11 Nov, 2019

Nonfiction November – Be the Expert

/ posted in: Reading

Week 3: (Nov. 11 to 15) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Katie at Doing Dewey): Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert)

This week I’m recommending memoirs of people with disabilities. I’ve learned a lot about what needs to be done to make the world more accessible for everyone by reading these books.

If at Birth You Don’t Succeed: My Adventures with Disaster and Destiny by Zach Anner

“Comedian Zach Anner opens his frank and devilishly funny book, If at Birth You Don’t Succeed, with an admission: he botched his own birth. Two months early, underweight and under-prepared for life, he entered the world with cerebral palsy and an uncertain future. So how did this hairless mole-rat of a boy blossom into a viral internet sensation who’s hosted two travel shows, impressed Oprah, driven the Mars Rover, and inspired a John Mayer song? (It wasn’t Your Body is a Wonderland.)

Zach lives by the mantra: when life gives you wheelchair, make lemonade. Whether recounting a valiant childhood attempt to woo Cindy Crawford, encounters with zealous faith healers, or the time he crapped his pants mere feet from Dr. Phil, Zach shares his fumbles with unflinching honesty and characteristic charm. By his thirtieth birthday, Zach had grown into an adult with a career in entertainment, millions of fans, a loving family, and friends who would literally carry him up mountains.”

I loved this book. I absolutely recommend it on audiobook which is read by the author.

To get an idea of Zach’s personality and see why this is such a fun book, watch my favorite video of his: The Quest for the Rainbow Bagel

My review

Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey with an Exceptional Labrador by Stephen Kuusisto

“At the age of thirty-eight, Stephen Kuusisto—who has managed his whole life without one—gets his first guide dog, a beautiful yellow labrador named Corky. Theirs is a partnership of movement, mutual self-interest, and wanderlust. Walking with Corky in Manhattan for the first time, Steve discovers he’s “living the chaos of joy—you’re in love with your surroundings, loving a barefoot mind, wild to go anyplace.”

Have Dog, Will Travel is the inside story of how a person establishes trust with a dog, how a guide dog is trained. Corky absolutely transforms Steve’s life and his way of being in the world. Profound and deeply moving, theirs is a spiritual journey, during which Steve discovers that joy with a guide dog is both a method and a state of mind. Guaranteed to make you laugh—and cry—this beautiful reflection on the highs, lows, and everyday details that make up life with a guide dog provides a profound exploration of Stephen’s lifelong struggle with disability, identity, and the midlife events that lead to self-acceptance.”

The thing that amazed me about this book is that the author was raised believing that he needed to hide the fact that he was blind. He traveled, graduated from college, and became a professor without ever really acknowledging it. People around him thought his level of visual impairment was on the level of “needs very thick glasses” when it really was “legally blind so I really, really shouldn’t be driving this motorbike right now.” Deciding to live openly as a blind person was a major life adjustment for him. His family was not supportive. This book explains a lot about learning cane skills in order to navigate and how you need mastery of those skills in order to work with a dog.

My review

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma

“Haben grew up spending summers with her family in the enchanting Eritrean city of Asmara. There, she discovered courage as she faced off against a bull she couldn’t see, and found in herself an abiding strength as she absorbed her parents’ harrowing experiences during Eritrea’s thirty-year war with Ethiopia. Their refugee story inspired her to embark on a quest for knowledge, traveling the world in search of the secret to belonging. She explored numerous fascinating places, including Mali, where she helped build a school under the scorching Saharan sun. Her many adventures over the years range from the hair-raising to the hilarious.

Haben defines disability as an opportunity for innovation. She learned non-visual techniques for everything from dancing salsa to handling an electric saw. She developed a text-to-braille communication system that created an exciting new way to connect with people. Haben pioneered her way through obstacles, graduated from Harvard Law, and now uses her talents to advocate for people with disabilities.”

This is another book that highlights what is possible with technology, a supportive community, and a determined attitude.

My review

Do you have any other recommendations for books I should read?

08 Nov, 2019

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma
on August 6, 2019
Genres: Nonfiction, Personal Memoirs
Published by Twelve
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Setting: Eritrea, Mali, United States

The incredible life story of Haben Girma, the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School, and her amazing journey from isolation to the world stage.

Haben grew up spending summers with her family in the enchanting Eritrean city of Asmara. There, she discovered courage as she faced off against a bull she couldn't see, and found in herself an abiding strength as she absorbed her parents' harrowing experiences during Eritrea's thirty-year war with Ethiopia. Their refugee story inspired her to embark on a quest for knowledge, traveling the world in search of the secret to belonging. She explored numerous fascinating places, including Mali, where she helped build a school under the scorching Saharan sun. Her many adventures over the years range from the hair-raising to the hilarious.

Haben defines disability as an opportunity for innovation. She learned non-visual techniques for everything from dancing salsa to handling an electric saw. She developed a text-to-braille communication system that created an exciting new way to connect with people. Haben pioneered her way through obstacles, graduated from Harvard Law, and now uses her talents to advocate for people with disabilities.

