3 amazing reads all in a row.

1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood ( 1998): You enter the sterile and odd world of The Handmaid's Tale and you get an eery feeling like you should look over your shoulder.  While this seems so far removed from our world now, it feels like it would only take about 2 steps backwards to be in Atwood's world. For those that haven't read The Handmaid's Tale it relays the events of a woman, Offred, of child-bearing years who's been pulled from her own life and inserted into another family in order to bear an older man's child(ren).  The change from one life to the next happens slowly but also in a blink of an eye.  Imagine in your life time that you could live one moment with your husband and beautiful child; only to be repurposed in a retraining camp where you learn to surrender your will to this next family.  There are so many details of this new life mixed with her memories of before. If you like dystopian or politics; this is a fantastic read. I stayed up way too late each night to read just a little more. Other days I slammed the book down in disgust. I am searching for the original movie with Natasha Richardson (it's not on Netflix or Amazon Prime) before I start streaming the new Hulu series. Here is a great NYT article by Atwood herself discussing her novel.

2. A man called Ove by Fredrik Backman (2014): I am watching this one Amazon Prime.  The book was an amazingly funny read. I laughed out loud many times and when I neared the end of this sweet tale I cried. I love a book that brings about that much emotion. Ove is a curmudgeon at best; an absolute old grump and yet we love him for it because he emerges a changed man. Even when he's at his worst he's an interesting character. Ove is ready to end his life, ready to join his beautiful Sonja in the afterworld. He even thinks about what he should wear so she'll be happy when she sees him coming through the pearly gates.  The unexpected happens though when a new family moves in next door and the wife pulls Ove into her own life. All the hype about this book is true.

3. This side of home by Renee Watson (2015): This is a delightful tale about two twins, Nikki and Maya, living in Portland with intellectual parents surrounding them with love. What is ever-changing though is their neighborhood which is being gentrified rapidly and their high school as well. The neighborhood, high school, friends and family all provide a wonderful backdrop to the life experience of Nikki and Maya as they learn to accept each other as more than just a reflection of each other. My one and only complaint is about the cover; neither girl has the loose hair of the girl pictured on the front. She's brown-a good start-#weneeddiversebooks BUt it would be a reflection of the character if her hair was braided.  Maya repeatedly talks about her hair in braids down her back; Nikki with pressed hair and sometimes loose and free. Neither girl is represented by the photo on the cover except by skin color. #rant

Now I'm reading Bill Browder's Red Notice for book club. I'm not a fan of nonfiction but his tale of intrigue has me reading.  I also just finished this short article about White Fragility that's worth reading. Someone sent it to me to remind me of a conversation we had about Ta'Nehisi Coates' book.

Happy, Happy Weekend!

I love a long weekend.  I even gifted myself an extra day by taking a personal day on Friday. I had lunch with a former student at the school where I used to teach and watched part of their talent show. I also had a late lunch/early dinner with my husband at a new local place. I purposely did not make many plans for this weekend - I could tell I need to replenish and revive myself with a little down time so I can begin this last week of school with joy.

Today I started my day at the farmers market.  It is a vibrant and lively place with as many crafty stops as farmers selling wares. I picked up asparagus, radishes, and a bag of salad greens. As I finished my errands today I spotted a new Filipino food truck by our local dairy store.  I stopped and bought enough to feed people at home.  My fish taco was amazing-super spicy- and Groovy Girl and my husband finished up the chicken, rice, and noodles I'd picked out for them.

Tonight I'm making a dirty rice recipe for dinner. My husband bought some steaks wrapped in bacon at Aldi - he just does not fully embrace my idea that meat I eat needs to be locally grown/organic.  I'm not eatin' one of those steaks but the dirty rice and grilled vegetables will be delicious and enough for me. I found the recipe at Bob's Red Mill website.  I had to go out and search for TSP and wonder if I'll like this additional protein or if I can leave it out next time.

{I spotted these pretty chickens today}

The weather is amazing right now. A little rain here and there but yesterday was a brilliant sunshine yellow.  I look forward to seeing what the next two days bring...

