Recent Reads!!!

After so much time of relative nothingness, over the past several months all manner of things have been happening here!  Some difficult.  Some confusing and hurtful.  Some lovely.  New jobs for me and B.  All together = very busy!!  That's life, isn't it???  I'm here for it.  And I'll try to get some words down about some of it soon.

One crazy difficult bit is pertinent to my reading list - an injury produced a condition I designated as The Little Ease that made most of December and January incredibly miserable!!!  Somehow or other I managed to do something to my right hip.  It started with really significant back pain and transformed into a broke bootie!!!  There was no way to BE!  I could only stand, sit, or lay for a few minutes at a time.  Not a very productive nor restful existence!  The activities I could participate in were extremely limited and the amount of time I could maintain them were quite disrupted!  As ever, B was my hero and figured out my actual diagnosis - greater trochanteric bursitis.  He created a regimen to help me deal with the pain and muscle spasms through massage, heating pads, and topical creams.  He also researched and directed stretching exercises that got me through it.  I was worried because it had not completely resolved when I started working on the vaccine team in January.  Standing all day was pretty tricky, but I got through it and am fine now and back to my regular activities and exercise.  However, in those difficult days, my dear B not only took care of all household stuff and such, supervised and directed my care and PT/rehab, he read to me to keep me entertained and distracted from the pain!  

And now - my reading list....

JANUARY - (all read aloud by B!!!)

• All Over But the Shouting - Rick Bragg.  B really enjoyed it!  He noted that some bits were rather repetitive. (Something I hadn't really noted on prior readings, but he was right!)  I always think of time with my Granny, driving her down Quintard Avenue or time with her in Jacksonville, when I read it.  
• A smattering of short stories by Somerset Maugham.  B didn't care for these at all!  To him they were exceedingly racist, sexist and employed an author's easy out far too frequently.  The usually male protagonist whose bad behavior and choices have put him in a pickle often resolves his personal problems - not to mention that of the storyteller - by suicide. B made some valid points!  Though I still feel that the categorizations of women and those with dark skin were made by the characters Maugham held up as examples of the horrors of man, rather than the writer's personal commentary.
• Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne.  We both laughed a lot through this one.  Not least because I could quote most of it from memory given the number of times I read it to the kids.
• The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff.  B did not care for this as much as I thought he might.  He felt it was too simplistic.  If we all lived as 'uncarved blocks' would anything be accomplished?  Would bills be paid?  Would the human race find a way to overcome a pandemic?  I think not.  Though taking time to enjoy bird song, the beauty of clouds and holding hands while walking with your best friend remain essential as well.

FEBRUARY - 

• The Evening and The Morning - Ken Follett.  A prequel to The Pillars of the Earth, in the Kingsbridge Series.  Perhaps it was not as good as the other two volumes, but Follett keeps things rolling and your attention - no matter what.  Just what I needed as I finished my recuperation!
• Normal People - Sally Rooney.  I wanted to like this more than I did.  I liked the relationship between the two main characters - to a point.  There was just TOO much drama and TOO many crazy relationships interjected!  I did like the ending. 

MARCH - 

• The Girl in the Spider's Web, The Girl who takes and Eye for an Eye, The Girl who Lived Twice - David Lagercrantz.  Books 4, 5, and 6 in the Millennium series originated by Stieg Larsson.  Pretty true to Stieg Larsson's characters.  And while I read them all in rapid succession, they were not quite as good as Larsson's books.  Lagercrantz attempted the chapters of interspersed tangentially attached topics, but the depth and connection Larsson could impart was lacking.  I did especially like the data/computer espionage/hacking portions.  I fancy myself acting as one of the White Hats if I knew anything about such things!!!!
• The Department of Sensitive Crimes:  A Detective Varg Novel - Alexander McCall Smith.  This is the first of three books in the Detective Varg series written by the same author who wrote The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.  I didn't immediately love it and the characters the way I did Mma Precious Ramotswe.  But they definitely grew on me and the ending was absolute perfection!  Looking forward to the next book!

That's it for now.  Happy reading! - c