt-parent access to his disgraced mother's military pension years faster, so he's willing to give it a shot. But when Surit and Tennal finally meet and Surit discovers that Tennal is being forced into the bond against his will, he's horrified and shocked at what the military, an organization he has trusted, will do to achieve its goals. With little choice, Surit and Tennal decide to fake their sync -- nobody really knows what it's supposed to look like, right? But they'll soon discover that the military corruption goes far deeper than they expected -- and they might be the only ones in a place to stop it.

This is the follow-up to the author's debut novel Winter's Orbit. Not quite a sequel but set in the same universe. I think I liked Winter's Orbit better, but this was a close second! I loved the slow-burn romance and I thought the worldbuilding was really interesting. 4.5 stars.

>200 curioussquared: Erg, I still have ~5 weeks to wait before I can get this book from the library. I want to read it Now!

>201 dreamweaver529: I hope it's worth the wait for you!!

Happy Thursday! I'm back home with Tim and the dogs and back at my normal WFH routine today. I have lots to catch up on after not getting much done while traveling. We're in desperate need of groceries, so I think I'll place a pickup order today. Otherwise, planning to take things pretty easy! Hoping to do a Zumba workout today in addition to whatever walking I accomplish.

Currently reading: Finished Hidden Figures on my plane ride home yesterday and got halfway through Hither, Page on Kindle as well. I'm up to 75% through Forest Mage on audio and hoping to finish it up by tomorrow. Haven't started a new print book yet, but I think Drums of Autumn is next on the docket.

Currently watching: Tim and I watched the latest Mandalorian last night after I got home. I saw a TikTok mashup of the scene where Grogu fights the other Mandalorian foundling and force jumps around a la Yoda vs. Count Dooku paired with Pedro Pascal's Hispanic mother SNL sketch when he says "My son don't have ADD, he just likes to JUMP!" and I lost it.. I binged more season 1 Outlander in my hotel room on Monday and Tuesday. I'm now up to the last two episodes of the season and I while I didn't remember much about season 1, the Wentworth Prison torture scenes have never truly left me since I watched them. I'm thinking I might just skip these episodes altogether and jump to season 2 -- maybe read a recap or something.

Welcome home, Natalie!

Hope the work trip wasn't ALL work and you got to enjoy some sunshine.

>204 Ravenwoodwitch: Unfortunately it was mostly work, and Phoenix was rainy and cloudy! Boo. I did get a really awesome view of the Grand Canyon from the air on my plane ride home.

>203 curioussquared: Yeah, the last two episodes of that first season of Outlander are rough to watch. I have watched them more than once and while it's not easy, I do think Sam Heughan's amazing work deserves viewing. However, I don't blame you if you fast forward through the more intense bits or skip the episodes altogether.

Welcome back!

>206 MickyFine: Yeah, I might give it a shot and do some fast forwarding. I just remember I was trying to eat while watching it the last time and I had to stop because it turned my stomach, lol. We'll see!

52 books read: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

The remarkable story of the Black women computers and engineers who contributed so much to NASA and the space race.

I've wanted to read this every since watching the excellent film adaptation, which I ended up rewatching last night after finishing the book, so I'm in a good position now to compare them. I thought Shetterly did a fantastic job of introducing us to these women, particularly Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson, who the film focuses on. The book is able to go into so much more detail that in some ways, it's hard to compare them. It starts in the 40s, when the West Computing Group was formed at Langley and Black women, most of whom were working as math teachers or homemakers, were recruited to do the complicated math behind the airplane designs the white male engineers were working on for WWII. And it goes all the way through the moon landing and Katherine Johnson's contributions on that front. Shetterly even details some events that occurred after the moon landing in the epilogue and bemoans the fact that she didn't have space to include more. The movie, on the other hand, does a really good job of picking one point in time to focus on from the larger historical context (John Glenn's first orbital space flight) and condensing it into a narrative story. In some ways, they had to take license for the story in a way that actually put Langley in a worse light than Shetterly described in the book. For example, Katherine is portrayed as working with an awful group of white men, with the fictional Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons) acting as the archetypical racist engineer in charge. While Katherine certainly worked with plenty of racist coworkers, she and Shetterly described her time on that team differently, with Katherine ignoring the restrictions on her race (including ignoring any direction to use a colored bathroom and just using whatever was nearest) and most of the men she worked with sort of following her lead once they grew to respect her drive and calculations. Shetterly also claims that Langley as a whole was an interesting example because the facility desegregated much quicker than the surrounding community -- so the women actually had more freedoms and respect at work than they did in their everyday life. Anyway, I enjoyed both book and film very much -- I was fascinated by a lot of what I learned in the book (as you can see by this long paragraph!) and captivated by the story told in the film. 5 stars.

