reading — Page 35

Giving Up On A Book & A Reset

February 19, 2020 at 10:28 am by Claudia

Just something I noticed on our coffee table the other day.

It’s sunny today! Cold and windy, but sunny. I’ll take it.

Well, I got to page 68 in Lock Every Door by Riley Sager and I chucked it. It’s clunkily written, predictable, improbable, and uses a plot device right out of the pages of Rosemary’s Baby, which was a better book on every level. It’s a young person’s book, I think, and I don’t mean to disparage young people. Rather, it’s geared to the mass market, Gone Girl kind of audience. That’s fine, but it’s not my cup of tea. As I said on IG, when I’m rolling my eyes at least once on every page, it’s time to admit defeat. Also: if I read a book and think that I could have done better (and I have no illusions about being good enough to write a novel) it’s time to move on. Anyway, it’s going back to the library today and I’ll start Hi Five by Joe Ide, a highly skilled writer. That makes 3 out of the 4 library books ready to return, with only one to go. Two read, one started but not finished. By the way, I very much enjoyed Blue Moon by Lee Child. Finished it in bed last night.

We watched An Inspector Calls last night on Amazon Prime. It’s a BBC version of the play by J. B. Priestly, a play I’ve seemingly always known about but have never seen. Excellent. Don and I are still talking about it this morning.

Other than that, life is fairly routine lately. Except for this morning when I was briefly locked in the bedroom, Don spilled a container of baking soda all over the floor, and knocked over my egg cups on top of the cubby. One fell to the floor, but nothing was broken. I told him that we need a reset!

Deep breath. And let’s start over.

Happy Wednesday.

Books, Wind Chill, and Off to Hartford

February 14, 2020 at 9:25 am by Claudia

Okay. I read The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell in one day – not because it was particularly good, however, just because it was somewhat engaging and a fast read. It’s what I call “Mystery-Lite” – somewhat like popcorn or sugar – after eating it, you don’t feel particularly nourished. Empty calories. Apologies if some of you are Lisa Jewell fans. The premise is an interesting one and Jewell is good at writing from the point-of-view of multiple characters, but, in the end, it was fluff.

So, I’m moving on to the Lee Child – Blue Moon. I’ll take that with me to Hartford today.

Speaking of Hartford, the wind chill is in the teens right now. Oh joy.

So, I’m packing up my stuff (even for one night, it’s crazy what I need to pack!) and making lists. The one good thing about this, besides actually being employed, is that today’s driving weather is not snow, ice, fog, or rain, all of which I’ve dealt with during my two previous trips to Hartford. So I’m very grateful for that!

It’s Valentine’s Day and I was able to wish my husband a Happy Valentine’s Day this morning, even though we won’t be together tonight. Don spoke the truth this morning, “Actually, every day is Valentine’s Day here.” He’s right. I have mixed feelings about this day because there’s so much pressure involved. I was single for many years and even though I was happily single and uninvolved by choice, I still felt that pressure to have a Valentine of some sort. And that’s ridiculous. As you know, I tend to avoid what I call Hallmark holidays. Tell your mom you love her every day not just on Mother’s Day. Same for your dad on Father’s Day. Same for your loved ones, your partner, your mate – tell them you love them every day. I can only speak for us, but we say it several times a day, every day.

I’m not going to post tomorrow, as I don’t want to take my laptop for this short visit. And I have to spend the morning tomorrow writing up notes for the actors. I’ll be back home later in the day on Saturday and I’ll post again on Sunday.

Happy Friday.

A Wee Bit of Snow

February 9, 2020 at 11:01 am by Claudia

The morning view as we sip our second cup of coffee. The coffee table is generally Don’s bailiwick for his current reading material, journal, datebook, pens, etc. I have my space in the den. I move in with my cup of coffee, cell phone, earbuds (which I remove of course while chatting with him) and in this case, one of my planners because I wanted to read a quote that I’d jotted down there to Don. I tend to wear earbuds if I’m listening to anything because we both like our mornings to be relatively quiet.

In fact, I’ll share that quote with you. It’s from Rebecca Solnit and it’s about books and reading.

The object we call a book is not the real book, but its potential, like a musical score or seed. It exists fully only in the act of being read, and its real home is inside the head of the reader, where the symphony resounds, the seed germinates.

I love that.

We had some snow last night and it’s still snowing rather gently. Hardly any accumulation but watching the fat flakes float gently down to the ground is rather lovely on this Sunday morning. We’re due to get a bit more overnight; the usual rain/snow combo that seems to be the theme of this winter.

We watched Separate Tables on TCM last night. The night before we watched Interiors. I’d seen Interiors many years ago and sort of discounted it at the time because it wasn’t Woody Allen’s usual fare. I’m really glad we watched it again because it was an homage to Ingmar Bergman and quite good. I’d always known of Separate Tables, based on Terence Rattigan’s play of the same name, but hadn’t ever watched it. An excellent cast: David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Cathleen Nesbitt, Wendy Hiller, and Gladys Cooper. We liked it very much.

Today I have to water Rick’s plants one more time – I’m not sure when they’re getting back – and run a couple of errands. Don’s going to go along with me. Tonight, we settle in and watch the Oscars, because why not?

Happy Sunday.

Giving Up On A Book & A Reset

Books, Wind Chill, and Off to Hartford

A Wee Bit of Snow

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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