It's Monday 1/17! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

COVID Day 13, and I am slowly--very slowly--coming back to life. It hit me particularly hard because of my chronic immune disorder (I hardly made any antibodies from the vaccines), though it hit my healthy son pretty hard for a week, too, so it's definitely something to take seriously. And my father-in-law, at 96, is really struggling, still in the COVID wing at the nursing home, more than two weeks in. We're trying to encourage him to eat and build up his strength because he also needs to do PT and recover from a broken hip!

As for me, last week was a rough one. Some days, I just slept all day, with brief breaks for a sitcom (about all I could handle) or 10 minutes of reading. I was feeling pretty down by Friday because with my chronic illness, there is a good chance that COVID will cause a long-term worsening, and I still had zero energy. I began to see small signs of improvement this weekend, though. I was sitting up most of the day (other than my usual nap time in the afternoon), and I felt my brain begin to function again! It's a concept I call "mental energy" in the chronic illness world, and when it comes back, it feels glorious. So, I was able to feel a bit useful this weekend, paying some bills on my laptop, and even managing a couple of short blog posts. I'm still sleeping 10-11 hours at night (plus my nap) and had a terrible coughing fit at 7 am this morning, but those signs of improvement have lifted my spirits and given me some hope that I might be able to get back to my "normal" baseline.

I managed to help celebrate my son's 24th birthday last week. We just had a quiet evening at home with him and his girlfriend and takeout, gifts, and cake. I stayed on the other side of the room and wore my mask. He was thrilled to be fully recovered and able to enjoy a weekend at the beach with his girlfriend. 

Birthday Celebration!

That took a lot out of me, which is probably why Friday was so rough. Feeling down, I told my husband I needed something to look forward to. It's an old adage I learned from a wonderful psychologist in the early years of my illness: What are you looking forward to? My days were running together, so I suggested we do something special and order pizza and wings for Saturday evening. I know - crazy, right? Since I'm dairy intolerant and don't usually eat grains, it was a little crazy! I added a diet root beer for me, and we totally enjoyed our junk food feast, along with a movie (Finch on Apple TV, which was very good). It was just what I needed to lift my spirits!

Our wild Saturday night

I did manage one brief video last week, on one of my better days:

Friday Reads 1-14-22 - where I talk about the top two books below

(anyone else still writing 2021 by mistake?)

COVID has slowed down my reading, but books still provided a lot of enjoyment and comfort last week. Here's what we've all been reading:

 

I finished reading Happiness by Aminatta Forma. I like this sort of story, where two very different people's lives intersect unexpectedly. In this case, it's Jean, an American wildlife biologist studying urban foxes in London, and Attila, a Ghanian psychiatrist who specializes in PTSD; their paths cross in London. It was a beautiful novel, thoughtful and warm and all about healing.

 

I also finished my audio book, The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, which I loved! Erdrich reads her own audios, making them even more special. In this one, a Native American woman named Tookie spent years in prison and is now working in a bookstore (the real-life bookstore owned by the author) where she sees the ghost of a former customer. It takes place in 2020 so covers all that happened then, too. It was warm and funny and, coincidentally, also very much about healing.

 

I just started reading Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eban. This is nonfiction and the choice for my neighborhood book group (on Zoom) this week. The author is an investigative journalist, and the book is about dangerous fraud and scandal in the generic drug business. To be honest, I didn't want to read it, since I rely on about 20 different generic medications every day! But it's quite interesting so far (and hasn't yet mentioned any of my meds).

 

For my next audio book, I chose Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh, which will be released on February 1. I love Haigh's novels, and it's been years since she published a new one, so I was thrilled to spot her name in the list of upcoming releases! I only just started listening, but this one is about disparate people's lives that intersect at a women's clinic in Boston.

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, book one of The Malazan Book of the Fallen series, a fantasy novel recommended by our son. Once again, he didn't have much reading time this week, between sanitizing, hand-washing, and doing the cooking, but he says he's enjoying it.

 

Ken also mentioned to me that he read Animal Farm by George Orwell during some late-night sessions! He's been sleeping in the guest room since I got COVID, and we keep all of our classics on a shelf in there, so when he can't sleep at night, he grabs something from the shelf. This was his first time reading this satirical classic, and he enjoyed it. I'd like to reread it myself, as I think I read it (this copy even!) back in Junior High.

 

Our son, 27,finally took a break from his new Pokemon game for the Switch (a gift from his brother) and finished reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novak, a follow-up to Uprooted, which he loved. He said it was "really good--not super actiony, but a great and unique fantasy tale."

 

Now, our son is reading a book that was a gift from his girlfriend, The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter, book one of The Burning series. Amazon says it's one of Time magazine's Top 100 Fantasy Books of all time!

A new blog post yesterday!

Fiction Review: Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce - funny, quirky but also warm and moving story of two women on an adventure in 1950.

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?