It's Monday 12/9! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

It was a rough week for me, as the relapse of my chronic illness continued (and maybe even worsened, from all the activity Thanksgiving weekend). I did manage to co-host our book group; a wonderful friend offered to host at her house, with me as official “host,” so I could make the dessert and choose the book selections. I’m glad I went … but I shouldn’t have! I wasn’t feeling well that day, and some even worse days followed the exertion. I rested the rest of the week so I could manage our annual visit to the Christmas tree farm with our younger son and his girlfriend. It’s one of our favorite holiday traditions, and I enjoyed the time with them.

After ruling out some behind-the-scenes medical issues and trying several treatments that have worked in the past, I decided to try a very short round of steroids. This is not usually a good idea with my immune disorder because steroids suppress the entire immune system, and this disease is characterized by some aspects of the immune system being over-active but others being under-active. In the past, this approach worked well for me once–and didn’t work three other times. So, the odds aren’t great, but I feel like I tried everything else first this time and avoided some past mistakes. Also, the main symptom of this relapse has been constant flu-like aches (sign of immune activation), so the steroids might help to calm things down. Fingers crossed. Felt pretty good yesterday and really awful today. For now, I am in my comfy nest on the couch, lying down. And it was almost 60 yesterday, so I got to lie outside on our deck!

Wearing a parka on Saturday and a t-shirt on Sunday!

__________

Nonfiction November Wrap-Up – a quick recap of the 5 excellent nonfiction books I read last month.

Friday Reads 12-6-24 – I had to record from the couch, but I managed a brief update of what I am reading and listening to – two books highly recommended!

I finished reading Tell Me More: Stories about the Twelve Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan, a book of memoir essays. I’ve heard Kelly on several of my favorite podcasts (including her own) and always enjoy listening to her. Her book is similar. She digs in deep, talking about motherhood, marriage, living through cancer, and the losses of her father (which I relate to) and a good friend. In her signature style, she is honest, warm, and often funny, which helps when you’re reading about such difficult topics. The book made me tear up several times and laugh out loud as well, and my copy is filled with tabbed pages of passages and quotes I loved.

I had to set that book aside after Thanksgiving to “cram” our book group selection, Chicago by Brian Doyle. My library copy was still not available when we returned from our trip last Sunday night, so I broke down and bought the audio (and my friend dropped off her library copy so I could double-time it with both print and audio). No surprise that I didn’t finish it by Wednesday, but I thoroughly enjoyed this heartwarming, uplifting, beautifully-written novel that was excellent on audio. It’s a coming-of-age story set in 1976 about a young man, fresh out of college, settling into Chicago for his first real job. But, even more than that, it is about community. He moves to the city not knowing anyone, and as the story progresses, he gradually gets to know–and become good friends with–the varied assortment of people in his apartment building and all over the city. My book group (who rarely all agree on a book!) gave it a rating of 8.8 out of 10, a tie for our best rating ever! Melinda at A Web of Stories, a long-time book-blogger and now Booktuber friend, has been raving about another of Doyle’s novels, Mink River, all year.

My husband, Ken, is reading 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. He’s not very far into it yet (football season!), but he said it’s intriguing so far.

Our son, 30, was reading book 16 (!) of the The Spellmonger series, Preceptor, by Terry Mancour when I checked last week. He loves this series. I’m so glad he’s making time to read again!