It's Monday 12/23! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

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Life

12/23? Eek! There’s still so much left to do before tomorrow evening! The good news is that a second round of steroids seems to be helping me. This awful eight week-long relapse of my chronic illness is finally easing a bit. I was up off the couch the past two days! We drove about an hour away Saturday to pick up a new-to-us dining room table that perfectly matches out existing set but is larger. Yesterday, though, I threw caution to the wind and helped my husband with some cleaning. All I do is dusting, but after two months of lying down, it was definitely too much for me! I’m very achy and worn out. So, I’m trying to take it easy today, though I have a long list of things to do. We’re making progress, slowly but surely. Hope you all enjoy a wonderful holiday week with your family and friends!

We got a few outdoor decorations up!

But our next-door neighbor went all out!

We got the last of our cards out this weekend!

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Chronic Illness Vlog 12-17-24: Relapse Continues - an in-depth look at a week in my life with chronic illness, during this bad relapse.

Friday Reads 12-13-24: Two Excellent Novels – my brief weekly reading update

I finished The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara. Most people know this author for her best-selling novel, A Little Life, but her debut novel was The People in the Trees. My mother read it back in 2015 or so and still says it’s one of her all-time favorites. She bought me a copy … and it took me much too long to finally read it! It’s the immersive story of a doctor, Norton Perina, who goes on an expedition with an anthropologist in 1950 where they discover a “lost tribe” on a remote Pacific island. Some members of the tribe appear to be astoundingly old and physically robust, though with diminished mental faculties (that’s all revealed on page 1). His quest to discover this “fountain of youth” leads to all kinds of unintended consequences, including his conviction for sexual assault (still page 1!). Most of the book is Dr. Perina’s memoir, written from prison, and the story of the original expedition, his discoveries that followed, and his adoption of over 40 children from the island is engrossing and fascinating. Though you know the general outline of what will happen from the start, it is still a tense and gripping read, with some extremely thought-provoking moral questions. However, this is also an intensely disturbing book, and those last pages were an absolute gut punch (though not completely surprising). I’ve heard the same can be said of A Little Life. Consider yourself forewarned.

Now, I am reading A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, which has been on my to-read list for over a decade! It won the Pulitzer Prize, is still being listed on all kinds of Best Books lists, and garnered rave reviews. I’m not too far into it yet, but each chapter is a separate but interrelated story about a group of characters who are connected to each other in different ways. Bennie is an aging music producer who still has the heart of a punk rocker. Sasha was his assistant for twelve years and is now struggling to control her kleptomania. One chapter went back to Bennie’s teens, another focused on a character he interacted with back then. The novel is gradually building an intricate web of stories that define these people and their lives. I love the writing style and am enjoying it so far.

Just yesterday, I finished The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich. She is one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to read this novel that focuses on a small farming community in North Dakota. Crystal drives a truck for the local sugar beet farms. Her eighteen-year-old daughter, Kismet, is smart and planning to go to college, but her sometimes-hook-up, Gary, has other plans. Gary is a football star in their high school and asks Kismet to marry him. Kismet is also seeing Hugo, a brilliant guy who’s homeschooled and is also in love with her. The reader hears from many other characters as well, with plenty of plot twists and a bit of a mystery around a recent trauma that affected the whole town. This is a novel about family, friendship, and love, but most of all, community. Details about farming, the oil and gas industry, and the environment make the narrative even more powerful and realistic. It was excellent on audio. As always, Erdrich has created fabulous characters that leap off the page (or audio) and an engaging story about ordinary people, each trying to do their best.

My husband, Ken, finished a book I gave him for his birthday, An Honest Man by Michael Koryta. This is his first book by best-selling author Koryta, and this one is described as a “breath-taking thriller.” Plus, Stephen King said it was the author’s best book, so I figured it was a good place to start. Ken enjoyed it, said it was a good thriller, and he liked the main character. I don’t think he’s started a new book yet because he’s staying up late most nights watching football! He’s an Oklahoma State alum and really gets into college football, especially since he retired.

Our son, 30, was reading book 16 (!) of the The Spellmonger series, Preceptor, by Terry Mancour over Thanksgiving. Not sure if he’s still reading it, but I will get an update this week when he comes home for Christmas!