A Month in Summary - February 2020

Little Whale Cove

Depoe Bay, Oregon

February 2020

Another good month of reading, with regard to the number of books I read. Only two of the six were remarkable, though. I was a little disappointed with Louise Penny's tenth installment in her Inspector Gamache series, but I understand the next will be better, so I'm not worried. I listened to two audiobooks and neither was wonderful, but they held my interest. Speaking of audiobooks, I discovered Libro.fm a month or so ago while listening to the podcast He Read She Read. It works the same way as Audible, but supports independent bookstores rather than Amazon. I'm sold! 

Returning to my reading, none were from my personal stacks. Every thing I read was either borrowed or an audiobook, and those don't take up any physical space on my shelves. However, The Snow Child, which was my favorite literary novel, has been on my TBR list for years, so I'm glad I finally made time to read it. The Things You Save in a Fire was my favorite comfort read and I can't wait to read more of Katherine Center's backlist.


Books Read (click on the title for my review):

The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall (3/5)

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan (3/5)

The Long Way Home by Louise Penny (3/5)

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro (3/5)

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (4/5)

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center (4/5)

First Lines:

On the day Charles Barrett died, James MacNally closed the door to his study, sat down in his chair, and laid his head on the thick edge of his desk so he could weep. His wife, Nan, did not knock to be let in, though his rough, heavy sobs hit her like stones. She knew James’s own death would wring the same sounds from her, if he went first and left her adrift in the world, unmoored. (The Dearly Beloved)

"Next!"
The customs agent beckons the person in front of me and I approach the big red line, absently toeing the curling tape, resting my hand on the gleaming pipe railing. No adjustable ropes at Heathrow, apparently; these lines must always be long if they require a permanent demarcation. (My Oxford Year)

As Clara Morrow approached, she wondered if he'd repeat the same small gesture he'd done every morning.  (The Long Way Home)

When I was a girl I would sneak down the hall late at night once my parents were asleep. I would lock myself in the bathroom, climb onto the Formica counter, and get as close as possible to the mirror until I was nose to nose with my own reflection. (Inheritance)

Mabel had known there would be silence. That was the point, after all. No infants cooing or wailing. No neighbor children playfully hollering down the lane. No pad of small feet on wooden stairs worn smooth by generations, or clackety-clack of toys along the kitchen floor. All those sounds of her failure and regret would be left behind, and in their place there would be silence. (The Snow Child)

The night I became the youngest person--and the only female ever--to win the Austin Fire Department's valor award, I got propositioned by my partner. (Things You Save in a Fire)

Podcasts:

I'm still listening to What Should I Read Next and He Read She Read, but I haven't added any other podcasts to my favorites list. Maybe once I work my way through all of the archives on these two, but that will take me a while!

Movies & TV Series:

Ad Astra - Too boring for me!

This Is Us - I'm into Season Two and still loving this show. I'm so impressed with the writing and the way in which the details of each family member's history unfolds ever so slowly in each episode.

Puzzlemania:

  

Other Fun Activities:

I taught some of my girlfriends how to make lumpia one afternoon. We had a great time and went home with full bellies and plenty of lumpia to store in our freezers. Delicious!!

We're getting ready to head out on another roadtrip in April, so I've been busy researching campgrounds, travel routes, places to see, etc. If you have any recommendations for the southwest corner of Utah, I'd love to hear them. We plan to spend a few weeks in and around Zion, Bryce, Grand Staircase Escalante, and Capitol Reef. We're saving Moab, Canyonlands and Arches for another trip. We'll also be at Joshua Tree, Lake Mead and Valley of Fire prior to our arrival in Utah. Should be fun as long as we don't have to deal with any late spring snowstorms!

A Month in Summary - January 2020

Tidal Raves Restaurant

Depoe Bay, Oregon

January 2020

January was another great month of reading. I listened to one audiobook, reread an old favorite and borrowed four books from the library. Of the six books I finished, four were outstanding. Next month, I hope to read more from my stacks, but we'll see how that goes since I already have three library books on my nightstand. It doesn't help that my TBR list is growing by leaps and bounds thanks to the new podcasts I recently discovered. But had I not listened, I might not have discovered Two Girls Down, which was one of my favorite reads this month. Between the podcasts and binging on This Is Us, my audiobook numbers may drop in 2020, but it's all good. I'm enjoying all types of media. 