HABEN takes readers through a thrilling game of blind hide-and-seek in Louisiana, a treacherous climb up an iceberg in Alaska, and a magical moment with President Obama at The White House. Warm, funny, thoughtful, and uplifting, this captivating memoir is a testament to one woman's determination to find the keys to connection.

The thing that impressed me about this book was her sense that her disabilities, especially her blindness, really aren’t that big of a deal. She repeatedly says that blindness is “just a lack of sight” like it is mostly inconsequential. I think this is because there is more adaptive infrastructure for blind people than for Deafblind people. She is able to use braille computers and books, cane skills, and her guide dog to get around the world. Adaptation for deafness like sign language aren’t as accessible to her because of her blindness.

It amused me that she could never understand why her parents were so “overprotective.” She couldn’t understand why they didn’t want her to go off and build a school in Africa. Most parents wouldn’t say their teenager could go on a several month trip to Africa during the school year without thinking about it a bit. That’s without adding in the additional issues raised when that teenager is Deafblind.

It was frustrating to read about people who wouldn’t inconvenience themselves a little bit to make adjustments that had huge impacts for her. I would like to think that people would want to help others but I guess I’m being naive.

This memoir is written as a series of essays on different points of her life so dwells for a while in one time period and then jumps ahead sometimes by several years. I liked this format because a lot of memoirs get bogged down in minutia during the less interesting times of the subject’s life.

I’d recommend this memoir to anyone who wonders what it is like to be Deafblind in a seeing and hearing world.

04 Nov, 2019

Nonfiction November – Book Pairing

/ posted in: Reading

Week 2: (Nov. 4 to 8) – Sarah’s Bookshelves is back to host – Book Pairing: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story.

If you loved:

“Set amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers’, calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts, these ‘coloured computers’ used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets and astronauts, into space. Moving from World War II through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War and the women’s rights movement, ‘Hidden Figures’ interweaves a rich history of mankind’s greatest adventure with the intimate stories of five courageous women whose work forever changed the world.”

I think by this time most people are familiar with the story from either the book or the movie. (The book is totally better of course!) If you haven’t read it yet, you really should.

Then read this fiction series where the computers fight to go to space:

“On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process.

Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.”

Elma is a Jewish woman who is just as qualified, if not more so, than the men who are signing up to become astronauts. She was a math prodigy who is assigned to work as a computer to do the calculations for space flight. She starts to push for the inclusion of women in the space program. They have to go if there are going to be colonies in space. This doesn’t sit well with some of the male powers-that-be.

Elma has her own blind spots too. One of the strengths of the series is that they are confronted. She routinely forgets about African-American female pilots who are also as qualified. She is pushed ahead of Asian and Latina pilots in order to project the image that the U.S. space program wants. The books do a good job of creating a world of the 1950s and 60s where necessity pushed technological advancement forward but racial and social justice stayed static.

“The Fated Sky continued the grand sweep of alternate history begun in The Calculating Stars. It is 1961, and the International Aerospace Coalition has established a colony on the moon. Elma York, the noted Lady Astronaut, is working on rotation, flying shuttles on the moon and returning regularly to Earth.
But humanity must get a foothold on Mars. The first exploratory mission is being planned, and none of the women astronauts is on the crew list. The international Aerospace Coalition has grave reservations about sending their “Lady Astronauts” on such a dangerous mission. The problem with that is the need for midjourney navigation calculations. The new electronic computation machines are not reliable and not easily programmed. It might be okay for a backup, but there will have to be a human computer on board. And all the computers are women.”

01 Nov, 2019

November 2019 Foodies Read

/ posted in: Foodies Read, Reading

Welcome to November 2019 Foodies Read!

This is a monthly link up for BOOKS about food. Reviews of fiction, nonfiction, and cookbooks are welcome!

It’s Nonfiction November around the book blog universe. Leave a comment about what nonfiction foodie books have been your favorites so far this year. These are mine.

Every entry is entered into a monthly drawing to win a gift card. Once you win a prize you are not eligible to win for 6 months.

We had 25 links in October! The winner of the drawing for a gift card is Ali from Fix Me A Little Lunch with her review of the Magical Bakery Series.

31 Oct, 2019

October 2019 Wrap Up

/ posted in: Reading

I read 20 books and 3 short stories in October.

The books I read were:

2 nonfiction
Way too many Duke-centric romances. I tend to prefer my historicals to be Duke-free but it is what it is
3 audiobooks
Set in the U.S., England (and Wales), and Eritrea

What were my favorites?

Warriors Don’t Cry is an absolute must-read for everyone!

Sign-up info

What I’ve read so far in 2019:

Righteous by Joe Ide
Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee
The Class by Heather Won Tesoriero
North by Scott and Jenny Jurek
Internment by Samira Ahmed
Tikka Chance on Me by Suleikha Snyder
Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan
Bury What We Cannot Take by Jean Kwok
Instant Indian by Rinku Bhattacharya
The True Queen by Zen Cho
Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam
A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee
Spices and Seasons by Rinku Bhattacharya
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah
A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai

I’m aiming for 21-30 books to be at the tapir level. 17/21 so far. Only 2 months left. I need to get a move on.