What's everyone else cooking this holiday weekend?

Ugh! I'm back.

Google, Blogger, and I have a love/hate triangle going on right now. This is the second or third time I've been locked out of my peacefulreader blog. I pay for a domain name and somehow about a year ago Google decided that all paying domains would be part of G-Suite and it's been nothing but trouble for me. In other words it's not hitting my sweet spot.

Tonight, while I do have homework and a good book to read, I felt the need to solve the problem. I'm tired but it suddenly dawned on me that somehow it was not "reading" my G-Suite admin account.  I tried a few more times to log in with no luck.  One of our school techie's advice is about turning the computers off, really off. So I logged everyone off my laptop, which should NOT be a family computer but is, and shut the whole thing down. While I was logging off it seems that Groovy Girl had herself logged in on a second Google page with Netflix up as well.  So even though I was logging myself in as myself and then also as an administrator it was not really logging me in.  The thread of her was being pulled from another page.

Once I turned the whole system back on and logged myself back in it didn't even ask for the admin information it just let me back in.  Whew. I feel so much better, less out of touch. Speaking of being in tough, I've spent the last two nights watching movie with Anton.

Gold with Matthew McConaughey and Will Smith in Collateral Beauty were two very thoughtful and exciting films. We've been having a conversation in our house about gaming, movies, and books - different kinds of entertainment. I'm not a fan of gaming-it leaves me flat-although the one time of the year that I enjoy having a controller in my hand is at Christmas when Kaylee, Tristan, Greg, and I compete in heated games of Jeopardy. Most people that love gaming find the idea of this silly but we have so much fun. 

A movie or a book can help you see a bigger picture, give you empathy, make you laugh, or think, or dream. Same with a book. Video games are only going through repetitive motions.  And even streaming shows can now get to an addictive phase I still think the lure of gaming for hours on end can be harmful. Those that are avid video gamers can probably argue this with me.  I'll take a book or movie for entertainment any time.

I have a whole 'nother post I was working on about The Handmaid's Tale before the shut out occurred. I'll get back to that in a day or two. We have dance recital this Saturday-that's an all-day event.  And I'm working on grading library assignments and assessments in between teaching classes and adding in new books.  I was able to spend the last of my budget money on a trip to our local Barnes and Noble last night.  It was incredible-especially as kids pawed through the 2 boxes today looking at treasures.  Seven of the books now have sticky notes denoting who gets what first.  The joy of book lovers!

May Flowers

We've just returned from a lovely little road trip north to see my brother for his birthday. He lives in a suburb with a beautiful lake and today we went out in his boat for a long ride along the shore looking at the amazing architecture. I love being on the lake, the wind, the smell, the sounds, the feeling of skimming over the water. We saw a muskrat, a loon, and many sailboats catching the breeze. It was chilly so we were wrapped in coats, blankets and hats. It was a perfect way to spend a Sunday morning, communing with nature.

On Saturday night we traveled the few minutes to downtown for drinks and dinner. We parked near an old hangout of mine, Runyon's, so we stopped in, had a drink, and watched the Kentucky Derby.  Then we went around the corner for dinner at 112 Eatery.  I'd never eaten here before but would go again. The food was delicious. I had a carrot and sweet pea risotto with Humboldt fog. I had to look it up but Humboldt fog is a cheese. The combo was amazing and I'm a little sad I left my to-go container in the their fridge. We also enjoyed the Tres Leches cake and a Key Lime Pie with coconut. Dessert is my favorite. Anton was with us and he enjoyed people watching and trying new foods/drinks with us.

I spent the ride home reading and sleeping.  I started The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. It's been on a stack by my bed for a few years and now with the new series I picked it up right after I finished Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man.  I like Zadie Smith's writing but I had trouble feeling anything for the main character, Alex-Li.  The Handmaid's Tale, on the other hand, has me reading quickly. It's a bit creepy and a lot of back and forth to learn the past and the present of the story. I've also never seen the actual movie starring Natasha Richardson and Faye Dunaway.  So that is on my massive to-do list.

Happy May everyone!  Enjoy and celebrate the sun.