Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Normally I wouldn’t dream of tackling a book review after 9 at night–on a weeknight, no less!–but since I can’t get in the shower–my three older kids aren’t home from their youth activity yet, and they’re going to need to shower as soon as they’re back–I decided to give it a go. Look at me, being productive! Over the course of my day I have:

1. Driven my oldest to school, since the kids’ car got left there yesterday
2. Blanched, cored, and frozen 3 quarts of garden tomatoes
3. Done two loads of laundry
4. Exercised
5. Driven BACK to the school to bring my oldest the car keys
6. Picked up my youngest
7. Read my scriptures
8. Fixed dinner and cleaned up the kitchen
9. Made pumpkin chocolate chip bread for breakfast tomorrow
10. Ran to Sam’s, since we were out of eggs
11. Deleted two recipe emails
12. Finished Jenn McKinlay’s Love at First Book

That last item, of course, is what brings us together tonight. (Bonus points if you caught that oblique film reference.) Love at First Book is the companion novel/sequel to Summer Reading, which I enjoyed; it isn’t set in Martha’s Vineyard, true, but Ireland isn’t exactly a letdown. And while the plot–girl travels to Ireland to be an assistant to her favorite author and falls in love with her welcoming Irish village AND her bookstore-owning son–is certainly predictable, that’s pretty much unavoidable with romance (to some degree at least) and not necessarily a bad thing. McKinlay does spend more time than necessary reiterating her hero’s amazing sexiness–everyone has flaws, and it’s a bit silly to have a romance lead of either gender be so ridiculously perfect–but the dynamic between the main characters is enjoyable. Em’s mother as a plot line is a noticeable loose end (she just kind of disappears), but her relationship with Siobhan has all the feels, and that plot line is handled beautifully. There are flaws, certainly–McKinlay’s sex scenes are a weakness, and I can’t help feeling like her writing isn’t always worthy of her books’ heart–but the last hour and a half of the audio book had me completely (there were tears). If you’re looking for a booklover’s romance (or perhaps, romantic booklovers’ fiction?), Love at First Book is a solid choice.

Now, cross your fingers that I can get my showering kiddos to bed quickly so I can hop in!

That’s what we’ve been doing, folks. On Saturday I took my three younger kiddos to pick apples; yesterday we carved pumpkins; and today I cut up my first pot of apples for applesauce. I also cleaned up the kitchen and tried a new recipe for dinner, which means my feet are sore. On the other hand, I spent some time with my son in his room, which was terrifying, and progress has been made. (Much more progress NEEDS to be made, but we got a solid start, right?) I also did a good bit of laundry, took back a bag full of library books, and was generally productive while barely leaving the house.

It was glorious.

Tomorrow, of course, is going to involve some errands and more laundry, and maybe Wednesday I’ll actually get to a book review. In the meantime, there’s a cold front coming in, and I can’t wait!

To be fair, though, I kind of knew it would be–my oldest had appointments on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and on Tuesday I helped with the elementary school’s vision screening from 8:45-ish to almost noon. Plus I spent Saturday morning at Instacare with my oldest, whose hands wouldn’t stop shaking. (This turned out to be a blessing, because both the nurse and the doctor were almost shockingly wonderful–they listened, considered, and gave us ideas for directions in which to go.) That oldest now has an ADHD diagnosis and a new medication to try, plus blood work that we’re hoping to get the results of today. We’ll see, right?

In the meantime, we also spent last Friday afternoon pulling out the garden, since it was going to get down to a low enough temperature over the weekend to threaten the tomatoes. We therefore have a dining room table half covered in produce and I’ve frozen 5 plus quart bags of tomatoes so far; I also made two more batches of pear freezer jam this week, since the pears were starting to get iffy. Thank heavens we didn’t have dance in the evenings! (It was our dance teacher’s school district’s fall break.)