Happy Friday! I started feeling like I had a mild sore throat last night and it got really bad in the middle of the night -- woke me up because swallowing hurt so much. Hoping it's not COVID or strep but I also wouldn't be super mad at a mild case of either since it would get me out of an in-person presentation in front of ~400 people I'm supposed to do for our Seattle Store Directors meeting on Tuesday that I am utterly dreading. Going to take it easy today and work only on stuff that needs to get done, then stay in tonight. There's an open house for a house we're really interested in in the afternoon and I think Tim and I might don a KN95 and go check it out since it looks super promising and the market has been moving really fast around here. Otherwise, no plans.

Currently reading: Finished Hither, Page last night (review to come) and read the first chapter of Drums of Autumn. Made more progress in Forest Mage -- getting there but still have ~7 hours to go.

Sorry to hear about the sore throat but glad you're finding a silver lining if you do end up coming down with a bug. Presenting to 400 people is definitely intimidating!

Good luck at the house viewing!

53 books read: Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian

Leo Page was recruited as a spy as a young man and served England during WWII. Now, the war is over, and his supervisor has given him a new assignment: to investigate the suspicious death of a charwoman in a quiet country village before the local authorities get too involved. It seems a little weird for an assignment, but who is Leo to argue? Meanwhile, James Sommers, a war-traumatized doctor, has retreated to the same village, where he spent time as a child, hoping for a quiet posting where he can withdraw and recover. As Leo attempts to unravel the mystery of the possible murder, he gets to know the quirky inhabitants of the village, including James, with whom he instantly felt a connection.

This was a fun queer historical romance mystery (say that five times fast?). I felt like it had the same vibes of a BBC mystery show -- something like Grantchester. An easy, enjoyable read. 4 stars.

>210 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky. Yeah, I was initially supposed to just attend the meeting and my boss was traveling from Texas to present, but then she got Covid a few weeks ago and she is still not really able to fly due to a lingering cough, so she asked if I could do the presentation instead and I didn't really feel like I could say no... but I really don't want to do it, lol.

>159 curioussquared: Now, you see, Jasper would probably eat the evidence too - purely because he has a thing for paper. We had to take the waste paper bin away from the dining room because of him, and - though he hasn't for a while - he would still steal tissues from the bin in the downstairs room. You'd suddenly see him hurrying past, head down assassin-style (for a retriever), as he'd take it outside to destroy.

Mind you, we did find a chocolate wrapper once that no-one else admitted to so he may have left it; thankfully just a small, sweet size and he didn't show any effects (so it might not have been him). (Especially since he once surprised me by making off with a golf ball and eating it. And, yes, there was 'evidence' later that day.)

Belated happy 4-year Gotcha Day to Otter!

>213 humouress: Yikes, the golf ball! Jasper sounds rather more sneaky than my two dumbos. They try, but it's just not in their nature.

Happy Sunday! I was feeling pretty good yesterday and I think I may have overdone it. Did some tidying (putting things away, laundry, dishes, making the bed) and cooking (chicken noodle soup for dinner plus chocolate chip scones from a King Arthur mix) and I also put together some hanging wire closet organizers I'd been meaning to set up for ages and started filling them. While I still felt OK at the end of it all, I'm feeling a little sicker today, so trying to take it easy. My dad stopped by to hook up my car battery to his battery charger to see if that will fix it (I didn't drive my car for a few months between working from home, the Skelly stuff, and Costa Rica and the battery died and then wasn't charging after being jumped despite being brand new last year, boo). I took the dogs for a walk but have otherwise been lounging, cuddling hounds, and reading.

Currently reading: Making good progress in Drums of Autumn in print. Finished Forest Mage on audio yesterday and started Spare as my new listen. Started Half a Soul on Kindle but haven't read much yet.

Currently watching: Watched Burn After Reading for a movie night with Tim which we had both never seen and really liked! I've also watched the first few episodes of the new Seattle Love Is Blind season, one of my guilty pleasures. Micah and Irina seem horrible; I'm rooting for Brett and Tiffany and Marshall and Jackie so far.