Reading All Around the World challenge from Howling Frog Books

Read a nonfiction book about the country – or
Read fiction written by a native of the country or someone living for a long time in the country.

I was super excited to add Eritrea this month.

The book is amazing and you should read it but I kept getting excited every time she mentioned Eritrea because I knew I would get to add this. That’s a hard one to get!

28 Oct, 2019

Nonfiction November – My Year in Nonfiction

/ posted in: Reading

Week 1: (Oct. 28 to Nov. 1) – Your Year in Nonfiction (Julz of Julz Reads): Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

That’s a little less than last year at this point but not by as much as I thought it would be.

What about my favorites? This is always so hard. There is such a variety of topics and styles here.

As always I want to get a huge TBR pile from reading everyone’s Nonfiction November posts.

26 Oct, 2019

Christmas at Pennington’s

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

Christmas at Pennington's by Rachel Brimble
Genres: Fiction, Historical
Format: eBook
Source: Book Tour, From author/publisher
Setting: England

Gripping drama as Pennington's department store prepares for a glittering Christmas in 1911, but a killer stalks the women of Bath.

Christmas sees Pennington's at its most glorious, thronged with shoppers, its grand staircase and balcony adorned with holly, mistletoe, tinsel and lights. It should be the happiest time, but dramas are seething beneath the surface.

For Cornelia Culford, in charge of jewellery, a divorce hearing looms, where she could lose custody of her young sons to her overbearing and unfaithful husband.

For Stephen Gower, being head of security at Pennington's is the perfect refuge from a tragic past at Scotland Yard. But soon the past will call him back, as Joseph Carter and Elizabeth Pennington beg him to help solve the murder of Joseph's first wife, now that it seems as if the killer has struck again.

For Joseph and Elizabeth, their marriage depends on exorcising the past. But can it ever be laid to rest?

This is the third book that I’ve read in this series set in an English department store. Each of the books focuses on a particular couple but because there is a larger mystery that moves through all of them, it is best to read them in order.

Cornelia is a soon to be divorced woman who is working at the jewelry counter. Stephen is a policeman on leave pending an investigation into his role in a case that went horribly wrong. He’s working security at the store. Several people find out that he is from Scotland Yard and decide to enlist him in solving problems of their own. He doesn’t want to be involved in anyone’s affairs but he finds himself being drawn in.

I like the setting of the books. It is 1911. That’s isn’t a time period I see represented a lot in historical fiction. The backbone of this series is women who are trying to move themselves out of the domestic sphere that they have been pigeonholed in. One is trying to run a business. One is active in trying to get the vote. One is trying to get away from an abusive husband. I like seeing those perspectives.

I’m not a fan of the men in these books. I really learned to despise the man who was the romantic lead of book one. He’s obsessed with finding out who murdered his first wife. That’s fine but it is turning him increasingly nasty which is an interesting story arc for a person who was supposed to be a hero. He keeps saying that his first wife won’t be able to rest in peace if he doesn’t find her murderer. I don’t think that is how it works. She doesn’t care because she is dead. You care, sir.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the resolution of that story line either. For the buildup it was over pretty quickly. There was a connection between several victims that I have a hard time believing no one noticed. “Oh, 50% of our group has been murdered? Is that why we don’t need as many refreshments at meetings?”

But if you are willing to let that go, it is an interesting look at a time and place.

Author Bio –
Rachel lives with her husband and their two daughters in a small town near Bath, England. Since 2007, she has had several novels published by small US presses, eight books published by Harlequin Superromance (Templeton Cove Stories) and four Victorian romances with eKensington/Lyrical.
In January 2018, she signed a four-book deal with Aria Fiction for a new Edwardian series set in Bath’s finest department store. The Mistress of Pennington’s released July 2018, A Rebel At
Pennington’s February 2019 and Christmas At Pennington’s September 2019.
Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America and has thousands of social media followers all over the world. To sign up for her quarterly and new release newsletter, click here to go to her website: https://rachelbrimble.com/

22 Oct, 2019

Warriors Don’t Cry

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals
on February 1, 1995
Pages: 336
Genres: Historical, Nonfiction, Personal Memoirs
Published by Washington Square Press
Format: Audiobook
Source: Owned
Setting: United States

The landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, brought the promise of integration to Little Rock, Arkansas, but it was hard-won for the nine black teenagers chosen to integrate Central High School in 1957. They ran the gauntlet between a rampaging mob and the heavily armed Arkansas National Guard, dispatched by Governor Orval Faubus to subvert federal law and bar them from entering the school. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by sending in soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, the elite "Screaming Eagles" - and transformed Melba Pattillo and her eight friends into reluctant warriors on the battlefield of civil rights. May 17, 1994, marks the fortieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which was argued and won by Thurgood Marshall, whose passion and presence emboldened the Little Rock struggle. Melba Pattillo Beals commemorates the milestone decision in this first-person account of her ordeal at the center of the violent confrontation that helped shape the civil rights movement. Beals takes us from the lynch mob that greeted the terrified fifteen-year-old to a celebrity homecoming with her eight compatriots thirty years later, on October 23, 1987, hosted by Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in the mansion that Faubus built. As they returned to tour the halls of the school, gathering from myriad professions and all corners of the country, they were greeted by the legacy of their courage - a bespectacled black teenager, the president of the student body at Central High. Beals chronicles her harrowing junior year at Central High, when she began each school day by polishing her saddle shoes and bracing herself for battle.

