Thursday, June 30, 2022

Books and Redwood trees April - June 2022

 

I read some book reviews from a fantasy/sci fi writer and she read 16 books in a month.  Many were re-reads and a bunch were romance or light reading, but still, I'm impressed.  I'm no where near that many, but hope to reach 100 this year.  Pictures are from a recent trip to a local park filled with coastal redwoods.  



-by Nghi Vo
The Chosen and The Beautiful : Loved this!  The Great Gatsby retold from Jordan Baker's POV, but in a magical world.   A couple weeks later I am still loving this.

-by Michael Schur
How to be Perfect:  Overview of some philosophy.  If you like The Good Place, this is for you.  Only issue I had was the electronic formatting break up the flow of the footnotes.



-by Galit Atlas
Emotional Inheritance  A Therapist, Her Patients, and The Legacy of Trauma:  How trauma from parents and grandparents is carried forward to the children.  It is mostly the stories of individuals, which is kind of refreshing compared to the usual statistics.   It does give you things to think about.  Planning on recommending this to my volunteer org that works with foster kids as it seems super relevant.

-by Ross W Greene
The Explosive Child:  aimed at parents who have kids on the extreme version of behavior.  The basic lesson is good for anyone though.  Kids want to do well/behave.  If they aren't it's because they don't have the skills/  The parents/adults job is to figure out what skills are lacking and work collaboratively with the child to improve.  


-by Kalynn Bayron
Cinderella is Dead:  Alternate version of the Cinderella story, 200 years later.  Aimed at tweens?  I like the premise, but the emotions are dialed up to 11 all the time.

-by Grady Hendrix
Horrorstor:  This is both horror and parody/comedy.  I found it surprisingly great at both.  The underlying horror is clever and sad and true.  Also really liked the ending, which I think is hard to do.  A couple weeks later I find myself recommending this to a lot of people :)



-by Kwon Yeo-sun
Lemon:  Part mystery, part existential angst.  Super popular now (10 people were waiting while I had it!).  POV switches between folks, and super fast read, both of which I like.  I don't think I would have wanted a lot more of it though.

-by Neal Shusterman
Scythe/Thunderhead/The Toll:  Trilogy where AI has gained sentience, made Earth a utopia.   No more death so Scthyes cull the population, some of them are evil and cause a big disruption.   Love the characters, though they are not subtle, either pure good or pure evil.  Written for the middle grades I think.  Best covers ever.


-by Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild-Built:  Second book to be published this year..  Robots have gained sentience, then abandon humanity for the wilderness.  Now shook to their core, humans change everything and make Earth a utopia.   This follows one human and one robot who come to learn from each other.  Super sweet, will totally read the second when it comes out.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within:  So good!  Last in the Wayfarers set, but you don't have to read all of them, or in any order.  What happens when very different species are forced into close quarters and learn about each other.


-by Casey McQuistion
Red, White & Royal Blue:  Rom com fun!  This was finished after the 2016 election as a soothing balm, this world is still problematic, but much improved over the current version.  Young son of the US president and the younger prince of Wales fall in love, many hijinks and big emotions.  Totally fun fast read.

-by Patricia C Wrede
Dealing with Dragons:  A princess who doesn't like to do proper princess things goes to work for a 
dragon.  Meets witches and wizards, is smart and resourceful, everyone good has a happy ending.  Middle grades.


-by Kekla Magoon
The Season of Styx Malone:  NPR made a list of books to go with each state.  I've only read a couple, but wanted to try at least one new to me.  This is a YA book for Indiana.  It reminded me of the Great Brain series I loved as a kid-older boy makes summer exciting for the main brothers.  Everyone learns a lot and ends up happy.

-by Richard Osman
The Man Who Died Twice:  Second murder mystery.  Still love this group of sleuths.  I listened to the first part, but didn't finish, so got the electronic book-love that they put the different POVs in a different typeface to go with the different voice.


-by Leuyen Pham
Outside, Inside:  very young childrens book about the early days of the pandemic.  Everyone who was outside, went inside.  I could only get the audio book, but will keep my eye out to see the art.  It is a lovely optimistic view.

-by Rax King 
Tacky:  Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer  Each chapter is a love letter to a bit of culture that is generally deemed tacky, the band Creed, tv shows Sex and the City/Jersey Shore/America's Next Top Model.  She loves tacky culture, but is able to discuss them while referencing Susan Sonatag.  Her writing is so engaging because she delves into culture while discussing her personal life deeply.

DNF

-by KM Jackson
How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days:  Rom com that I just couldn't get into, read 25%.  I could see early on where it was likely to be headed and was bored with that outcome.

-by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mexican Gothic:  I sorted of liked this, but then just could not pick it up again.  It is an English gothic / creepy house dropped into Mexico...I think I wanted a Mexican version, not just dropped in Mexico.


-by Anthony Doerr
Cloud Cuokoo Land:  This is super popular now, but after about 15% of the way in, I wasn't interested in the people enough to keep going.  

-by Nina de Gramont
The Christie Affair:  Fictional account of what happened to Agatha Christie when she went missing for 11 days.  I got about a quarter in and lost interest.  Read the summary and yup, story is mainly the mistress'.  12 people were waiting for me to return it, so it is the hotness right now.

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Wine country, May 2022


A long weekend in wine country

A couple days near the Russian River.

We rented a house that was just a minute away from the river.




Relaxed pace, made ourselves a fancy meal.



Took time to stop and smell the flowers

Spent the afternoon at the California geyser.  The geyser itself was not super impressive on this trip, but the animals were tons of fun.





The next afternoon we spent wine tasting at Ridge.  Hanging out in near the vines, happily chatting and sipping.



Drove the long way back to see the lake from above.

Soda Creek winery has the most amazing sculpture.  Push to spin



A whole day of mud baths and pools-no photos needed.  Super relaxed-ahhhhhh.