54 books read: Forest Mage by Robin Hobb

Nevare Burvelle, second son and so destined to be a soldier, has survived the Speck plague that killed many of his classmates at the Kavala Officer's Academy and is looking forward to a trip home for his older brother's wedding. One odd thing, though, is that while most of his classmates who survived the plague are skin and bones, Nevare seems to be gaining weight at an alarming rate. Dismissing it and certain that he'll lose the weight on the arduous journey home, he sets out. But when he arrives, he's surprised to discover that he's fatter than ever, and his family is various turns of shocked, alarmed, and disgusted. His father, ashamed, puts him on a fasting regimen before the wedding and sets him to hard labor, but nothing seems to help and Nevare is eager to get back to school -- until an unexpected letter arrives to inform him that he has been medically discharged due to his weight gain, which the doctor believes is an unusual side effect of the Speck plague. Nevare's father is furious, but soon the Speck plague strikes their home as well, and Nevare finds himself working hard just to bring his family and estate through the onslaught. But none of it is good enough for his father, who casts him out and disowns him once the plague has cooled. At loose ends, Nevare sets out to find some kind of honorable life for himself, deciding to try to enlist as a standard soldier at the furthest army outpost, where men are working to extend the King's Road. Working as a lowly cemetery guard, Nevare begins to realize that something is very wrong in this town, and he's pretty sure it has something to do with the Specks in the nearby forest -- and that his massive weight gain has something to do with the Speck magic.

I love Robin Hobb and have been meaning to reread her Assassin's Apprentice books soon, but this was just too long. Nevare is not the most interesting main character -- he's selfish, and slow to learn, and while he's driven by an internal honor code and does try to make the right choice, he's just... not very good at it. It doesn't help that Nevare's is the only POV we get in all 31 hours of audiobook. I saw some reviews claiming this book was fat shaming, but I think it was actually doing the opposite -- at least 25% of the book is just Nevare been treated poorly or made fun of because of his obesity, and the message that we shouldn't judge people based on their physical appearance or size is very much conveyed. Overall, the book is saved because of Hobb's writing. The characters aren't likeable and the situations you read about aren't enjoyable, but Hobb can still tell a story. I'll finish the trilogy, but probably on audio again because these are just too long and they'll go quicker on audio. If you've been meaning to try Robin Hobb, do NOT start with the Soldier Son trilogy. 3 stars.

Happy Monday! Still congested today but feeling somewhat better. Back to work. Mostly will spend today prepping for my presentation tomorrow, which I think I'll probably end up doing unless I do some practice runs today and totally lose my voice. Spent the rest of the day yesterday taking it easy watching TV and reading.

Currently reading: Making good progress in Spare on audio and actually enjoying it quite a bit -- Harry (or his ghostwriter) has done a good job of a compelling narrative and he has clearly reflected enough to capture the underlying absurdity in his and Megan's situation. Read more of Drums of Autumn and I think I'm getting close to 1/4 of the way through.

Currently watching: Finished all the available episodes of S4 of Love Is Blind (Very much saw Zach and Irina's breakup coming, lol) and ended up watching the last two episodes of S1 of Outlander (I skipped over any of the torture aspects that were a little too much for me).

Good morning! No update yesterday as I was too busy fixating on my presentation, but I made it through OK and then came home and collapsed. Ordered Thai food for dinner and splurged on black sticky rice pudding for dessert as a little reward. I'm still feeling not great and I don't think presenting made it any better -- my congestion might be turning into a sinus infection, boo. Just one work meeting to get through today and then I'll be trying to get through all the stuff I've been ignoring while focusing on the presentation. We're supposed to go to Tim's parents' house for dinner tonight as they're working on decluttering their Seattle home and need their kids' approval on some of the stuff they're getting rid of, but I might skip it and stay home since I'm still not feeling great.

Currently reading: Still working through Drums of Autumn -- read some on Monday but nothing yesterday -- and Spare on audio. You're telling me Prince Harry is a Maxxinista??? Slay, Haz.

Currently watching: Started S2 of Outlander on Monday. Got through half of S2E2 last night before Tim asked me pointedly if I wanted to watch something we both wanted to watch (rude!) and we switched to a John Oliver episode.

Glad the presentation is behind you and you can focus on feeling better now!

Huzzah for surviving the presentation.

Crossing my fingers that your crud isn't a sinus infection. I had one last fall and it was no fun (although not the worst sinus infection I've ever had, which recurred for a few months).

Snorting about Tim's comment about Outlander viewing. I'm lucky in that Mr. Fine doesn't mind Outlander and will watch it with me.