You’ve seen the pictures of the Little Rock Nine being escorted into the school by soldiers and the famous picture above of the angry mob around Elizabeth Eckford. What I never heard about or considered was what happened after they got into the school. I guess I thought that everything was fine once they got inside. It absolutely wasn’t. This is that story.

I listened to the audiobook of this story. It is brutal. Every day after listening I was completely disgusted with white people. I’d tell the white people I work with all about what I had learned that day so they could be mad at our fellow white people with us. I proposed a road trip to Arkansas to beat up some elderly white people but no one has taken me up on it so far. That’s only because they haven’t read the book. If they had, they’d get over their reservations and join me in giving some old people some well deserved whuppings.

All day long the white kids in the school tormented the black students. It was completely ignored by the adults. That’s what amazes me the most. The adults seemed to give up control of the school. I understand that most of them wanted the black students gone too but you’d think that they would at least try to keep some order during classes. They didn’t. It seems like the whole school was ruled by packs of students.

On the first day the teenagers were in school a mob was threatening the school. There was actually talk by the adults in charge of giving one of the students to the mob to be lynched in order to settle them down. They discussed this in front of the kids.

Beatings happened daily. They were kicked all the time. White kids tried to set Melba on fire several times and she had acid thrown in her face. Lit dynamite was thrown at them in the hallways. I don’t know how many textbooks they went through because white students destroyed them routinely. This went on EVERY DAY FOR A WHOLE SCHOOL YEAR. I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine living through it and I can’t imagine hating anyone or anything so much that I could keep that level of abuse up for a whole school year.

Melba credits her family with the strength to get through. This is where I differ with her interpretation a bit. Her grandmother was a very religious woman who kept saying that god was in control of everything. As a non-Christian, this grated on me. I think it would have been better for the adults in her life to help stand up for her in any way they could (which admittedly was very little) instead of spouting platitudes. Melba did embrace these and gained strength from them so I’m glad it helped her. As a reader though they made me grind my teeth in frustration.

At the end of the book she talks a little about her perspective on the experience in retrospect. She says that she would have never put her own kids into that kind of abusive situation. That was something I wondered about. The cause was good and just but what they went through was child abuse. They sacrificed their mental and physical health for integration. There is a second book that discusses what happened in her life after this hell year. I’m going to read that. She was definitely damaged by the experience.

I would also like to read about this from the perspective of some of the white people. I kept trying to get into their minds and figure out how they were possibly justifying any of this. I can’t make that mental leap. I’d love to just be able to ask, “What the hell were you even thinking?”

This is a book I want to put into the hands of everyone. These teenagers were amazing. They took unimaginable abuse from both the white and black community. This is history that we can’t forget.

21 Oct, 2019

What Am I Reading?

/ posted in: Reading

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

“On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process.

Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.

Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.”

I saw a later book in this series recommended on a list of books with older female protagonists. This is the first book. I love the premise. It is an alternative history about space exploration in the 1950s. There is a lot of interesting discussion about race relations and people who deny that climate change is going to be happening. The story seems to drag though. I understand that things in the story are happening over the course of several years but I feel like there should be more urgency to the story telling. It isn’t keeping me wanting to turn the pages like I feel this story should.

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma

“Haben grew up spending summers with her family in the enchanting Eritrean city of Asmara. There, she discovered courage as she faced off against a bull she couldn’t see, and found in herself an abiding strength as she absorbed her parents’ harrowing experiences during Eritrea’s thirty-year war with Ethiopia. Their refugee story inspired her to embark on a quest for knowledge, traveling the world in search of the secret to belonging. She explored numerous fascinating places, including Mali, where she helped build a school under the scorching Saharan sun. Her many adventures over the years range from the hair-raising to the hilarious.

Haben defines disability as an opportunity for innovation. She learned non-visual techniques for everything from dancing salsa to handling an electric saw. She developed a text-to-braille communication system that created an exciting new way to connect with people. Haben pioneered her way through obstacles, graduated from Harvard Law, and now uses her talents to advocate for people with disabilities.

HABEN takes readers through a thrilling game of blind hide-and-seek in Louisiana, a treacherous climb up an iceberg in Alaska, and a magical moment with President Obama at The White House. Warm, funny, thoughtful, and uplifting, this captivating memoir is a testament to one woman’s determination to find the keys to connection.”

This is my current audiobook and I’m quite enjoying it.

16 Oct, 2019

A Mimi Matthews Appreciation Post

/ posted in: Reading

The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews
on July 23, 2019
Pages: 390
Published by Perfectly Proper Press
Setting: England

An Uncommon Beauty...

Hidden away in rural Devonshire, Phyllida Satterthwaite has always been considered more odd than beautiful. But in London, her oddity has made her a sensation. Far worse, it's caught the eye of the sinister Duke of Moreland--a notorious art collector obsessed with acquiring one-of-a-kind treasures. To escape the duke's clutches, she's going to need a little help.

