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Life
As my husband said Sunday morning, "I just heard someone say it's November. How can that be??" I agree! It's always somehow stunning when the calendar turns to November each year. The Today Show this morning said there are only 44 shopping days left until Christmas. All of this seems very alarming (as it does every year!), though our weather will help reality set in, as the temperatures dip below freezing tonight.
Because of that, we had to rush to winterize our camper this weekend, to get it ready for storage. I helped my husband with unpacking it, cleaning it, and winterizing. He took it to the storage facility yesterday. We are both sad that the camping season is over, and we can't use it again until March!
As we have done for the last five years or so, we squeezed in one last camping trip last week at Trap Pond State Park, here in Delaware. We love going there the first week of November because the weather is usually great (it wasn't as warm as usual this year but still not bad) and the fall colors are absolutely brilliant. The park is home to the northernmost stand of bald cypress trees on the East Coast, and they turn a vibrant orange in late fall, plus the deciduous trees add bright yellows and reds. I'll be posting a video later this week, but here are some highlights:
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| View of the lake from my bed! |
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| Sunset over Trap Pond |
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| A great blue heron |
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| Kayaking at sunset |
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| Vibrant reflections! |
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| Breathtaking natural beauty! |
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| Love an empty campground! |
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| The knees of the cypress trees are so cool! |
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| Perfect spot to read the perfect outdoor book! |
As for my health and this new trial of experimental medication I am trying, I am still having good days and bad days. However, normally, at this time of year, I am fully into my fall/winter relapse and it is only bad days, so this is an improvement! My flu-like immune symptoms seem to flare up immediately after each injection for a few hours, but on the alternate days (and on weekends), I have been feeling pretty good (i.e. for someone with this disease). I'm feeling hopeful.
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This is a two week catch-up, since we were camping last Monday.
Nonfiction November, Week 1: My Year in Nonfiction (So Far) - The nonfiction books I have read so far this year and what I liked about each one.
Nonfiction November, Week 2: Choosing Nonfiction - All about the genres of nonfiction I tend to read the most and a current read that breaks that mold.
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The Revised E-Reader Book Tag - my answers to questions about how I use (and how I feel about) e-readers. I did this one two years ago, but my answers (and my habits) have changed!
My October Reading Wrap-Up - It was an (almost) all spooky, dark month of reading for me, with suspense, thrillers, ghost stories, plus an unusual fantasy pic for me that I enjoyed.
Get To Know My Taste Tag - this fun Booktube tag asked all kinds of questions about my preferences and habits in books and reading, including my feelings about ratings and my favorite genres and books.
Friday Reads 11-7-25 - the books my husband and I are enjoying, including Nonfiction November, plus thrillers and a great YA graphic novel.
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I finished reading The Sirens by Emilia Hart. It has some fantasy elements, which aren't usually my thing, so I normally wouldn't have picked it up on my own. But, one of the booksellers at Northshire Books (hosts of Booktopia that I attend every year) raved about it at the event this year, other friends of mine from Booktopia enjoyed it, and then I received it in a book subscription box that my son sent me. I'm glad I gave it a try! In Australia in 2019, Lucy wakes up in her college dorm to find that she's in someone else's room, choking a fellow student, with no memory of how she got there. She's never sleepwalked before, but her older sister used to, so Lucy flees to where her sister, Jess, is now living. Jess isn't home, but Lucy goes into her place, an old rundown house on a cliff in a small seaside town that Lucy has heard of before, in the true crime podcasts she listens to. There's been a string of missing men in the town, going back decades. Besides sleepwalking, Lucy has also begun to have vivid dreams, where she is a young Irish girl named Mary, trapped in the hold of a ship with her sister, Eliza, and 80 other women convicts, being transported to Australia in 1900. The dreams continue and intensify, along with the nighttime rambles, as Lucy reads her sister's diary and learns stunning things she never knew. It's a complex story of these two pairs of sisters, separated by over 200 years. There are some truly weird twists (the fantasy elements!), but it was very well-written, and I enjoyed it.