>218 curioussquared:
Hey Natalie :)
I think we did a story here about how this allergy season is expected to be worse than before (and longer) but be on the lookout for other symptoms; virus's are hitting people hard now after the last two years.

>219 katiekrug: Thanks Katie!

>220 MickyFine: Thanks Micky! Yeah, I'm hoping whatever I have clears up soon. It's a weird one in that I'll feel 90% better some of the time and then the rest of the time I feel awful again, so it just keeps tricking me. Lol, I think Tim has in his mind that Outlander is a ~*~girly show~*~ and I want him to give it a chance, but he's not really interested.

>221 Ravenwoodwitch: Hi Angela! I don't really get allergies which is a blessing but yeah, I feel like everyone is getting sick with something right now.

Congrats on getting through the presentation and hopefully you are feeling better soon!

>223 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita! :)

Hi, Natalie!

>223 figsfromthistle: Yes, what Anita said!

>225 scaifea: Hi Amber! And thanks :)

Happy Thursday! I'm still sick :( This cold is getting pretty old. Last night I skipped dinner and sorting through stuff with Tim's family and managed to say no to the various offerings from Tim's parents that were communicated over text, including a small TV, silver plated flatware, and some antique wooden boxes -- just not things that we need! I did say yes to a small ornamental painted duck, so that should give you an idea of the kind of person I am, lol. While Tim was out I watched 2 and a half episodes of Outlander (I don't usually get through shows so quickly but what can I say, it's just really scratching the right parts of my brain right now) and made a stir fry that I ate over ramen to appease the cold. Read a bit before bed and then passed out.

Tim is in the office today so it's just me and the dogs at home and should be a pretty standard workday. I need to go to Costco and was hoping tonight would work for that, so we'll see how I'm feeling. I'd also need to wait until Tim gets home because there's something up with my car -- I think the battery is faulty (it's new last year but won't hold a charge) or something. In any case, it won't start.

Currently reading: In the home stretch on Spare and getting close to 1/3 of the way through Drums of Autumn.

Currently watching: Lots of Outlander! Through S2E4.

Sorry the cold is lingering. The Wayne woke up feeling not great today, so I am just waiting my turn to catch it...

>227 curioussquared: Outlander is easy to binge, so I totally get it.

I hope you're feeling well enough for your Costco trip and that you can figure out what's up with your car. That's a big pain.

>228 katiekrug: Definitely feels like there are a bunch of bugs around right now! Hope you stay well :)

>229 MickyFine: Thanks Micky! Yeah, super annoying also that it chose to have these issues on like, one of the only days Tim and I actually needed both cars -- it wouldn't start when I had to head out to my presentation south of Seattle on Tuesday so I had to take Tim's car and Tim had to find alternative transportation to go pick up Kermit from a vet procedure north of Seattle that same afternoon. Luckily my best friend (the dogs' "auntie") lives close and is between jobs right now and she was happy to take him.

It's Friday and I think I'm finally starting to feel better! After work yesterday I walked the dogs and then went to Costco when Tim got home. I was exhausted when I got back so I'm definitely not fully better yet but it was good to get out. Today is work and then Tim and I are going with a couple friends to see the D&D movie at the 21+ movie theater that serves food and drinks, so that should be fun.

Currently reading: Finished up Spare yesterday and got about 1/4 of the way through On the Way to the Wedding on audio. Started Fugitive Telemetry in print for a little break from Drums of Autumn but I don't think I'll finish it today, so my March numbers are probably done.

55 books read: Spare by Prince Harry

Prince Harry (or Haz or Spike as he's known to his friends, lol) tells the story of his life from the moment of his mother's death up to the death of his grandmother the queen, or Granny, as he called her.

I don't think of myself as someone who's super into the royals, but I do love some good drama, which is why I've been interested in Harry and Meghan's story and their break with the royal family. I wasn't sure what to expect from this memoir and I'm actually surprised how much I enjoyed it. Harry paints a vivid and sympathetic picture of his life and doesn't hold back on spilling the tea about various members of his family, and everything is tinged with his knowledge of the underlying absurdity of his situation. His writing (who knows how much it was ghostwritten, I guess) is is surprisingly comedic. The main thing I took from the book was that the British press is just awful, and Harry and Meghan appear to have been repeatedly thrown under the bus to make Charles and Camilla or Will and Kate look better, which can't feel good when you expected your family to have your back. 4.5 stars.

