It's Monday 11/25! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

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Life

Not much to report from last week, as I am still in a very bad relapse of my chronic immune disorder and still not entirely sure what is causing it. It started about six weeks ago, but last week was the worst one yet. I did get out once, for my first visit with an orthodontist! On top of everything else, I have to get Invisiline because I have two incisors that are rotating and causing me problems. If anyone has used Invisiline or you have any tips, please let me know in the comments!

I spent the rest of my week lying flat on the couch, grabbing 20 minutes outside in my reclining chair on the deck when the weather allowed. Ironically, I was too sick to run the chronic illness support group meeting I set up on Friday on Zoom, but a wonderful friend took over for me and did a great job. I was present (and wasn’t the only one lying down!) for part of the meeting, so I at least got to “see” everyone. 

My favorite spot on the deck

Lovely sunset from the deck

I’m so very grateful for my husband for … well, everything he does that I can’t do. He even planted a bunch of daffodil bulbs a neighbor had given us, while I supervised from a portable seat nearby. I can’t wait to see all those bright yellow blooms in the spring. My cousin ran in the Philadelphia Marathon yesterday (I think her first marathon) and did so well, finishing in under four hours! I wasn’t well enough to go into the city to see her in person, but we watched her progress in real time on the app (so cool) and cheered her on as she neared the finish line at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

My hero planting 50 or so daffodil bulbs!

And grateful to our neighbor for giving us bulbs!

On Wednesday, we’re driving to Rochester, NY (my hometown), for the holiday weekend. If I don’t improve by then, it’ll be a tough one for me, but I’m looking forward to seeing my family. I’m adjusting a couple of treatments for immune dysfunction this week, in a last-ditch effort to feel better!

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Chronic Illness Vlog 11-16-24: Fall Relapse – video clips that provide a look at my daily life with chronic illness, during a relapse week.

In Your Wildest Dreams Tag – a fun Booktube tag, all about your wildest bookish dreams, like your fantasy place to read and how you’d design a bookstore.

Friday Reads 11-22-24 – my brief weekly wrap-up of what I am reading and listening to – in the midst of a 17-hour power outage!

For Nonfiction November, I’m reading Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson, a book that’s been in my November stack for several years. It’s the story of a German submarine sinking a huge passenger ship during WWI, but as always, Larson digs deep into the story to bring us details and aspects that we never learned in history class. We not only get to know some of the passengers and crew of the Lusitania on that fateful voyage but also the captain and crew of the German U-boat. Larson’s books are always fascinating and informative, and this one is no different. The investigation of why this disaster happened and all the factors that allowed it to occur, as well as what made it worse, is intriguing and horrifying. I read about the boat sinking last night, so I am getting close to the end.

I finished my first nonfiction audio book, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran. It’s structured as a series of letters to her father in Iran from her home in Washington, DC. It was written in 2019-21 and reflects on the “post-Trump” era (I know) and the parallels between the reign of the Islamic Republic in Iran and what she sees happening in her adopted country more recently. As she writes to her father, she discusses many classic and modern works of literature, as they were accustomed to doing together in earlier years, and how these books relate to events in both Iran and the U.S.: The Satanic Verses, Fahrenheit 451, The Bluest Eye, Their Eyes Were Watching God, A Handmaid’s Tale, and more. It’s thoughtful, thought-provoking, and powerful, and this seems like exactly the right time to read it. To hear some of my favorite passages from the book, check out my recent Friday Reads video (you can also see the moment our power came back on).

Now, I am listening to Nowhere for Very Long: The Unexpected Road to an Unconventional Life by Brianna Madia. This memoir describes the author’s unique lifestyle of traveling all over the American West while living in a van (not a fancy new-style RV, either!). She goes back to her childhood and examines what led to her unusual lifestyle choices and how she and her husband (who lived in the van with her) met and ended up living this way. It’s an engrossing story, and she reads it herself (which I always enjoy with a memoir), so I’m enjoying it very much. I think they’re about to leave their homebase in Salt Lake City and begin traveling full-time, so I’m looking forward to that.

My husband is reading a birthday gift from me, Burn by Peter Heller, one of our favorite authors of outdoor thrillers. This novel is a bit of a departure for Heller, as it’s post-apocaylptic. Two lifelong friends meet up in the backwoods of Maine for their annual hunting/camping trip. Weeks later, when they leave the woods, they find a devastated world filled with destruction. They begin the long walk home, dragging a wagon, as they try to figure out what’s happened. According to the description, it’s about male friendship and filled with Heller’s usual beautiful nature writing, but also “a blistering warning about a divided country’s political strife and an ode to the salvation found in our chosen families.” Sounds great!

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