Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals (above):

• The Swimmers by Chloe Lane - from Meryl Zegarek Public Relations for review (unsolicited)
• The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman - purchased 

And, one pile from my break from the book-buying ban (above, top to bottom):

• Blame by Simon Mayo
• Nora by Nuala O'Connor
• The Nesting by C. J. Cooke
• The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell
• Brat: An '80s Story by Andrew McCarthy
• The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
• We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
• The Quiet Boy by Ben H. Winters
• Falling by T. J. Newman

Books finished since last Malarkey:

• The Runaways by Holly Webb
• A Boy Named Isamu by James Yang
• Knight's Castle by Edward Eager
• Letters of Note: War by Shaun Usher
• The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
• Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
• Store of the Worlds by Robert Sheckley

My momentum from January continued into the first week of February but then this week I kept trying to drag myself through a book that wasn't working for me and finally DNF'd it at 128 pages. I still would like to finish it but I don't know if I will. Fortunately, the book I picked up to replace it is excellent. 

Currently reading:

• Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod
• The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Complete Beatles Songs by Steve Turner
• Paint Mojo by Tracy Verdugo

Since I finished Store of the Worlds, I needed another collection of short stories to read and Island just happened to be sitting in front of my computer when I was thinking about what to read next. The Water Dancer is the book I referred to that replaced my DNF, A Chorus Rises by Bethany C. Morrow. I absolutely loved A Song Below Water and so wanted to love this sequel (or second in a series . . . I don't know if it will continue) but the heroine in A Chorus Rises is the mean girl Eloko (basically, the higher-class in a magical world, who is used to everyone admiring and adoring her and can't figure out what to do when she becomes a pariah). She's annoying. And, not much seems to be happening. I even tried skimming but I found the language confusing enough that I needed to slow down to digest it and . . . OK, sometimes a book just drags you down and you have to decide when enough is enough. But, I like the symbolism, like the Elokos standing in for, I presume, upper class whites who have everything handed to them on a platter. I might just read a chapter a day to try to finish it up. We'll see. 

Posts since last Malarkey:

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (book review)
• Spy School: Secret Service by Stuart Gibbs and Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (book reviews)
• Fiona Friday (cat photo)
• Fiona Friday (cat photo) 

Last week was obviously one of those weeks that I didn't feel like writing blog posts. Hopefully, this week will be a better one because I am way the heck behind on reviewing. Whatever, I'll catch up. 

In other news:

I don't know if this image can be clicked on to enlarge, but here's everything we've watched lately, or are in the process of watching (for the most part -- I just realized I missed one). Movies we've watched are The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, which I may have already mentioned, Charade, and My Man Godfrey. All were great. We were recently in a mood for older, classic movies, hence Charade and My Man Godfrey. I only occasionally watch an episode of Blake's 7 but I'm enjoying it. And, I've just started watching Station Eleven. I have not read the book but do have an electronic copy of it. I've also been watching Chicago Fire, Season 1. It's been a favorite for years but I am so not a TV person that I keep forgetting to tune in, so I decided to see if it would be possible to stream the entire series from the beginning. Thank you, Peacock! The one show I'm watching almost daily that I forgot to add to my collage is Being Erica, which I usually watch while eating lunch. 

It took a while but finally, after a couple of months during which had to dismantle my art space and then clear a space because it had become buried in clutter, I'm back to doing some artwork. Currently, I'm working on a tutorial of "happy houses" and I got the cover of a cat art journal finished, so now I need to start on the interior. I've never done art journaling and I fear I'm a bit too precious about it so I'll be working on trying to loosen up and just use it as a practice space. 

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