It's Monday 5/6! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

 Last week was the first one in 2024 where I had a few rough days with my chronic illness–nothing too bad but just feeling run-down, worn-out, and Sunday morning, achy (uh-oh – that’s my danger sign!). I finally figured it out last night. I had loosened my diet a tiny bit this week, and apparently, that was too much for me! That caused my yeast overgrowth to flare up again (in spite of all the probiotics, supplements, and medications I take for it), which caused my immune system to react. It’s an decades-old story for me, but seemingly a lesson I have to keep learning! Once I figured it out, I got strict on the diet again, increased probiotics and antifungals last night, and I’m happy to report that I feel better today. It’s a bit depressing that some blueberries and a few tortilla and potato chips last week (and a tiny reduction in dose of the antifungals) sent me back to where I was last year. But I will focus on the positive: I do seem to have some control over it, with strict diet, meds, and supplements. That’s a lot better than feeling helpless!

We did manage to enjoy a nice weekend, in spite of dark, rainy days, with a combination of productivity and fun! We stopped at the Native Plant Sale at our local nature center Saturday in the rain. Unfortunately, they were already out of some of the things on our list (like a dogwood tree and brown-eyed Susans, my namesake!), but we picked up 6 native plants. We got more Amsonia and Blue Moon Phlox, which I bought there in 2020 and are doing well in our gardens, and Helenium Flexuosum, a substitute for the brown-eyed Susans with yellow flowers and a long blooming time in the summer. So, we’ll plant those this week. Actually–last-minute edit–I got out and planted them this morning!

New native plants

One of the new Helenium Flexuosum

Some of the Blue Moon Phlox we planted 4 years ago

Some Anemone we planted 4 years ago

And we had our oldest friends over Saturday for an early Cinco de Mayo celebration! We had delicious Mexican food (make-your-own tacos or salads) and wonderful conversation. We usually see each other every 2-3 weeks and hadn’t gotten together since March, so we had a lot to catch up on. I forgot to take any pictures until after they left, so here’s me.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

And yesterday, we finally got started on clearing off, getting rid of books, and reorganizing our bookcases! We have bookcases in almost every room of the house, and we’ve lived in this house for 29 years, so the shelves were long overdue for a reckoning. We’ve got lots of books set aside for donation, we whittled our to-be-read bookcase down to (almost) get rid of the double rows (that was painful), and we reshelved some of our all-time favorites on the big living room bookcase. There’s still a lot more to do, but it felt good to get started. As we tried to make “keep or give away” decisions on our books, my husband said, “why would people ever get rid of their books??” He suggested moving to a new house with a library, but since that’s not possible right now, we did some culling.

One of many boxes of books to donate (we need more boxes!)

Our TBR Bookcase (extras on the right are our picks for Big Book Summer!)

Our living room bookcase – The Keepers!

__________

On the Blog

My low energy last week affected my ability to write in the afternoons, when I usually do blog posts, so just one review:

Fiction Review: You Are Here by Karin Lin-Greenberg – my mom and I both enjoyed this Booktopia selection, about a disparate group of people whose lives cross in a suburban mall. It was excellent on audio!

__________

Booktopia 2024 Vlog: A Unique Bookish Weekend in Vermont - videos and photos from our fabulous book-centric weekend, plus very short recaps of the 10 books and authors featured.

Friday Reads 5-3-24 – my brief weekly update of what I am reading and listening to, last week including poetry, fiction, audio books, and more.

__________

I finished a Booktopia selection, My Beloved Life by Amitava Kumar. This is a multi-generational novel set in India that begins with a man named Jadu, born in 1935 in a small rural village. Part 1 focuses on Jadu, but Part 2 changes to the perspective of his daughter, Jugnu (who moves to the U.S.), and a later part on another character. It’s a sort of quiet, beautifully written novel that I enjoyed very much and tabbed many pages with quotes to remember. There are a lot of fascinating details about life in India, against a historical backdrop, which was interesting. It also delves deep into these characters, their lives, and their hopes and dreams. I enjoyed meeting the author who is a very engaging speaker.

Now, I am reading Honey by Victor Lodato. I met Victor at Booktopia 2017, and my mom and I both loved his novel Edgar and Lucy (my review at the link). He sent me an advanced reader copy of Honey, which was just released on April 16. I fully intended to read and review it in time for its release, but Booktopia 2024 books kept me too busy! It’s the story of 80-something Honey Fasinga who escaped from her family and her father, a notorious mobster, as a young adult, and enjoyed a wonderful life in L.A. But after her closest friends died, Honey moved back to her hometown in New Jersey, and she’s now trying to reckon with the violent past she left behind. It’s great so far. I’ve always loved Victor’s writing, and I can’t wait to see what plot twists he has in store for this wonderful character.

For my long drive to Vermont, I started the audio book Sand by Hugh Howey, which I got for my husband in print last year, and I finished it this week. We are huge Howey fans and were both spellbound by his highly acclaimed Silo trilogy (Wool, Shift, and Dust), and I enjoyed his short story collection, Machine Learning (reviews at the links). Like the Silo trilogy, Sand has a post-apocalyptic setting, where a whole new world has been created after some sort of disaster. In this case, it takes place generations into the future, after the central U.S. has been transformed into a desert wasteland, but humans still carve out lives for themselves in this very different world. Our old world is buried deep under the dunes, and sand divers, like the siblings at the center of this novel, use new technologies to dive into the deep sand to look for “artifacts” that might be useful or valuable. As always with Howey, the plot was intriguing, suspenseful, action-packed, and twisty, though he also focuses on the characters. I loved it and will be listening to its sequel, Across the Sand soon.

I finished another audio book last week, Girls Like Us by Gail Giles, which won the Schneider Family Book Award. This was a short but very powerful, moving novel about two 18-year-old girls graduating from high school. They call themselves what everyone else has always called them: Speddies, short for Special Ed. Biddy was born to a drug-addled young mother who dropped her off with her mother. That wasn’t much better–for the past 18 years, Granny has constantly told Biddy she is stupid and worthless. She can’t read or write, but she can learn and has a kind disposition. Quincy’s mother’s boyfriend hit her in the head with a brick when she was a baby, leaving her permanently disfigured and disabled. A state program pairs the two graduating girls together in a small apartment upstairs from an older woman named Elizabeth. Biddy will clean for her and help care for her, while Quincy cooks and works in a local bakery. Through years of abuse and mistreatment, these girls have learned to shield and isolate themselves from others, but slowly, gradually, they become a family. This was a stunning novel, told firsthand through the girls’ oral journals they keep on tapes. Definitely a little-known gem that deserves more attention.

My husband, Ken, finished Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (I read it in 2012–my review at the link). It’s set on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1660′s, about the unique friendship between a 12-year-old Puritan girl, Bethia, and the native son of a chieftan, Caleb. It’s inspired by a true story–Caleb was the first Native American to attend Harvard. Historical fiction is not my husband’s usual genre, but Brooks is such a talented writer (one of my favorites), and he enjoyed it. Now he’s just started one of his dad’s old books he found while we were reorganizing, The Trail to Seven Pines by Louis L’Amour.

Our son, 29, finished re-reading The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington, book 1 of The Licanius Trilogy and started book 2, An Echo of Things to Come. But he hasn’t had a lot of reading time because he and his girlfriend leave next week on a month-long cross-country road trip they’ve been planning for years. I’m so excited for them!

 __________