It's Monday 2/10! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

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Life

I got a late start this morning after staying up late for the Superbowl last night and seeing our local team, the Philadelphia Eagles, win by a wide margin! Two of our oldest friends in the area came over for our annual watch party, complete with wings and other yummy snacks. The guys are more into football, but we all enjoy watching the ads. Our favorites last night were the Instacart ad with all the iconic brand mascots, the Stella Artois ad with David Beckham and Matt Damon, and especially the Coor’s Light ad with all the sloths–that one had us all belly laughing. And, of course, it was fun to catch up with our friends.

That was one of two wild nights for me this weekend! We rarely go out or eat in restaurants because I’m immune compromised and have to avoid crowds, but my husband has two friends in a band, Shades of Gray (a reference to their hair, not their kinks!), that were playing at a local restaurant Friday night. They were playing from 5 to 7, and it’s a small restaurant, so I decided I could risk it. We were seated not too close to other people and enjoyed a rare evening out, with tasty food and good music. We were out until 7:30! Whoo!

Otherwise, it was a quiet week with more hectic reservation-making for our trips. I had a few low-energy days but still managed some short walks nearby. And we got a few days of “wintry mix”–very common here in Delaware, where we are often on the line between rain and snow. The ice looked pretty and fortunately didn’t last long. Three separate snow storms are predicted for this week, so my husband’s out on the golf course today, before it gets covered again!

Ice coating the trees

The truck’s back-up camera freaked out over the icicles hanging in front of it!

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January 2025 Reading Wrap-Up: Kicking off the Year with 7 Great Books! – a quick recap of everything I read last month.

Friday Read 2-7-25: Reading for Black History Month – my brief weekly update of what I am reading and listening to.

Read What You Own Challenge: I’m In! – I’m participating in a Booktube challenge to read from my own shelves.

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Somebody Somewhere – This show is Just. So. Special. It is full of heart and belly laughs, about a woman who returns to her hometown in Kansas to care for her sick sister and is lost after she dies. She meets someone she went to high school with (but doesn’t remember), and the two misfits develop the most incredible friendship. This fabulous show packs so much into its irreverent, moving, hilarious, and twisty story with outstanding writing and acting. We just finished the third and final season and will definitely miss it. I just reread my old review and watched the trailer again (both at the link) and–seriously–I got chills down my spine and tears in my eyes. One of the best TV shows we’ve ever seen.

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I finished a book that was perfect for kicking off Black History Month: Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin: Civil Rights Heroes by Tracey Baptiste and Shauna J. Grant. This is part of the outstanding middle-grade History Comics series (I previously enjoyed The Roanoke Colony: America’s First Mystery and The Great Chicago Fire and The National Parks: Preserving America’s Wild Places (a must-read for all kids!). Don’t know who Claudette Colvin was? That’s the point of this book: that stunning, revolutionary changes occur as the result of many unsung heroes doing their own part to move things forward. Claudette was a 15-year-old Black girl in Birmingham who made headlines across the state for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a bus. She was dragged off the bus by police, charged with defying segregation laws, disturbing the peace, and assaulting police officers (which, of course, she did not do) and eventually convicted in court. And all of this happened before the famous moment when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat! And did you know that Rosa Parks was involved in civil rights all her life, long before her moment of fame on the bus? I learned so much reading this wonderful book that is making the point that many of the real heroes making change are quietly working behind the scenes–and this message is so important right now. A must-read for kids … and adults, too.

Now, I am enjoying another excellent Black History Month pick, Deacon King Kong by James McBride (my first by this acclaimed novelist). This is a buddy read with a friend in Singapore; discussing a great book with a friend makes it even greater! The title character, who is known as Sportcoat, is an older Black man living in a housing project in Brooklyn in 1969. He’s lost his wife and is drinking heavily, so he’s barely aware of what he’s doing one day when he grabs an old gun, marches out into their courtyard, and shoots a young drug dealer named Deems, whom he used to coach in the project baseball team. That sets off a chain of events. This is a very entertaining novel, peopled by vibrant, unique characters (all with funny nicknames) that often makes me laugh out loud or read outrageous lines to my husband (“Has your cheese done slid off your cracker?”). But beneath the vivid frivolity, McBride is writing about some serious issues of race and class: the effects of drugs, crime, and criminal organizations on neighborhoods; the disparity between poor people of color and wealthy white people; and the way that a neighborhood can become a close-knit community. I’m loving it so far.

I finished Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad, a book I’ve been meaning to read for ages! It’s all about the author’s experiences as a 22-year-old cancer patient with a deadly form of leukemia that was quite advanced by the time she was finally diagnosed. I’d heard of her story because she is now married to Jon Batiste, the fabulous musician from New Orleans, and I knew he’d taken time off to care for her. (Jon sang the national anthem at the Superbowl last night, playing on a piano beautifully painted by Suleika.) She reads the memoir herself, and the audio is excellent. It’s a very moving story, and I’ve been bookmarking many passages because so many of her observations are things I can really relate to, as someone with chronic illness. I was so moved by her memoir and her experiences that I immediately followed her on Instagram, signed up for her SubStack, and found several great podcast interviews with her (the best is one on Hoda Kotb’s Making Space podcast with both Suleika and Jon).

My husband, Ken, just finished another Christmas gift from me, The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. He and I are both big fans of Heller, since I met the author at Booktopia in 2017 and read his novel, Celine. Since then, we’ve both enjoyed his other outdoor thrillers, The River, The Guide, and The Last Ranger. This one is post-apocalyptic, and Ken said it was great. It’s one of Heller’s earliest novels.

 Our son, 30, is reading Practical Adept, book 17 of the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour, which he loves! He’s been working six days a week, and this book is over 1,000 pages!

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