Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals (clockwise from upper left):

• Bindu's Bindis by Supriya Kelkar and Parvati Pillai - from Sterling Children's Books for review
• The Last Night in London by Karen White - from Berkley Books for review
• The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue - from Algonquin Books for review
• Take Three Girls by Cath Crowley - from Sterling Teen for review

Getting close to 3 months without a purchase and I will not deny I've been sorely tempted to buy a few. In fact, it was so rough, this week, that I had a nightmare that I accidentally bought a book — meaning, I briefly forgot I was on a book-buying ban in my dream and then was horrified when I realized I'd broken my ban. Funny. I'm finding it easier to have a long, hard goal than the usual generic, "I'm going on a book-buying ban for a while." That never lasts. 

Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa
• Bindu's Bindis by Supriya Kelkar
• Retrograde by Peter Cawdron
• Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig

This was a good couple of weeks. 3 out of 4 of these were books I absolutely loved. 

Currently reading:

• Mosquitoland by David Arnold
• Reader's Digest War Stories: Daring First-Hand Accounts of World War II

I'm a little unsure about Mosquitoland because it's a road trip on a bus and I just recently read a road trip bus book. However, it's quite different so I'm going to give it at least 75 pages before deciding whether or not to keep going. 

I did not start another collection of short stories (again), although I tried. I picked up and started reading the two volumes I mentioned in my last Malarkey (Daphne du Maurier and Kazuo Ishiguro). Apparently, I was not in the right mood. But, I wanted to read something with shorter works in it and my Reader's Digest book of WWII war stories was just sitting out there, calling, "Me, me, me!" I figure short works of nonfiction are a good filler till I'm back in the mood for more short stories. Some of those WWII stories are nail biters.

Posts since last Malarkey:

• Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead (book review)
• The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox (book review)
• Fiona Friday (cat photo)
• The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart (book review)
• List of Ten by Halli Gomez (book review)
• Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain (book review)
• Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (book review)
• Fiona Friday - Izzy and I are reading (cat photo)

In other news:

There's not much news. Huzzybuns is getting out more, going to his office several days a week, and he'll be taking his first plane flight on business soon. I went to the grocery store, which sounds unexciting but I really have not been since before the pandemic because I was recovering from surgery for a couple months and then we just got into a routine. I wrote a list; he bought the groceries; we unloaded and wiped everything down together; I planned meals; he cooked. But, this week we were low on several items and he didn't have time to go, so I got up early and had a great deal of fun loading up my cart with veggies. Huz is not such a big veggie person but he'll cook them if they're in the house. It was fun! And, our grocery store requires a mask so everyone was well behaved, in spite of the fact that the mask mandate was ditched by our governor nearly 3 weeks ago. 

Oh, and I got a flat tire. That happened on a different day when I planned to go to Target (I didn't make it) and was somewhat less fun but it was a pleasant day and while the spouse could not come for a rescue, he managed to find a service that came to me. While I waited, I went to a nearby restaurant where almost nobody was wearing masks and all but one of the mask wearers had them under their noses or chins. It freaked me out. I asked to get my food to go and ate in the back of my car with the hatch up. That worked well. Since it was such a gorgeous day, it was a perfect time to picnic in one's trunk. We have a little more than a week before we get our second doses of the vaccine and then two weeks after that I think I'll feel a bit more comfortable around the people who don't wear masks, although I think I'll keep using drive-through, pick-up, or curbside till the pandemic is genuinely over. Restaurants are just not for me, right now. 

Still watching the same shows, no change there: Chuck, The Mallorca Files, Downton Abbey. I often watch only a half episode of Chuck or Downton while I eat lunch and then forget about it for a couple of days. We're not binge-watchers. So, it'll probably take us a while to get through the three. I also watched part of the second Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, on Disney + but Huz walked in the room and said, "You're watching it without me???!!!" Oh. So, I stopped and said I'll be happy to start from the beginning on another night. I'm enjoying it, so far. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.