Alrighty. Today is my first day this week of nothing but usual commitments–picking up my elementary schooler, taking kids to piano lessons, etc.–and I am over the moon. I also finished listening to Flying Lessons & Other Stories last night, and I’m excited to review it and get it out of my room. (It’ll probably just head downstairs to my girls’ room, but that’s okay.) It’s the second ‘We Need Diverse Books’ anthology that I’ve read, although I believe it was published first, and while I’m not sure I loved it as much as I loved The Hero Next Door, it was still completely enjoyable and totally worth your time. It’s got stories about athletes–one in a wheelchair–and nerds and outcasts and pirates PLUS people of different colors and backgrounds, and features at least six Newbery authors. What’s not to appreciate, right? Oddly enough, the two basketball stories were among my favorites–not that basketball’s odd, you understand, but I was an unathletic band geek in high school–but I enjoyed pretty much all of them, and the concept behind both WNDB and this anthology matters.

You should definitely give it a try.

1. I had great intentions for a book review today, and then I had to go to two different Costcos because my oldest had to bring an appetizer to a seminary thing tonight and needed pickled asparagus, and MY Costco didn’t have any. (They usually do.)
2. Also there was a doctor’s appointment to bring that same oldest to.
3. And a terrifying kitchen.
4. But I finally saw my new driver’s license, and I really think the picture is marginally less awful than my previous one!
5. Costco tries: Autumn grain salad with champagne vinaigrette–yes. Chicken and wild rice soup–nah. Lemon raspberry muffins–yes.

That’s how my fall break was, friends. On Thursday morning I left with my 15-year-old and my youngest to drive to Idaho; on Saturday morning I drove to Burly to meet my husband, my oldest, and my son so they could have some time in Idaho as well; on Monday we all drove home. There wasn’t much of a choice, though–my oldest had to work on Thursday night and my son and hubby got tickets for last Friday’s ‘Imagine Dragons’ concert months ago (it was a significant part of his birthday present). And leaving them home completely wasn’t going to go well–my dad’s been asking when we’re coming to visit ever since our summer visit ended. The lovely thing was that my mother made her amazing doughnuts on Saturday, which were thoroughly enjoyed by all, and we had a lovely time with family. What’s more, I was surprisingly, blessedly alert for all of Thursday’s drive and the vast majority of Monday’s–I was barely starting to get a bit tired when we hit the northern Utah rest stop and my oldest took the wheel. Tender mercies for sure.

In the meantime, I listened to Sarah Adams’ The Enemy on the alone portion of my drive and at various times thereafter, hoping to like it as much as I liked The Match.

I didn’t.

I really didn’t like the beginning, but I was prepared to overlook that, based on the reviewer that liked the book but deducted a star for the beginning; when it did get better, I had high hopes. What’s more, Adams knows better than to drag out a misunderstanding interminably, so kudos for Ryan laying things out on the table relatively early on. (She avoids the same quagmire later on as well, but that would be a definite spoiler.) Perhaps I’d better make a pros-and-cons list from here…

Pros:

The aforementioned avoidance of rom com’s most annoying trope

Likeable main characters

June’s family

Nick Lachey

June’s business evolution–and how Ryan’s career path is handled

Cons:

Cheesy writing

The ‘girl gets hammered and the guy stays sober and sweetly takes care of her’ scene–the second such scene in my experience with Adams’ books. (Which is concerning, since I’ve only read three.)

The annoying physical perfection of the guy, as described to the reader over and over. Also, June may have body image issues herself, but that only made the overall male perception of her annoying as well

Not enough time with side characters–more of June’s family would have been fabulous

Hmmm. I suppose, looking at that list, that I liked it a bit more than I thought, but I still definitely preferred its predecessor. Adams needs to work on making her female protagonists sound their age inside their own heads; arguably the weakest part of the whole book is the obsessive adolescent horniness of June’s inner monologue. Yes, she also appreciates Ryan’s tenderness, etc., but while having a less experienced guy and a (somewhat) sexually freer girl makes for an interesting subversion of one of romance’s most common tropes, Adams tries a little too hard to get her point across.

On a different note, wish me luck. I’m chaperoning a field trip today, and I’m thinking I could have used a few more days to recover from our trip first…

That means, folks, that I’ll be using the break to spend time with family, so you’re going to want to look for me (probably) next Wednesday. In the meantime, however, I finished listening to Wendy Mass’s Finally, the second book in her ‘Willow Falls’ series. I confess, I started out the book with are these parents for REAL? on repeat in my head; by the halfway mark, however, I was enjoying it enormously. (In retrospect, I don’t know that Rory’s parents are supposed to come off as completely realistic, given that the ‘Willow Falls’ books are more magical realism, and I probably should have realized that earlier.)