Books Read (click on the title for my review):

The River by Peter Heller (4.5/5)

The Only Plane In the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff (5/5)

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver (5/5)

The Girls by Emma Cline (2/5)

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (1/5)

Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna (4.5/5)

First Lines:

They had been smelling smoke for two days. (The River)

Nearly every American above a certain age remembers precisely where they were on September 11, 2001. What began as an ordinary day became the deadliest terrorist attack in world history and the deadliest attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor, shocking and terrifying the global community, exposing us to unimaginable tragedy and evil, while also reminding us of the strength, bravery, and power of the human spirit. Heroes quite literally emerged from the ashes, and the hours and decisions that followed defined not just a generation but our modern era. (The Only Plane In the Sky - Author's Note)

I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine's father over the top of the Standard Oil sign. I'm not lying. He got stuck up there. About nineteen people congregated during the time it took for Norman Strick to walk up to the Courthouse and blow the whistle for the volunteer fire department. They eventually did come with the ladder and haul him down, and he wasn't dead but lost his hearing and in many other ways was never the same afterward. They said he overfilled the tire. (The Bean Trees)

I looked up because of the laughter, and kept looking because of the girls. (The Girls)

A convenience store is a world of sound. From the tinkle of the door chime to the voices of TV celebrities advertising new products over the in-store cable network, to the calls of the store workers, the beeps of the bar code scanner, the rustle of customers picking up items and placing them in baskets, and the clacking of heels walking around the store. It all blends into the convenience store sound that ceaselessly caresses my eardrums. (Convenience Store Woman)

Jamie Brandt was not a bad mother. Later she would tell that to anyone who would listen: police, reporters, lawyers, her parents, her boyfriend, her dealer, the new bartender with the knuckle tattoos at Schultz's, the investigator from California and her partner, and her own reflection in the bathroom mirror, right before cracking her forehead on the sink's edge and passing out from the cocktail of pain, grief, and fear. (Two Girls Down)

Podcasts:

What Should I Read Next (Anne Bogel) - I don't know who mentioned this podcast, but I am so grateful. I love it and my Goodreads TBR has exploded with all the recommendations.

He Read She Read - Another great podcast for book lovers!

Movies & TV Shows:

Ken Burns' Country Music - I enjoyed the last few episodes in this miniseries, but the first two were a little dull. I started listening to country music in the late 80s. The Judds, Dan Seals, Randy Travis, Dwight Yokum, Garth Brooks, Tricia Yearwood, Rodney Crowell, Roseanne Cash, George Strait, Vince Gill, Kathy Mattea, Keith Whitley, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Reba McEntire, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris and, of course, Kris Kristofferson were among my favorites.

The Mule - Entertaining, but somewhat sappy.

This Is Us (Season 1) - Finally jumping on the bandwagon with this series. My husband gave up after the fourth episode, but I'm hooked in spite of the fact that it's a little sappy. The writing is good, though, and I love the non-linear time line. Very creative!

State of Play - Entertaining and a wonderful cast. 

Puzzlemania:

How was your first month of the new decade?

A Month in Summary - June 2019

Quigg Lake

Montasano, Washington

June 2019

Good grief! Where did June go?? We did have house guests (my youngest brother and his family from Nebraska) for several days at the beginning of the month and took a week-long camping trip at the end of the month, so I guess between all of that and the usual activities of yoga, pickleball, book club and mahjong, the days zipped by. I also spent a couple of days visiting my eye doctor who has diagnosed me with "the garden variety" of glaucoma (open-angle, or wide-angle, glaucoma). I have to admit, I was a little stunned with this news, but am thankful that the treatment is as simple as applying one drop of Latanoprost (in each eye) every night before going to bed. I've already tested the drops in one eye for the past two weeks and the pressure in that eye has dropped considerably. As you might recall, I had a bout of vertigo for a few days last month. Between the vertigo and glaucoma, I feel like the universe is telling me I'm no longer in my thirties, even though my brain thinks otherwise! Thankfully, none of this has affected my reading.

