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| Hosted by The Book Date |
Life
I expected to have a quiet, low-key weekend while my husband was off golfing with his high school friends, but it ended up being a pretty busy week! It was partly my own fault because I scheduled two livestreams (see below) on my YouTube channel, and I hosted a Zoom meeting for our local chronic illness support group. It seemed like good timing, with my husband out of the house, but it was a lot all in one week. I enjoyed all three virtual events, though.
My 7-month-old MacBook screen started to fail mid-week, so I was worried it would turn totally black before those live events. Thankfully, it held up, but I spent all day Saturday trying to back up my laptop and move everything to my old laptop (unsuccessfully!) and all day Sunday feeling extremely frustrated after an infuriating visit to the Apple Store, where they said I have to pay out of pocket for a new display, and it's not covered under warranty. Now I have to get by without it for a week and pay $700. I'm still really angry! The exact same thing happened with my older MacBook - I ended up replacing that screen 3 times (at least the first time was under warranty). They're just too fragile, even for gentle, stable use (I don't carry mine around much).
A purple spot, plus flashing lines across & down!
The new native plants in our garden are doing well.
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| New native flowers are attracting butterlfies! |
And so is my Little Free Library! I've had a few visitors now, and I rearranged the books on the top (adult section) so they fit better and you can see all the spines now (it's smaller inside than I expected).
Best of all, my health was much better this past week (even with the extra stress). Maybe the higher dose of thyroid meds are finally kicking in. Or maybe it's one of the many changes I made last week. In frustration with so many unexplained crash days, I changed a bunch of supplements back to where they were in January. I basically undid any changes I made this year (new supplements that are supposed to help, lower doses, higher doses, etc.). I didn't have a single crash day, so fingers crossed this continues! We are overdue for a vacation.
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The Quarter in Chapters Tag - This creative set of questions about my previous quarter of reading (2Q) is organized according to the parts of a book - fun! And I had an outstanding reading quarter, with lots of 5-star books!
Coping with Chronic Illness Livestream Replay - In this livestream event, we all shared our coping tips for living with a wide variety of chronic conditions: dealing with heat, isolation, restrictions, and more. Plus, I answered a few questions about diagnosing & treating ME/CFS and Lyme. You can watch the video and read all the chat comments in this replay.
Weekly Reading Update - July is off to a great start, with excellent books in print and on audio
Big Book Summer Livestream Replay - We had lots of participation and a great conversation on Saturday about big books: those we've read, those we are currently reading, and those we'd like to read. You can watch the video and read all the chat comments in this replay. Watch out - my TBR list grew a lot! So many great recommendations.
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While my husband was away, I watched the TV adaptation of We Were Liars, a YA novel by E. Lockhart that I read in 2014 (no wonder I didn't remember much of the plot!). My younger son's fiancee recommended it to me. I really enjoyed it, maybe even more than the book. Cadence, 17, is part of the great Sinclair family; her grandad, the patriarch, is one of Forbes' 10 richest people. The entire family spends every summer on a private island. This summer is different for Cady, though because last summer, something horrible happened, and she has amnesia (as well as other trauma symptoms). The story is told alternating from the present day, to the previous summer (and earlier summers, too), as Cady and her three teen cousins (they call themselves The Liars) swim, play games, and have fun in their own private kingdom. Little by little, you begin to see the cracks in the great Sinclair family, the flaws in each character, and learn little bits of what happened last summer, as Cady's memories gradually return. No spoilers but there are some big surprises in the plot along the way, and at one point, I was sobbing! I thought the TV series was very well-done with an excellent cast and plenty of suspense, and I enjoyed spending the week on the island with the Sinclairs.
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I'm still reading Never by Ken Follett for Big Book Summer (my biggest this year at 800+ pages). My husband and I have always loved Follett's thrillers (many of them historical thrillers), and he's also well-known for his historical epics. This novel is something a bit different: a political thriller set in modern times. The premise can be summed up in the words of the U.S. President in the novel, Pauline Green: "Every catastrophe begins with a little problem that doesn't get fixed." The novel begins by focusing in on several little problems across the globe: a disappearing lake and violent jihadists in Saharan Africa, a young woman in the CIA stationed in Chad trying to stop jihadists (who are using Chinese weapons), a Chinese man in charge of their international spies whose contact in North Korea says they are getting close to a crisis, and Pauline herself, trying to tackle all those little problems before they can grow into a catastrophe. I'm over halfway now, and the web of intrigue and tension are growing rapidly, as the dominoes start to fall. My husband read this book first and told me it was chilling in its relevance to the real world. I agree wholeheartedly! It's terrifying because each of these little things absolutely could happen. It's also incredibly suspenseful and fast-paced. I hate to set it down at night!
I finished listening to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, for Jane Austen July (an event held on Booktube every year). Believe it or not, I have never read this ubiquitous classic before! In fact, the only Austen novel I've read was Emma, and it was only OK for me. But, I decided I needed to give Austen another try. Since P&P is such an integral part of our culture, I thought it was time I finally read it. I enjoyed it on audio (yes, more than Emma!). Some early sections felt tedious to me at times, with convoluted dialogue, and I had to pay attention so I wouldn't lose track of the characters and the dialogue. I liked Elizabeth very much. Honestly, she seemed like the only sane character in the story! I loved how intelligent and lively she was, though I wasn't sure why all the other female characters were made to seem so unintelligent - is that just so Elizabeth would stand out? Anyway, I enjoyed it, and I am considering watching a movie adaptation (any recs?) for the Book Cougars podcast year of Page-to-Screen.
My husband comes home today. He just brought a small paperback with him on his trip (an older Ken Follett thriller - I don't remember the title), but I doubt he had much time for reading!
Our older son, 31, is still reading Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, book 5 of his famed Stormlight Archive series, 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!
When I texted our daughter-in-law-to-be last night to thank her for recommending We Were Liars on TV, she told me that she finished reading 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). I told her we have book 3, if she wants to borrow it!
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