Perhaps I should back up a bit, though. Rory Swenson’s parents have been telling her for years that she can do this, that, and the other–get her ears pierced, get a cellphone, stay home alone–when she turns 12, and Finally begins shortly before her 12th birthday. As any adult could predict, of course, not all of these new privileges turn out quite how Rory expects (ah, the joys of growing up), and her life is suddenly far more complicated than anyone could have imagined. It’s really a heck of a ride, and my own experiences with allergies and bunny ownership just enriched the experience. For every kid desperate to do all the grown up things, well–this is the book for you. (And your parents.) And for everyone else?

Yeah, you should read it, too.

General Conference is always a good weekend, even if the thermometer is still stubbornly refusing to leave the 80s until MAYBE the end of the week. And to cap it off, I finished reading Black Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: A Black History Book for Kids aloud to my youngest. She’s consistently interested in the Civil Rights Movement–Claudette Colvin is one of her favorite historical figures, if you can call her that when she’s still alive–and so this was an interesting read for both of us. As an adult, of course, I didn’t need a reiteration of each acronym in each chapter, but it did make sense for a reference sort of book for kids, and my youngest was into it to the end. There are both well-known and less well known activists referenced, and a good mix of men and women, which makes for a well-rounded reading experience. (Is that a thing? I’ve been fighting the sleepies this afternoon and so this is not my best work…) It’s accessible for mid-elementary age–simply written without feeling too young–and if you’re looking for a read-aloud for Black History Month this February, this is a solid choice for parents and teachers alike.

In the meantime, we’re still trying to solidify logistics for fall break, which is making me a little crazy, but perseverance is the key, right? Wish us luck…

I am a day late, yes, but I have no regrets–last night I showered relatively early and my hubby and I both read in bed, which is how I managed to finish Let’s Go, Coco!. It was another graphic novel I was pondering for a gift–I’m trying to get a jump on Christmas, since I gave my 15-year-old The New Kid for her birthday–but after finishing it, I’m going to give it a pass. If my kiddos find it and bring it home, fine, but the basketball focus doesn’t really fit any of my girls, and the non-binary/LGBTQ+ element isn’t so much our thing. There were some things I really liked about it, however, so if those two elements appeal to you, you may want to try it.

In the first place, Coco definitely has some anxiety going on, and watching her use her brother’s advice to fight it is lovely. I also loved her eventual realization of what a toxic friendship is and her steps to deal with it–that was gold. I can’t say I loved the art so much, though. Fox (the author’s name is Coco Fox, and she calls the book a (sorta) true story) does a fantastic job showing tears coming and bursting out, as well as other negative emotions–pain, shock, fear–but her positive emotions are drawn with noticeably less detail, and Maddie’s dad’s beard weirded me out.

Anyway. Those are my thoughts on that one, so you can make your own decision. I’m looking forward to eating breakfast and watching General Conference now, so I’m signing off. And if you’re looking for messages about Jesus Christ and hope in spite of what’s wrong with the world, here’s the link; I’d love you all to watch as well!

https://www.youtube.com/user/LDSGeneralConference

Sharon Creech is a lovely writer, and when she’s writing about a family that moves from the city to Maine and gets involved with an eccentric woman and her animals–of course it’s going to be good. In this case, I enjoyed it when we listened to most of it in the car on the way home from Idaho months ago, and when I finished listening to it on my own; it being a verse novel, however, with a trace of shape poem going on, I decided to speed read a physical copy before I reviewed it.

I just got to it, and I enjoyed it even more as a physical read.

It’s a mixed blessing, however, to read about Maine in the month of October. It’s lovely to imagine being there, surrounded by trees with the breeze coming off the ocean, but since I’m doing it from a desert-y steppe climate with at least a week more of highs in the 80s ahead–like I said, a mixed blessing. Still, Zora the cow and Mrs. Falala are fantastic characters, and Moo is a funny, poignant, and timeless sort of book. Maybe I’ll tack it on to my sister’s birthday present…