An Unlikely Hero...

Captain Arthur Heywood's days of heroism are long past. Grievously injured in the Peninsular War, he can no longer walk unaided, let alone shoot a pistol. What use can he possibly be to a damsel in distress? He has nothing left to offer except his good name.

Can a marriage of convenience save Philly from the vengeful duke? Or will life with Arthur put her--and her heart--in more danger than ever?

I first heard of Mimi Matthews through a blog tour for The Matrimonial Advertisement. I was immediately impressed by her writing. These books read more like historical fiction novels than a lot of other historical romances. I love historical romances but some of them are definitely a little less than concerned about strict historical accuracy. These books seem to be well researched and firmly set in their time and place.

She quickly became a must-buy author.

I recently read a group of her books back to back.

The Work of Art is the story of a woman who wants to live a quiet life in the country rescuing injured animals. Her relatives bring her to London and set about getting her noticed by a duke who likes to collect unusual things. Phyllida looks unusual enough that they think he’ll be interested. The problem is that his last wife died mysteriously and he doesn’t like Phyllida – he just wants her so no one else can have her.

Arthur is a disabled veteran who befriends Phyllida and wants to help her. The Duke is known to be violent towards people who get in his way. How is Arthur supposed to be able to protect her?

These people were fun to read about. Arthur and Phyllida actually liked each other and grew closer through the course of the book. I’m not a big fan of hate to love type stories. I don’t really like the fighting. I also liked the helping animals aspect of the book.

The Lost Letter by Mimi Matthews on November 6, 2017 Pages: 244 Published by Perfectly Proper Press

A PROUD BEAUTY

Society beauty Sylvia Stafford is far too pragmatic to pine. When the tragic death of her gamester father leaves her destitute and alone, she finds work as a governess in a merchant’s household in Cheapside. Isolated from the fashionable acquaintance of her youth, she resigns herself to lonely spinsterhood until a mysterious visitor convinces her to temporarily return to her former life–and her former love.

A SCARRED BEAST

Colonel Sebastian Conrad is no longer the dashing cavalry officer Sylvia once fell in love with. Badly scarred during the Sepoy Rebellion, he has withdrawn to his estate in rural Hertfordshire where he lives in near complete seclusion. Brooding and tormented, he cares nothing for the earldom he has inherited–and even less for the faithless beauty who rejected him three years before.

A SECOND CHANCE

A week together in the remote Victorian countryside is the last thing either of them ever wanted. But when fate intervenes to reunite them, will a beastly earl and an impoverished beauty finally find their happily-ever-after? Or are some fairy-tale endings simply not meant to be?

This is a story of misunderstanding. I’m not usually a big fan of this trope either but this book was well done.

An attachment was formed between the main characters several years before. Immediately afterwards he headed back to his post in the Army. Letters then went astray leading each of them to believe that the other cut off communication. Now Sebastian’s sister realizes that he still cares for Sylvia and sets out to find her to see if she can help him with his recovery. She’s desperate and isn’t bothered by lying in the service of her cause.

I always find it hard to review romance because they always sound formulaic. The trick is to find books where the writers take these well worn ideas and write the story well enough that you care about the characters even though you know how it is going to end up. That’s where Mimi Matthews excels. The books are warm and comforting to read. You just want to sink down inside of them.

A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews on November 13, 2018 Pages: 175 Published by Perfectly Proper Press

A Courtship of Convenience

Sophie Appersett is quite willing to marry outside of her class to ensure the survival of her family. But the darkly handsome Mr. Edward Sharpe is no run-of-the-mill London merchant. He’s grim and silent. A man of little emotion—or perhaps no emotion at all. After two months of courtship, she’s ready to put an end to things.

A Last Chance for Love

But severing ties with her taciturn suitor isn’t as straightforward as Sophie envisioned. Her parents are outraged. And then there’s Charles Darwin, Prince Albert, and that dratted gaslight. What’s a girl to do except invite Mr. Sharpe to Appersett House for Christmas and give him one last chance to win her? Only this time there’ll be no false formality. This time they’ll get to know each other for who they really are.

This was a fun book about a man who was following the advice of a dating manual. Too bad the advice was absolutely horrible. His would-be-bride breaks off the relationship because he is just too boring. Her family isn’t going to stand for that though. They need her to marry well to get them out of financial trouble and this boring fellow is just what they need. They make her invite him to a holiday house party so she can get to know him better. Together they need to get past the social and financial barriers between them to find their real selves.

This is a novella and it is so cute. I never end up reading holiday books at the appropriate time of year. Pick this one up whenever you want.

11 Oct, 2019

Slay

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

Slay by Brittney Morris
on September 24, 2019
Pages: 336
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
Published by Simon Pulse
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library

By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man."

But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination."

Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?

Slay is a great book if you are capable of massive suspension of disbelief.

I love the description of the game. The virtual reality world that this game exists in sounds absolutely amazing. I’d love to see video games like this. In the world of this book V.R. technology appears to be commonplace. It is much more technologically advanced than we are now but everything else besides gaming seems to be about the same level of technology.

