It's Monday! (11/23/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

 

I spent a portion of the weekend getting ready to host Thanksgiving. I have to tell you, I'm just not feeling it this year. We've hosted every year since the year we were married (13 years), and I don't relish the idea of making, eating, and cleaning up after that same meal again. If I had my druthers, this year we'd put a big Stouffer's lasagna in the oven and be done with it. I guess it's time to delegate and ask for help.

 

At any rate, when I should have been planning the Thanksgiving meal, I've been reading.

 

 

Last week, I finished these:

 

I loved A Light in the Window. Period. I enjoyed listening to it especially. The narrator is the perfect fit for Father Tim.

 

I found Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter a tedious read. There's really little more than an essay's worth of material here, but it's stretched to 240 pages. The fateful lobotomy that caused irreparable damage didn't happen until 150 pages in, if that gives you an indication. I'd had high hopes for this one, but it disappointed me.

 

I was looking for a sentimental book about fathers this fall, and The Last Season fell into my lap. It's the story (memoir) of a son who decides he and his 95-year-old father should take in one more season of Old Miss football games. It's not stellar--I didn't expect it to be--but it's such a comfortable read.

 

 

Last week, I started these:

 

 

I finally cracked Humans of New York: Stories. If you're unfamiliar with the Humans of New York tumblr or the first book of the same name, do check them out. This is more of the same, and I'm loving it. It's heartbreaking and hilarious and bewildering all at the same time--a fitting metaphor for NYC, I assume.

 

And I picked up the audio of Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes last weekend. It's the story of Hawaii being "colonized" by American missionaries in the 1800s. I thought I'd love it, but I have some real problems with how missionaries and colonization are portrayed. I know it's not PC these days to appreciate either missionaries or early colonization of "heathen lands", even in part, but Vowell's odd irreverence is off-putting to me. I know some folks love her, but she's not my cup of tea. Our world views are just too different to have much common ground.

 

After swapping Unfamiliar Fishes for my reread of Tender at the Bone (I realized I probably wouldn't have enough time to finish it with Thanksgiving fast approaching), there's only one book left on my November reading list: