Monday Malarkey - The usual stuff, without photo due to hinky computer

I've got the laptop on my lap so I'm not totally without options, here, but the laptop is new and has no photo software, so no photo of a pretty book stack, today. We had a busy weekend which included a long-winded, noisy lightning storm or I might have pre-posted a thing or two before the desktop flipped out. No such luck. My sidebar is also well and truly outdated. I'll work on that as soon as I'm able.

Recent Arrivals (currently supporting my laptop -- excuse me while I dive below to look at titles):

• Burn by Julianna Baggott - sent by friend
• Shopping for Porcupine by Seth Kantner - via Paperback Swap
• My Drunk Kitchen by Hannah Hart - from Harper !t
• Food in England by Dorothy Hartley - purchased secondhand
• Monster Party by Annie Bach, and
• Calvin, Look Out! by Berne and Bendis - both unsolicited from Sterling Children's Books
• Spillover by David Quammen - purchased

I also received a small pile of WWII books that I purchased but they've already been shelved (this weekend was another big "work on the library" weekend).


Last week's posts:

• Mini reviews: The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by J. Dicker, Parsons Green by Fiona Bagley, Goodnight June by S. Jio
• The Paramedics by James O. Page (review)
• Landing Gear by Kate Pullinger (review)
• The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno and a Fiona Friday photo (review and cat photo)

Last week's reads: 

• Run, Don't Walk by Adele Levine, P. T.
• Monster Party by Annie Bach
• Calvin, Look Out! by Jennifer Berne and Keith Bendis
• My Drunk Kitchen by Hannah Hart
• If You Ask Me by Betty White

Currently reading:

• Spillover by David Quammen
• My Custom Van by Michael Ian Black
• Whispers of Love by Lyn Cote

Set aside:

• Sextant by David Barrie - I intend to return to Sextant but after misplacing it for nearly a week, I decided I'll just retire it for the moment and reread the first chapters when I pick it back up.
• This is the Water by Yannick Murphy - DNF for good. This is a tour book so I'll post about it on Wednesday.

There are some unusual titles in my current and recent reads, all of which I can chalk up to the library organization. As I've cleaned and purged, a few have caught my eye and I stopped to read a few pages then kept right on reading. It's one of the hazards of organizing a library. The Betty White book, If You Ask Me, was a gift from my son in 2011.  I remember putting it on my master bedroom shelf, thinking I'd slide it in between ARCs when I had a minute. And, then, of course 3 years passed. As it turned out, the book is a quick read with random thoughts about White's career, her passion for animals and ecology, being old, life in general. It took an hour or two to read, max. I could have slipped it in easily at any time. Live and learn.

My Custom Van by Michael Ian Black has a similar story but it was a Twitter win. When I received the book, my eldest came for a visit and told me he's a fan, so he'd like to have it when I finished, then it stayed on the shelf and eventually ended up boxed for 2 years following our move. I'm about halfway (would have finished last night, had I not stopped to read the Betty White book) and will send it on, this week, if my son still wants it. When I flipped to the copyright date, I was more than a little stunned. 2008.  2008??!!!  It could have been released later because it's a paperback that might have had a hardback release, first, but still . . . at least 5 years have passed since the book arrived. I feel stunningly ephemeral, after thinking about that. Seriously, 2008???!!!! How did that much time pass so quickly?

The Lyn Cote book was another personal library find. It's actually one of 3 in collection called Blessed Assurance. I have no idea where I got Blessed Assurance but I began reading Whispers of Love and didn't want to put it down or it would have gone into the donation bag.

Spillover is a book about how most illnesses are transferred from animal to human, including the search for the origin of ebola and past outbreaks (very timely). From reading Spillover, I'm already under the impression that the anti-vaccine movement is a lot more of a danger to us than ebola, for several reasons I won't go into. The current ebola outbreak will render parts of Spillover outdated, but the history obviously remains valid.  It's a fascinating read.

TV and movies:

Kiddo has been home for a week and he has this tendency to take over the TV. Fortunately, he does turn to MeTV when Adam-12 comes on and he usually sticks around for Emergency!  Since I watch Emergency! while exercising, there've been times he and I have hollered through the walls ("The key word is camping -- they need to look for a tick!") or heard each other laughing while we're watching on the two TVs in adjoining rooms. No movies. Maybe next week.

That's about all the malarkey I've got, for now.  Happy Monday!

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