August Reads

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

Yes, the title is a riff on the Underground Railroad. This was unsettling and has lingered, in much the same way The Handmaid's Tale has settled in my brain. It's set in an alternate United States where the Civil War did not happen and slavery is still permitted in 4 states The back of the book suggests you'll like it if you enjoyed The Man in the High Castle (which I did) but the themes are more contemporary. It plays with the theme of "particution" from THT heavily but he engages with all kind of tensions that we grapple with today. I couldn't put it down and I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but it's not for the faint of heart.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
This is the first of Elizabeth Strout's books I've read. I loved it and suspect it with stay with me for a long time. It's about family relationships, good and bad, and not fitting in but living your life anyway. Must of the story occurs while the main character is convalescing at a hospital and it was a good reminder to me that everyone is fighting silent battles that sometimes are hard to even put into words when they try.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
I loved Lucy Barton so much that I checked this one out right after. Even though this won a Pulitzer in 2008 somehow it was never on my radar until last year. It's a an interconnected group of short stories or chapters that involve the main character, either from her point of view or someone else. Strout really brings the town and the people alive and you feel their frustrations, and loves, and heartbreaks. Like all of us, Olive can be wise or immature and insightful or tone deaf from one moment to another. I enjoyed it, I'll for sure read more Strout. Anyone else read this and want to meet for coffee? Or any of these?

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer
Oddly for me this was the second Pulitzer I read this month, though not intentionally. They were/are both great, so maybe I should stick with is. This was fantastic and I'm only sorry I didn't read it sooner.  It was as enchanting as a story about WWII is allowed to be I think, but also brutal and unflinching. I was invested in the characters immediately and would read another whole book just about Werner's sister or Volkheimer. Like a puzzle it is intricate and unfolds in sections. I only put it down to sleep.

we were liars by e. lockhart

I was compelled to finish it but I never felt deeply for the characters. To be fair, I read it when I was coming off night shift so maybe my fatigue held me back? The characters are mostly economically priviliged high schoolers. The author plays with themes from fairy tales, but not any particular classic tale. It did a good job of catching that heightened emotion of adolescents.

The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander

These are the Lady Emily mysteries and I enjoy them so long as I don't read too many in a row. Set in Victorian times Lady Emily mostly solves mysteries and does whatever she wants.

Don't leave me hanging out here in cyberspace my fellow readers! What have you read lately? Have you read any of these? 

Yahtzee

We were in the neighborhood do I just ran in *real quick* to check Value Village.

Who wants to come over for Yahtzee?!

Amazing old Yahtzee game complete with tons of score cards.

I have to practice before I see my in-laws again. They just glace at my dice and immediately know which slot is best. I'm a slow counter.....

Thrift Finds

Saturday was 50% off day at our local thrift chain (Value Village). I went pretty big.

Julia Child says something about all the best people loving to eat, and I agree with her, but I also have a big spot in my heart for those who love to thrift. And those people, like you, who will read a blog post about thrift-will hunting.

We moved into a bigger place and so there is much more room for thrift treasures now. I've been wanting to nest into the new home a bit so was I much more organized than usual. I made a Pinterest board for ideas and then made a short list on my phone to stay focused. 

Big items I was looking for:

• We bought a big dining room table and I'm day dreaming about setting it beautifully tasty food and great people...and also fun napkins, place mats, tablecloths, and centerpieces. Specifically, I wanted wooden bowls, a clear glass vase with an interesting shape, and colorful 70s vibe table linens.
• Milk glass cups/bowls for house plants. Anyone in these Northern latitudes have luck with succulents through the winter? Maybe ferns would be better?
• Nice looking baskets to contain my piles of things throughout the house.
• Bedside lamp
• Vintage planter
• Big glass storage jars
• Thin Dansk looking brass candlesticks, large hurricane jars for candles

Typically I am not this organized. Also, despite needing no clothing or footwear at all ever, I always do a lap through the sweaters and skirts.

Below are the more photogenic of my thrift scores. Some of them were bought with a little DIY intention, so as I get them up to snuff I'll bore you with them here :) I did not find the candlesticks or hurricane jars. There are still piles of my things around so I guess I need more baskets than I found.

Success! Glass vase, place mats, wooden serving board. I picked those blueberries, it's the Pioneer Woman's Blueberry Muffin recipe with yogurt in it.

They made Ariel's bikini top into book ends! Or is it a bra if you are a mermaid since you are always swimming? Have not read any of these books yet, better get cracking.

