It's Monday 2/17! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

Last week, I wrote about my “wild” life and getting back to socializing–actually going to a restaurant the previous Friday (the likely culprit) and having two friends over for Superbowl. Well, it seems that my partying lifestyle caught up with me, in spite of masking, and by Monday evening, I was sick. For the past week, I’ve had actual viral symptoms, which is extremely rare for me. I haven’t had a cold or other respiratory virus (other than COVID, which is in a class by itself and I don’t make the antibodies against it) in about 20 years! So, this has been puzzling but like any kind of infection with my chronic immune disorder, it is knocking me out. 

Lots of time on the couch – Grey’s is my comfort TV!

I have no idea how long this will last until I am back to my “normal” (for me) baseline. So, I didn’t go anywhere last week and wasn’t able to do much, either. I did admire the birds at our feeder and the changing weather out the window.

We rarely see bluebirds at our feeder!

We had a nice quiet Valentine’s Day together, with a steak dinner at home, cards, flowers, and gave each other some yummy sugar-free chocolates. 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A Valentine we made for the grandparents back in the day!

In spite of still feeling sick, I planned to get started on our tax preparation this weekend. I opened several spreadsheets. I updated them with a bunch of information (checking my numbers vs. my 1099′s, etc), and then found I could not save them. Then, Excel wouldn’t even let me edit my spreadsheets, locking me out of my own Office software completely. The same thing happened last year on the same date, the anniversary of when I purchased Office two years ago. I spent all of my productive time (limited to begin with) Saturday trying to find solutions online. On Sunday, I finally found a link to a Live Chat option on Microsoft’s website … and spent the next four hours on live chat with three different support people. I finally had to uninstall Office, reinstall it (at which point they tried to update it which caused more issues), and now I can finally use my own software (that I bought outright without a subscription) again, though I lost all the work I did Saturday morning. It was not only frustrating but exhausting, so by last night, I was feeling a lot worse. I’m going to try to rest as much as possible. And I really hate Microsoft (and love Apple Care and the Genius Bar!).

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 Mardi Gras Readathon – I’m once again participating in this fun bookish event. I included photos from our own Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans!

 Friday Reads 2-14-25: Great Books for a Sick Week – my brief weekly update (from the couch this time) of what I am reading and listening to.

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I am enjoying an 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 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 am almost finished now, and it is absolutely fabulous. Highly recommended.

 On audio, I have been listening to Swing by Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess, a YA novel. I knew I was in for a treat with this author; I loved listening to Solo, another YA novel in verse, and reading Booked, a middle-grade graphic novel. Walt and Noah are best friends in their junior year of high school. Walt has goals for them this year: to get on the baseball team and to become cool. Neither of these seem within reach, as they didn’t make the team again. Noah is in love with the third member of their best friend group, a girl named Sam who is dating Cruz, a baseball player. Sam has been close friends with Noah and Walt since 3rd grade, so Noah is solidly in the friend zone. As their junior year continues, Noah is looking for a way to let Sam know how he feels, as Walt introduces him to jazz and continues to go to the batting cages. This engrossing novel with plenty of depth is wonderful on audio, with bits of jazz between its main parts. 

My husband, Ken, is reading Lightless by C.A. Higgins, a sci fi novel that came in a fantasy/sci fi subscription box our son and his girlfriend gave him for Christmas. He’s received about 6 books already, with one more box to come, so he has lots of new books to read! He says this one is classic sci fi, with a crew aboard a military spaceship on a mission. One crew member, Althea, forms an emotional bond with the ship’s controlling AI, which may be their only hope when terrorists take over their ship.

 Our son, 30, finished Practical Adept, book 17 of the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour, which he loves! He has now started rereading the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks, an old favorite of his, in preparation for the latest book (Beyond the Shadows). So, he’s rereading book 1, The Way of Shadows, and book 2, The Shadow’s Way.

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