3.14.2024

three on thursday


Thing one:  today is the day the time change is kicking my butt.  I struggled to get out of bed and couldn't shake my sleepiness at all.

Thing two:  I'm gearing up for an exceptionally busy weekend.

Thing three:  I get to start a new book tonight!

3.13.2024

finished reading

I'm not the biggest fan of re-reading books.  I originally read this book about six or so months ago and remembered that the linked stories share some characters, which works nicely here as a plot device.  Some of the stories I liked more than others.  But that's natural--just as some characters I like more than others.  I think my book group will have a LOT to discuss.

Here's my original reaction to the book plus the publisher's note:
This is a book about a book.  I love the premise that no two people experience a book the same way.  We follow a different character in each chapter--and they are linked by the shared experience of reading the book, Theo, written in the first section.  No two characters experience Theo the same way although it profoundly affects each.  Any of the vignettes could have been an entire book that I would have enjoyed.  I was fascinated by the collection of people: a publishing assistant, an actor, an artist, a free diver, a bookstore employee, an abandoned town caretaker, a homeless teenager, a coordinator, and a publishing agent.

The story of Theo is never revealed nor do we learn why the book has such a profound effect on each reader.

I loved it.

From the publisher:
One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s No Two Persons is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.”

That was the beauty of books, wasn’t it? They took you places you didn’t know you needed to go…

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.

Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways—and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.

#52bookclub prompt 7: at least four different POV.

wordless wednesday

 

3.12.2024

ten things tuesday

Ten random things rattling around my brain:

1)  I used the last of my "earned time off" (aka personal days) today so that I could facilitate a Library Board of Trustees workshop meeting.

2)  Facilitating a meeting of people with their own personal agenda or axe to grind is challenging.

3)  I'm more tired after this workshop than teaching all day. 

4)  Is Daylight Saving Time necessary?  Other than shocking my system twice a year?

5)  We had a scrumptious vegetarian lasagna catered at the workshop.  I should have taken some leftovers home.

6)  Big, fat, fluffy flakes of snow swirling outside my window.

7)  I get to start a new audiobook tonight.

8)  I made a casserole for dinner last night and have leftovers for tonight!  A definite win!

9)  Never in my teaching career have I used all of my personal days.  But I guess moving ate into them.

10) I need a sweater.  Or a blankey.

finished reading

A typical celebrity memoir is about glamorous tales.  This is about food!  Stanley relates stories of his upbringing that explain how food shaped his world, including the recipes.   His delightful anecdotes are filled with gatherings around a table.  And he uses meals as memories.  He openly discusses his battle with cancer and describes how his relationship with food has been forever altered.  His name-dropping is fun, I loved hearing about his celebrity network.  His audio narration makes it even better!

From the publisher:
From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen.

Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them.​

Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York; preparing for and shooting the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia; falling in love over dinner; and teaming up with his wife to create meals for a multitude of children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burned dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.

3.11.2024

currently

I am...

Reading:  Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson

Listening to:  Taste by Stanley Tucci and I will finish it this evening

Loving:  tomorrow I will be spending the majority of the day at the public library--it's a Board of Trustees workshop day and since I'm the Chair, I kinda need to be there--but the librarian invited me to spend the whole day there so I can see how things work

Thinking:  I may have forgotten to take care of a couple of details for my substitute tomorrow

Feeling:  excited for tomorrow!

Celebrating:  Reese's eggs

Grateful for:  hobbies

Enjoying:  I baked a delicious bruschetta chicken casserole

Weather:  it is 33° and cloudy

A quote I want to share


3.10.2024

self-care sunday

This is a good prompt.  I have good boundaries in my personal life.  With family, friends, acquaintances, with obligations, committees, and saying no.  My interpersonal boundaries are quite good professionally--there is a fine line between me and my students that I will never cross.  And I have learned how to balance friendship and collegiality.  I've also placed a premium on my time. 

I don't know if this is a thing, but I need to set better boundaries with myself.  Is that a thing?  Perhaps I mean being more self-disciplined or something along those lines but I sometimes let myself down.  And I don't mean grandiose ideas that slide by, I mean everyday routine things that I intend to accomplish but don't.  It's not procrastination, it's intentional refusal.  Things that are consequential and inconsequential.  I need to unravel that.








postsecret

 

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. I like to post one that speaks to me each week.

3.09.2024

finished reading

This debut novel is a great concept, building on elements of Moby Dick (although you don't have to read Moby Dick to appreciate this book).  It's about an obsessive search for the elusive figure--this time in human form.  I liked the intergenerational narrative threads and how the author intertwines a pod of whales as an interlude between sections.  The magical elements distracted me.

From the publisher:
Evangeline Hussey’s husband is dead—lost at sea—and she has only managed to hold on to his Nantucket inn by employing a curious gift to glimpse and re-form the recent memories of those around her. One night, an idealistic sailor appears on her doorstep asking her to call him Ishmael, and her careful illusion begins to fracture. He soon sails away with Ahab to hunt an infamous white whale, and Evangeline is left to forge a life from the pieces that remain.

Her choices ripple through generations, across continents, and into the depths of the sea, in a narrative that follows Evangeline and her descendants from mid-nineteenth century Nantucket to Boston, Brazil, Florence, and Idaho. Moving, beautifully written, and elegantly conceived, Wild and Distant Seas takes Moby-Dick as its starting point, but Tara Karr Roberts brings four remarkable women to life in a spellbinding epic all her own.

#52bookclub prompt 8: features the ocean.

saturday 9

 

Hold Me Now

1) This week's song begins with a young man gazing at a picture of himself and his girlfriend in happier times. Are there any photographs in the room you're in right now? I have a wall of photo-tiles

2) His girl tells him he's a dreamer. Do you consider yourself more a dreamer or realist? more of a realist

3) "Hold Me Now" was a big hit for the British pop band, The Thompson Twins. They got their start in the late 1970s in the English city of Sheffield, so named because the River Sheaf runs through it. Do you know how your town got its name? there are two rivers and a stream surrounding and bisecting my town, thus it is almost an island

4) Today lead singer Tom Bailey performs solo and is an outspoken advocate for veganism. Vegans abstain from consuming animal products, particularly in their diets. Are you a vegan, or have you ever tried to stick to a vegan diet? I have never been vegan

5) Tom's former bandmate Joe Leeway has left show business altogether and concentrates on a career in hypnotherapy. This therapy is commonly used to treat insomnia, smoking cessation and obesity. Is hypnotherapy something you have tried, or would consider? I would consider it for anxiety

6) In 1983, when this song was popular, Motorola introduced the first cell phone. Today cell phones are an essential part of our every day lives. Do you still have a landline? nope

7) Also in 1983, American West airlines took off, flying between Las Vegas and Phoenix. Where did you travel to on your most recent flight? Roanoke, VA

8) In 1983, Princess Diana was the world's top cover girl. Are there any magazines in the room you're in? If yes, who or what is on the cover? no

9) Random question: Is anyone on your bad side this morning? nope