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Life
Happy Birthday to our younger son, who is 27 today! He and his girlfriend are coming over tonight to celebrate with a steak dinner and his favorite dessert, banana cake. He and his brother both requested it every year for their birthdays as kids, and I haven't made one in a while.
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| First Birthday |
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| Fifth Birthday |
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| 17th Birthday & the famous banana cake |
The reason I was able to stand on my feet in the kitchen and bake a cake yesterday is that ... my 3-month-long chronic illness relapse seems to be over finally! 🎉🥳 I still don't know what caused it or why it finally cleared up, but I have had seven pretty good days in a row now, and the flu-like aches are gone. I'm hugely grateful to be feeling more like myself. It's funny how, after an awful relapse like that, all my usual limits and restrictions don't seem all that bad! I've even been able to start taking tiny walks again, working my way back to my "normal" baseline. I left the house three times last week, including a thrilling return to Trader Joe's!
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| Back out in the world! |
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| A short walk on a favorite trail |
One of those trips was to the orthodontist to get Invisiline (at 59!). I have a couple of teeth that were rotating and causing problems, so here I am. I only have to wear them for six months, so that's not too bad. I'm getting used to them, though it's a pain to have to remove them anytime I want to eat something. This should cut down on snacking!
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My 2024 Reading Wrap-Up and Best Books - my annual recap of my reading year, including fun stats, my picks for Best Book in a variety of categories, and some Top 10 Lists.
My Year in Books meme - this is a fun meme that I enjoyed participating in, using titles of the books I read in 2024. Join the fun and play along!
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My 2024 Reading Wrap-Up - seeing a theme here? This is my video recap of my reading year, where I talk a bit about why I chose my Best Books of the year.
Friday Reads 1-10-25 - Starting off 2025 with some great books!
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We were very excited to see that two of our all-time favorite shows came back for new seasons last week (my reviews at the links):
Will Trent - a suspenseful crime drama about the Georgia Bureau of Investigation with excellent writing & acting, original characters you come to care about, and a sense of humor. Season 3 starts off with Will a long way from Atlanta and pledging not to go back to law enforcement.
The Rookie - when Nathan Fillion is involved, you know a show will have the perfect blend of drama and comedy, and that's true of this show about an older rookie on the LAPD. Now in its 7th season, Fillion's character is no longer a rookie, but there are some newbies on the force this season, each with their own fascinating backstory.
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I finished Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. It's a memoir in which the author describes one particularly difficult winter for her family, using "winter" both literally and figuratively, explaining that everyone encounters a personal winter at some point(s) in their lives. She uses the months from September through March as jumping off points to discuss topics like metamorphosis, light, dark, slumber, survival, and more. This was the perfect book for me at the right time, as I was in the midst of my own personal winter with that relapse, hibernating in our home with snow and cold outside. It was excellent, with a strong focus on nature, and I really enjoyed it ... and tabbed lots of passages! (I am way behind on my Quotes Journal).
Now, I am reading a long-anticipated novel, Writers and Lovers by Lily King. I'm buddy reading this with Melinda from A Web of Stories blog and Booktube channel and am really enjoying our discussions. After the sudden death of her mother in 1997, thirty-one-year-old Casey has moved back to Cambridge, Massachusetts, after living in many different places. She is at loose ends, working long hours as a waitress while she struggles to write her novel, seeing many of her friends move onto marriage, children, and steady careers. You gradually learn more about Casey's childhood, parents, and writing life. It's a story with grief at its center, but it's also about healing and learning to move forward. I love the writing style and am rooting for Casey.
On audio, I have been listening to The Briar Club by Kate Quinn, my book group's pick for January. I've heard great things about this book, and I enjoyed Quinn's The Diamond Eye. Unlike some of her others, this novel is not based on a real person, but it centers on a real time and place and the world events that defined it. The focus here is on the Briarwood House, a rundown boarding house for women in Washington, DC, in 1950, as a new resident, Grace, moves in. The reader gradually gets to know the widely different cast of women living in the home, as well as the cranky, strict woman who runs the house, and her children, 8-year-old Lena, and 13-year-old Pete. The residents of the house gradually get to know each other through Grace's impromptu Thursday dinners in her room, cooked on a hot plate and dubbed The Briar Club by the women, but each of them is hiding secrets. It culminates in (mentioned at the beginning) a murder in the house. It's excellent, with in-depth characters set against the backdrop of the paranoia of the McCarthy hearings, the Cold War, and the Korean War. I can't wait to talk about it this week!
My husband, Ken, is reading The Searcher by Tana French, a birthday gift from me, though he is still spending more time watching football than reading (he's a big fan of college football and an Oklahoma State alum)! We are both huge fans of Tana French and have loved her Dublin Murder Squad series, including In the Woods, The Likeness (my favorite), Faithful Place, and Broken Harbor. This is the start of a new series, featuring a retired American police detective now living in Ireland. He says it's great so far.
Our son, 30, had some extra reading time this weekend, so he finished book 16, Preceptor, of the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour and immediately moved into book 17, Practical Adept. He loves to immerse himself in a good fantasy series!
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You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.
I am so glad to hear that you are starting to feel better. We are having a program at our church in a few weeks and the keynoter is an author who has lived with a chronic illness. I'm hoping to gain insights on how to live a centered life with some aspect, like health, goes all wonky. I'll double back and let you know her name, in case you want to look for her books, or just how the day went.
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