Slay is a virtual world where people duel using powers granted to them by cards that they draw from a deck. The cards are based on aspects of black lives across the globe. Mom’s Macaroni and Cheese makes the ground your opponent is standing on gooey so they get stuck. The Afro card surrounds you in a protective bubble of hair. Other cards on based on famous people. I loved reading about the cards. The world building here was so inventive and funny. It was everything I love about fantastical worlds.

In order to play Slay you need to have a passcode from another player. It is understood but never explicitly stated that you have to be black to play. When a top player is murdered in real life because of a dispute about the game, the media finds out about the exclusivity of Slay. They start to debate about whether or not it is racist to limit play to black people.

There are great discussions about harassment of black videogamers and the importance of having spaces where you can be yourself. Who gets to decide what is black culture?

This part of the story is all good. The problems come if you think about the details too much.

Supposedly this game was built by a teenager. It has 500,000 players using virtual reality. Where is this being hosted? How is it being paid for? It is a free game with no apparent advertising. The murder was over people pooling resources in the game. It implies that there was money being spent on the game but she never seems to collect any money. How would a minor be able to set up a company that could do that alone? Somehow her family has never noticed that she is running a massive undertaking from her bedroom. She doesn’t really seem to do much but moderate some large duels. She talks about adding new features and about some glitches but she never seems to fix anything. She goes to school full time, has a boyfriend, tutors, does her homework, and goes to bed early. Nothing ever seems to crash or absolutely need her attention. Games need teams of people to keep them going but she checks in for a few hours a day when she can get away from her family? Not likely.

If you can let all that go and pretend that this is a totally self sustaining game, then you can enjoy the larger social issues brought up in the story.

10 Oct, 2019

The Wilds

/ posted in: Hometown Tourist, Photos

I got to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine recently.

When I was in middle school we had to write a list of things that we wanted to do when we grew up. One of the things on my list was to sleep in a yurt. This was way before yurts were cool in the U.S. I only knew about them because in fifth grade I read a book about a man who went to Mongolia. I think this was my first historical fiction experience. Ever since that time I wanted to go to Mongolia and sleep in a yurt. (He also ate sheep eyeballs and I totally didn’t want to have to do that to have my yurt time.)

I managed the yurt and no sheep eyeballs were necessary.

We stayed overnight in the yurt camping area at The Wilds. I don’t think that the guy in the book I read had a yurt this fancy. I don’t remember any descriptions of air conditioning, full bathroom, or wi-fi.

The Wilds is a 10,000 acre reclaimed strip mine in Ohio. It is now managed by the Columbus Zoo. It is a little like Jurassic Park with large mammals instead of dinosaurs.

On the first day I went for a horseback ride. I was actually nervous about that. It has been a long time since I’ve ridden. We were told to mount at the mounting block and let the horse walk forward without putting our feet in the stirrups. I flat out panicked at the suggestion. They wanted to adjust our stirrups for us because I was the only person who had ever ridden before. However, stepping away from a mounting block without feet in stirrups is exactly what happened right before the accident where I broke my pelvis. I calmed myself though and got on and put my feet in immediately. Not doing that again.

The ride was fun once I let myself relax and stop overanalyzing. It was a trail ride on a horse who was used to this, not a ride on a high strung knucklehead like I owned.

After the ride we had a private dinner in a dining room reserved for overnight guests. We also had a large fire pit overlooking the camel pasture to relax at.

The next day we had breakfast provided and then we went on our tour through the park.

The Wilds is a fun way to see animals in a slightly more relaxed environment than in a zoo. The herbivores are all wandering huge pastures and living their lives in a much freer manner than in most zoos.

The Wilds is in Cumberland Ohio. It is absolutely worth a visit if you are ever in the central Ohio area.

01 Oct, 2019

October 2019 Foodies Read

/ posted in: Foodies Read, Reading

Welcome to October 2019 Foodies Read!

This is a monthly link up for books about food. Reviews of fiction, nonfiction, and cookbooks are welcome!

This month I’m recommending a podcast. Listen to LeVar Burton reading N.K. Jemisin’s short story Cuisines des Memoires. This is the story of a restaurant where you can have any meal from any point in time recreated.

Every entry is entered into a monthly drawing to win a gift card. Once you win a prize you are not eligible to win for 6 months.

We had 31 links in September! The winner of the drawing for a gift card is Deb for her review of The Food Explorer.

30 Sep, 2019

September 2019 Wrap Up

/ posted in: Reading

Well, when I left off at the end of August I had hardly read anything at all. Something happened though as September rolled around.

I started reading again. Seriously reading. As in I read 5 books by September 2. Once again romance novels paved the way out of a reading slump.

I read 18 books in September.

The books I read were:

All fiction
0 finished audiobooks – I kept starting and abandoning them.
Set in the U.S., England, and Haiti

What were my favorites?

These two were some of the best plotted romance novels I think I’ve ever read. They both have twists in them that kept the romance formula from getting routine. I love both authors from other works and these books reminded me of why.

Sign-up info

I didn’t add anything in September.