Books Read in June (click on titles for my review):

Hunted on the Fens by Joy Ellis

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce


First Lines:

DS Joseph Easter's eyes snapped open. Instantly he was wide awake and experiencing a rush of automatic reactions left over from his years as a special ops soldier. (Hunted on the Fens)

Up the stairs they raced, taking them two at a time, trying to be as quiet as possible. Gamache struggled to keep his breathing steady, as though he was sitting at home, as though he had not a care in the world. (Bury Your Dead)

Oh, no, no, no, thought Clara Morrow as she walked toward the closed doors. (A Trick of the Light)

In the early nineteenth century the Catholic Church realized it had a problem. Perhaps, it must be admitted, more than one. But the problem that preoccupied it at that moment had to with the Divine Office. This consisted of eight times in the daily life of a Catholic community when chants were sung. Plainchant. Gregorian chant. Simple songs sung by humble monks. (The Beautiful Mystery)

When I first saw the advertisement in the newspaper I thought I might actually burst. Id' had rather a cheerful day so far despite the Luftwaffe annoying everyone by making us all late for work, and then I'd managed to get hold of an onion, which was very good news for stew. But when I saw the announcement, I could not have been more cock-a-hoop. (Dear Mrs. Bird)


Podcasts:

I listen to a lot of audio books, but for some reason have never gotten into podcasts. Until now. My friend Nan (Letters from a Hill Farm) wrote about the following podcast here and I was intrigued, so I download the Stitcher app to my phone and began listening. I couldn't stop. Now that I've finished that podcast, I've added many more to my "favorites" and will share more of these in my monthly summaries. Thanks so much, Nan! It was a compelling story, to say the least!

Bear Brook on New Hampshire Public Radio - Two barrels, four bodies, and an enigmatic killer. The cold case that changed the way murders will be investigated forever. 


Movies and TV Series:

House, MD - Season 8  - Finished! While I enjoyed watching this entire series for a second time, I am more than happy to be finished. Two episodes of House almost every night became less enjoyable as the weeks and months went by. We started watching in late 2018!

Game of Thrones - Season 3 - I need a cheat sheet to keep track of all the characters (dead and alive!). 

The Night Manager - We watched another episode while on our camping trip and I like it, but it's not a favorite.

Visitors:

My brother and his family came out for a visit from Lincoln, Nebraska! They're regular visitors to Depoe Bay, so we didn't do quite as much sightseeing as we would with new visitors. We hiked Cape Kiwanda (Pacific City), explored tide pools and the four of them went whale watching and got "fluked!" Maddie just turned 17 (!) and Emily will be 15 this fall. Time does fly!

Outings & Trips:

Cape Kiwanda

Pacific City, Oregon

Rod and I took a quick week-long road trip back to a newly discovered campground in Washington. We spent a few days at Friends Landing back in April when we were on a three-week road trip in Washington and enjoyed ourselves so much, we decided to go back. We don't usually like to camp during the summer months when the campgrounds are crowded and noisy, but we took a chance on this spot since it only has 18 sites. We weren't disappointed! There's a playground at the entrance of the park, so any noise from young children is far enough away that it's not an annoyance. There isn't much to do other than relax and fish so, unlike a lot of state campgrounds (especially those near the beach), this one is relatively quiet. It started to fill up on Thursday afternoon, but even at full capacity, it was peaceful. We loved being near the lake, watching the eagles soar above and listening to the loons calling to one another in the evening. We'll definitely return anytime we're headed back to the Olympic Peninsula!

 His happy place.

 No neighbors for a few days!

 Gorgeous wildflowers.

 My TBR shelf in the RV.

 Happy Hour!

It wasn't hot, but we put the awning out

to keep our chairs dry, as it did rain a couple of times.

 We love campfires!

A gorgeous afternoon.

Another happy hour!

Love the atmosphere as the fog begins to lift.

Once I've finished with all of my posts for our Texas road trip, I'll start writing about some of these other trips we've taken. I'm finally in a good spot with my book reviews, but travel posts are lagging far behind!