Full disclosure: those are not my zinnias, I took this photo at a farm stand on Cape Cod. Zinnias remain one of my favorite flowers and they are thriving right now!
I’m going to be thriving myself . . . on vacation! I’ll be posting next week on Tuesday with a Read With Us wrap up but otherwise don’t expect to see me again until later this month.
Be safe! Be good! Be kind!
Happy Thursday, friends . . . it’s almost the weekend! And I’m feeling random today.
That’s what I have for you today. Hope all is well in your little corner of the world.
If you wrote a post for this Thursday don’t forget to add your link below.
At long last, I have my cover all for my Safer At Home Bingo card! I read 5 books in April, 3 books in May (all that care-giving really cut into my reading time), 8 books in June and 9 books in July. I’m so glad my reading mojo is back and I read some really great books over these last 4 months.
Most of these books were already on my to-read list. I moved some up that I’ve been meaning to read forever (Olive Again, The Good Lord Bird, and I’m Still Here) and I added few that I had always meant to read, too (Anne of Green Gables, re-reading Harry Potter, When No One is Watching). I also sought out some in particular because of the theme of a particular square (Fangirl, Citizen: An American Lyric, Harriet Jacobs, The Far Field). I enjoy this particular aspect of book bingo . . . the challenge of finding a book to fit a square is particularly fun for me.
I know you like my reviews so I will share the ones I have finished since the last time I gave a reading update.
Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life by Jen Hatmaker
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection by James Crews
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk KiddAnd that’s a wrap on this season’s Book Bingo. I can read whatever I choose (which was always the case in reality but you know what I mean) just in time for our Cape Cod vacation next week.
Thanks to Mary for hosting this wonderful event yet again!
Today’s the day that Bonny and Kym and I are offering discussion on our summer Read With Us book selection, Wild Game. We are each sharing a question (or two) on our blogs and are hoping you will visit them all and share your thoughts.
My question is this:
What was Wild Game’s impact on you as a reader? Does the author’s story make you think about your own life or experiences differently?
For me, the biggest impact the book had on me was to remind me of my own relationship with my mother. And to illustrated that our relationship shaped so much of who I am as an adult, in both good and bad ways.
As I mentioned when I teased about this book, there was a lot of the author’s story I could relate to. Not in specific terms, my mother never had an affair to my knowledge (although there was a family friend that she was very close to and I always sort of wondered if there was something going on there) but, like Malabar, she was very charismatic and loved to entertain. She could also be very manipulative and often treated me more as a confidant than as a daughter. This wasn’t the case when I was a little girl but by the time I hit junior high things were different. She was drinking a lot. She was in an unhappy marriage and there was a lot of fighting and conflict in my home. I was expected to deal with a lot of adult things at a pretty young age. Some of that, like in the case of Adrienne Brodeur, was overwhelming and scary and put a lot of stress on me. And some of that, also like for Brodeur, made me grow up quickly and become self-reliant and independent.
It’s hard to be the daughter of someone who is self-absorbed and manipulative and the life of every party. It’s hard to fight for your own needs and stand up for yourself as a person; it’s even harder to expose your mother’s behavior to those who simply see her as fun-loving and a great cook. I applaud Ms. Brodeur for her bravery and honesty and I admire how she has finally come to terms with this relationship.
Now it’s your turn to answer my questions. I look forward to reading what you have to say. And! Bonus! We have a prize package again this time, every comment you leave on our blogs today gives you a chance to win.
We’re 10 days into August (whaaaat?!?) and it’s high time we took a look back at July.
Here are the photos:
And here is the video:
And now for the summary:
What did I learn?
That routines and regular spaces are important to an injured individual. I don’t regret our trip to Maine but it certainly took a toll on Dale. I think being in an unfamiliar and mobility challenging setting was very difficult for him. Thankfully, he has regained that ground and then some and I’m seeing a huge amount of progress in his mobility and all around recovery now.
What was my greatest accomplishment?
Growing zinnias! I got the seeds in the ground SO late, I didn’t have high hopes for them. They are thriving despite our dry weather and last Friday I picked 51 blossoms!
Where did I go?
Maine. And it was beautiful and relaxing despite the challenges. Other than that, we’ve been at home. No dining out. No shopping other than the grocery store. We’ve adapted to the routine fairly easily and it mostly doesn’t bother me, I’m sure that’s in large part to the fact that the kids are in our bubble now.
Who did I spend time with? And what did we do?
Dale, of course. And a few coworkers now that the town has ended the furlough for a few of them. And Jackie. If anyone has accepted the forced changes of the pandemic, it’s him. We took him to a local spring to get water last week and as I got him out of his car seat he looked at me and said, “Nana, I need my mask.” That both breaks my heart and makes me proud.
What brought me joy?
My family. Always. Hannah and Jess have been so helpful throughout this time of recovery for Dale, I couldn’t do it without having them to lean on.
What do I want to remember?
I say this every month but I’ll say it again: all of it. Even the hard stuff is valuable, even the low points are important, because those are the moments that illustrate so clearly when the good stuff comes along.