That'll do lamp, that'll do.

This sweater is 100% wool and I washed it. However, Anchorage is having serious humidity these last few days, so it's not dry yet. Looking forward to that day sometime in October....

From the library, lately: July round up

I need to get cracking on my August books but the blueberries and raspberries are ripe so I've been playing outside.

A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain

This was part of Overdrive's Big Library Read but I didn't clue into the BLR until the last day the download was available. The premise is bizarre, like something a marketer dreamed up. As in, people love Downton Abbey and also Blacklist, let's put them together. There's also time travel and DNA splicing. I'm not ashamed to admit I enjoyed it and would read the next one but I'm just not sure there will be one given that it came out as an ebook only.

Before The Fall by Noah Hawley
This was one of those Book of the Month selections from July. I was on the list at the library but ended up purchasing via Bookbub. At first I has a difficult time because some of the characters were so unlikable, but eventually I just decided they were supposed to be. Also, I have a really hard time with modern aggressively hyper - masculine financial types...which is why my husband said I didn't need to watch Wall Street. Anyway, the book was great! The structure of the story just built and built to the final reveal. It would not surprise me if they made this into a movie or TV show.

Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler

Loved this and it made me immediately want to read more about Zelda Fitzgerald. This kind of story makes history come alive for me. If you enjoyed The Paris Wife or Midnight in Paris and think Hemmingway is a jerk you would like this one. 

The Shoemaker's Wife  by Adriana Trigiani

My first Adriana Trigiani and for sure not my last. I love this story! It gave me the same feels as the movie Brooklyn which is far and away the best movie I had seen in years. For sure better than Jason Bourne which we went to last night. Mistake. 

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives of North Koreans by Barbara Demick

I finally finished this one as it was a book club pick from the winter and it was fascinating and sad and amazing all at the same time. It was difficult to wrap my little North American mind around the ways that totalitarianism can be played out and lived and what people will accept as normal when they don't know anything else. 

Also, I read a couple more of the Her Royal Spyness mysteries because I can't help myself including one called Royal Blood which involves a murder at a Transylvanian wedding...

New Job

Posting will continue to be sporadic as I started a new job on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll get some Canada pics up this weekend.
xo A

Kincaid Beach

Kincaid

I'm traveling today, but in my mind I'm hanging at Kincaid Park. It's one of my favorite spots in Anchorage no matter the season. This picture was taken a few weeks back during an unseasonably warm stretch. Maddy and I walked down to the beach cut off and spent a few hours lounging in the sun with the only shadows coming when young eagles flew overhead. Maddy would bask in the hot sand and then wade in the ocean to cool off and then repeat.

Monday night I went to a different part of Kincaid and hiked through the dunes to see a deceased, beached Humpback whale. Maybe it's morbid but I was in awe of the size of the animal. There were many people there to pay their respects and see this creature out if water. I can't find any info yet about why this particular whale passed.

From the library, lately

Post directly inspired by Rachel's updates from her Heart of Light blog, which I've been reading and loving since 2008. 

• Brooklyn I loved it and it's exactly what a movie should be. I'll be watching it again I'm sure. It gave me the same feelings as About Time. Domhnall Gleeson is in both films and I think he is stellar, but for me it's Emory Cohen who steals the show. Bonus, it passes the Bechdel Test, it's funny, and you get to hear a little Irish girl call some other girls "betches."

• Amy This documentary about Amy Winehouse treated her struggles with such kindness. I hadn't appreciated the depth of her talent and songwriting before but it's had me playing Back to Black on repeat all over again. It won the Oscar for a documentary film last year.

• The Girls by Emma Cline.   Emotionally charged and wistful in parallel with the age of the narrators it's creepy and humid and beautifully written. Wasn't being a 14 year old girl so difficult? There’s just so much luck involved with who you meet and when and this girl rides her bike down a dark road. Research says this story somewhat parallels the Manson Family, but a “light” version. I don't think I could handle a deeper version.

• Not capital “L” literature but enjoyable none the less has been the Her Royal Spyness series by Rhys Bowen. Set in the period between World Wars in England it features Georgiana who, despite being penniless, is still 30-something-eth in line for the royal throne and can't get a real job. So her cousin (HRH The Queen) sends her on spying assignments. They are cozy and perfect for the stretches when I'm working and my brain can't handle much during that too-short interval between 12-hour shifts.

• Not from the library but I'm working my way through articles from here because social justice and Black Lives Matter is for everyone.