I squeezed in one last book in October, a YA graphic novel called Call Me Iggy by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado. Ignacio likes to be called Iggy and doesn't really have any connection to his heritage. His mother and father moved to Ohio from Columbia for college in the 80's, became US citizens, and never looked back. On Iggy's first day of high school, he bumps into a girl named Marisol, dumping her coffee all over her books and papers (resulting in a meme of the two of them that quickly spreads!). He also discovers they put him into Spanish class instead of the French class he'd hoped for. Iggy doesn't speak Spanish at all, but he decides to stay in the class when he sees a girl named Kristi that he has a crush on. As Iggy struggles with both Spanish and girls, he finds an urn with his grandfather's ashes in the basement and knocks it over by mistake. The ghost of his grandfather appears and offers to help him with both problems! It sounds a little gimmicky, but the story has a lot of heart, as Iggy learns about his family from his grandfather, and plenty of humor as he tries out some of his advice! Besides family and identity, it also delves into topics of politics (it takes place in 2016), immigration, diversity, and more. I really enjoyed it.
And then it was onto Nonfiction November! I'm currently reading A Walk in the Park: the True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko. Sara, a hiking friend (you can see her beautiful outdoor videos here) gave me this book, and I am loving it! The author is an outdoor writer who often pairs up with his best friend, an outdoor photographer, for assignments all over the world. They typically take a seat-of-the-pants approach to their assignments, and it usually works out OK in the end. But when they get an article approved on hiking the length of the Grand Canyon and set out on the expedition with zero backpacking experience or preparation, they are in for a big surprise. Fortunately, other experienced backpackers who love the region offer to help them. In addition to the year-long, grueling odyssey of their hike (experts consider it the toughest hike in the world), Kevin also digs into the science and history of the Grand Canyon, including its Indigenous history. It's outstanding so far, a very compelling story.
On audio, my husband and I finally finished a thriller we began in August, on our way home from our big road trip: 61 Hours by Lee Child. After Libby snatched the book back before we finished it, we waited months to get it back again. This is book 14 in the very popular Jack Reacher series, my husband's favorite series. I chose it for our trip because it was set in South Dakota, one of the places we visited. It's a convoluted mystery that begins with a mysterious murder in a small, remote town just as Reacher gets snowed in while he's passing through. As always, Reacher follows the trail of clues to uncover something far more complex than anyone first expects. This was my first Lee Child book, though I enjoy the Reacher TV series. While it did include some terrible violence (as expected), I enjoyed the writing and the sense of humor in the story. It kept us guessing until the very end!
My first nonfiction book on audio this month was Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach. I've been meaning to read one of her books for many years, and I'm so glad I finally got to it. This one, as the subtitle explains, is all about the gastrointestinal tract, covering everything from saliva and taste to the large colon and rectum (and everything in between!). It was absolutely fascinating, hilariously laugh-out-loud funny, and really gross at times. My husband heard me laughing while I was cooking dinner while camping last week (he was outside grilling), and when he came in for dinner, he asked what was so funny. So I told him, as he looked at me open-mouthed and said, "We're eating dinner!" He forbid me from sharing any more of the book with him (though, of course, I had to share some incredible tidbits too interesting to keep to myself--just not during dinner). Mary Roach has an amazing talent for translating in-depth scientific research into interesting, fascinating, funny stories. I learned so much and thoroughly enjoyed it.
My husband, Ken, is finally reading one of my favorite books from Big Book Summer this year, Bridge by Lauren Beukes. This is a novel about alternate realities, one of my favorite topics. The main character, Bridget, is grieving after her mother's death. Her mom struggled with epilepsy and recurring brain cancer since the age of 14, She used to bring Bridge, when she was just a child, along with her on some very strange adventures. Using something her mom called the "dreamworm," the two would temporarily inhabit other lives, where they were each themselves but different, and everything around them was different. Since then, Bridge's therapist has convinced her those were just dreams or fantasies, but while cleaning out her mom's house, Bridge discovers the dreamworm and her mother's journals, and she begins to realize there really are other realities that she can access. Bridge gets the idea that her mother is still alive in some other reality, so she goes hopping through parallel universes (and into other Bridgets, leaving them very confused and upset). This book was so good! My husband is enjoying it so far.
I have no idea what our son, 31, has been reading! I did text him this weekend, but we didn't get around to a reading update. I'll report back!
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What are you and your family reading this week?
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