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Life
Whew, last week was a busy one, filled with medical appointments, one for me and two for my husband's cancer, including our first visit with his medical oncologist and another with a genetic counselor (only 10% of cancers are hereditary, but we want to be sure). He will start a targeted therapy, based on the genetics of the tumor, this week to hopefully prevent it from coming back. We learned last week that they suspect his GIST sarcoma is more aggressive than most. Fox Chase Cancer Center continues to be an amazing place, with incredibly supportive doctors and staff, including the pharmacy there.
Friday, I had a quiet day at home to myself, while my husband enjoyed the Philadelphia Car Show with friends. After the past few months, he really needed some fun time with friends, and I really needed a bit of solitude! My chronic immune disorder continues to be badly flared up, as my mystery relapse continues, so I had flu-like symptoms all week: sore throat, flu-like aches, exhaustion. I haven't actually caught anything, but my immune system is in overdrive. I'm taking a short break from my new medication and hoping that when I go back on it, it will help.
This weekend, my mother and her husband came to visit, and we finally had a chance to celebrate Christmas together on Saturday evening, along with our son and his fiancé. Sunday, of course, we enjoyed the Superbowl together. By some miracle, I actually felt pretty good yesterday, though sadly, I'm back to flu-like this morning, even with an early bedtime. In fact, while typing this post, I went from sitting up in my recliner to lying down in bed!
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| Yes, those are Bills jerseys! Hope springs eternal. |
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| My husband and I with our son |
Oh, and all that snow from three weeks ago is still on the ground! It hit 33 F this week, and we were so excited the temperature went above freezing. Meanwhile, the birds at the feeder keep us amused from inside our warm house - and our resident squirrel, Twitchy, who has tried to break into our squirrel-Proof feeder every single day for the past 2+ years! Little guy is the epitome of persistence and optimism!
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My February TBR and the Mardi Gras Readathon - I enjoy reading for Black History Month in February, and I look forward to celebrating Mardi Gras with this fun reading event every year to brighten the winter days!
January Reading Wrap-Up - I kicked off the year with a great month of reading, including time travel, historical fiction, thrillers, and an excellent middle-grade novel.
2-Minute Review of James by Percival Everett - I just had to record a quick review video after finishing this brilliant novel!
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I finished reading my first book for Black History Month, James by Percival Everett, and hugged it to my chest. Wow. What an incredible novel! It's a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, from the enslaved man Jim's perspective. Obviously, that's a great concept, but in the hands of Everett, it is absolutely brilliant. This is the first book of his I've read (and I was shocked to see how long his list of published books is), but one of our favorite movies of the past five years was American Fiction, an adaptation of Everett's novel, Erasure. Like that story, James is smart, warm, funny, and highly entertaining. It also has all the action, suspense, and adventure of the original (which I sort of skimmed on my Kindle as I read). But this is a thoroughly modern and very clever take on the familiar story, with plenty of complexity and some surprises in store. It's got layers of meaning, heaps of irony, and is just a whole lot of fun. I can't stop thinking about it!
Now, I am reading another book I've been very much anticipating, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. I'm buddy reading it with Anna, another Booktuber. Last February, I read McBride's Deacon King Kong (click and scroll down for my review) and absolutely loved it - my #2 book of the year! - so I've been looking forward to this one. It's about a poor neighborhood in Pottstown, PA (very close to where we live), starting in the 1920's. A Jewish family runs the title store, in a community of mostly Black families. Like Deacon King Kong, it's an intricate story of a community of diverse people who have been brought together by circumstance and who rely on each other. Another similarity is the cast of quirky characters. In McBride's novels, even minor characters are fully fleshed out. So far, it's warm and poignant, funny at times, covering both the joys and sorrows of life. I'm enjoying it very much.
My next audio book became available on Libby just in time: If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin. This is my first-ever Baldwin book, and I am loving it so far. It's about a young Black couple in Harlem in the early 1970's. Tish, the narrator, and Fonny have known each other since childhood and are now young adults and engaged. Tish is newly pregnant when Fonny is suddenly arrested for a rape he didn't commit. Tish's family is very loving and supportive of the young couple, though Fonny's very religious mother is not. In the present day, Tish's whole family and Fonny's father work hard to prove Fonny's innocence and get him out of prison, but both the arresting officer and the prosecutor have long histories of corruption and racial bias. Flashbacks fill in the story of Tish and Fonny's childhoods and relationship. The language in this moving novel is so lyrical and beautiful that I've requested the print edition from the library because I know there are quotes I will want to write down and remember. It's a poignant story of love and racial injustice, and the audio is completely immersive.
My husband, Ken, is reading Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run by Paul McCartney, edited by Ted Widmer, a Christmas gift from me. Like me, he usually reads just one book at a time, but he decided to try reading nonfiction during the day and fiction at bedtime.
At night, he's reading a novel, The Deep Sky by Yumi Kitasei, another gift from me. It's a sci fi thriller about a crew on a spaceship called The Phoenix whose mission is to save humanity from Earth's environmental collapse. "After a lethal explosion kills several crew members, the survivors, led by the half-Japanese, half-American protagonist Asuka, must uncover the saboteur among them while dealing with themes of identity, belonging, and the emotional toll of leaving Earth behind." I read about this novel first in BookPage and have heard good things about it.
And our son, 31, has been reading Sorcerer's Edge by David Hair, book 3 in the Tethered Citadel trilogy. He loved the first two books in the series, and we got him this one for Christmas. I'm sure he had no reading time this weekend because he enjoyed a fun weekend in the Adirondacks with old friends.
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What are you and your family reading this week?
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