What I’ve read so far in 2019:

Righteous by Joe Ide
Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee
The Class by Heather Won Tesoriero
North by Scott and Jenny Jurek
Internment by Samira Ahmed
Tikka Chance on Me by Suleikha Snyder
Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan
Bury What We Cannot Take by Jean Kwok
Instant Indian by Rinku Bhattacharya
The True Queen by Zen Cho
Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam
A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee
Spices and Seasons by Rinku Bhattacharya
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah

I’m aiming for 21-30 books to be at the tapir level. 16/21 so far

Reading All Around the World challenge from Howling Frog Books

Read a nonfiction book about the country – or
Read fiction written by a native of the country or someone living for a long time in the country.

I added Haiti this month.

18 Sep, 2019

Barnabas Tew and the Case of the Enlightened Cow

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

Barnabas Tew and the Case of the Enlightened Cow by Columbkill Noonan
on September 18, 2019
Pages: 205
Genres: Fantasy
Published by Darkstroke
Format: eBook
Source: Book Tour, From author/publisher

Rama, the Hindu god who maintains dharma, or the balance of all things, is in terrible trouble, and only Barnabas and Wilfred can save him!

Private detectives to the gods, Barnabas Tew and Wilfred Colby, believed they’d discovered the secret to taking charge of their destinies. Unfortunately, they’re about to be taught a hard lesson: nothing is as it seems and taking control is easier said than done.

Fresh off their most challenging case to date, the two detectives step into a cenote: an otherworldly portal that connects worlds and can take them anywhere if they know how to use it. Each is hoping to be reunited with someone he left behind, but they soon realize that something has gone terribly, disastrously wrong. Instead of being reunited with their lady-loves, they find themselves in a Hindu temple, together with Kamadeva, the Hindu god of desire.

Kamadeva asks them to save his friend Rama, who is in grave danger. It seems an innocent enough request, but Barnabas and Wilfred have learned that not everything is at it seems, and the right thing to do is not always so obvious. It doesn’t take long to discover that not all the gods want Rama saved, leaving the two detectives to make a terrible choice.

The detectives have faced dangerous deities before, but the Hindu gods are different. Otherworldly, wise, and full of shadowy motivations, they all seek to manipulate the hapless detectives to suit their purposes.

Can Barnabas and Wilfred see through the illusions and the lies to uncover the truth of the matter? Or will they fail, and choose the wrong side?

I loved the synopsis for this book. The idea of a pair of detectives for the gods is right up my alley. There have been several books in the series previous to this one but I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by just reading this one.

They mistakenly end up with the Hindu gods after trying to use a portal in a cenote and failing miserably. They spend the first several pages of the book arguing about this instead of interacting with the beings that they have appeared in front of. That was one of my issues with this book. I understood these to be British detectives who spend a lot of time ignoring or disparaging their surroundings. When they are ignorantly mocking things like a group of people doing yoga with an attitude of their own superiority it gets a bit uncomfortable.

There isn’t really much a plot here. They wander about interacting with some of the gods that they meet. They never really know what is going on. They discover things mostly by accident. I did enjoy the part where they were turned into fish and had to figure out how to get from a moat to an ocean. They were active participants in their own story for this – not just passive observers that events happened to.

Columbkill Noonan is the author of the bestselling “Barnabas Tew” series, which features the bumbling-yet-lovable Victorian detective Barnabas and his trusty sidekick, Wilfred. Columbkill combines her love of mythology and her affinity for period fiction to craft unique cozy mysteries that will leave you guessing (and chuckling!) till the very end.

10 Sep, 2019

Learning to Market Online

/ posted in: Fitness, Food

Yesterday I talked about wanting to tell more people about the products that helped me lose weight. When you sign up to be able to sell products, they tell you to have a party and invite your friends. That would work if everyone you know locally wasn’t in the room with you when you learned about the product. What do you do then?

That’s the spot I found myself in. I literally didn’t know anyone else to invite to a party. All my family lives a few hours away. If I want to sell products, I need to do it online.

I’ve also always been interested in people who build passive income streams online. I’ve read their information but while I understand it in theory I’ve never quite understood how to make it work for me.

So I’m taking a course on online marketing. One of the things I’m doing is starting a Facebook page to talk to other people who are running home businesses to see what is working for them. I’m going to be having interviews and I’m doing Facebook lives about what I’m learning. If you also are part of a network marketing company, I’d love to interview you!

If you are interested in this information, join me on my page!

09 Sep, 2019

What’s Happening with my Arbonne Challenge?

/ posted in: Fitness, Food

Back in April I went to a party that a coworker was throwing for Arbonne. I’d never heard of the company but I went to be supportive.

The company has several lines of products including skin care and nutrition. At the time I was working out 5 days a week and steadily gaining weight. I was actually getting pretty scared. I knew I was heading into perimenopause and it was just going to get harder to lose weight. I couldn’t stop the gaining! This wasn’t gaining muscle either. It was fat.

They have a program called 30 Days to Healthy Living. You get a huge box of products to use for 30 days to jump start weight loss. I’ve always been hugely dismissive of meal replacement shakes. I wasn’t going to do that. I get hungry. But, I was desperate and there was a money back guarantee if I wasn’t happy. (Also, the presenter said that she made her shakes at night for the next day. I don’t know why that appealed to me so much. Maybe because I’m lazy in the morning.) So I signed up.

