Life
Feeling a bit frazzled this morning! I usually do most of my holiday shopping on Cyber Monday (today), but I am also dealing with trying to arrange a pick-up of our old living room furniture (new stuff arrives next week) and arguing with KDP (Amazon's publishing arm) because I tried to run a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale on my book, and they never changed the price on the website. Very frustrating, especially since the same thing happened in August when I tried to run an end-of-summer sale! And all that shopping I need to do! Deep breaths ...
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend up in Rochester, NY, my hometown. This trip is always a marathon for me, even when I'm in my best shape, so I was very pleased to be feeling pretty good after my long relapse this fall. I managed the weekend and really enjoyed seeing family. Because of my immune problems, we had to be cautious and skip a big whole-family gathering like we would normally coordinate, but we did two small gatherings (even those made me nervous), spent some wonderful time with my step-mom while staying with her, and I even got to see one of my best friends (from teen years on!) for the first time in several years. Thanksgiving dinner was so much better after the Bills big win!
__________
On the Blog
Just time for one review last week before we left:
Fiction Review: The Hotel Neversink by Adam O'Fallon Price - a mystery and generational family drama set at an old hotel in the Catskills
__________
What We're Reading
I'm still enjoying Nonfiction November, though none of us had much reading time last week:
I am still reading Seabiscuit by
Laura Hillenbrand, a book that's been on my shelf for over a decade!
Hillenbrand is my personal hero. Yes, she is an amazingly talented
writer, but she also has the same immune disorder I have, ME/CFS, and has written remarkable books with horrible disabilities (great interview with her from Stanford Medicine). She wrote much of Seabiscuit
while lying down on her back in bed, with her eyes closed because her
vertigo was so bad, writing with a pencil on a pad of paper! My husband
and I both loved Unbroken, and he loved reading Seabiscuit,
but I kept thinking I just wasn't interested in horse racing. Well, of
course, her in-depth research and incredible talent in story-telling
shine through! It's another outstanding book that reads like a novel and is gripping and fascinating.
In small increments, I am also trying to fit in another nonfiction graphic "novel," Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball by Jon Chad. It's very interesting so far and surprising. I had no idea that the earliest pinball games could be traced back to the court of King Louis XIV. I learned that pinball was banned in NYC from 1942 until 1976. This was especially surprising since I was playing pinball in NY state by the late 70's! So far, it's entertaining and enlightening.
On audio, I am almost finished listening to The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
by Anthony Ray Hinton on audio. I have lots of nonfiction audios to
choose from, but this one popped to the top of my list after hearing
rave reviews from Booktubers. This is the author's story of how he was
wrongly accused of two murders, convicted and sentenced to death, and
lived on death row for 30 years before finally getting his name cleared.
I've listened to other true stories of innocent men wrongly accused,
but the shear volume of horrors here is stunning. It took flawed or
outright falsified evidence, lies on the stand, an inept public
defender, and many people ignoring evidence of his innocence to land him
on death row. It's very powerful and completely gripping. I'm close to the end now and highly recommend this book!
My husband, Ken, is still reading The Verifiers by Jane Pek, an author I met at Booktopia.
Jane sat at our table at dinner one night, so I got to know her a
bit--she's excellent at book trivia! This is a classic mystery in a
modern setting with an awesome female protagonist, with a hefty dose of
humor, plus family drama. I thoroughly enjoyed it (you can read my
review at the link), and he's liking it so far.
Our son, 28, has been reading Spellmonger by Terry Mancour, the first book in the Spellmonger series. He's enjoying it so far, but he admitted this weekend that he's gotten sucked into an old Pokemon game, so that's eating into his usual reading time! He also has less reading time at work, since he's got a new position with less downtime.
Always tough when what you want to happen just can't seem to fall into place. KDP sounds like a hard nut to crack. Great that the trip away went so well, being cautious was wise though about which groups you visited with. Nice that your team won. Aways good! Happy reading.
ReplyDeleteUgh - they STILL haven't gotten it right, Kathryn - very frustrating!
DeleteUgh ... KDP still hasn't gotten it right, Kathryn - very frustrating! Makes it impossible to plan a sale for certain days.
DeleteThe Sun Does Shine sounds very powerful. I will have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding memoir, Lisa!
DeleteI am glad you had a good gathering with family and were able to do it and feel good. Yay! We had a quiet but nice Thanksgiving dinner with lots of laughing, which is always good
ReplyDeleteYes, laughter is always good! Glad you enjoyed the holiday, Helen.
DeleteThe Sun Does Shine sounds great;)
ReplyDeleteSuch an outstanding, powerful book!
Delete