 |
| Hosted by The Book Date |
We had a busy week, with some fun sprinkled in, in spite of the heat and an on-going case of poison ivy! Yes, that hike we took last weekend with our sons is the gift that keeps on giving. What I thought were bug bites kept getting worse and spreading, until my husband realized mid-week that it was poison ivy! Some of the original spots are starting to heal, but alarmingly, I found new areas emerging just this weekend, a full week after my exposure. Since I didn't know I'd been exposed to poison ivy (and no one else got it), I was still sleeping on the same sheets that I had on the bed the night of the hike (before I showered). So, I guess I kept re-exposing myself. Everything went in the wash Saturday, so hopefully there will be no new areas appearing, but the recent areas are burning terribly, especially in this heat. So, I'm hiding out in the a/c and going through tubes of cortisone cream and anti-itch gel like crazy. Sleeping is especially difficult. I have ice packs on my legs and arms as I type this!
 |
| Just a few of the many areas of poison ivy! |
Tuesday evening, we treated ourselves to a movie in a dine-in theater nearby. We really wanted to see Disclosure Day, the new Spielberg alien movie, on the big screen (see my review below). It was excellent! And it was fun to get out to the theater--thank goodness for recliner theaters!
I had an eye doctor appointment on Wednesday (which means lots of extra reading time!), and then I went to Kohl's and Trader Joe's as long as I was in the area. That turned out to be way too much for me, so I took it easy for the next two days.
We had our oldest, dearest friends over for dinner Friday night, and it was great to catch up with them. They'll be traveling for most of the rest of the summer, so I'm glad we got to spend some time together. Sunday, our son, his fiancee, and their puppy came over. While our son helped my husband put up my Little Free Library - woohoo! - I spent time with our daughter-in-law-to-be and the puppy. She's been working very long hours lately, so it was nice to have some time to just chat and catch up.
 |
| Chester kept us busy! |
 |
| My Little Free Library is finally up! I need to fill it. |
__________
My Favorite June Reads for the Past 21 Years! (plus some bonus picks) - I got this idea to look back through my book journals and my blog at what I was reading in June every year since I started to keep track in 2005. In all, the video includes over 30 great book recommendations in under 21 minutes! I had a great time looking back (some books are still favorites & others I'd completely forgotten about), and there's been a great response to the video so far, so I will definitely do this again for other months.
Weekly Reading Update - My husband and I are both thoroughly enjoying our Big Book Summer reads!
__________
As I said, we saw Disclosure Day on the big screen this week, and it lived up to our expectations. It's a story of aliens on earth that is worthy of the director who brought us ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Like that movie, this one follows several different characters at the beginning whose stories gradually come together. Emily Blunt (who is fabulous in this!) plays Margaret Fairchild, a journalist covering the weather for a local Kansas City TV station, who suddenly gains the amazing ability to speak different languages fluently, including one--during a live weather report--that no one recognizes. Josh O'Connor plays Dr. Daniel Kellner, some sort of scientist who is on the run from some very bad guys, led by Noah Scanlon, played by Colin Firth. Daniel's girlfriend, Jane, played by Eve Hewson, is being held captive by Scanlon and his henchmen as the movie opens, and Daniel is trying to free her. And then the fun begins! Spielberg says this movie came not from his imagination but from reports of UFO (now called UAP) activity from real people, all over the world. That link to real-world reports that we've all heard about adds an extra layer to this fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking movie. We both loved it!
(I was going to include a trailer, but I think the trailer gives away too much of the story--just go see it!)
__________
Last night, I finished reading The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher for Big Book Summer. For years, other readers have been recommending this book to me, so I'm glad I finally read it. It's a family drama, set in the UK in the 1980's, with flashbacks to earlier periods. Penelope Keeling is the matriarch of her family. Her father was a famous Victorian painter whose works are still in demand, and Penelope is very much an artist's daughter, a free spirit who loves to garden and cook for friends and family. At 64, she recently had a minor health scare, so her three adult children are worried about her living alone, but she loves her independence. Nancy is the oldest and is married with two children, trying to keep up appearances among the wealthy class and thus struggling with finances. Olivia is the middle sibling and the most successful, editor of a major women's magazine in London. Noel, their brother, has always sort of slid by in life. Like Nancy, he also likes to live a life of luxury among the wealthy but approaches it differently, using his charm to gain access to wealthy friends and friends-of-friends. Gradually, the reader learns more about each character and their past and present-day lives, as well as others: Penelope's parents, an old lover of Olivia's, Penelope's ex-husband, and more. It's an engrossing family saga, and I loved the historical detail in the flashbacks to earlier periods, including WWII. Penelope is a fabulous main character who is warm, compassionate, and generous (not so for some of her children!). While this is a character-driven novel, there are still some surprising plot twists, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
I am almost finished with my next audio book for Big Book Summer, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. This is the second-quarter readalong for the Book Cougars podcast, in their year of page-to-screen reading (it's the 25th anniversary of the movie adaptation). I read the paperback, back in the late 80's or early 90's, so this time I am listening to it on audio. It's absolutely delightful! The very talented narrator, Lorna Raver, makes it sound like a full-cast audio. I had forgotten much of the story and am thoroughly enjoying being back among the vibrant characters in the tiny town of Whistle Stop, Alabama. The narrative is split between the late 1980's, with an older woman recounting everything that happened and flashbacks to the 1920's through the 1960's, plus hilarious town newsletter outtakes from the 1920's on. The story is full of heart and humor, joys and tragedies, and wonderful characters. I'm really enjoying revisiting this old favorite and plan to rewatch the movie when I finish.
My husband, Ken, was about to read Dead Man's Walk (prequel to Lonesome Dove) for his next big book, but I asked him to read The Testaments by Margaret Atwood first because he said he wanted to read it before watching the new TV adaptation, and I'm dying to watch it after finishing the novel! He's enjoying it so far and plans to finish it this week.
I finally got a reading update from our older son, 31, while he was visiting last weekend. He finished re-reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson, book 4 of his famed Stormlight Archive series, in preparation for reading book 5, which he got for Christmas. He's now fully immersed in book 5, Wind and Truth, and loving it! He said he loves the way that Sanderson weaves connections among all of his Cosmere books. This one is 1344 pages long, so he said he'll read a "short" book next, under 600 pages! It's always Big Book Summer for him!
Our daughter-in-law-to-be is enjoying Shift by High Howey, book two in his Silo series that began with Wool (my reviews at the links). I'm happy she's enjoying this series as much as we did, and she was excited to hear there's an excellent TV adaptation (we're about to start season 3). She hasn't had much reading time lately, between working 12-hour shifts as a physician's assistant and helping to care for the puppy!
__________