I lost 15 lbs in the first month! Easily lost 15 lbs. I gave myself permission to have healthy snacks with breakfast and lunch so I was never hungry. You combine the shakes with a clean diet – no refined sugar, no gluten, no dairy. I’ve done diets like that before and always do well on them. I know it is best for me. Why do I ever wander off the path? Also, I didn’t work out that month. I wanted to see what the program alone would do.

After my 30 days was up, I went on a modified program. I still do shakes for breakfast and lunch. I stay mostly on the clean diet but have been known to stray. I got used to being lazy and didn’t pick my workout routine back up.

What happened? I maintained the weight loss but I didn’t lose any more.

I put my husband on the program. He didn’t lose a bunch a weight but his blood sugar stabilized. My boss started the program and he is losing weight.

Now I want to kick myself in the butt again and lose more of the weight I need to lose. I’m doing to be stricter about my diet and I’ve started walking again. I even got up this morning at my normal work out time and did some yoga. I’m so stiff from not exercising! I need to do yoga for at least a week to get everything moving again before I try anything harder.

I’d also love to start getting more people on this program. It is the only thing that worked for me. If you are interested in more information, let me know.

07 Sep, 2019

Love Delusion

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

The Love Delusion by Nicola Mostyn
on February 2019
Pages: 224
Genres: Fantasy
Format: eARC
Source: Book Tour, From author/publisher

LOVE IS . . . A MYTH?
That's the belief of Frida McKenzie, devoted member of The Love Delusion movement, determined to cure humans of our ridiculous obsession with love.
But there's something she's forgotten...
When Frida finds a mysterious picture of herself with a man she barely knows, the certainties she has about her world begin to unravel.
What are the sinister roots of the cult that seems to have gripped humanity? Why can't she remember anything about her life before - including the strange(ly attractive) man in that picture? And just when exactly did she take up fantasy role play?
As a battle approaches that's been millennia in the making, it's beginning to look like there's only one question that really matters: if love conquers all, what happens when it's gone?

This is the second book in a series where I didn’t read the first. Usually that is a problem but this series is perfect for this situation. The book opens with two people being captured. You don’t know why they are running. The next chapter is two years later and their memories have been wiped. If you didn’t read the first book you get to figure out what is going on right along with the characters. It worked really well. I’m sure reading this book is a totally different experience if you read the first book and know everything that they have forgotten.

Frida is active in a group that aims to support and protect the rights of single people. They are changing the culture. No more requirements to pay double occupancy rates on trips if only one person is going. No social shaming for not having a date. The group is growing rapidly. People are figuring out that love is a delusion and they don’t have to fall for it. Frida enjoys her life until she meets a protestor on her way to a meeting. She feels drawn to him but she doesn’t know why. Then she finds a picture that she doesn’t remember of the two of them together.

I read this a long time after I signed up for the book tour so I didn’t remember anything about the synopsis. I was totally surprised by everything that happened just like the characters. I think I was expecting something along the chick lit/romance line but this is more of a light fantasy book. There is magic all around.

I quite enjoyed this book. It would be perfect for anyone looking for a fun, fast paced story with twists and turns that you might not expect.

Author Bio –
Nicola was born and lives in Manchester. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature and has spent more time immersed in the works of Philip Larkin than is strictly healthy. Her inspirations are Stephen King, Tina Fey and Joss Whedon and as such she’s a big fan of the funny – both ha ha and peculiar. Her debut, The Gods of Love, was shortlisted for The Writers’ Guild Best first novel. The Love Delusion is the companion novel. As well as writing novels, she works as a creativity coach and has written a non-fiction book for aspiring writers, Seven Creative Gremlins. For more about Nicola visit www.nicolamostyn.com
Social Media Links –
Twitter – @nicolamostyn
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/nicolamostynauthor/
Insta: @NicolaMostyn
http://nicolamostyn.com
https://linktr.ee/nicolamostyn

01 Sep, 2019

September 2019 Foodies Read

/ posted in: Foodies Read, Reading

Welcome to September 2019 Foodies Read!

Need some ideas for books about food to read?

Raspberry Chocolate Murder: A Cozy Murder Mystery (Dolphin Bay Cozy Mystery Series Book 1)

Raspberry Chocolate Murder: A Cozy Murder Mystery by Leena Clover

Clean Eating Bowls: 100 Real Food Recipes for Eating Clean by Kenzie Swanhart

The Best American Food Writing 2019 (The Best American Series ®)

The Best American Food Writing 2019 by Samin Nosrat

Every entry is entered into a monthly drawing to win a gift card. Once you win a prize you are not eligible to win for 6 months.

We had 18 links in August. The winner of the drawing for a gift card is Cam for her post on Funny in Farsi.

31 Aug, 2019

August 2019 Wrap Up

/ posted in: Reading

I finished 7 books in August. SEVEN! I don’t think I’ve ever finished that few books in a month. That’s being generous too. One was a short story and one was a graphic novel.