>232 curioussquared: I am not a fan of the US media ecosystem and view the NYT and Wapo as bad at their job. I was astounded, when I lived in London, at how gleefully evil and wilfully cozy with Tories and the royal family the British press is. Like if an ambulance chaser married a paparazzo and their kid grew up to be a gossip columnist but was branded a journalist.

>233 libraryperilous: Yeah, I think most Americans don't realize just how much on a different level things are over there (I know I didn't and I bet Meghan didn't, either). I think most of Harry's critics, especially those in the UK, see him as violating the contract between the royal family and the press -- you're royal and our taxes pay for your life, so in exchange you must be on display 24/7 and give up any right to privacy and let the media portray you as they will. And really, Harry actually put up with it until they got overly abusive and racist with Meghan.

I didn’t realize there was a new season of Love Is Blind! I’ll have to check it out.

Good job getting through the presentation!

I am also in the middle of reading (well, listening to Harry read) Spare. I think that in interviews etc. he comes across as someone with a good sense of humor so I’m not surprised at how amusing he can be in the book.

>232 curioussquared: Re: the ghostwriter, it's J. R. Moehringer who also ghost wrote Andre Agassi's memoir Open and wrote his own memoir, The Tender Bar. I really liked Agassi's book so learning it was the same ghostwriter actually made me want to read Spare a bit more than I would have otherwise.

Hope you're feeling better!

>235 ursula: Hi Ursula! The new LIB season is still airing so if you're someone who likes to binge it all at once, best to wait a little. You're right about Harry in interviews. I hope you enjoy Spare!

>236 bell7: Oh interesting, Mary! I guess it makes sense that a ghostwriter working on this level would be somewhat famous in his own right.

Happy Saturday! It's been a lazy morning hanging with the dogs. The Dungeons and Dragons movie last night was excellent -- I highly recommend! So much fun to see an original action/fantasy movie with a good script.

Today we're working on taxes and planning our Italy trip. If there's time, I might treat myself to a bookstore trip as a little reward for doing the presentation. Tonight we're going to dinner with my best friend to celebrate the new job offer she just accepted.

Currently reading: Didn't open a physical book yesterday but made some progress in On the Way to the Wedding while walking the dogs.

Currently watching: The Dungeons and Dragons movie! So much fun. The theater was packed and everyone had a great time.

Oooh Italy!

Glad to hear you enjoyed the D&D movie. Mr. Fine is debating whether to go with some of his D&D friends on Friday. He wants to see it but isn't sure if he wants to go that day.

>239 MickyFine: Yes! Finally rebooking the trip we had to cancel last fall when Skelly was sick. Not going to Croatia anymore but we'll hit up Venice, Florence, the Cinque Terre, and Rome.

I hope Mr. Fine enjoys the movie whenever he sees it! I've never played or had any interest in playing D&D and I still loved it. Just a lot of fun with a great cast.

Happy Sunday! Yesterday went pretty much according to plan and we got our taxes submitted and booked flights and accomodations for Italy. I went to the bookstore and treated myself -- they had a lot of good used stuff this time! I picked up:

Project Hail Mary
The Overstory
Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries
The Serpent Sea
Tropic of Serpents
A Conjuring of Light
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen

In the evening my friend decided to just come over and hang out rather than go out to eat, so we ordered banh mi and watched some TV and a movie.

Today should be pretty low key. Already spent the morning lounging with the puppies in bed and they'll get a walk soon. Then I'd like to fit in a 30 minute Zumba workout before going to the April silent book club meeting with my friend -- I'll be bringing Drums of Autumn.

Currently reading: Listened to more On the Way to the Wedding (should hopefully finish today) and read a chapter of Fugitive Telemetry last night.

Currently watching: An episode of All Creatures Great and Small and then Juno, which was a rewatch for me but the first time for my friend. Uhh... Let's just say this movie hits very differently watching as an adult and not a high schooler.

I've been to Florence and the Cinque Terre. Loved both. We are wanting to go to Italy, but TW has announced it will have to be two separate trips because there are too many places he wants to visit...

>242 katiekrug: Oh no, you'll have to go to Italy twice?? Bummer ;)

Silent book club was fun! Talked with some fellow book lovers before the hour of silent reading and was reminded that I need to pick up Black Sun soon by one of them. Made it through about 100 pages of Drums of Autumn and am approaching halfway through :) They also had a mobile bookmobile bookstore outside and I picked up Yolk for 40% off.